ACP -EU meeting once again exposes Africa’s acceptance of repression

By Lance Guma
15 September 2006

The African Caribbean and Pacific-European Union ( ACP -EU) parliamentary committees met in Brussels, Belgium from Monday to Friday this week. For Zimbabwe however all that came out is the continued acceptance by African legislators of the repression taking place in the Southern African country. Delegates from Africa and some in the Caribbean were accused of ‘seeing or hearing no evil’ as far as Mugabe’s government is concerned, despite mounting evidence the regime is cracking down heavily on perceived opponents. Kuwadzana MP Nelson Chamisa who represented the Tsvangirai MDC at the meeting says the ACP bloc kept trying to block proposed motions that had to deal with Zimbabwe and that skin colour basically determined the support for or against.

Zanu PF legislator for Masvingo South Walter Muzembi was also in attendance and according to Chamisa tried to present the image that everything was OK in Zimbabwe. Chamisa says the African block tend to support each other irrespective of merits and says they did their best to portray ‘Zimbabwe as the victim rather than the perpetrator’ of abuses. It was left to the European bloc to be critical of the regime in Harare and observers point out this is exactly the sort of occurrence that falls neatly into Mugabe’s hands. The regime has tried to use the excuse that targeted sanctions against their travel, are actually economic sanctions killing the economy.

The ACP -EU meet 4 times a year and two of those meetings are meant for the various committees to deliberate on issues to be dealt with by the full joint parliamentary sessions. The next full session of the grouping will be in Barbados this November and it remains to be seen if Zimbabwe will be on the agenda.