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EU Presidency: Building a case for black Zimbabweans
Grace Kwinjeh
June 12, 2005

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/powell27.12752.html

The United Kingdom takes over the Presidency of the European Union in July. It has pledged Africa will be one of its priority areas. This is going to be a decisive Presidency given the internal political dynamics within the EU itself, surrounding the whole debate on a new constitution and those to do with its relationship with African Governments, with particular reference to the Zimbabwe crisis.

The EU’s political leadership has sold the new Constitution, over the past months on the basis that it will facilitate a more democratic Europe; better governed and dealing with the ever thorny issue of the democratic deficit. However some see this as a vehicle of giving Brussels too much power and individual member states losing their sovereignty to a supranational EU Government. The constitution has been rejected in Holland, but more significantly in France. Both are founder members of the EU.

Listening to those in the corridors of power in Brussels it seems there is much anxiety over these two referenda with the key question lingering on the future of the EU and her democratic mandate from her citizens.

This is the background that the UK takes over the EU Presidency in July.

This is the first time that the UK will be in the Presidency after targeted sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe in 2002. It is going to be a vital Presidency for the Labour Party, coming just after an election victory in which it secured 60 less seats than in the previous election. Many have interpreted this as dissent against the UK’s participation in alliance with the United States in the Iraq war.

But whatever the case, the Labour Party’s, Foreign Policy is going to be under heavy scrutiny. For many, albeit for different reasons one of the key issues to be dealt with is Zimbabwe, Britain’s, former colony.

Zimbabwe is currently faced with a real imminent economic collapse. In just two weeks the increasingly paranoid Harare regime has gone on a rampage in all major cities especially Harare and Chitungwiza, destroying homes and makeshift settlements, arresting large numbers of men and women and rounding up street children. The figure of those arrested has been estimated to be above 22 000, including hundreds of thousands who have been displaced after their housing has been destroyed.

These are people who have no other home, no other source of livelihood, no other life. The situation that the regime is purporting to resolve is one that it actively promoted and tolerated for more than 15 Years. This is how brutal and evil the Harare regime is.

To make matters worse after denying for over two years that Zimbabweans are starving and need food aid. The recent visit of UN Special Envoy to Southern Africa, James Morris, saw the country’s President Robert Mugabe eat humble pie and admit that the country requires food aid, with no real guarantee it will be distributed in a non partisan manner. It is estimated that at least four million Zimbabweans, in a population of 11 million will be in need of food aid between now and the next year harvest.

On the economy front, embattled Governor of the Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono, has announced a Post-Election and Drought Mitigation Monetary Policy Framework in which he has in a very soft way acknowledged that the Government has failed. Most striking is the plot to woo back white farmers who were violently removed from their farms over the past five years. It is estimated that of the original 4 500 white farmers only 400 remain. There is no viable commercial agriculture to talk of in Zimbabwe today. Not to mention the millions of black workers and their families who lost their jobs, were displaced, now condemned to oblivion.

The ruling Zanu PF party is now going to use the two thirds majority it has in parliament to force through constitutional amendments that will further entrench its hold on power. Parliament has been called back urgently this week, to put this plan in motion. Constitutional changes include the creation of a Senate, while some bills will be introduced, including one that seeks to nationalise all private farm land.

This background is important because the Government of Zimbabwe and its allies have insisted over the years that the issue in Zimbabwe is about land, white farmers and Britain’s historical obligations towards that. In all the Cotonou Agreement article 8 and 96, political dialogues between the EU and Zimbabwe, the latter refused to discuss issues of human rights and governance insisting that she is a victim of western neo - colonialism a result of her radical stance on land.

Today the majority of those, without homes, food, any kind of civic and political rights are black Zimbabweans. The majority of those who are everyday trying to escape hard life in Zimbabwe , moving to South Africa, Botswana, United Kingdom and the United States are black Zimbabweans. Zimbabweans continue to suffer under one of the most terrible dictatorships on the African continent.

Now the issue is how is the UK going to deal effectively with the plight of black Zimbabweans suffering under the dictatorship of the Mugabe regime, without seeming to be opening up old wounds. Given Britain’s colonial history in Zimbabwe puts it in an invidious position, becoming an easy scapegoat to blackmail into silence, if she tries to raise a principled position on the terrible situation in Zimbabwe today.

