Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Friday ruled out blocking aid to African nations that fail to take action against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
He called the suggestion, from the opposition Conservative Party, cruel and inappropriate.
”Not only would it hinder attempts to isolate Mugabe, but its cruel effect would be to punish the whole of Africa for the sins of one man. In doing so it would push back the prospects for a continent which has suffered for too long from hunger, mismanagement and disease,” Straw said.
His comments followed a Guardian newspaper report that Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith called on Prime Minister Tony Blair to use his address at the World Summit on Sustainable Development to condemn Mugabe’s rule.
”You should … make clear that our continued support (for Zimbabwe’s neighbours) could depend on their actions to restore good governance,” Duncan Smith wrote in a letter to Blair ? later confirmed by the Tories.
The opposition leader said Blair should refuse to appear on the same stage as Mugabe at the summit.
”I believe you should boycott the Mugabe address. You could not possibly share a platform with someone who seeks to humiliate our country and place British citizens at great risk,” Duncan Smith wrote, referring to people in Zimbabwe who hold joint British-Zimbabwe citizenship.
Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980, has vilified the British government, blaming the former colonial power for many of the troubled southern African country’s problems.
Both leaders are to speak at the summit in South Africa on September 2.
Mugabe’s government has targeted 95% of white-owned land for confiscation and redistribution to blacks. Eleven white farmers have been killed in the ensuing conflict. About 200 farmers were arrested last weekend after defying a government order to leave their land.
Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett, who is to lead Britain’s summit delegation, said the government had been clear in its opposition to Mugabe and would not let the Zimbabwe issue distract its attention from the development summit.
”I have no idea what the logistics are of when Mr Blair will speak, but what we are certainly determined to make sure is that the issue of the summit and its potential to do good isn’t hijacked by issues, by concerns, such as those about Zimbabwe,” she told BBC radio. – Sapa-AP