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Down, not out

The mines are still not privatised but the opposition is at last taking shape

Zambia had little to show the World Bank's Consultative Group in Paris on 26-28 May. The future of the government may hang on this meeting. International donors - including Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway - will decide whether to release the balance-of-payments support which they suspended in 1996, because of the government's poor record on human rights, governance and above all, economic performance. At the Consultative Group meeting in France last May, bilateral donors had insisted that their funds would not be released without improvements in human rights and full privatisation of the copper mines. On Wednesday night, donors seemed pleased with governance progress....

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Down, not out

The mines are still not privatised but the opposition is at last taking shape

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