Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-16-Speech-4-187"
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"en.20020516.10.4-187"2
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". – The Commission shares the concern about Zimbabwe following the presidential elections, in terms of the legitimacy of the present government, the issue of freedom of the press, continued violence, the economic crisis and the associated food shortages.
As to Mr Mulder's suggestion of doing something about the assets in Europe of leaders of Zimbabwe, we have not been very good at delivering on the justified, legitimate demand from Nigeria to identify and retrieve the money that was stolen by the previous military government. Some progress has been made, fortunately, with a number of court rulings and this is important. I mention it to illustrate the difficulty of simply delivering something like this, but it is an area that needs to be investigated.
We have a question of extraterritoriality to discuss with these kinds of sanctions, and this is not very easy. There are important principles at stake in those decisions and discussions. So, much as I welcome the thrust and the direction of the thinking in Mr Mulder's contribution, we have to be careful about what we do.
It is clear that the election results did not reflect the will of the people of Zimbabwe. The process leading up to the elections, as well as the conduct of the elections, were characterised by deliberate attempts by the authorities to prevent free and fair elections.
We are particularly concerned about the continued violence and repression prevailing in Zimbabwe, the crushing of the opposition, civil society and the independent press. Putting an end to violence and the resolution of the political conflict through negotiation is the highest priority. Only with a degree of social peace can the rule of law be re-established, and, with it, the impartiality of state institutions, such as the security forces.
The EU has applied targeted sanctions against members of the ruling party and a moratorium on bilateral ministerial contacts. It is possible that the Council may decide to further extend sanctions in view of the stalemate and lack of progress in inter-party dialogue and the continued repression and violence we see in Zimbabwe.
I would like to underline that the situation in Zimbabwe has now become a very real emergency, and is likely to become a protracted one.
We have anticipated humanitarian needs and are addressing food shortages and the needs of refugees and internally-displaced people. EUR 18 million is available to cover immediate needs. This figure is not fixed, but it reflects the needs assessment we have made so far. This is the way we normally do things. We have to ensure that this is the basis of our decisions. These funds will be managed by the World Food Programme and by different NGOs, reflecting the need to avoid political games.
Although prepared to make a major effort to assist the population, we are fully aware of reports pointing to the government of Zimbabwe's use of the food crisis for political purposes. In our contacts with the Zimbabwean authorities we have systematically stressed that all of those affected by a humanitarian emergency need to be assisted, regardless of their political conviction, and reiterated the need for non-partisan food distribution. Unfortunately, about 18 months ago, one of our attempts to distribute food in an even-handed way was disrupted by violence.
Moreover, we have emphasised that in Zimbabwe – once a food-exporting country – the present food shortages are mainly the product of misguided policies and only partly the result of drought. The drought problem is, however, a regional problem and has the negative effect of making it more difficult to buy food in the region in order to assist Zimbabwe. Thus, things are more complicated because of the drought, but the real problems we are faced with in Zimbabwe do not basically stem from the drought but are a product of misguided policies.
We believe that the international community should follow the situation very closely. A European Union Troika visit to the SADC region will take place next week to confer with SADC countries in looking for courses of action, and to support regional efforts to broker a negotiated political settlement in the internal Zimbabwean crisis. We hope to initiate a real dialogue on Zimbabwe and to promote coordination between the EU and the SADC region. In fact, we managed to establish a close political dialogue with the SADC region at political level during the difficult months – winter and early spring – this year, but we need to move that discussion further in order to try to create a positive influence on the situation in Zimbabwe."@en1
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