Brown says Harare still has to do more

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday said he was looking forward to Harare’s return to the Commonwealth fold following significant progress made by Zimbabwe’s unity government but stressed that there was still considerable ground to be covered.

“We all look forward to the time it can rejoin our family of nations because it will signify finally that the days of oppression, violence and economic catastrophe have been left behind,” Brown said in a statement, adding; “But there is still much progress to be made.”

President Robert Mugabe, his long term rival Morgan Tsvangirai and another opposition leader Arthur Mutambara in February formed a power-sharing government to end a political stalemate after inconclusive elections last year.

The unity government has undertaken to end the country’s international isolation and repair ties with Western countries including the European Union, the Commonwealth grouping of former British colonies, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank for possible resumption of financial support.

Western nations – that continue to give humanitarian aid – have stressed they can only avail financial support to the Harare administration only if Mugabe implements comprehensive political and economic reforms that show that he is firmly on the route to restore democracy, rule of law and respect of human rights, a process that has been hampered by hardliners in the 85-year-old leader’s ZANU PF party.

“We stand ready to do more, once the Zimbabwean government shows that it is ready to implement the agreements it has made; to take actions to reverse the political, economic and social decline of the country; and to implement the Global Political Agreement,” the British Premier said.

“There are persistent and serious human rights violations; a continuing lack of judicial independence and an absence of the rule of law. And the constitutional reform process – a vital component for the free and fair elections essential to full international re-engagement with Zimbabwe – is already behind schedule.”

Mugabe, who withdrew Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth in 2003 calling it an “evil organisation”, is yet to fully implement last year’s power-sharing agreement that gave birth to the unity government.

Some of the outstanding issues that have threatened to derail the coalition government include Mugabe’s refusal to rescind his unilateral appointment of two of his top allies to head Zimbabwe’s central bank and the attorney general’s office.

Mugabe has also refused to swear in Tsvangirai ally Roy Bennett as deputy agriculture minister while the MDC-T is also unhappy by what it says is selective application of the law to target its activists and officials.

On the other hand ZANU PF, which insists that it has met all its obligations under the GPA, accuses the MDC-T of not living up to a promise to lead a campaign for lifting of Western sanctions against Mugabe and members of his inner circle.

But the British Premier said the international community wanted to see progress on reforms in security, justice and media, all culminating in free and fair elections.

“Such actions will drive the decision about whether to lift the EU asset freeze and travel ban against the 203 Zimbabweans involved in the violence and human rights abuses, and on 40 companies associated with them,” he said. – ZimOnline