Zimbabwe Democracy Trust

An organisation based in Washington DC and run by a member of the British House of Lords with financial interests in Southern Africa, Robin Renwick. Renwick is also on the board of spy firm Hakluyt.

Web: http://www.zimbabwedemocracytrust.org/

According to ZDT literature, the organisation 'has the simplest of goals: to help the democratic will of the people flourish'. But The Observer can reveal that several of the patrons of the newly formed trust are directors of companies which have substantial commercial interests at stake in Zimbabwe. ZDT keeps its membership secret for fear of reprisals from the Mugabe regime, but The Observer has discovered that they largely come from the white business community in Zimbabwe.(...)

The driving force behind ZDT is Sir John Collins, the Zimbabwean Chairman of National Power, Britain's largest energy company, who organised a letter to the Times, published in April, calling for free elections. He did not say his company had substantial interests in Zimbabwe; in 1998 National Power won a $1.5 billion contract to develop a power station in the country.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind has a long-standing connection to the country where he worked as a lecturer prior to independence. He works for the Australian mining company Broken Hill Proprietary which has been involved in a wrangle with the Mugabe government over a mine in Zimbabwe.

Former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Dr Chester Crocker is another patron - a director of Ashanti Gold Fields, which owns Zimbabwe's largest gold mine. When approached by The Observer, he said: 'I have nothing personally to gain from supporting the Zimbabwe Democracy Trust. They were reaching out for like-minded people and I am like-minded.'

Lord Hurd, who has no known interests in Zimbabwe, said that the patrons of ZDT were aware that some people would accuse the organisation of neo-colonialism: 'The risk was in our minds when we decided to proceed, but we are not going to just sit with sticking plaster on our mouths. If anybody chooses to make xenophobic and racist comments about what we are doing, then so be it.'