Press Conference

Media Centre
Zimbabwean Minister for Information
March 3 2002

QUESTION: Mr Blair's position on Zimbabwe…

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: He has a candidate. He wants his candidate to win. He has said that if his candidate does not win, he will not recognise the results. And that is a matter of public record. It is also a matter of public report that Mr Blair's candidate had meetings in the United Kingdom, at least three of them, at which the plot to assassinate the President was hatched. That is besides the meeting in Montreal. Now, for someone who has his own thoughts to define free and fair elections in terms of the prospects of his world does not have anything to do with-

QUESTION: Mr Blair was not the only one. A lot of people have said that what is going on now in that way-it is not within the rules…that there are reasons why the elections are not free and fair. It is not only Mr Blair-

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: It is only Mr Blair who has been making the most noise, and you can tell me who else has said it.

QUESTION: I know the Prime Minister of Canada and the Prime Minister of Australia have both said that Zimbabwe should be put on a sort of watch list by CMAG here at this conference and that there should be action if the elections are not fair. So very quickly after them -

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Yes. You will be aware that in terms of Australia and Canada they have tried to use CMAG for political purposes outside the procedures in the rules of CMAG and of the Commonwealth, and it is quite ironic that those countries which make the most noise about the need for the rule of law are the first ones to break the law if it does not suit their purposes. So you have to look at the rules of engagement and the limit of CMAG (inaudible) and the breaking of the rules of CMAG.

QUESTION: Do you have the feeling that you have many allies in surrounding for any of the presidents (inaudible)

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Well, it is not about allies. You know what is important for us is what is good for the people of Zimbabwe, first and foremost. And what we do in Zimbabwe as an independent sovereign state is in accordance with our Constitution and our laws. That is what is fundamental.

QUESTION: ... Don't you see ..surprising if the elections are not fair?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: The people of Zimbabwe will decide and not the outsiders or the observers. We reject the notion that a free and fair election is one which is won by the opposition. This is the definition that certainly Mr Blair raised and what some of you in the media have. You talk about intimidation, you do not define it in any way. That can be useful for anybody.
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QUESTION: Let us move to yesterday's incident. There was to be a party arriving.

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: First of all, this ... after the elections.

QUESTION: Will you accept though that Mr President-

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: We will accept the verdict of the people of Zimbabwe.

QUESTION: You will accept the verdict the people of Zimbabwe?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: We have always done. This is not the first time President Mugabe…and says to the electorate. This is not the first election in Zimbabwe and you are aware yourselves that in the parliamentary elections in 2000 the opposition got 56 seats and if Zimbabwe had a track record of not accepting the result they would not been in parliament. You are also aware that we had a referendum in February of 2000 which went against the government rejecting the draft constitution and we have no idea where this suggestion that some way we would not accept is coming from, except perhaps from Mr Blair's imagination.

QUESTION: Do you understand about what the Commonwealth meeting is saying about your country?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: We are concerned about what the people of Zimbabwe will decide about the President. That is all.

QUESTION: What have you achieved-

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: You know, when we talk about our independence and our sovereignty, it is the sovereign right of the people of Zimbabwe to choose their leaders. This is what we fought for. This is what the liberation struggle was about. It was not so that somehow we will have other organisations and other people validating our electoral processes.

QUESTION: So what is going to happen-

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: There is nothing to be unhappy about as far as the Commonwealth is concerned-the meetings are still taking place, we are very confident that the collective Commonwealth is a responsible institution. We are members of the collective Commonwealth and I repeat: don't confuse British interests with Commonwealth interests. The Commonwealth is not Britain and Britain is not the Commonwealth. So we have no problem whatsoever as far as the deliberations of the Commonwealth are concerned.

QUESTION: Could you comment on the divisions that have emerged in the African states and Britain and Australia and New Zealand on this issue?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: We cannot comment on what Mr Blair and his colleagues are alleging through the media-the meetings. We are not aware of them. We just have had media reports to that effect and the Commonwealth meetings are taking place here and not on the television screens.

QUESTION: Do you see it as a bit of a black and white split…

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: How can we talk about this split while the deliberations are going on right now?

QUESTION: The Commonwealth observer group in your country said that they are holding violence and intimidation in the campaign, and they say that the people say they have been victims of it themselves.

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Yes, but they did not say, if you are referring to the sense that I read, by whom, from whom. There has been this view that somehow the mention of violence in Zimbabwe implicates the ruling party; that it is only the ruling party that is capable of perpetrating violence. Violence as far as we are concerned is objectionable from whatever quarter it comes, and there are a number of incidents where the opposition has been involved in violence. In fact, we cannot imagine greater violence than the plot to assassinate our president.

