Picture: Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP /Taken March 9, 2022 – Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa addresses the media at the State House in Nairobi, Kenya. Citing alleged human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, UK parliamentarians are criticising the invitation for Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa to attend the coronation of King Charles III, the writer says.
By Sputnik
In mid-April, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa revealed following a meeting with British Ambassador to Harare, Melanie Robinson, that he was “most excited” to receive an official invitation to attend the coronation of King Charles III of the United Kingdom, set to take place on May 6.
Citing alleged human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, UK parliamentarians are criticising the invitation for Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa to attend the coronation of King Charles.
President Mnangagwa, who expressed excitement over the invitation, would be the first Zimbabwean leader to visit London in over 20 years, considering the sanctions imposed on Harare for human rights violations and electoral fraud under the late Robert Mugabe’s leadership.
Navendu Mishra, chairperson of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Zimbabwe (APPG), has written a letter to British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, urging him to persuade Buckingham Palace to reconsider the invitation, accusing the Zimbabwean leadership of “political violence and human rights abuses”.
The British legislators claimed that inviting President Mnangagwa, who came to power in 2017, would send a wrong signal to the world that the government of the United Kingdom condones “misgovernance”.
“The coronation invitation will inevitably be used by President Mnangagwa as tacit acceptance by the UK of publicly evidenced political violence and repression in the run-up to the forthcoming election and will deeply demoralise ordinary Zimbabweans in their struggle for democracy,” the MPs wrote in their message to the government.
All-Party Parliamentary Groups, or APPGs, are non-official, cross-party groups formed by British MPs and Members of the House of Lords who share a common interest in a particular policy, region, or country.
On April 17, President Mnangagwa said he was “most excited” to accept the official invitation delivered by the British envoy in his country to attend the coronation of King Charles III.
On Saturday, May 6, 2023, the coronation ceremony of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as the new king and queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms, will be held at Westminster Abbey in London, England. Following the passing of his mother, Elizabeth II, Charles, who is 74 years old, ascended to the throne on September 8, 2022.
This article was first published on Sputnik
