European Parliamentarians with Africa

The Irish AWEPA section has campaigned strongly on the issue of Zimbabwe over the last nine months, passing two all-party resolutions in the Dáil and Seanad which condemned the abuses of democracy and the uses of political violence under Robert Mugabe's rule.

"Ireland, with its long-standing ties to Zimbabwe, must now stand in solidarity with Zimbabwean people and refuse to recognise the results of this sham election," said Deputy Howlin.

"Not since the early days of AWEPA, when Irish TDs joined with parliamentarians across Europe to fight against Apartheid in South Africa, have we seen such activism among our members on any issue. Irish TDs from all parties have identified the plight of the Zimbabwean people suffering under Robert Mugabe's misrule, and they have fought to condemn this spiral of abuse and violence.

"This has been reflected by two all-party resolutions in the Dáil and Seanad.

"Now, right across Europe, our activism has spread to the sections of AWEPA in other European parliaments. Like us, they are agitating for a strong response from European governments to this crisis and they are looking for new ideas to break this deadlock.

"It was right and appropriate that our Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin, has ruled out any possibility that the results of this second round of voting can be regarded as legitimate.

"Now we must build further momentum across Europe, at government levels and across European parliaments, to force a return to democratic standards in Zimbabwe, just as we did in South Africa over 20 years ago when we joined forces to help end Apartheid."

The Irish Section of AWEPA will continue to monitor the political, economic and human rights situation in Zimbabwe in the aftermath of today's events, and it will propose new measures to the Irish government to address the situation in the Oireachtas next week.