A harder line from the Foreign Secretary
It seems that South Shields MP and Foreign Secretary David Miliband has at last been encouraged by differing African viewpoints to take a harder line against the “evil” dictator of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe. Describing the election recount which is taking place as a “charade of democracy” he said in the House of Commons:
“The ballot boxes have been kept in uncertain conditions. The Electoral Commission has seen 13 of their number arrested in a clear effort to threaten and punish those who did their job independently”
adding
“ordinary Africans do not condone the way in which President Mugabe is clinging to power and beating his own people to death to ensure he retains it”
Such a pity that Zimbabwe has no oil, or that the shipment of Chinese arms has failed to reach the impoverished state yet, that way we could, as one letter writer to the Shields Gazette commented, claim they have weapons of mass destruction. Just why has it taken so long for the FCO’s stance to harden up?
It looks as though they have been waiting for appropriate fractures to appear amongst the reticent African neighbours of Zimbabwe, who are taking somewhat longer than expected to show dissent against Mugabe’s dictatorial regime.
Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general who recently helped broker a peace deal after Kenya’s contested elections, at the weekend asked whether African leaders were doing enough.
“Where are the Africans? Where are the leaders and the countries in the region? What are they doing?”
Such a pity that there isn’t a unified African chorus of voices screaming for Mugabe to depart with haste!
It’s also a pity that one of the local government election candidates in South Shields should choose to compare our own democracy and election procedures with the situation in Zimbabwe, on literature sent to electors in the past week. It’s a bit over the top don’t you think?
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