Mugabe shrugs off Brown boycott

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Mugabe shrugs off Brown boycott

President Robert Mugabe will defy Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s boycott threat if invited to attend an Europe-Africa summit, says Zimbabwe’s UN Ambassador.Boniface Chidyausiku said Mr Brown had «no right to dictate» who should be at the meeting in Portugal in December.

It follows Mr Brown’s threat that he will not attend the summit of African and EU leaders if Mr Mugabe is there.

He claims Mr Mugabe’s presence will «divert attention» from big issues such as poverty, climate change and health.

But Mr Chidyausiku accused Mr Brown of seeking to «multilateralise» an argument between the UK and Zimbabwe.

‘Part of Africa’

In an interview with BBC2’s Newsnight, Mr Chidyausiku said Mr Mugabe had a «sovereign right» to attend.

Mugabe’s problem is not that he could «divert attention» but that he is abusing Human Rights throughout his country, Zimbabwe. But, of course, no one of these EU politicians would say anything of the sort…