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Tony Baldry: The international community is making every effort in Africa with the New Partnership for Africa's Development. That is a covenant under which we provide increased development aid in exchange for Africa doing certain things—not least providing peer group review and pressure. None of that has happened yet in relation to Zimbabwe. There comes a point at which we need to make it clear to colleagues in the Commonwealth in Africa that they have a responsibility and NEPAD cannot be a one-way programme in which we do our part and they do not reciprocate. International pressure on Zimbabwe has to start in Africa itself.

Mr. Ancram: I agree very much with my hon. Friend. I have made the point on several occasions in debates on Zimbabwe that the question of peer assessment of good governance depends on the credibility of those making the assessment. If South Africa and other countries tell us that they believe that what is happening in Zimbabwe is not bad governance, I question the value of their assessments. NEPAD is meant to be a contract by which the G8 provide investment in Africa in return for good governance. I would like to see much more leadership from the G8 in reminding South Africa and other countries that if they wish to benefit from NEPAD it is their responsibility to ensure that good governance returns in Zimbabwe.

Mr. Wyatt: If we cannot achieve what we want through NEPAD—transparency and so on—would it be a solution to have a joint committee of the G8 and NEPAD, so that we could see what happened on the ground?

Mr. Ancram: That is a sensible idea. I shall set out in my concluding remarks some of the things that I think we should be doing and nothing that I shall say is inconsistent with that idea.

The UK appears to have hang-ups about taking a lead. Christopher Dell, the newly nominated next US ambassador to Zimbabwe, has no such hang-ups. He
 
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has experience in Kosovo, Mozambique and Angola. Last week, during his ambassadorial nomination hearing, he explained—and I say this with particular reference to what the Foreign Secretary said that I have said about Kosovo—

"In Kosovo, I witnessed first hand how misrule by one man and his regime in pursuit of narrow political advantage devastated the lives of millions of his citizens, both Albanian and Serb, and I'm proud to have helped in the effort to bring about Slobodan Milosevic's departure from power by democratic means."

Donald Anderson: By military intervention?

Mr. Ancram: By democratic means. I do now know where the right hon. Gentleman gets his definitions from, but that did not strike me as military intervention.

What Christopher Dell said is a clear message to Zimbabwe about America's position, which we would do well to emulate, instead of using the weasel words that we have heard again today.

David Winnick : Is it not most unlikely that, without the United States, any action could have been taken in Kosovo? Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that, as a genuine friend of the new South Africa that has emerged from apartheid, I am deeply disappointed that it has not taken action. I speak as one who, with all my Labour colleagues, always wanted the destruction of apartheid. It is in South Africa's interests to act, and it is extremely disappointing that it has not done so.

Mr. Ancram: I agree. So much of what was achieved with the ending of apartheid, and in the 10 years since South Africa returned to democracy, is being undermined by the position that it is taking in relation to Zimbabwe. The legacy of Nelson Mandela, for whom I too have tremendous admiration, is being tarnished by the attitude now being taken to Zimbabwe.

What would we do? I have a five-point plan, which I believe should now be urgently considered and pursued. First—to return to what my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry) was saying—we must, if necessary by invoking the benefits of good governance in return for NEPAD aid, persuade South Africa and the other Southern African Development Community countries to insist on the SADC norms for the elections in March 2005. We must be prepared to criticise South Africa's culpable inaction in the face of Mugabe's evil.

Secondly, the United Nations should join with SADC to produce free and fair parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe by supporting any SADC benchmarks that are developed to determine whether the process is credible. I want to see SADC and United Nations teams in Zimbabwe as soon as possible to observe the entire electoral process. United Nations personnel on the ground must be demonstratively effective in their monitoring of the elections and in their humanitarian advocacy. Mugabe must never again be allowed to select which countries can send observers.

Thirdly, pressure should be brought to bear, not only by the EU but by the United States, to repeal the Public Order and Security Act and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and amend the Electoral Act.
 
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Fourthly, there is an increasingly urgent need for EU and US-targeted sanctions to be revised and strengthened, as the hon. Member for Vauxhall (Kate Hoey) said in an intervention, to include the family members and business associates of key ZANU-PF figures. Freezing the assets of those who bankroll Mugabe would have an immediate and dramatic effect.

