§ 6. Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham)What plans he has to meet the President of Zimbabwe; and if he will make a statement. [129545]
§ The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Robin Cook)Meetings with President Mugabe are always memorable, but at present I have no immediate plans for another such meeting. The recent elections in Zimbabwe were a triumph of the democratic spirit over attempts to suppress it. Despite two months of intimidation and gerrymandering, almost as many citizens of Zimbabwe voted for the Opposition as for the Government. I have urged President Mugabe to respond positively to the Opposition offer to work together and to accept the mood for change demonstrated by the people of Zimbabwe.
§ Mr. BercowI am grateful to the Foreign Secretary for that reply. Given the appalling violence in the recent Zimbabwean elections, the call by Morgan Tsvangirai for the impeachment of President Mugabe, and the Prime Minister's acknowledgement that the Government are seen to be "insufficiently assertive" on this issue, why does the right hon. Gentleman not make President Mugabe a pariah by pressing internationally for the freezing of his assets and the immediate imposition of a ban on his foreign travel?
§ Mr. CookI have the advantage over the hon. Gentleman, in that I spoke to Morgan Tsvangirai earlier today. He made it clear that the Opposition would be seeking ways of working together—[Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman quoted Morgan Tsvangirai; he should allow me the courtesy of sharing with the House what Morgan Tsvangirai shared with me this morning. He made it clear that, as the Opposition were seeking to work with the Government in the Parliament, which sits for the first time on Thursday, and as he had invited the Government to respond to that call for national reconciliation, he did not believe that penal sanctions would be helpful. The matter of impeachment is in the hands of the Parliament of Zimbabwe, not this Parliament.
President Mugabe faces inflation of 60 per cent. and has just announced a budget deficit of 15 per cent. He faces food shortages, power cuts and business failures. No measure that we could take would impose more hardship on the people of Zimbabwe than what President Mugabe is already doing.
§ Mr. David Taylor (North-West Leicestershire)Would my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary be astonished to hear that the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) was once the secretary of the immigration and repatriation committee of the Monday club? Does not that show the nature of the remarks that we are hearing 208 from the Opposition Benches? Is not the mask being peeled away, to show the racism and xenophobia that have always been endemic in the Conservative party?
§ Mr. CookI was unaware of that episode in the career of the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow). I have obviously failed to follow it with the attention that it deserves.
Both sides of the House have praised the courage of Morgan Tsvangirai and the Opposition and their determination to put their case with dignity and without violence at the election. If we respect their courage and determination, we should respect also their advice when they ask us not to take sanctions against Zimbabwe.
§ Mrs. Cheryl Gillan (Chesham and Amersham)The Foreign Secretary has been remarkably slow to condemn what has happened in Zimbabwe in the past. Given the universal condemnation of the elections as a travesty of democracy and the remarkable success of an extremely brave Opposition, operating with all the odds stacked against them; and given the fact that the Mugabe regime seems to have changed its behaviour not one iota since the elections, does the right hon. Gentleman agree that it is time now for Britain to use its position at the centre of the Commonwealth to mobilise some serious international action? Such action would show Mr. Mugabe that he is being watched, that he and his thuggish cronies will not be permitted the type of conduct that they have engaged in to date, and that it belongs firmly in the past? If he fails to do so, will he not be receiving another memo from the Prime Minister demanding to know why, on issues like Zimbabwe, the Government are seen to be "insufficiently assertive"?
§ Mr. CookFar from our being slow on the question of Zimbabwe, there were 400 election observers towards the close of the election campaign, solely because Britain mobilised the international community and obtained observers from both the Commonwealth and the European Union—action which was warmly welcomed by the Opposition and the Opposition candidates. I have already discussed the report of the Commonwealth observers with the chair of the Commonwealth ministerial action group. We are inviting the comments of President Mugabe and the Government of Zimbabwe in response to it. We shall be ascertaining what steps we can take to ensure that when the people of Zimbabwe next have the opportunity of an election to fill the presidential post in two years' time, they can take it without fear of violence, intimidation and gerrymandering.