Take on Zim, Straw tells Africa
2005-06-22 15:53
Brussels - British foreign secretary Jack Straw urged African leaders on Wednesday to confront Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe about his government's human rights violations.
He said Britain has done much to put Zimbabwe's shaky rights record on the global agenda, but has run into a lack of interest in Africa to do anything about it.
"Unless, and until, Africa's leaders as a whole recognise what is going on (in Zimbabwe), take action not just to condemn it but deal with it, we are likely to be in for many more months of this kind of tyranny until president Mugabe moves aside," said Straw.
He referred to the Zimbabwean government's four-week-old urban clean-up campaign The opposition claims its supporters have been targeted. The United Nations (UN) estimates up to 1.5 million have been left homeless after police burned or demolished their homes and businesses.
Straw did not say what action African leaders should take. The European Union (EU) has imposed diplomatic sanctions against Mugabe and his government, including a freezing of its assets. South Africa has pursued what it calls a policy of gentle persuasion with Zimbabwe, arguing it would be counterproductive to push too hard or cut off discussion.
Speaking to reporters outside an Iraq reconstruction conference sponsored by the United States and the EU, Straw complained about "a lack of real commitment by all of Africa's leaders to recognise the scale of the horror that is taking place in Zimbabwe."
He said as the former colonial master Britain has a special duty to generate anti-Mugabe support, but "we are also many thousands of miles away".
- AP