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Zimbabwe To The West: Trust Us, We Need Your Money

Zimbabwe To The West: Trust Us, We Need Your Money

The government of Zimbabwe asked the West for financial help for the first time in more than 10 years at a meeting Wednesday in Harare of international lenders and western diplomats, according to a report in BusinessDayLive.

Zimbabean President Robert Mugabe and his government have been accused of human rights abuses, election rigging and intolerance to opposition parties. Funding by Western countries has been restricted to charities since 2002.

As recently as April 8 during his first state visit to South Africa in 21 years, Mugabe lambasted the U.N. Security Council, the U.S. and former colonial power U.K., according to a report in News24.

Mugabe told reporters in South Africa, “We want a political environment in which we are not interfered with by outsiders and we become masters of ourselves in Africa.”

This week, Zimbabwean government officials met Western ambassadors and representatives from the World Bank, African Development Bank and International Monetary Fund in Harare to talk about direct budgetary support.

In March, the International Monetary Fund ruled out resuming loans to Zimbabwe until the Southern African country retired its longstanding external debt of about $10 billion, VOA reported March 10.

Zimbabwe is one of the world’s few developing countries that funds its budget from taxes because it does not qualify for international credit due to its foreign debt, BusinessDayLive reports.

But the IMF said in March that Zimbabwe was making progress toward re-engaging the international community, according to VOA.

Zimbabwean Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa this week addressed a group that included U.S. and European Union diplomats.

“As we go forward and successfully build trust, we can channel development assistance through the vote of credit (budget) so we’re able to plan more effectively and efficiently,” Chinamasa told the gathering, according to  BusinessDayLive.

Donors who fund agriculture, health and governance projects through U.N. agencies, have promised $468 million in funding in 2015, down from $737 million in 2014, according to BusinessDayLive.

After lifting sanctions in November, the E.U. gave Zimbabwe 234 million euros ($263 million US) this year for the first time since imposing sanctions in 2002.

Mugabe, 91, took over the one-year rotating chairmanship of the African Union in January — a move critics said at the time would not benefit the continent because of his cold relationship with the West, AlJazeera reported.

Mugabe is also the chairman of the 15-nation South African Development Community.

Zimbabwe’s only leader since independence from Britain in 1980, Mugabe is considered by his critics to be one of the most vocal, divisive, and controversial Southern African leaders. Some worried his uncomfortable relations with Western countries and his new role in the African Union could hurt the fight against violent attacks in Africa — an effort largely financed by Western countries, especially France, the U.K., and the U.S., according to AlJazeera.

Mugabe was defiant about threats and American-led sanctions. He complained he was being victimized by Western double standards, AlJazeera reported

Zimbabwe is considered by many to be an economic basket case with a humanitarian crisis and worsening financial problems.