Zim trouble threatens G8

2005-06-29 16:23

London - Aid groups smuggled out dramatic video of hundreds of thousands of impoverished Zimbabweans on the move after their government torched and bulldozed their shanty homes.

The footage, aired on news broadcasts around the world last week, shows how much the world's poorest continent needs help.

But it also raises questions about whether its governments can be the kind of partners British Prime Minister Tony Blair envisions as he presses leaders of the world's richest countries to help lift Africa out of poverty.

President Robert Mugabe says the shanty demolitions are part of an urban renewal plan.

But the Zimbabwean opposition says they target its support base among the urban poor, and international human rights groups and Zimbabwean church leaders, lawyers and doctors say they are a cruel attack on the poor and weak.

"The events in Zimbabwe have shaken the confidence of some people as they approach the G8," David Triesman, Britain's minister for Africa, said.

Next week, the leaders of the G8 convene in Britain to discuss Blair's proposals to double aid to Africa, increase its access to foreign markets and decrease its debt burden.

Blair said it was harder to argue for a boost in international aid to Africa with Zimbabwe as such a prominent example of "abuses of governance and corruption."

Irungu Houghton, an Africa specialist for the British aid and development group Oxfam, questioned whether the focus on Zimbabwe was driven by those looking for an excuse not to act.

He said it was unfair to single out one country, particularly one that "is not in any way reflective of what is happening on the continent."

"Africa has turned the corner in a number of countries, and it makes sense to invest in Africa now," Houghton said.

Blair has argued that an aid package similar in scale and conception to the Marshall Plan that lifted Europe from the rubble of World War II is the proper response to profound changes in Africa.

The world appears to be responding.

G8 finance ministers agreed earlier this month to cancel $40bn worth of debt owed by 18 of the world's poorest nations, most of them in Africa.

European Union leaders have pledged to double their aid to the world's poorest nations by 2015.

That momentum could be slowed by the bad news from Zimbabwe.

"That's why we are passionate about giving advice to Robert Mugabe," Christopher Kolade, Nigeria's high commissioner to Britain.

Kolade, whose country holds the chairmanship of the African Union, said Africans were pursuing a course of quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe.

The West, though, has pushed Africans to take a firmer and more public line.

"We have to make sure that African countries realise the deep responsibility there is to sort this out themselves," Blair said.

South Africa and other close neighbours who have the greatest influence on Zimbabwe are loathe to publicly criticise Mugabe because he was a comrade in the region's common struggle against colonial rule, said Peter Kagwanja, a specialist on southern Africa for the International Crisis Group.

Kagwanja, whose think tank tracks conflicts around the world, said it would be a mistake for the G8 to draw conclusions about all of Africa from Zimbabwe.

But it also was wrong for Africans not to be tougher on Zimbabwe, he said.

- AP