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(HERALD) The fine print of US’ ‘amended’ sanctions

The fine print of US’ ‘amended’ sanctions
By Tichaona Zindoga

Nine years after the US imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe through the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, last week saw the tabling of the Zimbabwe Transition to Democracy and Economic Recovery Bill before Congress.

ZDERA, enhanced by other emergency presidential powers, outlawed US state and private trade with Zimbabwe. It also instructed top US officials at multilateral lending institutions to veto Zimbabwe’s access to funds from or cancellation of indebtness, among other things.

The proposed law has been touted as a "softer" and more "flexible" version of ZDERA with some analysts like Zimbabwe’s Professor John Makumbe calling it "pragmatic".

Senator Russ Feingold, who sponsored ZDERA along with Senator Bill Frist, and with the support of the likes of Hillary Clinton, bounced back with the "Transition" Bill.

Feingold, partnered this time by Senators Johnny Isakson and John Kerry, says the "transition law" is an expression of staying true to his country’s "commitment to the Zimbabwean people in their struggle for peaceful democratic change".

Last Tuesday, Feingold, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, said: "This legislation gives the Obama administration the guidance and flexibility to press for badly needed reforms in Zimbabwe."

A Press release from the US Congress described it as "designed to help those parts of the transitional government and Parliament that demonstrate a firm commitment to democratic reform, while renewing and ramping up pressure on hardliners and the activities that sustain their abuses."

With Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, saying "This legislation seeks to give democratic reformers in Zimbabwe the chance to succeed," the fine print of the new legislation is not hard to decipher.

The new sanctions law will be "flexible", "pragmatic", and "softer" only to the extent of trying to facilitate the "transition" of MDC-T — referred to as "reformers" — from the inclusive Government to become the next singular government.

This is explained in the expression that the Transition Bill is in light of "evolving circumstances".

The inclusive Government formed last year between Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations via the September 2008 Global Political Agreement is one such "evolving circumstance" which ZDERA back in 2001 could not envision.

By implication, as the sanctions were meant to have a blanket influence on Government (then Zanu-PF), now that MDC is also in Government, it has also felt the heat of the sanctions.

That the party, and notably Finance Minister Tendai Biti, has complained of the negative effects of sanctions on Government business — which they denied all along — is on record.

This admission has since inspired the idea of a "partial" lifting of sanctions to allow for smooth operations in MDC-T-held ministries.

To this end, the proposed law is set to lift restrictions on assistance in the areas of health and education.

It will also "provide greater flexibility for the US to engage the international financial institutions, outlining new conditions for US support of any proposed assistance based on how it will be targeted and administered".

It will be noted that these areas of education, health and finance all fall directly under the two MDC formations.

Whether Feingold’s latest move is informed by his meeting with Minister Biti last year after the latter attended the Bretton Woods institutions’ spring meetings in Washington is an interesting possibility.

Apart from wanting to enhance MDC-T’s visibility and credibility to the public through underhand and illegal sponsorship (which ironically the US itself will outlaw), the US seeks to undermine Zimbabwe’s legislature and historic gains.

In undermining the country’s legislature, the US will "authorise technical assistance to reformist (read MDC-T) government ministries and to Parliament in its efforts to amend or repeal repressive legislation".

One could bet that some of the "repressive legislation" in the minds of the imperialist US points to compulsory land acquisition and the indigenisation and economic empowerment laws.

As a matter of fact, reversing land reform is one common goal of ZDERA and the Transition Bill as the latter seeks to "promote agricultural development as much as possible, while actively supporting steps to re-establish security of land tenure".

To the capitalist and imperialist, re-establishment of "security of land tenure" entails the reversal of a system that benefited about half a million households who were previously condemned to arid, inhospitable areas.

But Feingold seeks to go beyond such a deplorable and hideous motive.

By bloodying Zimbabwe’s diamonds — which have the potential to steer the economy from the malaise illegal Western sanctions brought it — the new law pushes for continued suffering of the people of Zimbabwe while the West in its feigned love act as a life support.

The "transition law" will "direct the (US) president to seek to address illegal diamond activities that are undermining democratic processes and institutions by pressing for Zimbabwe’s suspension from the Kimberley Process and exploring new targeted sanctions related to such activities".

According to the US, represented by Feingold, Zimbabwe’s exploitation of its natural resources is illegal because it is an activity that sustains the "hardliners".

As such, being denied an opportunity to benefit from the country’s God-given resources is the price Zimbabweans have to pay as the US is "renewing and ramping up pressure" on the "hardliners".

When a person like John Makumbe says he thinks that such an action "is the natural thing to do" and that "the Americans have realised they need to be pragmatic . . ." there is something entirely warped and offensively dishonest about it.

It is clear that while the latest move is according to Feingold a sign of America’s "commitment to the Zimbabwean people in their struggle for peaceful democratic change", there is nothing peaceful or democratic about it.

The US continues its unwarranted war with Zimbabwe on the economic front by shifting the focus onto the country’s diamonds and branding them blood diamonds deserving Kimberley Process suspension.
This is, of course, a change in tactic after targeting the country’s currency in the last decade.

Washinton’s "renewing and ramping of pressure" on Zamu-PF while supporting the MDCs is as aggressive as it is illegal and undemocratic.

In essence, in the pursuit of illegal regime change anchored on blatant economic attacks on Zimbabwe and deception and feigned love for Zimbabweans, the US is only confirming its insatiable appetite for imperialism.

tichaona.zindoga **** zimpapers.co.zw

Labels: HILLARY CLINTON, RUSS FEINGOLD, SANCTIONS, ZDERA

posted by MrK @ 1:22 AM