Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-09-05-Speech-4-149"
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"en.20020905.10.4-149"2
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". – I know Zimbabwe reasonably well. When I was my own country's Overseas Development Minister in the 1980s I visited Zimbabwe frequently in the years after its independence. I recall the hope with which Zimbabwe set out on its own road as a sovereign country and how blessed it had been by the Almighty with food and other resources. I can remember, for example, during a famine in Mozambique, purchasing food aid in Zimbabwe for dispersal in Mozambique. Recalling all that it makes me even more sad when I look at the situation in Zimbabwe today.
The Commission has, as Parliament knows, suspended official development assistance to Zimbabwe since early 2002. We remain deeply concerned regarding the grave deterioration of the human rights situation in the country. The International Crisis Group, which is an admirable organisation that reports regularly on trouble spots around the world, recently described Zimbabwe as a country in freefall. That is no exaggeration of the position. We, in the Commission, will contribute to support any peer pressure that Heads of State in Africa, and southern Africa in particular, may put on the Zimbabwe Government to respect the essential elements of the Cotonou Agreement, such as human rights, the rule of law and democracy.
I have to say in passing, and this is not irrelevant to the points made by Mr Van Orden, that I wish we had recently seen more evidence of that sort of peer pressure in southern Africa.
The political situation in the run-up to the local elections due this September continues to be tense, and the deadline for eviction orders for 2 900 white farmers to leave their properties expired on 8 August 2002. The Commission is therefore continuing to contribute to projects which directly support the population in the field of democratisation, respect for human rights and the rule of law, and the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights includes Zimbabwe as a focal country.
The food crisis in Zimbabwe is the worst in southern Africa. There are credible reports of extensive politicisation of the Government of Zimbabwe’s own food supplies. I am sure many Members of Parliament will have seen reports of Zanu-PF supporters saying to the people of Zimbabwe that only fools starve. In other words, they have to subscribe to a set of political views in order to get fed. The Commission deplores this. The Commission, for its part, has responded with an estimated 110 000 tonnes of food aid, for a global allocation of about EUR 3.5 million. The food is largely being distributed through the World Food Programme and the NGOs, with extensive involvement of local communities to identify needy groups. An initial EUR 2 million was provided through our humanitarian organisation, ECHO, for vulnerable groups, particularly children and farm workers. A sizeable part of the humanitarian financing decision to be taken shortly for EUR 30 million for the region will go to respond to the emergency in Zimbabwe including monitoring needs and food aid distribution. An additional regional allocation of EUR 30 million within the 2002 programme of cooperation with the World Food Programme will provide food aid assistance in the region, in particular in Zimbabwe.
The Commission believes that SADC has a leading role to play in the resolution of the increasingly serious Zimbabwe crisis. The Union will seek to ensure an enhanced dialogue with SADC, in particular during the forthcoming Ministerial Conference in Copenhagen in November. It is planned to raise the issue of Zimbabwe as a specific point on the agenda.
Parliament will know of the targeted sanctions that we have introduced – sanctions which are focused on the leading members of this particularly nasty and deeply corrupt regime, on their travel and on their assets. It is important, as some Members have pointed out, that we should do everything possible to make those sanctions stick. I will certainly report the views of Parliament to Member States on this particular point.
I would also like to draw the attention of Parliament to the recent report of the Expert Panel established by the Security Council on the rape and pillage of the assets of the Democratic Republic of Congo and, in particular, to what is said there about Zimbabwe's role in that systematic pillage. The report itself makes extremely disturbing reading. The report is, in my judgement, something which the international community has to make plain that it intends to do something about.
President Mugabe and his cronies have wrecked a once prosperous and once stable country. Their record is a deplorable blot on the history of southern Africa. The sooner Zimbabwe is rid of them the better for that wonderful country and the better for its people."@en1
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