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Southern African leaders tread softly with Mugabe
Associated Press
August 16, 2007

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/16/news/zimbabwe.php

LUSAKA, Zambia: President Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia urged Zimbabweans to "maintain peace and stability" as southern African leaders gathered Thursday for a regional summit meeting in Lusaka, where the political and economic turmoil in neighboring Zimbabwe is topping the agenda.

As visiting heads of state were introduced, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe received the loudest reaction, drawing cheers, applause and laughter from a crowd of dignitaries. Mugabe stood and smiled in acknowledgment.

Mugabe sat next to President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who is leading a regional effort to mediate a political truce between Mugabe and his political opposition. Mbeki was expected to report later in the day to other leaders on his efforts.

Mwanawasa, who is taking over the rotating chairmanship of the 14-member Southern African Development Community, praised elder statesmen who helped liberate countries in the region from colonial rule.

Among the southern African leaders who oversaw the liberation of their countries from colonial rule, Mugabe is the only one still in power. He has capitalized on his anti-colonialist credentials to rally support among ordinary Africans with rhetoric accusing the West of looking for an excuse to take over Africa again.

Mwanawasa appealed to Zimbabweans to "maintain peace and stability at all costs, because the opposite" will push their country "backwards." While Mugabe's neighbors have long been reluctant to openly criticize one of their own, Mwanawasa once likened the situation in neighboring Zimbabwe to a "sinking Titanic."

However, before the meeting, the Zambian government appeared to be toeing a more cautious line despite Western appeals to the region to do more.

"Zambia cannot impose its will on Zimbabwe, just as Zimbabwe cannot impose its will on Zambia. But we can quietly whisper to each other our concerns," Mike Mulongoti, the Zambian minister of information and broadcasting, said this week.

Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, is in its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980. Mugabe has led the country since British rule ended.

Official inflation is given as 4,500 percent, the highest in the world, but independent estimates put it closer to 9,000 percent. The crisis is largely blamed on the seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms that began in 2000, disrupting the agriculture-based economy.

Government opponents say they have been subjected to police beatings and raids on their offices.

The United States and European Union have slapped asset freezes and a travel ban on Mugabe and his top associates.

Many in the region are concerned about the destabilizing effects of Mugabe's policies, which have sent thousands of refugees into neighboring South Africa, Botswana and Zambia.

Sakwiba Sikota, an opposition member of the Zambian Parliament who represents the town of Livingstone, said Mwanawasa "has a big responsibility" to pressure Mugabe. Livingstone lies next to the famed Victoria Falls, just across the river from Zimbabwe, and has struggled to cope with a recent surge in Zimbabweans crossing the border.

"All this talk of, 'We shouldn't interfere in neighboring countries' policies' is a concept that should be thrown out the window," Sikota said.

But there is also sympathy for Mugabe's argument that he has been unfairly demonized and strangled by Western sanctions.

In a June opinion piece for BBC World Magazine, Kenneth Kaunda, the first president of Zambia, said that while he opposed recent violence against the Zimbabwean political opposition, "this demonizing is made by people who may not understand what Robert Gabriel Mugabe and his fellow freedom fighters have gone through."

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