UK Parliament discusses on Zimbabwe’s future

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): We are in regular contact with states in the region both directly and via our high commissions and embassies. The political deadlock in Zimbabwe is a tragedy for the people who voted for change in March. We hope that the forthcoming SADC summit will help Zimbabwean political leaders reach the solution that is fair and reflects the outcome of the 29 March elections.

Lord Blaker: My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that last week Donald Kaberuka, the president of the African Development Bank, said of the people negotiating for the future of Zimbabwe:

We are keen that they reach a political agreement so that they can have a credible economic reform programme and credible people at the Reserve Bank?

Does the Minister detect from that a recognition from within SADC of the sweeping changes of personnel of all kinds that will be necessary from almost every international organisation?

Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, I have had the opportunity to talk quite extensively with Donald Kaberuka, a remarkable individual who leads the African Development Bank. He is very well aware that ending the current situation of hyperinflation in Zimbabwe and restoring sensible economic policies require not just a new team but solid political will in government. At the moment, we are nowhere near achieving that.

Baroness D’Souza: My Lords, according to a report last week by Amnesty International, at least 180 people have been murdered and over 9,000 have been tortured since the election in March. What guarantees and sanctions were put in place by the SADC leaders who witnessed the power-sharing agreement in September?

Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, the whole international community shares with the noble Baroness a frustration that in all the weeks since the power-sharing agreement was signed in September, it still cannot be implemented, because of opposition by President Mugabe to the sharing of cabinet portfolios, which was called for in the agreement. The SADC negotiator spent four days in Harare last week without being able to break that deadlock. We expect there to be a SADC heads of government meeting of some kind next week, and we very much hope that it will resolve this issue before there is more economic hardship and loss of life.

Lord Anderson of Swansea: My Lords, does my noble friend agree that so much of the good in Africa is drowned out by the image of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe? Does my noble friend detect in his contact with not only with the African Development Bank but also regional leaders a recognition that Mugabe, having destroyed his economy and killed so many of his people, is marring the image and investment opportunities of the region as a whole? If there is such recognition, what is being done about it?

Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, the leaders of the African region as a whole are in no doubt, in private conversations, about their dismay at the damage that President Mugabe is doing to his country and the region; but, as has always been the case, they often find it difficult to express that complaint publicly, for fear that it would merely strengthen Mugabe’s position at home.

Lord Avebury: My Lords, it is good news that the SADC summit will be held in the near future under the chairmanship of President Motlanthe, who, after all, had direct personal experience of the situation in Zimbabwe when he was head of a COSATU delegation a couple of years ago. Will the summit be able to consider the complete breakdown of humanitarian efforts in Zimbabwe, which has arisen from a trillion per cent inflation rate, the regime’s theft of $7.3 million from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and other hindrances that have been imposed on international humanitarian efforts?

Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, as the noble Lord knows, it is a SADC summit and its members will choose what they choose to discuss, but the constraints on effective humanitarian assistance, because of the Zimbabwe regime’s corruption, are evident. I am, however, pleased that the World Food Programme and other humanitarian agencies hope to increase the size of their feeding programmes—from 2 million to 5 million people, more than half of whom remain in Zimbabwe—in ways that the agencies hope will prevent any siphoning off of funds by this corrupt regime.

Lord Howell of Guildford: My Lords, amid the growing horror in Zimbabwe, is it not tragic that the currency is, in effect, dead, given that it apparently takes more than 40 billion Zimbabwean dollars to buy one American dollar? In other words, the currency is beyond recall. Will the Minister forgive me for returning to the point that I raised with him the other day about what is happening to UK hard currency aid to Zimbabwe? Are we sure that it is not being pilfered by the regime, and is this not a matter that we should raise with SADC to ensure that the money reaches the points it is meant to reach and is not simply siphoned off by this monstrous group who are driving Zimbabwe deep into the ground?

Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, I am happy to—I hope—reassure the noble Lord. I did, indeed, follow up on his previous question, because I am always worried that he may know something that I do not. In this case, the fact that our aid is overwhelmingly humanitarian and is provided through international agencies directly to NGOs, means that the possibility of money being siphoned off within the reserve bank is extremely limited and is, we hope, kept to a small minimum. More broadly, it is correct that the essential dollarisation of the economy means that the army and others increasingly seek their pay in dollars—requests that are becoming impossible for the regime to satisfy.