British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has threatened to boycott a summit of African and European leaders in Lisbon later this year if Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe attends.
Writing in an early edition of the Independent yesterday, Brown also called for a UN humanitarian mission to the southern African country, and an EU envoy to "support the transition to democracy."
The EU has imposed a travel ban on Mugabe, 83, and Brown said that "there is a reason for this -- the abuse of his own people. There is no freedom in Zimbabwe; no freedom of association; no freedom of the press."
The travel ban has long hampered efforts to organize a second summit between the EU and African states. The first was held in Cairo in 2000.
"President Mugabe's attendance would mean lifting the EU visa ban that we have collectively imposed. I believe that President Mugabe's presence would undermine the summit, diverting attention from the important issues that need to be resolved. In those circumstances, my attendance would not be appropriate," Brown said.
Portugal, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, has said that it has no intention of discriminating against Mugabe in relation to the Dec. 8 to Dec. 9 summit in Lisbon.
Britain is set to announce an additional ?8 million (US$16 million) of aid to be delivered to the former British colony through the World Food Program, and Brown said that he wanted the UN Security Council to send a humanitarian mission to Zimbabwe.
He also called for EU sanctions against more than 100 individuals in Zimbabwe to be more widely applied.
Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, is seeking a seventh term in office at a time when the country is grappling with the world's highest rate of inflation, put at 6,592.8 percent by official figures released on Tuesday.
Independent economists believe the real rate of inflation may be several thousand percentage points above the official figure.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition