Britain to send Team of Diplomats to Harare

Harare - The British government is planning to send a team of diplomats to Zimbabwe, following ice-breaking talks in Pretoria at the weekend between a British minister and Zimbabwe prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai, reports said here Monday. 

Zimbabwe's state-controlled daily Herald newspaper said British junior foreign minister Mark Malloch-Brown held discussions with Tsvangirai and the new coalition government's foreign minister, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, on the sidelines of South African president Jacob Zuma's inauguration the same day in Pretoria. It was the first high level political meeting between the two governments since the inauguration in mid-February of Zimbabwe's power sharing government between President Robert Mugabe's ZANU(PF) party and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change. 

Observers said the meeting marked a significant rapprochement between London and Harare. A statement from the Zimbabwe embassy in Pretoria said that the ministers had held "a frank exchange of views" and had "committed themselves to continue dialogue in an effort to normalise relations between Zimbabwe and the UK." 

The Herald quoted Mumbengegwi as saying that Malloch-Brown "indicated that a team of British officials would soon fly to Harare to find ways of continuing the dialogue." Confirmation from the British embassy was not immediately available.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated dramatically since 2000 after Mugabe launched a campaign of violent suppression of the MDC and deployed thousands of party militants to drive thousands of white farmers and their workers from their farms, a move that sparked the collapse of the country's once thriving economy. 

The weekend's talks, however, produced no apparent significant change in Britain's position on Zimbabwe. The Herald quoted Malloch-Brown as saying that he "welcomed areas of progress" following the establishment of the coalition government, but added: "I also underline he need for further reform," and that "progress is needed ... before the UK and the international community as a whole can engage more fully." Britain and most other Western governments have been providing humanitarian aid to Harare, but are demanding that major human rights and political reforms need to be undertaken before they will provide direct government aid.

Source:The Zimbabwe Observer