African Union chief Alpha Conde says body will never accept Zimbabwe 'coup', demands respect for Constitution

Paris: The head of the African Union said on Thursday that the body “will never accept the military coup d’etat” in Zimbabwe. “We demand respect for the Constitution, a return to the constitutional order and we will never accept the military coup d’etat,” Alpha Conde said in an interview with French journalists in Paris. [caption id=“attachment_4214039” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe. AP[/caption] “We know there are internal problems. They need to be resolved politically by the ZANU-PF party and not with an intervention by the army,” added Conde, who is also Guinea’s president. Zimbabwe’s military was in control of the country on Wednesday as President Robert Mugabe said he was under house arrest and his generals denied staging a coup. Mugabe’s decades-long grip on power appeared to be slipping as armoured military vehicles blockaded parliament, soldiers took up positions at strategic points across Harare and senior soldiers commandeered state television to broadcast a late-night address. Zimbabwe was left stunned at the military intervention against Mugabe, 93, who has ruled the country since independence from British rule in 1980. Despite Mugabe’s refusal to resign, attention has shifted to the prominent figures who could play a role in any transitional government.