Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

The words from the Stevie Wonder song, Peace Has Come to Zimbabwe, are ringing through my head and are mocking us all. They are also spurring us on to action to try to bring peace again to Zimbabwe and rebuild a country where life expectancy has almost halved over the past ten years.

I applaud Deputy Howlin's placing of the Zimbabwe issue in the context of Ireland's past. Ireland is almost uniquely positioned in the European context as a country which has known colonisation and oppression and which, I hope, can lead by example in showing Zimbabwe the way forward. My colleague, Patricia McKenna, has discussed how the Irish experience of the Land Commission could show Zimbabwe a way to reform land ownership in a democratic way which can allow all the people to share in the wealth, opportunity and future of their country.

I welcome the mediation efforts of Thabo Mbeki to promote political dialogue between the Zimbabwean Government and the opposition parties. It is disingenuous of Deputy Billy Timmins to suggest that non-attendance would show Ireland was more interested in human rights violations in Zimbabwe than Europe's trade with Africa. It is important to be there because this summit does not take place every year but only every seven years. Given Ireland's increasing leadership role in development aid to sub-Saharan Africa and the huge pressure of climate change which is dramatically reducing crop yields in sub-Saharan Africa, there is a great onus to act and engage in dialogue now and to show a way forward rather than simply walk away from an event which does not happen on a regular basis.

It is hugely important to show how we can move forward because Zimbabwe is plagued by street marches, which are violently dispersed by the regime, and by leaders being routinely arrested. I refer the case of Fergus Blackie, a retired Zimbabwean justice, who was hauled from his home before dawn, held in jail for three nights and paraded through the bumpy streets of Harare in handcuffs in an open top Land Rover. This is the message Mugabe is sending to the western world and we must show that we will engage in dialogue but that through that dialogue, we will show the best way forward.

It is important to talk, to be there and to show leadership and how Ireland's aid, which was €17 million over the past couple of years, can make a huge difference. We should call on the Zimbabwean Government to comply with the SADC guidelines on free and fair elections. We should publicly welcome the mediation efforts of Thabo Mbeki to promote political dialogue between the government and the opposition parties.

Ireland has been through the trauma of being colonised and the process of nation building. It was not an easy process and there were dark days in the 1920s with landowners being burned out and pushed out of the country but there was also hope, leadership and a democratic, peaceful and egalitarian process which gave us an agrarian optimism and future which led us through the dark days of the 1930s and 1940s. It is possible to reform land ownership without deporting people. It is possible to show that a democratic future is possible. We all look forward to a day when democracy is restored to Zimbabwe and hope is brought to all of the Zimbabwean people.

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