European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday defended inviting Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to attend a European Union-Africa summit this weekend and vowed to make human rights the first point on the agenda.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is boycotting the Lisbon summit on Saturday and Sunday because of the presence of Mugabe, seen by many Africans as a hero of the independence struggle but accused by Western countries of severe human rights violations.
”Life has taught me that if you are in international politics, sometimes you have to meet people that your mother would not like to see you with,” Barroso told a news conference.
”It’s true that there has been a very negative trend in the Zimbabwe regime and this is something that we will have to broach,” he said, noting that human rights would be the first topic at the summit plenary session.
Barroso said he had written an article for several African newspapers saying ”the violation of human rights and lack of democratic freedoms in Zimbabwe, unacceptable as this situation may be, must not be allowed to interfere with relations between the two continents”.
Zimbabwe’s government mouthpiece newspaper, the Herald, published the article but added the word ”alleged” before human rights violations, he said.
Barroso said he had met Mugabe in the past and acknowledged his stature as an independence leader, but he declared: ”How can they who have fought for the liberation of those countries now not accept the liberation of their citizens? How can they accept the idea that freedom is just freedom from foreign rule and not freedom for the people of their countries?”
He said he respected Brown’s reasons for staying away, but if the EU did not hold conferences that included people who violated human rights, it would not have many meetings outside Europe. — Reuters