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Zambia's President dies
Published: August 20, 2008- Digg
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Economic growth is running at over six percent. His government also steadily built up Zambia’s international reserves to more than a billion dollars.
Mwanawasa won the respect of Western governments after being one of the first leaders to speak out against Mugabe, likening the state of his southern neighbour’s economy to the Titanic in a speech last year.
In his role as Chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Mwanawasa hosted an extraordinary summit in Lusaka in April in a bid to break the political deadlock between Mugabe’s ruling party and the Zimbabwean opposition led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
A furious Mugabe boycotted the Lusaka summit with his government saying the meeting had been “clearly sponsored by the British government.”
After Tsvangirai announced his withdrawal from a run-off election against Mugabe in June, Mwanawasa slammed the region’s “scandalous” silence on Mugabe. Tsvangirai on Tuesday described Mwanawasa as a good friend, comrade and champion of democracy.
“Sadly he has left us at this most trying time. His passing on is a sad day to the Zimbabwean people,” the Movement for Democratic Change leader said in a statement. French President Nicolas Sarkozy paid tribute to Mwanawasa’s “political courage.” His death was “a huge loss for democracy, of which he was an ardent defender all his life,” Sarkozy added in a statement.
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