Brown to boycott summit over Mugabe

Number 10 has confirmed that the prime minister will boycott a summit of European and African leaders if Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe attends.

The prime minister's spokesman said on Friday that it was assumed that Mugabe would attend the EU-African Union summit in Lisbon in December, and Gordon Brown has said that his presence would undermine the talks.

The spokesman refused to say at this stage whether any other minister would attend to represent Britain.

Zimbabwe's UN ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku said Brown had "no right to dictate" who should attend the meeting. 

But Downing Street insisted that Brown was "not dictating to anybody else who can go and who cannot go", adding: "He is making his position clear that, on the assumption that things work out as expected, he will not go."

Abuse

Writing in the Independent on Thursday, the prime minister accused the Zimbabwean leader of the "abuse of his own people".

Mugabe's attendance in Lisbon would mean lifting a ban preventing him entering the EU.

Brown said: "President Mugabe is the only African leader to face an EU travel ban.

"There is a reason for this - the abuse of his own people.

"There is no freedom in Zimbabwe; no freedom of association, no freedom of the press.

"And there is widespread torture and mass intimidation of the political opposition."

Sanctions

The prime minister said unemployment in the African country is now 80 per cent, four million people will depend on food aid by the end of the year, and the average life expectancy has fallen to 37.

Brown said he remained "determined that Britain continues to do everything it can to help the Zimbabwean people", announcing an additional £8m in food aid for this year.

The UK is the second-largest donor to the country, giving £40m a year in humanitarian assistance and for HIV and Aids care.

Brown said the government would try to ensure EU sanctions against Mugabe and members of his "ruling elite" remain in place.

And he said the UK would ask the EU to appoint a European envoy to "help support the transition to democracy", and would press the United Nations to send a humanitarian mission to Zimbabwe.

"We need to be ready for the day democracy returns to Zimbabwe," he said.

"And Britain is ready to contribute our share to this endeavour," he added.