African leaders rejects EU proposals for trade deal to replace colonial-era systems

SignOnSanDiego

By Barry Hatton
ASSOCIATED PRESS

7:12 a.m. December 9, 2007

LISBON, Portugal – Most African leaders have rejected European Union
proposals for a free-trade deal that would replace colonial-era trading
systems, Senegal's president said Sunday at a summit marred by disputes over
Zimbabwe and Darfur.
The two-day meeting in Lisbon had been seen as a chance to push for progress
on the deals known as European Partnership Agreements, or EPAs.

 “It was said several times during the plenary session and it was said again
this morning: African states reject the EPAs,” Senegalese President
Abdoulaye Wade said in angry comments at a news conference.
Wade said he and South African President Thabo Mbeki had led African
opposition to the EU's proposals which, he said, “aren't in Africa's
interest.”

He did not provide details.

His tone of indignation reflected an increasingly tense atmosphere at the
end of a summit that was intended to foster a new era of close relations
between Europe and Africa.

The meeting between leaders of the 53-member African Union and 27-nation EU
was their first in seven years.

As it opened Saturday, deep differences over the human rights record of
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and over measures to end the conflict in
the western Sudanese region of Darfur were evident.

Asked what his message to Europe was as he arrived at the summit venue
Sunday, Mugabe said nothing, but raised his arm and made a fist.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday the EU was “united” in
condemning Mugabe for what they view as his economic mismanagement, failure
to curb corruption and contempt for democracy. British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown stayed away from the summit in protest of Mugabe's attendance.

Measures to help end the conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur
brought another point of contention. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has
so far refused to allow non-Africans into a 26,000-strong U.N.-A.U.
peacekeeping force planned for Darfur. EU nations, meanwhile, have failed to
come up with the military hardware needed to support the operation.

On trade, the EU wants to meet a Dec. 31 deadline set by the World Trade
Organization for replacing its trading system with former European colonies
around the world, including in Africa. The WTO has ruled that the EU's
30-year-old preferential trade agreement with Africa was unfair to other
trading nations and violated international rules.

The negotiations have lasted five years and officials had hoped the summit
would bring a breakthrough.

During previous talks, African governments have said the agreements would do
little to boost their access to European markets. They also viewed the
conditions as an EU attempt to meddle in African affairs.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso acknowledged the
difficulty of reaching free-trade deals between wealthy European countries
and poor African nations.

“It is a challenge for both Africans and Europeans and will require time,”
Barroso said in a speech to the gathering.

The two sides will press ahead with talks on interim accords with individual
African countries to assure they continue to enjoy privileged access to
European markets, he said.

“We are nearly there and we now need to focus all of our energy to achieve
this priority objective,” Barroso said.

The EU says a deal will boost trade and help the development of African
economies. It has warned that nations with which it does not forge new
agreements by January will automatically lose preferential trade privileges
and receive only limited access to EU markets under existing world trade
rules.

Defiant Mugabe tells Europe he won't be lectured

Reuters

Sun 9 Dec 2007, 16:32 GMT

By Ingrid Melander

LISBON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - A defiant Robert Mugabe told European leaders on
Sunday he will not be lectured on how to rule Zimbabwe, hitting back at the
German chancellor and other EU leaders who accused him of ignoring human
rights.

Mugabe raised his fist in defiance, smiling widely, when asked by Reuters
what message he wanted to send Europe on the second and final day of an
EU-Africa summit.

"On human rights and good governance, Africa sets its own agenda, of its own
free will," Zimbabwe's controversial president said, as quoted by two EU
diplomats who listened to his speech to the first Europe-Africa summit in
seven years.

The West and rights groups accuse Mugabe of wide-spread human rights
violations and wrecking his country's economy but he is viewed as an
independence hero by many in Africa.

The Southern Africa Development Community has tried to mediate between
Zimbabwe's government and the opposition.

Britain's Gordon Brown boycotted the meeting to protest Mugabe's
participation, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel challenged the summit on
Saturday to confront human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, saying: "the situation
of Zimbabwe is damaging the image of the new Africa."

But Mugabe was quoted by EU diplomats as saying: "Does the German chancellor
and the other pro-Gordon Brown people really believe they know better than
SADC and the African Union, we have to fight this arrogance."

Previous efforts to hold a summit between the world's largest trading bloc
and its poorest continent had failed because Britain and some other EU
states refused to attend if Mugabe was invited, while African leaders said
they would not come if he was barred.

Mugabe said the EU's "arrogance", not Zimbabwe, was to blame in delaying the
summit.

"TRUMPED UP CHARGES"

"Those who talk of equality have sought to impose their own will on Africa
and made trumped up charges on Zimbabwe," Mugabe said.

