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No Censure of Mugabe

Africa Opens Door to 'Zimbabwean Way'

By our correspondents

The West had been hoping that the African Union summit in Egypt would result in a clear condemnation of Zimbabwe's election farce. Instead, the closing paper made a meek call for Robert Mugabe to work together with the opposition. That, though, is unlikely to happen.

By late afternoon on Tuesday, the despot from Harare had had enough. The evening before, British reporters had bombarded Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe with uncomfortable questions about the election farce last Friday. How, they wanted to know, could he reinstate himself as president after violently forcing his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai out of the race?

Instead, it was the turn of Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba to face the press, gathered in Sharm El-Sheik for an African Union summit. The mouthpiece angrily brushed aside all of the concerns and appeals from the West. "They can go and hang a thousand times," he blurted out. "They have no basis, they have no claim on Zimbabwean politics at all."

As Charamba was speaking, Tsvangirai was leaving the Dutch Embassy in Harare, where he had taken shelter last week after Mugabe's henchmen began closing in on him. Tsvangirai once again appealed to African leaders not to recognize the Friday election results which saw Mugabe end up with 85 percent.

The appeal went unheard -- and once again demonstrated the deep divisions present in Africa among the continent's political elite. The 53 African leaders gathered in the Egyptian resort town didn't even come close to finding consensus on how to deal with the continent's despots. Mugabe was clearly the focus of the two-day gathering. Some were demanding that Zimbabwe be clearly censured and that sanctions be levied against the country, a position the West has clearly adopted. But others preached African solidarity in honor of Mugabe's role in freeing Zimbabwe from Western colonialism.

'Not Obliged to Obey Orders from Overseas'

President Ernest Bai Koroma from Sierra Leone was one of those demanding that Zimbabwe be isolated. "The people of Zimbabwe have been denied their democratic rights," he said. "We should, in no uncertain terms, condemn what has happened." Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, speaking from Nairobi, said that Mugabe should be deposed and peace-keepers sent in to guarantee free and fair elections. "The African Union should not accept or entertain Mr. Mugabe," he told reporters.

But there are many who disagree. Gabon's President Omar Bongo, Africa's longest-serving head of state, said "he was elected, he took an oath, and he is here with us, so he is president." He went on to say, "I can certainly tell you that we are not obliged to obey orders from overseas."

For many, though, silence was the preferred response to the crisis. Egyptian host Hosni Mubarak, for example, went down a long list of crises facing the continent during his welcoming address -- from Chad to Sudan, from Somalia to the border between Djibouti and Eritrea. But he didn't mention Zimbabwe once.

Mubarak's omission is partly the expression of a leadership philosophy that unites a number of long-serving African leaders, including Libya's Moammar Gadhafi and Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni. It is a philosophy which rejects all outside influence when it comes to how they lead their own countries. Gadhafi was quite open about how he sees things during a visit this spring to Uganda: Museveni's party must make sure, he said, "that such good leaders like the Museveni brothers aren't toppled from power just because of something like a vote."

The Zimbabwean Way

Similar messages have been heard repeatedly this week, with Zimbabwe spokesman Charamba only the most strident. South African President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday rejected European Union pressure and said any solution must come from Africa and be acceptable to Zimbabwe.

Nevertheless, the European Union is considering upping the pressure on Harare. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner repeated on Tuesday that the EU was looking into imposing additional sanctions on Zimbabwe. Indeed, companies doing business in the country have already come under pressure to withdraw. On Tuesday afternoon, the Munich-based company Giesecke & Devrient, which provides special paper to Zimbabwe's central bank for the printing of banknotes, ceased deliveries.

Kouchner on Tuesday also said that any future government in Zimbabwe must be under the leadership of Tsvangirai.

Kouchner was referring to the weak formulation on Zimbabwe that the African Union did manage to agree on. In the closing document, Mugabe was urged to seek out talks with the opposition and work towards a national unity government. It is a proposal that South African President Thabo Mbeki has long been advocating, and on Wednesday, the US expressed its support for such a solution. Even Mugabe, despite previously rejecting such an idea, claimed on Wednesday to be ready for talks with Tsvangarai.

Still, it is likely a proposal that will lead nowhere. Even as Kenya managed to solve its recent crisis by pairing President Mwai Kibaki with opposition leader Raila Odinga, a similar coalition in Zimbabwe seems unlikely in the extreme. Mugabe's spokesman Charamba said as much in Sharm El-Sheik on Tuesday. Kenya, he said, is certainly not a precedent for Zimbabwe. "The way out is a way defined by the Zimbabwean people," he insisted. "Kenya is Kenya. Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe. We have our own history of evolving dialogue and resolving political impasses the Zimbabwean way."

After the last few weeks, the Zimbabwean way has become clear to all.