AU, UN and SADC reaffirm support for Mbeki mediation in Zimbabwe

AU, UN and SADC reaffirm support for Mbeki mediation in Zimbabwe

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THE African Union, United Nations and a grouping of 14 southern African nations have endorsed South African President Thabo Mbeki's mediation of Zimbabwe's crisis talks, Mbeki's office said on Friday.

"All parties agreed with the framework proposed by President Mbeki to facilitate a solution to the challenges in Zimbabwe," the presidency said in a statement after the South African leader briefed AU, UN and SADC diplomats on the talks.

Mbeki invited the African Union and UN to join a new reference group which will liaise on his efforts to mediate a solution to Zimbabwe's crisis, a top aide said.

Speaking after Mbeki met AU commission chief Jean Ping and UN envoy Haile Menkerios in Pretoria, Sydney Mufamadi said the new group would support the president in his mission to mediate between the ruling party and opposition in Harare on behalf of the 14-nation regional bloc known as SADC.

"The special representantive of SADC (Angolan deputy foreign minister George Chikoti), the AU and the UN were briefed by President Mbeki and he invited them to constitute a reference group with the mediator on an ongoing basis," said Mufamadi who is Mbeki's right-hand man in the mediation effort.

"They will appoint people who will be based at the venue country. They will get briefings on a regular basis from the facilitator."

The UN, SADC and AU's faith in Mbeki will be a crushing blow to Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) which has been pushing for a second mediator, preferrably from the AU. The MDC ccuses Mbeki of bias -- a campaign rejected as a "fake issue" by South Africa's foreign affairs minister this week. - Reuters/AFP
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