(GUARDIAN UK - 2003) Short denied responsibility to Zimbabwe

COMMENT - This is an interesting blast from the past. It explains the official deterioration of the relations between the governments of the UK and Zimbabwe. The quality of the early reporting is much better.

Short denied responsibility to Zimbabwe
Peter Hain's letter
Clare Short's letter
Downing St letter

* Mark Lobel
* The Guardian, Monday 11 August 2003 12.02 BST
* Article history

Clare Short informed the Zimbabwean government in 1997 that the election of a Labour government "without links to former colonial interests" meant Britain no longer had "special responsibility to meet the cost of land purchases", according to documents obtained by the Guardian.

However, ministers maintained conditional support for the regime's land reform programme and distanced themselves from campaigner Peter Tatchell's attempt to arrest Robert Mugabe for human rights abuses. In a letter to Zimbabwe's minister of agriculture, Kumbirai Kangai, Ms Short said: "We do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the cost of land purchase in Zimbabwe.

"We are a new government from diverse backgrounds without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and as you know we were colonised not colonisers."

The then international development secretary's letter did offer qualified support for land reform, stating: "We do recognise the very real issues you face over land reform... we would be prepared to support a programme of land reform that was part of a poverty eradication strategy, but not on any other basis."

Despite the increasingly violent nature of Mr Mugabe's land redistribution programme, the government continued to offer conditional support. A 1998 draft message from Tony Blair to the Zimbabwean president, also obtained by the Guardian, states: "My government recognises that the present pattern of land ownership needs to be fundamentally changed. We remain willing to assist with a land reform programme which is transparent and fair and has the support and participation of beneficiaries and stakeholders."

But this insistence on the support of stakeholders, such as white landowners, infuriated Mr Mugabe. At the Commonwealth summit in 1999 he said:"The Conservatives were more mature. This government is inexperienced. I am not the only Commonwealth leader who believes that," he said.

Bilateral relations deteriorated further when the human rights activist Peter Tatchell ambushed Mr Mugabe's limousine and tried to perform a citizen's arrest when he visited London for talks with the then Foreign Office minister, Peter Hain.

Clearly mindful of the offence caused by Mr Tatchell's "action" Mr Hain wrote to his Zimbabwean counterpart, Stan Midenge, stating: "I would like to state for the record that neither the attorney-general, members of his office, any minister, public official or any other agency of the UK government knew in advance of Mr Peter Tatchell's planned action against President Mugabe.

"We were as disturbed as you to learn that an incident such as this had happened to a head of state visiting our country. I and my officials have spoken to your high commissioner to assure him of our full cooperation on security issues when the president next visits the UK.

"I hope that this incident does not prevent us from looking to the future and moving forward in our bilateral relations."

Despite Mr Hain's apology, surprising from a Kenyan-born former anti-apartheid activist, relations between Mr Mugabe's regime and the British government broke down soon after the incident.