jets in action in Congo
Tony Blair has told the British Foreign Office that Zimbabwe must have spares for the war in Congo, write Mail & Guardian reporters
The British government is set to lift an informal arms embargo on sales to Zimbabwe of spare parts for fighter jets being used in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has overruled his Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, by giving the go-ahead for the sales to Zimbabwe.
The British government’s decision drives the biggest hole yet through Cook’s ethical foreign policy, which was supposed to deny arms to countries engaged in external aggression or internal repression. Zimbabwe, which is deeply involved in the Congo war, fails on both counts.
The background to British involvement with the Zimbabwean military is laid out in a restricted Foreign Office document from the British high commissioner in Harare which has been leaked to The Guardian in London.
The extent to which the Zimbabwean military is desperate for spare parts is confirmed in a four-page diplomatic telegram from the British high commissioner in Harare, Peter Longworth. His telegram, dated this month and circulated in Whitehall marked “restricted”, said the Zimbabwean military did not understand the British government’s position in relation to Congo.
The document disclosed “burning resentment” on the part of the Zimbabwean military over an unofficial embargo by Britain last year on the supply of spares for Hawks.
Zimbabwe, which admits to having 11E000 troops in Congo, has 10 Hawks, sold by Margaret Thatcher in the early 1980s, of which five or six are in action at any one time. Zimbabwe has the Hawk MK60 and 60a, which can carry bombs, rockets and cannon. One was shot down a few months ago.
The Congolese civil war, which began in August 1998 in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, pits Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola and the president of Congo, Laurent Kabila, against Rwanda, Uganda and Congolese rebels.
There is a virtual stalemate in Congo, with the country effectively partitioned into a government-held western part and an eastern swathe under the control of rebel groupings, and ongoing battles doing little to shift the balance of power.
This week forces loyal to Kabila succeeded in breaking through a siege by rebel forces on 3E000 Zimbabwean troops in the town of Ikela in the North Equatorial province.
At the same time reports came through of 350 deaths in the area around the north-eastern town of Bunia, as the international war spilled over into ethnic faction fighting.
With the ceasefire agreed in Lusaka last year still dismally unimplemented, the timetable for the agreement was extended by six months at the United Nations this week.
A British government source, furious over the Downing Street decision, said: “This is crazy at a time when there is the prospect of a peace settlement. It sends the wrong signal.” The source said the ethical foreign policy was undermined: “They are completely muddled.”
The source added that Zimbabwe, which has a rampant inflation rate and record unemployment and which has had to renege on its debt repayments, was among the countries that should be least encouraged to spend much-needed finance on weapons. The conflict is costing Zimbabwe 1-million (roughly R10- million) a day.
However the South African government, which has pressed hardest for a political solution in Congo, is remaining aloof from the furore in Britain over the decision to supply spare parts.
Presidential spokesperson Parks Mankahlana told the Mail & Guardian: “The question of spare parts is a minute detail in a far larger picture. But we would want all governments around the world to reinforce peace efforts in the DRC. The problem in the DRC must, in the end, be resolved politically in a Congolese-led solution.”
Blair’s decision, reached last week and circulated internally in government circles at the weekend, ends a protracted debate within the British government. Blair did not go into detail about the reason for his decision but he was under pressure from arms dealers who claimed that failure to deliver meant Britain risked gaining a reputation for unreliability among arms-buying nations.
As the conflict in Congo deteriorated last year, Whitehall departments discussed whether a new policy towards arms sales to Zimbabwe was needed. An unofficial arms embargo was imposed, though not made public.
Cook’s pledge shortly after Labour came to power that the new government would introduce an “ethical dimension” to foreign policy was always regarded as a hostage to fortune. Britain is the world’s second- biggest arms exporter, with an industry officially estimated to make overseas weapons sales of more than R50-billion a year – up to a quarter of the global market – and employing 400E000 people. Lucrative arms markets tend to be countries with the most repressive regimes or engaged in conflicts.