Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa was buried on Wednesday amid accolades from fellow African leaders, but his widow said he died a sad, unappreciated man.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, current chairman of the Southern African Development Community, praised Mwanawasa for helping in “the restoration and strengthening of regional political unity and cohesion.”
But the Zambian leader broke ranks to become the first African president to speak out against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the crisis in that country, which he likened to a “sinking Titanic.”
PHOTO: AFP
Mugabe was at the funeral, where he described the Zambian leader as “a frank and honest man.”
Mwanawasa died on Aug. 19 in the French military hospital where he had been treated since suffering a stroke in June at an African Union summit. Mwanawasa had been expected to champion the cause of ordinary Zimbabweans there.
Also at the funeral was Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, whom Mwanawasa invited to an emergency summit of the Southern African Development Community in May. It was an unprecedented move and Mugabe boycotted the event in protest. Talks to resolve Zimbabwe’s electoral crisis have deadlocked over how much Mugabe and Tsvangirai would share power.
Mwanawasa’s widow, Maureen, addressing the body in a flag-covered coffin, said: “Typical of you, you died on duty. You died a sad man as no one seemed to appreciate your sacrifices. Had you been with us today, I am sure these accolades could have made you happy.”
Wednesday would have been Mwanawasa’s 60th birthday and the couple’s 20th wedding anniversary.
“All of us have lost a great leader, a true pan-Africanist and a champion of the poor,” said Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete.
Mwanawasa himself admitted that he had failed to lift his nation of 12 million people out of crushing poverty despite market-friendly policies that helped the country’s agriculture- and mining-based economy thrive.
At home and abroad, Mwanawasa was praised for fighting corruption and modernizing Zambia’s economy, helped by booming copper prices.
China, which has invested mightily in Zambia’s mining industry, sent Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪) to honor the man who told a US audience: “You people in the West redeem yourself before you begin attacking China.”
Mwanawasa was a staunch defender of the unconditional Chinese aid that has poured into the continent.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
RSS