Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was attending an African summit in Egypt yesterday amid growing calls for African leaders to act after his widely discredited election win.
African Union (AU) commission chief Jean Ping told the summit that Africa must assume its responsibility in the Zimbabwe crisis, amid fears that it could destabilize southern Africa.
“Africa must fully shoulder its responsibility and do everything in its power to help the Zimbabwe parties to work together so as to overcome current challenges,” he said.
The two-day meeting of the 53-nation bloc in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh opened the day after the AU’s top conflict prevention body, the Peace and Security Council, failed to rule on Zimbabwe and referred the thorny issue to the summit itself.
Mugabe, 84, was sworn in for a sixth term on Sunday, having been declared the overwhelming winner of a one-man election run-off after opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew because of violence.
A delegation of AU observers said yesterday that the election fell short of the AU’s democratic standards of democracy, while UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon slammed Friday’s vote result as illegitimate.
African leaders have warned that the crisis could destabilize southern Africa and that power cannot be handed entirely either to Mugabe or to Tsvangirai because of the country’s political polarization.
But so far there has been no consensus among the AU’s 53 member states, with the pan-African body issuing diplomatic statements and pushing for a power-sharing arrangement between Mugabe and Tsvangirai’s MDC.
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) told African leaders they had a “historic opportunity” to denounce the election as a sham.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro of Tanzania told leaders at the summit’s opening session that the situation in Zimbabwe could set a “dangerous political precedent” after voting took place under “a climate that was not conducive to credible and fair elections.”
Also See: S Africa can’t go on forever with a ‘business as usual’ attitude
THREATS: Naval facilities have been built in Shanghai and Zhejiang, while airbases have been expanded in Xiamen, Fuzhou and Zhangpu, across the Strait from Taiwan The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is building large-scale military infrastructure at five sites along the eastern coast of China, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a recent report. The latest issue of the council’s Mainland China Situation Quarterly said satellite photos showed military infrastructure such as air force and naval bases being constructed along the eastern coast of China. That means the CCP might be preparing for potential conflict in Taiwan, it said, adding that there are five such construction sites from north to south. A naval base has been built in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area, with underground oil storage tanks, railway
MILESTONE: The foreign minister called the signing ‘a major step forward in US-Taiwan relations,’ while the Presidential Office said it was a symbol of the nations’ shared values US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the state department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct a review “not less than every five years.” It must then submit an updated report based on its findings “not later
GIVE BACK: The president thanked immigrants, recounting heartwarming stories, from a gymnast helping athletes shine internationally to a spouse helping the disadvantaged There is no need to amend the law to exempt Chinese spouses from single allegiance to the Republic of China (ROC), President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that such changes would only increase the public’s doubts toward new residents from China and would not improve social harmony. Taiwan is a democratic, diverse and free country, he said. “No matter which ethnic group you belong to, where you come from or when you arrive, as long as you identify with Taiwan, you are masters of this country,” he said. Taiwan is a democratic nation that follows the rule of law, where immigrants are
A trial run of the north concourse of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s new Terminal 3 is to commence today, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The eight additional boarding gates would allow for more aircraft parking spaces that are expected to boost the airport’s capacity by 5.8 million passengers annually, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Kuo-shian (林國顯) said. The concourse, designed by a team led by British architect Richard Rogers, provides a refreshing space, Lin said, adding that travelers would enjoy the tall and transparent design that allows sunshine to stream into the concourse through glass curtain walls. The
RSS