Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) All sanctions must go: Mugabe

All sanctions must go: Mugabe
Ranganai Chidemo
Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:24:00 +0000

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe on Wednesday said that all illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe must go, a day after the European Union partially lifted some sanctions against the country.

The president told journalists soon after officially opening a Tourism Investment Conference that began in Harare on Tuesday, that the overtures made by the EU were meaningless as the rest of the sanctions remained in place. He said he was not surprised by the EU decision.

"We know their attitude. They don't want anyone, any country in the developing world, to make any meaningful developmental strides.

"That attitude is more pronounced even in regard to Zimbabwe. We have resources which they envy, natural resources that belong to us. There is the issue of land here.

"When they make those noises it is because they have lost that which they occupied illegally, which is now in our possession."

"WE WILL TAKE OUR DIAMONDS ELSEWHERE"

President Mugabe also said his government was ready to work with the Kimberley Process (KP) to sell diamonds from Chiadzwa, but will sell the diamonds elsewhere if they keep imposing demands on Zimbabwe so as to curtail the gains that could be accrued from the sale.

"We are trying to play it their own way, that is following the KP, but we can do it otherwise.

"We can sell our own diamonds elsewhere," he said.

The Kimberley Process has met several times with Zimbabwean officials who say all the recommendations have of the global regulator have been put in place.

KP has given Zimbabwe until June to rectify alleged abuses by the army against civilians at the eastern Marange diamond fields, but President Mugabe threatened to sell the diamonds without the watchdog's permission.

Mines Minister Obert Mpofu recently said that government had accepted Abbey Chikane, the head of the South African Diamond Board and a former chairman of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme as monitor for the eastern diamond fields.

A meeting of the KP, made up of diamond-producing countries, representatives of the world diamond trade and civil society bodies in November had ruled that Chiadzwa diamonds could only be exported after being certified by a KP-appointed monitor.

In terms of a "joint work plan" set out by the KP at the November meeting, the monitor is to have "full and unhindered access" to all aspects of Chiadzwa output, the report said.

President Mugabe also said the newly announced empowerment regulations, compelling foreign-owned firms to cede 51 percent stake, was a step in the right direction for Zimbabwe to gain economic, and not just political, independence.

“Forty-nine percent is a hell lot,” said President Mugabe.

"It’s only them that are saying it’s small and it’s foolish and selfish.”

Labels: KIMBERLEY PROCESS, MUGABE, NICKY OPPENHEIMER, SANCTIONS

posted by MrK @ 4:03 PM