A group of 14 African nations raised the stakes yesterday before next week’s EU-Africa summit by threatening to pull out unless European leaders agreed not to single out Zimbabwe for criticism. Officials in Brussels, however, said there was no way that President Mugabe could escape a lecture on the dire straits of his countrymen if he turned up to the meeting in Lisbon.

The threat from the Southern African Development Community was seen last night in Brussels as a provocative attempt to influence the agenda being drawn up by the Portuguese hosts and certain to put Africa at loggerheads with the EU.

The SADC threat heightened the pre-summit row over Mr Mugabe’s attendance which has already meant Gordon Brown confirming his own boycott of the summit, a move followed by Mirek Topolanek, the Czech Prime Minister. Tomaz Salomão, executive secretary of the SADC, said that its 14 members including South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania as well as Zimbabwe, would pull out if Zimbabwe was on the agenda.

“SADC will not go to Lisbon to discuss Zimbabwe because the summit is not about Zimbabwe, but about relations between the EU and Africa,” he said.

But while neither Zimbabwe nor any other country is expected to be listed as a separate agenda item, “governance and human rights” is one of five areas for discussion at the two-day gathering. A discussion of human rights is also a precondition for lifting Mr Mugabe’s EU travel ban to allow him to go in the first place.

The agenda for the December 8-9 summit was still being drawn up but several countries are determined not to let Mr Mugabe off the hook because of sabre-rattling by his neighbours. “We want to address the horrible track record of Zimbabwe,” one EU diplomat told The Times.

The Portuguese are planning to have one lead speaker on the subject of governance and human rights, who may be José Socrates, the Prime Minister. Other leaders will then be able to make brief observations.

The EU diplomat added: “We want to raise Sudan and there is a terrible situation in Somalia that is deteriorating. However, Zimbabwe is also a very important issue which will have to be addressed.

“Undoubtedly Mr Mugabe will try to get all the attention but if that is the price we pay, so be it.”

Repeated attempts to convene the summit since it was last held in 2000 in Cairo have all collapsed over the question of Mr Mugabe’s presence.

— Zimbabwe background in depth timesonline.co.uk/zimbabwe3

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