The Times
December 10, 2007
David Charter in
Lisbon
President Mugabe dismissed as “Gordon’s gang of four” a quartet of
European
leaders who lined up to attack his misrule, as he sought to blame
Britain
for the repeated criticism he was forced to endure at the EU-Africa
summit.
The Zimbabwean leader went on the offensive yesterday in a closed
meeting of
the 27 EU and 53 African nations present after he was accused by
Angela
Merkel, the German Chancellor, of “harming the image of the new
Africa”.
Although much of the media focus at the two-day summit was on Mr
Mugabe, a
row over trade agreements threatened to overtake the agenda and
left the EU
struggling to persuade key African nations to sign up before a
New Year
deadline.
Mr Brown’s boycott over the presence of Mr Mugabe
left it to Mrs Merkel and
the leaders of the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden
to high-light human
rights concerns in Zimbabwe. Mr Mugabe, 83, appeared to
be isolated after
only one African leader, President Wade of Senegal, 81,
spoke out in his
defence. A younger generation of African leaders simply
referred to the
Zimbabwe problem and insisted that African efforts to
mediate led by Thabo
Mbeki, the President of South Africa, would soon bear
fruit.
Mr Mugabe said that the “trumped-up charges” by “Gordon’s gang of
four”
showed the arrogance of the Europeans. He said: “They criticise
Zimbabwe and
human rights in contradiction to the positions of the SADC
[Southern African
Development Community of 14 nations] and the African
Union. Does the German
Chancellor believe she has better knowledge of
Zimbabwe than SADC?”
Mr Brown was not present but he had “megaphones who
speak not from their own
hearts but say what No 10 Downing Street will be
pleased to hear,” Mr Mugabe
said. “Britain are the masters of
Germany.”
By the time that Baroness Amos, the British representative,
spoke towards
the end of the summit and detailed the low life expectancy in
Zimbabwe, Mr
Mugabe had left the room. But he was there to hear Javier
Solana, the EU
foreign policy representative, rebuff the “gang of four”
claim and insist
that Europe was united in condemnation of Mr Mugabe’s
policies.
Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch Prime Minister, said that he
was proud to be
in the gang of four. Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish Prime
Minister, added:
“It was an extraordinary honour to be included in a circle
that stands up
for human rights and democracy.”
British diplomats
said that Mr Brown had been right to stay away because it
allowed the rest
of the EU to make the case against Zimbabwe. “This was not
Britain against
Zimbabwe, it was Europe against Zimbabwe,” one said.
The Portuguese
organisers insisted that they had been right to push ahead
with the summit
in the face of pressure from Britain to ban Mr Mugabe, which
could have led
to a boycott from African countries and caused it to
collapse.
A
Portuguese diplomat said: “We feel vindicated. We were right in not
allowing
Zimbabwe to be a blockage. Had we caved in to British pressure we
would not
have had a new partnership which we believe will make situations
like the
one in Zimbabwe obsolete.” The leaders signed an agreement to meet
regularly
to update measures to tackle climate change, governance and
migration.
But the summit ended on a sour note with a row over the
EU’s proposed
Economic Partnership Agreements to update trading rules with
African
countries. Even though the World Trade Organisation set a deadline
of
December 31, several nations, including Senegal, Namibia, Nigeria and
South
Africa, are refusing to sign because they want better protection for
African
producers.
Mr Mbeki said: “The way that EPAs are constructed
will not contribute to
development in those countries they are aimed at.
They will not assist in
the fight against poverty.” Alpha Oumar Konare, the
African Union president,
said that the EU had to give up its “colonial
approach”. He added: “The
riches of Africa must be paid for at a fair
price.”
Solicitors are to call on the Prime Minister to condemn human
rights abuses
and to put pressure on Zimbabwe to restore law and
order.
Leaders of the Law Society also plan to present a petition to
Gordon Brown
condemning the suspension of the rule of law in Pakistan. The
moves come as
part of a series of initiatives by the legal profession to
mark
International Human Rights Day today.