So we hope in that statement they were in fact making a statement about the total electoral process, not about some aspects of it. We hope they have not taken a position that we are not partisan, that we are open minded observers, not closed minded observers who are there to observe the elections on behalf of Mr Blair.

QUESTION: Why do not you make public, make of it now, the six hour tape of Mr Tsvangirai is supposedly planning, plotting to assassinate Mr Mugabe? Why is that not made now-

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: We would be an irresponsible government if we did that. You yourselves have always said there must be the rule of law. We are not running a kangaroo court. There may be kangaroo courts elsewhere. Maybe you in Australia-we don't have kangaroos in Zimbabwe and we are not going to have a kangaroo court on this matter. The evidence which the police are in the process of gathering will have to be produced in a court of law, not in the court of public opinion, no.

That is not the rule of law and we are not going to abandon the values that we have cherished for 22 years just because we want to please certain papers as to a certain point of view. The government has not said anything about this matter. It is none of our business, that a broadcaster in this country, SBS in Australia, made public that information. It is none of their business and you can talk to them as far as that is concerned. What we know is that the police following the rules, the laws and the Constitution of the land, we are investigating this matter. We will get to the bottom of it. And if they have come up with a case that can be prosecuted in a court of law, they will do the right thing by presenting that matter to the Attorney­General. And then and only then will we now look at what evidence has he got.

QUESTION: Can you see claims of you withholding the (inaudible) of 5,000 polling booths in Zimbabwe. Can you comment on that ?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Well, I mean, this is the typical claim you would expect from an opposition like the NPC. The fact of the matter is that in this election government has made it clear and will take steps to ensure that polling booths are accessible to every voter in Zimbabwe. We have to do that.

QUESTION: What about the Zimbabweans living abroad….

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: There is a (inaudible) that has meant that voters will have to apply, they have to do it in law and the law is very clear as to what they need to do. You are aware that there was a lot of talk about the general laws and then which the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe has said it was not adopted properly from a procedural point of view. Therefore the provisions which were made in that law are no longer applicable-and there is no point in talking about things that are not applicable.

QUESTION: What will happen in Zimbabwe when they have with the election he is taken to prison because he has committed-

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Look, a criminal is a criminal and it takes a court of law to say you are a criminal. There is no point in speculating about what a court of law would do, and you cannot immunise yourself from criminal conduct just because you are Mr Tony Blair's candidate in an election in Zimbabwe-no, you cannot.

QUESTION: What about Mr Tsvangirai….

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Well, you must ask me.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Zimbabwe is greater than Mr Tsvangirai or any individual. Zimbabwe will always be there. So you cannot ask me what will happen to Zimbabwe if Mr Tsvangirai is not there. Zimbabwe will survive.

QUESTION: Don't you think that Mr Tsvangirai…. regular calls for CMAG by talking about Zimbabwe?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Zimbabwe has a democratically elected leader. There has been no (inaudible) in Zimbabwe. It is very clear in terms of the rules of CMAG as they are now. If they should change, as they are expected to, because the high level group is ready with this review report, then I suppose we should talk about what could change. But you cannot make rules just because you want to enable Britain to settle a bilateral score against Zimbabwe. This is a matter between Zimbabwe and Britain. It has always been and Britain cannot run away from it by bringing on board other people or using institutions like CMAG. No, that cannot be.

QUESTION: Have you seen CMAG's recommendations?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: What recommendations?

QUESTION: On Zimbabwe, what CMAG say. Have you seen them yourself?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: No, I have not seen them. They may have (inaudible)

QUESTION: What do you think about Mugabe being seen by Britain, Canada and Australia as not being a fair and free election?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: They should be concerned themselves about that because it is unbelievable that people who believe in democracy would come out publicly and say that the elections will only be free and fair if their candidate wins; even if that candidate is representing the ruling party, it must be acceptable. It is unfortunate that Britain and, to some extent, the EU has taken the position that in Africa, free and fair elections must be won by the opposition. That is unfortunate. It is unacceptable.

QUESTION: Could you tell us who you are.

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: I am the Zimbabwean Minister for Information. Moyo.

QUESTION: What is your opinion of media coverage so far?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: About what?

QUESTION: On this issue.

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: I did not know that all issues in Zimbabwe to be covered in the same way that this particular issue has been covered-we will have a better understanding because remember the story was broken here in Australia, not in Zimbabwe, and there has been criticism of the initial story and there have been subsequent stories, and I think the reading and viewing and listening public are all greater for that kind of coverage. But the coverage on Zimbabwe itself is atrocious.

QUESTION: Why?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Well, it's biased; it is unbelievably biased. If the coverage of Zimbabwe by the international media is anything to go by, then the time has come for the media to really go into a deep (inaudible). It is unfortunate it has been one­sided partisan political, especially the British media.

