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Zambia 'won't go if Zim doesn't'
20/09/2007 15:35 - (SA)
Lusaka - Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa announced on Thursday that he would boycott an European Union-Africa summit in Portugal if Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was not invited and said other African leaders could do so as well.
Mwanawasa said: "I will not go to Portugal if Mugabe is not allowed. I don't know how many of us (African leaders) will be prepared to go to Portugal without Mugabe."
The Zambian leader's warning came hours after it was reported that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown would stay away from the Lisbon summit in December if the 83-year-old Mugabe was present.
In an article published in Britain's Independent newspaper on Thursday, Brown said it would be inappropriate for him to attend if Mugabe was present because the Zimbabwean leader would divert attention from important summit issues.
The British leader also accused Mugabe of leaving his people in an "appalling and tragic situation".
Mwanawasa, the head of a 14-nation southern African grouping that was trying to end a political and economic crisis that had prompted millions of Zimbabweans to flee the once prosperous former British colony, said Brown's statement was "unfortunate".
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