Brown threatens summit boycott over Mugabe

Brown threatens summit boycott over Mugabe

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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 attended.

Writing in an early edition of The Independent's Thursday newspaper, Brown also called for a United Nations humanitarian mission to the southern African country, and a European Union 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 organise a second summit between the European Union 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."

Portugal, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, has said that it has no intention of discriminating against Mugabe in relation to the December 8-9 summit in Lisbon.

Britain is set to announce an additional eight million pounds (11.4 million euros, 16 million dollars) of aid to be delivered to the former British colony through the World Food Programme, 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 Tuesday.

Independent economists believe the real rate of inflation may be several thousand percentage points above the official figure.

Mugabe has blamed the country's economic woes on limited sanctions imposed by the European Union and United States over claims that he rigged his 2002 re-election. - AFP

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