Kenyan PM wants Zimbabwe suspended from African Union
Julian Borger in Sharm el-Sheikh, Angela Balakrishnan and Matthew Weaver
guardian.co.uk,
The Kenyan prime minister, Raila Odinga, called on African leaders to suspend Zimbabwe from the Africa Union rather than welcome Robert Mugabe to their summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.
His comments came as the US completed a first draft of a UN security council sanctions resolution following the widely disputed re-election of Mugabe last week.
"Our United States colleagues have done a first draft which is being discussed over the next couple of days," John Sawers, Britain's UN envoy, said.
"We certainly support increasing the pressure on those in Zimbabwe who are responsible for subverting the elections and for creating a climate whereby the will of the Zimbabwean people was discarded as it was in Friday's election."
However, it is uncertain whether sanctions against Mugabe's government will go ahead.
The 15-member security council is deeply divided over Zimbabwe, and council diplomats say South Africa - which opposes the idea of sanctions - has the backing of Russia and China, two powerful veto-holding council members.
Elected security council members Indonesia and Vietnam, who usually prefer to avoid intervening in what they see as other countries' internal affairs, also appeared to be supporting South Africa.
The US state department said the security council would formally discuss sanctions against Zimbabwean officials on Wednesday.
If agreed, they are likely to take the form of travel bans and asset freezes for members of the Zimbabwean government.
Earlier, Odinga broke ranks with other Africa leaders following Mugabe's widely discredited re-election as the Zimbabwean president.
Speaking from Nairobi, he said: "The African Union should not accept or entertain Mugabe.
"He should be suspended until he allows the African Union to facilitate free and fair elections between him and his opponent."
Yesterday, Odinga called for AU peacekeepers to be sent to Zimbabwe and the UN urged the union to negotiate a political settlement.
"This is a moment of truth for regional leaders," Asha-Rose Migiro, the UN deputy secretary general, told African heads of state in the Egyptian resort.
Migiro, watched by Mugabe, said it was "regrettable" that the second round of the uncontested Zimbabwean presidential elections had gone ahead despite concerns over the circumstances.
She urged the AU to get involved in finding a peaceful solution and said that was the only route to stability.
Her comments came as the prime minister, Gordon Brown, called on the AU to "make it absolutely clear that there has got to be change and a new government" in the wake of the Zimbabwean poll.
The AU mission to Zimbabwe added to the condemnation when it became the third African observer team to criticise the conduct of the election.
However, the leading officials who opened the summit chose their words extremely cautiously, conscious that the continent remained split over what to do about the crisis.
Jean Ping, the AU commission chairman, said Africa "must shoulder its responsibility and do everything in its power to help the Zimbabwean parties so as to overcome current challenges".
Jakaya Kikwete, the Tanzanian president, chairing the summit, referred to Friday's elections as "historic".
"There has been a positive side to this, but there have also been challenges," Kikwete, speaking Swahili, said.
"We would like to congratulate the Zimbabwean people for their successes, but we would also like to express our commiseration for their suffering. We would also like to ask the international community to work with SADC (the Southern African Development Community) to find a solution to the problem".
The SADC is split over Zimbabwe, and its mediator, the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, is seen by the opposition as being too close to Mugabe to be credible.
In a statement, the South African foreign ministry said: "Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) must enter into negotiations which will lead to the formation of a transitional government that can extricate Zimbabwe from its current political challenges."
George Sibotshiwe, an MDC spokesman who is holding talks on the margins of the summit, said he was "cautiously optimistic" that things were going the party's way.
"I would hope that the nature of what happened in Zimbabwe warrants a strong response, and a lot of the leaders are taking our problems into consideration," he said.
He listed the MDC demands brought to Sharm el-Sheikh as the appointment of an AU envoy to Zimbabwe, the deployment of an African peacekeeping force, supported by the UN, and the recognition of the first round of elections in March, which the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai won.
Julian Borger in Sharm el-Sheikh, Angela Balakrishnan and Matthew Weaver
guardian.co.uk,
The Kenyan prime minister, Raila Odinga, called on African leaders to suspend Zimbabwe from the Africa Union rather than welcome Robert Mugabe to their summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.
His comments came as the US completed a first draft of a UN security council sanctions resolution following the widely disputed re-election of Mugabe last week.
"Our United States colleagues have done a first draft which is being discussed over the next couple of days," John Sawers, Britain's UN envoy, said.
"We certainly support increasing the pressure on those in Zimbabwe who are responsible for subverting the elections and for creating a climate whereby the will of the Zimbabwean people was discarded as it was in Friday's election."
However, it is uncertain whether sanctions against Mugabe's government will go ahead.
The 15-member security council is deeply divided over Zimbabwe, and council diplomats say South Africa - which opposes the idea of sanctions - has the backing of Russia and China, two powerful veto-holding council members.
Elected security council members Indonesia and Vietnam, who usually prefer to avoid intervening in what they see as other countries' internal affairs, also appeared to be supporting South Africa.
The US state department said the security council would formally discuss sanctions against Zimbabwean officials on Wednesday.
If agreed, they are likely to take the form of travel bans and asset freezes for members of the Zimbabwean government.
Earlier, Odinga broke ranks with other Africa leaders following Mugabe's widely discredited re-election as the Zimbabwean president.
Speaking from Nairobi, he said: "The African Union should not accept or entertain Mugabe.
"He should be suspended until he allows the African Union to facilitate free and fair elections between him and his opponent."
Yesterday, Odinga called for AU peacekeepers to be sent to Zimbabwe and the UN urged the union to negotiate a political settlement.
"This is a moment of truth for regional leaders," Asha-Rose Migiro, the UN deputy secretary general, told African heads of state in the Egyptian resort.
Migiro, watched by Mugabe, said it was "regrettable" that the second round of the uncontested Zimbabwean presidential elections had gone ahead despite concerns over the circumstances.
She urged the AU to get involved in finding a peaceful solution and said that was the only route to stability.
Her comments came as the prime minister, Gordon Brown, called on the AU to "make it absolutely clear that there has got to be change and a new government" in the wake of the Zimbabwean poll.
The AU mission to Zimbabwe added to the condemnation when it became the third African observer team to criticise the conduct of the election.
However, the leading officials who opened the summit chose their words extremely cautiously, conscious that the continent remained split over what to do about the crisis.
Jean Ping, the AU commission chairman, said Africa "must shoulder its responsibility and do everything in its power to help the Zimbabwean parties so as to overcome current challenges".
Jakaya Kikwete, the Tanzanian president, chairing the summit, referred to Friday's elections as "historic".
"There has been a positive side to this, but there have also been challenges," Kikwete, speaking Swahili, said.
"We would like to congratulate the Zimbabwean people for their successes, but we would also like to express our commiseration for their suffering. We would also like to ask the international community to work with SADC (the Southern African Development Community) to find a solution to the problem".
The SADC is split over Zimbabwe, and its mediator, the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, is seen by the opposition as being too close to Mugabe to be credible.
In a statement, the South African foreign ministry said: "Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) must enter into negotiations which will lead to the formation of a transitional government that can extricate Zimbabwe from its current political challenges."
George Sibotshiwe, an MDC spokesman who is holding talks on the margins of the summit, said he was "cautiously optimistic" that things were going the party's way.
"I would hope that the nature of what happened in Zimbabwe warrants a strong response, and a lot of the leaders are taking our problems into consideration," he said.
He listed the MDC demands brought to Sharm el-Sheikh as the appointment of an AU envoy to Zimbabwe, the deployment of an African peacekeeping force, supported by the UN, and the recognition of the first round of elections in March, which the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai won.
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