Mugabe begins controversial Paris visit

PH01

A good opportunity for a coup if there ever was one?

Mugabe begins controversial Paris visit

The President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has arrived in Paris for a Franco-African summit set to be dominated by his controversial presence because of his government's human rights record and by a war which has divided Ivory Coast in two.

Mugabe, who flew in from Harare, will join some 45 other African heads of state and government, French President Jacques Chirac and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for the summit being held on Thursday and Friday at a Paris conference center.

The European Union renewed year-old sanctions against Mugabe and his associates yesterday, but France successfully pressed for a waiver to have the Zimbabwean leader attend its 22nd biennial gathering with African leaders.

Chirac intends to place Africa at the top of France's foreign policy agenda, his aides said Tuesday, and will urge the international community to do more to bolster economic development initiatives.

The official theme of the summit is "Africa and France, together in a new partnership", but Chirac's contentious invitation to Mugabe and a threat of renewed fighting in Ivory Coast are burning issues.

Embattled Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo will be represented by his new prime minister.

The European Union slapped its visa ban on Mugabe, his wife Grace and 70 associates a year ago, preventing them from entering EU territory amid global outrage over Mugabe's repressive policies and dodgy human rights record.

Most at issue has been violence accompanying his land reform policy of expropriating land from white farmers and redistributing some of it to landless blacks in a bid to rectify massive ownership imbalances left as a legacy of British colonial rule.

Despite strong opposition from Britain, Chirac defended the invitation as a means to confront Mugabe face-to-face over the political and economic turmoil engulfing his southern African country.

Human rights groups vowed to protest throughout Mugabe's visit to Paris, with British activist Peter Tatchell set to ask a Paris court on Wednesday to issue a warrant for his arrest under French anti-torture law.

"It is outrageous that Mugabe is being invited to Paris given his regime's monstrous record of detention without trial, torture and murder," Tatchell said earlier this week.

Among the heads of state expected to attend the summit are Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and Morocco's King Mohammed VI.

More than 3,000 French police will be deployed to protect the visiting dignitaries and keep planned demonstrations under control.

AFP