4 Friday 11th April, 2008 German parliament Leaders say Mugabe will brief regional marks Nazis' 1933 destruction of leaders on situation in Zimbabwe democracy HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told The Associated "Definitely I think the Botswana Zimbabwe said Thursday it welcomed Press. president was very helpful to us ... he BERLIN (AP) - Germany's parlia- an emergency summit of southern But he said the meeting wasn't nec- would also like to participate in assist- ment on Thursday remembered the African leaders as an opportunity for essary. "There is no crisis in Zimbabwe ing in whatever way he can to resolve Nazis' swift destruction of democracy President Robert Mugabe to explain the that warrants a special meeting on the crisis," Tsvangirai aide George after Adolf Hitler took power 75 years situation here, but denied there was a Zimbabwe," he said. Sibotshiwe said Thursday from ago, and paid tribute to those lawmakers crisis in the country 12 days after a Mwanawasa originally planned to Botswana. who held out against the Nazis' drive to contentious presidential election. send a delegation of former heads of MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa extinguish political opposition. The opposition Movement for state to Zimbabwe but decided to hold said Tsvangirai will ask regional lead- Chancellor Angela Merkel and Democratic Change says its candidate, an urgent summit instead because the ers to "pressure and counsel Mugabe to President Horst Koehler attended a Morgan Tsvangirai, won the March 29 situation had grown so serious, accept the verdict of the people." solemn hour-long session in Berlin's vote outright, and accused Mugabe of Zambian state radio reported. "The issues are to help restored Reichstag building, whose delaying the results so he can orches- Deputy Information Minister Bright Zimbabweans realize or resolve their torching in early 1933 was one of the trate a runoff and give ruling party Matonga confirmed that Mugabe would crisis. We have done our bit and events that allowed Hitler to consolidate militants time to intimidate voters and be at the meeting. Mugabe was defeated," Chamisa said in his grip on power. ensure he wins a second election. "If there is a SADC meeting of a telephone interview. "We bow today before all the victims Patrick Chinamasa, Minster of Justice of the National Socialist dictatorship," With no resolution in sight, heads of state, then obviously he will South African President Thabo and Legal Affairs addresses a press Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa attend," he told the AP. Mbeki is ready to meet with Tsvangirai Parliament President Norbert Lammert conference in Harare, Wednesday, said in a speech to lawmakers. called an emergency summit of the Tsvangirai is on trip around the but has yet to receive an official April, 9, 2008. Chinamasa attacked the Southern African Development region, beginning Wednesday with request for a meeting, Mbeki's Hitler convinced ailing President main opposition party for claiming vic- Paul von Hindenburg to appoint him Community for Saturday to discuss the Botswana, to ask Mugabe's peers to spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga said. tory in the Presidential elections when crisis. push him to end the standoff. He met "If Tsvangirai requests a meeting chancellor on Jan. 30, 1933. offical results have not yet been By the time the Nazis staged book "Such meetings are usually very with Botswana's President Seretse Ian with the president, he will grant one," released. He also said his party was healthy so heads of state can brief each Khama and hoped to travel to four or Ratshitanga said, adding that Mbeki burnings on May 10, "the new regime confident of victory in the event of a had in a few weeks, after a legal change other, not only us in Zimbabwe," five other countries before Saturday, had not decided whether to attend the run off election. A photo of President Zimbabwean Information Minister opposition officials said. Zambia summit. of government, worked its way through Mugabe hangs at rear. (AP) almost everything that would set the tone for the next 12 years: breaking the law, breaking the constitution, breaking with civilization," Lammert said. A month after Hitler took power, he Dalai Lama used the torching of the Reichstag - Nepal votes in historic election blamed on Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe - to strengthen his grip arrives in Japan KATMANDU, Nepal on power, suspending civil liberties and (AP) - Nepalis voted cracking down on opposition parties in ahead of US visit Thursday in a historic elec- paving the way for the police state. tion intended to bring com- On March 23, parliament approved munist insurgents into the the Enabling Act, "enabling" Hitler's country's democratic main- Cabinet to issue decrees without the stream and expected to end need for approval by lawmakers