Independent, UK
By Andrew Grice
Published: 10 December 2007
European
and African leaders have signed a pact promoting free trade and
democracy
but failed to make a breakthrough on formal trade agreements
between the two
continents.
At a two-day summit in Lisbon, overshadowed by the presence
of the
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, the 53 African and 27 EU nations
papered
over their differences over Zimbabwe and Darfur.
The new
"strategic partnership" is seen by the EU as a way of combating
China's
growing influence in Africa.
However, there was little sign that the
first EU-Africa summit for seven
years had made the hoped-for breakthrough
on trade. The EU wanted to meet a
31 Decemberdeadline set by the World Trade
Organisation for securing a new
trading system with former colonies,
including those in Africa. But only 15
of the 76 poor countries involved in
talks have so far signed economic
partnership agreements (EPAs) with
Europe.
Abdoulaye Wade, the President of Senegal, said a majority of
African leaders
at the summit had opposed such agreements. "We are not
talking any more
about EPAs, we have rejected them," he told reporters. "We
are going to meet
to see what we can put in place of the EPAs." Claiming
that China's approach
was winning more friends, he said: "Europe is close to
losing the battle of
competition in Africa."
Jose Manuel Barroso, the
European Commission President, commenting on the
trade talks, said: "It is a
challenge for both Africans and Europeans and
will require
time."
Asked what his message to Europe was, President Mugabe said
nothing but
raised his arm and made a fist. His involvement persuaded Gordon
Brown to
boycott the summit.
Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York,
who backed Mr Brown's stance,
dramatically removed his dog collar during a
live television interview
yesterday and vowed not to wear it until President
Mugabe was no longer in
power. He cut his dog collar into pieces which fell
to the studio floor of
the BBC's Andrew Marr Show to illustrate what the
Zimbabwean leader was
doing to his own people.
"Do you know what
Mugabe has done? He has taken people's identity and
literally, if you don't
mind, cut it to pieces," he told a surprised Mr
Marr.
The archbishop,
who urged people to demonstrate against the Mugabe regime,
said: "As far as
I am concerned, from now on I am not going to wear a dog
collar until Mugabe
has gone." He said: "South Africa has got to wake up to
the fact that people
there are starving."
The Telegraph
By David
Blair in Lisbon
Last Updated: 2:15am GMT 10/12/2007
President Robert Mugabe has pledged to uphold "democracy and the rule
of
law" when a raft of African autocrats signed a declaration supposedly
heralding a new era of open politics.
Their solemn pledge came
at the end of the Lisbon summit of European
and African leaders, boycotted
by Gordon Brown because of the Zimbabwean
leader's presence.
President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, who seized power in a coup and is
waging
a brutal war in Darfur, also signed the "Lisbon Declaration".
Other
signatories included Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian prime minister,
who jailed
the entire opposition leadership after staging a widely condemned
election
in 2005, and President Umaru Yar'Adua of Nigeria, who won an
election
denounced by every independent observer group for ballot-rigging
and
violence.
In all, 13 African leaders seized power by force and two
inherited
their positions from their fathers. None had any reticence about
endorsing
the declaration.
"We are resolved to build a new
strategic political partnership for
the future, overcoming the traditional
donor-recipient relationship and
building on common values and goals in our
pursuit of peace and stability,
democracy and the rule of law, progress and
development," read the document
they signed along with 26 EU
leaders.
Observers were sceptical about the sincerity of African
leaders. "They
commit to democracy and human rights, but do nothing about
Zimbabwe," said
Reed Brody, of Human Rights Watch.
"They commit
to joint action to protect civilians while the people of
Darfur and Somalia
are allowed to die. They commit to combat corruption
while European banks
stash away the ill-gotten gains of African dictators.
"The question
is what difference these wonderful promises are going to
make on the
ground?"
But Jose Socrates, the Portuguese prime minister who
hosted the
gathering, said the summit had been an "extraordinary event",
worthy of
being "remembered as a milestone in the relations between Europe
and
Africa".
During a closed session yesterday, Mr Mugabe
responded to the attack
on his human rights record delivered on Saturday by
Angela Merkel, the
German chancellor.
