(STICKY) (ZIMBABWE GUARDIAN) US must come clean on Zim sanctions: SA
US must come clean on Zim sanctions: SABy: M&G-TH-TZG
Posted: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 12:05 am
Johnny Moloto
SOUTH AFRICA has this week intensified its call for the lifting of the ruinous and illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe and says the US must come clean on its reasons for maintaining sanctions after the formation of the inclusive Government in February 2008.
In a recent interview with the Mail & Guardian newspaper in Washington DC, South Africa’s Deputy Chief of Mission to the US, Mr Jonny Moloto, said the only way forward was for the US to positively engage with the government of Zimbabwe.
"We are appreciative that the US administration is concerned about what is happening in Zimbabwe.
"But we want that appreciation to translate into a real positive engagement, not just a critical position from a distance," he said.
Mr Moloto said it was not "beneath the US to look at the possibility of engaging (and) assisting" Zimbabwe.
"Let’s give a chance to dialogue. We were given that opportunity when we had Codesa (Convention of a Democratic South Africa). We were given that opportunity by the international community as South Africans (to find a) South African solution.
"If powerful countries like the US and UK could give (their) voice of support behind such a dialogue . . . rather than being divisive and seeing it in absolute terms, saying that the opposition party is doing the right thing . . .
"It’s not helpful, it polarises society, it polarises nations."
Mr Moloto said the US was not clear on what it wanted done for an end to the illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe.
"But if we take their pronouncements as commitments to assist . . . I think it would make a dramatic change to hear them say, ‘What can we do to assist?’ for a change, not to impose.
"In our case, we invited the international community to assist . . . during the struggle for apartheid, that’s why you (had) people from all over the world lobbying.
"But in so doing, you also want those countries to say: ‘What can we do to help?’ That’s very much different than saying, ‘We want to see this change in Zimbabwe’.
"What do the Zimbabweans want? Hear it from them, and then ask. ‘We want to hear that side of the story — what can we do to assist?’
"That would be a very refreshing voice, a very different take on what has been happening so far, you know, it’s always, conditional on this.
"‘You must do this.’ That’s regime change, that’s imposing regime change on a nation.
"And I don’t think that as South Africa, that’s the space we want to play in."
Mr Moloto said South Africa was partnering Zimbabwe in finding common solutions to common problems "rather than imposing them from outside".
He said President Barrack Obama should be "open-minded" in the Zimbabwe situation.
"It’s not helpful for us that we’re sitting with an estimated four million Zimbabweans in South Africa; we can’t sustain that in the long term.
"So I think it’s quite important that we get support from powerful countries such as the US.
"(The US is) still a superpower. That’s why it does concern us when they take a particular position that we feel is likely to influence the world in a particular way."
South Africa is facilitating inter-party talks in Zimbabwe on the implementation of the inter-party agreement that led to the inclusive Government’s formation.
South Africa has also strongly condemned the illegal economic sanctions on Zimbabwe.
The US sanctions law, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, bars American companies and financial institutions with dealings with the US from doing business with Zimbabwe until land tenure reverts to pre-1998 levels.
Labels: NEOCOLONIALISM, SANCTIONS, ZDERA
posted by MrK @ 5:40 AM
2 Comments:
The media will not tell you, but the story of what happened to Zimbabwe is actually pretty simple.
As a punishment for effective land redistribution (as well as support for a government in the DRC that threatened to slip away from Western control (Laurent Kabila) and for saying no to the IMF in 1996), but mainly to make the land reform and the New Farmers fail, Zimbabwe was put on a credit freeze in the year 2002.
This credit freeze froze the government's lines of credit, forcing them to operate on a cash only basis, which led to hyperinflation. This hyperinflation made the importation of chemicals for agriculture and water purification and fuel prohibitive if not impossible.
These sanctions were lobbied for by the UK government and it's proxy party, the MDC, and implemented by the Bush Administration through ZDERA.
ZDERA did the following:
1) It directed the US Treasury Secretary to order every US Directer at a financial institution to deny credit to the government of Zimbabwe, and to veto any rescheduling of their debt. [1]
2) It outlined the international financial institutions that were directly subject to this act - all the Zimbabwean government's lines of credit at these institutions were frozen from December 31st 2001 onwards. [2]
3) Because all trade occurs on credit, and credit was frozen on December 31st 2001, all trade was frozen as well. This caused the collapse of the Zimbabwean trade surplus of $322 million in 2001 into a trade deficit of $18 million in 2002, the year ZDERA came into force. There is no clearer correlation between the introduction of this act and the economic impact it had on the Zimbabwean economy. [3]
Conclusion
These facts have been cleverly hidden through omission by the 'mainstream media'. How can you know the significance of the collapse of the Zimbabwean trade surplus in the year 2002, if you don't know if the existence of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 and that it came into force in the year 2002?
However, because Zimbabwe is a democracy, and all the members of the MDC belong to the parliamentary opposition, it would be impossible for them to face their constituents and tell them that the misery they are going through, the devaluation of their savings, was the doing of the MDC.
For this purpose, and because the MDC is essentially a white supremacist party led by former Rhodesian Front members (Roy Bennett, Eddie Cross, etc.), it was imperative to show the Zimbabwean electorate that they could not be governed by an African government, and that only the White man had what it took to be in charge of African property and business. The purpose of the MDC therefore is in essence to continue the White ownership of African land and African mines and banks, and to play on a long nurtured African inferiority complex to do so. It is war by other means, a war for the future of the African people and continent.
This is the underlying propaganda message that the MDC wanted to send. In this, they are ably assisted by a coterie of western media, including the BBC, which always portray Africa as a continent in the grip of death, disease, war and disfunction. That is why you do not get real news about Africa from them, unlike you get from for instance The Post, or any African run news outlet.
Here are the sources and the proof.
[1] SEC. 4. SUPPORT FOR DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY.
(c) MULTILATERAL FINANCING RESTRICTION- ... the Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States executive director to each international financial institution to oppose and vote against--
(1) any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; or
(2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution.
[2] SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS- The term `international financial institutions' means the
multilateral development banks and the
International Monetary Fund.
(2) MULTILATERAL DEVELOPMENT BANKS- The term `multilateral development banks' means the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the
International Development Association, the
International Finance Corporation, the
Inter-American Development Bank, the
Asian Development Bank, the
Inter-American Investment Corporation, the
African Development Bank, the
African Development Fund, the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the
Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency.
[3] SPECIAL REPORT FAO/WFP CROP AND FOOD SUPPLY ASSESSMENT MISSION TO ZIMBABWE 2008
Table 1: Zimbabwe - Key economic indicators, 2001–2008
Trade Deficit in million USD (negative deficit is a surplus)
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
-295 -323 18 108 305 388 467
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