Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-16-Speech-4-143"
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"en.20041216.12.4-143"2
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"Mr President, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, Zimbabwe has always experienced periods of complexity and profound division, whether under colonialism, at the time of Ian Smith’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965 and the ensuing UN embargo, during the war of liberation from 1972 to 1978 and then, following independence, in the first democratic elections, which were won by ZANU under Robert Mugabe.
For me, though, as an East German, it is always striking how often leaders who take office full of lofty ideals then, so to speak, distance themselves from their own original goals and visions and take less and less account of the people’s interests the longer they are in power.
Zimbabwe does, of course, even today have massive problems to contend with. I believe that the only thing we can recommend to Zimbabweans today is to look around them and see how their neighbours have managed it – to look at what South Africa is doing, at what Namibia is doing, at how Angola and Mozambique are trying to establish a balance between the various vested interests in their countries. If there is to be peace, there must be an attempt at mutual understanding, with the use of peaceful means and every interest, even the most diverse, taken into account.
Zimbabwe needs land reform, but there are other ways of going about it. The European Union should not always be, as it were, making recommendations to all and sundry on the basis of our values. Very often, that goes wrong; perhaps you all still recall the European Union’s staunch support for Russia’s President Yeltsin at a time when he was an alcoholic.
In this actual instance, we can be confident that the SADC will have influence and find opportunities, and that the African Union can act to move things forward. I am convinced that we, if we support these countries in their efforts to influence Zimbabwe, will be very likely to be able to help the elections scheduled for March to be fair and democratic after all."@en1
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