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UK sanctions 'no threat to Zim'
11/07/2001 21:04 - (SA)
Lusaka - A defiant Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said at the close of the three-day Organisation of African Unity (OAU) heads of state summit on Wednesday that he did not care if Britain imposed sanctions on his country.
With the backing of the heads of state at the summit, Mugabe said the black people of Zimbabwe had been a labour class in their own country for too long because the minority whites controlled all the economic resources.
"We do not want to be a labour class for life," Mugabe said, adding that he did not care if Britain imposed sanctions on his country. "We've already been under sanctions for a long time," he added.
The summit re-affirmed the resolution of the land issue, stating that it was central to ensuring durable peace, stability and economic development in Zimbabwe.
The African presidents urged Britain to co-operate fully and "enter into dialogue with the Zimbabwean government with the purpose of finding a final solution to this colonial legacy".
'We have to defend the blacks'
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who spearheaded the formation of the African Union (AU), said it was not possible for African countries to remain neutral on the question of land.
"We have to defend the blacks. We have to give African land back to the Africans," he said, adding: "You cannot be neutral in a case like this. We are here for blacks and not whites."
Gaddafi said Europe and the US should compensate the Africans for the land they had destroyed.
Gaddafi reiterated his swipe at the US whom he on Monday, while addressing members of the Muslim community at the Libyan embassy, had accused of inciting chaos and violence in Muslim countries
Citing ethnic wars in the Balkans, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia,
Croatia, Chechnya and the Demcoratic Republic of Congo, Gaddafi
said those conflicts had been fanned by the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA).
He called on the Muslim world to condemn the US and be wary of
its activities in Africa in particular.
The 37th and last OAU heads of state summit ended with the
endorsement of a working document prepared by the council of
ministers which includes, among other things, the budget and
launching of the organs of the AU.
AU should not be a replica of worn out OAU
Newly elected chairperson of the last summit, Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, said at the closing session that the general assembly was determined that the AU should not be a replica of the worn out OAU.
The general assembly endorsed an extraordinary session of the
council of ministers prior to next year's summit in Pretoria to
finalise the working document of the establishment of the AU.
Chiluba said the summit had made very important decisions and that the challenge was now in implementing them. He told the gathered leaders to quit procrastinations.
"Africa does not have the luxury of time and we should not
procrastinate in implementing the decisions we have taken to
establish the African Union," he said.
The heads of state adopted the New Africa Initiative, a merger of the Millenium African Recovery Programme (MAP), spearheaded by South African President Thabo Mbeki and the Omega Plan of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.
"These initiatives are intended to forge Africa ahead in its
socio-economic recovery," Chiluba said. - DPA
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