Straw welcomes Abuja meeting

Britain on Tuesday accused President Robert Mugabe of systematically undermining human rights in Zimbabwe. London’s ‘Financial Times’ said the criticism by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw risked exacerbating tensions between Britain and Zimbabwe ahead of a Commonwealth meeting involving the two countries hosted by Nigeria on Wednesday next week. The talks are aimed at easing the dispute between Britain and Zimbabwe over Mugabe’s land reform programme and governance issues.

Straw told ‘Channel 4 News’ on Tuesday that: “The present government of Mr Mugabe has systematically set about undermining any conception of democratic human rights. It has also very significantly undermined the economy in that country. Although the situation is very bad now, unless it is extremely lucky, economically the situation is going to get very much worse in the next few months as food shortages mount.”

Straw said the situation in Zimbabwe was an international problem and welcomed next week’s Commonwealth foreign ministers initiative led by Nigeria. “I shall be making it plain we stand ready to recognise as we have done for many years our historic responsibility to Zimbabwe - assisting them with land reform - but that has to be seen in the context of economic reform, the restoration of human rights and very specifically clarity about the circumstances in which the elections will take place next year,” Straw added.

A British foreign office spokeswoman told IRIN on Wednesday that the government favoured dialogue rather than sanctions to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis, despite pressure from sections of the media and opposition parties. “We are fully engaged in a dialogue process through the European Union and also fully engaged in dialogue through the Commonwealth,” she said. “We want dialogue to run its course before considering other options.”