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Botswana boycotts summit over Mugabe presence
Botswana's president will boycott a weekend summit of southern African leaders because the country does not recognise Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's re-election, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
- Agencies
- Published: 23:58 August 15, 2008
Harare: Botswana's president will boycott a weekend summit of southern African leaders because the country does not recognise Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's re-election, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
President Seretse Khama Ian Khama's decision not to attend the summit in South Africa underlines growing pressure from regional leaders on Mugabe and Zimbabwe's opposition to agree on sharing power to end post-election turmoil.
Meanwhile, Mugabe left for the summit of yesterday with his country's crisis high on the meeting's agenda.
"President Mugabe has left for Johannesburg, South Africa to attend the SADC heads of state meeting," Zimbabwean state radio said, adding he was accompanied by his wife Grace, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Labour Minister Nicholas Goche.
Power-sharing negotiations began last month after Mugabe's unopposed re-election in June, which was condemned around the world and boycotted by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai because of attacks on his supporters.
Three days of marathon meetings in Harare this week failed to reach an overall deal. Botswana's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Zimbabwe's current government should not be represented at a political level of the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC). "Botswana does not accept the result of the June 27 run-off election in Zimbabwe as it violated the core principles of SADC, the African Union and the United Nations," the statement said.
Botswana has taken the toughest stand among Zimbabwe's neighbours but all fear the consequences if its worsening economic decline leads to total meltdown. Millions of Zimbabweans have already fled across its borders.
Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition will resume power-sharing talks at the summit, ZANU-PF's chief negotiator, Patrick Chinamasa, was quoted as saying by the state-owned Herald newspaper.
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