SADC summit opens in Malawi

The Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) 21st summit opened in Blantyre on Sunday without two key regional leaders, reports said. Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila failed to turn up but instead sent representatives to the summit. The president of the national assembly is representing Angola, while the DRC sent its justice minister. The HIV/AIDS epidemic, the war in the DRC, events in Zimbabwe as well as the economic development of SADC are expected to be on the agenda, reports said. Five protocols are expected to be signed by the heads of state and government, including a mutual defence pact which will give the bloc more teeth to deal with regional crisis. Addressing the delegates at the opening of the conference, Sam Nujoma, president of Namibia and chairman of SADC, said that the southern African region has recently witnessed a number of important developments, citing a 3.4 percent aggregate economic growth in 2000 compared with 1.8 percent in 1999, and the ratification of the SADC Trade Protocol by 11 member countries designed to set up a free trade zone in the region. “Apart from SADC as an entity, we are part of the bigger family of Africa and the world,” he added. Meanwhile, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said in an update on Monday that Brian Ligomeka, a freelance journalist for the South African-based ‘Africa Eye News Service’, was on Sunday abducted by ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) “Young Democrats” militants at Chileka Airport in Blantyre as he was covering the arrival of heads of state for the summit. Ligomeka told MISA the abductors accused him of being a spy for Brian Mpinganjira, a sacked former senior minister, despite showing them an official SADC press accreditation card. “As they severely beat me, they accused me of being a supporter of Mr Mpinganjira’s National Democratic Alliance pressure group,” he said. “I showed them my identity card, showed them all my accreditation documents, but they kept beating me.” According to MISA, Ligomeka was “rescued” by a senior police officer that drove him to a nearby police station. No arrests have been made.