Elders forge ahead with visit
2008-11-20 21:08
Special Report
A classical music presenter for the BBC has been arrested and is in custody in Zimbabwe.
Harare - Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan said on Thursday that he and former United States president Jimmy Carter planned to forge ahead with a visit to Zimbabwe at the weekend, despite their visit being rebuffed by President Robert Mugabe's regime.
Annan, Carter and Mozambican social activist Graca Machel, members of The Elders group of leading activists and ex-world leaders, are planning to spend Saturday and Sunday in Zimbabwe "to meet those working on the ground to better assess the extent of the crisis and how assistance can be improved", Annan said.
"My colleagues and I look forward to our visit," the former UN chief said in a statement, despite a report in the state-controlled Herald newspaper pouring cold water on the visit and accusing the three of trying to bolster the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
"The visit has been deemed a partisan mission by a group of people with partisan interests," the Herald said, quoting an unnamed government source. The government had advised The Elders that it was "not in a position to handle the visit at this time of the year".
"As we said earlier, we have no intention of becoming involved in the ongoing political negotiations in Zimbabwe," Annan said.
"We have sought meetings with political leaders in Zimbabwe and would be pleased to hear their views," he added.
A spokesperson for The Elders said the group had written to Mugabe to seek a meeting with him in Harare but had not yet received a formal reply.
The Elders, a grouping of former leaders and leading thinkers was launched by anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela on his 89th birthday in 2007.
The group also includes South African Nobel peace prize winner and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who has been outspoken against the 84-year-old Mugabe, referring to him as "a caricature of an African dictator".
The visit coincides with the breakdown in power-sharing talks between Mugabe and the MDC and a deepening humanitarian crisis, characterized by widespread hunger and a raging cholera outbreak.
The outbreak, which doctors estimate has killed hundreds in Zimbabwe, has also hit the South African border town of Musina. Three people have died of cholera over the past week in the town, through which hundreds of Zimbabweans, mostly illegal immigrants and cross-border traders, pass each day.
Another 18 people are being treated in hospital for the disease, according to the provincial health department.
- Sapa-dpa
- SAPA