(TALKZIMBABWE) UK opposition leader calls for more sanctions against Zimbabwe
UK opposition leader calls for more sanctions against ZimbabweItayi GARANDE
Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:02:00 +0000
UNITED KINGDOM Liberal Democrats party leader, Nick Clegg has called for further sanctions against the government of Zimbabwe, the second time an opposition leader in the country has done so in a week. Nick Clegg called on the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown to halt all foreign currency remittances to Zimbabwe until after the elections, a move which is likely to hurt ordinary Zimbabweans.
Clegg said: “We must make clear to the Mugabe regime now that unless they agree to minimum standards for the June 27 Presidential election, we will act to cut off the supplies of foreign currency which help prop up their regime.”
In the statement, which was issued by Luke Croydon, Liberal Democrat Press Officer, Clegg acknowledges that this move is likely to hurt the ordinary Zimbabwean, but says that the British government had ‘no choice’, but to consider it.
“Of course this will have an effect on some ordinary Zimbabweans while the measures are in place. But we have a choice between taking tough action now or watching the long lingering death of the country,” said Clegg.
This is the second time British opposition parties have called on sanctions against Zimbabwe, leading some analysts to conclude that they are trying to gain political mileage using the crisis in the country.
On Monday this week, Conservative party Member of the European Parliament Neil Parish told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that there should be immediate regime change in Zimbabwe and that Movement for Democratic Change leader, Morgan Tsvangirai should be the President of Zimbabwe as he had ‘won’ the March 29 harmonized elections.
Earlier this week, Clegg and Tory MP, Andrew Robathan, took the British prime minister, Gordon Brown to task in parliament and pressured him to consider stripping President Robert Mugabe of the knighthood conferred to him by the Queen of England in 1994.
Brown’s response was very lukewarm: “I am less interested in the symbols than in the substance… and we have got to get international observers to be present at those elections so that they are seen by the world as free and fair.”
Clegg also said all other countries in the world should consider imposing ‘foreign currency remittance sanctions’ against Zimbabwe.
He said the “UK [should] block all foreign currency remittances to Zimbabwe that fund Mugabe’s odious regime, and … request our allies in the region, and the world, to do the same”.
But Brown was less enthusiastic, “I hope that the whole House will agree that that is the first priority to ensure that the elections are free and fair.”
Former Conservative leader, Michael Howard’s point on BBC programme, Daily Politics echoed Brown’s sentiments. He said the government would have to check carefully that such a move would not remove essential support from those members of the general public that rely on cash from overseas friends and family to survive.
Clegg whose party is a member of Liberals International where the opposition MDC is also a member has been critical of the Zimbabwean government since he won the leadership of the party.
In March he made headlines by saying the risk of violence in Zimbabwe would potentially be more dangerous than what was experienced in Kenya. There were approximately 300 deaths from pre-electoral ethnic clashes in Kenya and about 1,500 plus post-electoral deaths.
Clegg said "There is a very real threat of a Kenyan-style stand-off between the opposition and Mugabe's regime which is potentially even more dangerous, given the fragility of the Zimbabwean state."
Nick Clegg also made headlines in December 2007 after he defied political convention with a frank admission that he is an atheist — that he did not believe in God.
He later issued a retractive statement saying that, while he is “not an active believer” in God, his Spanish wife Miriam is a Roman Catholic and their two young sons will be brought up in the Catholic faith.
The latest call for more sanctions against Zimbabwe shows Clegg as potentially confused by which policy to adopt with regards to Zimbabwe.
Clegg has called Gordon Brown’s immigration policy inhumane because it would hurt ordinary people, yet his latest call would also hurt ordinary people.
"This Government has combined incompetence and inhumanity to create one of Europe's most inefficient and cruel asylum systems.
"Asylum seekers find themselves either treated with contempt or lost in a mass of government bureaucracy. The result is a stain on our moral authority as a nation," he said in March this year after an Independent Asylum Commission report attacked the UK's asylum system as 'shameful’.
Ironicallly, the Liberal Democrat leader has demanded an end to attacks on civilians in Darfur saying conflict should ‘under no circumstances’ hurt civilians, a move that contradicts his latest call to stop all foireign currency remittances to Zimbabwe.
itayi AT talkzimbabwe.com
Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, GORDON BROWN, NEOCOLONIALISM, SANCTIONS, UK, ZIMBABWE
posted by MrK @ 5:28 PM
1 Comments:
“Of course this will have an effect on some ordinary Zimbabweans while the measures are in place. But we have a choice between taking tough action now or watching the long lingering death of the country,” said Clegg.
This is incredibly sanctemonious. You cannot claim that you have the interest of a country or it's people at heart, and then demand sanctions that will cripple it's economy.
Zimbabwe is not apartheid South Africa. The MDC is not the ANC. The MDC is not a popular organisation by and from the people, like the ANC is and has always been. The MDC is a creation of the west, run by neoliberal opportunists who have found a quick route to State House.
Sanctions are there for only one reason, which is to turn back land reform in Zimbabwe. A land reform that should have been taken care of 28 years ago, or even better, should never have been necessary because Ian Smith would never have been allowed to remain in power after grabbing it illegally, or because the British government never had a policy that stole millions of hectares of land in Zimbabwe alone from African people and gave it to a few thousand white 'settlers'.
This debacle started because Britain reneged on compensating the white farmers. However,no one has yet addressed the issue of compensating African people for the century they were forced to spend away from their land, their cattle, let alone the forced labour or the misery of the 'native reserves'.
Just a few thoughts for those who arrogantly want to talk about 'land grabs' or 'squatters'.
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