THE EU must make a clear statement that it will seriously consider divestment from Zimbabwe, according to Minister of State Barry Andrews.
“Ireland has taken a clear position on divestment in the area of cluster munitions,” he said.
“Information available to me shows that certain companies are supporting the regime through activities in Zimbabwe.” He was speaking during a Dáil debate on the deadlock in the democratic process in Zimbabwe after elections in March, the widespread violence and humanitarian crisis.
He said the International Crisis Group stated that “in the event of the elections being rigged and an unsatisfactory outcome achieved, as appears to have been the case, we should consider reviewing the current sanctions regime. Current sanctions are limited to a travel ban on Zanu-PF Party members and a ban on financial transactions. Unfortunately, both measures have been ignored and it is widely reported that senior figures in the Zanu-PF Party are outside the country and financial transactions continue”.
Fine Gael foreign affairs spokesman Billy Timmins said “inflation is now running at over 150,000 per cent and rising by about 120 per cent every month”. Nobody “can force President Mugabe to behave in a democratic or even reasonable manner”, he said but “the resolution to this crisis should and must be regional”.
Labour deputy leader Joan Burton said: “the root causes of what happened in Zimbabwe, alongside his personal and political failings, lie in the fact that when Mugabe came to power he immediately set about, to the general applause of the world, making sure people could read and write and that a minimum access to a rudimentary public health system was made available. When the IMF started its process of decimating public services in developing countries Zimbabwe was among the first . . . to take a hit”.
Fine Gael deputy foreign affairs spokesman Pat Breen asked “what will happen next in Zimbabwe? Both leaders must face one another in a new poll. It remains to be seen whether this new poll be different from or fairer than the last one. Unfortunately, there are no international observers. The UN has not been invited to oversee the elections. That shows that these elections will not be fair”.
Dr Rory O’Hanlon (FF, Cavan-Monaghan) said: “It is sad to think Zimbabwe was one of the most successful countries in Africa a generation ago but suddenly has gone into decline”.
The World Food Programme “feeds three million people there. In addition, there is torture, repression, violence, intimidation, evictions and executions in every province in Zimbabwe,” he added.
Ciarán Cuffe (Green, Dún Laoghaire) said the “inherited knowledge of husbandry of the farmland of Zimbabwe is being lost within a short period. It was lost 20 years ago but within the past year the violence, riots and seizing of land has meant the loss of established farm practices”.
Arthur Morgan (SF, Louth) paid tribute to dock workers and international unions in the region who refused to unload a weapons shipment bound for Zimbabwe and prevented Mozambique being used as an alternative destination.
