Just weeks after the Government unveiled its ethical
foreign policy in May 1997, the British PM wrote a personal letter to Mugabe
congratulating him on his role in unifying Africa and helping to improve
relations between the continent and Britain. The signed message, which welcomed
Mugabe's appointment as leader of the Organization of African Unity, paved the
way for an attempt to bring the two leaders together in a face-to-face meeting
in Downing Street during the first weeks of the New Labour administration.
Revelations about Labour's early links with Mugabe come
as Blair prepares to publish his autobiography in which he casts himself as a
force for good in world affairs.
But the secret documents show how, despite international
condemnation of Mugabe's regime, Labour was secretly negotiating to establish
close trading and political relations with Harare. At this time, Mugabe was
under growing pressure to accept responsibility for "crimes against
humanity" in which thousands of Matabeleland civilians were killed by the
Zimbabwe army's Fifth Brigade in 1983-87.
Proof of President Mugabe's intent came in October that
year when the two leaders finally met at the Commonwealth summit in Edinburgh.
Mugabe told Blair that he wanted Britain to fund his land reforms in which half
a million hectares of white-owned farmland were to be redistributed among black
farmers.
But, weeks earlier, a Foreign Office briefing to Blair
argued the advantages of meeting the African President outweighed human rights
concerns.
In a letter dated June 11, the Foreign Office urged the
Prime Minister to accede to Mugabe's request for an official visit to Downing
Street. The memo reads: "This may be a useful opportunity for an exchange
of views in advance of CHOGM (the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting).
After South Africa, Zimbabwe is the most important
country in southern Africa to us both commercially and politically. Despite
domestic criticism arriving from recent financial scandals, and his failure so
far to respond to renewed serious allegations by Zimbabwean NGOs of his
involvement in atrocities in Matabeleland in the early 1980s, Mugabe remains a
senior African and Commonwealth figure with whom there would be advantage in
establishing early close relations. We recommend that the Prime Minister sees
him if his program permits."
No. 10 wrote back to the Foreign Office saying that Blair
could not make the date suggested by Mugabe. A second Foreign Office letter
later urges Blair to hold the meeting in September. But this time Blair's
commitments prevented the two leaders meeting.
In the run-up to the Commonwealth conference, Mugabe was
optimistic about forging closer ties with Britain. "I have great hopes of
Tony Blair," he said. "Mrs Thatcher described me as a terrorist but
Tony Blair is different."
How it all changed Mugabe on Blair 2000: Blair's
administration is "the gay government of the gay United Kingdom"
after Peter Tatchell attempted a citizen's arrest on him October 2005:
"The voice of Bush and the voice of Blair can't decide who shall rule in
Zimbabwe, who shall rule in Africa, who shall rule in Asia, who shall rule in
Venezuela, who shall rule in Iran, who shall rule in Iraq."
March 2010: "Conservatives are bold, Blair and Brown
run away when they see me, but not these fools, they know how to relate to
others. We have a better chance with David Cameron."
Blair on Mugabe 2001: "True democracy, no more
excuses for dictatorship, abuses of human rights; no tolerance of bad
governance, from the endemic corruption of some states to the activities of
Mugabe's henchmen in Zimbabwe."
March 2002, on Mugabe's treason charges against Morgan
Tsvangirai: "I think most people realize that these types of charges that
are being put up there in the course of an election campaign are deeply, deeply
suspect and the truth is that Mugabe is prepared to do virtually anything in
order to cling on to power.
July 2009: "I think whoever has the possibility
should topple Mugabe -- the man has destroyed his country, many people have
died unnecessarily because of him."
