Annan backs out of Zimbabwe mediation

Annan backs out of Zimbabwe mediation

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By Beauregard Tromp

THE United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, apparently rebuffed by President Robert Mugabe, has withdrawn from mediation efforts in Zimbabwe, leaving the job to former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa.

Annan made this dramatic announcement at the African Union summit in Banjul Sunday, after holding talks with Mugabe. His withdrawal dismayed the British government and is likely to come as a shock to President Thabo Mbeki.

Both he and British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently touted Annan as the man to take the lead for the international community in trying to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis.

Annan said: "President Mkapa has been working quietly with President Mugabe. You do not need two mediators."

Mkapa is Mugabe's own choice of a mediator between himself and Britain, as he has strongly and publicly supported Mugabe. But he does not enjoy any official backing, certainly not from Britain.

The meeting between Mugabe and Annan has been eagerly anticipated, with speculation that the UN was preparing to offer anything from a plan for Zimbabwe's economic recovery to an exit plan for Mugabe in exchange for amnesty against prosecution for misgovernance. The result was an anticlimax.

"I told him (Mugabe) I was committed to helping Zimbabwe and the people of Zimbabwe and would support the work of the mediator," said Annan. "We both agreed that he (Mkapa) should be given the time and space to do his work."

British Minister for Africa, Lord David Triesman, reacted with disappointment at the announcement by Annan.

"I think that's very sad. It's a sad outcome," said Triesman, who was attending the summit. "I hoped Kofi Annan would take an initiative."

However, Triesman added that Mkapa was held in high regard in the UK, in spite of his strong defence of Mugabe, and so would be welcome to convey anything to the British government. Mkapa served on Blair's Commission for Africa which last year produced a major report on Africa's development needs.

Triesman dismissed Mugabe's insistence on characterising the stand-off between the UK and Zimbabwe as an ideological "colonial" battle, calling it "cheap theatrics".

He said it was up to the Zimbabwean people to decide their future and the UK would continue with aid. - Mercury Foreign Service
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