THE African Union called last night for a national unity government in Zimbabwe, summit delegates said, after the widely condemned re-election of President Robert Mugabe in a poll scarred by violence.
The pan-African body, which had been divided over what to do about Zimbabwe, adopted the resolution after Botswana called for the AU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to bar Mugabe.
It was the toughest public statement from one
of Zimbabwe's neighbours since Mugabe was sworn in on Sunday following a one-candidate election condemned by monitors as violent and unfair.
Botswana's vice-president, Mompati Merafhe, said: "In our considered view... the representatives of the current government in Zimbabwe should be excluded from attending SADC and African Union meetings."
Botswana said Mugabe's participation in African meetings "would give unqualified legitimacy to a process which cannot be considered legitimate."
It said the government and opposition must be treated as equal in any mediation.
Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime minister, has also called for Mugabe, 84, to be suspended from the African Union after an election which extended the veteran leader's 28-year rule.
The Botswana statement underlined the deep rifts both within Africa as a whole and among Zimbabwe's neighbours.
South Africa, the designated mediator in Zimbabwe, has resisted open condemnation of Mugabe. The AU summit in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh has been dominated by the deepening crisis in Zimbabwe, where a once-prosperous economy is racked by the world's worst hyper-inflation.
Mugabe, 84, addressed the final session of the two-day summit, senior delegates said.
His spokesman, George Charamba, earlier sounded resistant to proposals to share power. He insisted the leader would not step down.
"He's a few days into office and you expect him to retire, do you? ... Five days have expired, not even a week after. ... Why is the issue of the retirement of the president of Zimbabwe such an obsession for the West?"
He said Zimbabwe's ruling party had offered dialogue to the opposition, but would not promise anything more.
Mr Charamba had harsh words for western pressure: "They can go hang. They can go and hang a thousand times."
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the poll because of the violence, which he said had killed 86 of his supporters in the Movement for Democratic Change.
Delegates said leaders had been divided between those wanting a strong statement on Zimbabwe and those reluctant to censure Mugabe publicly.
The full article contains 417 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
