Britain offers land reform funds

Britain was ready to support a programme of genuine land reform and to provide aid to Zimbabwe. Media reports quoted Peter Hain, Britain's Minister of African Affairs, as saying over the weekend: "President Mugabe needs to sit down with donor countries like Britain, with our European colleagues, with the United States, and discuss in a practical, sensible fashion how we can take this and other matters forward," Hain said.

"We don't want to hand over the money and allow the Zimbabwean government to spend it as it chooses, because unfortunately that money has not been spent wisely in the past," Hain said. He added that Britain agreed that the historic injustice in the colonial period and racist rule of white-governed
Rhodesia had left whites with much of the best land in Zimbabwe.

Hain also said Britain was ready to support an economic reform programme in Zimbabwe with institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that would enable development aid to be increased.

Hain's comments follow last week's invitation to Mugabe by Britain's Foreign Minister Robin Cook for Zimbabwe to send a delegation to London to discuss land reform issues. Although Mugabe has reportedly agreed to this, no date has as yet been set.