Denmark cuts aid budget

Zimbabwe, along with Kenya and the Asian nation of Bhutan have been downgraded to the bottom list of 18 developing states that receive Danish aid, the ‘Financial Gazette’ reported on Thursday. It means Zimbabwe will lose about US $54 million worth of economic assistance annually. A Danish foreign ministry spokesman told the newspaper that the downgrading of the three countries had been prompted by their rapidly deteriorating human rights records. “We are particularly disappointed about the unfolding events in Zimbabwe. We feel let down by a country which we had so much hope for,” the spokesman said.

An evaluation report on Danish development aid to Zimbabwe for 2000 to 2002 said the Zimbabwe government’s legitimacy was on the decline and there was increasing lack of cohesion within the ruling ZANU-PF party. The Zimbabwe government was now out of touch with the hardships faced by ordinary Zimbabweans in the midst of a deepening economic crisis, it said. It also noted that corruption and excessive spending by the political leadership in Zimbabwe had become a worrisome development. It said Denmark had decided not to publish a new strategy for its development cooperation with Zimbabwe.

The spokesman said it was becoming extremely difficult to maintain political support in Denmark for a Danish presence in Zimbabwe. He said there was a significant number of Danish MPs who wanted to see a complete Danish withdrawal from Zimbabwe, including the closure of its offices if human rights abuses persisted. “Some argue vociferously against providing assistance no matter how little, others feel we have invested so much in Zimbabwe since independence that we can’t afford to completely withdraw. They want us to hang in there and try to influence good things to happen in Zimbabwe through dialogue,” he said.