Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) PM's visit: Sanctions should top the agenda

COMMENT - Small correction: " In fact President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both voted in favor of ZIDERA in 2002. " Barack Obama only entered the US senate in 2005. But Hillary Clinton did more than vote for it - she is a co-sponsor, and Barack Obama did put her in his cabinet.

PM's visit: Sanctions should top the agenda
Sam Garande
Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:16:00 +0000

AT A time when the inclusive Government is starting to take shape, the Prime Minister has left the country on a diplomatic offensive which, according to the government of Zimbabwe, is meant to address the sanctions issue, among other important issues.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is visiting the US and EU where he will meet international leaders and various organisations.

The Prime Minister plans to address a number of national, regional and global issues, which he has never really been privy to. These include a wide range of under-discussed—or previously completely ignored—topics associated with London and Washington’s professed “commitment” to the country, which, in fact, have never been honoured.

The Prime Minister says he is not going with a begging bowl. He is seeking re-engagement. Re-engagement will only be possible of historical debates are re-opened and a forensic assessment of previous points of contention is carried out. The PM should be able to highlight to the EU what really went wrong in the Zimbabwean situation. Debates around the Lancaster House obligations and the land reform exercise in Zimbabwe are crucial and they need strong leadership and high-level diplomacy.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti expressed excitement that the Prime Minister is visiting Europe and the United States. He considers that visit as progress made possible by the MDC-T. In fact he is boastful of that EU-US state visit as an achievement of the MDC-T party. "I do not remember in my lifetime when a Zimbabwean president ever visited the EU or US to discuss critical issues with other world leaders," said Biti in an interview.

One wonders why Prime Minister Tsvangirai simply seeks re-engagement at this juncture. These are critical times we live in and Zimbabwe urgently needs the help: especially the removal of sanctions that have crippled our economy. From Cape to Cairo, every nation has called for the removal of these disastrous and illegal Western sanctions.

Why is PM Tsvangirai taking this trip? And why now?

One would have assumed that the Prime Minister is taking the trip at this juncture to seek urgent assistance.

The timing couldn't have been worse. Almost every Western government bar a few "friends" of Zimbabwe in Scandinavia, in particular, and Europe in general(Portugal, etc) have not shown keeness to support the inclusive Government of Zimbabwe. The US Senate hastily voted against the lifting of sanctions against Zimbabwe - a few hours before the meeting of PM Tsvangirai and President Obama.

There is little President Obama can do without the approval of the Senate, unless he uses special powers. He is unlikely to do so.

Besides, Zimbabwe comes a distant rung on the foreign policy priorities of the US.

The decision of the Senate was meant to circumvent any favourable decision by President Obama regarding Zimbabwe. In fact President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both voted in favor of ZIDERA in 2002. President Obama extended the measures by a year and is unlikely to reverse that extension anytime soon.

The visit, if not to "beg" for the removal of restrictive measures and renderance of immediate assistance to Zimbabwe, is a futile exercise. There is still work to do at home and African diplomacy has not yet been exhausted.

There may be just too much of "bad blood" to engage in intense lobbying to re-engage with the West at this juncture. The West is alson in economic turmoil and is in no way able to afford assisting African countries. The US has smoking issues of its own, so does the UK, France, Germany, Italy and other countries that the PM intends to visit. Diplomatic niceties like rolling the red carpet for PM Tsvangirai by Germany are hopelessly symbolic gestures that serve no purpose to improve the welfare of the Zimbabwean people at home.

This trip is a reflection of a frantic attempt to project an image that something is being done. In fact it it much ado about nothing, if it is only meant to seek re-engagement, as the PM said. That can be done through embassies and low-level diplomatic visits.

PM Tsvangirai's DNA is that of a globetrotter. As an opposition leader he spent a lot of man-hours on planes, than on the ground at home. We hope he will reverse that trend; seeing that those previous endeavors have either misfired or have been so disastrous as to provoke the growth of widespread negative criticism at home.

Prime Minister Tsvangirai might be hard-pressed to deliver on his promises before his window of opportunity for fast track policy expires in 18 months, when the life of the inclusive Government comes to an end. But he should remember that real work should be carried out at home.

The punishingly bad publicity resulting from the gaffs and unseemly behavior by the prime minister's spokespersons has also served to discredit the PM's agenda. James Maridadi has mishandled the prime minister's office's real agenda in visiting the EU and US. In fact, he does not seem to have a clue about the expected deliverables.

Secretary Clinton's words succintly summed up the attitude of the U.S. towards the visit. "I’m anxious to hear about the plans and the work that your government is undertaking and to look for ways that we appropriately can be supportive," she said during a briefing in the State Department's treaty room.

That anxiety sums up the general feeling of the US towards re-engaging with Zimbabwe and its lack of willingness to help the country on a major scale. Secretary Clinton only a few weeks ago did not mince her words: the US wants President Mugabe to go before any re-engagement is considered.

So any mobilisation for a so-called re-engagement campaign in EU, US is an exercise in futility if the real agenda of these countries is regime change.

PM Tsvangirai's efforts to play catch-up with the the West will drain his energy that could be used more productively at home and in the region. Though this effort appears more promising than what we now have, it could prove to be a prime example of too much too early.

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Sam Garande writes from Cambridge, UK
samgarande ***** live.co.uk

Labels: MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, SANCTIONS, ZDERA

posted by MrK @ 5:35 AM