Maravi

Chissano encourages dialogue in Zimbabwe

Chissano encourages dialogue in Zimbabwe
By Kabanda Chulu and Noel Sichalwe
Saturday August 02, 2008 [04:00]

FORMER Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano has said Zimbabweans should be encouraged to follow the path of dialogue they have undertaken. And head of Sudanese General National Council for Strategic Planning (GNCSP) Dr Tagelsir Ali said Africa has to stand against the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

In an interview in Lusaka, on the sidelines of the just-ended Global Southern Africa Smart Partnership Conference, Chissano said there was need to encourage Zimbabweans to care for peace and unity.

"We should attempt to help them come closer to each other because Zimbabweans can and will find solutions to their problems.

And when looking at the levels of violence, I was astonished to see the quick signing of the MoU but this shows that a solution is in sight," Chissano said. "We should encourage Zimbabweans to care for peace and unity and on this basis, problems will be solved and conflicts will not occur again."

He said former presidents could not just jump on resolving conflicts without being consulted.

"We only come when we are requested like we did in Congo and Kenya with favourable results and through our association, we are ready to give advice in conflicts and consolidation of peace," he said.

On the ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who has sought an arrest warrant against President al-Bashir on charges including genocide and war crimes in Darfur, Chissano urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to ensure that the arrest does not culminate in more bloodshed.

He said the ICC was an independent court, which should carry out its operations without interference.

However, Chissano said the challenge lies in how to implement the court's decision to arrest President Al-Bashir without worsening the situation.

"Naturally, the only way to effect an indictment is to arrest the suspect and in this case, President Al-Bashir, is surrounded by people who will do anything to protect him hence there will be bloodshed that might even cause more deaths than the ones President Al-Bashir is accused of doing," President Chissano said.

"So we appeal to the ICC to ensure that measures are in place that must not worsen or culminate in more bloodshed."

On the just-ended Smart Partnership Dialogue, President Chissano said there has been a major transformation since the inception of the Smart Partnership dialogue conferences.

"There is diversification on a number of issues and also the quality of debate is high and the discussions are very live with most participants showing keen interest," said President Chissano.

"But our shortcomings lie in lack of evaluating and consolidating the ideas discussed at previous conferences and I am glad that this matter will be given consideration at this year's event."

And Dr Ali said people had now realised why the ICC wanted to arrest President Al-Bashir.

"If this thing succeeds in Sudan, then every leader in Third World countries will have to accept a similar thing. Africa should be on the lookout for this because every leader could be subjected to the same treatment.

This will not be allowed because it is affecting the sovereignty of the country. We feel that we have got to stand against this and the West don't have any right," he said.

"At this point, the entire country and everyone who was against the President has unified behind him. We will absolutely in no way allow this.

The ultimatum is behind us. All the international organisations have visited Sudan and even the envoy of United States said there is nothing of that sort on the ground. They all give positive results."
Dr Ali said anything that happened in Sudan had an effect on the entire African continent.

He said Sudan would therefore, like to contribute to the stability of the entire African continent.

Dr Ali said the fight in Darfur was not racial or religious but that the whole issue started as a conflict of land and eventually spread into different groups.

"We put an end to the 20 years of war and now people are enjoying peace and not a single bullet has been fired after the peace agreement.

There is no going back to any war of any kind," he said.
Dr Ali said anybody that visited Sudan with a particular agenda always found what they wanted in order to confirm their suspicions ranging from failure to respect human rights, infringing on press freedom and failing to observe democratic tenets.

He said Sudan was concerned of how it would make use of oil revenues to develop other sectors like the growth of the agricultural sector.

"The most important thing is integration," he said. "If we sit together and say what we can contribute and put our strengths together, all these problems can be solved. It requires political will.

That is why I think about the need for African vision. We should ask questions like where does Africa want to go, where is it and where is it going?"

On the Smart Partnership conference, Dr Ali said the conference was successful because they dealt with issues of national visions and sustainability of economic development.

He said there was good exchange of opinions and ideas from different countries and they discussed the challenges that needed to be addressed to ensure economic development and food security.
Dr Ali said the conference was very valuable as most of the issues affecting Africa were dealt with including poverty eradication.

Labels: GNCSP, JOACHIM CHISANO, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 4:17 PM