Mugabe to confront critics at African Union summit
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will confront his critics at a summit of the African Union on Monday, fresh from victory in a one-candidate election which observers said was scarred by violence and intimidation.
Heads of state of the body, meeting in Egypt, are likely to press him to enter talks with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to end political crisis in a country whose economy, wrecked by hyperinflation, has produced millions of refugees.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged support for international action against Mugabe's government, including U.N.-authorized sanctions and an arms embargo.
But the AU seems reluctant to back calls for sanctions, favoring instead a Kenyan-style power-sharing transition.
In an apparent response to pressure for talks, Mugabe said in an inaugural speech on Sunday he was committed to dialogue with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Tsvangirai has said his party is also committed to AU-sponsored talks, although no negotiations have started. But he added he would ask the AU not to recognize Mugabe's re-election.
The MDC said the AU should not welcome Mugabe at the summit.
"I don't think it would be right for the African Union to welcome him after all he has done," Thokozani Khupe, MDC vice president, said in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.
"I think it is important that the African leaders break the silence. It is high time they call a spade a spade."
She said she had no plans to talk to the Zimbabwean delegation on the sidelines of the summit. Officials in Harare said Mugabe was due to leave for Egypt late on Sunday night.
The Egyptian summit may be split between critics of Mugabe, like Kenya, and opponents of any action against him led by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been widely criticized for taking a soft line with his neighbor.
NEW MANDATE
Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga was quoted as saying on Sunday that the AU should deploy troops.
"What is happening in Zimbabwe is a shame and an embarrassment to Africa in the eyes of the international community and should be denounced," he said.
But AU security chief Ramtane Lamamra played down the prospects of peacekeepers being sent. Continued...
Zimbabwe election a "sham"
