MEP’s disgust over lack of boycott for Zimbabwe minister

Date:17/07/03

By Martin Banks

A SENIOR MEP has criticized fellow deputies who snubbed his plea to boycott a meeting attended by a Zimbabwean minister who is banned from entering the EU.

Paul Mangwana, the minister for enterprise, attended a meeting of the EU-ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) political affairs committee in Brussels on 10 July despite an EU ban on travel visas for members of the Zimbabwean government.

It is believed other African countries had threatened to boycott the event unless he was there.

UK European People's Party MEP Geoffrey van Orden wrote to each of the 23 deputies who sit on the committee asking them to boycott the meeting but only one, fellow EPP member Martin Callanan, replied.

Van Orden, Conservative spokesman on human rights, said: "Parliament should not be seen giving tacit support to Robert Mugabe's regime by rubbing shoulders with his banned henchmen. If the EU wishes to be taken seriously, it must rigorously enforce its sanctions."

Van Orden was equally scathing of Belgium's decision to grant Mangwana a visa - the second time it has done so in less than eight months.

But the Belgian foreign ministry hit back, saying there is little the country can do to refuse visas.

Van Orden is now calling on the EU to enforce the travel ban for all future ACP meetings, starting with a trade gathering in Brussels, scheduled for 30-31 July.

The EU imposed the sanctions because of what it said were "violations of human rights and the democratic process" in Zimbabwe. Last November, a planned EU-ACP meeting at the European Parliament was called off when the assembly refused entry to Mangwana and another Zimbabwean minister, Christopher Kuruneir.

It is thought organizers of last week's four-day meeting tried to avoid a repetition by holding the 10 July meeting at the ACP offices in Brussels.