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UN chief meets South African president
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-15 09:09
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Tuesday that
Zimbabwe's crisis is a regional and international problem, and urged its
president to be more receptive to efforts by neighboring countries like South
Africa to find solutions.
He also said it was no longer realistic for
African leaders to rely on their traditional policy of noninterference in
neighbor's affairs.
"In this day and age, very few crises remain
internal for long," he said. "I would encourage countries in crisis to listen to
their neighbors and to work with them to solve the conflict because you cannot
say it is an internal affair, particularly when it has an impact on your
neighbors," Annan said.
Annan gave a brief news conference with South
African President Thabo Mbeki at the start of a two-week tour which will take
him through five African nations. He will not visit Zimbabwe during his current
tour but said he planned to travel there before he leaves office in December.
Mbeki is seen as one of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's main
foreign allies. He has relied on quiet diplomacy rather than open criticism to
try to encourage Mugabe to embrace political and economic reforms, but to little
avail. With Zimbabwe's economy in free fall, South Africa is increasingly
nervous about a flood of economic refugees from its northern neighbor. But, at
least in public, Mbeki insists that Zimbabwe must solve its own problems without
meddling by South Africa.
U.N. officials have clashed repeatedly with
Mugabe's government following last year's slum destruction campaign. In a report
last year, U.N. envoy Anna Tibaijuka said the Operation Restore Order had left
some 700,000 people without homes or livelihoods and said those responsible
should be punished. U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said in December that it
would take Zimbabwe decades to build new shelter for the displaced.
"The
situation in Zimbabwe is extremely difficult," Annan told journalists. "It is
difficult for Zimbabweans, it's difficult for the region and it's difficult for
the world."
"When any country gets caught in a downward spiral of
poverty, misgovernment and conflict, this is bound to be a problem for its
neighbors," he said in a subsequent speech to parliament, without naming names.
"And the best neighbors are those who play a constructive part in helping to
halt and reverse the spiral before it leads to a complete meltdown."
In
his speech to parliament, Annan praised South Africa for being testimony to the
powers of reconciliation after the evils of apartheid.
"South Africa
reminds us all of the remarkable African capacity for forgiveness and
reconciliation, despite the pain of racial discrimination and oppression," he
said.
"Your robust economy, stable democracy, support for the rule of
law and _ perhaps most important - your fully inclusive constitution, have made
South Africa a beacon of tolerance, peaceful coexistence, and mutual respect
between people of different races, languages and traditions."
Mbeki said
his meeting with Annan focussed on ongoing peace efforts in the Ivory Coast and
Congo. South Africa has mediated in both countries to try to smooth the way for
elections.
Mbeki plans to visit Congo on Thursday for talks with
President Joseph Kabila as part of its ongoing efforts to consolidate peace
efforts and the transition to democracy, with elections provisionally slated for
June this year. Annan will also visit the vast Europe-sized nation during his
tour.
At an evening reception, Mbeki paid tribute to Annan, who stands
down at the end of the year after 10 years in office.
"I am proud that a
world leader, who is an African, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, has had the
courage to stand up against the seeming blood-dimmed tide, to point humanity in
another and more humane direction," Mbeki said.
Annan also visited a
rape counseling and care center in Cape Town. He plans to meet anti-apartheid
icon and former President Nelson Mandela on Wednesday before leaving for the
Indian Ocean island of Madagascar.
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