"Why was the Prime
Minister of Great Britain not here?" asked Mr
Mugabe. "Because he had his
spokesman here from Germany."
The Zimbabwean leader added that
Europe was "arrogant" and convinced
of its "superiority over
Africans".
He said that Zimbabwe had endured a long struggle for
"democracy"
after suffering almost a century of colonial oppression.
Accusations that
his regime abused human rights were "trumped
up".
Mr Mugabe's brief speech was his only intervention during the
two-day
summit. The 83-year-old leader looked tired and repeatedly stumbled
over his
prepared text.
Baroness Amos, the former Leader of the
Lords, represented Britain
after the Prime Minister decided that no serving
government minister would
attend.
With Mr Mugabe listening, she
told the summit that life expectancy for
Zimbabwe's women had fallen to 34
and that one third of the country's people
now depended on food aid - much
of it provided by Britain.
International Herald Tribune
By Stephen Castle Published: December 9,
2007
LISBON: Despite committing themselves to a new
partnership of equals,
European and African leaders wound up a summit
meeting Sunday in open
conflict over trade deals between the two continents
and over human rights
violations in Zimbabwe.
President Robert Mugabe
of Zimbabwe used the final day of the meeting to
denounce Continental
European critics of his government as being
ill-informed stooges of the
country's formal colonial master, Britain. Prime
Minister Gordon Brown of
Britain stayed away from the two-day meeting in
Lisbon to protest Mugabe's
presence.
While Africans closed ranks around Mugabe, refusing to
criticize a
government that is accused of persistent human rights abuses and
of
impoverishing its citizens, a more serious division emerged over
trade.
The European Union is negotiating a series of Economic Partnership
Agreements, designed to replace existing deals with African countries, and
wants to reach an agreement on them by the end of the year.
The EU
says that if they fail to do so, African countries could lose
tariff-free
access to European markets under rules laid down by the World
Trade
Organization.
"It's clear that Africa rejects the EPAs," President
Abdoulaye Wade of
Senegal said at a news conference, claiming the support of
the president of
South Africa, Thabo Mbeki. "We are not talking any more
about EPAs, we've
rejected them."
Rifts over the two issues dominated the
first meeting between EU and African
leaders in seven years, souring the
atmosphere at a gathering designed to
help Europeans retain their
traditional influence in Africa.
That has been challenged by the rise of
China, which has pursued an
aggressive strategy of African investment,
offering loans and contracts that
do not include conditions relating to
transparency and good governance.
The Lisbon meeting ended with an
ambitious action plan, covering a range of
issues from immigration to
climate change, and a promise to meet again in
2010, possibly in
Libya.
The verdict on the meeting at which 80 countries were represented
was
predictably mixed. The host, Prime Minister José Sócrates of Portugal,
said
it would "go down in history because of its spirit of mutual equality
between states."
The campaigning groups Save the Children and Human
Rights Watch, however,
issued separate statements decrying the lack of
concrete achievements.
The dispute over trade will have to be confronted
by European foreign
ministers at a meeting Monday, and the EU itself appears
split over the
EPAs.
African countries with the lowest incomes are
not affected because they are
protected under WTO rules. But slightly richer
countries - most notably
Namibia, which has refused to initial a deal -
could be hit severely if
tariffs were introduced Jan. 1.
The trade
deals the countries have been asked to sign cover goods only. But
a clause
in the agreements would oblige African countries to start
negotiations on
the eventual opening up their domestic markets in areas
including services -
something many African nations are reluctant to
contemplate.
Britain
is pressing for an EU pledge not to not impose tariffs on African
countries
should they refuse to sign the agreements by Dec. 31, and
President Nicolas
Sarkozy of France said Saturday that Europe should not
"bleed dry" poor
countries.
"I don't believe all African countries are in a position to
accept unbridled
liberalism," Sarkozy said.
On Sunday, José Manuel
Barroso, president of the European Commission,
promised that some form of
negotiation could continue into next year, but
his officials said it was far
from clear that the deadline set for the end
of this year would be
lifted.
