SA in spat with Aus
2003-09-16 08:25
Sydney - South Africa warned Australia against using "megaphone diplomacy" on Zimbabwe on Tuesday as a row escalated over allowing Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to attend this year's Commonwealth summit in Nigeria.
Australia has thwarted moves by South Africa and other African nations to relax Zimbabwe's 18-month-old suspension from the Commonwealth so Mugabe can attend the meeting in December.
Bheki Khumalo, spokesperson for President Thabo Mbeki, said there was nothing to be gained from barring Mugabe's attendance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
"We want to appeal to the Australians to understand that megaphone diplomacy will not produce results," Khumalo told ABC radio.
"I mean sanctions have been imposed against Zimbabwe now for a number of months with no result at all, and we don't think that using megaphone diplomacy will work."
Khumalo urged the Commonwealth to reverse its decision.
Prime Minister John Howard rejected the criticism, saying most Commonwealth leaders, did not support inviting Mugabe.
"Everything that Australia has said about Zimbabwe in the time I've been prime minister, and most especially since the election in Zimbabwe two years ago, far from being megaphone diplomacy has been a plain statement of truth," Howard told parliament.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the 54-nation body in March last year over its poor human rights record and Mugabe's re-election in a vote widely condemned as rigged.
When the initial 12-month period ended in March this year, the body announced that the southern African country's suspension would remain in place until December.
Howard said Mugabe had done nothing to address the concerns that led to its suspension and it would be a travesty if he was invited to the meeting.
Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart, Olusegun Obasanjo, are the two African representatives on a troika chaired by Australia and tasked with overseeing the Commonwealth's response to alleged human rights violations in Zimbabwe. Both opposed extension of the sanctions.