Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) Biti slams West over sanctions

COMMENTS - Tendai Biti (MDC) admits that the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, sanctions, made Zimbabwe ungovernable.

Biti slams West over sanctions
by Lebo Nkatazo
02/06/2009

ZIMBABWE’S Finance Minister Tendai Biti says he has “ring-fenced” central bank Governor Gideon Gono and western countries can no longer use him as an excuse for withholding critical aid.

In a new attack on western sanctions on Zimbabwe, Biti said: “The West is being unscientific and ahistorical.” Two banks targeted by the United States for sanctions are set to have them lifted, Biti said in an interview with a South African newspaper.

“Senator Richard Luga (Indianapolis) wrote asking about sanctions on the two banks (Zimbank and Agri Bank), and I said lift them as a matter of urgency."

The two banks serve communal and small-scale farmers in particular, Biti said.

Biti’s latest attack betrayed growing frustrations in the new unity government that the west would rather see the country descend into chaos than normalise relations as long as President Robert Mugabe is still in power.

The minister said: "If this experiment fails, we have no cheaper alternative, no cheaper option. I speak as one who knows. The only thing the struggle has not done to me is kill me. I can write a guide book on Zimbabwe prisons.

“If the West doesn't come in, the price of undoing the mess will be much higher, like Liberia, Sierra Leone. Look at the cost of Somalia… how will anyone ever reconstruct Somalia?"

Biti met the sanctions instigators on a trip to the United States and Britain last month to urge them to lift the measures which have frozen Zimbabwe’s international credit lines and hindered free trade by key companies.

In the United States, Biti urged government officials to lift the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) which blocks US citizens sitting on the boards of international financial institutions from voting to extend any direct financial support to Zimbabwe.

“I made it very clear that it would be very difficult for us to move when ZIDERA is there,” Biti said after the trip.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is expected to travel to Britain, France and the United States later this month seeking to rally financial support for the government which needs US$8 billion over the next three years to stabilise the economy and fix social services.

Tsvangirai is also expected to call on the west to lift sanctions against the country, as well as lift travel warnings preventing their citizens from visiting Zimbabwe.

Labels: SANCTIONS, TENDAI BITI, ZDERA, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 3:30 PM