Geoffrey Van Orden MEP, who spearheads the European Parliament's campaign for freedom and democratic change in Zimbabwe, told The Zimbabwean that EU member states now firmly believed that Zimbabwe would be better off without Mugabe.
He said EU budgetary aid to Zimbabwe, and that from other multilateral institutions, would remain frozen as long as Mugabe remained in power and persisted with his violent seizures now targeting Western mines and banks.
"We are completely fed up with Mugabe. He has stayed long enough in power and we think Zimbabwe would be better off without him," Van Orden said from Brussels.
Van Orden is a Conservative member of the European Parliament and Defence and Security Spokesman. Over many years he has initiated the European Parliament's tough resolutions on Zimbabwe. He has been personally banned by Mugabe from entering Zimbabwe.
Future hope
He said the situation in Zimbabwe continued to be “most disturbing”, but expressed hope about the future. He said he was aware of the recent upsurge in violence and intimidation against those that Mugabe fears.
“But at last, Zimbabwe's neighbours have begun to demand action," he said.
Van Orden spoke as Mugabe's partisan police force arrested three ministers from the rival MDC faction in the GNU. It is just the latest crackdown by Mugabe on his rivals, who are moving to close ranks and mount a united front against the ageing despot.
He said he was encouraged by SADC's increasingly tough action on Mugabe and the regional bloc's stance to draw the line in the sand.
"We know what happened during election time when opponents were murdered and opposition party supporters harassed. Mugabe has openly supported lawlessness. That’s very wrong."
End to violence
He said it was heartening that SADC "has called for an end to all political violence and for free, democratic elections that meet international standards."
But Presidential spokesman George Charamba said the government would not lose much sleep over his remarks.
"He has come under a spell of the British anti-land redistribution element. He wants to give the British position a veneer of EU endorsement. He has unsuccessfully tried to have more sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe in the past," he said in Harare.
"He is part of the conservative side of the EU that wants to equate land redistribution to the quest for democracy. To them democracy should exist to the whites only and not to blacks. We won’t lose sleep over his remarks."
Charamba said the policy of the EU remained that of constructive engagement with the Zimbabwe government and not "destructive disengagement as advocated by Van Orden".
Intransigent
Van Orden said it was sad to note that despite numerous exhortations from key donors for Mugabe to restore the rule of law in Zimbabwe, he had remained intransigent.
"The sad thing is that Zimbabweans will have to suffer for the actions of a wayward leader," he said. "Elections cannot be judged free in an atmosphere of intimidation and where the media does not give expression to all opinions. The people need education in the electoral process and a proper system of voter registration needs to begin very soon."
He said Zimbabwe would not get any new budgetary aid under the Cotonou pact because of the government’s persistent trashing of human rights.
The EU’s aid to Zimbabwe was halted a decade ago over the breakdown of the rule of law in the country. The EU joined the United States and key international donors such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which cut aid over the economy’s mismanagement.
The EU has nonetheless continued to fund projects aimed at alleviating poverty, especially in Zimbabwe’s health and education sectors.
Cotonou pact
He said Zimbabwe was missing out big time on funding under the Cotonou Agreement between the EU and ACP group.
The Cotonou accord governs trade relations between the EU and the ACP.
It is the successor to the Lome Convention which previously governed trade ties between the two regions.
Without Mugabe, Zimbabwe would be eligible to access the EU's 13,5 billion euro set aside for ACP states under the 9th European Development Fund, the aid component of the Cotonou trade pact.
The pact has a specific clause stipulating that individual countries that are seriously corrupt or disregard human rights will be excluded from aid programmes. Van Orden said Zimbabwe needed to create stable democratic conditions to access the funding. But Mugabe remains an albatross to the country's economic progress, with the economy stagnating as he pursues his policies of confrontation.
He said until there was real evidence of change, the EU's restrictive measures – aimed specifically against Mugabe and his inner circle and not bearing in any way on the wider Zimbabwean population – “must remain in place and be better explained."
Post published in: News