History > 2008 > UK > Politics > International (I)

Dave Brown

cartoon

The Independent

Tuesday 30 December 2008

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/the-daily-cartoon-760940.html

L to R :

U.S. president George W. Bush,

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown

Related

Israel presses on with Gaza attacks

Reuters        Independent        Tuesday, 30 December 2008

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-presses-on-with-gaza-attacks-1216843.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-presses-on-with-gaza-attacks-1216843.html?action=Popup

British PM Brown

blames Pakistan militants

over Mumbai

Sun Dec 14, 2008
3:30am EST
Reuters
By Adrian Croft

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown blamed banned Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for last month's deadly Mumbai attacks as tension between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan simmered on Sunday.

Pakistan said on Saturday Indian warplanes had inadvertently violated its airspace, but New Delhi later denied the incident and accused Islamabad of trying to divert attention.

Brown met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday during a brief visit to New Delhi and said he would carry India's concerns over the Mumbai attacks to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari later on Sunday.

India, backed by the United States, has called on Pakistan to crack down on Pakistan-based militant groups after last month's Mumbai attacks, in which 179 people were killed during a three-day siege in India's financial heart.

It blames Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant group it says was set up by Pakistan to fight Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region, for the Mumbai attacks.

"The group responsible for the attacks is LeT and they have a great deal to answer for, and I hope to convey some of the views of the Indian prime minister to the president of Pakistan when I meet him," Brown told reporters in India's capital.

Islamabad has blamed "non-state actors" for the attacks and has vowed to cooperate with investigations, but has also repeatedly said anyone caught in Pakistan would be tried in Pakistan.

CONFLICT SEEN AS UNLIKELY

Analysts say retaliatory strikes or other military action by India remain very unlikely, as New Delhi believes they would be counterproductive by strengthening the hands of hawks and extremists in Pakistan.

Pakistan has rounded up some of the 40 people India has demanded should be extradited but says that New Delhi has not provided any evidence of links to the attacks. Lashkar has denied involvement.

Brown criticized the "perverse and unacceptable messages" sent by terrorist groups who exploit people of "good religions and faiths," offering New Delhi help in its fight against militancy.

"It's important to recognize that wherever there is terrorism it has to be fought, and where there is terrorism it affects the stability and cohesion of countries," Brown said.

British police may wish to question the lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks, which killed one British national and two people with dual British-Indian nationality, a British government source said.

The surviving gunman, identified as Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, is being questioned by Indian investigators.

"We want to get more information on how Lashkar is working," the British source said.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars and went to the brink of a fourth in 2002 after an attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 that New Delhi blamed on militants based in Pakistan.

In accusing Indian warplanes of entering its airspace, Pakistan said on Saturday there was no cause for alarm about an escalation of tensions between the uneasy neighbors.

An Indian air force spokesman on Sunday denied the claim but Pakistan stood by the accusation.

Pakistan's air force said two violations happened. One in the Kashmir area and the other around Lahore in Pakistan's Punjab province.

India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in full but rule it in parts.

Pakistan shot down two Indian planes which it said had gone into its airspace during the 1999 Kargil conflict, fought on the Line of Control dividing Kashmir.
 

(Reporting by New Delhi and Islamabad bureaus; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Simon Denyer and Jeremy Laurence)

    British PM Brown blames Pakistan militants over Mumbai, R, 14.12.2008, http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4BD0JB20081214

Brown tells of horror

at killing of four soldiers

Sunday 14 December 2008
The Observer
Gaby Hinsliff
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
at 00.01 GMT on Sunday 14 December 2008.
It appeared in the Observe
on Sunday 14 December 2008 on p1 of the News section.
It was last updated
at 00.01 GMT on Sunday 14 December 2008.

Camp Bastion

Gordon Brown visited the front line in the Afghan war yesterday and declared his 'disgust and horror' at the deaths of four British soldiers in a double ambush involving a 13-year-old child bomber.

The Prime Minister arrived for what was planned as a morale-boosting Christmas visit - highlighting the deployment of hundreds of fresh troops in Helmand province - to find the British base in mourning after one of its blackest days.

Lance-Corporal Steven Fellows, 26, serving with 45 Commando, was killed and two others injured by a roadside bomb near Sangin on Friday morning. A patrol responding to the incident was then approached by a child pushing a wheelbarrow full of newspapers, which were concealing another bomb that killed two more members of 45 Commando, Sergeant John Manuel, 38, and Corporal Marc Birch, 26. A fourth soldier, Marine Damian Davies, 27, serving with the Commando Logistics Regiment, later died in hospital from his injuries as a result of the explosion.

Brown said the use of such a young boy in such an atrocity would 'offend public opinion' across the world.

He went closer to enemy action than any serving Prime Minister since Winston Churchill, say aides, as he visited a watchtower only 35 miles from where the soldiers were ambushed. 'It was a cowardly attack using a 13-year-old child as a suicide bomber. I think there is disgust and horror at the tactics used by the Taliban,' he said.

