Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-04-26-Speech-4-160"
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"en.20070426.25.4-160"2
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".
Madam President, honourable Members, the events of March have dramatically served to underline the fact that the crisis which has long been smouldering in Zimbabwe has escalated. The brutal treatment of peaceful demonstrators and opposition politicians, as well as the threats made against Western ambassadors, show a regime whose ‘rule of law mask’ has finally dropped.
Mugabe has been chosen as the leading candidate without any internal discussions. At the same time, changes were announced which would forcibly improve the starting position of Mugabe and his party in the run-up to the elections. These include
the increase in wards and, consequently, their gerrymandering, the appointment, not through direct elections, of senate members in proportion to the strength of the party in Parliament, and the fact that if the office of President remains vacant, the new President shall be determined by Parliament and not through new elections. These new regulations still have to become law as a result of changes to the constitution.
The government has not stopped the use of force against individual members of the opposition. It has branded members of the Tsvangirai wing of the MDC opposition party terrorists and, in so doing, is trying to drive a wedge between the opposition which united for the first time following the March unrest. The State has, however, refrained from prohibiting or breaking up large-scale events such as the ‘Prayers Meeting’ referred to in the country’s two largest cities. The ban on gatherings and demonstrations has also been lifted, except for several areas in Harare.
Already by the end of 2006, the party congress of the Zanu-PF party had demonstrated that Mugabe’s position was no longer undisputed. In the meantime, Mugabe has increasingly been developing a siege mentality, which has manifested itself, not least, in the formation of parallel organisations such as the youth militia, which falls outside the military and police hierarchy. Their impressive, even oppressive, presence in front of the central committee’s session building certainly had an impact on the decision-making process of politburo members in favour of Mugabe’s appointment as a Presidential candidate.
Despite Mugabe’s tactical victory at the central committee meeting on 30 March, which gave him the nomination as a Presidential candidate in 2008 and thereby weakened the position of his critics within the party, the feeling in Zimbabwe is that a sort of apocalyptic mood seems to be holding sway. Therefore, within the EU, in addition to discussions on current developments, thoughts have turned to the post-Mugabe era. Over recent days, both the EU/Africa working group and the EU/Africa Directors have looked into Zimbabwe intensively. Monday's Council of Foreign Ministers discussed the crisis in Zimbabwe in detail.
In its conclusions, the Council welcomed the SADC initiative and declared its willingness to support it, if called on to do so. It has underlined its view that only a broad, constructive dialogue can form the basis for genuine reform and national reconciliation in Zimbabwe. At the same time, it has stressed that the EU will also implement humanitarian measures in future which will benefit the population directly.
In its communiqué following the special summit in March, the SADC called on the EU to put an end to sanctions. In view of the current situation in the country, we will not comply. Our policy must remain credible. Reacting to the unrest which took place in March, and this is something which the Council also decided upon on Monday, we will widen the consolidated list of persons subject to sanctions to include the police officers who are primarily responsible for the current crisis and the human rights violations.
There is agreement between the EU partners that a solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe can only be achieved with African help. Following their political about-turn in March, our African partners expressly called on the EU to be patient. We will continue to monitor closely, however, whether, and to what extent, the SADC policy which is being striven for is acquiring some sort of shape.
We are conscious of the fact, however, that we cannot sit back indefinitely. In the foreseeable future, the EU will have to adopt a stance in relation to the SADC initiative in terms of its content. We will also react with the necessary vigour to events in the country. The EU cannot, and will not, remain silent on human rights violations.
President Mugabe is battling to hold on to power using all means at his disposal. Given the deplorable economic situation (I can only recall an unemployment rate of 80% and an inflation rate above 1 700%) and increasing levels of repression, public opinion in the country is openly turning against him more and more. This is now no longer restricted to just the general population. Even his own party, the Zanu-PF party, is no longer fully behind him. His attempt at the party congress in December 2006 to postpone the Presidential elections by two years to coincide with the date of Parliamentary elections in 2010 was referred back to committee, where it failed.
In our capacity as the country holding the EU Council Presidency, we have, over recent weeks, made it quite clear where we stand in relation to events in Zimbabwe. In two statements on 12 and 14 March, the criminalisation of the peaceful ‘Prayers Meeting’, which took place in Harare on 11 March, was condemned, and the release demanded of those persons under arrest, along with a call for legal and medical aid to be granted.
In its note dated 13 March 2007, the German embassy in Harare, on behalf of all EU partners, emphatically called on the Zimbabwean Government to observe the principles of the constitution. Coordinating closely between themselves, EU ambassadors in the country expressed to the Zimbabwean Government the fact that they were ready at any time to look after those persons arrested and injured by the government, and were also prepared to do this personally.
In our capacity as the country holding the EU Council Presidency, we condemned in the strongest possible terms in our statement of 18 March the renewed arrests and mistreatment of members of the opposition on 17 and 18 March, as well as the imposition of a ban on leaving the country against two female opposition members seriously injured in the attacks on 11 March who wanted to undergo medical examination in South Africa. Following this, the injured opposition members were able to fly to South Africa. The majority of members of the opposition who had been arrested were released.
At the behest of the EU, in its debate on 29 March, the UN Human Rights Council dealt exclusively with Zimbabwe. In a declaration supported by 50 countries in total, the EU made it perfectly clear where it stood in relation to the current situation in Zimbabwe and called on the Mugabe Government to respect law and order, defend human rights and cooperate with the UN’s human rights mechanisms.
We are all paying very close attention to the reactions of Zimbabwe’s neighbours. Our embassies in the region are involved in an intensive political dialogue with the governments of their host countries. We all agree in terms of our analysis that there are increasing signs that solidarity with the Mugabe regime is crumbling throughout the region as a whole, not least under the pressure exerted by civil society. In this regard, we are particularly hoping that our African partners will now openly show for the first time how important the solution of the Zimbabwe crisis is to them.
In addition to individual remarks such as those made by Zambia’s President Mwanawasa when he compared Zimbabwe with the sinking Titanic, the policy change by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has particularly caught our attention. At a special summit on 28 and 29 March 2007, its Heads of Government acknowledged their regional responsibility in the Zimbabwe conflict for the first time. President Mbeki has been provided with a clear mandate to set a dialogue in motion between the government and the opposition. His activities are to be supported by his Tanzanian counterpart, Mr Kikwete, in his capacity as current Chair of the SADC organ on politics, defence and security. The Secretary General of the SADC will present a report on the economic situation in Zimbabwe.
The principal demands placed on Mugabe by the SADC are to keep to the date set for the Presidential elections in 2008 and to cease repression of the opposition. On 30 March, the central committee of the Zanu-PF party decided to hold Presidential elections in March 2008 and to bring forward the Parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for 2010, to 2008 as well."@en1
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