Controversy hits British PM’s boycott of Lisbon summit over Mugabe presence

London (United Kingdom) The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s decision to boycott the EU-Africa summit over the presence of the Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, seems to have created more headache for him (Brown) as a huge race row broke out Friday night against his government, APA has learnt.

The Prime Minister is under pressure to explain why he decided to send Baroness Amos, the former leader of the House of Lords, to represent Britain at Sartuday’s EU-Africa summit in Lisbon.

Clare Short, a former key Labour minister, who resigned a couple of years ago after criticising the British involvement in the “unnecessary invasion of Iraq”, is now leading other official critics, mostly an opposition group, who are accusing Brown of sending a “pseudo-minister chosen for the colour of her skin to the Lisbon event.

Ms Short, UK’s former International Development Secretary, further condemned the government, claiming that Lady Amos was sent to Lisbon only because she is Black. “After Brown has vowed that neither he nor any of his government ministers would attend the summit if Mugabe attended”.

However, a government spokesman clarified that “Baroness Amos is a former leader of the House of Lords and she has got a lot of knowledge about Africa as a whole, not Zimbabwe”.

The UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, also came in defence of PM Brown’s decision to stay away in the face of criticism from the European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, saying “it would have been ’absurd’ to appear alongside Mugabe for a summit on governance and human rights “.

Britain maintains “there is a meltdown in Zimbabwe, where the economy has collapsed, mortality rates are soaring as human rights are widely abused by the regime”.

Some government officials are proposing that the UK representative Lady Amos should use her presence there to condemn Mugabe in public by laying his crimes bare before all those attending the summit.

Previous attempts to hold the summit failed over Mugabe’s attendance. But this time, the EU, mindful of growing Chinese influence in Africa, decided to hold the summit and invite the Zimbabwean leader.

“Whatever crimes the west holds against him, Mugabe is still seen by African leaders as an independence hero”, one African diplomatic commented.

However, in an attempts to defend the decision for the invitation of president Mugabe, amidst growing criticism from London, the European Commission has sent a tough message to the authorities in London.

In the message, the European Commission’s Jose Manuel Barroso, charged that “world leaders must be prepared to deal with dictators ’your mother would not like you to meet’.

“If everyone had that attitude, then ’we would not be attending many conferences at all”.

Published by Korir, API/APN africanpress@getmail.no source.apa