Japan happy Mugabe not coming

The Japanese government was relieved when it learnt that President Robert Mugabe, who was under siege in his country after learning that he had been beaten by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, would not attend the Tokyo International Conference on African Development and quickly informed the United States.

The US had been pressuring Japan to stop Mugabe from attending but Japan said it could not do so because it had invited all African Heads of State and could not single Mugabe out.

Full cable:

Viewing cable 08TOKYO1381, MOFA CONFIRMS MUGABE NOT COMING TO TICAD

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VZCZCXRO8409

PP RUEHAG RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHROV RUEHTRO

DE RUEHKO #1381 1410912

ZNY CCCCC ZZH

P 200912Z MAY 08

FM AMEMBASSY TOKYO

TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4396

INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 3439

RUEHFK/AMCONSUL FUKUOKA PRIORITY 7903

RUEHNH/AMCONSUL NAHA PRIORITY 0285

RUEHOK/AMCONSUL OSAKA KOBE PRIORITY 1584

RUEHKSO/AMCONSUL SAPPORO PRIORITY 8494

RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY

RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY

RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 3331

RUEHRN/USMISSION UN ROME PRIORITY

RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 9910

C O N F I D E N T I A L TOKYO 001381

SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/S AND EAP/J

STATE PASS USAID AFRICA/AA KALMQUIST AND ODP NNICHOLSON

NSC FOR KTONG AND PBROWN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/20/2023

TAGS: EAID PHUM PREL ZI JA

SUBJECT: MOFA CONFIRMS MUGABE NOT COMING TO TICAD

REF: A. TOKYO 286 B. TOKYO 93 C. TOKYO 100

Classified By: Ambassador J. Thomas Schieffer. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

(C) Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) International

Cooperation Director General Koro Bessho telephoned

AID Counselor May 20 to confirm Zimbabwe President

Robert Mugabe will not attend the May 28-30 Tokyo

International Conference on African Development

(TICAD). Separately, MOFA’s Senior Coordinator for

TICAD Takuya Sasayama told AID Counselor the Japanese

Embassy in Washington had informed MOFA D/F Fore would

not be leading the U.S. delegation but would be

replaced by a senior USAID official.

SCHIEFFER

(17 VIEWS)