![\"The](\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/timeszambia180.jpg\" "\\"Visit")
<\/a><\/p>\n31 December 2011<\/p>\n
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PRESIDENT Michael Sata yesterday said the differences he had with Malawian President Bingu Wa Mutharika have been resolved following the 45-minute meeting he held with Malawi’s retired president Bakili Muluzi.<\/p>\n
President Sata told journalists at State House in Lusaka yesterday that “by gone is by gone” and was hoping to visit Malawi soon.<\/p>\n
Dr Muluzi was present when President Sata briefed the media outside State House about the outcome of their closed-door meeting.<\/p>\n
The diplomatic stand-off between Zambia and Malawi arose from a 2007 deportation of President Sata when he was opposition leader.<\/p>\n
“The main reason for Dr Muluzi’s visit was to reconcile Zambia and Malawi. The president (Muluzi) wants us to forget the incident where I was deported from Malawi. We feel that Zambia and Malawi are bigger than Michael Sata and Bingu Wa Mutharika,” President Sata said.<\/p>\n
In deciding to bury the hatchet, Mr Sata stated that he had accepted the submission that the two leaders should reconcile.<\/p>\n
He said he had given Dr Muluzi a message to deliver to President Wa Mutharika.<\/p>\n
Dr Muluzi, who arrived in Zambia on Wednesday for a two-day private visit, had an audience with the Zambian president at State House where he tabled the issue of the stand-off considering that the two countries shared longstanding relations.<\/p>\n
Dr Muluzi, who retired as Malawi leader in 2004 after serving his official two five-year terms, said apart from congratulating President Sata on his September victory, he had also come to mourn Dr Levy Mwanawasa and Dr Frederick Chiluba.<\/p>\n
Dr Muluzi’s visit was private and the programme was not made available to the Zambian media.<\/p>\n
Dr Mwanawasa died at the Percy Military Hospital near the French capital, Paris, on 19 August, 2008, two months after suffering a stroke while attending the African Union summit in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh.<\/p>\n
Dr Chiluba died of a heart complication in June this year.<\/p>\n
President Sata told Dr Muluzi to convey to his Malawian counterpart, a message of goodwill that he had “forgiven what happened in 2007” and finally they have to bury the hatchet.<\/p>\n
Dr Muluzi left the country for Malawi yesterday.<\/p>\n
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