PRESIDENT CHIRAC gave Robert Mugabe a red-carpet welcome to Paris yesterday, providing Africa’s most infamous dictator with an entire wing of a luxury hotel.

While French police arrested more than a dozen demonstrators protesting at Zimbabwe’s human rights abuses, Mr Mugabe’s wife, Grace, was given security guards and a limousine as she set out on what observers said was almost certainly a shopping trip.

“Mugabe should not be wined and dined at the Elysée Palace. He should be put on trial for the crime of torture,” Peter Tatchell, the British gay and human rights campaigner, said.

President Mugabe is among a number of brutal rulers invited to a France-Africa summit at a time when Jacques Chirac is also attempting to avert a war against Iraq. The French President invited the Zimbabwean leader despite a European Union travel ban, and the French authorities seemed to be doing all they could to pamper and protect him.

Demonstrators chanting “Mugabe, murderer”, were arrested after gathering outside the Plaza-Athénée hotel, where Mr Mugabe is staying. A BBC correspondent and three other journalists covering a demonstration outside the Zimbabwean Embassy were also detained for almost half an hour.

All the while, Mr and Mrs Mugabe and their entourage were enjoying the comforts of the luxurious Plaza-Athénée in the Avenue Montaigne at the expense of the French taxpayer.

The 33 rooms in the East Wing on the third floor were reserved for Mr Mugabe’s delegation, with French and Zimbabwean security guards keeping other guests away. The price per night ranges from €520 (£350) for a single room to €4,250 for the presidential suite, with breakfast costing between €33 and €45.

On the ground floor, a burly Zimbabwean security officer was sitting beside a young French woman playing the theme from Chariots of Fire on a harp. At the end of a corridor lit by chandeliers is one of the finest restaurants in Paris, run by the three-star chef Alain Ducasse, which serves dishes such as black truffles with potato marmelade at €110, pigeon filets at €70, and Breton lobster in a crusty tart for €110.

The Conservative MP Alan Duncan said: “France’s invitation to Mugabe is a moral outrage. While he is starving his own people, he’s going to stuff himself at sumptuous banquets in Paris.”

The most prestigious French limousines had been laid on: a Renault Avantime, a Renault Vel Satis and a Peugeot 607. In the morning, Mr and Mrs Mugabe walked into the hotel surrounded by a scrum of security guards. A few hours later Mrs Mugabe came out, bedecked in jewellery, and was shepherded into a waiting limousine by guards.

Officials refused to say where she was going, but she is known to have a penchant for the Parisian equivalent of Harrods, Les Galaries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussman.

Earlier Mr Tatchell had attempted to lead a demonstration against Mr Mugabe outside the Justice Ministry in Paris. Riot police moved in to push protesters away.

Mr Tatchell also filed a lawsuit demanding Mr Mugabe’s arrest for torture, although it has almost no chance of being upheld by French justice.

Today Mr Mugabe will participate in the first plenary session of the two-day summit that brings the French President together with his African counterparts. The Zimbabwean leader will be wined and dined at the Elysée Palace, along with dictators such as Denis Sassou Nguesso, of Congo, and Ange-Felix Potasse, of the Central African Republic.

Mr Mugabe should have been prevented from attending the summit, since he is among 70 members of the Zimbabwean leadership subject to a travel ban under EU sanctions which expired on Tuesday. M Chirac agreed to renew them only on condition that he could invite Mr Mugabe to this summit.

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