France has not found a way to bring Zimbabwe to its summit of African leaders this week, the government said on Tuesday.
France was criticised for hosting Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe at a similar summit in Paris in 2003 and appears keen not to repeat the experience.
France wanted Zimbabwe to be represented at the gathering of 40 heads of state on Thursday and Friday in Cannes.
President Jacques Chirac’s spokesperson suggested that a European Union (EU) travel ban on Mugabe and his associates had proved insurmountable.
”It is a conference of heads of state and government, so we looked for a way so that Zimbabwe, which is an important country in the region and the continent, could be present in conformity with European Union rules. At this hour, the discussion has not reached a conclusion,” said Jerome Bonnafont.
He did not specify whether France had extended a formal invitation to Mugabe himself.
Human rights activists, Britain and several other countries were angered that Mugabe attended the 2003 summit. Australian Prime Minister John Howard said France had been ”very foolish”.
Despite its sanctions, the EU allowed Mugabe to attend that summit as a concession to France.
The EU imposed the travel restrictions and an arms sale ban on Zimbabwe in 2002 and froze Zimbabwean assets in Europe after failing to get Mugabe to improve human rights and reverse policies that have created a massive economic crisis in a country that was once Southern Africa’s breadbasket. Zimbabwe has seen runaway
inflation for five years since Mugabe began seizing thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to Africans.
Mugabe has been president since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980. ‒ Sapa-AP