And he quoted Churchill to soldiers who gathered to meet him at Camp Bastion, saying that Britain was in their debt: 'These men will never be forgotten for what they have achieved on behalf of our country and ... we will do everything we can so that their memory is ... held in esteem by the people of Britain.'

He said British troops had been through 'difficult times as a result of the change in tactics by the Taliban', but that their professionalism had shone through. Their efforts were designed to prevent a 'chain of terror' reaching through Afghanistan and Pakistan to British streets. He added: 'The people of Britain are safer because of what you do here.'

Last night Major Spike Kelly, speaking from 45 Commando's base in Arbroath, paid tribute to the men: 'Their loss will be felt extremely keenly by the whole unit and the wider Royal Marines and Royal Navy communities,' he said. Marine Davies, from Telford, Shropshire, leaves behind a young son, Matthew, and wife, Joanne, who is expecting their second child.

The soldiers' deaths underline the difficulty Brown faces in securing support for increased troop numbers. He is due to make a Commons statement tomorrow confirming that hundreds more troops have already been drafted in from Cyprus to bolster the British presence in Helmand.

The losses come as the Tories are threatening to withdraw support for fresh deployment unless the government meets wide-ranging new conditions.

A former Foreign Office minister, Kim Howells, also warned last week that voters could soon start questioning why British forces should bear such losses in defence of an Afghan government he described as riddled with corruption. Yesterday Brown and Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, used a press conference in Kabul to announce the creation of a new anti-corruption task force staffed by British officials to tackle corruption in all state agencies, including the police.

The new deployment in Helmand is understood to comprise some 300 soldiers, mainly from the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment. Opposing any deployment would be a significant move for the Tories, whose traditional instinct is to support the military. Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague told The Observer before Brown's announcement that the Tories would be seeking guarantees of a more clearly defined mission, more helicopter support and better protective equipment.

    Brown tells of horror at killing of four soldiers, O, 14.12.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/14/afghanistan-gordon-brown-visit

Gordon Brown in the Middle East

Brown hopeful of Saudi cash for IMF

Sunday November 02 2008 15.30 GMT
Guardian.co.uk
Allegra Stratton in Riyadh
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Sunday November 02 2008.
It was last updated
at 15.30 on November 02 2008.

Gordon Brown said today he was hopeful of success in his attempts to persuade dollar-rich Gulf states to prop up ailing national economies through a massive injection of capital into the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The prime minister spent three hours in one-to-one talks with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, trying to persuade the monarch to invest in a revamped IMF.

On the first leg of a four-day visit to the Middle East, and aiming to secure hundreds of billions of dollars for the fund, Brown called off a planned dinner with business leaders accompanying him so as to allow maximum negotiating time with the Saudi king.

The IMF currently has around $250bn in its emergency reserves but there are fears that, with Hungary, Iceland and Ukraine having already sought assistance and more nations expected to follow, the sum might not be sufficient.

Brown hopes to persuade Gulf leaders to use some of the estimated $1tn they have made from high oil prices in the last few years to boost the reserves, indicating that he would like to see the current sum increased by "hundreds of billions" of dollars.

The prime minister said following the talks that he was hopeful of having secured Saudi backing.

Speaking on the BBC television's Sunday AM programme, Brown said: "I think people want to invest both in helping the world get through this very difficult period of time but I also think people want to work with us so we are less dependent on oil and have more stability in oil prices."

He added: "The Saudis will, I think, contribute, so we can have a bigger fund worldwide."

However, a senior government source party to the negotiations said the Saudis were very sensitive about being regarded as a "cash cow" and that the country, in which two thirds of the population are below the age of 25, would prioritise domestic investment if necessary.

The business secretary, Peter Mandelson, accompanying Brown on the trip, echoed this caution. He played down expectations, indicating that the government was unlikely to learn whether the Saudis would contribute towards the IMF fund until a meeting of 20 countries in Washington on November 15. Mandelson told reporters that talks with the Saudis were a "process not an event".

Both Brown and Mandelson indicated that the Saudis would only buy into the scheme if significant reform of the global institutions was achieved to bring on board rising powers such as Saudi Arabia, India and Brazil.

Business leaders on the trip - described by Brown as the "highest profile group of business leaders ever to accompany a delegation overseas" - said the prime minister was receiving something of a "hero's welcome" for his part in the global response to the recent economic downturn, and that this was softening his dealings with Saudis.

Brown arrived later in the afternoon in Doha, Qatar for the second leg of his tour.

    Brown hopeful of Saudi cash for IMF, G, 2.11.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/02/saudiarabia-creditcrunch

9.45am BST

Gordon Brown visits Baghdad

for talks with Iraqi leaders

Guardian.co.uk
Saturday July 19, 2008
Nicholas Watt in Baghdad
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Saturday July 19 2008.
It was last updated
at 10:41 on July 19 2008.

Gordon Brown flew into Baghdad this morning for a series of meetings with Iraq's leaders and David Petraeus, the American general who has led the military "surge" over the past year.

Amid tight security, the prime minister flew by RAF Puma helicopter into Baghdad's "green zone" after an overnight flight to the Iraqi capital via Kuwait.

