G8 Summit
At a G8 summit in Tokyo, the G8 leaders declared in a statement on July 8 that they considered Mugabe's leadership to be illegitimate and announced that they planned to "take further steps ... against those individuals responsible for the violence". They additionally urged the Zimbabwean government to cooperate with the opposition and called for a UN envoy to be appointed to assess the situation in Zimbabwe. According to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the G8 statement "made it clear that we would appoint a U.N. envoy and would impose new sanctions against an illegitimate regime which has blood on its hands." However, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev was more cautious in his view of the statement's implications, saying that there were "as yet no concrete decisions on how the United Nations should act in this situation (and) whether it's necessary to make any special additional decisions". UN involvement in mediation is generally opposed by African governments, including that of South Africa.
Responding to the G8 statement on July 8, Zimbabwean Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga accused the G8 leaders of trying to "undermine the African Union and President Mbeki's efforts because they are racist, because they think only white people think better", saying that this was "an insult to African leaders".
Speaking in Johannesburg on July 10, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said that the election was not free and fair and expressed support for the appointment of another "high profile" mediator to work alongside Mbeki.
Read more about this topic: International Reaction To The 2008 Zimbabwean Presidential Election
Famous quotes containing the word summit:
“The tops of mountains are among the unfinished parts of the globe, whither it is a slight insult to the gods to climb and pry into their secrets, and try their effect on our humanity. Only daring and insolent men, perchance, go there. Simple races, as savages, do not climb mountains,—their tops are sacred and mysterious tracts never visited by them. Pomola is always angry with those who climb the summit of Ktaadn.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)