Harare | Tuesday
A MEETING of southern African foreign ministers to assess Zimbabwe’s land reforms sharply criticised the West on Monday over attempts to impose sanctions on President Robert Mugabe’s government.
“We would like to make it clear that we don’t support sanctions,” said the meeting’s chairwoman, Lilian Patel, Malawi’s foreign minister.
Zimbabwe’s Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge warned sanctions slapped on Zimbabwe would not spare the region.
“No smart sanctions will affect us alone without affecting our neighbours,” Mudenge said.
Last week the US House of Representatives passed the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, which will pave the way for imposing economic and travel sanctions against individuals it holds responsible for lawlessness and politically-motivated violence.
Officials in Harare said the legislation was racist and aimed at increasing the suffering of Zimbabweans.
Mudenge also accused the European Union of trying to undermine the Nigerian-led Commonwealth deal between Zimbabwe and its former colonial power Britain.
On September 6, Britain agreed to fund land reforms in its former colony, if Zimbabwe restores law and order and ends violence on white-owned farms.
Mudenge told the ministers that the situation on white farms had calmed and that the Abuja pact was being fully implemented.
“The Abuja process is in full swing,” he said.
Another meeting to review progress in enforcing the Abuja pact is due in the Nigerian capital early next year, possibly in January, according to Mudenge.
Patel said the 14 members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) were “concerned about the situation in Zimbabwe” and “we would like to see the land issue resolved amicably”.
“The situation in Zimbabwe needs a careful and mature approach because it is complex,” Patel.
Zimbabwe has been wracked by a land crisis since February 2000, when militant government supporters invaded white-owned farms to press for their resettlement by landless blacks.
The land reforms have taken a strong political colouring and left the country’s economy in turmoil. Unrest in Zimbabwe has affected the entire region, scaring off potential investors.
The two-day talks, due to include visits to farms and discussions with Zimbabwean interest groups, are being attended by ministers from Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. – AFP