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PARIS, Jan 23: France confirmed on Thursday it had invited Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to an African summit next month, but said the Paris visit would not contravene a European Union travel ban on the African leader.
The summit invitation has played badly in Britain, which has attacked his government for its policy of seizing white-owned farms to distribute among landless blacks.
Mugabe was re-elected to a four-year term last March, in a poll condemned as fraudulent by many Western powers, including Britain and the United States.
The 15-nation European Union imposed sanctions on Harare after the election, accusing Mugabe of rigging the vote after he refused to allow European observers to work freely.
But if British Prime Minister Tony Blair objects to Mugabe’s Paris visit, he risks scuppering broader sanctions against the African leader.
Paris said provisions in the travel ban allowed for trips to conduct a political dialogue aimed at promoting democracy, the rule of law and human rights in Zimbabwe.
“We are in accord with the spirit of this common European position,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau told a news briefing.
“We respect the appropriate European procedures and it is in this context that we wanted to invite President Mugabe to take part in the France-Africa summit.”
Britain said it would formulate a response before European Union foreign ministers meet on Monday, when the travel ban will be discussed but appeared to be in no mood for a fight.
The EU slapped travel bans on Mugabe and his senior officials last year. But the restrictions will expire a day before the Paris conference.
Blair’s official spokesman signalled that Britain would not stand in the way of Mugabe’s visit if it risked threatening the extension of the overall sanctions regime for another year.
“We do have to bear in mind the importance of getting the sanctions rolled over,” the spokesman told reporters. “We want to get the sanctions rolled over.”
All 15 EU foreign ministers have to agree to that, giving France a potential veto if it wished to use it.
The 22nd Conference of the Heads of State of Africa and France is to take place in Paris from February 19-21. The broad forum allows France and African countries to nurture ties.
Mugabe’s office declined comment on the Paris summit on Thursday but Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change said it would be “like inviting (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein to the G8 summit” of top industrialised nations.
EU GREEN LIGHT: France must get approval from all 14 of its European Union partners for a visit to Paris by Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe next month, EU diplomats said on Thursday in Brussels.
Unanimous approval is needed to allow an EU visa ban against Zimbabwean officials to be waived to allow Mugabe to attend a Franco-Africa summit in the French capital on February 20-21, the diplomats said.
At a meeting of EU ambassadors this week that tackled the visa issue, only Sweden reserved judgment on whether to allow Mugabe to attend the Paris summit, three EU diplomats said.
“As far as I know there hasn’t been a ministerial decision by us, but clearly in principle we don’t think that Mugabe should be in Europe,” the Brussels-based diplomat said.
EU foreign ministers are to meet in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday to discuss renewing the sanctions against Zimbabwe, where millions of people are facing food shortages as well as spiralling inflation and unemployment.
There is little doubt that the sanctions will be extended for another 12 months, the EU diplomats said.
THREE MILLION EUROS: The French government has extended a three million euros (dollars) grant to help feed some of nearly eight million famished Zimbabweans.
The donation is part of a 13.1 million euro package earmarked for countries in southern Africa that are threatened by famine, the French embassy in Harare said in a statement on Thursday.
The aid was being channelled through the UN agency world Food Programme (WFP).
Emergency food aid has been required in most of the southern African country’s 55 districts since last year due to widespread crop failures caused by poor rains and other factors.—AFP