"We know our responsibilities, we don't need to be told about peace and
security," he added.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana reiterated these concerns on Sunday
after Mugabe spoke.

"The EU is concerned about the degradation of the economic, humanitarian and
political situation in Zimbabwe," Solana told the European and African
leaders. "The degradation to our mind is a result of a crisis of
governance," he said.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told a news conference at
the end of the summit, referring to Mugabe, that he did not understand why
those who fought for the freedom of their country denied freedom to their
own people.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has accused the government of
Mugabe, 83 and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, of rigging
past elections and called for democratic reforms before the 2008 poll.

The MDC has alleged that authorities have stepped up a campaign of
repression as a means of stifling the opposition in the run-up to the
election.

(Editing by Mary Gabriel)

Sentamu cuts up dog collar in Mugabe protest

 

By Duncan Hooper

Last Updated: 3:29pm GMT 09/12/2007

The Archbishop of York has cut up his dog collar live on television in protest against the human rights violations of Robert Mugabe. John Sentamu pledged not to wear the symbol of the clergy until the Zimbabwean president steps down and urged others to "pray, march, protest and collect money" for the cause of his people.   John Sentamu said Zimbabweans' identities have been cut to pieces With Mr Mugabe enjoying the global limelight at the EU's Africa summit in Lisbon, the Archbishop spoke out against the destruction of Zimbabweans' identities. "Do you know what Mugabe has done? He has taken people's identity and literally - if you don't mind - cut it to pieces," Mr Sentamu told BBC1's Andrew Marr show. "As far as I am concerned, from now on I am not going to wear a dog collar until Mugabe is gone." He also criticised South Africa for its refusal to act over the deteriorating political and economic situation of its neighbour. The detachable dog collar is thought have been invented in the 1800s while the collarino - material which partially covers the white collar and is common with Roman Catholic clergy - is thought to date as far back as the 17th century. According to research carried out in 1976 by the Church of England's Enquiry Centre, the dog collar became popular with Anglican clergy during the Oxford Movement in the 19th century. Aides to the Archbishop stressed that he did not expect other clergy to follow his example.

Plots in the press room - Zimbabwe's battle comes to Lisbon

Monsters and Critics

Dec 9, 2007, 16:23 GMT

Lisbon - While European and African leaders argued about Zimbabwe in the
lofty halls of Lisbon's conference centre, the row took on a bizarre twist
in the building's blue-carpeted press room.

When Portuguese media guides came to the media centre on Friday morning
after a pre-summit briefing, they found it littered with copies of a thick
and glossy magazine, 'New African,' emblazoned with the face of Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe.

A 100-page supplement was devoted entirely to Zimbabwe, with a front-page
photo of Mugabe demanding land for its people.

Mugabe is a vocal campaigner for land reform, but his policies are credited
in Europe with having destroyed Zimbabwe's once-flourishing economy and its
fledgling democracy.

European and African states have regularly clashed over the issue, with the
EU accusing Mugabe of flagrant human-rights abuses.

The magazine supplement, sponsored by the Zimbabwean Ministry of Information
and Publicity, left no doubt as to its sympathies.

It accused Britain's former premier Tony Blair of wanting to invade the
country, and said that current Prime Minister Gordon Brown - who boycotted
the summit over Mugabe's presence - wanted to 'coil a whip that would make
the continent jump into line.'

And the appearance of large numbers of pro-Mugabe magazines - which had not
been approved by organizers - in a room under such tight security that even
accredited journalists had to queue for an hour to get entry passes left
press-centre staff baffled.

Rumours quickly began flying that they had been smuggled in by a member of
the Zimbabwean embassy, or even a secret agent.

Within hours, the magazines had disappeared from the news-stands in the
press room. Subsequent questioning revealed that they had been 'temporarily
withdrawn' while summit officials decided whether they could be counted as
genuine news material.

But on Saturday morning a new controversy arose. Opening the press centre
well before sunrise, media guides were baffled to find small red paper
scratch cards entitled 'Robert Mugabe: for the sake of Zimbabwe, please hang
on' lying around the room.

Under each silver scratch-off pad was a picture of a hangman's noose and the
internet address of an anti-Mugabe campaign, Zimbabwe Democracy Now.

Summit staff expressed bafflement as to how the cards could have got past
security. Some suggested that they must have been hidden in the room before
the summit, or carried there in an accredited visitor's possessions.

The scratch cards quickly joined the magazines in the cramped recesses of
the summit media coordinator's office, where both documents were
subsequently judged to be propaganda materials out of keeping with the
spirit of the meeting.

