German Chancellor Angela Merkel directly confronted Robert Mugabe over human rights abuses in front of European and African leaders in Portugal on Saturday, putting the Zimbabwean leader under the spotlight at a summit that has been overshadowed by the despot’s presence.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown boycotted the meeting in Lisbon, the first European Union-Africa summit in seven years, because a ban on Mugabe travelling to Europe was lifted to allow him to be there.
Merkel said that the world could not stand by while human rights were ”trampled underfoot”. ”Nothing,” she said, ”can justify the intimidation of those holding different views and hindering freedom of the press.”
She added: ”I appreciate that some African states have tried to solve the crisis in Zimbabwe, but time is running out. The situation of Zimbabwe is damaging the image of the new Africa.”
President Thabo Mbeki, whose speech preceded Merkel’s, avoided any mention of Zimbabwe, where he has tried to mediate between Mugabe and his opposition. Mbeki said leaders should work to ensure Africans ”escape from poverty”.
”We are fully conscious of the fact that good governance and respect for human rights are fundamental to the achievement of this objective,” he said.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade told reporters: ”Zimbabwe is not in the process of collapsing, nor is Mr Mugabe in the process of collapsing.
”Who can say that human rights are being violated more in Zimbabwe than in other African countries? No one can say that.”
Summit of equals
The meeting, described as a ”summit of equals” by Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates, was a forum for 70 leaders to meet and forge new partnerships between the world’s largest trading bloc and its poorest continent.
Also making his voice heard this weekend was Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi, who has set up base in a tent outside Lisbon. He called on Europe to compensate its former African colonies. ”The riches that were taken away must be given back somehow,” Gadaffi said in a speech. ”If we don’t face up to that truth, we’ll have to pay the price one way or another — through terrorism, emigration or revenge.”
”Either you give us back our resources or you invite us into your countries,” two EU diplomatic sources quoted him as saying.
Controversy over Mugabe, who is seen by many Africans as an independence hero, underlines the difficult relationship between Africa and the former colonial powers. ”The real significance of this summit must be to lay the foundations of a new partnership based on mutual respect,” said Ghana’s President John Kufuor, chair of the African Union.
European leaders are realising they need a different approach as many African economies are growing more rapidly than in several decades, thanks to the commodities boom.
Immigration debate
Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero of Spain, whose southern country is in the front line of efforts to stop Africans trying to reach Europe, urged cooperation in education, employment and infrastructure to stop illegal migration from Africa.
”Illegal immigration is the dramatic result of our collective failure,” Zapatero told the summit.
Huge Chinese investment in Africa has prompted concerns in Europe that it is losing out on opportunities. Some African states welcome Chinese economic involvement partly because it comes without the pressure for recognition of human rights attached to European aid deals.
EU-Africa trade is at a sensitive juncture, as the EU is rushing to reach new agreements with developing nations as replacements for a World Trade Organisation waiver due to expire on 31 December. – Guardian Unlimited Â