"Apart from the poorest countries, those that have decided not to
sign EPAs,
for whatever reasons, will find themselves under a regime where
they will
have to pay tariffs on certain exports which they would not have
had to pay
had they initialed an EPA," said Peter Power, the commission's
spokesman for
trade.
Aid agencies are pressing for clear
concessions.
"This summit could be a wake-up call for European leaders if
they realize
that there are big problems with these deals," said Amy Barry,
trade
spokesperson of Oxfam. "They should use the meeting on Monday to raise
the
sword from above the heads of their negotiating
partners."
Mugabe's presence, meanwhile, provided a reminder of how the
legacy of
colonialism complicated the relationship between the two
continents, as
African leaders rejected criticism from Europeans of human
rights in
Zimbabwe.
On Saturday, Mbeki, who is leading a negotiating
team from the South African
Development Community, or SADC, comprised of 14
countries in the region,
appealed to European officials to allow Africans to
solve their own
problems.
Earlier, Chancellor Angela Merkel of
Germany issued a strong denunciation of
the situation in Zimbabwe that was
supported by the Netherlands, Denmark and
Sweden.
Mugabe responded to
the statement Sunday, referring to his critics as
"Gordon's gang of four,"
in reference to the British prime minister.
"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," he was quoted
as saying by European diplomats present in
the meeting.
The EU's
foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, who spoke after Mugabe,
pointed out
that Merkel had reflected an agreed position of the EU, while
Jan-Peter
Balkenende, the Dutch prime minister, told reporters he was proud
to be a
member of the "gang of four."
Despite the attention that his attendance
attracted, Mugabe kept a
relatively low profile in Lisbon, refusing to make
any statements to the
media.
On Saturday evening, he arrived so late
for a formal dinner that the
Portuguese media reported that he had missed
it.
On Sunday, Mugabe's security guards did their best to prevent
television
cameras from showing him leaving his hotel, though on arrival at
the
meeting's venue Mugabe raised a clenched fist to the cameras as a signal
of
defiance when asked by a reporter what his message was to
Europe.
Though at one point he was embraced by the president of Sudan,
Omar Hassan
al-Bashir - himself the object of criticism over the crisis in
Darfur -
Mugabe's contact with other leaders appeared limited to allies like
Wade.
"He was rather isolated," said one European diplomat speaking on
condition
of anonymity, who said European leaders avoided him
completely.
Zim Online
by
Farisai Gonye Monday 10 December 2007
HARARE – Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe has ruled out purging top
officials of his ruling
ZANU PF party who had opposed his standing in next
year’s presidential
election, fearing such a move could destabilise party,
sources told
ZimOnline.
The sources said some senior Mugabe loyalists and war veterans
who
spearheaded his campaign to be nominated ZANU PF presidential candidate
had
hatched a plan to weed out from influential positions all party
officials
who did not support or attempted to block Mugabe's
candidature.
Party political commissar Elliot Manyika, ZANU PF Women’s
League boss Oppah
Muchinguri and deputy youth secretary Saviour Kasukuwere
were allegedly
behind the plot that – had Mugabe okayed it – would have seen
a far reaching
shake-up in the ruling party and government with officials
such as
Vice-President Joice Mujuru being demoted to lesser
positions.
"Mugabe told his allies that such a drastic move would
destabilize the party
at a time it has to contend with growing public
discontent . . . he
dismissed it out of hand and suggested that there were
better ways of
dealing with rebels than a complete wipe out,” said a senior
official in the
party, who spoke on condition he was not
named.
Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba was not immediately available
for comment
on the matter.
Manyika, who sources said was working with
former parliamentary speaker and
presidential hopeful Emmerson Mnangagwa, at
the weekend professed ignorance
of any plan to purge or punish officials who
had not supported Mugabe’s bid
for re-election.
"Everyone in ZANU-PF
supports President Mugabe so there is no need for any
purge of any kind,”
said Manyika. “We are one family under the leadership of
Comrade Mugabe," he
added.
