Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Blaker (Conservative). It was answered on Tuesday, 20 January 2009.

Zimbabwe

Question: 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””?"

Answer: 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.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 706 c1552
Session: 2008-09
Oral question type: 1st Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Lords chamber
Subjects: Politics and government Zimbabwe Southern African Development Community
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk