Mugabe says he would welcome talks with UK

By Rich Bowden, M&C Staff Writer Nov 29, 2007, 11:38 GMT

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade (2-L) waves to a crowd as he is welcomed by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe (R) at the Harare international airport in Harare, Zimbabwe, 28 November 2007. Wade arrived on a two-day state visit and is expected to hold talks with Mugabe to try to mend Zimbabwe\'s strained relations with former colonial power Britain. EPA/BISHOP ASARE

(M&C) - Zimbabwe's controversial President Robert Mugabe has said he would welcome renewed talks with Britain.

Mr Mugabe was responding to a visit to his country by Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade who has arrived in Harare to attempt to patch up the relationship between Zimbabwe and its former colonial power Britain.

The UK has accused Mr Mugabe of fixing elections and widespread human rights abuses. British PM Gordon Brown has refused to attend a EU-Africa summit in Portugal because of the attendance of Mr Mugabe despite his EU travel ban.

However Mr Wade said to reporters after his meeting with President Mugabe in the capital Harare, "I think the problem should be an African problem and involve all African countries."

The enigmatic president in turn said he had "never feared talking" to the British.

However John Makumbe, political science professor of the University of Zimbabwe, told VOA the president's pronouncement was "political."

“This is nothing new really, he has said that before and he says it every so often in order to give an impression that Britain is the spoiler here, in this whole crisis," he said.

"I know that Britain has in the past jumped to Mugabe’s rhetoric when he said it was time to build bridges, and the British government sent its envoy to Harare. Mugabe wouldn’t even see the envoy, he didn’t even discuss anything with the envoy, and he refused in fact to see the envoy."

"So, this is really something to give Wade something to write home about, but it is not going to change things here. Not in the near future, no,” Makumbe noted.