(HERALD) Envoys resist West’s attempts to put Zim on UN agenda
Envoys resist West’s attempts to put Zim on UN agendaHerald Reporters
BRITAIN and the United States were yesterday frantically trying to get Zimbabwe on the agenda of today’s United Nations Security Council meeting, but Zimbabwean and South African ambassadors to the UN said the efforts were futile because Zimbabwe’s elections were not an issue for the world body.
Western media reports yesterday said the US and Britain would raise Zimbabwe’s electoral issue at today’s Security Council meeting, but the Zimbabwean and South African diplomats said the elections were best handled by Sadc.
The move is calculated for the UN Security Council to pass a resolution and provide a basis for the US and Britain to use military intervention to topple President Mugabe.
Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to the UN, Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku, said Harare would not be on the Security Council agenda but it was aware Britain might try to smuggle it on the agenda.
In an interview with ZBC-News last night, Ambassador Chidyausiku said although the country would not be on the agenda, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown might want to use the just-ended Sadc summit to include it for discussion.
"Zimbabwe is not on the Security Council agenda that is starting tomorrow because it has not been invited, so it would not be on the agenda," said Ambassador Chidyausiku.
He said Zimbabwe was aware that Mr Brown would try to use the just-ended Sadc summit to include Zimbabwe on the agenda.
"They are trying to fly a kite, which we will not fly. What they are trying to do is Brown is coming and instead of focusing on the agenda, he is likely going to digress and ask about the presidential election results. He will forget that there is a due process in Zimbabwe and that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is a constitutional body which is independent. They will use the premises of the Sadc summit to say Sadc has asked you to do A, B, C, what have you done? Brown has no reason to argue about Zimbabwe," said Ambassador Chidyausiku.
"Zimbabwe became independent in 1980 and is no longer a colony of Britain and will never become one."
He said issues on the agenda include funding of peacekeeping missions being carried out in African countries like Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan, among others.
He said the missions were being under-funded and it was the obligation of the UN to fund the operations.
"Since we are doing peacekeeping missions on behalf of the UN, it should fund them," he said.
South Africa’s ambassador to the UN, Mr Dumisani
Kumalo, also rejected that Zimbabwe be discussed at the meeting, arguing that it was not on the agenda.
He said the Zimbabwean electoral matter was best handled by Sadc instead of the UN.
South Africa chairs the 15-member council this month and the meeting is meant to discuss security co-operation between the UN and the African Union.
Mr Benjamin Chang of the US mission to the UN told AFP that his country would highlight the Zimbabwean issue, mainly the delay in releasing presidential election results.
"We intend to highlight our concern for Zimbabwe. We will be raising Zimbabwe, among other issues," he was quoted as saying.
Diplomats also revealed that Mr Brown, whose government backs the MDC-T, was likely to bring up the Zimbabwean issue in his remarks to the council as well as in bilateral meetings with South African President Thabo Mbeki.
On Sunday, reports said Mr Brown was working on a behind-the-scenes plan to oust President Mugabe through the UN Security Council which he hopes to use to intervene in Zimbabwe militarily or through the deployment of peacekeeping troops.
Mr Brown said the world was running out of patience with Zimbabwe due to the delayed announcement of presidential election results, but President Mugabe scoffed at the British prime minister’s comments, describing him as "a tiny dot" in the world.
"If Brown is the world, sure the world is losing patience, but I know Brown to be a little tiny dot on this world," President Mugabe told reporters over the weekend in Harare soon after meeting Mr Mbeki.
Yesterday US President George W. Bush and UN Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-moon discussed Zimbabwe’s elections on the phone while British Foreign Secretary Mr David Miliband said the international community should play a role on Zimbabwe’s political scene ahead of the Security Council meeting.
The British have come out in the open that they were working closely with MDC-T to bring about regime change in Zimbabwe.
Stung by Mr Mbeki’s quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe, the Western media and MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai launched a scathing attack on the South African president, saying the policy was unpopular.
The Washington Post yesterday attacked Mr Mbeki for aligning with the Zimbabwean Government and distancing himself from Western influence.
Last week South Africa rejected Western calls to pressure President Mugabe to quit.
South Africa said Zimbabwe was a sovereign country and not a province of South Africa.
Over the weekend, Mr Mbeki told journalists in Harare that there was no crisis in Zimbabwe since the electoral process was being done in terms of the provisions of the Constitution.
In an interview with the private e-tv channel of South Africa, Tsvangirai claimed Mr Mbeki’s pronouncements were a "misrepresentation" of the situation in Zimbabwe.
Labels: SADC, UK, UN, USA, ZIMBABWE
posted by MrK @ 7:13 PM
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