Writers criticize EU on Portugal summit

SWRadioAfrica reports:


Controversy surrounding the European Union/Africa summit that opens in Lisbon later this week has received more headlines, after a group of influential writers criticised European and African leaders for not including Zimbabwe and Darfur on the agenda. Calling it "political cowardice" writers including Wole Soyinka, Vaclav Havel and Nadine Gordimer issued an open letter saying they expected the crises in Zimbabwe and Sudan’s Darfur region to top the summit agenda....


The letter said in part: "What can we say of this political cowardice? We expect our leaders to lead, and lead with moral courage. When they fail to do so they leave all of us morally impoverished. The EU-Africa summit presents an opportunity to address the biggest issues affecting our people. However our leaders - by putting their own desire to avoid a confrontation ahead of the suffering of millions - are squandering this opportunity and doing us all a disservice”, the writers said.
Pascal Richard from Zimbabwe Watch, a collection of Dutch non- governmental organizations dealing with Zimbabwe, said the letter is being circulated to all Heads of State attending the summit and was published Tuesday in European and African newspapers. He explained that the writers were selected because they were not just creative minds, but people who also had moral weight./.....