Save Zimbabwe coalition urge Europe to work with African institutions on Zimbabwe By Violet Gonda 22 June 2007

A delegation of political, civic and church leaders is winding up a tour of Europe as part of an initiative to engage the international community on the situation in Zimbabwe. The group, working under the Save Zimbabwe Campaign banner, includes MDC leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Professor Arthur Mutambara, ZAPU leader Paul Siwela, National Constitutional Assembly Chairman Dr. Lovemore Madhuku and leader of the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance Bishop Levee Kadenge.
Dr Madhuku said the group held joint meetings with European leaders to also demonstrate that they are a united group of people who are fighting for democratic reforms and lobbying international opinion in relation to elections due to be held next year.
However the Mugabe regime has accused the group of acting in bad faith and "launching an anti-Zimbabwe campaign in Europe,” but Madhuku dismissed this saying this is a pro-Zimbabwean campaign not just in Europe but worldwide. The leaders are expected to return to Zimbabwe this weekend where plans would be made to tour parts of Africa and North America.
Dr Madhuku said: “Each part of the world has a specific role to play. Africa has its role, which is more or less to take a prominent role in advocating for reforms in Zimbabwe. Europe has its own role – it will have to play an important role in mobilizing resources for reconstruction when change takes place in Zimbabwe. So we are not fools who are just moving around.”
The civic leader said it was important to inform people, as each part of the world has its own misunderstandings about the crisis in Zimbabwe. He said some leaders in Europe did not know the full extent of the flawed electoral process and did not understand why the opposition was threatening to boycott the elections. While in parts of Africa, Robert Mugabe had hoodwinked some people into believing that the fight was against former colonial power Britain.
The group said they stressed to the European leaders that they should help push for reform via African institutions like the Southern African Development Community (SADC). “So what we are telling Europe is, it must play its role via institutions that have been created in Africa to resolve African problems.”
On the issue of the ongoing talks between the political parties Madhuku said civic society is still not happy because it is not being informed adequately on the progress. Madhuku pointed out: “What has happened so far is simply discussions about an agenda. It says nothing about whether these parties will agree. We still are very skeptical about the SADC initiative and we know for sure that that there is not a lot of seriousness by South Africa on these initiatives.”
He said even though he is moving around with the opposition leaders one of the issues which keep complicating the situation is the lack of openness on the issue of talks. “The opposition would want at given times, and when it becomes convenient to itself, to remain as an opposition political party and then at other times it wants to work as a pro-democracy movement. These are still complications.”
The outspoken civic leader said: “The fact that we are moving together and the fact that we share certain points does not mean we have completely resolved some of the problems that we have faced in the past. There is still that difficulty that the opposition is not open. Its not transparent in some of its initiatives and some of it is on how the opposition has been handling the whole mediation effort. We are very unhappy about this situation.”
Meanwhile, Morgan Tsvangirai is due to address supporters at a rally in Luton in the UK on Saturday afternoon. The event will be held at Lewsey Community Centre, Landrace Road, Luton LU4 0SW.

read tomorrow what happened at the rally