David Miliband

Foreign Secretary

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Monday 15 September, 2008

Zimbabwe: Chink of light?

I saw on arrival in Brussels today that everyone was on tenterhooks for the details of the Mugabe–Tsvangirai deal on the future of Zimbabwe, brokered under South African auspices.  That is not an exaggeration.  The suffering has gone on so long that many people could not see any change coming.  But it seems that some time last week there was a shift.  The pressure for recognition of Morgan Tsvangirai’s democratic legitimacy has finally yielded him real power.  Or so it seems.

The Europe response is cautious - necessarily so given the history of coalition governments in Zimbabwe.  But we will be there as change shows itself to be real – above all real – offering hope to the Zimbabwe people.

Posted at 15:19 15 September 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[2]

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Given the massive time elapsed, is there not a growing sense that Mugabe and his body of supporters are simply stringing everyone along? The mass of hedges in your blog post suggest that great uncertainty over what we have won - or may win - still exists, and for as long as the international community is kept on the back foot like this, the daily atrocities in that country will continue. Mugabe lost the election, but he still has the reins. We may decry the injustices in Zimbabwe, but are we not to some degree supporting these injustices by taking so soft an approach?

Posted by Francis James Leo Osborn on September 16, 2008 at 01:28 AM BST #

Notice that the US and EU are keeping their sanctions imposed until Zimbabwe's democracy shows itself to be more in line with western democratic standards. This is the seem EU and US that imposed sanctions against the democratically elected government of Hamas, because this particular group was disliked by the EU and US. Now that the EU and US has made it clear they don't like Mugabe I imagine that these sanctions will stay in place until he either dies or is deposed. Mugabe is not well liked by the west, but I am beginning to understand his opposition to the UK and US who definately use their economic power and political influence in a colonial fashion. Lift the sanctions and give the people of Zimbabwe a chance to determine their own destiny.

Posted by Stu on September 16, 2008 at 12:38 PM BST #

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