MEK UP UNNO MIND!

UK performs u-turn on Zimbabwe sanctions
By A Correspondent

Published: July 18, 2012

Comment

The United Kingdom has begun seeking to ease restrictive measures on Zimbabwe, following several contradicting reports on the European Union’s proposals to ease sanctions on Britan’s former colonial territory, it was revealed yesterday.

This was made public in deliberations in the House of Commons published by the UK paper The Telegraph Tuesday.

Despite pressure from some British politicians to enlarge the sanctions ‘net’, Foreign Office minister, Alistair Burt, argued with MPs yesterday that Britain proposes that, if a peaceful and credible referendum on reforms is held ahead of “free and fair” elections due next year, the EU should suspend its ban on direct development aid, its asset freeze and its travel ban on all but a small core of people around Mr Mugabe. He said they could be reimposed if progress stalled.

Robert Mugabe
“For the avoidance of doubt, there is no prospect of this being applied to President Mugabe himself and any suspension relating to him,” Mr Burt said. EU foreign ministers will discuss the issue on Monday.

Mr Burt, quoted by The Telegraph, was replying to a Commons debate staged by Peter Hain, the former Labour Cabinet minister, who said it was strange to be relaxing sanctions when there is evidence of a new scandal over “blood diamonds”.

Mr Hain said: “Let us be clear: Zimbabwean military-controlled blood diamonds are now sold within the EU and almost certainly within the UK, appearing on wedding rings. It is time for jewellery companies to stop hiding behind the façade of the Kimberley Process [to stop diamonds being used to finance military activity] and take responsibility for their own supply chains.”

The former Foreign Office minister and anti-apartheid campaigner called for companies Sam Pa, Anjin and Sino Zimbabwe Development to be added to the sanctions list to prevent Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party from funding a fresh wave of terror ahead of the planned elections. He said it was “bizarre” that Anjin was not on the list even though there is a more compelling case for its inclusion than for other mining firms covered by their association with the Zimbabwe Minerals Development Corporation.

Mugabe pleads with AU to influence westerners to lift sanctions

The development also comes as Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe this week began pleading with the African Union to campaign for the lifting of Western sanctions against him and his political allies, saying the measures should be removed before Harare holds its next elections.

Mugabe challenged the AU at a summit that ended Monday in Ethiopia, to emulate the regional Southern African Development Community, SADC, by actively pushing for the lifting of all travel and financial restrictions without conditions.

“May we get a word from this meeting that these sanctions are unjustified, these sanctions continue to impact on our people, these sanctions must go,” the 88-year-old politician challenged the continental bloc late Monday.

Mr. Mugabe’s statement came as the African Union inaugurated its new chairman, President Boni Yayi of Benin, West Africa, who took over from Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Basango.

South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma also took the oath of office as new AU Commission chairperson, making history of being the first ever woman to occupy the position.

Political commentator Effie Dlela Ncube of the Matabeleland Constitutional Reform Agenda told VOA the Zimbabwe question is now likely to dominate the AU with the influence of Dlamini-Zuma.

The AU has previously demanded the lifting of sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the European Union several years ago against Mugabe and his inner circle over human rights violations – without success.

But given it’s full schedule of more serious challenges, including political crises and security issues in several countries, the continental body has had little, if any time at all, to focus on Zimbabwe, living the task to SADC.

“Whole gamut of sanctions was not acceptable” – Chinamasa

Zanu PF GPA negotiator and the party’s representative on the Zimbabwe-EU re-engagement committee, Patrick Chinamasa has however said that anything short of the unconditional lifting of the whole gamut of sanctions was not acceptable.

“We went to Brussels to demand unconditional lifting the sanctions because they are in the first place illegal. The EU sanctions just like the US sanctions have no basis in international law because they were not authorised by the UN Security Council,” Chinamasa told The Herald.

“Any suspension of the sanctions that is subject to any conditionality is a meaningless gesture and no one can be happy except those who sympathise with countries that imposed them. The way Zanu PF read it is that they (sanctions) will be re-imposed if Zanu PF win elections.”