With the summit at an end, the materials are likely to end up side by side
in its capacious recycling bins, staff said.

And summit organizers would no doubt be delighted to see the old enemies
coming so close together for once in their long dispute.

© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

EU leaders steer clear of Mugabe

Rows fail to overshadow EU-Africa 'new partnership'

Monsters and Critics

Dec 9, 2007, 16:28 GMT

Lisbon - European and African leaders praised their joint summit in Lisbon
as the launch of a new alliance on Sunday, despite rows over issues of trade
and human rights.

'Without doubt, this summit is historic, because it represents a milestone
in our relationship. A partnership has emerged, of two continents looking
for a better future and a new era of political dialogue,' the summit's host,
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, said in his closing speech.

'The relationship between Europe and Africa has been put on a new
platform... The two will now begin a new friendship and partnership that
should have a very positive impact on the process of globalisation,' African
Union President John Kufour agreed.

The two-day summit of 26 European and 53 African heads of government held
talks on a sweeping range of issues, from energy and climate change to
migration, science and security. It was the two sides' first meeting since
2000, and only the second ever.

At the end of the meeting they approved an eight-part agreement setting out
how they should cooperate on those issues ahead of the next summit,
scheduled to be held in Africa in 2010. Libya has already offered to host
that summit.

But the Lisbon meeting was dominated by two issues: the state of democracy
in Zimbabwe and a bitter row over trade deals known as Economic Partnership
Agreements (EPAs), which have been a bone of contention for over five years.

Ahead of the summit, Zimbabwe seemed the more explosive issue. EU leaders
have long accused President Robert Mugabe of destroying his country's
democracy and economy, and Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown refused to
attend the summit because of Mugabe's presence.

On Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel accused Mugabe's regime of
'damaging the image of the new Africa' in comments backed up by other EU
leaders.

Mugabe hit back on Sunday, accusing his opponents of being Brown's
'spokesmen' and of showing ignorance of Zimbabwe in their speeches, and
arrogance in their attitudes.

But the second day of talks was dominated by the trade issue. The EU and
four African regions have been negotiating for five years on a package of
deals - the EPAs - which are meant to replace earlier agreements the World
Trade Organization (WTO) had ruled illegal.

The WTO had set a deadline for the end of the year for the old deals to be
replaced. Several African states have said that the EU is using that as an
excuse to force them into unfair deals, and on Sunday they appeared close to
walking away from negotiations.

'Let's not talk about the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)! We've said
we rejected them - for us, it's finished,' President Maitre Abdoulaye Wade
of Senegal told journalists.

'When we meet again, we'll discuss things, the EU will present their EPAs,
and we will present something else ... But today the African states are
rejecting the EPAs,' he said.

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who bears final responsibility
for the EU in the talks, quickly pointed out that the EU only wanted to sign
interim deals by the end of the year, and that he and colleagues would
personally conduct talks on longer-term deals with their African
counterparts early in 2008.

'Let's conclude the interim deals first - it's already almost finished with
almost all the countries involved. My information is that almost all the
countries that need an interim deal will initial them by the end of the
year,' he said.

'The discussion on EPAs will go on. We understand the difficulties that
exist when it comes to introducing a new regime: whenever there is change,
there's a problem, but we're convinced that the EPAs are a good offer,' he
added.

The wide-ranging EU-Africa Strategic Partnership, approved at the meeting,
sets out a series of eight areas in which the two continents should improve
their cooperation, together with a long list of action plans which they are
expected to implement by 2010.

And both sides viewed the fact that they had managed to reach agreement on
those broad goals, in spite of serious disagreements on individual points,
as the most significant outcome of the event.

'The mood created in Lisbon will prove historic, because it marks a radical
change,' Kufour concluded simply.

© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Zimbabwe dominates and divides at EU-Africa summit

Radio Netherlands

by Vanessa Mock

09-12-2007

Zimbabwe has cast a shadow on a landmark EU-Africa summit after some African
leaders rejected European criticism of President Robert Mugabe. Disagreement
over the regime of Mr Mugabe highlighted divisions between the two
continents.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel lashed out at President Robert Mugabe,
accusing him of trampling on human rights. In her keynote speech on behalf
of the EU on Saturday, she stated that the situation in Zimbabwe was
"harming the image of the new Africa".

Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende also had harsh words for Robert
Mugabe, calling his regime "objectionable" and guilty of violence and
oppression. He added:

"It would have been better if he had stayed away."

Misinformed
The Senegale President Adbulaye Wade retaliated by saying that Europeans
were "misinformed" about the situation in Zimbabwe. "What Ms Merkel said is
on the basis of her information. Sadly her information is not correct," he
told journalists in Lisbon.