Fifthly and finally, it is time the British Government tabled a resolution to send United Nations observers to Zimbabwe to monitor the fair distribution of food. This would at least internationalise the crisis. The Foreign Secretary argues, as he has in the past, that we would never get a resolution through the Security Council: perhaps not, at the first attempt—but he could then persist by, as he said, making the case for engagement more strongly, and shaming those who vote against such a resolution, until he succeeds. One thing is certain above all else: if he does not try, he will never succeed.

For too long Zimbabwe has been the crisis from which the world has averted its gaze. South Africa has murmured about quiet diplomacy on the one hand, and feted Mugabe on the other. The EU has imposed targeted sanctions, which have then been more honoured in the breach than the observance, and the British Government have wrung their hands and walked by on the other side. The time of walking by is over. Zimbabwe cries out for international action, and we should take the lead in making sure that it gets it.

2.24 pm

Donald Anderson (Swansea, East) (Lab): The right hon. and learned Member for Devizes (Mr. Ancram) made a powerful speech. Certainly the description of the ills inflicted on Zimbabwe by its present leadership was powerful; much less powerful was the prescription. Each one of his five points can be examined and found to be vacuous or ineffective.

We have already said that there is no prospect of putting the subject on the agenda for the United Nations. There is the precedent of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, where the Africans work as a bloc and prevent any such move. As the hon. Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry) rightly said, that must harm the fulfilment of the New Partnership for Africa's Development contract and the region as a whole. South Africa is losing out massively, perhaps by as much as £1 billion, and up to 3 million refugees are crossing the Limpopo border. I am not saying that we should do nothing, but we should not pretend that we can do things that we cannot, or invest money and effort in ineffective action that may make us feel better, but will not help the people of Zimbabwe in any way.

Mr. Gerald Howarth: The right hon. Gentleman is a great supporter of the United Nations, but is not what he has just said a savage indictment of the UN? Although it is so transparently obvious to the entire world that a whole country is being destroyed, the United Nations turns its gaze away and, as my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Devizes (Mr. Ancram) said, walks by on the other side? What does that say about the United Nations?

Donald Anderson: I agree.
 
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Mr. Howarth: What is the right hon. Gentleman going to do about it then?

Donald Anderson: We work within the multilateral framework and we try to persuade, as we have done already—but to pretend that the United Nations is likely to intervene is moonshine.

I shall now set out the involvement of the Foreign Affairs Committee on Zimbabwe. The conclusions that the all-party Committee, containing the three main parties in the House, reached were unanimous and we tried to be as realistic and powerful as we could.

First, I shall make a personal comment. I visited Zimbabwe several times in the 1980s. I helped form, and was vice-president of, AWEPAA, the Association of West European Parliamentarians for Action against Apartheid. I confess now that I was blinded—perhaps very few, apart from the hon. Member for Macclesfield (Sir Nicholas Winterton), were not—in relation to actions such as those in Matabeleland. Perhaps we were dazzled by the hopes at that time. Zimbabwe seemed to be economically stable, was exporting food to its neighbours—now it has to use its scarce resources to import food from South Africa and Zambia—and there were high hopes of positive political development. My response to the Zimbabwe tragedy is anger at what has been inflicted on a cheerful and welcoming people, and frustration at what we in the international community have been able to do to confront that tragedy.

The Foreign Affairs Committee has maintained a close scrutiny of developments in Zimbabwe, and of UK policy, for several years. We have been involved in an ongoing inquiry since 2001 and have produced three reports in the current Parliament and taken evidence on a number of occasions. Whenever possible, we have met visiting Zimbabwean leaders—obviously, mainly opposition leaders. When we visited South Africa in February, we also considered the way in which that country could have a positive impact on Zimbabwe, and made several comments and recommendations to that end.

Our unanimous conclusions in our several reports include a condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the seizure of farms, the disregard for human rights and the corrupt elections. We have generally supported the actions of the UK Government in refusing to accept the results of the fraudulent 2002 elections, and in working within the Commonwealth, the UN and other multilateral agencies to put pressure on President Mugabe. We have urged the international community, and the UK in particular, to continue providing aid to the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe and to ensure, as far as possible, that it is not diverted for political ends, as will be the real danger with the parliamentary elections next spring.

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