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Zim leaders appeal for $5-billion to revive economy
President Robert Mugabe and a longtime opposition leader-turned-finance minister made an unusual joint appeal on Thursday for $5-billion in international aid to revive Zimbabwe's shattered economy. The two men presented an economic recovery programme that scraps stringent price controls that fuelled black marketeering and inflation. It also sets up "safety nets and social protection for vulnerable groups exposed to market forces," Finance Minister Tendai Biti said, without offering details. The longtime opponents disagreed, however, over the causes of the country's economic meltdown. Biti said that Zimbabwe had to do its part by restoring democratic freedoms and the rule of law. He said a new wave of seizures of white-owned farms in recent weeks blamed on Mugabe loyalists must stop. "For the economy to turn around, we need to have good governance. Our politics must be right," he told business leaders and government officials at the presentation in Harare. "We are asking our international friends to help us." Mugabe said economic recovery required foreign aid and the removal of Western economic sanctions he deemed "inhuman, cruel and unwarranted." "We wish to appeal to all those countries which wish us to succeed to support our national endeavor. Friends of Zimbabwe, please come to our aid," he said. "I appeal for the removal of your sanctions which are inhuman, cruel and unwarranted." Britain, the former colonial power, the European Union and the United States insist their official sanctions -- imposing travel and visa restrictions on Mugabe and more than 200 of his party leaders, government officials and loyalists - have little bearing on the economic crisis. Posted by: Fred 2009-03-20 |
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