VP insists Malawi must apologise to Britain

Malawi's vice president Joyce Banda has again asked President Bingu wa Mutharika to apologise to Britain for his decision to unceremoniously expel Her Majesty's diplomat.

Speaking when she officially launched her People's Party at Mangochi old airport ground in the eastern region on Sunday, Banda said impoverished Malawi would not survive economically without its traditional bilateral donors including Britain.

"The zero deficit budget (in which recurrent expenses like government salaries will be paid out of local resources) was adopted to fill the financial gap created by the donors withdraw of economic aid. What it means is that Malawians are bearing the brunt for being overtaxed to fill that gap," Banda told the crowds.

Banda: Mutharika must apologise

Relationship between Malawi and Britain were strained in April when Mutharika government deported the British ambassador Fergus Cochrane-Dyet after a leaked diplomatic cable accused Mutharika of “becoming ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism”.

London in turn expelled Malawi’s envoy to Britain.

Banda said most of the current economic woes Malawi is facing today are a direct consequence of the country's bitter relations with its traditional donors

She insisted that the Malawi government must apologize for that "undiplomatic" decision in order to normalize relations with Britain, hitherto the largest contributor of international aid to Malawi so that Malawians do not continue to bear the brunt of the sour relations

But President Mutharika is on record saying Malawi will not apologise, insisting the former colonial power’s aid suspension will not create a budget gap.

“It’s certainly not a possibility. What do we apologise for? Here is an envoy who insulted our country. That must be made very clear — we are not demanding an apology from Britain, neither should Britain demand an apology from us. You cannot be insulted and then apologise at the same time because we never insulted Britain,” Mutharika was quoted by AFP.

"Malawi never broke its relations with Britain. It’s just that somehow the representation of Britain here in Malawi didn’t act in accordance with diplomatic practices and we said remove him and bring another one, that’s all we asked,” said Mutharika.

The country's leader said the cutting of budgetary aid would not affect the country’s “zero-deficit budget”.

“We have set our budget this year of 303 billion kwacha and we are going to raise 303 billion kwacha from our resources so there is no funding gap whatsoever,” he said.

President Mutharika, meanwhile, has appointed his brother Professor Peter Mutharika as foreign affairs minister, who will have a task to mend fences with donors.

Nyasa Times 12 Sep, 2011

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Source: http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/vp-insists-malawi-must-apologise-to-britain/
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