Tony Blair’s government was last night accused of ”outrageous and dishonourable” double standards over Zimbabwe as it emerged that Britain had struck a deal with France that will allow President Robert Mugabe to defy an EU travel ban and attend a Franco-African summit in Paris next month.
Diplomatic sources in Harare said the British government had agreed to waive EU sanctions and allow Mugabe to attend the summit as part of a deal in which France agreed not to oppose the renewal of the sanctions against Mugabe and his cronies.
Mugabe and 78 of his closest associates are subject to an EU travel ban and their assets in Europe have been frozen. There would have to be an exemption for any of them to travel to the summit on February 19, unless the sanctions are unanimously renewed next week. The current restrictions expire on February 18. In the Commons yesterday Blair said ”no agreement” had been reached, a claim that looked disingenuous after EU sources confirmed last night that London was complicit in the deal.
”The British government agreed to lift the sanctions so that Mugabe could attend the summit in Paris on the condition that France would not oppose the renewal of EU sanctions when they come up before the general council,” said one diplomat. Earlier Clare Short, the international development secretary, had de scribed Chirac’s invitation as ”disgraceful”.
The Conservatives seized on the deal, contrasting the government’s apparent willingness to comply with President Chirac’s wishes with its opposition to the England cricket team’s impending World Cup match in Harare.
Michael Ancram, the shadow foreign secretary, said: ”The British government has belatedly sought to browbeat the England cricket team into dropping their World Cup match in Zimbabwe. At the same time they now seek to do a deal, driving a coach and horses through the one policy they have been brave enough to pursue against Mugabe.”
Zimbabwe’s opposition and civic leaders reacted with outrage to the deal, and a suggestion that sanctions will also be waived in March to allow Mugabe to attend the Lisbon summit of the EU and its partners in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
”It is like inviting Saddam Hussein to a G8 meeting,” said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. ”The French are bringing him back on the world stage when we are on the edge of catastrophe,” said John Makumbe, chairman of Transparency International Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is in economic crisis, with inflation at 198% and 6,7-million people starving — more than half the population. The UN’s World Food Programme has said the shortages are in part a result of the collapse of commercial farming brought about by Mugabe’s land reform policies. – Guardian Unlimited Â