SADC cautions Mugabe
2008-08-29 08:02
Special Report
Zimbabwe's infant mortality rate has risen by 20% over the past two decades as children under five succumb to the HIV/Aids pandemic and pneumonia, shows a joint government and UN survey.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says he doesn't expect the US sanctions on his country to be lifted soon.
Gaborone - Southern Africa's regional body, in a
thinly-veiled criticism of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, on Thursday urged all parties to power-sharing talks to respect commitments to negotiate a unity government.
"We will be disappointed if the parties renege on their commuitment," Southern African Development Community official Tanki Mothae told AFP in Gaborone, headquarters of the 15-nation bloc.
The parties had agreed at a SADC summit on August 19 "that all Zimbabwe stakeholders should go and sit and finalise all outstanding issues, which will pave the way for establishing a stable and peaceful government", Mothae said.
He was speaking after Mugabe on Wednesday announced his intention to form a new government without the opposition, which said it would not participate in a Cabinet formed before power-sharing talks are concluded.
"All parties concerned must abide by all the agreements," said Mothae, a retired army colonel who heads the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security.
Government newspaper The Herald on Wednesday quoted Mugabe as saying: "We shall soon be setting up a government. The MDC (opposition Movement for Democratic Change) does not want to come in apparently."
- AFP