Campaigners urge France to exclude Zimbabwe from summit

By Violet Gonda
31 January 2007

Human rights campaigners, civic groups and labour bodies throughout Europe are expected to demonstrate outside French embassies on Friday, to urge the French government to stop representatives of the Zimbabwean government attending an international summit in mid- February.
Euan Wilmshurst, Director of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) told SW Radio Africa: “All we want to see is a categorical expression of European solidarity from the French saying they agree with the sanctions and restrictions and that members on the banned list are not welcome at the summit.”
There is no clarity as to who exactly has been invited to the summit but rights groups fear that Robert Mugabe might attend.

But Wilmshurst said the protests would be an EU wide campaign with protestors chasing various ways of lobbying their respective governments. They say while the economic crisis in Zimbabwe is worsening, some countries like France and Portugal have been talking about easing targeted sanctions imposed by the European Union. This is in spite of the fact the Mugabe regime has shown no signs of reform.
Rights groups like ACTSA, Tearfund and Amicus say European leaders have to send a clear message to the Zimbabwe government that they are aware of the man-made crisis that has made living conditions for most ordinary Zimbabweans worse.
Many groups in Zimbabwe, including junior doctors, have gone on strike demanding better working conditions in a country that now has the highest inflation rate in the world and the fastest shrinking economy outside a war zone. The Mugabe regime has not responded to the strikes or addressed any of the grievances.

Nurses, mortuary attendants and cooks at some hospitals have also downed tools.

In her weekly update on the Zimbabwe situation writer Cathy Buckle paints a very bleak picture about the situation at Marondera Hospital: “Public toilets at the hospital outpatients unit are closed but desperate patients continue to use them as they wait for five or more hours just to see a nurse as the doctors are still on strike. The toilet floors are apparently thick with maggots and horrors you would expect in a sewer, not a major provincial government hospital.”

Meanwhile, the Association of University teachers announced that lecturers at the country’s eight state universities will be going on general strike starting from the day each University opens. At least 1800 academic and non-academic staff members at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) started the ball rolling when this university opened early this week.
Government teachers in primary and secondary school went on a go-slow on Wednesday ahead of a full-fledged strike next Monday.

Because of the worsening situation the protestors in Europe, who will be joined by Zimbabwean exiles, say the call will also show the Zimbabwean authorities that the world is watching.
They are calling on the French government to apply the EU travel ban to prevent Robert Mugabe from attending an African summit to be held in Cannes, France next month.

One of the groups, Amicus, said the campaigners also want the French government to agree to turn away any member of the Zimbabwean government who arrives at the conference.

Amicus’ General Secretary, Derek Simpson, said in a statement: “The French government have allowed Mugabe to attend this summit in the past and we, and many thousands of people across Europe who are horrified by the atrocities being carried out in Zimbabwe, want to urge solidarity and for the European Unions banned list of people to be upheld.”

The current targeted sanctions, which were introduced in 2002, are up for review by the European Commission in February.