Mugabe happy with blockage of sanctions

Mugabe happy with blockage of sanctions
By Kingsley Kaswende in Harare and Florence Bupe in Lusaka
Tuesday July 15, 2008 [04:00]

ZIMBABWEAN president Robert Mugabe is happy with the blockage of proposed United Nations sanctions against his government, his UN ambassador has said. And veteran politician Vernon Mwaanga said the decision by Russia and China to veto proposed further sanctions against Zimbabwe is consistent with the desire of African leaders.
Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku said had the sanctions resolution gone through, it would not have helped the people of Zimbabwe.

"President Mugabe is happy to know that the United Nations is still a body where there's equal sovereignty of every member of the United Nations and there are checks and balances within the system that protects the weak from the powerful," Ambassador Chidyausiku said.

He said the blocking of the draft resolution was "great news".
"It's a reflection of the rule of law in the United Nations that nobody has monopoly on how things should be in the Security Council. Reason has prevailed," Ambassador Chidyausiku said.

Russia and China on Friday blocked the passage of a UN Security Council sanctions resolution against Zimbabwe using their veto powers.
Had it gone through, the resolution would have imposed an arms embargo against Zimbabwe and financial and travel sanctions on President Mugabe and other key leaders of ZANU-PF.

The sanctions resolution had been proposed by the United States and backed by Britain, France, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Italy and Panama.
It was, however, rejected by South Africa, Libya, Vietnam, as well as Russia and China, which vetoed it.

Indonesia abstained while Tanzania asked the Council to give a chance to the talks set in motion by last week's African Union resolution before adopting a "punitive option."

Zimbabwe’s main opposition MDC, in response to the development, stated that it appreciated the focus of the UN Security Council on the Zimbabwean crisis.

“We acknowledge that the Security Council has recognised the magnitude of the problems facing Zimbabwe and their impact on the southern African region,” the party statement read.

“The international community has recognised that the violence in Zimbabwe is state-sanctioned. Over a hundred people have been killed, many thousands beaten, tortured and displaced and millions now facing economic hardship and starvation.

The suffering of the Zimbabwean people is worsening every day and a peaceful negotiated transition is urgently required.

In light of this, the MDC calls upon the African Union to work with SADC in establishing the framework in which a negotiated solution can be formulated.”
The South African government said it welcomed the decision of the United Nations Security Council not to impose sanctions against Zimbabwe.

Spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said South Africa voted against the draft resolution, in accordance with the AU Summit of head of states and government decision to "encourage President Robert Mugabe and the leader of the MDC to honour their commitment to initiate dialogue in order to promote peace, stability, democracy and reconciliation of the Zimbabwean people".

And Mwaanga said further sanctions on Zimbabwe would have destroyed the wishes and desires of African leaders.

“I have always said that the road of sanctions is not the route to take at this time, and that sanctions would minimise and even abort the chances of success in Zimbabwe,” Mwaanga said. “The double veto in the UN Security Council by China and Russia was consistent with the decision of African leaders at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. They did not call for more sanctions against Zimbabwe; they called for the formation of a government of national unity between Mugabe’s ZANU- PF and the opposition MDC.”

Mwaanga said it was the responsibility of the international community to support the efforts of African leaders in finding a solution to Zimbabwe’s political problems.

“African leaders should be given a chance to find a possible solution to an African political problem without inflicting any more pain on the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe.

There is no guarantee that more punitive sanctions on Zimbabwe would produce the desired results,” Mwaanga said. “We all have strong feelings against the electoral and governance deficits we have seen in Zimbabwe, but we have to be realistic about the options we have as to the way forward.”

Mwaanga explained that proposed sanctions against Zimbabwe former Rhodesia in the late sixties, failed because the Western countries argued that they would be punitive against ordinary citizens, and wondered what had changed now.

“Sanctions against the illegal minority regime of Ian Smith in the then Rhodesia failed because the western world refused to support them, arguing that they would hurt the ordinary citizens of that country. There is need to protect ordinary Zimbabweans, and the way forward lies in negotiated settlement between the parties involved,” said Mwaanga.