Zimbabwe’s prime minister gets regional summit to address problems with unity government

Zimbabwe: Regional summit set for Thursday

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s neighbors will hold a summit this week to try to break an impasse that threatens the southern African nation’s unity government, a spokesman for Zimbabwe’s prime minister said Monday.

President Robert Mugabe, accused by the premier of undermining the coalition, indicated he would be at the summit to give his side.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said a summit is necessary because of the gravity of the situation. Tsvangirai announced his boycott of the unity government on Oct. 16, citing a surge in political violence and accusing longtime ruler Mugabe of treating him like a junior partner, or worse.

Tsvangirai’s spokesman James Maridadi said Tsvangirai learned Monday that the leaders of Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia will meet Thursday in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, to discuss the crisis. Tsvangirai said later Monday that if the three-leader summit did not yield results, he would press for a full summit of the 15-member Southern African Development Community. He did not say whether he would attend the Maputo meeting.

Mugabe, speaking to reporters Monday, did not refer directly to the summit, but said: “We are ready to brief the regional leaders on the problems we are facing.”

Mugabe spoke after meeting for nearly four hours with his Congolese counterpart, President Joseph Kabila, who was in Zimbabwe in his capacity as chairman of the Southern African Development Community. The leaders of Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia, who will be holding Thursday’s summit, are key members of the bloc, which pushed for Zimbabwe’s power-sharing agreement after a series of inconclusive elections marred by violence blamed on Mugabe’s supporters.

Kabila was to meet with Tsvangirai late Monday or Tuesday. Kabila told reporters after his meeting with Mugabe that he wanted “to find the way forward.”

Mugabe said he expected Kabila to tell Tsvangirai that he chose to join the coalition “and must be able to face the problems and not to run away from them.”

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Associated Press Writer Chengetai Zvauya in Harare, Zimbabwe contributed to this report.