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August 15, 2008

Botswanan President Will Boycott Regional Summit Over Mugabe Attendance
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Foreign Ministry statement says country does not accept result of June
election that returned Robert Mugabe to power 
Robert Mugabe addresses gathering on Heroes' day in Harare, 11 Aug
2008Botswana says President Seretse Khama Ian Khama will boycott a
regional summit Saturday because Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
plans to attend. In a statement Friday, Botswana's Foreign Ministry says
the country does not accept the result of the June election that
returned Mr. Mugabe to power. It said the Mugabe government should not
be represented at any political level of the 14-nation Southern African
Development Community. African leaders have been putting pressure on Mr.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
to reach a power-sharing deal. The sides are due to resume negotiations
on the sidelines of the SADC summit in Johannesburg on Saturday. Mr.
Mugabe was declared the winner of a June 27 runoff election that
international observers dismissed as a sham. Opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai pulled out of the poll, citing state-sponsored attacks
against his supporters. Tsvangirai held power-sharing talks this week
with President Mugabe, but three days of negotiations failed to produce
a deal. On Thursday, Zimbabwean authorities briefly confiscated
Tsvangirai's passport, as he prepared to fly to South Africa. The
passport was returned to Tsvangirai a few hours later. In another
development Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on
Zimbabwe's government to lift restrictions on the delivery of
humanitarian aid to avert what he called a "catastrophic humanitarian
crisis."He said only 280,000 out of 1.5 million Zimbabweans in need have
been able to receive aid.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.


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