Brown's visit coincided with a trip by the US Democratic presidential hopeful, Barack Obama, to Afghanistan, where he will meet the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.

Obama is later due to travel to Iraq and will meet Brown at Downing Street next week, when the pair are expected to discuss Iraqi troop withdrawal.

Brown, who will update MPs on British troop numbers in a statement on Tuesday, is outlining four "building blocks" of progress in Iraq. Once achieved, these could lead to dramatic reductions - and an eventual withdrawal - of British troops, from the country.

They are:

• Stepping up the training of Iraqi security forces so they can eventually take over the work of the 4,000 British troops stationed at Basra airport on "overwatch" duties

• Political progression to the establishment of provincial elections no later than early next year

• Economic reconstruction to build on the growing strength of the Iraqi economy, which is growing at 7% this year compared to 1% last year. Iraq is now producing 2.5m barrels of oil per day - its highest level since the war in 2003

• Creating the conditions for Iraqis to resume control of Basra airport - the base for British troops in Iraq - so that it can return to full civilian use

Brown began his day in Baghdad by meeting Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's Shia prime minister, and Jalal Talabani, the country's Kurdish president.

Britain's relations with al-Maliki were strained in March when the Iraqi prime minister launched operation Charge of the Knights to drive Shia militia out of Basra. Iraqi leaders and some American commanders criticised Britain for reducing the number of troops in Basra, Iraq's second largest city. Britain has a garrison of 4,000 troops at Basra airport after they withdrew from the city last September.

Brown will aim to put those tensions behind him this morning when he meets Petraeus and al-Maliki. Petraeus made it clear he wanted to move on when he said in May, after an hour's meeting with the prime minister in Downing Street, that Britain had been "invaluable" in providing intelligence, air and logistics support during the Basra operation.

The prime minister and Britain's military commanders believe great progress has been made since March and that lessons have been learnt on all sides. Britain has trained 10,000 Iraqi troops from the 10th and 14th Iraqi divisions.

The American-led surge - and the success against Shia militias in Basra - has also led to a major improvement in security. There have been an average of five rocket attacks on British troops in Basra a month since April, compared with 200 last summer. In 10 of Iraq's 18 provinces, responsibility for security has been passed to the Iraqis. This has happened in all four provinces under British control.

Brown hopes that success in training Iraqi forces will allow him to cut British troop numbers, possibly next year when there is a new president in the White House. Britain had hoped to reduce its troop numbers to 2,500 this spring. But this was postponed after the difficulties of the March offensive.

Petraeus said that Iraqi troops had got off to a "shaky start" during the March Basra operation. He said: "Some were not equal to the task."

The prime minister's visit is timed to allow him to update MPs on Britain's troop commitments before parliament rises for the summer recess on Tuesday. He will tread carefully in what he says after suffering political damage last October when he was accused by the Tories of making politically sensitive comments about troops during a visit to Iraq during the Conservative conference week.

Brown's visit comes on the eve of Obama's first visit to Iraq since he won the Democratic nomination for the White House. Obama's opposition to the Iraq war - and his pledge to withdraw all US combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office - could help Brown reduce the number of British troops.

But Obama has recently begun to "refine" his position on Iraq. The Democratic frontrunner, who will also visit Afghanistan on his trip, said earlier this month that he would conduct a "thorough assessment" of plans to withdraw a combat brigade from Iraq every month.

Brown will meet Obama in London next week when the Democratic candidate ends his tour with a swing through Europe, to Britain, France and Germany. The prime minister is likely to raise one of his main themes for Iraq and the broader Middle East - economic reconstruction.

Britain is taking a close interest in the Basra Investment Promotion Agency and the Basra Development Fund, both designed to stimulate private sector development. Britain is also promoting the renovation of the Umm Quasr port.

Brown had hoped to cut British troops in Iraq to 2,500 by this spring. But the prime minister shelved that - and British troops returned to the centre of Baghdad - when Britain was largely ignored during the anti-Shia militia operation in March.

    Gordon Brown visits Baghdad for talks with Iraqi leaders, G, 19.7.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/19/iraq.military

Queen Strips Mugabe of Knighthood

June 26, 2008
The New York Times
By ALAN COWELL

Queen Elizabeth II has stripped Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s strongman president for nearly 30 years, of his honorary knighthood as a “mark of revulsion” at the human rights abuses and “abject disregard” for democracy over which he has presided, the British Foreign Office announced Wednesday.

The rebuke showed the extent of international frustration over Mr. Mugabe’s insistence to go ahead with a presidential runoff on Friday, even though his sole opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, pulled out of race on Sunday because of the persistent violence and intimidation against him, his party and their supporters.

Mr. Mugabe’s government has had a long history of human rights abuses, but he was granted an honorary knighthood during an official visit to England in 1994 when, the foreign office contends, “the conditions in Zimbabwe were very different.”

But with the widespread attacks against the opposition, the foreign office said the honor could no longer be justified. Stripping a dignitary of an honorary knighthood is exceedingly rare. A foreign office spokesman could think of only one other time it had been done — in 1989 to the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu.

