Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)
20 June 2009
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has appealed to Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to return and help rebuild the country, ahead of his meeting with UK Premier Gordon Brown tomorrow.
This weekend Tsvangirai will hold a meeting in Southwark Cathedral for exiled Zimbabweans living in Britain, of which there are an estimated one million.
He says he wants them to come home and help rebuild the country. "The government needs these professionals," he told one UK newspaper in an interview, "and we also need whatever savings they made to help economic development. It is time to come home."
However, yesterday a leading human rights activist appealed to Britain not to increase aid to the country's unity government.
Jenni Williams, whose Women of Zimbabwe Arise movement (Woza) has been at the forefront of protests against President Robert Mugabe's government, denounced the power-sharing coalition as a "failure" and warned expatriate Zimbabweans not to return home.
Williams condemned the initiative. "How can he ask Zimbabweans to come home when his own people are being beaten for saying they are refugees in their own country?" she said.
Other groups echoed Williams' warning that little has changed in Zimbabwe. "I am very much afraid that Tsvangirai is being used by Mugabe as a facade to attract EU donor money and that they will do away with him and his party once they have got what they want," said Fambai Ngirande, from Zimbabwe's national association of non-government organisations.
On the last leg of his eight-nation tour of Europe and the US to drum up support for the four months old coalition government, Tsvangirai scoffed at the suggestion that he was on President Robert Mugabe's errand.
"Firstly, this trip was my initiative because after four months I wanted Western leaders to hear first hand what was happening in Zimbabwe. Secondly, the process is under way and after a constitutional referendum, the president and the prime minister will decide when the elections will take place."
Tsvangirai's tour, which has taken him to the United States of America, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Belgium is meant to raise funds to revive the economy.
At least US$132 million had been pledged so far. But the money will not be channelled through government structures but non-governmental organisations as humanitarian assistance. Western countries, sceptical of President Mugabe's commitment to reform, are unwilling to give aid directly to the government as long as outstanding issues from the Global Political Agreement remain unresolved.
Monday's meeting is unlikely to loosen UK's purse strings after Mark Malloch-Brown, junior foreign minister said Britain would only lift sanctions when Zimbabwe's transition to democracy "has reached a point of no return".
Zimbabwe requires US$10 billion to finance the implementation of the revival plan, Short Term Emergency Recovery Programme launched in March by Finance Minister Tendai Biti.
Tsvangirai was in Brussels on Thursday at the official launch of the Zimbabwe/EU Dialogue meant to revive the country's relations with the 27-member EU bloc.
An outcome of the dialogue was an EU pledge of transitional support to Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe broke ranks with Brussels in 2002.
Thursday's meeting with the EU officials had its lighter moments too, according to information from the PM's office.
After the EU had pledged transitional support for Zimbabwe, Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi is said to have remarked: "VaPrime Minister kuda zvimwe midzimu yeZimbabwe inokudai ("Mr Prime Minister, it appears Zimbabwe's ancestral spirits love you)."
Tsvangirai's visits are a diplomatic coup for Zimbabwe which had endured a decade of isolation.
Tsvangirai's delegation comprises Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi, Biti, Elton Mangoma (Economic Planning Minister), Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga (Regional Integration Minister), Mumbengegwi and Patrick Chinamasa.
Chinamasa, Biti and Mumbengegwi were not part of the US tour but joined the delegation in Brussels.
Despite offering aid to Zimbabwe, Denmark, Germany, Norway and US said the financial floodgates would be opened if the country undertakes democratic reforms.
Zimbabwe's relations with western capitals deteriorated due to the country's human rights violation.
The issue of human rights violation will be discussed tomorrow when Tsvangirai meets Amnesty International secretary general Irene Khan who was recently in Zimbabwe on a fact-finding mission.
Khan who addressed a press conference on Thursday gave a grim outlook of the human rights situation in the country four months into the inclusive government.
Khan said she would discuss with Tsvangirai a wide range of issues and the findings of her one-week visit in Zimbabwe.
Government sources say western countries have shown willingness to assist Zimbabwe get out of the mud.
MDC-T spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said while the tour was government-sanctioned, the party sees the sojourn as a success.
"As a party we feel that it is a successful tour basing from the reports we're getting," he said adding that the party is confident the diplomatic engagement will bear fruits.
"Zimbabwe will benefit from what the Prime Minister has done," said John Makumbe, a political science professor at the University of Zimbabwe.
"He (Tsvangirai) is bringing back a strong message that sanctions will stay as long as there is no meaningful power-sharing."
Makumbe said the re-engagement of western capitals is an important step to reconstruct Zimbabwe.
Since President Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara formed a coalition government in February, things seem to be moving in the right direction for the southern African nation.
Global lending institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have pledged to open lines of credit if Zimbabwe clears its arrears.
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