Mr Wade insisted that his recent visit to Harare proved that the country was
"not in the process of disintegrating" and he accused the media of
inaccurate reporting on issues such as the recent arrest of independent
journalists.

Robert Mugabe was invited to Lisbon after previous efforts to hold the
summit were derailed over the question of his attendance. His government has
been accused on brutal crackdowns on opposition figures and of running the
economy: the official annual rate of inflation stands at nearly 8,000
percent.

"Murderer at the table"
The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown refused to attend the event, a move
applauded by human rights groups who held protests outside the conference
venue:

"If I had killed your daughter, would you sit down with me at the same
table?" asked one member of the Restoration of Human Rights, a Harare-based
NGO.
"The situation is desperate. But I know that African leaders will duck the
question of the gross violations of human rights."

The issue of Zimbabwe was conspicuously absent in the speech of Thabo Mbeki,
the South African leader. A British politician cited Mr Mbeki's role as an
intermediary between the opposition and the government for the reason for
his silence.

African solidarity
Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch said it was unfortunate that Mr Mugabe had
dominated talks aimed at strengthening ties between the EU and Africa.

"On the other hand, there's been more discussion of human rights in Zimbabwe
than there has been in a long time, which is positive. On the down side,
there's been a show of African solidarity with him."

Separately, there was also deadlock over new trade deals, or Economic
Partnership Agreements.

Many African governments have resisted EU pressure to sign the trade deals
by the end of December, when a World Trade Organization waiver allowing
preferential treatment for developing countries' exports expires.

They argue that the deal will hurt Africa's rural poor and its industry.

Zimbabweans struggle amid hunger and corruption

Los Angeles Times

One-third of the population depends on foreign food aid, with the rural poor
most affected.
By Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 9, 2007
LUPANE, ZIMBABWE -- Jane Sibanda waits until the hunger claws her insides
and she is so dizzy from lack of food that she can barely stand it.

Then, ashamed, the 70-year-old forces herself to beg for food from other
villagers, who themselves are close to starving.

"I take a few days, postponing and postponing. I put it off until I feel my
body can't take it anymore. There are times when I feel as if my insides are
coming up into my chest and I know that I've left it too long without
eating," said Sibanda, describing how she feels after a week surviving only
on wild fruit from the parched bush near her home a few miles from Lupane in
southern Zimbabwe.

Neighbor Beby Ndebele said she felt desperate when Sibanda appeared at her
door, because she did not have enough mealie meal, as Zimbabwe's cornmeal
staple is known, to spare. But she couldn't bear to eat while her elderly
neighbor starved, so somehow she scraped up a small bowl.

Sibanda, who remembers a time when she owned plenty of cattle and was a
burden to no one, vowed to make it last a week.

As the government of President Robert Mugabe proclaims plans for the "Mother
of All Harvests" this planting season, many rural Zimbabweans are teetering
on the edge of starvation.

And a new hunger crisis threatens. Despite predictions of a good rain for
planting after last year's severe drought and failed harvest, Zimbabwe's
economic chaos has left the country with an acute shortage of seeds.

Just a few years ago, Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of southern Africa,
exporting grain to its less blessed neighbors. But in 2000, Mugabe began
seizing thousands of mainly white-owned commercial farms and dismantling the
inequitable pattern of ownership established under the racist government of
Ian Smith.

Cronyism suspected

Some analysts, however, argue that the real motive behind the land
redistribution was to share the spoils of power with Mugabe's cronies and
liberation war veterans in return for their continued loyalty. Government
ministers, security officials and ruling party allies grabbed the land and
ran the farms into the ground. The nation's richest export industry
collapsed almost overnight.

The national harvest plummeted. Production of maize fell by 74% from 1999 to
2004, according to the Washington-based independent Center for Global
Development, while in neighboring Zambia it increased.

Now, about a third of Zimbabwe's population depends on humanitarian food
aid.

Just as the government plays favorites in awarding farms, it plays favorites
when distributing food. For hungry village people, the threat of starvation
is terrifying.

With the presidential election due next year, there are reports from rural
areas that the state-run Grain Marketing Board, which has a monopoly on the
distribution of maize, is selling only to ruling party supporters or
siphoning it to party officials, police and bureaucrats who resell it on the
black market at inflated prices.

But the biggest problem, according to human rights organizations monitoring
hunger, is that the grain board is distributing very little maize at all in
many rural areas.

"We have had a lot of stories about political abuse of food," said Shari
Eppel, a human rights activist in the southern city of Bulawayo. "But I
think one of the biggest problems around food at the moment is that there
isn't any. Even if you have got money, there isn't any to buy, and yet this
is a very hungry time of year."