Mr. Tsvangirai, the beleaguered opposition leader, called on the United Nations on Wednesday to send a peacekeeping force to bring calm to the country and help pave the way for new elections in which he could participate as a “legitimate candidate.”

“Zimbabwe will break if the world does not come to our aid,” he said in an op-ed in The Guardian newspaper in London. After weeks of mounting political violence against the opposition and its supporters, Mr. Tsvangirai withdrew from Friday’s runoff and took refuge Sunday in the Dutch Embassy in Harare.

He emerged from the embassy briefly on Wednesday to hold a news conference at his home in which he challenged President Robert Mugabe to cancel the runoff and open negotiations.

But, he said, he was not prepared to deal with a government validated by an election in which Mr. Mugabe is by default the only candidate. Mr. Mugabe has insisted Friday’s voting will go ahead.

“We have said we are prepared to negotiate on this side of the 27th, not the other side of the 27th,” Mr. Tsvangirai said, according to Reuters.

He listed four demands: an end to political violence; the resumption of humanitarian aid; the swearing in of legislators elected in the first round of voting on March 29; and the release of political prisoners.

“We have always maintained that the Zimbabwean problem is an African problem that requires an African solution,” he said, referring to continent-wide and regional African bodies including the Southern African Development Community.

“To this end, I am asking the African Union and S.A.D.C. to lead an expanded initiative, supported by the United Nations, to manage the transitional process.

“The transitional period would allow the country to heal,” he said. “Genuine and honest dialogue amongst Zimbabweans is the only way forward.” He said he wanted the African Union to endorse his proposals at a forthcoming summit meeting in Egypt.

Mr. Tsvangirai’s demands coincided with a scramble of regional and international diplomacy with many African and Western institutions saying the vote on Friday will be neither free nor fair. A critical group of southern African countries opened a meeting Wednesday in Swaziland to seek a way out of the crisis.

The meeting grouped leaders or ministers from Swaziland, Angola and Tanzania — the so-called troika charged with responsibility for the region’s political, defense and security issues. The group said it had also invited the leaders of Zambia and South Africa to attend, but President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, the regional mediator on the crisis in Zimbabwe, said through a spokesman that he would not attend.

The spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, said in a telephone interview that South Africa was not a member of the troika and had not been invited.

Amid the international outcry over his government’s handling of the crisis, Mr. Mugabe, 84, was reported Tuesday as hinting that he might be open to talks with the opposition, but only after Friday’s vote confirmed his power.

He remained defiant about going ahead with the runoff.

“They can shout as loud as they like from Washington or from London or from any other quarter,” Mr. Mugabe said in televised broadcasts. “Our people, our people, only our people will decide and nobody else.”

Taken together, his remarks were the most explicit affirmation that he intended to go through with an election widely condemned as illegitimate.

But the hint of readiness to talk was also the first sign that Mr. Mugabe might negotiate — as Mr. Mbeki has been urging him to do — once he has what he can depict as a position of strength.

The state-run Herald newspaper quoted Mr. Mugabe on Wednesday as saying: “We are open, open to discussion but we have our own principles.”

The American ambassador in Harare, James McGee, has concluded that Mr. Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party area determined to hold the runoff “at all costs,” according to the State Department.

“We’ve received reports that Zanu-PF will force people to vote on Friday and also take action against those who refuse to vote,” Mr. McGee said in a conference call described by the State Department. “So, they’re saying ‘We want an election at all costs. We want to validate Mr. Mugabe’s victory here.’” “There’s really nothing that we can do here in the international community to stop these elections,” Mr. McGee said.

The BBC quoted Jendayi Frazer, the State Department’s assistant secretary of state for African affairs, as saying Washington would not recognize the outcome of the vote if it went forward.

“People were being beaten and losing their lives just to exercise their right to vote for their leadership so we cannot, under these conditions, recognize the outcome if, in fact, this runoff goes forward,” she was quoted as saying.

South Africa, the region’s most influential player, has rejected outside intervention in the crisis.

In a statement on Tuesday, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress insisted that “any attempts by outside players to impose regime change will merely deepen the crisis.”

While the A.N.C. statement came out with an unusually strong condemnation of the Zimbabwean government, saying it was “riding roughshod over the hard-won democratic rights” of its people, the party also insisted that outsiders had no role to play in ending its current anguish.

“It has always been and continues to be the view of our movement that the challenges facing Zimbabwe can only be solved by the Zimbabweans themselves,” the statement said. “Nothing that has happened in the recent months has persuaded us to revise that view.”

Despite that assessment, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain told Parliament on Wednesday, “We are preparing intensified sanctions, financial and travel sanctions, against named members of the Mugabe regime.” That included a ban on the Zimbabwean cricket team to prevent it from touring England, news agencies reported.

The A.N.C. warned against international intervention a day after the United Nations Security Council took its first action on the electoral crisis in Zimbabwe, issuing a unanimous statement condemning the widespread campaign of violence in the country and calling on the government to free political prisoners and allow the opposition to hold rallies.

Writing in The Guardian, however, Mr. Tsvangirai, again took issue with Mr. Mbeki’s mediation, saying “it sought to massage a defeated dictator rather than show him the door and prod him towards it.”

