Zimbabwe Update: President Mugabe Leaves for EU-Africa Summit

[XXPANTHAXX]

By Itai Musengeyi
Zimbabwe Herald

PRESIDENT Mugabe left Harare yesterday to attend the EU-Africa Summit in
Lisbon, Portugal, at the weekend as opposition to Zimbabwe’s inclusion
on the agenda and condemnation of Britain’s boycott grew.

Cde Mugabe was accompanied by the First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe and
senior Government officials.

Vice President Joice Mujuru, several Cabinet ministers and service
chiefs saw him off at Harare International Airport.

During Cde Mugabe’s absence, Vice President Joseph Msika will be the
Acting President.

The summit gets underway tomorrow after African and European countries
as well as Portugal stood their ground and blocked attempts by Britain
and its allies to bar President Mugabe from attending.

Britain and its allies tried to have Cde Mugabe excluded or have
Zimbabwe represented by officials other than the President.

After the plan failed, Britain, its allies and the opposition MDC
shifted their focus to plotting to have Zimbabwe put on the agenda of
the summit, again without success.

In a rebuke to Britain, the United States and opposition elements,
European Commission president Mr José Manuel Barroso said:

"This is not — repeat, not — an EU-Zimbabwe summit, but an EU-Africa
summit, with an ambitious agenda on issues as important as peace and
security, climate change, development aid, migration and governance."

The position was buttressed by European and African foreign ministers at
their meeting in Egypt to prepare for the summit when they rejected
attempts to have Zimbabwe discussed.

Speaking on behalf of the ministers, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mr Ahmed
Abu Gheit dismissed New York-based Human Rights Watch’s call to have
Zimbabwe, Somalia and Sudan labelled human rights "flashpoints".

Mr Abu Gheit said only "the problem of Darfur would be included under
the ‘peace and security’ clause and can be discussed within that
framework".

In his 20th State of the Nation Address on Tuesday, the President noted
that Britain’s machinations had disintegrated.

On Wednesday, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa blasted British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown’s decision to boycott the EU-Africa Summit in
Lisbon in protest against Cde Mugabe’s presence.

"I really would say that it would have been better for the British
government, including the prime minister, to attend Lisbon to raise
whatever issues they wanted with Zimbabwe," Mr Mwanawasa said after
talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"So, I think this is definitely not a good thing," added President
Mwanawasa, who chairs Sadc.

Last week, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade expressed disappointment
at Mr Brown’s decision to boycott the two-day summit, which begins
tomorrow and ends on Sunday.

In October, South Africa’s ruling party, the ANC, attacked Mr Brown for
his "holier-than-thou" attitude towards Africa, saying Britain could go
ahead and snub the summit if it was against Cde Mugabe’s attendance.

ANC secretary-general Mr Kgalema Motlanthe said then if any country
decided not to take part in the "critically important dialogue, to feed
their celebration of their holiness", then so be it.


Canny Mugabe still a hero for many Africans

Chris Otton
Johannesburg, South Africa
06 December 2007 08:25

Robert Mugabe, a largely unwelcome guest of the European Union at a
summit this weekend, is a hero in the eyes of many Africans for daring
to stand up to the West and seize land from white farmers.

Given that his country's economy is in tatters and has been plagued by
political violence, many in Europe have been left scratching their heads
over how Zimbabwe's president since independence in 1980 still commands
respect.

But even at the age of 83, Africa's oldest leader retains many of the
populist instincts which have served him so well over the years
--trading blows with his former allies in the West and tapping into
resentment over land.

"He's a great showman and the confrontation with the West is grist to
his mill and builds up his persona," said Patrick Smith, editor of the
London-based Africa Confidential journal.

“Back home the economy may be on its knees but [many feel] at least our
man bestrides the world like a Colossus."

Mugabe -- normally banned from Europe for allegedly rigging his
re-election in 2002 -- is likely to receive a frosty reception at this
weekend's gathering of European Union and African leaders in Lisbon with
the host Portugal's Foreign Minister Luis Amado saying it would be
"preferable" if he did not attend.

Yet at his last major summit, the Southern African Development
Community's annual get-together in Lusaka in July, Mugabe received a
standing ovation from delegates at the official opening who merely
applauded other heads of state.

In the first two decades since independence, Mugabe's relations with the
West were generally warm but that changed in 2000 when he embarked on a
programme of land reforms in which thousands of farms were expropriated.

Mugabe claimed the programme was intended to redress the wrongs of the
colonial era when the indigenous black population was often forced off
their land by European settlers.

In reality however much of the land ended up in the hands of ruling
party cronies and agriculture production -- once an economic mainstay --
collapsed.

