Zimbabwe accuses Botswana of training MDC militia
President Robert Mugabe’s government has accused Botswana of interference and that it was training youths from opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party to destabilise Zimbabwe, in a dangerous twist to a diplomatic row between the two neighbours.
Jeff Ramsay, press secretary to Botswana President Ian Khama said in a statement that Zimbabwe made the charges at an extraordinary meeting of regional security ministers in Mozambique on Wednesday.
Gaborone denied the charges and immediately asked the inter-state defence and security committee of the regional SADC grouping’s Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Troika as well as the Zimbabwean government to undertake a fact-finding mission to Botswana to probe the allegations, according to Ramsay.
Ramsay said: “The Government of Zimbabwe alleged that Botswana has been training MDC–Tsvangirai (MDC-T) youths to destabilise Zimbabwe since 2002.
“The Government of Botswana dismissed the Zimbabwean allegation as false, baseless, and completely unfounded. The Government of Botswana further requested that the Government of Zimbabwe provides documented evidence on the allegations.
“In this regard, the Government of Botswana invited the Organ Troika, together with the Government of Zimbabwe, to undertake a fact-finding mission to Botswana at their earliest opportunity. The Troika accepted the invitation.
“For its part, the Organ Troika required that the Government of Zimbabwe provide it with documented evidence, which would be availed to the Government of Botswana.”
Ramsay said Gaborone had also pointed out that the Botswana-Zimbabwe Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security has met 25 times, during which Harare had never raised the allegations it was now making.
Zimbabwe Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi and Information Minister as well as government spokesman Sikhanyiso Ndlovu were not immediately available for comment on the matter.
Relations between Zimbabwe and Botswana have been strained in recent years chiefly because of Gaborone’s outspoken criticism of Mugabe’s controversial rule.
The two southern African countries that share a long frontier between them clashed this week after Khama told Botswana’s parliament on Monday that a fresh vote was the only way out of the deadlock that threatens to derail a power-sharing deal between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.
Zimbabwe angrily reacted to Khama’s call for fresh elections saying it was unwarranted interference in its internal affairs and amounted to “extreme provocation”.
Mugabe’s government accused Khama of trying to “pick a quarrel with Zimbabwe” and said the Botswana leader had spoken based on false information supplied to him by Tsvangirai.
Zimbabwe also vowed that it would get to the bottom of the matter to find out the motivation behind what it described as an “unholy alliance” between Khama and Tsvangirai.
Khama, just like late Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa who was also a critic of Mugabe, has openly embraced Tsvangirai.
The diplomatic row between Harare and Gaborone comes as the SADC prepares to hold an emergency summit on Sunday to try to coax Mugabe and Tsvangirai to reach agreement on the composition of a new unity government.
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and another opposition leader Arthur Mutambara agreed to form an all-inclusive government under a September 15 power-sharing deal that retains Mugabe as president while making Tsvangirai prime minister and Mutambara deputy prime minister.
Analysts see such a power-sharing government as the first step to ending decade-long food shortages and economic crisis in Zimbabwe. But six weeks after agreeing to share power political leaders are yet to form a unity government because they cannot agree on should control the most powerful ministries.
– ZimOnline
Posted by Wellington Chadehumbe
on November 7, 2008. Filed under Local News.
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