“We ask for the U.N. to go further than its recent resolution, condemning the violence in Zimbabwe, to encompass an active isolation of the dictator Mugabe,” Mr. Tsvangirai said.

“For this we need a force to protect the people. We do not want armed conflict, but the people of Zimbabwe need the words of indignation from global leaders to be backed by the moral rectitude of military force. Such a force would be in the role of peacekeepers, not troublemakers. They would separate the people from their oppressors and cast the protective shield around the democratic process for which Zimbabwe yearns,” he said.

“The next stage should be a new presidential election. This does indeed burden Zimbabwe and create an atmosphere of limbo. Yet there is hardly a scenario that does not carry an element of pain. The reality is that a new election, devoid of violence and intimidation, is the only way to put Zimbabwe right,” Mr. Tsvangirai said.

It was not immediately clear how other African nations would respond to Mr. Tsvangirai’s call.

The A.N.C. statement, which was the first official response from South Africa since Mr. Tsvangirai’s withdrawal, was not signed by any individual in the A.N.C. It seemed to represent a marked departure from Mr. Mbeki’s refusal to castigate Mr. Mugabe, and seemed to reflect the increasing frustration with the Zimbabwean president.

At the same time, in what seemed a clear rebuke to the efforts of Western nations to take an aggressive stance against the Zimbabwean government, the A.N.C. included a lengthy criticism of the “arbitrary, capricious power” exerted by Africa’s colonial masters and cited the subsequent struggle by African nations to gain freedoms and rights.

“No colonial power in Africa, least of all Britain in its colony of ‘Rhodesia’ ever demonstrated any respect for these principles,” the A.N.C. said, referring to Zimbabwe before its independence.

Zimbabwe, once one of Africa’s most prosperous countries, has been reeling from a widening campaign of violence and intimidation since Mr. Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president for nearly 30 years, came in second in the initial round of voting on March 29.

In a show of support for the opposition, the powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions declared on Tuesday that it was “appalled at the levels of violence and intimidation being inflicted on the people of Zimbabwe by the illegitimate Mugabe regime.”

“The June 27 presidential election is not an election, but a declaration of war against the people of Zimbabwe by the ruling party,” the union group said.

Urging a boycott of Zimbabwe, it said: “We call on all our unions and those everywhere else in the world to make sure that they never ever serve Mugabe anywhere, including at airports, restaurants, shops, etc.

“Further, we call on all workers and citizens of the world never to allow Mugabe to set foot in their countries.”

Celia W. Dugger and Barry Bearak contributed reporting from Johannesburg.

    Queen Strips Mugabe of Knighthood, NYT, 26.6.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/world/africa/26zimbabwe.html?hp

11.45am BST

Brown denounces

'criminal' Zimbabwe leadership

Monday June 16 2008
Guardian.co.uk
Mark Tran and agencies
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Monday June 16 2008.
It was last updated
at 15:06 on June 16 2008.

Gordon Brown today denounced the Zimbabwean government as a "cabal of criminals", ahead of a presidential run-off election on June 27.

In some of the strongest language yet directed at the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, the prime minister said a "criminal cabal" in Zimbabwe was threatening to "make a mockery of free and fair elections".

Speaking at a joint press conference at the Foreign Office with the outgoing US president, George Bush, Brown called on Zimbabwe to accept international observers for the forthcoming vote.

Brown described the recent violence that has left almost 70 opposition members dead as "unacceptable" and declared that Mugabe "must not be allowed to steal the election".

Bush said the prime minister obviously felt "strongly" about Zimbabwe and said the US would "work with you to ensure the good folks of Zimbabwe" would have free and fair elections.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said last week that he was pressing Mugabe to accept 400 election observers, amid fears the government will rig the vote to keep the opposition Movement for Democratic Change out of power.

Meanwhile, Mugabe has accused foreign aid agencies of using food as a weapon to remove him from power, state media reported today.

According to the Herald newspaper, Mugabe said aid agencies had worked against his ruling Zanu-PF party in the March elections, when it lost its majority in parliament and the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the presidential ballot by an insufficient margin to avoid a run-off, according to official results.

"Food aid is needed and the government is focusing on that. That is a need the NGOs exploited, saying 'we are feeding you, so do not vote for Zanu-PF, vote for the MDC'," Mugabe said. "So we suspended them and are investigating their operations."

Aid agencies deny interfering in the country's politics, saying the government's decision to suspend humanitarian programmes has left millions in dire need of food. Western countries have accused Mugabe of using food as a weapon.

The Zimbabwean government ordered aid agencies to stop work on June 4, amid western criticism that he was using food to put pressure on people not to vote for the MDC in the presidential run-off.

A UN senior envoy, Haile Menkerios, the assistant secretary general for political affairs, arrives in Zimbabwe later today for a five-day visit to assess Zimbabwe's political and humanitarian crisis ahead of the vote.

The MDC and human rights groups say Zanu-PF has launched a campaign of violence against the opposition since the March 29 ballot. Tsvangirai has been arrested repeatedly during campaigning for the run-off vote and one of his top lieutenants, Tendai Biti, faces treason charges.

