Mugabe made Zimbabwe a pariah state

Jack Straw labelled Zimbabwe a "pariah" state yesterday amid signs that the Government is to step up its diplomatic offensive against Robert Mugabe.

The Foreign Secretary said Britain would "remain in the vanguard" of international efforts to increase the isolation of Mr Mugabe's regime.

Tony Blair will take up the issue at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg. He is expected to meet Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, and encourage him to adopt a more critical stance towards Mr Mugabe.

But he will not try to put Zimbabwe at the top of the main summit agenda as the Tories want him to. Zimbabwe has been suspended from the Commonwealth, and both the EU and the United States have imposed targeted sanctions, affecting things like the freedom of Mr Mugabe's ministers to travel abroad.

South Africa has apparently been exerting pressure behind the scenes. Mr Blair is expected to tell Mr Mbeki that he should speak out in public more forcefully and consider other means of achieving change in Zimbabwe.

Mr Straw said in an article in the Observer that Mugabe's policies were leading his country to ruin. "In the name of his 'land reform' policies, Mugabe is reducing his people to starvation.

"A fraudulent election earlier this year was characterised by murder and intimidation. His continuing use of state-organised violence since then underlines his determination to hold on to power at all costs."

Mr Straw said that Zimbabwe was "a self-made pariah, not a colonial victim" and that the suffering of the country's black population was particularly shocking.

"With countries in the region, the Commonwealth, the EU and the US, we will review the impact of the current sanctions regime."

But he ruled out economic sanctions. "Mugabe's policies have already imposed too much economic hardship." Iain Duncan Smith, the Tory leader, renewed his call in the Mail on Sunday yesterday for Mr Blair to make Zimbabwe the "make or break" issue at the summit.

Mr Duncan Smith served in Zimbabwe as a soldier when it was still called Rhodesia and the British Army was keeping the peace in the run-up to independence.

The experience, and particularly the realisation that political decisions could transform people's lives in very practical ways, persuaded him to become a politician.

"It is easy to forget now just how much that infant nation had going for it. It was the bread basket of Southern Africa," Mr Duncan Smith said.

Echoing Chamberlain's phrase about Czechoslovakia, he accused the Government of treating Zimbabwe as "a far away country of which we know little".

Britain should refuse to sign up to new agreements on African development until other African countries withdrew their support for Mugabe.

Sydney Morning Herald - Earth summit: Protesters hit out at 'plot' against poor***The executive director of Friends of the Earth, Charles Secrett, said the group had obtained a leaked paper that "proves that the US and EU will sacrifice the environment and poor countries' needs, all for their own selfish free-trade agenda". The paper calls for wealthy countries to scrap quotas and import duty on goods that originate in the world's least-developed countries.

But Mr Secrett said there were no binding rules to control what he called "predatory corporations" from doing environmental damage in developing countries. "It is all about voluntary business action and market expansion," he said.

The summit is billed by the United Nations as the biggest conference in history, with up to 100 heads of state and 60,000 delegates expected to attend. But with the summit due to officially start this morning, only 20,000 delegates have registered so far.

Non-government organisations and protest groups have called on South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki to stand up to the US and EU to safeguard the environment of developing countries. But he is more likely to be watching reaction to a demonstration outside the conference today by black Zimbabweans living in South Africa. They are demanding that Pretoria impose sanctions against the Government of President Robert Mugabe.

Although there are no official figures, between 1 and 2 million economic refugees from Zimbabwe are estimated to live and work in South Africa. Their presence is putting pressure on Pretoria, with South African workers claiming the immigrants are taking their jobs. Britain's Foreign Minister, Jack Straw, yesterday said Mr Mugabe's land reform policies were reducing his people to starvation. But Mr Straw, writing in The Observer newspaper, said criticism of Mr Mugabe should not dominate the summit.

Britain's Conservative opposition has called on the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who is due to address the summit an hour before Mr Mugabe, to boycott the Zimbabwean leader's speech. Facing international criticism for expelling white farmers from their land, Mr Mugabe retained his most loyal ministers in a surprise cabinet reshuffle on Friday, the official Sunday Mail newspaper said. It said the ministers retained included the Agriculture Minister, Joseph Made, who is in charge of the land seizure program, the Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, and the Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo.***

Mac attack over new Afrika snack By Andrew Osborn London - SMH (August 26 2002) [Full Text] Norwegians are up in arms over a new McDonald's sandwich called the McAfrika, launched at a time when 12 million people are facing starvation in southern Africa. The hamburger has infuriated the Norwegian aid agencies and fuelled a storm of bad publicity for the American fast-food giant. The concoction of beef, cheese, tomatoes and salad in a pitta-style sandwich is said to be based on an authentic African recipe and is being sold to Norwegian consumers for about $7.80.

But agencies trying to raise funds to stave off a famine in southern Africa say the timing of the McAfrika campaign is insensitive, and have demanded remedial action from McDonald's. "It's inappropriate and distasteful to launch a hamburger called McAfrika when large portions of southern Africa are on the verge of starvation," said Linn Aas-Hansen of Norwegian Church Aid. Members of the aid group have been doling out "catastrophe crackers" - the biscuits given to starving people in Africa - outside the firm's Oslo branches. In response, McDonald's Norway has offered to allow aid agencies to put collection boxes and fundraising posters in its Norwegian restaurants - but only in those selling McAfrika burgers, and only for as long as the "special promotional burger" remains on sale. - The Guardian [End]

"catastrophe crackers"

They should call them Muggets.

The world's business (South Africa is hosting this summit, however, president Thabo Mbeki does not feel the need to condemn Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe. Instead they have an agreement that South Africans owning farms in Zimbabwe will not be evicted. Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo doesn't denounce Mugabe's political cleansing either. Not many African leaders or LIBERAL activists do. Why is that?)

Aug. 25, 2002, 11:40PM Majority of Britons want to leave country*** LONDON - More than half of Britons would like to emigrate from their homeland, fed up with the price of living and terrible weather, and would prefer to live in the United States or Spain, a survey published on Monday said. Fifty-four percent of Britons surveyed by pollsters YouGov for the Daily Telegraph newspaper said they would like to settle abroad if they were free to do so. Similar polls found just 42 percent wanted to emigrate in 1948 shortly after World War Two, and only 40 percent in 1975. Of those wanting to leave Britain behind, the United States was the most popular destination followed by Australia. ***

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