EU Calls Zanu-PF’s Bluff
Posted by ZDN on February 15, 2010
The one good piece of news this week was that the European Union has decided to retain the targeted sanctions they imposed in 2002 against the corrupt and criminal elements at the top in Zanu-PF.
This is because the EU knows by now that Robert Mugabe has no intention of honouring his side of the power sharing agreement – sanctions or no sanctions. The Zanu-PF leadership reneged before; they will certainly renege again.
While Robert Mugabe’s spokesmen repeat the presidential decision: “No more concessions under the GPA until sanctions are lifted,” it is clear that Zanu-PF will never proceed with anything that might undermine its grip on real power in Zimbabwe – no matter how many pieces of paper are signed or how many promises made in the glare of international news coverage.
Because British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the UK would ‘be guided’ by what Tsvangirai’s opinion was, Mugabe’s propaganda machine has gone into paroxysms of finger-pointing. Their spin-doctors are waxing shrill on the subject. The Prime Minister must call for the (harsh/ illegal/damaging) sanctions to be lifted, they scream. “The MDC is not playing it’s role to have them lifted,” shrieks Ephraim Masawi, the Zanu-PF mouthpiece of the moment.
Zanu-PF MPs have obediently leapt in to make a shouting match of it in Parliament, wasting the legislators’ precious time by forcing ‘sanctions’ onto the agenda.
But the sanctions issue is a sideshow.
In the GPA, the item regarding sanctions says that all signatories agreed:-
(a) to endorse the SADC resolution on sanctions concerning Zimbabwe;
- This has been done at every SADC meeting in the last 12 months.
(b) that all forms of measures and sanctions against Zimbabwe be lifted in order to facilitate a sustainable solution to the challenges that are currently facing Zimbabwe;
- This specifies sanctions against Zimbabwe, and not against individual Zimbabweans or their businesses. The Finance Minister is working on the financial restrictions against selected parastatals and those which curtail new borrowing – two aspects that could be interpreted as harmful to the nation should a new democratic regime come to power. And even the arms embargoes are presently not a challenge. The ‘challenges currently facing Zimbabwe’ have not been caused by targeted sanctions and will not be solved by lifting any of them.
(c) commit themselves to working together in re-engaging the international community with a view to bringing to an end the country’s international isolation;
- Zimbabwe is not isolated, it runs embassies all over the world and can trade with any nation. Both Morgan Tsvangirai and Tendai BIti, (neither of whom have travel bans etc. against them), have been re-engaging the international community continuously over the last 12 months. And if, perhaps, a number of individuals wish their travel bans to be lifted in order to flee into exile – their cases would undoubtedly be considered.
It is clear that Morgan Tsvangirai cannot wave a magic wand and remove the 8-year-old legislation in foreign countries – because he is unable to report any real progress to the USA, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. So the sanctions stay in place, Zanu-PF claims an excuse for non-performance and refuses to budge. That the party is already in blatant breach of the Agreement is deliberately ignored.
Targeted sanctions against the listed Zanu-PF officers and members and their ill-gotten business interests should be fully supported both inside and outside Zimbabwe. This includes a continued arms embargo for as long as these weapons are being used against innocent civilians by partisan forces.
Targeted sanctions should be lifted ONLY under the following conditions:
• The permanent return of the Rule of Law to Zimbabwe under a new democratically formulated constitution accepted by two-thirds majority of the people in a free and fair referendum.
• An irreversible shift in military power from the Zanu-PF presidency to parliament. Note, even if the GPA is fulfilled to the letter it still does not give the people this shift in power.
• That the details of each of the sanctioned persons’ foreign bank accounts and assets should be subject to legal scrutiny, revealed to the public, then subjected to retrospective income tax, as well as a special 60% ‘Reparations Levy’. The yields from this levy to be put into independently-managed poverty alleviation projects and compensation for victims of political violence and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
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