Brown's strong words against the Mugabe regime came amid reports that Britain and its international allies will urge South Africa to cut off electricity supplies to Zimbabwe if Mugabe steals the election.

The Times reported that plans were being drawn up to persuade Zimbabwe's allies to mount an economic blockade and diplomats were considering a ban on children of the elite going to school in Europe if Mugabe loses the election but refuses to step down.

    Brown denounces 'criminal' Zimbabwe leadership, G, 16.6.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/16/zimbabwe.gordonbrown

12.30pm BST update

Brown condemns Mugabe Europe visit

Monday June 2 2008
Guardian.co.uk
Haroon Siddique and agencies
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Monday June 02 2008.
It was last updated at 15:49 on June 02 2008.

Downing Street today condemned the presence of Robert Mugabe at a global food summit in Rome.

The Zimbabwean president avoided a European Union travel ban to attend the summit, in Italy, because the event is being held under the auspices of the United Nations.

Gordon Brown's spokesman said Mugabe's presence was "unfortunate" and that Britain's international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, would not have "anything to do with" him during the meeting of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

"We think it is particularly unfortunate that he had decided to attend this meeting, given what he has done in relation to contributing to the difficulties with food supplies in Zimbabwe," the spokesman said.

Brown boycotted an EU-Africa summit in Portugal last December because Mugabe was attending. But the prime minister's spokesman said Alexander was going to Rome because it was "a very important meeting".

"Douglas Alexander certainly will not have any engagement or interaction with Mugabe," he said.

Under Mugabe's rule, Zimbabweans have endured years of food shortages and hyperinflation.

The Conservative MEP Neil Parish today warned that Mugabe's presence in Rome showed the EU's "smart sanctions" - which specifically target members of Zimbabwe's ruling regime - were not working, and that sanctions on the country as a whole should be considered.

"There comes a time now when we probably have briefly to consider sanctioning Zimbabwe, because I think we have got to bring about a change right away," he said.

"The country is ripe for it. [The opposition leader] Morgan Tsvangirai has won one election but been denied the result. There is a lot of rigging going on and intimidation and murder."

Mugabe's visit to the FAO summit is his first official trip abroad since disputed elections in March.

He used a gathering of the same body in 2005 to launch attacks on the then prime minister, Tony Blair, and the US president, George Bush, calling them "international terrorists".

Mugabe faces a presidential election run-off on June 27 against Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The campaign has been marred by widespread allegations that the regime has been intimidating the MDC's supporters and encouraging violence against them.

    Brown condemns Mugabe Europe visit, G, 2.6.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/02/zimbabwe.eu

Brown and Bush

reignite that special relationship

Leaders see eye to eye
on battle against terrorism,
Iran sanctions and Mugabe

Friday April 18 2008
The Guardian
Nicholas Watt, Ewen MacAskill in Washington
This article appeared in the Guardian
on Friday April 18 2008 on p6 of the UK news section.
It was last updated at 09:13 on April 18 2008.

Gordon Brown last night set the seal on a new phase in Britain's special relationship with the United States when he won ringing endorsements from the present and future generations of American leaders.

In a light-hearted appearance in the White House rose garden, George Bush hailed the prime minister as a "good friend" whose response to last summer's terror attack at Glasgow airport had been "brilliant".

Bush showed that he had moved on from his first frosty encounter with Brown as prime minister at Camp David last July when he joked that only a true friend earned the right to be served a hamburger at the White House.

"False," Bush said when asked whether the special relationship had chilled after the departure of Tony Blair. "We have a great relationship. If it weren't a personal relationship I wouldn't be inviting the man to a nice hamburger - well done, I might add."

Brown, whose wife Sarah joined the president and Laura Bush for dinner in the White House last night, was equally effusive, though he lacked the light touch. "I am very proud to be here today to celebrate a special relationship. In 1941 Winston Churchill met Franklin Roosevelt and inaugurated what is the modern phase of our special relationship."

Bush's endorsement was echoed shortly before the prime minister arrived at the White House, when Barack Obama issued a warm message saying he expected the prime minister to remain in office for years to come.

Obama, one of the three presidential candidates to meet Brown at the British ambassador's residence, said: "The prime minister has been a critically important partner for the United States and I look forward to working with him in the months and years ahead to enhance the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom."

Downing Street was delighted by the endorsement. To be praised by the man fast replacing Bill Clinton as the labour movement's favourite politician will, aides hope, help Brown with his party.

After meeting the putative presidents, Brown expressed his confidence that the special relationship would survive the November presidential election. "What I am convinced of after talking to each of them ... is that the relationship between America and Britain will remain strong and will remain steadfast."

Amid the photocalls and the banter Brown made clear that the two powers would focus on the serious issues of Iran and the fight against terrorism during the president's final months in office.

Bush and Brown indicated that a tougher stance is likely to be taken against Iran after Silvio Berlusconi's victory in the Italian election. Downing Street believes this will lead to a greater consensus for a tougher approach by the EU.

Bush dismissed Iran's argument that its nuclear activities were intended only for a civilian energy programme. "If that's the case, why did they have a secret programme?" he asked.

