Zimbabwe on Monday challenged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to be “man enough” to visit the Southern African country to get firsthand understanding of the current government-driven blitz on illegal structures and meet President Robert Mugabe.
“The most important thing, the most logical thing for Mr Blair is to come over to Zimbabwe … and have dialogue so that he understands what is happening on the ground, so that he feels the real Zimbabwe,” said Deputy Minister of Information Bright Matonga.
“He has never been to Zimbabwe before … he’s got to be man enough and meet our president, meet Zimbabweans so that he understands,” he told state-controlled television.
For the last five weeks the government has been implementing a programme to destroy unauthorised dwellings that has left hundreds of thousands homeless.
Blair earlier on Monday implored Zimbabwe’s neighbours to do something about the operation which authorities here said was winding down to give way to a new re-construction exercise.
“I feel very frustrated about the situation in Zimbabwe. I desperately want to do more but I know that the only salvation for Zimbabwe will come from the countries surrounding Zimbabwe and inside Zimbabwe itself,” Blair said.
“I urge the countries surrounding Zimbabwe to recognise that what is happening in Zimbabwe is a disgrace,” said the British leader who will host a Group of Eight (G8) summit in Scotland next month, where the plight of Africa is scheduled to be high on the agenda.
Matonga made his remarks as a UN special envoy began a fact-finding mission on the humanitarian impact of the drive.
“We are not surprised by his [Blair’s] reaction. We feel being racially discriminated by the British government because they are our former colonial masters,” he said.
“It does not want to see the country that they had oppressed for more than 100 years, doing well, being organised, building houses for its people, prospering for that matter,” Matonga said.
Getting the balance right
Blair on Monday defended a decision to send failed asylum-seekers back to Zimbabwe.
While no one would be deported whom London believed would face persecution, Blair said allowing all claimants to remain in Britain would harm attempts to bring the asylum system under control.
The comments came as a six-day hunger strike by dozens of asylum seekers to resist deportation to their homeland raised concerns about their safety.
“These claims from Zimbabwe are claims that have been processed and found to be false or wrong or unjustified,” Blair told a monthly news conference.
“If we introduce a generalised moratorium in respect of Zimbabwe instead of assessing each case on a case-by-case basis, our real fear is that we will open up our system to the abuse we have been shutting down,” he said.
“What we are trying to do is get the balance right between obviously protecting people from torture or abuse from what is an appalling Mugabe regime but not ending up in a situation where we just re-open all the problems we have had in our asylum system.”
IMF warns Zimbabwe
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund on Monday urged Mugabe’s authoritarian government to change policy tack and come in from the international cold to avert economic disaster.
An IMF team, during a June 13-25 visit to the country, had found much of concern despite “cordial meetings” with Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) leadership.
The IMF stressed that given the scale of problems facing Mugabe’s isolated regime, Zimbabwe needs “decisive action” to lower its fiscal deficit, tighten monetary policy and set up a market-based currency system.
“A rebuilding of relations with the international community is a critical part of the effort to reverse the economic decline,” the mission said in a statement on its return from Harare.
It added: “We hope the authorities will work more closely with us to formulate and implement such a policy package, which would help stabilise the economy and improve the welfare of the Zimbabwean people.”
The IMF closed its offices in Zimbabwe late last year as relations worsened with the Mugabe government, which blames US, British and European Union sanctions for its economic plight.