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(NEWZIMBABWEFORUMS) United MDC and Zanu PF voices can unyoke us from sanctions

United MDC and Zanu PF voices can unyoke us from sanctions
Posted By Joram Nyathi on 7 Mar, 2009 at 10:51 pm

THERE are growing calls inside and outside the country for Zimbabweans to speak with one voice. SADC and the African Union want Zimbabweans to set the cue on the way forward for the coalition government, especially on the issue of sanctions imposed on the country in 2001.

That this has not happened since the signing of the power-sharing agreement between Zanu PF and the two MDC formations on September 15 last year goes to show the extent of polarisation in our politics and the divergent positions from which we have travelled to get to constitute a government.

But the issue of sanctions is more complicated than is apparent. The calls for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the United States and the European Union find resonance with Zanu PF. A majority of its leadership are under the “targeted” sanctions. They can’t travel to almost all European capitals or the US. They can always blame the MDC for the sanctions, which is only partly true.

President Barack Obama this week said sanctions were the US’s reaction to a “national emergency” which posed a “threat” to America.

“I am continuing for one year the national emergency with respect to the actions and policies of certain members of the government of Zimbabwe,” Obama told Congress this week, otherwise the sanctions regime would lapse.

The European Union has adopted a similar position “until the new government fully complies with the terms of the power-sharing deal”.

“These actions and policies pose a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States. For these reasons, I have determined that it is necessary to continue this national emergency and to maintain in force the sanctions to respond to this threat,” said Obama, who was sworn into office on January 20 this year.

The MDC is in a more invidious position.

First, all along it has denied the existence of the economic sanctions, instead harping on the falsehood about a “travel ban” on President Mugabe and some of his Zanu PF colleagues. No rational person believes this any more, least of all the MDC itself which needs to have the sanctions lifted before it can execute any successful economic policy. he US’s cynically titled Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act is plain enough in its objectives.

Second, it has tried in vain to deny ever calling for the imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe. The only way out is to plead a change of circumstances. It is in government. It must demonstrate to its constituents that it can do better than Zanu PF. But that this cannot be achieved under sanctions.

Third, the denial by the MDC that it called for the sanctions exposes a lack of moral courage to take responsibility for their effect on the economy in particular, and the nation in general. That’s a dangerous start. We have travelled this road before.

Fourth and most serious, if the MDC did not call for the imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe, its call for their removal carries less weight even when all its demands have been met under the power-sharing deal. This is already evident in the way both the EU and the US are giving the sanctions a life of their own.

It is significant that while Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was pleading for the removal of “restrictive measures” (sanctions), both the EU and the US were extending them. The EU was a bit diplomatic, giving the impression that it wanted to see first the implementation of the Global Political Agreement in letter and spirit.

This changes each time there is a political detainee; each time there is a report about violence or claims about a breach of the Global Political Agreement.

There is nothing the MDC can do, for instance, if the EU refuses to remove sanctions “unless and until either Mugabe or Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono goes”. It can’t do anything if the EU claims it is not satisfied with the media reforms it is demanding. It can maintain the sanctions forever.

The Americans, on the other hand, were more brazen. Never mind that Obama almost doesn’t know what he is talking about, there is no pretence about human rights violations or equity in power-sharing.

He simply reproduced and repeated the words of his predecessor, George W Bush, about the “actions and policies” of certain individuals which pose an “extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States” and have therefore created a “national emergency”.

The sanctions serve a purpose extraneous to Zimbabwe’s interests whether one is MDC or Zanu PF or non-partisan. They are all about America’s foreign interests; they are all about its global hegemony.

It is instructive that the people who sponsored the sanctions Act which Bush only signed into law in 2001, Jesse Helms, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton are either very close to the Obama administration or part of it. So there is no point in Obama pretending to see “a threat” posed by little Zimbabwe to America when we know Biden and Hillary Clinton are still pursuing their Republican agenda in Zimbabwe. He is simply fulfilling the bidding of the system.

This is contrary to pledges at his inauguration about positive engagement with other nations against Bush’s confrontational approach. To all intents and purposes, the US only negotiates with powers it cannot bully such Russia and China. Just look at Hillary Clinton’s frantic efforts in Europe to try and use Russia to contain Iran.

What does this mean in effect for Zimbabwe and sanctions? Very simply this, unless and until we take ownership of the sanctions, we are giving foreign powers with devious agendas against us carte blanche to set whatever benchmarks they want before they can decide to lift them.

The logic is that if you didn’t call for the sanctions, you cannot tell us to remove them until we are satisfied that their cause has been removed or met. We have become an extension of the “war on terror” which has no foreseeable end.

When all is said, let it be acknowledged that Zanu PF created, through violence born of the land reform, a pretext for the imposition of sanctions; the MDC called for them, directly or indirectly. The two must set benchmarks and demand their removal if they ever hope to succeed in turning around the economy.

The MDC cannot blame Zanu PF forever for its failure to perform, nor can it continue childish denials of the existence of the sanctions however convenient this was when it was in opposition. We have travelled this road for a long time.

Labels: SANCTIONS

posted by MrK @ 9:03 PM