SADC cautions Mugabe
2008-08-29 08:02
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A watchdog body has urged the Zimbabwean government to withdraw troops from a diamond field where soldiers allegedly slaughtered illegal diggers.
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