British shadow foreign secretary, Michael Ancram, has formed an unlikely alliance with human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell to have the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, arrested on his visit to Paris.
Tatchell is demanding that the French authorities detain Mugabe under the country’s anti-torture legislation as soon as he arrives to attend a Franco-Africa summit.
European governments reluctantly agreed last week that the visit should go ahead, despite an EU travel ban on Mugabe, his wife and dozens of members of his political circle in protest at human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
Now the Conservatives are asking the UK government to help by putting pressure on the French to act on the arrest request.
In a letter to the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, Ancram said: ”You will be aware that there may be certain legal challenges by Mr Peter Tatchell and others, who are once again seeking to arrest Robert Mugabe on charges of human rights violations.
”There are already genuine concerns that the French government will ride roughshod over its international legal responsibilities. I urge you not only to monitor, but to lend support to any attempt to arrest Robert Mugabe.”
Tatchell has tried before to carry out a citizen’s arrest on Mr Mugabe. He ended up in the gutter, knocked unconscious by presidential bodyguards.
This time official channels will be used, backed up by a protest march as Tatchell files his application and presents his legal case for Mugabe’s arrest and trial under French law.
But any moves against Mugabe by the French judiciary would be deeply embarrassing for the French president, Jacques Chirac, who fought hard for the temporary ”opt-out” from the travel ban to ensure the success of his Africa summit, which will discuss human rights and economic ties.
The French fear was that if Mugabe did not attend, many other African leaders would boycott the event.
And Chirac insists that more can be achieved by engaging with Mugabe than by freezing him out.
France sees itself as Africa’s closest ally on the international stage, but in many EU capitals Chirac’s readiness to play host to the head of the political regime in Zimbabwe is seen as making a mockery of EU sanctions.
For the French, much of the dispute is seen as a post-colonial clash between London and Harare over attacks on white farmers.
The issue is yet another sensitive foreign policy battleground with plenty of potential fall-out for Anglo-French relations.
The Namibian president, Sam Nujoma, today said the French were right to invite Mugabe to the summit.
Last autumn, Nujoma joined Mugabe in criticising Tony Blair’s approach to Zimbabwe during the Johannesburg earth summit.
Nujoma, who at Johannesburg told Blair that most of Zimbabwe’s problems were created by Britain, told the BBC that he had seen no evidence of the human rights abuses alleged against Mugabe.
The Namibian leader, who is also in Paris for the summit, said: ”I believe France took a right decision to invite President Mugabe. This is a France-Africa summit in which all African heads of state should participate to promote dialogue and to strengthen economic partnership.
”Misunderstanding or disagreement between Zimbabwe and Britain does not benefit either country. I therefore believe that it is high time that the differences between the two countries are amicably resolved.”
Mr Nujoma said he believed Mugabe’s regime did have democratic legitimacy, despite allegations of vote rigging at the last elections.
”What I believe is this, that the elections were free and fair … democracy definitely exists.” – Guardian Unlimited Â