All is not well in Zim - Zambia
2007-03-07 08:06
Special Report
A classical music presenter for the BBC has been arrested and is in custody in Zimbabwe.
Lusaka - Zambia on Tuesday broke the regional silence over the deteriorating political conditions in Zimbabwe, telling its counterparts in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to stop pretending "all is well in Zimbabwe".
"We should not pretend that all is well in Zimbabwe. There is a serious problem and ostracising Zimbabwe will not help solve the problems there," foreign affairs minister Mundia Sikatana told SADC executive secretary Thomaz Salomao in Lusaka.
Sikatana made the remarks to Salamao during the latter's visit to Zambia to organise the annual SADC summit set to take place in Lusaka in August, at which Zambia is due to take over the community's 12- month rotating chair.
Sikatana said the summit should aim to help stem the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe by engaging authoritarian Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the European Union (EU) on the issue of sanctions.
"We should engage the EU over its sanctions against Robert Mugabe. This should be on the agenda," he said.
Salamao said the SADC secretariat would look at addressing the issue of the sanctions that had "crippled the economy and resulted in widespread chronic poverty".
Sanctions key to ending food crisis
Sikatana said ending the sanctions was key to ending the food crisis is what used to be known as the breadbasket of Africa.
Zimbabweans, who are already jumping the border into South Africa in droves, were now also flooding into Zambia seeking food, he said.
Unless the issue of the confiscation of white-owned farms was resolved quickly, the situation would attain catastrophic proportions exacerbated by flooding and drought, he said.
It was up to SADC states to take the bull by the horns and help Mugabe realise that dialogue was the best recipe for sustainable peace and stability, according to Sikatana.
Diplomats in Lusaka told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa they regional economic powerhouse South Africa was the only state with the clout to persuade Mugabe to tone down his crackdown on the press and the opposition.
Zimbabwe is a hotly-debated issue within the 14-member economic and trade bloc, with some members, including South Africa, still feeling the need to show loyalty to their erstwhile freedom-struggle- era comrade-in-arms.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has been criticised for remaining curiously quiet on the deteriorating political and economic situation in Zimbabwe.
Sapa-dpa
- SAPA