Zimbabwean PM Morgan Tsvangirai was not given any promises about new aid when he visited Sweden today. But that was most likely what he expected. On his three week long roundtrip to North America and Europe he is asking for economic support to his countries reform work. So far the reactions have been a wait-and-see attitude, so also from Swedens PM FreNo western country is ready to other commitments than strictly humanitarian aid. No one is ready to hand out money to the Zimbabwean government until the democratic institutions are fully functioning and it is able to make sure the money are used correctly.
This is something that Tsvangirai seemed to be aware of.
We must earn the respect of the international community, he said on todays joint press conference together with the Swedish Prime Minister.
Reinfeldt welcomed that Tsvangirai at least indicated a will to enforce changes in Zimbabwe.
There have not been any apparent progress since the start of the Zimbabwean coalition government in march this year. Political violence, lock-up of dissidents, crackdown on media and occupation of farms have continued.
I would be the last one to say that everything is rosy, Tsvangirai said in a moment of self-irony.
He claimed that the work with writing a new constitution, a precondition for democratising the country, follows the time-plan. A conference on the constitution will be held in July and another one in November.
But Tsvangirai did however not leave wholly empty handed, at least Reinfeldt promised to politically support the democratisation of Zimbabwe.
We are determined to do as much as we can to support the transition to democracy and increase the respect for human rights in Zimbabwe. This will be an important task during the Swedish EU Presidency, Swedish PM said.
Post published in: News