Matebeleland, a parched region in the south where support for the political
opposition tends to be strongest, is the hardest hit by hunger.

An acute crisis

Food has often been used as political leverage in Zimbabwe, particularly in
election season, but this year the impact is severe because of the punishing
drought last year and the fact that shops across the country are virtually
empty. That means hungry rural families cannot turn to relatives in urban
areas to get them through until the next harvest, in April.

The only cushion against political manipulation of maize is international
humanitarian aid, but the United Nations' World Food Program and other
agencies target only the thin layer of the most vulnerable, leaving many,
such as Jane Sibanda, in desperate hunger.

"I vividly remember weeping when I was told I was not one of the
beneficiaries at the World Vision distribution center," she said, recalling
the registration of aid recipients by the relief group in early November.

"There are some people who got maize who don't deserve it, but I'm afraid to
mention their names," fearing they could cast a curse on her or beat her if
she spoke out. "I'd rather die of hunger than point out that this person and
that person got food unfairly."

The World Food Program and World Vision deny there are opportunities for
manipulation of distributions, saying villagers decide as a group who gets
aid and who doesn't. They said follow-up procedures were in place to make
sure no one needy missed out and that those who didn't need aid were not
included.

But manipulation of the maize distribution is commonplace, villagers and
human rights activists say.

In the southern village of Mzola, a group of a dozen young Mugabe supporters
recently seized all the government maize, which was meant to go to 175
families, according to residents interviewed by The Times. They say that
humanitarian aid was manipulated by community leaders with the ruling party,
who warned villagers not to report cases in which people who weren't needy
were given humanitarian aid.

The hunger problem is not limited to rural areas. In Killarney, a slum
suburb of Bulawayo, families are dependent on intermittent aid from local
churches, and go hungry when the churches have no food to give. Most are
people who lost their homes two years ago during Operation Murambatsvina, or
"clean out the filth," when the Mugabe government razed tens of thousands of
shacks, leaving at least 750,000 homeless.

Traveling across Zimbabwe, the economic crisis and its fallout is obvious,
particularly in the southern district of Binga, one of the poorest and most
neglected corners of the country. Transportation is a problem everywhere,
but here people usually have to wait three or four days for a passing
vehicle.

Waiting to eat

The landscape is red and dusty, with not a blade of green grass. Passing
through one village, scores of listless people wait in the heat for a
rumored arrival of government maize. They had waited the previous day too.

On top of a hill overlooking a magnificent mountain, a man sat on a broken
hand-carved stool in the dirt. He had no interest in the scenery or even the
future, because he cannot get food to fill the bellies of his nine children.

Siaviri Muleya, 48, and his wife had just finished a small bowl of mealie
meal, the bland white paste made by boiling up ground maize. It was the last
of their food. He wore an ancient pair of overalls, so worn they were almost
shredded. And he was getting ready to sell his future.

He had a bag of sunflower seeds, which he had hoped to plant for a crop. But
desperate, his only choice was to sell it in return for one or two days'
food. The family has been living on baobab and other wild fruit. And he begs
for mealie meal from his neighbors, who have little to give.

Muleya gets an odd job several times a month, paid in food. But each job
pays one day's food supply. He has no goats, cattle or chickens, yet was
left out of a recent World Food Program humanitarian registration.

"It really troubles me as head of the family," he said. "I don't even sleep
well at night. I lie awake thinking, 'How am I going to get food for my
family?' "

At a home for orphans in the town of Nkayi, the children sleep on bare
concrete floors without mattresses. Children in threadbare clothes wander
around doing chores. In the yard, a child's voice sings enthusiastically but
tunelessly.

The pantry had two moldy cabbages and a small bag of mealie meal when The
Times visited last month, not enough for a single meal for the 35 children.
Yet locals say they have seen bags of maize stacked high in a local
policeman's house.

"It's very painful. I feel very sad because I have no power to do anything
about it. That's our life today," said one of the orphans, a 20-year-old who
asked that his name not be used to protect him against reprisals.

"The youngest sometimes cry for food. But there's no way you can tell them
there will be food tomorrow, or we'll get you a good supper," he said.
"There's no way to tell them anything except to accept what is there."

When there is not enough food, he goes hungry so that at least the little
ones can eat.

"We older ones can stand the pressure. But if the younger ones don't get it,
they will spend the night crying for food."

By the time they're 10, he said, the children don't cry about hunger
anymore. They learn that it's pointless.

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

Shortages threaten promised Zimbabwe "bumper harvest"

Monsters and Critics

Dec 9, 2007, 16:07 GMT

Harare - What President Robert Mugabe's government promised would be 'the
mother of all agricultural seasons' this summer looks like falling far short
of its target, according to reports even in Zimbabwe's state-controlled
media.