Brown said: "I make no apology for saying that we will extend sanctions where possible on Iran. Iran is in breach of a non-proliferation treaty. Iran has not told the truth to the international community about what its plans are."

The two also joined in condemning the behaviour of Zimbabwe president, Robert Mugabe, over the election results. Bush said: "You can't have elections unless you put the results out. What kind of election is it?" Echoing calls made the day before by Brown at the UN, he called on African leaders to put pressure on Mugabe.

Brown will conclude his visit today with a speech on foreign policy at the John F Kennedy Memorial Library in Boston. He will use the occasion to intensify his campaign for the reform of the world's financial and political institutions.

He is likely to build on proposals he outlined in a speech in Delhi in January, in which he said Britain and other affluent countries should do more to recognise the role that countries such as India, China and Brazil play.

    Brown and Bush reignite that special relationship, G, 18.4.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/apr/18/gordonbrown.georgebush

OPINION

Enlarging the Anglosphere

April 16, 2008; Page A19
The Wall Street Journal
By GORDON BROWN

London

When Winston Churchill met President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the deck of the H.M.S. Prince of Wales in 1941, he spoke of the common bonds between Britain and America: "The same language . . . the same hymns . . . more or less, the same ideals." As he implied, the special relationship should be forged not merely by formal ties between governments, but by widening and deepening understanding and contact between people.

So, I want to suggest how our Atlantic relationship – which has always been rooted in something far more fundamental and lasting than our common interests or even our common history and common language – can be renewed and extended into new areas for a new generation.

First, I am proposing moving cooperation between our universities at a far higher level.

Members of my cabinet benefited from time at U.S. universities, Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and the Marshall and Fulbright scholarships have been bringing U.S. and U.K. students into each other's countries for decades. But I want many more British and American university students to have the chance to study across the Atlantic.

Already some universities are planning to require all of their students to spend some time abroad as part of their degree. The principal of King's College in London and the president of New York University will convene a group to examine how cooperation between U.K. and U.S. institutions can be intensified, starting with the potential for expanding faculty and research exchanges. And I can give a commitment that British students who need financial support to pay the travel costs of taking up a term of study in the U.S. will receive that support.

Second, I am proposing cooperation on enterprise, so that young business leaders in each country regularly conduct exchanges and learn from each other. "Make Your Mark" – which champions entrepreneurship among young people in Britain – is linking up with the Kauffman Foundation in the U.S. to organize this November the first Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Third, I am proposing that – in the spirit of Andrew Carnegie – British and U.S. charities come together to discuss projects where working in common we can make a difference. The Hunter Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York have agreed to host a convention of U.S. and U.K. philanthropic charitable organizations, with participants including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And regulators on both sides of the Atlantic will discuss how rules governing donations to charities can help U.K. and U.S. charities work more closely together – in particular to make it clear how to register a charity here in Britain and qualify for tax benefits.

Fourth, building on well-established traditions of U.K.-U.S. collaboration – from Crick and Watson to the Human Genome Project – I am proposing that we strengthen even further our cooperation in health research. The Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research U.K. are working with the U.S. and other international partners to compile a comprehensive catalog of cancer mutations, in order to give us an even better chance of fighting this often-deadly disease. And as part of the planning for Europe's largest medical research center at St. Pancras, London, Prof. Sir Paul Nurse will bring together experts from America and Britain to increase our understanding of cancer, and improve treatment and rates of cure.

Fifth, by working together our two countries could make a huge difference in dealing with the impact of climate change. Britain's new Energy Technologies Institute – set up to do path-breaking, low-carbon research and development – is ready to link up with U.S. environmental research efforts.

Sixth, in an Internet age young people can, of course, talk to each other across continents. I want them to be able to meet each other, too.

Last month, the British Council launched the Transatlantic 2020 initiative to bring together young leaders from America, the U.K. and Europe. And Britain's "V" organization – which harnesses the energies of young people in community service – will build on their links with similar programs in America to explore ways in which our young people can volunteer in each other's countries.

Each of these initiatives offers a modern means of expressing our special relationship in the 21st century – bringing people together, increasing understanding, and realizing the potential for the greater good when our two nations work together. And they reflect today's more connected society, in which thousands of people who communicate across multimedia channels will now be able to visit, meet face to face, and gain knowledge and understanding that will benefit them, and both our countries.

In the last half-century the English language has become not only the language of Shakespeare and Twain, of J.K. Rowling and Cormac McCarthy, but of science, commerce, diplomacy, the Internet and travel.

So, finally, I propose that together Britain and America strive to make the international language that happens to be our own far more freely available across the world. I am today asking the British Council to develop a new initiative with private-sector and NGO partners in America, to offer anyone in any part of the world help to learn English.

America and Britain are separated by the thousands of miles of the Atlantic, and by our differing and always evolving national cultures. Yet there is still far more that unites us than can ever divide us. I believe that the future of our relationship can, if we choose, deliver far more even than it has achieved in its past. Not just for both our nations, but for the world.
 

Mr. Brown is Britain's prime minister.

