(TALKZIMBABWE) Carson's sanctions comments revealing

Carson's sanctions comments revealing
Petros Mugabe - Opinion
Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:33:00 +0000

DEAR EDITOR - The comments by U.S. Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Ambassador Johnnie Carson are very revealing. Carson has stated that: “We still think insufficient progress has been made, and to remove that pressure may in effect allow for economic gains, but not in effect change the dynamics of the political strangulation that Zanu PF exercises on political control and power.

The Ambassador has just admitted that the sanctions imposed by the US are preventing economic gains for Zimbabwe and that there are in place for regime change purposes.

If the U.S. really cared about the welfare of the majority of Zimbabweans, it would remove the sanctions and let the people of Zimbabwe benefit from the economic gains that would accrue. The U.S. wants to perpetuate this donor aid dependency in Zimbabwe, so that its NGOs can use aid distribution as a cover to criss -cross the country to spread propaganda.

The fact that the U.S. does not want to remove economic sanctions against Zimbabwe only exposes the fact that the U.S. knows that MDC-T does not have a large following in Zimbabwe and has relied on protest votes and the suffering of the Zimbabwean people to get where they are.

What is the use of holding elections when the U.S. is making it quite clear that it only wants an MDC-T victory? So any electoral victory that does not return an MDC-T govt will be deemed illegitimate by Uncle Sam? Is the U.S. not meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign country contrary to the United Nations charter?

The US and its allies are using 'divide and rule' tactics to divide the Zimbabwean people and to bring instability to the country. How can the U.S. and the West only say they will deal with ministers from MDC-T, but not from Zanu-PF? The Kenyan coalition is not working but the West supports it.

Whose benchmarks is the U.S. using to assess progress of the inclusive Government? If the majority of Zimbabwean people support the inclusive Government and the Sadc and African Union are of the same opinion, why is U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration riding roughshod over our opinions?

Is Zimbabwe suddenly a 51st state of the U.S. and not an independent and sovereign nation?

Did the U.S. and its allies consult us the majority of Zimbabweans whether we wanted them to impose sanctions on our country and impoverish us in the process?

Did they consult us on whether we wanted regime change in our country?

The only people the West consulted are the leaders of the two MDC formations and these formations do not certainly speak for the majority of Zimbabweans.

On one hand, Pres. Obama wants to build relationships based on mutual respect, but on the other hand, he is certainly not respecting the leadership of Sadc and AU by the refusal of his administration to remove sanctions.

Carson and Obama know that the Zidera Act, 2001 was put in place in order to impose sanctions meant to implode the Zimbabwean economy, make its people destitute and separate them from Zanu-PF. Carson is being economical with the truth when he wants to continue peddling the lie that the U.S. sanctions are merely travel bans and affect a few companies.

It is Zimbabweans citizens not U.S. citizens who have unnecessarily died because of sanctions. It is Zimbabweans citizens not U.S. citizens who have been impoverished in their millions because of the sanctions. No sane Zimbabwe will ever thank the U.S. and the West for imposing sanctions on us that have devastated our lives.

The majority of Zimbabweans now know who has been the cause of our suffering. It is certainly the IMF/World Bank who was running the economy of Zimbabwe from 1991 to 1999 under the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (Esap). The Zimbabwean government was implementing economic policies dictated by the IMF/World Bank.

The poorly designed Esap decimated a previously robust economy and left the Zimbabwean people destitute.

The West was fully aware of the havoc Esap had exacted on Zimbabwean economy, but it went ahead and imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe from 2001 onwards in order to make the economy scream and to effect regime change.

So the buck stops with the U.S. and its allies who set in motion events to deliberately destabilise Zimbabwe.

It is a lie that has been propagated by the West that the poor state of the Zimbabwean economy is due to poor policies and economic mismanagement.

Zimbabwe was actually implementing economic policies from the West (via IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programme) when the economy went pear shaped first time round.

Sanctions only worsened an economy that was in intensive care courtesy of the IMF/World Bank prescriptions of 1991-1999.

The truth shall be told.

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*Petros Mugabe is the acronym of a Zimbabwe Guardian contributor writing from London.