Three months ago, the government embarked, to great fanfare, on a campaign
to end the last five years' succession of continuous failure in the
country's agricultural sector, once the most robust and diverse in Africa.

The central bank spent 25 million US dollars on importing nearly 1,000
tractors as well as combine harvesters, and funded the production of 50,000
ox-drawn ploughs at an as yet unspecified cost, under a massive farm
mechanization operation to drive renewed agricultural output.

The industry that used to export maize to feed the starving in dozens of
other African countries, began to collapse after 2000 when Mugabe introduced
a lawless, violent campaign of eviction of the country's 4,500 white
commercial farmers.

Since 2002, millions of Zimbabweans have been rescued from starvation by
donations of food from Western countries.

In mid October, Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo declared the government
had 'secured enough seed, fertilizer and agricultural implements and fuel'
to ensure a 'massive output' that would bring an end to food shortages,
force down inflation - currently running at a reported 15,000 per cent - and
restore 'our status as Southern Africa's breadbasket.'

Zimbabwe would have enough to feed its own people, with much left over for
export, he said.

Every news bulletin on state radio is preceded with the slogan: '2007 and
2008 - the mother of all agricultural seasons.' Abundant early rains have
fallen over most of the country.

In the middle of last month, however, there was the first indication that
plans were not proceeding as they should when the government urged peasant
farmers to use cattle manure and not wait for the delivery of chemical
fertilizers imported by the central bank.

Then Sunday, the state media admitted for the first time that fertilizer was
seriously in short supply.

'The anticipated bumper harvest might be affected by the unavailability of
fertilizer,' the Sunday Mail reported. 'Most shops that sell fertilizer have
been empty,' it said.

It quoted Edward Raredza, president of the Zimbabwe Farmers' Union, which
represents millions of peasant farmers, as saying that fertilizer was 'pie
in the sky for many.'

Last week, a government spokesman said it had only 65 per cent of the 50,000
tonnes of seed needed for maize, the national staple. It said 12,000 tonnes
had been ordered from neighbouring Zambia, but only 3,000 tonnes had been
delivered.

Also last month, the state-controlled daily Herald reported that people were
spending two weeks queuing for state-subsidized fuel imported for farmers.
Electricity from the nearly bankrupt state- owned Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply Authority to run fuel pumps was available for only two hours a day.

Two weeks ago, the head of the Agriculture Ministry's extension service said
lack of technical advice would 'cripple attempts at economic turnaround
through agriculture' because it had lost so many extension officers, and
those it had did not have adequate transport.

'This year is the worst yet for inputs,' a manager for one of the few
surviving large-scale agricultural estates said.

Alois Chimuti went two weeks ago to his home town of Rusape in eastern
Zimbabwe, once a major commercial farming hub, to buy maize seed and
fertilizer.

'When I got there, there was a queue one kilometre long outside the
government depot,' he said. 'We sat there all day and got nothing, because
ZANU(PF) (Mugabe's ruling party) officials kept driving to the front of the
queue and got served first.'

© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

As EU-AU Summit Closes, Mugabe Lashes Back At His European Critics

VOA

      By Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
      Washington
      09 December 2007

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe lashed back Sunday at European leaders
who admonished him over his record on human rights and governance in the
course of the European Union-African Union summit just ended in Lisbon,
Portugal.

Mr. Mugabe singled out Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, whom he
dubbed the “the gang of four” and accused of taking orders from British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who boycotted the event because Mr. Mugabe
would attend.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel rebuked President Mugabe in summit
proceedings Saturday, saying the crisis in Zimbabwe “damages the image of
the new Africa."

Mr. Mugabe accused his Western critics of “arrogance, that kind of
superiority complex that we fight here," and predicted that Europe won’t
accept the results of the March 2008 presidential and general elections
“because they don’t like the winner.”

Southern African Development Community Secretary General Tomaz Salomao said
the European leaders were out of line in bringing up Zimbabwe at the summit,
noting that South African President Thabo Mbeki is mediating crisis
discussions under the auspices of SADC. "Zimbabwe is our problem, we are
dealing with it," he said.

But European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said bad governance,
not EU sanctions, was to blame for Zimbabwe's plight. He said the EU is
"concerned about the degradation of the economic, humanitarian and political
situation in Zimbabwe" adding that the "degradation is to our minds a result
of the crisis of governance."

In another gesture against Mr. Mugabe, Anglican Archbishop of York John
Sentamu, Ugandan-born and the highest ranking black bishop in his church,
cut off his clerical collar during a BBC television interview saying he
would not put it back on until Mr. Mugabe left office. "I'm not going to
wear a dog collar until (he's) gone," he said.

