Malawi to maintain silence on Zimbabwe

Malawi will not make an official statement on the situ ation in Zimbabwe, President Bingu wa Mutharika said here Wednesday.

Dr. Mutharika made this known while disclosing Malawi's official stand on the deteriorating Zimbabwe political and economic crisis at a press conference on his r eturn from the Egyptian resort city of Sharma el-Sheik, where he attended the African Union (AU) summit.

According to him, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, in his capacity as Chairman of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and President Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, as Chairman of the troika of SADC's Peace and Security, are mandated to speak on behalf of the region.

"We have an organisation, SADC, the organisation speaks for us," he said..

"So I want to make this very clear to anybody including some of the countries outside Africa who think that we should stand there like monkeys in the bush and everyone chattering! Everyone...we don't do that; we are reasonably civilised if you don't know."

Mutharika came under pressure to make a stand because of his personnal and political ties with Mugabe.

For instance, his late wife, Ethel Zauya Mutharika, had roots in Zimbabwe and th e Mutharikas still run a farm in Zimbabwe. There are also an estimated two million Malawians in Zimbabwe. (The figure is sometimes put at four million if you factor in off-springs of Malawians who married Zimbabweans.)

These Malawians, some of whom want to retrace their Malawian roots, reportedly complain to Mutharika "to do something" about the deteriorating situation.

Mutharika told newsmen: "Malawi will not issue a statement outside the SADC fram ework, regardless of whatever my feelings may be...I have feelings but we have also discipline," adding that mere condemnation and rhetoric rebuking of Mugabe might not work.

"That's not the right stand. In any case they have been condemning Zimbabwe for the last four years; they have been condemning Mugabe for the last four years... b ut has it solved anything? Ask yourself, all that condemnation, has it solved an y thing? It has not..."

Reports from Egypt say Liberia, Botswana, Kenya and Sierra Leone openly condemned Zimbabwe?s controversial elections while other African Union countries, including South Africa, called for a mediated settlement to solve the Zimbabwean crisis.