It was not possible to get a comment from Kasukuwere or
Muchinguri, while
ZANU PF deputy spokesman, Ephraim Masawi refused to
discuss the alleged
plot, which he dismissed as hearsay.
"We don't
comment on hearsay," said Masawi.
ZANU PF gathers for a special congress
tomorrow that is expected to declare
Mugabe, 83, president of the party and
its sole state candidate for the
presidential poll to be held jointly with
elections for Parliament next
March.
Mugabe was forced to rope in war
veterans and a faction of ZANU PF led by
Mnangagwa to mount a fierce
campaign for him to be endorsed as the
presidential candidate after a rival
faction led by retired army general
Solomon Mujuru – husband to Joice –
attempted to stop him from running.
The Mujuru camp last December
successfully blocked Mugabe’s bid to extend
his rule to 2010 without going
to the ballot but the veteran leader made an
about turn and offered himself
to stand in next year’s elections.
Veterans of Zimbabwe’s 1970s war of
independence spearheaded Mugabe’s push
to be nominated presidential
candidate, organising marches countrywide to
show support for his
candidature.
A “million-man march” two weeks ago which saw more than a
100 000 people,
according to some reports, turning up to march across Harare
effectively
silenced all within ZANU PF who had pushed for Mugabe to retire
and make way
for a new leader.
Buoyed by the successful “million-man”
march, Manyika and other Mugabe
loyalists had allegedly wanted Mujuru
demoted from being state and party
Vice-President to a junior position as a
minister.
Other party officials aligned to Mujuru would also have been
demoted while
ZANU PF provincial executives would have been instructed to
ensure that
pro-Mujuru members were blocked from running as party candidates
in the
parliamentary polls, according to our sources.
The alleged
purge in many ways echoed a similar cleansing campaign three
years ago which
saw Mnangagwa demoted and six ZANU provincial chairmen
suspended from the
party after Mugabe accused them of attempting a palace
coup against
him.
Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in
1980 and
critics say in that period he has ruined the country’s once vibrant
economy
and relied on violence and repressive laws to keep public discontent
in
check in the face of deepening hunger, poverty and unemployment. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Own Correspondent Monday 10 December
2007
LISBON – Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has
defended President Robert
Mugabe’s 27-year rule saying criticism leveled at
the Zimbabwean leader by
German Chancellor Angela Merkel last Saturday was
“way off the mark.”
Wade, who was in Harare about two weeks ago to push
for the resolving of the
country’s eight-year crisis, vociferously defended
Mugabe saying the crisis
in Zimbabwe had been blown out of proportion by the
media.
“I listened to the chancellor (Merkel) and I respect her . . . but
she was
speaking based on information most of which is inaccurate," Wade
told the
media at the weekend’s European Union-Africa Summit in Lisbon,
Portugal.
“Everything that we are being told is not true, it's false,”
said Wade.
“Zimbabwe is not a country that is in the process of
disintegrating,
President Mugabe is not about to fall. That's just not the
case. I went
there and I spoke with the opposition as well as those in
power,” he added.
Merkel on Saturday took the gloves off when she accused
Mugabe of
undermining the image of the new Africa with his repressive
policies towards
the opposition and human rights defenders.
The
German chancellor said the EU and African leaders must confront Mugabe
over
the ongoing rights abuses in Zimbabwe adding that the world could not
stand
by while human rights were being “trampled underfoot.”
“I appreciate that
some African states have tried to solve the crisis in
Zimbabwe but time is
running out," Merkel said. “The situation of Zimbabwe
is damaging the image
of the new Africa.”
Wade’s remarks are in sharp conflict with reports by
human rights groups
that repression and rights abuses were escalating in
Zimbabwe ahead of next
year’s presidential and parliamentary
elections.
A new report, based on investigations by international health
professionals,
which was released last week said Mugabe’s state security
agents were using
torture and violence to suppress opposition.
The
report said Mugabe’s state agents were targeting low-level political
organizers and ordinary citizens in addition to prominent members of the
opposition in an effort to intimidate them ahead of the
elections.
