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Southern African Development Community Allies with Mugabe Government in Zimbabwe; Albright and Tutu Say Now is Not the Time for “Silent Diplomacy”
March 30, 2007
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CNN is reporting that Southern African leaders have left an emergency summit of the SADC “allied” with President Mugabe in Zimbabwe, following ongoing violence against opposition groups in his country. The SADC called for all economic sanctions against Zimbabwe to be lifted, and have issued a joint communiqué that “reaffirmed the group’s solidarity with Zimbabwe’s government and people…” The summit came a day after government forces raided the offices of main opposition groups, detaining “about 10 MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) staff and officials.”
On the day of the SADC summit former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright and Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu issued a joint editorial in the Washington Post urging on the SADC and African Union to “raise their voice,” arguing that “this is not the time for silent diplomacy.” Albright and Tutu call on “global and regional organizations and individual governments (to) make it known their support for human rights and democratic practices in that country (Zimbabwe)…” They go on to say that “we should make clear our support for the standards enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
References:
CNN: Summit ends with African leaders siding with Mugabe
Washington Post: A Cry for Zimbabwe (Madeline Albright and Desmond Tutu)
For more detailed information on the situation in Zimbabwe and extensive news coverage visit CCD’s Zimbabwe “Country Watch.”
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