Zimbabwe at heart of African Union discussions

Saturday 28 June 2008

African leaders are to meet in Egypt for the African Union summit on Monday. The West hopes they can come up with a solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe but they are already expressing their opposition to sanctions.(Report: C.Westerheide)

 SHARM EL SHEIKH - Sanctions against Zimbabwe will not work and the world should focus instead on encouraging talks towards a power-sharing deal, several African officials said on Saturday.

Zimbabwe held a single-candidate presidential election run-off on Friday despite international condemnation after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the race, citing violence against his supporters.

Many Western leaders urged the African Union to take action at a summit in Egypt on Monday that was expected to focus on the crisis. But African ministers expressed doubts after Washington said it would consider imposing more sanctions.

"History has shown us that they (sanctions) don't work because the leadership just dig in and dig in and feel persecuted," Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula told reporters at a meeting of African foreign ministers ahead of the summit.

"I think we need to engage Zimbabwe. The route of sanctions may not be the helpful one ... the first and most important thing is for the people of Zimbabwe and their leadership to sit down and talk to each other, instead of talking at each other."

Libya's state minister for African affairs, Ali Treiki, whose country spent years under international sanctions, told Reuters he believed sanctions would "never help".

"Let us envisage that a government of coalition should be formed from both the government and opposition to run the country," he said. "I think the example we did in Kenya is a very good example."

African Union mediation led to the creation of a power-sharing government in Kenya to resolve a post-election crisis earlier this year in which about 1,500 people were killed and 300,000 more uprooted.

Africa's top diplomat said on Friday there would be no immediate solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe, but was sure the AU could sort it out.

"I am convinced it will be solved in a credible way. But please give us time to solve it with our heads of state," AU Commission chairman Jean Ping told reporters at the meeting in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el Sheikh.

Kenya's Wetangula said Nairobi stood ready to help with ideas on how to form a workable coalition.

"I've heard from both sides statements to the effect that they are willing to talk. I think what is important is at what level do we start talking, to whom do we talk, and what do we talk about," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Saturday the United States was working with other United Nations members on a resolution to send "a strong message of deterrence" to Mugabe's government over the violence.

But diplomats at the U.N. said resistance from South Africa, China and Russia would block any Security Council sanctions.

At the AU meeting, Georges Chikoti, Angola's deputy minister of external affairs, said the AU wanted a solution that was acceptable to the Zimbabwean people and the pan-African body.

"We have to listen to everyone ... We have got to take the time necessary so that we do things well," he said.