Tsvangirai to Meet Carter, Annan on Eve of Their Zimbabwe Visit

Berlin/Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's prime minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai said he would meet Friday in South Africa with former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and ex-US president Jimmy Carter on the eve of their high-profile visit to Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai confirmed the meeting during an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in Berlin Thursday.

Annan, Carter and Mozambican social activist Graca Machel, members of The Elders group of leading activists and ex-world leaders, plan to spend Saturday and Sunday in Zimbabwe to assess the humanitarian crisis in the country.


President Robert Mugabe's regime has poured cold water on the visit, calling it 'a partisan mission by a group of people with partisan interests' and a 'rescue package' for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change. It was not yet clear whether the government would try to block their entry.

The Elders was launched by anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela on his 89th birthday in 2007 and also includes South African Nobel peace prize winner and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who has been a vocal critic of Mugabe, calling him 'a caricature of an African dictator.'

While assuring their visit has no political motive, The Elders have sought meetings with the country's political leaders, including Mugabe.

* DPA