Zimbabwe crisis threatens southern Africa: Cook

Ulhas Joglekar ulhasj at bom4.vsnl.net.in
Thu Apr 20 20:45:33 PDT 2000


Thursday 20 April 2000

Zimbabwe crisis threatens southern Africa BANGKOK, Thailand: Zimbabwe's descent into chaos threatens the stability of southern Africa, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook warned on Wednesday, but he rejected calls for sanctions against the regime of President Robert Mugabe. "Unless there was a return to the rule of law in Zimbabwe, the situation would continue to get worse and there would continue to be a descent into mob rule," Cook, in Thailand on an official visit, said he told U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday. Since Annan urged Mugabe to defuse the violence over land reform, Cook said, it appears that the government is willing to stick to the dialogue it already agreed to. Zimbabwe has agreed to send a delegation to London in eight days' time to discuss the crisis. At a news conference, Cook said he would speak with Annan again later Wednesday, as well as to Nigeria's foreign minister, who he said was in Zimbabwe as the envoy of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to try to ease the troubled situation. Cook told the British Broadcasting Corp. that other African countries must become involved if the crisis is to be resolved. "They are worried because if the situation in Zimbabwe continues to descend into chaos, then it will have a negative impact on their own countries, and possibly on the stability of the region," he said. Cook rejected calls by the opposition Conservative party to tighten the screws on Mugabe by cutting aid. He said he had spoken to the white farmers' leader in Zimbabwe and that it was not what they wanted. "If we beat Mugabe about the head, then he will beat them about the head," Cook said. (AP) For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
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