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G8 leaders grill Mbeki
08/07/2008 13:53 - (SA)
Toyako - President Thabo Mbeki was given a fierce grilling by G8 leaders yesterday at a private meeting at which they told him that they did not believe his mediation efforts in Zimbabwe were succeeding, the Guardian reported on Tuesday.
They also rejected his suggestion that Robert Mugabe remained as titular head of Zimbabwe.
President George Bush, German chancellor Angela Merkel and Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, all challenged Mbeki's assertion that his quiet diplomacy was working.
Mbeki warned Britain and the United States that Zimbabwe could descend into civil war if they pressed for tougher sanctions against the Mugabe regime.
It emerged that the tortured and burnt body of a Zimbabwe opposition party worker had been found on a farm belonging to an army colonel, two weeks after the activist was abducted.
Mugabe's victory 'condemned'
The Movement for Democratic Change said the discovery of Joshua Bakacheza's corpse came amid a renewed intensification of violence as the government attempts to break resistance to recognition of Mugabe's victory in the widely condemned June 27 election.
The G8 was expected to issue a statement on Tuesday calling for sanctions unless Mugabe responded to mediation.
Meawhile, AFP reported that Britain on Monday called directly on Mbeki to back international efforts to isolate key figures in Zimbabwe, including his counterpart President Mugabe.
"I'm absolutely clear that we want South Africa, led by Thabo Mbeki, to join the international consensus this week at the UN," Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Monday told Sky News from Johannesburg, referring to Security Council talks on the situation.
$25bn 'needed' for Africa
Britain, the former colonial power in Zimbabwe, had been vocal in opposition to Mugabe's disputed victory in presidential elections, saying he should not be part of any power-sharing deal if the country was to receive vital economic aid.
Western heads of government were asking their electorates to donate $25bn for Africa by 2010, saying Africa's most senior leaders were unwilling to take a stand in favour of democracy and human rights.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesperson insisted that they wanted an outcome in Zimbabwe that reflected the first-round election results, in which opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai gained the highest number of presidential votes.
Britain had been accused by Mbeki's aides of trying to persuade Tsvangirai not to meet him.
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Zimbabwe Special Report
