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(HERALD) Ministerial meeting with EU over sanctions mooted

Ministerial meeting with EU over sanctions mooted
Thursday, 06 October 2011 00:00
Herald Reporter

GOVERNMENT is seeking to hold a high-level ministerial meeting with the European Union as part of efforts to have the illegal sanctions the bloc imposed on Zimbabwe lifted. The meeting will be part of the re-engagement dialogue that started in 2009 to explore ways of normalising relations between Zimbabwe and the EU.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Ambassador Joey Bimha, told The Herald yesterday that the re-engagement dialogue was continuing and senior officials from both camps met recently. He said Zimbabwe was maintaining its position that the illegal sanctions were unjustified and should be lifted.

"The coming of EU managing director for Africa (Nick Westcott) was part of the re-engagement process. We discussed with the EU at officials' level and we are now seeking another meeting at ministerial level. We are saying there is no justification for these sanctions and that is the position that all parties in the inclusive Government have agreed on," he said.

Ambassador Bimha could not be drawn into revealing when the ministers were expected to meet.

The MDC-T has of late tried to distance itself from the issue of sanctions arguing that the issue had been taken over by Sadc.

MDC-T spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora last week said the sanctions were no longer in the domain of the inclusive Government.

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Ambassador Bimha, however, said all parties in the inclusive Government were still committed to the lifting of the embargo.

"The correct position is that we are still committed to this issue. There was a committee that was set by Sadc to approach European countries over the lifting of these sanctions. It is a parallel process being run by the regional bloc to complement our efforts but as Government we are still seized with that issue," he said.

The lifting of illegal sanctions remained one of the outstanding issues hindering full implementation of the Global Political Agreement.

Although all parties in the inclusive Government agreed that the sanctions were illegal, MDC-T has not shown any commitment to unequivocally call for their removal.

It insists on calling them "restrict ive measures" than illegal sanctions.
The MDC-T had remained silent over the issue preferring to focus on peripheral issues such as security sector reform and staffing of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission that were never part of the GPA.

Labels: AMBASSADOR, EU, SANCTIONS

posted by MrK @ 4:18 PM