Miliband met with Zimbabwean ambassador to Britain, Gabriel Machinga –
a first high-level meeting between the two countries.Miliband last
week told the House of Commons that he reiterated to Machinga that
Britain would not help the Zimbabwe if "signicant changes" are not
made.
He told the lawmakers that the political situation remained "very
delicate" and said new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai should be
allowed more leverage to make changes in the country.
Miliband said his country’s MPs were "desperate to see an end to the
suffering of the Zimbabwean people".The Foreign Secretary also said
the African continent needed to take development commitments seriously
adding that the "wrong response" would be to scale back development
commitments, to abandon commitments on trade or to cut ambitions on
climate change. Each of these would harm Africa more than any other
continent, he said.
He also told the MPs that the G20 summit that took place in London was
determined to take "concrete action" to protect the poor and
vulnerable.
He said: "The political situation in Zimbabwe remains very delicate
indeed yet the meeting of donors in Washington last Friday brought the
international community together to focus on humanitarian issues."
"We are also concerned about British nationals in Zimbabwe, a concern that I know will be shared across the House, he added.
The UK Government recently launched a package offering assistance to elderly and vulnerable people to resettle in the UK.
"These are Britons who are unable to support themselves in Zimbabwe
because of the severe economic social and healthcare problems that
affect all who live there, something which the new government has
barely begun to address."
The meeting between Miliband and Machinga is seen as a vital first step
in opening up dialogue between Zimbabwe and its former colonizer.
Zimbabwe Mail
Post published in: News