African leaders have generally shied away from criticizing
Mugabe who is
still revered on the continent as a hero of the anti-colonial
struggle. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Cuthbert Nzou Monday 10 December
2007
HARARE – State-owned meat processor, Cold Storage
Commission (CSC) requires
more than Z$5 trillion and more than US$2 million
in recapitalisation funds
to save the parastatal from imminent collapse,
according to a special
parliamentary committee on
agriculture.
Crisis-hit Zimbabwe is facing a critical shortage of beef
since President
Robert Mugabe’s government embarked on a price blitzkrieg in
July, forcing
manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to slash prices of
goods and
commodities by 50 percent.
The government, which accused
businesses of colluding with its Western
enemies to hike prices in order to
incite civil revolt, also temporarily
closed private abattoirs and declared
the loss-making CSC sole producer and
supplier of beef in the
country.
However, the government backtracked weeks later to re-licence
private
abattoirs after the CSC failed to cope with demand.
In a
report tabled in Parliament last week, the House portfolio committee on
agriculture said CSC’s five abattoirs, three selling and distribution
centres, one cannery plant and eight cattle ranges dotted throughout the
country were lying idle resulting in the company failing to supply beef for
both domestic and export markets.
"Under capitalisation is one of the
major contributing factors to CSC’s
capacity utilisation," read the
report.
"Your committee was informed by CSC management that for CSC to
get back on
track it urgently requires an injection of Z$5.4 trillion and
US$2.7
million. This funding is required for the rehabilitation and
restocking of
CSC ranches, replacement of vehicle fleet, among other
things."
The committee said a sharp decline in the national commercial
herd from 1.7
million to 651 400 in 2006 had affected the CSC with fewer
cattle delivered
to slaughterhouses.
The communal herd had increased
to 4.3 million from 4.2 million but this was
of little benefit to the CSC
because communal farmers sell only about three
percent of their cattle
compared to white commercial farmers who sold 20
percent of their herd to
the CSC.
"The decline, therefore, in the commercial herd has resulted in
the
shrinkage of the cattle market base for the CSC. The small-scale and
communal farmers prefer to sell in small numbers and hence they have become
an ideal market base for the private abattoirs as opposed to the CSC that
normally buys in bulk," said the report.
The CSC has lost market
share on the domestic front due to the
liberalisation of the meat industry
in the 1990s and government price
controls while the outbreak of cattle
diseases has seen the meat firm losing
foreign markets such as the lucrative
European Union (EU) market where
Zimbabwean beef is banned.
The
committee said for example, the CSC’s Bulawayo abattoir had slaughtered
20
000 cattle per month before price controls. This had sharply dropped to
between 1 700 and 2 000 cattle since introduction of price
controls.
The EU banned Zimbabwean beef in 2001 following an outbreak of
foot-and-mouth disease in the southern African country. The ban
remains.
CSC export earnings peaked at US$48.2 million in 1998 but had
sharply
dropped to US$40.4 million by 2005.
The report is expected to
be debated in Parliament this week. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Ntando Ncube Monday 10 December
2007
JOHANNESBURG – Exiled Zimbabweans, who met in
Johannesburg at the weekend,
have called on President Robert Mugabe’s
government to allow millions of the
country’s citizens living abroad to vote
in next year’s presidential and
parliamentary elections.
Addressing
the inaugural Zimbabwe Diaspora Conference, human rights lawyer
Gabriel
Shumba said exiled Zimbabweans should claim their right to have a
say in the
future their country through participating in key national events
such as
elections.
“We as diaspora we are relevant to the political and
democratic
transformation of our country and we should be involved in one
way or the
other to the reshaping Zimbabwe by claiming our right to vote
from host
countries,” said Shumba, who lives in South Africa after fleeing
persecution
by Mugabe’s government.
An estimated three million
Zimbabweans or a quarter of the country’s 12
million population are living
outside the country after fleeing home because
of economic hardships and
political repression.
Mugabe’s government has in previous elections
denied the exiles, most of who
are believed to support the opposition, the
opportunity to vote saying it
did not have the resources to enable all
Zimbabweans spread across the globe
to vote.
