Lord Blaker says Southern African Development Community is feeble on Zimbabwe

During questions in the House of Lords yesterday Conservative peer and former minister Lord Blaker asked about Zimbabwe:

"To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking towards a resolution of the situation in Zimbabwe.

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): My Lords, we are working with our international partners to encourage a resolution of the crisis. Mugabe’s regime continues to stand in the way of political progress. Its failed policies have devastated Zimbabwe’s economy and infrastructure. As a result, nearly 6 million people are in need of food aid and cholera has killed some thousands. Our immediate priority is to provide humanitarian assistance to alleviate the suffering of the Zimbabwean people—the innocent victims of these failed policies.

Lord Blaker: My Lords, next week there will be another meeting on Zimbabwe. Considering the damage that the crisis is doing to the region, there was a disgracefully low turnout of Heads of Government at their last Zimbabwe summit in November. Instead of urging Mugabe to halt violent intimidation and accept the will of the people, SADC has so far adopted the feeble line of pressing Tsvangirai to make further concessions. Should we not remind SADC that after the violent June presidential run-off its own observer mission declared that:

“The elections did not represent the will of the people of Zimbabwe”?

Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, I think that the reason for the low SADC turnout was frustration among SADC leaders at the lack of progress. I believe that a number of leaders would entirely agree with the noble Lord’s last remark and share his frustration that there is no progress. Yesterday in Harare there was a long meeting between Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe, but after 12 hours there was no progress because Mr Mugabe continues to refuse to make concessions."

SADC stands for "Southern African Development Community".