| Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 15, 2001 |
UNDP to Stick to Mandate Land Reform in Zimbabwe |
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The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) mission has undertaken to stick to its mandate to deal with the land question and not other extraneous issues such as the presidential election and the rule of law in Zimbabwe, the Herald newspaper reported on Thursday.
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The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) mission has undertaken to stick to its mandate to deal with the land question and not other extraneous issues such as the presidential election and the rule of law in Zimbabwe, the Herald newspaper reported on Thursday.
The paper quoted diplomatic sources as saying that the UNDP assured the government this week that it would concentrate on its task to review the land reform in terms of the Abuja agreement as outlined by the UNDP administrator Mark Malloch Brown.
The sources said the development comes in the wake of concerns by the government that some "external forces" were attempting to scupper the UNDP mission.
"The representative indicated that the UNDP mission will focus on land and not other issues such as the presidential election, the rule of law, human rights and other such matters," said the sources.
The government felt it was also necessary to inform the United Nations of "external forces trying to derail the UNDP mission."
It is understood that Zimbabwean Foreign Affairs Ministry is prepared to facilitate consultations between the mission and political leaders and technical experts.
The stance of the UNDP is in contrast with that of some members of the Commonwealth team that visited the country last month to review progress on the implementation of the Abuja agreement, the paper said.
Australia, Britain and Canada are understood to have sought to change the team's earlier agreement that land was at the core of the problems in Zimbabwe and focus on presidential election next year as well as the rule of law.
Meanwhile, six members of the UNDP mission arrived in Harare on Wednesday and members of the team are experts in agrarian reform and legislation, rural development and food security, emergency and humanitarian issues, development challenges of Southern Africa and diplomacy.
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