President Thabo Mbeki & others embraces Robert Mugabe

South African President Thabo Mbeki & others embraces Dictator Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe


BARCLAYS' MILLIONS HELP TO PROP UP MUGABE REGIME

http://observer.guardian.co.uk
/world/story/0,,2000349,00.html

OR

http://observer.guardian.co.uk
COPY AND PASTE:
Barclays' millions help to prop up Mugabe regime
in "search", then "go"

COPY OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE:

Barclays' millions help to prop up Mugabe regime

Three British firms provide key finance, allowing the Zimbabwe leader to defy world condemnation

Antony Barnett and Christopher Thompson
Sunday January 28, 2007
The Observer

Barclays bank is helping to bankroll President Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe, providing millions of pounds of support for his vilified land reforms, The Observer can reveal. Mugabe's opponents describe the bank's activities as a 'disgrace' and an 'insult' to the millions who have suffered human rights abuses.

Barclays is the most high-profile of three British-based financial institutions, which, in total, have provided more than $1bn in direct and indirect funding to Mugabe's administration. The other two companies are Standard Chartered Bank and the insurance firm Old Mutual. According to influential newsletter Africa Confidential, that first disclosed the Barclays' loans, the British organisations provide an economic lifeline keeping Mugabe's regime afloat.

A spokesman for Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, likened the bank's actions to its support of South Africa's apartheid regime and urged a boycott.

One of the most controversial of Barclays' Zimbabwe loans is the £30m it provides to a state-sponsored agricultural 'facility' aiming to sustain land reforms that saw Mugabe seize white-owned farmland and drive more than 100,000 black workers from their homes. The government has expelled more than a million opposition supporters from Harare and Bulawayo, dumping them in the countryside.

Britain backs targeted international sanctions against the regime - although there are no economic sanctions - which prevent Mugabe or his political associates travelling to Europe or the US. It is estimated that Barclays, Standard Chartered Bank and Old Mutual have lent the Mugabe regime about £100m by purchasing treasury bills and government bonds.
Speaking to The Observer from South Africa, Tendai Biti, MDC secretary- general, reacted angrily: 'It is immoral and it is criminal. Barclays defended their immoral actions in supporting the apartheid government in South Africa and they seem intent on repeating history in Zimbabwe.'

Liberal Democrat chief whip Norman Lamb said: 'By going along with the rules provided by the Zimbabwe regime [the companies] become complicit with the actions of Zimbabwe's government and complicit with a corrupt regime ... I struggle to see a justification.'

Any commercial bank operating in Zimbabwe must reinvest 40 per cent of its profits in government bonds. Barclays has arranged finance facilities worth $110m to Zimbabwean companies involved in tobacco, mining, sugar, manufacturing and the horticultural sectors.

Last year Barclays bought South Africa's Absa bank for more than £2bn, making it one of the Mugabe government's biggest private financiers. Zimbabwe has one of the world's lowest life expectancy rates and the highest inflation, expected to hit more than 4,000 per cent this year.

Barclays says it has had customers in Zimbabwe for decades and abandoning them now would make matters worse. A spokesman said: 'We have been in Zimbabwe since 1912 and have 1,000 employees serving 150,000 retail, business and corporate customers in the country. We are committed to continuing to provide a service to those customers in what is clearly a difficult operating environment.

As with all other banks and businesses, Barclays is required to comply with the regulations of the Reserve Bank. This involves participating from time to time in the purchase of treasury bills and government bonds.'

Old Mutual, the London insurance firm, holds investments on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange worth about 16 per cent of the market and has a stake in Zimbabwe Newspapers, which publishes the Herald and the Chronicle. Nobody from Old Mutual was available for comment.

A spokesman for Standard Chartered Bank confirmed his institution had lent Mugabe money through purchase of government bonds. He said: 'This is part of doing business in Zimbabwe.'



Barclays pays £2.9bn for ABSA Bank
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4527171.stm

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Zimbabwe
• SA
• President
• Thabo
• Mbeki
• ABSA
• embraces
• Robert
• Mugabe
• Barclays
• Old
• Mutual
• Standard
• Chartered
• farmers
• dictator

[macafricascot]

MORE bLACK PEOPLE HAVE BEEN BRUTALISED BY MUGABE THAN THE WHITES. YOU ARE TOO IGNORANT TO MAKE COMMENT.

[Znaika1]

Mugabe is a mass murderer. Gukhurahundi alone would be enough to 'honour' him with this title, but he also has on him murders of Rhodesian civilians, both black and white, killings and robberies of white farmers and mass deaths from starvation and now - from cholera. This month International Criminal Court in the Hague issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese president for atrocities in Darfur. The precedent has been set. Mugabe will surely be a good next candidate. It is just a matter of time.

[zendabrighton]

but the brutality and confusion is/was engineered by such people

[samothesamo]

The comments left on my page are the insults of ignorant "african" americans that have never smelled africa nor know it's people. When faced with an argument they can't win, they reply with "cracker" assuming I'm white. I take it your "research" has brought you face to face with the people and country you claim to know so much about? That your "analysis" is not based on hate and prejudice? I know and have lived the power of political manipulation in this country. Peace to you

[samothesamo]

Thanks for replying. - Let's get one thing straight, I am an african, born and raised. My information does NOT come via BBC, CNN or any other "western" news source. The grounds for me calling you ignorant comes from the fact that I live an african life, while you claim to know more than I do listening to propoganda from the malcontent living everywhere else other than africa. You've come to the conclusion I'm not worth talking to underscores your arrogant youth.

[20lonDon20]

I tell you something. you sound like a person who fails to look at the bigger picture. you have a lack of understanding.

i reckon you underestimate the power of manipulation,the power of politics

you may not understand what im trying to tell you, but thats not my problem. truth is not given to you on a plate. truth is researched & analyzed by ur judgment & facts. not by your media broadcasters as you say. i dont respect you for that and simply why Ill end the convo here.

peace out

[20lonDon20]

lol your a funny character.i sent u an essay on your page to educate yourself too but as i sent it, nothing appeared. So as u can imagine that pissed me off.But then again i read the comments left on ur page and ive come to the conclusion that your not worth it. you have no understanding on the subject. your driven by ego. how can someone admit to trusting their corporate media outlets and then call other people ignorant? thats reckless.but as i said b4. your a twisted individual! U wake up!

[osagyefoghana]

Mugabe symbolises africa's freedom,intelligence and braveness

[samothesamo]

yes you're right, we also want a cholera epidemic and a tyrant to rule us. Please can't we also have no petrol, no justice and no life, we also want a president that spends 2 million rand on his own birthday party while we suffer. Long rot Mugabe may his name be forgotten soon

[samothesamo]

Why did you even bother commenting if you've got nothing to say?

Let's hear your side so that we can come to an understanding - or is that not what you want?