Posted on 06/11/2003 5:28:25 AM PDT by Clive
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe had "spat in President Thabo Mbeki's face" by arresting opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and secretary-general Welshman Ncube.
Speaking in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said Mbeki had either misled himself or he was misleading the country with his recent statement that Zimbabwe's government and opposition were engaging in dialogue.
Leon noted that Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change had denied Mbeki's assertion that they were talking, despite the turmoil in that country.
"And yet the president told parliament 'they are having a dialogue'. Either he was misled, or he was misleading the South African public."
Leon said Mugabe had launched a "decapitation strike" against the MDC leadership, just as the apartheid government used to do when faced with mass protests.
The DA leader repeated his calls on the South African government to introduce a "road map to democracy" in Zimbabwe, similar to the latest version of a peace plan for the Middle East.
Mbeki last week shrugged off opposition charges that the government's "quiet diplomacy" strategy had failed to influence Mugabe, suggesting instead that he (Mbeki) remained optimistic about a negotiated solution.
"The Zimbabweans are talking to one another, they are negotiating, and I'm quite certain that out of that process will come an agreement that will take the country forward."
I wonder what Mbeki is smoking.
The "talking to one another" consists of a general strike on the part of the people, and arrests, thuggery, killings and rape on the part of the government.
While South America takes up and follows suit.
That would have been an improvement on the farce presently passing for diplomacy and advocacy for human rights by that useless Mbeki.
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