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(ZIMBABWE GUARDIAN) Britain rethinking Zimbabwe sanctions: Zuma

Britain rethinking Zimbabwe sanctions: Zuma
By: Sapa-TZG
Posted: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 2:14 pm

SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma urged Western nations to lift illegal and ruinous sanctions against Zimbabwe, saying during his visit to Britain, that country had promised to rethink their strategy towards Zimbabwe.

“We don’t need these sanctions now,” Zuma told the South African National Assembly during Question Time in Cape Town today. “The targeted sanctions right now divide the unity government. Give this unity government a chance.”

The president said his facilitation efforts in Zimbabwe should go some way towards persuading Europe and the United States to drop sanctions against Harare.

"We believe that the latest developments will certainly be helpful in that direction,"

He said he won a concession from the British government that they would think about it.

"We debated a great deal particularly around the issue of sanctions, whether the sanctions were helping the process of Zimbabwe or not.

"Certainly the British leadership have a very strong view that sanctions are still important and that they will help.

"We hold a different view and we advance this view very strongly and by the time we left they were saying they will be thinking about it because they can see the sense and appreciated the fact that belonging to southern Africa we have an advantage of knowing the situation better."

He added that President Mugabe insisted last week that the sanctions were dividing the inclusive Government.

"It therefore creates a problem for that unity to gel, to work together," he said.

Mr Zuma is the Sadc-appointed facilitator of the power-sharing talks between President Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) party and the Movement for Democratic Change formations led by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and Professor Arthur Mutambara.

They formed an inclusive Government in February last year.

“The government in Zimbabwe had changed,” Zuma said. “It’s no longer the Zanu-PF government. It’s now a joint government. Why do you apply the same instrument to a new entity?”

Mr Zuma last week completed a three-day Sadc mandated state visit to Zimbabwe where he reported "remarkable progress" made by the inclusive Government.

In reference to the visit last week, Mr Zuma said: "The time was well spent."

"The leaders and parties agreed to a package of measures to be implemented... The implementation of this package will certainly take the process forward.

Labels: JACOB ZUMA, SANCTIONS, UK, ZDERA

posted by MrK @ 5:05 PM