Zimbabwe has accused Botswana of training opposition insurgents to oust Zanu-PF leader Robert Mugabe, state media said on Monday.
This came amid increasing tensions between the neighbours and added to doubts over a power-sharing deal between Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Botswana’s President Ian Khama is one of only a few African leaders to publicly criticise Mugabe.
He has called for new elections after Mugabe and Tsvangirai reached deadlock over posts in a shared administration.
MDC ‘plot’ to overthrow Mugabe
Zimbabwe’s Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the official Herald newspaper the government had evidence Botswana was giving military training to MDC members as part of a plot to remove Mugabe.
Zimbabwe’s opposition dismissed the accusations.
Botswana immediately denied the allegations and invited the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to send investigators to establish the whereabouts of the purported MDC camps.
”The Botswana government has said the allegations are false,” foreign affairs spokesperson Clifford Maribe said.
”Botswana has made its position very clear that it will never let its territory be used to launch attacks.”
Meanwhile Chinamasa said: ”Botswana has availed its territory, material and logistical support to the MDC for the recruitment and military training of youths for the eventual destabilisation of the country with a view of effecting illegal regime change.”
”We now have evidence that while they [MDC] were talking peace they have been preparing for war and insurgency, as well as soliciting the West to invade our country on the pretext of things like cholera,” said Chinamasa.
A cholera epidemic that has killed around 800 people and Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown have drawn new calls from Mugabe’s Western foes for the departure of the 84-year-old leader, who has ruled since independence in 1980.
Looking for an excuse
MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa dismissed Chinamasa’s charges, saying Mugabe was trying to distract attention from growing international pressure and looking for an excuse to crack down on the opposition.
”How do you overthrow a nonexisting government?” Chamisa asked.
”They are setting the stage for an unprecedented onslaught on the opposition. Each time ZANU-PF is cornered they come up with all sorts of concoctions and fabrications.”
Mugabe’s government says the cholera outbreak is a calculated attack by former colonial ruler United Kingdom and the United States, describing it as ”biological warfare” to create an excuse to mobilise military action against Zimbabwe.
Chinamasa said the evidence against Botswana was now being handled by the Southern African Development Community regional group, which has been trying to push Mugabe and Tsvangirai to implement their power-sharing deal.
Meanwhile Zimbabwean authorities on Monday vowed to block any efforts by the UK and US to put the country on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council, which held a closed-door meeting amid rising pressure on Mugabe to step down.
”You do not convene a UN Security Council meeting for a sovereign state without consulting that country,” Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu was quoted as saying by the Herald.
”We are not a threat. If they insist, we will work hard to block it with the assistance of our friends,” he said.
Last week US State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said Washington was talking to South Africa and other Security Council members about how to ”start a process that will bring an end to the tragedy that is unfolding in Zimbabwe”.
Several world leaders have called on Mugabe to leave office, including US President George Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. — Reuters, Sapa-AFP, Sapa-dpa