10 April 2005 Sunday 30 Safar 1426 Blair refused to sit beside Mugabe, says daily HARARE, April 9: A British newspaper said on Saturday that Prime Minister Tony Blair left his designated seat at the funeral of Pope John Paul after learning that he would be sitting next to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. The Herald quoted unnamed sources who said Mr Blair, wife Cherie and opposition leader Michael Howard all left their seats when they saw Mr Mugabe coming to take a seat next to Mr Blair. “Blair is said to have fled his seat, saying he could not sit next to President Mugabe,” the paper reported in its main front page story. Mr Mugabe and Mr Blair have had frosty relations for years, with the African leader accusing Mr Blair of backing the opposition party in Zimbabwe. Mr Mugabe has described the country’s main opposition party as the British prime minister’s ‘puppet’. The newspaper story followed an outcry over the handshake between Prince Charles and Mr Mugabe at the funeral. The handshake triggered embarrassment in Britain, prompting the royal household to issue a statement saying the prince was caught by surprise and was not in a position to avoid shaking Mr Mugabe’s hand. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, too, was called to task last year for inadvertently shaking Mr Mugabe’s hand at the United Nations. The Herald said President Mugabe had a chat with the heir to the British throne recalling his visit in 1980, when he represented Queen Elizabeth at Zimbabwe’s independence celebrations. The EU imposed travel sanctions on Zimbabwean government officials after accusations of vote rigging in Zimbabwe’s parliamentary polls in 2000 and in Mr Mugabe’s re-election two years later. Robert Mugabe, a Roman Catholic, defied the ban to attend the funeral at the Vatican, which is not part of the EU. —Reuters

© The DAWN Group of Newspapers, 2005