Kenyan Paper Welcomes Regional Leaders’ Summit on Zimbabwe

Text of editorial entitled “Zimbabwe’s situation needs urgent attention” published by Kenyan privately-owned daily newspaper The People on 13 April

The decision to call an emergency meeting of the regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting to deliberate on the situation in Zimbabwe was a welcome development coming against the backdrop of accusations that the bloc has been reluctant to stand up against President Robert Mugabe.

However, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa only chose to call the summit two weeks after the elections in Zimbabwe and at a time when the prospect of violence was heightening.

Indeed, even with sustained pressure from Western powers and regional human rights and church groups that the elections of the presidential poll be released, no regional leader has come out to put pressure on Mugabe, who is believed to have lost the election, to facilitate their quick release.

It was saddening when South African President Thabo Mbeki emerged from a meeting with Mugabe yesterday to declare the situation in Zimbabwe was not a crisis.

According to him, it was part of the electoral process in that country and the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) should be given time to release the results.

What Mbeki did not tell is why the delay has now passed the two- week timeline yet results were, for the first time, tabulated at polling stations and announced.

The fact is that Mugabe is not willing to allow ZEC to announce the results, which is a clear indication that he lost and is only buying time as he works out counter strategies.

It is the same reason he went back on his plan to attend the Lusaka summit where the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Morgan Tsvangirai was also in attendance because he knew he would be under pressure to resolve the stalemate.

In fact, his foreign affairs secretary Joey Bimha was quoted as calling the summit “unnecessary” because the country’s electoral commission was still collating vote results.

Instead, Mugabe sent three hard-line ministers from his outgoing cabinet, a move considered a major snub to his regional counterparts.

In such a context, it is imperative for the regional leaders and, indeed, the entire international community to realize that it would take much more for a solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe to be resolved.

Some have suggested the need for a reputable mediator such as Kofi Annan, who brokered a peace deal in Kenya’s own crisis, if a potentially disastrous eruption of violence is to be avoided.

In such scenario handling Mugabe with gloves as in Mbeki’s case will not do.

Originally published by The People, Nairobi, in English 13 Apr 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Africa. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.