QUESTION: But you have not let some of them in; you haven't let the BBC or Sky in (inaudible)

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: But today hopefully they are not blackmailing us, saying, you know, 'Let us in and then we'll cover you well.' There are rules; we have applied this for the BBC. They know very well why they have not been allowed. But the truth is fortunately the BBC is not the world media. There is more to the world media than the BBC and Sky. There are a lot of British reporters that are in Zimbabwe. We have a Reuters office in Zimbabwe. They have beefed it up for the purposes of covering the election, but we have media representatives across the length and breadth of this globe, and we are happy about that.

QUESTION: Why was the Australian ABC not granted permission?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: I don't know. There is an administrative process for that and I'm carrying that at this (inaudible).

QUESTION: But you are the Minister of Information.

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Yes, but I am not the administrative process.

QUESTION: You do have (inaudible)-

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: No. Can you imagine: there are so many applicants, and it would be unreasonable to expect me to be traveling with a file and then I have to look there and say 'Well, this one was not allowed for this reason' and I am sure there are good reasons, but those reasons are in there (inaudible)

QUESTION: If you are confident of your position, why is (inaudible)?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: So it is a fair thing. That is why there is an international media presence in Zimbabwe. And that is why there are international observers in Zimbabwe. There is the Zimbabwean story-it is an open story. But certainly you cannot tell me that if ABC or BBC is not there then there is no international scrutiny. I don't think the likes of ITN, ITT, CNN would take kindly to that assertion.

QUESTION: But it's selective-

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Well, yes, you cannot have everyone; it's not a jungle, you know; it's a country, it's not a country, and we have an election; we do not have a circus. Bingo.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Otherwise if we did not accept that principle, we would not be party Harare. But we do not accept that the principle that some members of the Commonwealth, especially the powerful ones like Britain, should abuse those processes for bilateral reasons.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: That is not a principle that we'll ever, ever accept.

QUESTION: But in this instance, CMAG, the committee relating to this, has looked into it-

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: It has no mandate to do that in terms of the Harare Declaration or the new group. They don't have a mandate to do that.

QUESTION: They don't have a mandate to look at breaches of the Harare Declaration?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: You have to then look at the difference. Remember the devil is always in the detail (inaudible) invoked the Harare Declaration as if it means one thing. It is a much more careful document than is met out in the media. Zimbabwe is headed by a democratically elected government. There has been no military coupe in Zimbabwe, and you cannot CMAG Zimbabwe without changing CMAG's mandate. We are aware and I am sure you are too that the High Level Review Group has been looking at the mandate of CMAG with a view to expanding it to look at other issues that may have been involved in a democratically elected government. But, I mean, are you not aware that we are (inaudible) a member of that group? We are-

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Well, we do, but we support procedural behaviour. We do not support unilateralism. We do not accept that any country can wake up the next day and think that it can settle a score it has with another member by abusing and appropriating this process.

QUESTION: But the current process is multilateral; it is going to (inaudible) the process.

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: No, it is not. But again, it must be guided by the (inaudible) policies. It must be. You cannot change the rules outside the process for making and changing; you cannot. We reject that, and we are not the only ones who rejected that. But otherwise we are a member of the Commonwealth and we are proud of the fact that the Harare Declaration was made in our own country, and we have been chair of CMAG, you know, but we are alarmed by Britain's attempt to use Australia, Canada and, to some extent, New Zealand to steal CMAG. CMAG is not available for bilateral debates by members of the Commonwealth.

QUESTION: What do you want the Commonwealth to say? Do you want the Commonwealth to say nothing at the end of this meeting and go?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: No. I mean, it is not for us to say what the Commonwealth should say. (inaudible) it is not for us to put weight on the Commonwealth, but we believe that the Commonwealth has a history, has a tradition, has a collective identity and that, whatever is to be said, it must be said in the context of that tradition and history and the shared values that bind it together. And we believe that when things are said in that context there will be no problem.

QUESTION: There won't be sanctions on Zimbabwe?

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: That is not to say there should or should not be sanctions on Zimbabwe and that, as far as we are concerned, why should there be sanctions on Zimbabwe anyway? Why should there be sanctions on Zimbabwe?

QUESTION: New Zealand's Prime Minister, Helen Clark, has said that she cannot imagine free and fair elections to President Mugabe-

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: She said what?

QUESTION: She said she cannot imagine free and fair elections-

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Anybody with that kind of view does not deserve a response.

QUESTION: The Australian Foreign Minister says this problem over Zimbabwe is not upon racial lines. The African states have banded together to oppose basically the former colonial master Britain and Australia.

ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION: Well, to the extent that is correct, it should send a clear message to the former colonial masters-that, you know, the recolonisation of all Africa is not on the cards, and if it is, it will not start in Zimbabwe. We will not allow it.

ENDS