Washington Times Africa Bureau Chief Geoff Hill, in Lisbon, told reporter
Ndimyake Mwakalyelye of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the summit yielded
little in the way of trade and development accords, and ended up being
mainly about Mr. Mugabe.

Zimbabwe'S ZANU-PF congress to endorse Mugabe for 2008 poll

africasia

HARARE, Dec 9 (AFP)

Zimbabwe's ruling party will Tuesday begin an extraordinary congress and
President Robert Mugabe is expected to be endorsed as its sole presidential
flagbearer in next year's poll, party officials said.

The four-day congress, to be staged in capital Harare, is also expected to
draw a roadmap for Zimbabwe's political and economical policies for the next
five years, officials said.

According to the agenda of the congress obtained by AFP, the ZANU-PF will
declare veteran Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, president of the
party and its sole state candidate for the March elections.

Jabulani Sibanda, chairman of the war veterans, said the major highlight of
the congress will be the endorsement of Mugabe, 83, as the party's sole
candidate for the election.

"As war veterans we are 100 percent behind President Mugabe, no amount of
hunger, pressure and threats from Britain will make us change that position.
Nothing will stop us from supporting our president," he told AFP.

Mugabe's relations with his former allies in Europe, including Britain,
plummeted after he embarked on a controversial programme in 2000 to seize
white-owned farms and he was slapped with a raft of sanctions after he
allegedly rigged his 2002 re-election.

The congress will discuss the state of the economy, the 2007 agricultural
season as well as confirm amendments to the Constitution which allow for
joint parliamentary and presidential polls in March next year.

The ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party,
in a rare show of cooperation, last August agreed on the joint parliamentary
and presidential polls next March.

The last congress was held in December 2004.

The political editor of state-run The Herald newspaper, Ceaser Zvayi, said
the significance of the congress will be the endorsement of Mugabe as the
party's candidate as well as his continued leadership.

"The congress will also obviuosly look at ways at improving the livelihood
of the people. It will also address the burning question of the state of the
economy which according to some people is now the only real opposition to
ZANU-PF," he said.

Godfrey Chikowore, director of the Institute of Development Studies at the
University of Zimbabwe, said the congress would assert the sovereignty of
Zimbabweans.

"The congress signifies self-rule, sovereignty and reflects the will of the
people as it will not only confirm President Mugabe as the party candidate,
it will also discuss the state of the economy and agricultural progress for
this year."

Chikowore blamed Zimbabwe's economic woes on the "British sanctions and the
opposition which have continued on its demonic mission against the country."

Takura Zhangazha, Harare-based political commentator, said besides endorsing
Mugabe's candidature for the March poll, nothing concrete will come out of
the congress.

"In terms of policy direction nothing is going to change significantly from
this congress. The reason they are holding this congress is to endorse
Mugabe. After endorsing Mugabe they would want to ensure that they gurantee
a majority in parliament and massage his revolutionary ego," he said.

Some regional political organisations are expected to attend the ZANU-PF
summit.

The southern African country is in the throes of an eight-year recession
characterised by runaway inflation, chronic shortages of foreign currency,
fuel and basic foodstuffs such as cooking oil and an unemployment rate
hovering over 70 percent.

At least 80 percent of the population live below the poverty threshold often
skipping meals and walking or cycling long distances to work in order to
stretch their wages to the next payday.

The government in Harare, however, blames the economic woes on previous
droughts and targeted sanctions imposed by the European Union and the US
government on Mugabe and members of his inner circle and their families
following the disputed presidential poll in 2002.

Mugabe at large

Mens News Daily

December 9, 2007 at 11:36 am ·

The EU/ACP summit has come and gone and to me, even from this distance, it
looks like they succeeded in restricting Mugabe's ability to dislocate the
summit. They seem to have done this by carefully managing his movements and
opportunities and seem to have had the help of most African leaders -
especially those from the SADC region. His body language this morning was
very revealing - an old man looking tense and somehow reduced in stature.
There was little of the swagger and arrogance that we have seen previously.

A large billboard on the road from the Airport to Lisbon stated - "Mugabe,
Racist, you are not welcome" and today a light aircraft flew over the
conference venue dragging a large banner that said - "Mugabe, you are next
for The Hague. Then the Vigil guys from London and their Portuguese
associates did a great job, actually forcing Mugabe to change hotels and
clashing with a group of local thugs employed to defend Mugabe - all grist
to the mill, there was no other story and the media blitz on the Zimbabwe
delegation was total - I doubt if Grace managed any of her legendary
shopping.

