Zimbabwe ban forces EU to abandon poverty summit

Two Zimbabwean ministers were barred from entering the European Parliament yesterday as a travel ban on President Robert Mugabe's cronies provoked a bitter stand-off between MEPs and representatives from developing countries.

A meeting between parliamentarians from the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations, was abandoned when the delegates from Third World countries backed the right of Zimbabwe to attend.

EU parliament officials had warned security staff to keep out Zimbabwe's Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Development, Christopher Kuruneri, and Minister of State for State Enterprises Paul Mangwana. In the event, neither tried to enter the building.

The developments were hailed by MEPs as evidence that the ban has teeth.

In February, Mr Mugabe and his top officials were banned from travelling in the EU amid allegations of human rights violations and vote rigging. Mr Kuruneri and Mr Mangwana were on the list. But after consulting other EU nations including the UK, Belgium gave them visas on the basis that the ban does not cover international meetings.

MEPs said the spectacle of Zimbabweans attending a meeting in parliament would make a mockery of the EU measures. "It was an act of sheer of provocation to include the two ministers who are on the travel ban list," said Glenys Kinnock, who was to co-chair the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly meeting. "Our electorates don't understand it when politicians take decisions they don't follow through."

Efforts to find a compromise, such as moving the meeting away from the parliament, failed and Hegel Goutier, spokesman for the developing nations, said: "The ACP cannot accept this ban." A South African diplomat said any decision had to be taken jointly.

Geoffrey van Orden MEP, Conservative spokesman on Human Rights, said: "The fact that the Zimbabwean Ministers were not allowed into the talks is a victory for democracy and human rights. However, the British Government's decision not to object to the granting of visas shows EU sanctions on Mugabe are worthless."

British officials argued that, under international law, they had no choice. Mr Mugabe attended an event organised by the United Nations in Rome recently despite the ban.

Yesterday's meeting was designed to foster closer contacts between the two blocs.

Nigel Bruce, a South African MP who was to represent his country at the meeting, criticised the EU for taking a unilateral decision which played into the hands of Mr Mugabe. "There are accusations of neocolonialism going around," he said. "This is being held out by the Zimbabweans, quite erroneously, as an action of unanimous solidarity by the ACP countries for their racist policies ... This has fallen into their laps like manna from heaven."