London | Tuesday
BRITISH Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has condemned President Robert Mugabe’s clampdown on Zimbabwe’s independent media as “resonant of dictatorship”, the Independent daily reported on Tuesday.
Meanwhile Britain and the United States have begun a joint effort to identify millions of dollars thought to be stashed away in foreign bank accounts by Mugabe and his inner circle, the Financial Times said.
The moves came as Britain signalled it was temporarily freezing deportations of Zimbabwean asylum-seekers while it reviewed the situation in the country, where political violence has prompted international concern.
Straw said the new media legislation, which will outlaw insulting the president, was “completely inconsistent” with the principles of the Commonwealth, according to the Independent.
“It has no place in a country with the least pretensions to democracy and is resonant of dictatorships down through the ages,” Straw said. “Lively and controversial journalism is the test of a democracy”.
Britain — Zimbabwe’s former colonial ruler — has threatened to seek the African nation’s suspension from the Commonwealth if political violence there worsens.
A bill to curb press freedom in Zimbabwe is due to be passed on Tuesday.
The law is the culmination of a series of repressive measures, which are widely seen as being enacted to help ensure Mugabe wins the March 9-10 presidential election. The move to identify cash believed to have been salted away by Mugabe in accounts overseas could be a precursor to Washington and the European Union imposing personal sanctions on Mugabe and leading members of his government, the Financial Times reported.
The so-called “smart” sanctions would involve freezing bank accounts and refusing visas so Mugabe and his circle could not visit western countries, the FT said.
Some estimates put the sums allegedly looted from the Zimbabwean people in hundreds of millions of dollars, but the US State Department and Britain’s Foreign Office have no accurate figure, the paper added.
Britain’s action in temporarily halting deportations to Zimbabwe comes amid fears for supporters of the country’s opposition politicians.
A Home Office representative said on Monday: “We can confirm that we haven’t put anybody on a plane today and we have no intention to deport anyone in the next 24 hours.”
He was speaking after Home Secretary David Blunkett met his British opposition counterparts in London to discuss the situation in the southern African state.
Simon Hughes, home affairs representative for the opposition Liberal Democrats, said he was encouraged that the Home Secretary was considering “the suspension of all deportations until after the March elections”.
A representative for Prime Minister Tony Blair earlier said an assessment of the situation in Zimbabwe would be issued to immigration officials shortly without giving a precise date.
Britain’s Observer weekly reported on Sunday that asylum seekers with links to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change had been arrested or attacked on their return to Zimbabwe. – AFP
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