Zimbabwe’s government said on Tuesday that the G8 leaders’ rejection of President Robert Mugabe’s legitimacy and threats of financial measures against his regime were racist and an insult to African leaders.
”They want to undermine the African Union and [South African] President Mbeki’s [mediation] efforts because they are racist, because they think only white people think better,” said Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga.
”It’s an insult to African leaders,” said Matonga.
Matonga insisted that Mugabe, victorious last month in a widely denounced one-man election, was the Southern African nation’s rightful leader.
”President Mugabe is the legitimate president of Zimbabwe and no amount of force or pressure will reverse that,” he said.
The leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) rich countries wound up their summit in Japan rejecting Mugabe’s legitimacy and promising ”further steps” against the regime over its disputed election.
”We do not accept the legitimacy of any government that does not reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people,” the G8 leaders said in a joint statement issued at their summit on Japan’s northern Hokkaido island.
”We will take further steps, inter alia introducing financial and other measures against those individuals responsible for the violence,” they added.
Sanctions as ‘soon as possible’
At the United Nations in New York on Tuesday, the United States ambassador to the UN said a new sanctions resolution against Harare would be passed ”as soon as possible, but this week”.
Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters after closed-door council consultations on the US-drafted resolution that ”absent a veto [from Russia] which we do not anticipate, the votes are there” to get the measure agreed.
A resolution requires nine votes out of 15 and no veto from any of the five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
But Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said elements of the US draft were ”quite excessive” and noted that G8 leaders meeting in Japan had made no reference to sanctions against the Mugabe regime.
Matonga accused Britain and the US of trying to set up a ”parallel structure” to the African Union (AU), which appointed Mbeki as a regional mediator in Zimbabwe’s electoral crisis.
The AU called for dialogue and a national unity administration between the country’s political foes during a summit in Egypt last week.
Matonga said that if they were unhappy with the decision of the continental body on Zimbabwe, they should have raised their concerns through the relevant AU channels.
He heaped praise on Mbeki, saying the leaders of the industrialised nations should have taken a cue from him.
”Mbeki is more experienced and familiar with the Zimbabwean terrain because he is the man on the ground,” he said.
”The British and the Americans are trying to set up a parallel structure to the AU … and they should have adopted Mbeki’s recommendations.”
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai snubbed talks this week, saying dialogue would not resume until pre-conditions set by his party, the Movement for Democratic Change, are met.
These conditions include the cessation of violence against opposition supporters, and the appointing of a permanent envoy by the AU to assist Mbeki in mediating.
The party has often said Mbeki should step down as mediator in the crisis.