KINSHASA, Congo (Reuters) — African leaders will step up calls on Monday for an end to Western sanctions against Zimbabwe and will urge South Africa to plead Zimbabwe’s cause within the Group of 20 industrial and emerging nations, officials said.
The countries of the Southern African Development Community will also press Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, and its prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, to end their long dispute over a power-sharing pact that was holding up vital foreign aid, the officials said.
“We are convinced that if sanctions are lifted, Zimbabwe, within the framework of its current political agreement, will have the possibility to move toward development,” said Foreign Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba of Congo.
“We will also ask South Africa, which is the only sub-Saharan African country that is a member of the G20, to plead for Zimbabwe’s cause,” said Mr. Mwamba, whose country is taking over the chairmanship of the development community and is hosting its summit meeting in Kinshasa starting Monday.
President Jacob Zuma of South Africa is being watched for signs he will take a tougher line toward Mr. Mugabe than did his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki. Mr. Mugabe has been the target of sanctions by the European Union and the United States, including a travel ban, based on accusations of rights abuses and vote-rigging.
Last month, Mr. Zuma called on the West to repeal the sanctions. But in what sounded like a stronger stance on Mr. Mugabe, he also stressed the need for respect for democracy and human rights.
A recovery in Zimbabwe’s battered economy is important for South Africa because millions of Zimbabweans have fled to neighboring South Africa in search of work. Zimbabwe says it needs $10 billion in foreign reconstruction aid, but Western nations are reluctant to release aid without political and economic reforms.
Mr. Mugabe and Mr. Tsvangirai, longtime foes, formed a power-sharing government in February as part of a deal, backed by the regional development community, to end a political crisis that followed disputed elections last year.
The agreement called for Mr. Tsvangirai to condemn the sanctions and call for them to be dropped, as the development community’s 15 member countries have pledged to do.