The current Chairman of the G8, the Chancellor of Germany, was typically
straight on the issue of Zimbabwe. "This situation, economically, socially
and politically, was unacceptable and was not the responsibility of the
European States to address. This was an African problem and required an
African solution". At least 6 European Heads of State stayed away from the
summit on account of the attendance by Mugabe - that is a significant number
of the 27 States that make up the European Union today. Overall I rate the
summit as a diplomatic disaster for Mr. Mugabe.

It also sounds as if the summit did some good things. It is now many years
since European States administered colonies in Africa and it is time we
moved on and established a more modern relationship between the sovereign
States and groups of States of both Europe and Africa. The negotiation
process of the new Economic Partnership Agreements is now well down the path
to finality - the one with the SADC will be finalized in 2008 and hopefully
the MDC will be the government to do it for Zimbabwe. The colonial era is
past and we must now concentrate on the future - for all our sakes.

Then there is the situation behind closed doors at the summit. I doubt very
much if Mugabe could have ever imagined that his timing could have been so
far out. Just 4 weeks ago we stated our view at the SADC sponsored talks
that if action was not taken to enforce the decisions made at the talks and
to halt the violence against the MDC, we could see little point in
continuing. This resulted in the direct intervention of President Mbeki who
came to Harare on his way to Chogum and had a session with the main
principals to the talks.

The talks resumed immediately afterwards but a week later, Zanu PF submitted
a document to the facilitators making the outrageous statement that since
there was insufficient time to implement the agreements reached after months
of negotiation, that the elections to be held in March 2008 should be held
under current laws and administration. They had the audacity to suggest that
the government elected in the March elections should then take
responsibility for implementing the agreement and that this would then
govern all future elections! If this is what they have been angling for
since March, they must have been shaken by our response. Enough to say we
totally rejected the suggestion and instead demanded that the negotiators
agree to a list of minimum demands by the 15th of December - two weeks away,
or we will review our whole participation and consent to what had been
discussed.

Our National Executive met to discuss the stance taken by our leadership and
endorsed it unanimously and issued a statement to the media to that effect
as Mr. Mugabe took off for Lisbon. In Lisbon were all the leaders of the
SADC region - the actual sponsors of the talks as well as a high-powered
delegation from South Africa led by the State President. I have got no doubt
that sideline meetings have been held and that in those meetings there were
strong words. From the very beginning, the Zanu PF team and Mr. Mugabe in
particular, have dragged their feet, agreed to things in private with the
SADC leadership and then gone on to do the opposite. They have tried to
circumvent the region and to subvert the South African role at every step.
Last week, they went a step too far and the timing could not have been
worse.

I expect that very shortly, in one form or another, we will see evidence
that Mr. Mugabe has been forced to back down and agree to the minimum
demands of the MDC. The talks are continuing in South Africa and by next
weekend (in fact the 15th) we expect to hear that the agreement has been
wrapped up and signed. At our request it then comes back to us and we have a
period during which we can take the agreement to our structures and partners
in civil society and get their reaction and approval to sign off on the
deal. If that goes as we expect, we would then agree to the implementation
of the agreement and proceed to the next step, which is implementation with
full international and regional supervision and then the campaign and the
elections themselves.

In a strange way the EU/ACP summit may have been the exact sort of event
that was needed to bring this situation into focus, get leaders to meet
together and agree on what was needed and then take the required steps to
see that it happens. I am glad that it did not derail the main agenda and
that real progress was made. This was an historic event for both Europe and
Africa and might well have been a running point in the resolution of the
Zimbabwe crisis.

As for the situation at home, it's raining and that is always welcome, it
looks as if we will have a decent wet season. But nothing else has changed
or improved - prices are doubling weekly, the dollar has crashed and
everything is in very short supply. People are desperately poor and hungry
and it is going to be a lousy Christmas for all of us. Lets just pray that
we can report back to the people of Zimbabwe that there is light on the
horizon at last.

Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 9th December 2007

New “Scramble for Africa”

The recent Europe-Africa summit in Lisbon, Portugal, clearly epitomizes a
“new Scramble for Africa”. The fact that Africa is resource rich is
undeniable if we open the books of history and consider the many summits
held and others upcoming between Africa and global partners notably Europe,
China, Japan and the United States of America. This realisation has
important developmental implications for Africa notably:

1)         This clearly presents opportunities for Africa to enter into
strategic and symbiotic trade and economic deals, which are vital for
economic sustenance and capacity building.

2)         Africa should be wary of parasitic deals which are often foisted
by stronger partners who have the competitive advantage of wealth and
developed technology.

3)         African governments should look into themselves to improve issues
of governance, democracy and human rights, so that they can negotiate deals
on “equal” terms.

FC