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S Africa’s Mbeki rejects EU position toward Zimbabwe

South African President Thabo Mbeki yesterday rejected an EU position that it would only accept a Zimbabwean government led by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

“The result that comes out of that process of dialogue must be a result that is agreed by the Zimbabweans,” said Mbeki on SA FM radio after an African Union (AU) summit in Egypt attended by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

“And certainly, the African continent has not made any prescriptions about the outcomes of what Zimbabweans must negotiate among themselves,” he said.

“That surely must mean that when the Zimbabweans say that we have all met, discussed and negotiated and this is what we have agreed to take our country, Zimbabwe forward,” he said.

African leaders on Tuesday, in their final resolution after their summit in Egypt, called for dialogue between Zimbabwe’s political foes and a national unity government following Mugabe’s widely discredited reelection.

Their two-day conclave agreed “to encourage President Robert Mugabe and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai to initiate dialogue with a view to promoting peace, stability.”

Mugabe was present when the resolution was adopted, and raised no objections.

The EU said on Tuesday that it would only accept a Zimbabwe government led by Tsvangirai, who overtook Mugabe — the country’s leader since independence — in the first round of a presidential poll held in March.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said as Europe prepared to step up sanctions against Mugabe that the EU would only accept a government led by the opposition leader.
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