SADC SUMMIT ON ZIMBABWE

(...) There was nothing in the disappointing document thatreflected Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa's promisingremarks hours earlier when he told the openingceremony that standing by and doing nothing was nolonger an option where Zimbabwe was concerned. It wastime to shed light on the darkness and allow ourneighbours to turn a new leaf, he said. Indeed, therewas nothing in the final document that ever veered toofar away from Thabo Mbeki's own stance of quietdiplomacy. With the exception of a call for animmediate release of the results, it seemed to offer averdict that our outgoing president will no doubt readas a victory for himself, just as Robert Mugabe hasundoubtedly interpreted it as a weak effort on thepart of his regional peers to rein him in. The ink washardly dry on the communique when the Harare HighCourt ruled against the MDC's challenge to the delayedrelease of the results. "It was the best we could dounder the circumstances," SADC executive secretaryTomaz Salamao told Independent Newspapers after themeeting ended. Zambia's Foreign Minister Kabinga Pandesaid the SADC is of the view that "there is no crisis"in Zimbabwe, echoing Mbeki's controversial words fromHarare on Saturday morning. If such is their view,then it is clear that the SADC is not the power toturn to for crisis management in the region. But itbegs the question as to why they called an emergencysummit in the first place and what happened behind thescenes to dampen Mwanawasa's earlier promise to speakup rather than stay quiet. "He and many others didspeak out," a delegate of the Mauritian team toldIndependent Newspapers, "but the problem is that thevoices of the new blood are lost in the blanket of oldconservatism." (...) in THE STAR