Please don't ban Zim - SADC
2003-11-28 18:50
Pretoria - Southern African foreign ministers agreed Friday to urge Commonwealth members not to isolate Zimbabwe, but stopped short of calling for it to be invited to next week's Commonwealth summit in Nigeria, a diplomat told AFP.
Lesotho high commissioner (ambassador) to South Africa Mosuoe Moteane told AFP the agreement came at a three-hour meeting in Pretoria of the organ on politics, defence and security of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Represented were Lesotho, current chair of the organ, Mozambique and South Africa, members of the organ's tro?, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth, a 54-member grouping of former British colonies, in March last year following a presidential election that some international observer groups said was marred by violence, intimidation and major electoral flaws.
This week Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is due to host the December 5-9 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in the capital Abuja, said President Robert Mugabe had not been invited.
The ministers who met in Pretoria urged the Harare government to talk with civil society and the opposition, Moteane said.
"After some debate the troika of the organ took a common position that SADC should lobby other members of the Commonwealth to request them not to isolate Zimbabwe but to persuade the government of Zimbabwe to engage in constructive dialogue with stakeholders in that country, including civil society and opposition parties."
- AFP