Southern African leaders called on Thursday for the lifting of sanctions against Zimbabwe, flying in the face of a chorus of Western criticism of President Robert Mugabe’s regime.
”The extraordinary summit appeals for the lifting of all forms of sanctions against Zimbabwe,” the leaders of 14 Southern African countries said in a statement at the end of a two-day emergency meeting in Tanzania.
Western governments led by Britain and the United States had hoped for a clear condemnation of Mugabe following his crackdown on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and the arrest and beating of its leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
But instead the leaders at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit issued a statement of ”solidarity” with the Zimbabwean government.
”The extraordinary summit reaffirms its solidarity with the government and the people of Zimbabwe,” it said.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who hosted the talks, said the leaders had called on South African President Thabo Mbeki to head efforts to promote dialogue between rival political parties in Zimbabwe.
The South African government had no immediate details on who Mbeki was likely to speak with or when, saying only that he would ”facilitate the dialogue between the political parties”.
Tanzanian officials said the Southern African leaders were more critical of Mugabe behind closed doors.
”The SADC leaders expressed deep concern to President Mugabe about the situation in his country,” said a Tanzanian foreign ministry official, requesting anonymity.
”They told him it’s unacceptable and warned that it might spiral out of control. Therefore they pressed him to accept dialogue with the MDC.”
He said the leaders had caved in to Mugabe’s demands to issue a statement that was favourable to his leadership.
”Zimbabwe was quite uncomfortable with a harsh communiqué so it had to be adapted,” the official said.
Western countries have slapped a broad array of sanctions on Mugabe’s regime and loudly criticised what the say are human rights violations in Zimbabwe.
Speaking in Washington around the same time as the summit wrapped up, State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said the US expected SADC leaders ”do everything they possibly can to help encourage a change in behaviour in Zimbabwe”.
”What we want is clear indication that the behavior in Zimbabwe is unacceptable,” he said.
But he conceded that there was ”some reluctance on the part of some members of SADC at this point to really press Robert Mugabe and his regime”.
”So we’ll see what steps they decide to take,” he said.
Rights groups also called in vain on the African leaders to take a tough stance, while Germany, which holds the current European Union presidency, called for tougher EU sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile an appeal from the opposition MDC fell on deaf ears.
”Our message to our brothers and sisters that are in SADC today is that they need to understand and appreciate why we are fighting President Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF government,” said party secretary general Tendai Biti.
”We are fighting because of the fact that 80% of our people are living below the poverty datum line and surviving on less than one US dollar a day.
Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba earlier told Agence France-Presse the Zimbabwean government did not listen to criticism from non-African countries. ”We do not worry about the shrill from Britain, America and the EU,” he said.
The Democratic Republic of Congo was also on the summit’s agenda after deadly clashes there last week between the military and militia loyal to former vice-president and ex-rebel chief Jean Pierre Bemba claimed up to 500 lives, according to the German ambassador in Kinshasa.
The summit gives ”an unconditional support to the [DRC] government … to restore law and order, maintaining peace and stability,” the leaders said, adding that all armed groups should integrate into the national army.
‘Thoroughly bashed’
An employee of the MDC said on Thursday he had been beaten with heavy plastic batons while in police custody this week.
The man, who was among 50 people arrested when police stormed the MDC headquarters in central Harare on Wednesday, told Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) that he was taken by bus to a police station in Harare and assaulted by police officers during the night.
The man who asked not to be named because of fears for his safety said police beat him on the soles of his feet.
He said the detainees were taken to a large room and then called through to a smaller room one by one and assaulted.
”Whoever was in that room was beaten, they were thoroughly bashed,” said the official in a telephone interview. ”They started calling us one by one to the next room. They started beating us one by one.”
He said groups of two to three baton-wielding police officers took turns to mete out the beatings on individuals.
”I can’t even walk. It’s so painful,” he said.
At one point he had his hands handcuffed behind his back and his head twisted by the police, he claimed.
He said several people were released with him suddenly on Thursday afternoon. The police told them to run and they scattered in different directions, he said.
An MDC lawyer confirmed that he had spoken to seven of those detained and all of them bore the marks of severe assault.
Police say the raid on the MDC headquarters and the detention of activists were part of their investigations into a string of petrol bomb attacks on police stations and other targets in Harare over the past two weeks that has seen property damaged and several people injured. – Sapa-AFP, Sapa-DPA