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SA minister expresses alarm at increasing numbers of Zimbabweans fleeing into region
ZimOnline
November 03, 2005

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6HS3TW?OpenDocument&rc=1&cc=zwe

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s deputy foreign affairs minister Aziz Pahad on Wednesday expressed alarm at the increasing numbers of Zimbabweans flocking into neighbouring states as the economic crisis in that country deepens.

Pahad spoke as British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw stepped up pressure on South Africa to whip President Robert Mugabe’s government, which he accused of triggering the economic collapse, into line.

Addressing the media, Pahad said there was a mass exodus of Zimbabweans fleeing home because of worsening hunger and economic hardships.

But Pahad said President Thabo Mbeki, who has pursued a policy of quiet diplomacy towards Harare, would stick by his policy aimed at helping Zimbabweans find a solution to their country’s problems.

At least three million Zimbabweans, a quarter of the country’s 12 million people, are living outside the country the majority of them in South Africa after fleeing political persecution and hunger in Zimbabwe.

In Britain, Straw said southern African states who have consistently shielded Mugabe from censure in the past had a key role to play in forcing the veteran Zimbabwean leader to embrace democracy.

"While sanctions imposed by the European Union and the US are necessary, it is southern African nations which have a key role to play in pressuring the government of Zimbabwe for change," said Straw.

"I just hope that southern African leaders do understand the urgency of the situation, not only for the people of Zimbabwe but also for their own societies which are literally suffering high levels of unemployment, of asylum seekers and, yes, of the infection of Aids-HIV," Straw said.

Meanwhile, Britain’s Prince Charles waded into Zimbabwe’s troubled political waters after he appealed on Tuesday to the United Nations to help crisis-torn Zimbabwe which he said was going through a "traumatic experience."

In a speech at the UN headquarters on youth employment, Charles said: "I wonder, too, what extra role the United Nations might be able to play with regard to a country, for instance, like Zimbabwe whose independence celebrations I officiated at on behalf of the queen over 20 years ago and which is now undergoing such a traumatic experience."

UN secretary general Kofi Annan earlier this week launched a scathing attack on Zimbabwe after it rejected humanitarian aid for thousands of people displaced five months ago during a controversial government clean-up exercise.

The 81-year old Mugabe last August told the media at the UN headquarters that there was no food crisis in Zimbabwe as the country had "heaps and heaps" of potatoes. - ZimOnline

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