The British government has made it perfectly clear that Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not attend a European Union – African summit meeting if Robert Mugabe is invited. This is a clear stand against the disaster that Mugabe has brought down on Zimbabwe.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband made London's position clear on Friday during an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in the northern Portuguese town of Viana do Castelo.
"He told them that the PM would not be there if Mugabe goes," a source close to the closed-door talks said.
Miliband contented himself Saturday by saying: "I don't think anyone wants to be part of a media circus in December," when the summit will be held in Lisbon.
"There is serious work to be done and that is what we are focussing on," he said before joining his fellow foreign ministers for a group photo.
"I think we all want a successful summit, but we are also very, very concerned about the situation in Zimbabwe," Miliband added, pointing out that the Zimbabwean currency had been devalued by 1,200 percent on Thursday.
A senior British official told AFP that "it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which the British prime minister and other EU leaders will attend a summit at which Mugabe is present."
Food is running out in Zimbabwe and only donations from other countries are keeping the masses fed – but even that is not enough:
HARARE (AFP) – The number of people facing serious food shortages in Zimbabwe is expected to grow to 4.1 million over the first quarter of next year, the Canadian ambassador to the African country said on Wednesday.
"This figure is expected to increase dramatically in the coming months due to a combination of factors, including poor harvests and the prevailing difficult economic situation," Roxanne Dube said at a ceremony where Canada donated 3.5 million Canadian dollars (3.3 US million dollars (2.4 million euros) to the World Food Programme (WFP) to be used to feed starving Zimbabweans.
Dube, who said she has travelled around Zimbabwe over the past two years, said that the food situation in the crisis-hit country was dire.
"I have seen dry and bare fields, empty stores and abandoned farming equipment. It is a very saddening situation, especially when I hear from Zimbabweans how difficult it is for them to feed their families and make ends meet," she said.
Zimbabwe used to be the breadbasket of Africa. Now they are starving. Gordon Brown is doing the right thing.
