Helmer criticises Brussels Zimbabwe minister visit
Friday, 24 September 2004
A banned Zimbabwean Minister, Kumbirai Kangai, has been allowed into Belgium to attend a meeting of the EU-ACP Political Committee. Members of the European Parliament are protesting at this deliberate act of contempt by the regime of Robert Mugabe, which makes a nonsense of the EU's 'targeted sanctions'.
At this meeting British Conservative MEP Martin Callanan will be elected Chairman of the EU-ACP Political Committee. If Mr Kangai is present, Mr Callanan will make his opening remarks as the newly elected Chairman, but will then walk out in protest in light of this flouting of the ban.
Local East Midlands MEP, Roger Helmer, who has been consistently critical of the Mugabe regime, said:
"Yet again Mugabe gives two fingers to the EU when he deliberately selects a banned politician to come to Brussels. Mugabe's oppression of the Zimbabwean people has intensified and the international community does nothing.
I have demanded that the Secretary-General of the ACP block Kangai's admission to meetings.
It would be an act of the utmost hypocrisy for politicians concerned about the political and human rights situation in Zimbabwe to have any dealings with Mugabe henchmen that have been specifically banned from travel to the EU by the EU.
We should be asking serious questions of the Belgian Government as to why he has been granted a visa to enter the country."
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