A crucial debate is taking place within the EU with regards to Zimbabwe. Just before the heavily flawed March 31 elections, the EU renewed its 2002 Common Position on Zimbabwe, pledging to review this position after the elections. That is the Position taken by the EU under its Common and Foreign Security Policy, under which targeted or smart sanctions were imposed against key members of the Robert Mugabe regime. Since 2001 different EU member states have with varying interest dealt with the Zimbabwe situation, renewing sanctions at each stage. This is the first time tha! t the UK will be taking a prominent leadership role in direct decisions on Zimbabwe.

It is likely that the decision to review the Common Position will be chaired by the UK. The current EU Presidency Luxembourg has issued a strong statement condemning the current clean up exercise which has left thousands of blacks homeless.

So far there is consensus on the continuation of targeted sanctions, what may be debated specifically are issues to do with the basis for removing names of those not directly linked to the Government of Zimbabwe anymore.

Other personalities certainly to be added onto the list are newly elected Information Minister, Tichaona Jokonya and former ambassador to the UK, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi who has taken over the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The last time that the UK dealt directly with Zimbabwe was during the infamous Abuja Summit in 2001. In a Nigerian brokered deal the Government of Zimbabwe, in the presence of a British junior Minister, promised to end violent occupations of farms, return to the rule of law among other issues. The British in turn promised support for land reform and the governance process in Zimbabwe.

History clearly shows that Harare never met an inch of its Abuja promises rendering the whole Abuja undertaking useless. The Mugabe regime is dishonest and must never be taken seriously when it comes to international agreements or any other agreements for that matter. Virtually before their signatures had even dried on the document, the Harare regime was on a rampage, taking over farms, arresting opposition supporters, and its youth militia was in full force in the rural areas, raping, abducting and harassing suspected opposition supporters. New laws to muzzle the opposition and media, crafted and are in force today.

More importantly in the world’s eyes is that the debate on Zimbabwe coincides with EU efforts at reestablishing links with the African Union. The first summit between the EU and its African counterparts was held in Cairo in 2000. After that the next Summit should have been held in Europe, but then after the targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe’s ruling elite there has been disagreement on participation. Some EU member states have threatened to boycott a summit attended by Mugabe, while the Africans have insisted that he be there.

Notwithstanding that the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights has since adopted a damning report on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe.

The EU has recently published a white paper on Africa in which it proposes establishing an acceptable option for the next EU Africa Summit to be held. When and how it is not clear.

The question is how can such an event take place or relations (EU-Africa) be normalized without giving some form of legitimacy to the despotic Harare regime?

This discussion also takes place at a time when the UK will also be hosting the next G8 Summit. High on the agenda are proposals to double aid to Africa, from over $72 billion to US$100 billion a year by signing up to an international finance facility (IFF). It is also proposing radical debt cancellation reforms for African countries.

It is also noted with great appreciation that there is a growing movement in the progressive world coming together under the banner, Make Poverty History, calling for unconditional eradication of poverty in a continent described by British Premier Tony Blair as ‘a scar on the face of the earth’

That there is need for a fundamental shift in relations between the EU and its African partners for its emergence chiefly from a donor- recipient relationship to one of equal partners cannot be debated.

Being black African, I am clear that more than financial aid needs to be provided for us to develop more confidence in the EU’s political leadership. In as much as the UK will be dealing with the atrocious human rights situation in Zimbabwe and campaigning for more aid for the African continent, it must not miss the human rights situations of black Zimbabwean exiles at its doorstep.

Thousands of Zimbabweans in the UK will want to see a robust change of policy towards them by the Labour Party. They will want to see their human rights as stipulated under international conventions recognized.

Furthermore, it is hoped the UK’s Africa agenda will not be a camouflage to not tackling Zimbabwe directly, including other despotic regimes such as those in Ethiopia, Swaziland, Sudan and Togo. A challenge that already exists within the EU, is a consistency in the implementation of the Cotonou Agreement, vis-à-vis sanctions, rigged elections and definition of democratic principles.

If the UK wishes to push Africa’s agenda then she has to make a concerted effort to earn the confidence of black African citizens, who remain skeptical of the UK’s and EU leadership.

Zimbabwe is the test.

*Grace Kwinjeh is a political activist and writes from Brussels. freedomchete@yahoo.co.uk

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