ZIMBABWE: President Mugabe is to attend the upcoming EU-AU Summit, despite pressure for him not to attend

Zimbabwe's minister of information says President Mugabe will attend the EU - AU meeting in December and the Western countries and its media should leave Zimbabwe and Mugabe alone. President Robert Mugabe will attend an EU-Africa summit in Portugal in December despite a boycott threat by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Zimbabwe's information minister said on Tuesday (September 25). Brown said last week it would be inappropriate for him to attend the meeting because Mugabe's presence would divert attention from important agenda items. The summit between the two continental blocs failed to take place in 2003 after Britain and other EU states -- who accuse Mugabe of rights abuses -- refused to attend if he did. But Zimbabwe's Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told journalists the veteran ruler had the support of the African Union (AU) and regional African leaders and would go to Lisbon. "President Mugabe is one of the most senior heads of state and government in Africa, whose attendance is unquestionable," Ndlovu said. In Lisbon, a spokeswoman for the Portuguese foreign ministry said no invitations had been sent yet. She said that there would be no discrimination and everybody should come. Portuguese officials have said the EU and Africa have a range of important issues to discuss, such as immigration. They say China's increasing inroads into Africa have made it yet more important for Europe and Africa to increase cooperation. Both SADC and the AU have warned Lisbon that the summit might not occur again if Mugabe, who is banned from travelling to parts of Western Europe as a result of targeted sanctions, was barred from Portugal. Ndlovu said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) had taken a position to support Mugabe against those seeking his exclusion from the summit. "Mwanawasa is echoing what even the president of Ghana has said, the chairman of AU, he said he will also not attend, so it means the whole AU SADC will not attend and then I have said it here, that will be the doom of EU," he said. Critics accuse Mugabe of running down one of Africa's most promising economies, which has the highest inflation rate in the world at 6,600 percent and persistent food shortages. Mugabe, 83 and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, accuses Western countries of sabotaging the economy as punishment for his seizure of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks.

ITN Source | September 26, 2007

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