Sealing Zimbabwe borders will make matters worse-UK
London, 12 Dec-(ANA)- Britain has questioned the wisdom of a U.S. proposal to seal Zimbabwe's borders in order to hasten the collapse of Robert Mugabe's government, saying such a move could have far worse consequences.
Mark Malloch Brown, Britain's secretary of state for Africa, said neighbouring countries shutting their borders would deny Zimbabweans an escape route and exacerbate the health and food crises already afflicting a desperate population.
"Any effort to close off Zimbabwe to the delivery of fuel would undermine the health efforts and the food distribution efforts," Malloch Brown told reporters in London after returning from South Africa, where he discussed Zimbabwe's situation.
"That border at the moment is a vital escape route."
With up to half Zimbabwe's estimated 10 million people dependent on food aid -- which has to be distributed by trucks -- and hospitals short on equipment and supplies as they try to deal with a cholera epidemic, widespread HIV/Aids infections and the threat of malaria, shutting borders would worsen matters.
"It's not necessarily wrong," he said of the U.S. proposal. "But people want to make sure that any effort like that is hitting the leadership and not just making matters worse for poorer people."
A senior U.S. official had said that if neighbouring countries sealed their borders, and prevented the flow of remittances from Zimbabwean exiles, it would bring the country to its knees "in a week".
"There is a continued outcry from African nations that this is an African problem and it needs an African solution," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"It takes something as simple as closing the borders. Zimbabwe is a land-locked country. The closure of the border, literally in a week would bring this country to its knees.(ANA)
Kenya/Carbon Credits