SADC wants better EU relations
2004-08-15 17:02
Port Louis - The summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which opens Monday will stress the importance of holding free and democratic elections in all 13 of the bloc's member states, officials said.
The SADC's incoming chairperson, Mauritian Prime Minister Paul Berenger told the media here that the adoption of a charter calling for free and democratic elections would be "one of the big items" on the summit's agenda here.
"Once the charter adopted, it will have to be translated into facts and reality," stressed the president, who will succeed Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa as SADC chair when the two-day summit opens in Mauritius.
"The charter will be a way of unblocking the situation between the SADC on the one hand and the European Union and the United States on the other," he told reporters.
"It is important for there to be a normalisation of relations," he said, adding: "I wish for ties to evolve in that direction during my term as chair."
Berenger was careful to avoid explicit mention of Zimbabwe, whose President Robert Mugabe flew into Mauritius ahead of the summit on Friday.
The SADC's relations with the EU and the US took a turn for the worse following the 2002 general and presidential elections in Zimbabwe, which international observers condemned as marred by irregularities.
US and EU leaders have called on southern African nations to openly distance themselves from Mugabe's government, and rejected calls for the lifting of sanctions against Harare.
Mugabe's regime stands accused of grave human rights violations and is blamed for bringing a once-prosperous country close to ruin through economically disastrous land-redistribution policies.
The Southern African Media Institute warned this month that the levels of violence and political intimidation in Zimbabwe risked preventing the March 2005 legislative elections from taking place in a free manner.
DRC status
SADC heads of state were also due to discuss the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is slowly emerging from a five-year civil war that claimed some three million lives through fighting, disease and hunger.
The leaders were also expected to address the massacre on Friday of some 160 people in a camp for Congolese Tutsi refugees in Burundi, which caused an outcry across the Great lakes region and drew harsh condemnation from across the world.
The political stakes have been upped by charges that Hutu extremists from the DRC and Rwanda probably also took part in the killings.
DRC President Joseph Kabila flew into Mauritius on Sunday for the summit, but refused to talk to the press.
The organisation was also set to register the withdrawal of the Seychelles from the SADC and extend new membership to Madagascar.
It was also due to address the issue of human rights and the progress of the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad), a plan that aims to further good governance and transparency in exchange for trade and investment.
Sources close to the organisation also plans to select a joint candidate for the post of director of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) - with Mauritian foreign minister Jayen Cuttaree tipped by some as a nominee.
The body should also select a joint representative to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a post which Angola is believed to covet.
- SAPA