or the the world's last Hindu president and effectively giving him dic- monarchy. tatorial powers. Voters lined up before Lawmakers heard Thursday what dawn across the country, Lammert called "the last truly free undeterred by violence that words in the German Reichstag" - marred the days preceding extracts of a speech in which Social the country's first election Democratic parliamentary leader Otto in nine years. And while vot- Wels opposed the act, declaring that ing was smooth throughout "they can take away our freedom and life much of the Himalayan - not our honor." country, there was scattered The Enabling Act won the approval violence, including an of 444 lawmakers; with communist law- attempt to kill one candi- makers and Social Democrats already date, the torching of a excluded, only the remaining 94 from polling station and the death Wels' party voted against. of one man in a clash "They refused to give the violent between political rivals. overthrow (of democracy) the badge of "I came to vote here today legality," Lammert said. "With that, they believing this process will - most of them then as now unknown to settle political instability for a wide public - became silent heroes of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama good," said Mukunda democracy and parliamentarism." gestures during a press conference at Maraseni, a 40-year-old Hans-Jochen Vogel, a former justice a hotel near Narita international airport banker waiting to cast his minister and Social Democratic leader, in Narita, east of Tokyo, Thursday, April ballot in Katmandu. pointed to the lessons for the future, at a 10, 2008. The election of a Nepalese women vote at a polling station near a temple Thursday April 10, 2008, in Patan, time when Germany has worried about Constituent Assembly to NARITA, Japan (AP) - The Dalai Nepal. Nepalis voted Thursday in a historic election intended to bring communist insur- the success of fringe far-right parties in write a new constitution has Lama arrived Thursday in Japan on gents into the country's democratic mainstream and expected to end a monarchy that has entering some of its state parliaments been touted as the corner- his way to the United States, amid ruled for centuries.(AP) over recent years. protests around the world over China's stone of a 2006 peace deal handling of unrest in his native Tibet. struck with former rebels the southern town of tion. optimism that the election The Buddhist spiritual leader known as Maoists following Janakpur but she escaped In the southern village of would finally bring lasting weeks of unrest that forced arrived at Tokyo's main international unhurt, said district officer Bhutana, a man died after peace and an economic Nepal's king to end his dicta- Ram Sharan Chimoiorya. being seriously wounded in revival to the impoverished airport and was quickly escorted to a torship and restore democra- In the central village of a clash between supporters Himalayan nation, where 60 Fifty-four Myanmar nearby hotel. He was to hold a news cy. Galkot, Maoists tried to take of the centrist Nepali percent of the 27 million peo- conference later in the day before trav- Security was tight with over a polling station and Congress and a minority ple are under age 35 and eling on to Seattle, where he was workers suffocate 17.6 million people regis- then torched the building ethnic group, the Madeshis, many were voting for the scheduled to give a lecture. tered to vote at about 20,000 after scuffling with police who have long agitated for first time. Protests have been held in cities polling stations, some of and election officials, said more autonomy, said a local About 35 percent of vot- around the world in a show of sympa- in back of truck in them a seven-day walk from the area's top official, official, Rajan Pokhrel. ers had cast ballots by noon, thy for Tibet, where anti-government the nearest paved road. The Bhawani Prashad Parajuli. Polling was suspended at halfway through the voting, riots erupted last month. election was being moni- Police later arrested 15 men, about 20 stations, including a said Home Secretary Umesh Thailand Chinese authorities, concerned tored by some 100,000 seizing three grenades and a few in the eastern Ramechap Mainali. about unrest ahead of this summer's observers, including former knife. district where Maoists "I have come of age never Olympic Games in Beijing, have tight- U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Maoist officials in blocked representatives of being allowed to choose my ly restricted access to Tibet and Disturbances were Katmandu said they were other parties from observing government," said 26-year- Tibetan areas of western China where reported in at least a half trying to verify the report, the vote, said Home Ministry old Yuvraj Sharma, who protests also broke out. The sometimes dozen remote areas. but insisted there was no spokesman Ekmani Nepal.