(TALKZIMBABWE) End Zimbabwe sanctions, says Sadc leaders
End Zimbabwe sanctions, says Sadc leadersRalph Mutema and sources
Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:15:00 +0000
OUTGOING Southern African Development Community (Sadc) chair president Jacob Zuma of South Africa (L) talks with President of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Joseph Kabila during the Sadc summit in Kinshasa, capital of DRC, Sept. 7, 2009. The 29th Sadc summit on Monday, looking into the political and economic developments in the region and examining the implications of the global economic crisis on the region (Xinhua)
SOUTHERN African heads of state called on the international community to end illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by Britain, US and their Western allies.
The call was made at a regional Southern African Development Community (Sadc) summit meeting on Tuesday.
The statement is a significant victory for President Robert Mugabe who blames Britain for internationalizing a bilateral dispute. President Mugabe blames Britain, in particular, and the West in general, for the economic misfortunes of Zimbabwe.
President Mugabe and long-time political rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai formed an inclusive Government in February as part of a deal backed by the Sadc to end a political crisis that followed disputed polls last year.
"The summit noted the progress made in the implementation of the global political agreement and called on the international community to remove all form of sanctions against Zimbabwe," Sadc said in its final communique after a meeting in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"Considering the positive evolution of the situation, considering the progress that has been made, we believe it is now high time that the sanctions are lifted," Congolese President Jospeh Kabila said.
Kabila, who took over as chairman of Sadc, said if sanctions were not lifted, they would become an impediment to putting the political agreement into practice. South African President Jacob Zuma had kicked off the meeting on Monday by saying that significant progress had been made in the implementation of the GPA. President Zuma said there was no reason to attach conditions to the lifting of sanctions.
"There was no reason for us to attach conditions to the calling of the countries that have applied sanctions to lift sanctions," President Zuma, Sadc's outgoing chairman told journalists.
He added that the removal of sanctions was needed to help the process of implementation of the Global Political Agreement.
Earlier, Congo said it was confident the meeting would culminate in a call for an end to the sanctions, and would urge South Africa to plead Harare's cause within the Group of 20 rich and developing nations.
Presidential spokesman and secretary for publicity applauded Sadc's decision.
"Sadc itself has a right to say to the Americans and Europeans that Zimbabwe is a central member of our organisation," said Charamba.
"By continuing to inflict it with those sanctions that are unjustified and illegal anyway, you are hurting Sadc. Please, do us a favour, remove them," he added.
posted by MrK @ 6:21 PM
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