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Britain-Zim row 'needs to end'
28/11/2007 08:36 - (SA)
Dakar - President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal is due to hold talks with President Robert Mugabe in a bid to defuse tensions between Harare and London that have overshadowed next month's European Union-Africa summit.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had said he would not attend the EU-Africa summit in Portugal on December 08-09 after Mugabe declared he would be present at the talks.
But Wade, who had expressed concern that the impasse between Zimbabwe and its former colonial ruler could derail the Lisbon summit, was embarking on a mission to try and sort out matters.
The Senegalese leader said South Africa, which had been tasked by a southern African regional bloc to try and resolve neighbouring Zimbabwe's political and economic crises, could not achieve the task alone.
EU 'uses Wade as a kind of in-between'
President Thabo Mbeki had been leading negotiations to try and end turmoil and the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe, which had led Harare to being ostracised by the West and by Britain, in particular.
Eldred Masunungure, political scientist at University of Zimbabwe warned that Wade risked being viewed as a European Union mediator.
"If his visit is to complement Mbeki's mediation, he would be told very bluntly that you are complicating matters," said Masunungure, adding that the EU was trying to use Wade "as a kind of in-between".
"Wade and Mbeki are in a sort competition over who deals better in tackling the Zimbabwean crisis," said another Zimbabwean political commentator Takura Zhangazha.
Wade carried nobody's mandate, but said he wanted African leaders to rally behind Mbeki.
"We should, at the level of heads of states, with Thabo Mbeki, undertake mediation between Zimbabwe and Britain," said Wade.
Wade 'a dutiful president'
A columnist in Zimbabwe's pro-government daily, The Herald, said in a recent article that Wade's mediation would not tantamount to much.
The writer, Nathaniel Manheru, called Wade a "dutiful president ... who thinks he can do better than Mbeki in bringing about a resolution of an impasse, which has already been unlocked".
Critics accused the 83-year-old Mugabe, in power for the past 27 years, of stifling basic freedoms and political opposition. They also blamed his policies for Zimbabwe's economic meltdown.
Zimbabwe's economy had shrunk by a third, inflation was running at about 8 000% - the world's highest - and at least 80% of the population lived below the poverty threshold.
But Mugabe blamed the country's economic woes on drought and the imposition of targeted sanctions by Western nations on himself and members of his inner circle.
Portugal, which held the rotating EU presidency, had been scrambling to ensure that Zimbabwe's presence would not eclipse the chance for stronger links between the EU and Africa.
The African Union had been fighting British demands for Mugabe to be excluded.
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