Zimbabwe crisis 'exaggerated', says SADC chairman

Zimbabwe crisis 'exaggerated', says SADC chairman

CONGO'S President Kabila (left) watches a military parade with President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Malawi's Bingu wa Mutharika and Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia

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SOUTHERN African leaders failed Friday to heed calls for strong action against the embattled Zimbabwean government, saying the ailing country's problems were "exaggerated".

"We ... feel that the problems in Zimbabwe have been exaggerated. We feel they will solve their economic problems," Zambian president and chairman of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), Levy Mwanawasa, told journalists at the end of a two-day heads of state summit in Lusaka, Zambia.

"We are quite satisfied with the report from South African President Thabo Mbeki on the crisis in Zimbabwe," said the Zambian leader, who recently likened neighbouring Zimbabwe to a "sinking Titanic".

Zimbabwe is in the throes of an economic crisis with inflation well past the 5,000 percent mark, four in five people jobless and 80 percent of the population living below the poverty threshold.

The United States called on the leaders from southern Africa to push harder to end the crisis in Zimbabwe.

"We encourage SADC leaders to press vigorously for a sustainable solution to this man-made crisis," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "The Zimbabwean people deserve nothing less."

McCormack said that while the SADC struggled to bring reforms to Zimbabwe, the Mugabe government had not expressed a similar commitment.

"Its obstructive actions, such as lack of participation in scheduled talks and statements arguing against the need for mediation, have undermined this important initiative," he said.

The SADC mandated Mbeki in March to mediate between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Mbeki reported on progress to the summit, while SADC secretariat executive chairman Tomaz Salomao briefed heads of state on Zimbabwe's dire economic straits.

Mbeki told a news conference later the rival Zimbabwean parties remained engaged in talks on the basis of a mutually agreed agenda, describing it as "work in progress".

"They ... are making progress in these discussions," said the president, adding any breakthrough would be reported to SADC.

"Everybody is interested that when the presidential and parliamentary elections take place in March next year in Zimbabwe, they should be held in an atmosphere that will result in free and fair elections without controversies and so on."

But Mbeki said no conditions or deadlines had been set. "Nobody has talked about conditionalities of anything."

Mwanawasa said SADC was satisfied that Zimbabwe's existing electoral laws were conducive to free and fair polls.

Mugabe has blamed his country's woes on drought and Western sanctions, but critics say problems started with a controversial government land reform programme that saw thousands of white-owned commercial farms seized and redistributed to landless blacks and government cronies.

Mugabe is also under criticised for stifling democracy and overseeing a violent government clampdown on the opposition.

Mbeki said Zimbabwe's economic problems would be looked into urgently, on the basis of Salomao's report, by a committee of finance ministers.

The ministers would discuss the matter with the Zimbabwean government "to pin down in some detail what indeed the region can do with regard to economic recovery".

Before the summit opened, Mugabe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Thursday that no political reforms were necessary in his country.

"We have a democracy like any other democracy in this world ... I cannot see how a system can be any fairer or more transparent (than it is in Zimbabwe)," he told journalists.

Zanu PF has been the ruling political party in Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.

Mbeki and the SADC are accused by critics in the West and civic bodies around the world of treating Mugabe with kid gloves.

Global watchdog Human Rights Watch had urged SADC to use the summit to put pressure on Mugabe's government to "end its broadscale attack on human rights."

Mugabe was absent from Friday's closing ceremony for the summit.

He told Zambia's state ZNBC television on Friday that sanctions, comprising a travel ban and a freeze on the European accounts of top Zimbabwean officials, were to blame for his country's economic woes, adding things were getting better.

"It is going well, relatively," he said. "We are trying to use our resources to bring about a turn-around."

The defiant 83-year-old Zimbabwean leader was given a rousing welcome to the summit Thursday, despite mounting global criticism of the crisis in his country. - AFP
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