Zimbabwe Slams UK Envoy’s Visit to Asylum Camp

Zimbabwe has described British Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s visit to camps for Zimbabwe asylum seekers in South Africa as cheap politics meant to whip up international sentiment against President Robert Mugabe ahead of this week’s G8 summit in Japan, APA learned on Monday.

The Zimbabwe ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo, on Monday accused Miliband of peddling “a malignant political lie” after he visited camps for alleged Zimbabwe refugees during a visit to South Africa at the weekend.

“There are no Zimbabwe refugee camps in South Africa. We only know of centers for displaced African foreign nationals,” Moyo said.

Miliband visited 2,000 Zimbabwean asylum seekers housed at the Methodist Church in central Johannesburg on Sunday, and called for more international pressure on the government of President Robert Mugabe whose reelection last week was mired in controversy.

Mugabe won reelection after a one-man presidential election run-off boycotted by the opposition following an orgy of violence by alleged pro-government militias.

Moyo said Miliband had no business to come to South Africa and lecture about Zimbabwe.

“Let the mediator on Zimbabwe, President Thabo Mbeki, as mandated by SADC (the Southern African Development Community) and recently by the African Union summit in Egypt, execute his task without British interference,” the Zimbabwe envoy said.

The Zimbabwe crisis has threatened to divide SADC, with some member states openly saying they do not recognise Mugabe’s reelection.

Source African Press Agency

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