UK says inclusive government is best option for Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s inclusive government offers the only credible means of transforming the country and of delivering basic services to the people because there is currently no roadmap to credible and properly monitored elections, Britain’s Under Secretary of State for Africa and the United Nations, Henry Bellingham, said yesterday.

But to succeed, he said, the inclusive government needs a clear commitment from all parties to work together to implement the reforms set out in the Global Political Agreement.

The inclusive government marked its second anniversary today. Most people had believed that it would not last more than six months because of the constant bickering between the two major political parties in the government, the Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front led by President Robert Mugabe.

Most western countries were against the coalition because Mugabe had robbed Tsvangirai of his victory and they have refused to give aid to the inclusive government fearing this would bolster Mugabe.

Bellingham said though there had been considerable economic progress since the formation of the inclusive Government in 2009, there had not yet been political reform on anything like the same scale.

Responding to a question in the British parliament yesterday, he said: “It is clear that there is still a long way to go before the country can be considered stable and democratic. The constitutional reform process, which has itself been marred by some apparent intimidation, and the setting up of Media, Electoral and Human Rights commissions are encouraging signs.

“But a number of key provisions of the Global Political Agreement remain unimplemented.  The general conditions necessary for free and fair elections have yet to be established. Moreover, President Mugabe continues to make unilateral appointments to important offices.”

Bellingham conceded that there had been a considerable reduction in the severity and frequency of human rights abuses since the formation of the inclusive government but added that the recent constitutional reform process had shown that State actors still had a capacity for violence and intimidation.

“We remain concerned about ongoing abuses, particularly recent examples of politically-motivated violence apparently tied to potential elections. We call on the Zimbabwean authorities to resume the downward trend in human rights abuses,” he said

“In the absence of a roadmap to credible and properly monitored elections, the inclusive government continues to offer the only credible means of transforming Zimbabwe and of delivering basic services to its people. But to succeed, it needs a clear commitment from all parties to work together to implement the reforms set out in the Global Political Agreement.”

He said Britain would continue to work with international partners, Southern Africa and reformers in Zimbabwe to improve prospects of reform and to prepare for credible and properly monitored elections.

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