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(NEWZIMBABWE) US to maintain pressure on Mugabe: Clinton

COMMENT - How does collapsing the Zimbabwean currency through putting a credit freeze on the Zimbabwean government 'not hurt ordinary Zimbabweans'? This is pure cowardice. Hillary Clinton doesn't have the guts to stand up and take ownership of what she and ZDERA have done to the country of Zimbabwe. Hillary Clinton is simply a shill for the diamond interests that were threatened by Zimbabwe's redistribution of corporate owned land and it's highly effective support for an independent government in the DRC, against US and UK sponsored Ugandan and Rwandan insurgents. That is what 'keeping pressure on Mugabe' is all about.

US to maintain pressure on Mugabe: Clinton
by Staff Reporter
15/06/2010 00:00:00

UNITED States secretary of state Hillary Clinton says the Obama administration will maintain pressure on President Robert Mugabe and accused the “ruling clique” within his Zanu PF party of personally profiting from the country’s minerals at the expense of the poor majority.

Speaking during a diplomacy briefing series conference on sub-Saharan Africa in Washington, Secretary Clinton said Zimbabwe had been a “very difficult challenge” for the Obama administration.

She said the US government was treading a tricky line between sustaining pressure on President Mugabe and providing humanitarian aid to those in need of support.

“We are trying to walk a line between supporting the people, keeping the pressure on the Mugabe leadership, working with South Africa to try to get that message across,” she said.

Clinton said the renewal of sanctions in March this year by the Obama administration was part of the strategy of maintaining pressure on President Mugabe and his allies.

“The President (Obama) just renewed sanctions against 220 individuals and entities associated with the Mugabe regime. So these are what we call targeted sanctions that go to whether they can travel, what kind of investments or bank accounts they can have that we can reach,” Clinton said.

The sanctions are at the heart of the stalled dialogue over implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) with President Mugabe’s Zanu PF party ruling out further concessions to its coalition partners until the measures are removed.

Zanu PF blames the sanctions for the country’s economic collapse in the last decade while critics insist the country's problems were more the result of poor leadership and bad governance.

Clinton said she had impressed on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai the need to ensure that reforms agreed under the GPA are implemented.

“I’ve had two meetings with Prime Minister Tsvangirai in the last year to try to send a message that we support reform in Zimbabwe, that we support elections that will actually be followed because there’s no doubt in most of our minds that Mugabe’s party did not win that first round of elections a year-plus ago,” she said.

[Really? And what are those 'reforms'? And why doesn't she dare what those reforms are in public? Why are they referred to by euphemisms, like 'outstanding issues'? - MrK]

Clinton also claimed that members of Zanu PF’s ruling elite were personally profiting from the country’s diamonds and diverting aid meant for the poor.

“It’s a very sobering situation. And it’s a very sad one, indeed, because the ruling party, the ruling clique within that party, continues to benefit from aid, benefit from the diamond trade, benefit from corruption, to a very significant degree while the people are suffering,” Clinton said in response to a question from the audience.

Labels: HILLARY CLINTON, MUGABE, SANCTIONS, ZDERA

posted by MrK @ 4:47 PM