Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe will not attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics because he was told by China’s Communist Party to stay away, the Sydney Morning Herald daily reported on Tuesday.
Citing sources, the paper said that ”high-powered lobbying from political leaders who will be attending the ceremony prompted the highest levels of the Chinese government to convince him not to attend”.
According to the report, Mugabe travelled to Hong Kong and was then told he would not be welcome in Beijing for Friday’s opening ceremony.
The ceremony will be attended by United States President George Bush, his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, and many other heads of state and dignitaries.
China and Zimbabwe have a close relationship.
Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba announced on the weekend that the controversial leader would not be in Beijing on Friday, but said that reasons were of a domestic nature — the talks with the party of political rival Morgan Tsvangirai in South Africa.
”President Mugabe attaches great importance to the ongoing talks, which is why he is not going to China for the grand opening of the Olympics,” Charamba said on Saturday in a newspaper column.
Talks
The power-sharing talks were going smoothly on Monday, a South African official said, a week after they broke down over Mugabe’s insistence he should remain president.
Mukoni Ratshitanga, spokesperson for mediator President Thabo Mbeki, said the talks resumed on Sunday and were continuing at an undisclosed location in Pretoria to try to end Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai have agreed to discuss sharing power although their future roles are expected to be major sticking points in the talks, coverage of which has been hit with a media blackout.
Mbeki said last week that the two sides intended to complete the talks as planned by August 4. However, Tsvangirai has said the deadline was flexible. Ratshitanga said on Monday that negotiators were ”not worried” about meeting it.
Mbeki has also played down reports of disagreements and said the negotiations were adjourned to allow the leaders of the ruling party and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) consult their parties.
However, officials close to the talks said opposition negotiators were unhappy with the government’s insistence that Mugabe remain president with Tsvangirai serving as one of several vice-presidents.
Both men say they won elections and should be at the helm. However, there are indications that the two leaders are prepared to compromise. — Sapa-dpa, Sapa-AP