Only Zimbabweans posted
abroad on government duty have been able to vote by
post in previous
elections.
Daniel Molokele, chairman of the Zimbabwe Diaspora Forum that
organised the
conference, said Zimbabweans living abroad should lobby their
host
governments to pressure Mugabe to accept the right of the growing
diaspora
community to vote.
He said: “As part of our resolutions we
are calling upon civic organisations
in Zimbabwe together with opposition
and ruling party which is ZANU PF to
value the importance of diaspora
vote.
“We also call on Zimbabweans in various countries to take the call
seriously
and engage their host government to force the Zimbabwean
government to agree
to the demand of diaspora vote.”
The conference
that also touched on several issues affecting the Zimbabwean
diaspora
community was attended by more than 200 delegates coming from as
far as
Washington, London, Canada Australia, Senegal, Botswana and Zambia. -
ZimOnline
The Times
December 9, 2007
Hypocrisy and ineffectiveness over Zimbabwe at the EU-Africa
summit
Sir, The EU-Africa Summit that took place over the weekend was a
massive
failure in diplomacy. There is a danger now that the wrong
conclusions will
be drawn.
In spite of Chancellor Merkel’s words, by
inviting Mugabe the EU has shown
that it is willing to legitimise African
oppressors. No African government
will now take seriously European
exhortations about the need for good
governance, democracy and human
rights.
It is not surprising that many in Britain regard the EU’s efforts
at
assuming a meaningful role on the world stage as at best empty posturing,
at
worst cynical pursuit of someone else’s foreign policy
agenda.
Geoffrey Van Orden, MEP (con) Chelmsford, Essex
Sir,
Britain’s participation in the EU-African Lisbon summit should be seen
as
Gordon Brown’s contribution to the Christmas pantomime season.
Dame Amos
asks her audience to boo and hiss stage villain Robert Mugabe. The
Baroness
would do well to remember how silent stayed the British when his
army
slaughtered an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 men, women and children in
the
Zimbabwean Midlands and Matabeleland from 1982 to 1987, a slaughter
known as
Gukuruhundi.
In March 2002, Fergal Keane interviewed on television a
former British High
Commissioner to Zimbabwe. He asked Sir Martin Ewans
(1983-1985) about the
massacres and Mugabe’s appalling human rights track
record.
Keane asked: “Did you protest personally to Mugabe about what was
happening?”
Sir Martin said: “No, I didn’t” and added: “I think this
business has really
perhaps been rather blown up. It wasn’t pleasant and
people were being
killed but as I said, I don’t think anything was to be
gained by protesting
to Mugabe about it”.
Keane again: “What was the
advice from London about how one dealt with
Mugabe, particularly around
something like Matabeleland?”
Ewans replied: “I think the advice was to
steer clear of it in the interests
of doing our best positively to help
Zimbabwe build itself up as a nation.”
When Mugabe found out he could get
away with Gukuruhundi he told his closest
associates that he could get away
with anything. He did, until his
supporters started killing white
farmers.
I recall the interview not to condemn Sir Martin Ewans but to
remind
politicians that very few African leaders — or Africans — are much
impressed
by Britain’s moral positioning on anything.
Sound policies
and not finger-wagging sermons are needed if Britain is to
play anything
like a meaningful role in Zimbabwe as four million people get
ready to
starve by this time next year.
Trevor Grundy
Whitstable,
Kent
Sir, While Robert Mugabe’s invitation has caused some controversy,
there has
been not a whisper of dissent over the presence of Omar Bashir of
Sudan. He
is highly complicit in the genocide that is currently occurring in
Darfur,
and his latest abuse of human rights is to remove forcefully
displaced
persons from the safety of refugee camps. Why is the world not
taking more
of a stand against his involvement in high-level international
relations?
George Watson
Christ’s College, Cambridge
The Scotsman
Clare Short provoked fury when she
accused Gordon Brown of sending Baroness
Amos to the EU summit on Africa
"because she is black" (your report, 8
December). I suspect she is
correct.
