Southern Africa leaders start Zimbabwe summit

Southern African nations began an emergency summit on Zimbabwe's election deadlock yesterday but South Africa's Thabo Mbeki said there was no crisis.

Zambia, which called the meeting of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), expressed concern about the situation in its neighbour, where a long delay in issuing presidential poll results has raised fears of violence.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe did not attend the summit. "This summit should focus on helping Zimbabwe to find an answer that genuinely reflects the mood of the people," said SADC chairman and Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa in his opening remarks.

"SADC can no longer continue to stand by and do nothing when one of its members is experiencing political and economic difficulties."

President Mbeki, the most powerful leader at the summit, advocates 'quiet diplomacy' in Zimbabwe and seemed not to share the regional and international concern over the impasse.

"I wouldn't describe that as a crisis. It's a normal electoral process in Zimbabwe. We have to wait for ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) to release (the results)," Mbeki told reporters after meeting Mugabe for an hour.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition won a parliamentary election on March 29 and says its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, also won a presidential poll on the same day.

But no results of that election have been released, stoking tension and MDC charges that Mugabe is planning a violent campaign to reverse the biggest setback of his 28-year rule.

The MDC has gone to court to try to force the ZEC to release the results and a judge has promised a verdict for tomorrow.

Many Zimbabweans had hoped the vote would begin their recovery from economic collapse, marked by the world's worst rate of hyper-inflation at more than 100,000 per cent. Mwanawasa said in his speech: "This summit is not intended to put his excellency, Robert Mugabe, in the dock. In fact it would be un-African to even make such a suggestion."

Mugabe, aged 84 and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, said he was not snubbing the summit, which three government ministers will attend.

"He (Mbeki) is going to the summit, I'm not ...We're very good friends, very good brothers. But sometimes we also have other business that holds us back."

He dismissed comments by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that the world was losing patience.

Mbeki met Tsvangirai on Thursday but no details of their talks were revealed.

Tsvangirai earlier met Jacob Zuma, who ousted Mbeki as leader of the ruling African National Congress in December and now rivals him as South Africa's most powerful man. Zuma joined the chorus calling for results to be released.

Tsvangirai has been invited to Lusaka. "No decision can be made without hearing both sides since there is a stalemate," Pande said.

MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti said the party would tell the summit to be tough with Mugabe, still regarded as a liberation-era hero by many Africans. SADC has long been regarded as toothless in its response to Mugabe, despite the meltdown of Zimbabwe's economy, which has impacted the whole region. Mbeki led an unsuccessful SADC mediation attempt last year.

An estimated one-quarter of the population has fled Zimbabwe, many to South Africa and other neighbouring nations, to escape chronic shortages of food and fuel, 80 per cent unemployment and a virtually worthless currency.

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Friday that Zimbabwe "now stands on the brink".