This stance by fellow African heads of state follows moves by British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown to boycott the meeting if Mugabe attends the summit due on December 8-9.
A senior source at the European Union mission in Harare said this week that there was no reason why Mugabe could not attend. A source told the news agency, AFP that The invitation letters for African states will be distributed by Alpha Omar Konare (chairman of the African Union Commission) and it is up to Zimbabwe to decide who will attend.
The current chairman of the SADC, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, earlier this year embarrassed Mugabe by comparing the situation in Zimbabwe to the sinking of the Titanic.
Despite this, Mwanawasa was among those who pledged to boycott the Lisbon summit if Mugabe was excluded, with the Pretoria government openly bristling at the idea of Europe trying to determine who constitutes the African delegation.
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