ugnet_: UK: IT'S ALL OUR FAULT

[Mitayo Potosi]

Monday, 18 November 2002

It's all our fault: UK

LONDON.
British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, has ruffled political opponents by
laying some of the blame for current crises; including those in Iraq and
Zimbabwe; on the legacy of British imperialism.

"A lot of the problems that we are having to deal with now; I have to
deal with now; are a consequence of our colonial past,'' Mr Straw said in
an interview published in the New Statesman magazine, published on Friday.

Members of the main opposition Conservative Party accused Mr Straw of yielding
to "old fashioned left-wing guilt" and undermining British foreign policy,
particularly in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe has justified his
campaign against white farmers as a way of righting the wrongs of colonialism.

But Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street office said Mr Straw's remarks
are "a sensible statement of history".

In the interview, Mr Straw questioned the idea of "liberal imperialism", a term
used by Mr Blair's foreign policy adviser Mr Robert Cooper to describe recent
military interventions in Kosovo and Sierra Leone.

"I didn't agree with that stuff. I'm not a liberal imperialist. . . There's a
lot wrong with imperialism,'' Mr Straw said.

"India-Pakistan; we made some quite serious mistakes," he said, referring
to British rule until 1947, when the two countries were partitioned.

In Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan, he said, "We were
complacent . . . the boundaries weren't published until two days after
independence. Bad story for us. The consequences are still there."

In Afghanistan, he added, Britain "played less than a glorious role over a
century and a half".

And in the Middle East, "the odd lines for Iraq's borders were drawn by Brits.

"The Balfour declaration and the contradictory assurances which were being given
to Palestinians in private at the same time as they were being given to the
Israelis; again, an interesting history but not an honourable one."

In Zimbabwe, Mr Straw said, there was a need to redistribute land after the
country gained independence in 1980.

Mr Straw said he had "huge arguments" with President Mugabe over the need for
democracy and good governance.

"However, when any Zimbabwean, any African, says to me land is a key issue. . .
the early colonisers were all about taking land," he said.

Opposition Conservative Party foreign affairs spokesman Mr Michael Ancram said
Mr Straw's remarks showed the government is "frightened of the shadow of our
colonial past and has not realised that the world has moved on. We have to treat
problems as we find them, and not on the history of how they arose".

Mr Ancram said Mr Straw's comments on Zimbabwe "gives encouragement to President
Mugabe to go on accusing the British government of neo-colonialism because he
believes it stops the government from taking action that puts real pressure on
him. "What strikes me about this article is it shows no overall vision of what
he is trying to achieve. It's old fashioned left-wing guilt."

The right-wing Daily Telegraph newspaper said it "cannot imagine Colin Powell,
the American Secretary of State, indulging in such maundering self-hatred,
particularly as the US, backed by Britain, prepares for a possible war on Iraq.
"It weakens Britain's position internationally. It undermines soldiers who may
be about to risk their lives for what they; at least; believe to
be right," the paper said. ; AP.




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"Ivinicus factus sum veritabem diceus." ( I have become an enemy for speaking the truth ) St Paul!
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Mitayo Potosi






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