Madam, - There is no use crying about Kenya and Pakistan when it is clear that exactly the same thing is about to happen in Zimbabwe.
The international community should anticipate the crisis about to unfold there. The script is well known to anyone observing African politics. The economy has collapsed, the government operates a police state and there are social and tribal divisions that are being exacerbated. And yet, the international community is doing precisely nothing about the coming elections in Zimbabwe on March 29th.
A Dáil motion in December called on the Government to press for free and fair elections. It also supported the negotiations led by South African president Thabo Mbeki.
As of last week, that initiative is dead and, as a result, there is virtually no chance of having free and fair elections. Also, there is no plan to have any international observation of the elections. Effectively, the international community has turned its back.
So what can the EU and the UN do? What can Ireland do and what can Irish citizens do? There are some who say we should butt out, European norms of governance are inappropriate in Africa.
This is a form of condescension that is really an excuse to do nothing. As the Zimbabwean human rights lawyer, Otto Saki, emphasised to Irish parliamentarians recently, there is such a thing as international human rights law. There are also many Irish Zimbabweans, both black and white, who have been exiled by Mugabe's brutality and who wish to see international law implemented.
The very least we must do is arrange for international observers. Even if this were solely an Irish initiative, it would be worthwhile.
In the Dáil on February 6th, the Government argued that we have not been invited to send electoral observers to Zimbabwe. Yet, just before Christmas, the Dáil passed an all-party resolution calling on the Irish Government to promote human rights and democracy in Zimbabwe through the international community and to encourage the broadest possible international observation of any elections held in 2008.
Is the Government doing enough on our behalf? Will it pursue the matter at EU level at the next meeting of the European Council of foreign affairs ministers? And, at the UN level, will Ireland support the plan to send a UN human rights mission to Zimbabwe, now the Mbeki mediation has failed? All these questions require answers.
The final issue is sanctions. Limited sanctions were imposed in 2000 under Section 9 of the Cotonou agreement.
These included a travel ban on senior members of Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the freezing of their assets, none of which has been very successfully implemented. According to the most recent International Crisis Group (ICG) report on Zimbabwe, the only option in the event of the failure of Mbeki's negotiations is to take more effective sanctions.
Many people are shocked to hear that there is lots of money still being made in Zimbabwe, particularly in the mining and financial sectors. Is it right then that Irish pension funds should continue to be invested in companies which ultimately help prop up Mugabe's regime?
Tougher economic sanctions on Zimbabwe, coupled with "divestment" of pension funds, are among the tactics that the international community must now consider, with Ireland leading the way. - Yours, etc,
BARRY ANDREWS TD, Member of the Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa, Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2.