EU told to stop interfering with Zimbabwe's bilateral relations with UK

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe- led Zanu PF National Chairman Simon Khaya Moyo on Thursday said the European Union should distance itself from bilateral issues between Zimbabwe and its former colonizer, Britain. Speaking to a Germany delegation, which had paid a courtesy call to him in a bid to increase bilateral cooperation, Moyo said he is surprised that EU has been dragged into a bilateral issue between Zimbabwe and Britain by imposing illegal sanctions on the Southern African nation. "We enjoy very good relations with your country but we are very concerned about the issue of sanctions on us (Zimbabwe). The issue arose from our land reform program and this was purely a bilateral issue between us and Britain. We never thought any country will be involved in the matter," said Moyo. Former state secretary and member of the German Parliament Klaus-Jurgen Hedrich quoted by ZBC News said his government is not interested in regime change in Zimbabwe but want to restore bilateral relations that used to exist between the two countries in the 1980s. "We are here in order to restore the bilateral relations. I want to assure you that nobody is interested in the issue of regime change," Hedrich said. Germany provided support for Zimbabwe during the liberation struggle where it identified young people in refugee camps in Mozambique who went for parliamentary training in that country. In the 1980s, Zimbabwe received close to 200 teachers from Germany through an educational exchange program.