The African Union on Wednesday denounced European Union ”double standards” in taking action against Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe while ignoring abuses by other African leaders.
”I would have preferred that there were no double standards at the European level, even for judging heads of state,” the AU representative in Brussels, ambassador Mahamat Annadif, told reporters.
”We talk about Zimbabwe, but for me there are other heads of state who are just as important to avoid as Mugabe, but they have support … which means that today, no one says a word to them,” he said, without actually naming any leaders.
He put some of the inconsistency down to Britain’s attitude to its former colony, which was to make Zimbabwe ”its problem”.
Annadif’s remarks came after British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for tougher EU measures against Zimbabwe, describing the situation there as ”appalling, disgraceful and utterly tragic.”
The European Union slapped sanctions, including travel bans and an arms embargo, on Mugabe’s regime after controversial elections in 2002 won by the long-serving ruler, which the opposition insists were rigged.
The sanctions were extended last month until February 2008.
”We will press the European Union to widen the political sanctions that were introduced in 2002 and introduced very much as a result of our prompting at the time,” Blair told parliament.
”That assets freeze and travel ban we will seek to extend as far as we can.”
Strong statements
Blair echoed Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett’s view that, in the light of growing concern at violence towards opposition groups, action was needed from the United Nations Security Council and the UN Human Rights Commission.
”We will be urging partners in both those institutions to come out with strong statements against what is happening in Zimbabwe, which is appalling, disgraceful and utterly tragic for the people of Zimbabwe,” he told lawmakers.
Belgium admitted on Tuesday that a visa was issued by mistake to a close aide of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, despite him being on an EU blacklist and banned from travelling in the 27-country bloc.
Mugabe himself and his entourage are banned from travelling to the EU under sanctions on Zimbabwe since 2002 for human rights violations.
A diplomatic source in Brussels said it was too soon to determine whether member states would back further sanctions against Zimbabwe.
But the source added: ”Foreign ministers will probably discuss the issue soon.”
Blair was asked by David Cameron, the leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, whether he would make sure that the ban extended to the EU-African Union summit later this year.
Blair did not answer specifically but said it was vital for other African countries, particularly Zimbabwe’s neighbours, to recognise that the situation there was a ”disaster” for that country and for Africa’s reputation.
He said states like Ghana, whose president he met in London last week, were showing the way ahead in terms of democracy and good governance.
Trespass
Cameron asked Blair whether he would be pushing South African President Thabo Mbeki to do more to pressure Mugabe after United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice raised the issue with her counterpart in Pretoria last week.
”We should do everything that we possibly can with the South African government and others,” Blair replied, but said international pressure was likely to be more effective.
”The solution to Zimbabwe, ultimately, will not come simply through the pressure applied by Britain,” he told the lower House of Commons.
”That pressure has got to be applied within Africa, and particular within the African Union.
”I can assure him [Cameron] that we will continue to do all we can to make sure Africa realises this is the responsibility of Africa as well as the Zimbabwe government.”
Before Blair spoke, 10 members of the Movement for Democratic Change, whose president Morgan Tsvangirai was beaten up by police on March 11, were arrested after staging a sit-in at the Zimbabwe embassy in central London.
The seven men and three women, who had wanted to hand in a petition condemning the ”continued brutality by the Mugabe regime”, were detained on suspicion of trespass of diplomatic premises.
MDC-UK chairman Ephraim Tapa accused London’s Metropolitan Police of effectively protecting Mugabe by refusing to allow them to hand in the petition and by arresting them.
Condemnation
Meanwhile, EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) lawmakers on Wednesday strongly condemned the latest attack on an opposition official in Zimbabwe and urged the government in Harare to cooperate with the political opposition to restore the rule of law.
EU lawmakers and representatives from 78 ACP countries meeting in Brussels also called on the government of Mugabe to investigate the attacks on opposition leaders, allegedly perpetrated by police and security forces.
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s chief spokesperson Nelson Chamisa was badly injured by suspected state agents at Harare airport last Sunday when trying to board a plane for a meeting of EU and ACP lawmakers in Brussels.
Chamisa has undergone an eye operation and also sustained a suspected fractured skull.
The EU-ACP assembly said that it would send a delegation to Zimbabwe to assess the situation on the ground.
The international lawmakers also demanded that the perpetrators of the attack on Chamisa be brought to justice speedily. — AFP, Sapa-dpa