 A group of 14 African nations yesterday raised the stakes ahead of next weekÂ’s EU-Africa summit by threatening to pull out unless European leaders agreed not to single out Zimbabwe for criticism. Officials in Brussels, however, said there was no way that President Mugabe could escape a lecture on the dire straits of his countrymen if he turned up to the meeting in Lisbon.
| This says a lot more about the 14 African nations than it does about the EU. |
The threat from the Southern African Development Community was last night seen in Brussels as a provocative attempt to influence the agenda being drawn up by the Portuguese hosts, and certain to put Africa at loggerheads with the EU. The SADC threat escalated the presummit row over Mr MugabeÂ’s attendance which has already seen Gordon Brown confirm his own boycott of the summit, a move followed by Mirek Topolanek, the Czech Prime Minister.
Tomaz Salomao, executive secretary of the SADC, said that its 14 members including South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania as well as Zimbabwe, would pull out if Zimbabwe was on the agenda. “SADC will not go to Lisbon to discuss Zimbabwe because the summit is not about Zimbabwe, but about relations between the EU and Africa,” he said.
| Those relations appear to be characterized by quite a bit of misplaced arrogance on one side and quite a bit of misplaced humility on the other. |
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