I am furious anyone from Britain is going to a meeting Robert
Mugabe is
attending. Even more insulting is that African leaders threatened
to boycott
the summit if Mr Mugabe was banned. David Miliband, the Foreign
Secretary,
should tell these leaders they should get rid of Mr Mugabe. If
they do not
like it, advise them all financial aid will be halted until they
do so.
CLARK CROSS, Springfield Road, Linlithgow, West Lothian
New Zimbabwe
Last
updated: 12/10/2007 11:27:42
A LARGE consignment of firearms seized at South
Africa’s Oliver Tambo
International Airport last week is believed to be from
Zimbabwe, police
said.
"The initial investigation indicates that they
were from Zimbabwe," said
Captain Dennis Adriao.
The 50 CZ 75 9mm
parabellum handguns were found around 1315hrs on Thursday
in the cargo hold
of a passenger plane, packed in a simple wooden padlocked
box which had
"Zimbabwe contingent" scrawled across it. The plane had
stopped over in
Zimbabwe.
Most of the weapons, which appeared second-hand, had ZRP
engraved on them
with an additional serial number. The firearms were made in
the Czech
Republic, and still had their original serial numbers.
No
ammunition was found in the consignment, which is estimated to be worth
about R175 000.
Adriao said the guns arrived in the country on a
passenger plane and were
found by police officers and security guards on a
routine search.
He said "technology" had also been used to find the
guns.
Adriao would not speculate on what ZRP meant, adding that it was
part of the
investigation. ZRP is a common acronym in Zimbabwe for the
Zimbabwe Republic
Police.
No arrests have been made.
zimbabwejournalists.com
10th Dec 2007 01:19 GMT
By Ian Nhuka
MASVINGO - Former cabinet
minister, Fay Chung has waded into the Gukurahundi
massacre controversy,
suggesting that civil society organisations are
over-stating the number of
people killed by the army during the 1982-87
operation in Matabeleland and
Midlands provinces.
Chung, a former education minister in Zimbabwe and
later a senior United
Nations official in New York, said she does not
believe that the army could
have killed as many as 20 000 Ndebele-speaking
people in the two regions,
but a few hundreds.
She said this was
addressing 20 local journalists during a workshop on women
and politics at
Great Zimbabwe Hotel, near Masvingo on Friday.
"The Roman Catholic did
not do a complete study," said Chung referring to a
report issued by the
Catholic Church and the Legal Resources Foundation
(LRF) on the impact of
the army operations in the Matabeleland and Midlands
regions at the
time.
"I think, to say that as many as 20 000 people were killed during
Gukurahundi is not true. I think it is a few hundreds otherwise this high
figure of 20 000 is being touted to spread anger between people. Yes there
were beatings and some killings and the situation was bad but 20 000 is
quite a big number of people."
Chung is a war veteran who joined the
liberation war in 1975 and campaigned
under ZANLA, the armed wing of
ZANU.
Since hostilities between former Zapu, under the late
Vice-President Joshua
Nkomo and the then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe-led
government ended with
the signing of the Unity Accord in December 1987,
there has not been any
official study of the impact of the Gukurahundi
massacres or an estimate of
the number of casualties resulting from that
operation which the government
said was meant to stem out
dissidents.
However, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP)
and LRF
conducted their own study, and estimated that as many as 20 000
people from
Midlands, Matabeleland North, Bulawayo and Matabeleland South
died at the
hands of the crack North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade
unit.
LRF and CCJP released a report entitled "Breaking the Silence,
Building True
Peace. A report on the disturbances in Matabeleland and the
Midlands 1980 –
1989" which details killings, beatings, torture, destruction
of houses and
property, detentions and other human rights abuses perpetrated
by the army
on Ndebele speaking people in Matabeleland and Midlands
provinces.
While President Mugabe has not formally apologised for the
Gukurahundi
operation he has said he regretted "a moment of madness which
will never be
allowed to happen again."
Chung’s remarks on the highly
emotive subject are likely to infuriate the
Ndebele people who bore the
brunt of the assaults.