Mugabe ‘turned down Annan’s lucrative package to step down’

Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan offered Mr Robert Mugabe a lucrative retirement package in an overseas haven if he stood down as Zimbabwe’s president, leaked diplomatic cables reveal.

Mr Annan allegedly made the offer at the millennium summit of world leaders in New York, a memo drawn up by US officials, which was obtained by the WikiLeaks website says.

According to the Guardian, the memo, written in September 2000, records a meeting between a US embassy official in Harare and a senior source in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the party opposed to Mugabe’s Zanu-PF.

In the leaked cable: “Dr Kofi Annan, in the recent meeting in New York during the millennium summit offered Mr Mugabe a deal to step down.

Although (the source) said the MDC was not privy to the details, he surmised that Dr Annan’s supposed deal probably included provision of safe haven and a financial package from Libyan President (Muammar Gaddafi).

The opposition party heard that Mr Mugabe turned down the offer the following day.” The offer, was not the only one rumoured to have been made to Mr Mugabe at that time.

The cable reveals that Zanu-PF itself had put out “feelers” to see whether the MDC would be willing to allow Mugabe a “graceful exit” that was “in Zimbabwe’s national interest”.

The MDC source said the business interests of senior Zanu-PF members were being badly damaged by the “current economic and political situation.

They blame President Mugabe and are determined to find a way to ease him out in a dignified way.”

The cable notes that the MDC leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, “has agreed that it is in Zimbabwe’s best interests for the MDC to do all it can to secure a graceful exit strategy that preserves somewhat of a positive legacy for Mr Mugabe.

Otherwise the president would have little incentive to go.”