South African President presses need to resolve crises in Zimbabwe, Sudan
WASHINGTON, June 10 (AFP) — Ahead of talks with G8 leaders, South African President Thabo Mbeki called Wednesday for greater urgency in resolving two of the most pressing crises in the African continent — in Zimbabwe and Sudan.
He lamented that formal talks between Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had not started despite prolonged informal negotiations to resolve the nation’s political and economic crisis.
Mbeki said time was also running out in Sudan’s crisis-stricken western Darfur region, where there was an urgent need to rush in humanitarian aid to about one million displaced people before the rainy season sets in.
The two issues were expected to be among a host of subjects to be discussed by leaders of the the Group of Eight industrialized nations of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States and six African leaders on Thursday.
The meeting with the leaders Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda will be at the Sea Island resort off the southern US state of Georgia.
This is the third time the G8 leaders are meeting their African counterparts to help them overcome their problems.
Asked at a political forum in Washington to comment on the crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe, Mbeki said he felt that Mugabe and Tsvangirai had not been moving quickly enough to set aside their differences and tackle the massive crisis gripping their country.
“In my view, they are moving too slowly,” said Mbeki, among those involved in mediating Zimbabwe’s crisis. “That’s my view.”
Amid the prolonged political crisis, Zimbabweans, 70 percent of whom are said to live in poverty, are reeling under severe hardships with runaway inflation, high unemployment and critical shortages of food, medicine and fuel.
Mugabe has come under increased isolation including sanctions from the United States, Britain and the EU for alleged human rights abuses and undemocratic practices.
His government unveiled plans this week to cancel titles to all productive land and replace them with 99-year leases under a massive nationalization scheme — an extension of Zimbabwe’s highly controversial land reform program that has seen the seizure of white-owned farms and their handover to blacks.
Mbeki said the deteriorating situation in Sudan needed the urgent attention of G8 leaders, particularly in providing humanitarian aid to some one million people displaced by the 15-month conflict in Darfur.
Mbeki said that South Africa had sent military observers to help in resolving the conflict there so that the displaced could receive food supplies.
“It is important to respond very quickly … Once rain comes in the underdeveloped area, the people will become inaccessible,” he warned.
Aid workers charge that Khartoum has hampered access to displaced people in Darfur, slowed the delivery of relief supplies and militarily backed Janjawid Arab militiamen who have staged murderous raids on villagers and are widely accused of atrocities.
At least 10,000 people have died and 130,000 others fled across the border into Chad since rebels launched an uprising in Darfur in February 2003 and were met with fierce retaliation by government and Janjawid forces.