The Sunday Telegraph
23rd September 2007
By Stephen Bevan
Zimbabwe’s already fractured opposition is further divided over the wisdom of Gordon Brown’s threat to boycott the forthcoming European Union Africa summit if Robert Mugabe attends.
Some said it played into the hands of the Zimbabwean president, as he would portray himself as standing up to his country’s former colonial rulers.
Others welcomed any more pressure that could be brought to bear on the 83?year-old dictator, who has presided over two rigged elections, the brutal suppression of political opponents and the virtual collapse of the economy.
Zimbabwe is to be invited to the meeting, to be held in Portugal in December, along with other African countries, though it would be free to send a senior minister if Mr Mugabe chose not to attend.
Gabriel Chaibva, spokesman for Arthur Mutambara, leader of a breakaway faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, was scathing about Mr Brown’s statement. “If the British Prime Minister does not wish to go to the EU Africa summit because Mugabe will be there, then he needs to tell the world what is his alternative to solve the crisis in Zimbabwe,” he said.
“In any conflict, at the end of the day, there must be dialogue. I don’t know how Gordon Brown thinks his boycott will help resolve the crisis, and it will again buttress the view among African leaders that the British and Americans are always telling us what we can and can’t do.”
However, David Coltart, MP for Bulawayo South and a member of the Mutambara faction, said Mr Brown was right to take a stand as it would undermine Mr Mugabe’s standing with Zanu-PF colleagues. “For Mugabe to keep the support of his own party he has to show that European and Western resolve is weakening,” he said.