asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether they will propose at the United Nations the installation of impartial observers of the forthcoming election in Zimbabwe without delay.
My Lords, we have already raised the need for an urgent deployment of international observers to Zimbabwe at the UN and with the UN Secretary-General. We note that some observers are beginning to deploy, but we continue to emphasise in our contacts with African and other international leaders that many more are needed and quickly.
My Lords, is the noble Lord aware of the report that the Americans and the European Union are proposing to send a message to the United Nations calling on it to send representatives to Zimbabwe? Can he confirm that that is the case and whether the message has gone? If it has gone that is certainly a very good thing, bearing in mind that many countries and organisations with great knowledge of the task have been refused admission to Zimbabwe. Is it not important that those who send monitors to Zimbabwe should have them remain there after the forthcoming vote to prevent a repeat of what happened after the previous vote? They would need to spend a long time there after the forthcoming vote to prevent what is happening now.
My Lords, President Bush has called for observers, as have many European leaders. We are pressing the European Union to make the case again, as we have, to the UN and the UN Secretary-General, who has established a trust fund to support observers. Every step is being taken through the UN and the AU to get as many observers there as possible. Certainly, they should stay after the elections until the results are clear.
My Lords, has the noble Lord had a chance to read the reports in today’s newspapers that a six year-old boy was burnt to death yesterday when soldiers attacked the home of an opposition local councillor just outside Harare? What assessment have the Government made of the reports that real power in Zimbabwe has now passed from the hands of Robert Mugabe into the hands of the military?
My Lords, I saw that tragic report, as I am sure all Members of the House did. This is not the first child or old person to have died in recent weeks in Zimbabwe, caught up in massive electoral violence intended to prevent the people of Zimbabwe exercising their democratic free choice. We continue to press to get to the bottom of this electoral violence and we will do all we can to contain and prevent it through international pressure.
My Lords, is the Minister aware that in his lecture last night to the MCC on the spirit of cricket, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that Zimbabwe should not be allowed to tour England while the current regime is in place? Although I recognise that it might not be easy for the Government to ban the tour, are there any plans afoot to ensure that the Zimbabwean team does not receive visas to enter the United Kingdom?
My Lords, the Government’s reluctance to engage in sports boycotts is well known but it would be a complete travesty if a Zimbabwean team were to tour this country under the present circumstances. However, we very much hope that by the time this tour arrives a democratic Government will be in office in Zimbabwe.
My Lords, is it not clear from the story related by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, concerning the tragic death of not only a six year-old boy but his pregnant mother in an arson attack, and from the many other similar events happening up and down the country, that no matter how many election observers are deployed by the African Union, SADC or the UN, the result will be fixed by the military for its own purposes? Does the Minister not therefore endorse the advice given by the Kenyan Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, that we should tell Mugabe that his time is up and that, whatever the results of the election, a strategy shall be developed to ensure that the will of the people prevails?
My Lords, there is no doubt that if this election were to result in a stolen result, not just the people of Zimbabwe but the international community would say, “Enough is enough. This cannot be allowed to stand”. However, the evidence we are receiving is that, far from being cowed by this violence, the people of Zimbabwe are being spurred by it to turn in ever greater numbers to the opposition. I suspect, therefore, that we may still see the spirit of democracy prevail in this barren, difficult, oppressive environment.
My Lords, will the Minister confirm that the Government have protested in the strongest possible terms to the Government of Zimbabwe about the intimidatory treatment accorded to Dr Pocock, the British Ambassador to Zimbabwe, and other diplomats? Will he acknowledge the extraordinary physical courage shown by our diplomats in that country as well as elsewhere?
My Lords, I have no doubt that the noble Lord’s words will bring much comfort to Andrew Pocock and to other British diplomats who are subjected to this kind of harassment. However, I suspect that if Her Majesty’s ambassador were standing here today, he would say that what he was subjected to—in this case what his diplomats were subjected to, because he was not personally involved in the incident last week—is nevertheless mild compared with the terrible violence that ordinary Zimbabweans are subjected to. We have protested about the treatment of him and his colleagues, but we have also protested repeatedly about the violence every Zimbabwean faces at the moment.
My Lords, as I understand it, the date of the next round of Zimbabwean elections coincides with the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela, for which there will be celebrations here in London. Could an approach be made to Nelson Mandela to speak out about conditions in Zimbabwe?
My Lords, I think that Nelson Mandela, like Archbishop Tutu and other southern African leaders, is in no doubt about the situation. No doubt they are taking counsel about when is the most effective moment to speak out against a Government whose leadership is prickly, nationalistic and deeply resistant to criticism even from their immediate neighbours and, if you like, spiritual and intellectual peers, such as Mr Mandela and Archbishop Tutu.
My Lords, over and above the point rightly made by my noble friend Lord Blaker about keeping on the monitors afterwards, does the Minister agree that, right from the start in this tragedy, HMG and indeed the whole of this nation have sought to do good and to have a positive policy for the people of Zimbabwe, and yet the most horrible rumours and anti-British propaganda continue to circulate throughout the whole region? Bearing in mind the difficulty of the excellent high commissioner in Zimbabwe, who has had great difficulties getting anything out in the media at all, would there be a case for our high commissioner in Pretoria being able to speak a bit more vigorously, and possibly with less quiet diplomacy, making the case we are trying to make, which is for liberty and the rule of law and not for any sort of backward-looking ideas about colonialism? Can we have a better and more vigorous case to put to the people of South Africa and Zimbabwe?
My Lords, I think that the people of South Africa are in no doubt about the regime that immediately neighbours them. The tragic incidents involving Zimbabweans and other immigrants in South Africa is the most violent expression of a much greater unease in the country about how this issue of Zimbabwe has been handled. We are seeing in the words of the ANC president Mr Zuma and other South African leaders an increasingly robust and forceful determination to ensure that democracy does prevail next door. Certainly we as British spokesmen need to contribute to that while ensuring that we do not overstep the mark and provide evidence that somehow we are thought to be inappropriately intervening in the affairs of Zimbabwe.