But if outside observers see the expropriations as being an economic
disaster, the idea remains popular in parts of the continent such as
Kenya and South Africa where land still remains disproportionately in
the hands of the descendants of European settlers.

"Mugabe's argument is that we may have got the independence but we
didn't get the land. That enables him to avoid all the awkward questions
about what he's been doing for the last 20 years," said Smith.

According to David Monyae, a lecturer in international relations at
Johannesburg's Wits University, Mugabe had been largely successful in
portraying the land issue as a bilateral dispute between Harare and
London.

Many Africans shared Mugabe's resentment about the "holier than thou"
attitude from former colonial powers such as Britain and Belgium, said
Monyae.

"Africans are saying don't define us and lecture us ... we don't accept
that it is about human rights, full stop," he added.

Mugabe has been particularly adept at responding to accusations by
tapping into resentment about Western double standards.

When United States President George Bush branded him a tyrant at this
year's United Nations General Assembly, Mugabe replied that the US
president has "very little to lecture us on".

"He kills in Iraq. He kills in Afghanistan. And this is supposed to be
our master on human rights?"

Not everyone in Africa is convinced, with Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
awarded the Nobel P Prize for his role in the fight against apartheid,
calling Mugabe the caricature of an African dictator.

And in Zimbabwe itself, analysts say his grip on power has much more to
do with his control of the state machinery rather than popularity.

"His popularity within the party and the country is very questionable,"
said Harare-based commentator Takura Zhangazha.

"He is a coercive leader, intimidates opponents, uses food aid as
political weapon. Some people are given jobs because of their political
affiliation." - AFP


Europe squeezed by China's scramble for Africa

Candido Mendes
Luanda, Angola
06 December 2007 09:35

As Portugal prepares to host a bonding summit of African and European
leaders, the frenetic construction in its ex-colony Angola bears
testimony to China's growing influence on the resource-rich continent.

In all weather and on every day of the week, an army of Chinese
construction workers is rapidly transforming the skyline of the Angolan
capital Luanda in an alliance which has put the squeeze on traditional
European partners.

"Human Rights, good governance, accountability are difficult questions
that African governments hate and the Chinese don't ask any of them,"
says Justino Pinto de Andrade, a professor of economics at Luanda's
Catholic University, as he contemplates the transformation of the
capital.

"I think if we are not careful, if we keep on depending on them
financially and economically, China will gain so much influence over our
government officials that there will also be a political dependency."

Chinese leaders, desperate for raw materials to fuel their economic
growth, have gone out of their way to insist their relationship with
Africa should benefit both sides and have rejected any suggestion of
neo-colonialism.

This weekend's summit in Portugal, the current holders of the European
Union presidency, is seen as a belated recognition on behalf of European
governments that they need to work harder to cultivate their
relationship with Africa.

But according to Chris Alden, author of a new book on China's influence
in Africa, many governments on the world's poorest continent are more
inclined to hook up with a partner that can provide the finance for
construction projects quickly and without asking too many questions.

"Whether it be a railroad or a dam, by all accounts they provide finance
very quickly [at a speed] which neither the World Bank or Europe, the
traditional donors, can match," said Alden.

"They have a very light touch when it comes to bureaucracy, while the EU
is the master of bureaucracy.

"And in Europe there's a pretty high level of oversight from Parliament
and China does not suffer from such concerns."

For the government of Angola, a country devastated by a 27-year civil
war which began soon after independence from Portugal in 1975, China
appears the perfect partner in the process of rebuilding the country.

As Chinese soft loans and workers help with the construction of
everything from a vital rail link to office blocks, Angola in turn
supplies China with some two million tonnes of crude oil each month.

Jose Severino, chairperson of the Angolan Industrial Association, said
the Chinese involvement was beneficial in many ways, but worried that
much of raw materials used in construction was of inferior quality.

"For example, they use cement bricks instead of oven-fired bricks which
is the best thing," said Severino.

"It's good they're rebuilding our infrastructure, roads, and factories
etc, but it has to be quality."

Complaints about the cutting of corners are echoed in other parts of the
continent, whether it be over safety standards at Chinese-owned mines in
Zambia or cheap clothing that undercuts the price of locally-made
garments.

In Zambia for example, Chinese President Hu Jintao had to scrap plans in
February to visit a Chinese-run copper mine where several workers died
in a blast after unions threatened to stage protests.

De Andrade warned that China's push into Africa was often at the expense
of local producers.

"We have the Chinese lending us money, bringing in expertise and
promoting their own products which leaves little room for the growth of
domestic industry," he said.

If local producers cannot compete with the low-cost Chinese, European
businesses are also finding the same problem.

"They are finding that they are losing contracts to these new
competitors," said Alden. "They will have to devise some form of
approach that takes into account the lower costs of China. - Sapa-AFP