Britain calls for regional pressure

Politics, rather than land, was at the heart of Zimbabwe's crisis, and its resolution would be based on international pressure headed by regional leaders, British Foreign Office Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Baroness Amos said on Wednesday.

Providing the House of Lords with an overview of the British government's position on Zimbabwe, Baroness Amos said: "The government of Zimbabwe has sought to portray the country's problems as the understandable consequences of a spontaneous popular clamour for land. That approach does not bear detailed scrutiny. No one doubts the urgent need for land reform in Zimbabwe, but ordinary Zimbabweans can distinguish between an effective, transparent and sustainable land reform programme and the Zimbabwe government's current fast-track programme."

Outlining Britain's involvement with the Zimbabwean government on the land issue, Amos said that between 1980 and 1985 the UK government provided US $68 million for land reform, US $28.9 million as a specific land resettlement grant and US $39 million in the form of budgetary support to help meet the Zimbabwe government's own contribution to the programme. Eventually, US $4.3 million of that money was returned, she said.

"In 1998 we participated in a land reform conference in Zimbabwe and endorsed the principles agreed at that conference, as did the government of Zimbabwe. Those principles included transparency, respect for the law, poverty reduction, affordability and consistency with Zimbabwe's wider economic interests. We remain willing to support a land reform programme that is carried out in accordance with the principles agreed by donors and the government of Zimbabwe in 1998.

"In the absence of a government-led programme, which we felt able to support, the Department for International Development established in March 2000 a (US $7.2 million] land resettlement fund to support private sector and civil society led resettlement initiatives," added Amos.

However, the Zimbabwean government did not allow such private-sector initiatives to go ahead, she said, and instead pressed ahead with its fast-track resettlement programme. Amos said that at talks with the Zimbabwean government in the Nigerian capital Abuja more than two months ago, the UK delegation had reiterated its support for an effective, well-managed land reform programme and had undertaken to support such a programme.

As a result of that meeting, added Amos, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) had been examining the land issue in Zimbabwe and was due to release its report soon. At the Abuja talks, attended by Commonwealth foreign ministers and senior Zimbabwean government officials, the UNDP was asked to compile a report on Zimbabwe's land reform programme and to look at ways of ensuring it met all the criteria donors had set down.

However, Amos said Zimbabwe's crisis went beyond land. "Its once independent judiciary has been systematically undermined; its police and armed forces have been politicised; its health and education systems are under severe strain; and its once dynamic economy has contracted by eight percent this year. If that continues, it faces total de-industrialisation within three years. Zimbabwe's reputation as a friendly, attractive place to do business has been tarnished. Worse still, its economic implosion is damaging the economies, investment prospects and business confidence of its SADC (Southern African Development Community) neighbours," she said.

Commenting on the possibility of sanctions against Zimbabwe, Amos said that while they may seem attractive at first, unilateral measures may not be effective. "They could actually play into the hands of those who maintain that the root of the problem is the UK/Zimbabwe relationship ... But I also recognise that open-ended dialogue has brought little progress," she said.

Noting that the Zimbabwean government had failed to honour commitments it made in Abuja, Amos said the Zimbabwean crisis needed an African solution and that it was clear the Zimbabwean government would listen to their closest neighbours, if they were going to listen to anyone.

She said the British government was working with SADC, specifically with the governments of South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi and Botswana, to resolve the crisis and that she hoped SADC would ensure that the presidential election next year was free and fair, with international observers allowed to witness it.

"The international community needs to be clear about the standards against which we judge whether the people of Zimbabwe have had the opportunity to exercise their democratic rights, in an environment free of harassment and intimidation. This March, SADC's parliamentary forum produced some impressive norms and standards for free and fair elections in the region. These were agreed by parliamentarians from across the region, including Zimbabwe. It is important that a judgment on next year's election is reached according to those regional standards ... We have urged SADC to take early action," she said.

Ultimately, Amos said, even though the British government had worked to build international consensus and had made its views on violence and intimidation known in the strongest possible terms, "there are limits to our influence with the government of Zimbabwe". "That is why we have said consistently that it is important that Zimbabwe's neighbours need to make their views known to the government. That is now happening," she said.