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(HERALD) Biti refuses to sign anti-sanctions petition

Biti refuses to sign anti-sanctions petition
Thursday, 16 June 2011 02:00
Herald Reporters

MDC-T secretary-general Mr Tendai Biti has reiterated that his party will not support other political parties in the inclusive Government in calling for the removal of the illegal economic sanctions, saying every party had a right to follow its own programmes.

Mr Biti made these remarks after a group of youths demanded that he, in his capacity as Finance Minister in the inclusive Government, sign the National Anti-Sanctions Petition form.

Ironically, Mr Biti always claims his hands are harmstrung by a depressed fiscus.
Captains of industry, economists and other stakeholders are on record as saying the sanctions have had a deleterious impact on the fiscus.

Youths under the banner of the Anti-Sanctions Trust visited Mr Biti's offices at the New Government Complex demonstrating against the illegal sanctions.

The youths said they wanted Mr Biti, in his capacity as the Minister of Finance to sign the anti-sanction petition.

Government launched the anti-sanction campaign petition in March this year and to date more than two million signatures have been collected countrywide.

Despite the anti-sanctions campaign being a Government programme, Mr Biti still insisted that it was a Zanu-PF programme.

"Why should I sign the forms . . . As a party we don't give legitimacy to individual party programmes. I will not sign any petition because we have got better things to do," he said.

The group, which waited at his offices for more than an hour, failed to see Mr Biti as he was reportedly in a meeting with IMF and World Bank officials, two of the institutions that are barred by the US sanctions law, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, from extending lines of credit to Zimbabwe.

The youths, who were carrying placards and banners, fumed that Mr Biti had failed as the Minister of Finance.

Some of the placards read, "Two million people have called for the removal of sanctions", "Thanks Biti for the 6th brain that gave you relief. Go peacefully and leave us and our families with food on our tables."

Anti-Sanction Trust chairman Mr Fanuel Mutasa, said Zimbabwe was being hamstrung by the illegal sanctions.

"We are the ones who are suffering and as you have just seen, he (Biti) was just having a meeting with the same people who are making us suffer.

"We are tired of Biti's lies and its high time we stand united against him," he said.
Mr Mutasa said as Finance Minister, Mr Biti was serving his personal interests at the expense of ordinary Zimbabweans.

"Every sector is crying because of Biti be it farmers, civil servants and ordinary people but we see him bailing out friends with banks who have messed up instead of helping the general public," he said.

Government launched the anti-sanctions lobby to garner two million signatures and it intends to petition all countries that have imposed sanctions on the country. The petitions will also be sent to embassies of those countries.

Minister Biti's remarks, however, dovetail with disclosures from the whistle-blowing website, Wikileaks that he has been making recommendations to the European Union on which Zimbabwean politician or business person should remain or removed from the sanctions list.

The confidential cables from US embassies the world over reveal that Mr Biti has been working closely with the EU in the maintenance of and/or partial lifting of the illegal sanctions. WikiLeaks says despite Biti's previous statements condemning the continuation of sanctions by the EU, he has been playing a double role on the issue. The cable, which originated from the US embassy in London, in January 2010, says the EU

"decided to support . . . a minimal lifting of sanctions on Zimbabwe by delisting the eight parastatals requested by Biti".

Sadc emmisaries who had been dispatched to Western capitals to lobby for the removal of sanctions told the just-ended Sadc extra-ordinary summit in Sandton, South Africa that MDC-T leaders were

Nichodemously telling Westerners to maintain the illegal embargo against the letter and spirit of the GPA.

Labels: SANCTIONS, TENDAI BITI, ZDERA

posted by MrK @ 5:39 AM