Malawi summit eyes Zimbabwe

BLANTYRE, Malawi -- Southern African leaders are meeting in the Malawian business centre of Blantyre with turmoil in Zimbabwe and wars in the Congo and Angola top of the agenda.

While the crisis in Zimbabwe has adversely impacted on the regional economy, President Robert Mugabe is likely to escape censure at the 14-nation Southern African Development Community summit.

Zimbabwe's long-term leader has ordered a clampdown on the opposition and the media ahead of presidential elections in March.

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He has also condoned the often violent seizure of white-owned farms since early 2000, describing it as a justified response to the legacy of inequitable land ownership left by colonial rule.

Aziz Pahad, South Africa's deputy foreign minister, told reporters in Pretoria on Sunday there was no alternative to using "quiet diplomacy" to persuade Mugabe to restore the rule of law.

"Let's try at this very difficult time to assist, to take measures that will help us stabilise the situation," he said.

SADC leaders have previously ruled out sanctions against Zimbabwe.

Hopes of bolstering Congo's peace negotiations hit a snag even before the one-day summit got under way, when President Joseph Kabila declined to meet rebel groups who have been fighting to oust his government.

The leaders of the rebel groups, the Congolese Rally for Democracy and the Congolese Liberation Movement, were invited to Malawi by Mozambican President Joachim Chissano, who heads SADC's regional security body.

Kabila also objected to the leaders of Rwanda and Uganda -- which back the rebels -- attending the summit.

The presence of foreign troops in Congo was "an injustice that has to be solved sooner than later," and three previous SADC meetings had failed to ensure they left, Kabila said on Sunday. "I hope we will be successful this time around."

Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia also sent troops to back the Congolese government after war broke out in August 1998. A peace accord brokered in 1999 has been repeatedly violated.

Nevertheless, SADC leaders were encouraged that Congo's war seemed to finally be drawing to a close, said Justin Malewezi, the Vice President of Malawi, which chairs SADC.

Prospects for peace were considered slimmer in Angola, where a civil war, which began after the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975, has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced about 4 million others -- a third of the population. A four-year-old peace accord collapsed in 1998.

Despite U.N. sanctions, UNITA rebels are still selling diamonds to fund their effort to overthrow the government, Malewezi said.

"It is only when all loopholes for the sanctions busting are closed that UNITA's capacity to destabilise Angola will be decisively paralysed," he said.

"Let's try at this very difficult time to assist, to take measures that will help us stabilise the situation," he said.

Also on the summit's agenda are lectures by Harvard economics professor Jeffrey Sachs and Bono, the lead singer of the Irish rock band U2. The two will try and persuade the region's governments to spend more money fighting rampant AIDS and poverty.

SADC comprises South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Mauritius, Seychelles, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia.