South African President Thabo Mbeki was given a fierce grilling by G8 leaders on Monday at a private meeting at which they told him that they did not believe his mediation efforts in Zimbabwe were succeeding. They also rejected his suggestion that President Robert Mugabe remain as titular head of Zimbabwe.
At what was described as a fiery meeting, US President W. George Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper all challenged Mbeki’s assertion that his quiet diplomacy was working, a claim that was also questioned at the same meeting by some African leaders, including Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua and Ghanaian President John Kufuour.
But Mbeki warned the UK and the US that Zimbabwe could descend into civil war if they pressed for tougher sanctions against the Mugabe regime.
As the meeting took place it emerged that the tortured and burnt body of a Zimbabwe opposition party worker had been found on a farm belonging to an army colonel, two weeks after the activist was abducted. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the discovery of Joshua Bakacheza’s corpse came amid a renewed intensification of violence as the government attempts to break resistance to recognition of Mugabe’s victory in the widely condemned June 28 election.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s spokesman insisted Britain wanted an outcome in Zimbabwe that reflected the first-round election results, in which opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai gained the highest number of presidential votes and his MDC party won control of the parliament.
Britain has been accused by Mbeki’s aides of trying to persuade Tsvangirai not to meet him. Mbeki had flown to Harare for an expected meeting between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, but Tsvangirai stayed away, saying that a new mediation mechanism needed to be established to tackle the crisis. A spokesman for Japan, the G8 hosts, reported: “Some African leaders mentioned that we should bear in mind that Mugabe will retire in a few years. Putting pressure on Zimbabwe, including sanctions, might lead to internal conflict. We should be discreet and careful.”
A UN Security Council resolution drafted by the US and backed by the UK would require the freezing of financial assets of Mugabe and 11 of his officials, and a bar on their travel outside Zimbabwe.
Russia opposes sanctions on Zimbabwe, a Russian official said at the G8 meeting yesterday.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade also said yesterday that sanctions should not imposed.
“I said that sanctions wouldn’t be useful and that they wouldn’t change the regime,” Wade said.
“I was supported by all African leaders,” he said. “We Africans called for a continuation of mediation that’s under way.”
“I understand that Westerners have to react to public opinion, which is shocked by images of massacres. They can’t not react. But for us Africans, sanctions aren’t going to resolve anything,” he said.
Wade said he had asked Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in separate meetings at least to delay sanctions if they insist on imposing them.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean state media said yesterday that Mugabe’s ruling party and the MDC would resume talks to resolve the crisis.
Zimbabwean Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the Herald newspaper that the MDC had agreed to the resumption of negotiations with ZANU-PF under the mediation of Mbeki.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of