    Enlarging the Anglosphere, WSJ, 16.4.2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120830718371518015.html?mod=hpp_us_inside_today

More Anglo-French teamwork

makes entente formidable

Two countries agree widespread coordination of policies

Friday March 28 2008
The Guardian
Julian Borger and Patrick Wintour
This article appeared in the Guardian
on Friday March 28 2008 on p6 of the UK news section.
It was last updated
at 01:06 on March 28 2008.

Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday tried to put substance into their new "entente formidable" with plans for more regular Anglo-French meetings, closer defence ties, nuclear cooperation and a more coordinated foreign policy. Following their summit meeting at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium yesterday, the two leaders agreed on a timetable of bilateral contacts that would make Britain's relationship with France its most systematic and institutionalised partnership.

Government officials will meet every quarter, senior ministers every six months and the leaders every year. The two countries will get together before big international meetings to agree common positions. They will collaborate on big defence contracts, assemble a reserve "force" of civilian experts ready to deploy in post-conflict zones or failing states and take a common stand on a range of global issues from UN reform to financial regulation, climate change and trade.

For a second day Sarkozy drenched his hosts with flattery, saying Brown had been one of the best finance ministers Europe had known. In response, the prime minister appeared to relax and warm visibly to his guest.

Sarkozy insisted his assiduous courtship represented a lasting commitment to the bilateral relationship. "It is not simply a matter of a one-night stand. I believe that we can go into next-day breakfast as well," he said, adding that the two nations would work "hand in hand" on the world stage.

Brown described the summit as historic and said the relationship had gone from an "entente cordiale" to an "entente amicable" to an "entente formidable".

This is what that "wonderful understanding" amounts to so far:

Defence and peacekeeping

France will send more troops into combat against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan. Exact details are to be left until next week's Nato summit in Bucharest, but French officials say the new troops will be sent to the east of the country. The deployment could free US troops to support the British and Canadians in the south. In return, Britain will support a French effort to strengthen European decision-making and planning within Nato.

Both countries will cooperate when it comes to ordering and buying military equipment in an attempt to save money, reduce duplication and ensure the armed forces from both countries can work closely together.

In particular, France and Britain will try to draw up a single contract with Airbus for the production and delivery of a new troop transporter, the A400M. They will each put €50m (£39m) into shared research and development projects. They will also set up a joint fund to make helicopters, currently a scarce resource, available for European and Nato operations.

Sarkozy has agreed to sign up to one of Brown's favourite initiatives - the creation of a rapid-reaction reserve force of police, doctors, lawyers, judges and engineers, to help stabilise fragile states recovering from conflict.

Immigration policy

The two sides agreed to step up cooperation to prevent the flow of illegal immigrants from Calais and agreed to work towards a new migration pact that might lead to a common asylum policy for the EU. The joint action plan to tackle the migrant pressure at Calais will include exchange of data to enhance identification, cooperation on redocumentation and joint flights where necessary to deport illegal migrants. The French believe Britain has a better policy and developed expertise on deportations. In practice, most joint flights would be to Africa or the Indian subcontinent.

Extra money is to be spent on improving the quality of the fencing at Calais; a recent House of Lords committee report highlighted inadequate security fencing at the port, saying it believed as many as 1,000 illegal migrants a year were getting into Britain as a result.

The immigration minister, Liam Byrne, has also been working with his French counterpart to ensure that a new hostel for migrants was not built at Calais or anywhere else on the Channel coast. France is very enthusiastic about a common immigration policy for the whole of Europe.

Britain backs many elements of the immigration pact, including the proposal that no EU country offers a mass immigration amnesty, as has happened in Spain and Italy. But the UK is sceptical about the idea of a single definition of asylum.

In his speech to parliament on Wednesday, Sarkozy said: "It would be illusory to imagine we could have 27 different national immigration policies. France and Britain know this full well. We have developed quite exemplary bilateral policy and I believe that it is of the essence that we have some kind of European immigration covenant or pact."
 

Nuclear

The communique promises to "improve the efficiency and effectiveness of nuclear development projects ... to share information on nuclear safety, security and waste management, action which could be extended to other European partners."

This is seen within the Business and Enterprise Department and the French delegations as an important signal that the French and UK nuclear industries can work closely as Britain prepares to expand its nuclear industry. Britain will lean on French nuclear industry skills at least in the initial stage of expansion.
 

EU budget

The two sides made no mention of the British EU budget rebate or the future of the common agricultural policy in the communique, but the two leaders admitted continuing differences on the issue at their press conference.

Global institutions

The two countries will push to make the UN security council more representative. They want Germany, Brazil, India and Japan as permanent members, as well as one or two African states. In the face of resistance from existing permanent members, they have come up with a compromise - the creation of a category of member with long, renewable terms.

The two countries will also spearhead an effort to restructure the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Aid and development

An Anglo-French partnership will fund school places for a total of 16 million children in Africa by 2010, with the aim of helping to meet a UN target of universal primary education by 2015.

More Anglo-French teamwork makes entente formidable, G, 28.3.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/mar/28/foreignpolicy.gordonbrown