Circling the drain - other African states back Zimbabwe

This will work out just fine... From the Times Online:

African states rally behind Robert Mugabe
A group of 14 African nations raised the stakes yesterday before next week�s EU-Africa summit by threatening to pull out unless European leaders agreed not to single out Zimbabwe for criticism. Officials in Brussels, however, said there was no way that President Mugabe could escape a lecture on the dire straits of his countrymen if he turned up to the meeting in Lisbon.

The threat from the Southern African Development Community was seen last night in Brussels as a provocative attempt to influence the agenda being drawn up by the Portuguese hosts and certain to put Africa at loggerheads with the EU.

The SADC threat heightened the pre-summit row over Mr Mugabe�s attendance which has already meant Gordon Brown confirming his own boycott of the summit, a move followed by Mirek Topolanek, the Czech Prime Minister. Tomaz Salom�o, executive secretary of the SADC, said that its 14 members including South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania as well as Zimbabwe, would pull out if Zimbabwe was on the agenda.

He may be a stupid thug but he's OUR stupid thug... Reminds me of Kim Du Toit's excellent essay: Let Africa Sink He was born in South Africa and sees the problems there very clearly. A great insightful read...