Posted 07 January 2010 by David Miliband  |  6 comments

The reformers in Zimbabwe continue to persevere with their efforts to bring change and democracy to Zimbabwe. 

President Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai signed up to a package of reforms in 2008. But, as I have blogged in November, elements of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF frustrated its implementation, prompting Tsvangirai to appeal for the support of South Africa, which negotiated the original agreement.

I welcome South Africa’s constructive role and its support for reform in Zimbabwe. It has now brokered a further agreement on establishing human rights, electoral and media commissions, and on media and land reform.  I encourage all parties in Zimbabwe to implement this agreement. It can make a real difference to the lives of ordinary people.

Last year we gave £60m to Zimbabwe.  We will continue to do what we can to help secure a brighter, more prosperous future for the country.
 

David Miliband

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Posted 15 September 2008 by David Miliband  |  2 comments

I saw on arrival in Brussels today that everyone was on tenterhooks for the details of the Mugabe–Tsvangirai deal on the future of Zimbabwe, brokered under South African auspices.  That is not an exaggeration.  The suffering has gone on so long that many people could not see any change coming.  But it seems that some time last week there was a shift.  The pressure for recognition of Morgan Tsvangirai’s democratic legitimacy has finally yielded him real power.  Or so it seems.

The Europe response is cautious - necessarily so given the history of coalition governments in Zimbabwe.  But we will be there as change shows itself to be real – above all real – offering hope to the Zimbabwe people.

David Miliband

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Posted 23 July 2008 by David Miliband  |  2 comments

European Foreign Ministers agreed sanctions on travel and finance relating to key members of the Mugabe regime in Brussels this week.  This is intended to make clear continued international determination to balance up the competing forces in Zimbabwe – an opposition which won the parliamentary and presidential elections and a government that has turned on its own people.  In the light of the welcome news of a negotiating process being established in Harare, the need for clear pressure on the regime is increased.  We all want the negotiations to succeed, but no one believes they will unless there is real pressure on the government to recognise the will of the people.

David Miliband

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Posted 23 July 2008 by David Miliband  |  1 comments

The following report shows how the new Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga has established himself as a distinctive voice in African politics - straight talking and clear. I am meeting him to survey changes in his own country since the crisis of six months ago that saw him broker a govt of national unity with President Kibaki (he's in London for talks with the PM). Kenya is not the political model for Zimbabwe's future, but it does show that new leadership can emerge to play a responsible role at home and abroad.[Read More]

David Miliband

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Posted 12 July 2008 by David Miliband  |  8 comments

The vote at the UN yesterday on Zimbabwe was not a North/South split - after all Burkino Faso voted for the resolution. But it did reveal, in the use of the veto by Russia and China, two different ways of thinking about the exercise of responsibility in the modern world.

The argument at one level was about whether to give mediation "longer". But how much longer? And how much more suffering in the interim?

But there is a more fundamental point - or two actually. First, since when does pressure on a regime that has been flagrant in its abuse of human rights and democratic standards undermine mediation? Surely it brings home much more clearly that the world is determined to tilt the balance away from a government that has forfeited international respect? But second, the argument of China and Russia was that the Security Council had no business "interfering" in a national issue. But the crisis in Zimbabwe has gone way beyond that - not least through three million plus refugees caught up in the violence fleeing to South Africa (see above "If your neighbour's house is on fire" of 8 July).

The Russian and Chinese vetoes have shielded Robert Mugabe and 13 of his top supporters from international pressure. Their preferred route of mediation will have the chance to prove itself - too late for too many but no one will be happier than I if I wake up one day soon and find that this route has delivered a government that respects the March 29 election result.

Meanwhile the governments of western and other democracies should have no regrets about bringing into the open a vital debate. The alternative is for the threat of veto to mean we all clam up and pretend that there is no disagreement. That is not real diplomacy.

 

David Miliband

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Posted 27 June 2008 by David Miliband  |  4 comments

We will address Zimbabwe and add the G8 voice to growing numbers of Africans (now led by Nelson Mandela) decrying the leadership of Robert Mugabe.  The economic descent of the country can be seen by the bail terms for MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti - a $1000 (bin) bail sets you back 100GBP. By next week that would be a fraction given 8 million percent inflation.

David Miliband

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Posted 26 June 2008 by David Miliband  |  3 comments

Yesterday's UN Security Council statement represents a significant step forward in the way the world has engaged with the issue of Zimbabwe. The language is unequivocal - condemnation of the regime. It won unanimous support - including South Africa as well as China. The desire for regional leadership - from the AU and SADC - clearly expressed.

Yesterday's exchanges in the House of Commons I hope clarified the difference between recognition of a state - which is necessary for diplomatic representation - and recognition of the legitimacy of a government, which is different. We of course "recognise" Zimbabwe as a country; we do not recognise the legitimacy of Mugabe's rule, not least since even he accepts that he lost the Parliamentary and Presidential election on 29 March (even if the Opposition challenger did not get 50% of the vote in the first round).

I hope they also exposed the hollow claim that we have to choose between self defeating megaphone diplomacy and silence. In every part of the world history matters. Britain's history of global engagement includes good and bad. But while we are conscious of our history, and conscious of the way it can be misused and caricatured, that history is a reason for good judgment about what to say - not a reason to say nothing.

David Miliband

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Posted 07 June 2008 by David Miliband  |  4 comments

I was asked on BBC Question Time about the knighthood given to Robert Mugabe in 1994.  It must be clear that no one would recommend giving the knighthood now - and some brave and clear-sighted people highlighted the scandal of murder in Matabeleland. And I have to say that my first reaction in the Foreign Office was that the knighthood should be removed. But Robert Mugabe's game is to present the election as a fight between him and Britain when in fact it is a battle for different visions of different Zimbabwean politicians.  Removing a knighthood will not bring food or help to people in desperate need - but will fuel Mugabe's game and we should not be party to that.

What it is right that we do is work internationally to get aid and election monitors into the country - and that is what we are doing.  But we also need to expose the blockage on both that the government of Zimbabwe is putting in place.  And that we need to do too.

 

David Miliband

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Posted 18 April 2008 by David Miliband  |  3 comments

Zimbabwe's "celebration" of 28 years of independence is more bitter than sweet. What should be one of Africa's economic jewels is destitute. It is a living rebuke against the values and aspirations that motivated independence in the first place and should continue to be the basis for change from the vicious circle of decline.

The recent calls from Senegal for action by African nations in defence of democracy (the Senegalese Foreign Minister said "...with regard to the situation in Zimbabwe. Unfortunately we as Africans once again answer with a deafening silence which can be heard everywhere,")and the ANC's Executive National Working Committee's definition of Zimbabwe's crisis as "dire, with negative consequences for the SADC region" have rightly raised the pressure on the Mugabe regime, as has the statement yesterday from the African Union. They have given lie to the allegation that British vocal support for democracy is a brand of recolonisation. It is not. It is a defence of the independence and democracy that was negotiated at Lancaster House.

The best celebration of Zimbabwean independence would be for the will of the people, for change, to be followed."

David Miliband

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