4 July 2008
WESTERN countries are lobbying for the imposition of comprehensive sanctions on Zimbabwe in a move which could result in the country's further isolation and decimate the crumbling economy.
This comes as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the international community was considering sending peacekeepers to Zimbabwe, an action likely to be stiffly opposed by President Robert Mugabe and his regime, including his allies in Africa.
The United States and European Union states -- including Britain -- are pushing hard for United Nations Security Council (UN) sanctions to deal with Mugabe's government after he claimed victory in a controversial one-man presidential election runoff last week.
Russia and China are opposed to the move. The measures would wreck whatever remains of the agricultural, mining and manufacturing sectors of the economy, in decline for almost 10 straight years.
Mugabe won the runoff after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the race, citing escalating state-sponsored violence.
The run-off was condemned worldwide, with the US, Britain and EU urging the imposition of UN sanctions on Zimbabwe and recognition of Tsvangirai as the legitimate president.
Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in the first round on March 29, but failed to win a majority of votes to clinch the presidency.
Diplomatic sources said the lobby, being spearheaded by the US, Britain and France, three powerful permanent UN Security Council members, if successful would also see Zimbabwe's neighbours in Sadc, South Africa included, being forced to cut or curtail diplomatic and trade ties. This would worsen shortages of fuel, electricity and other critical imports to Zimbabwe.
Diplomatic sources said the US, Britain and France want to persuade Russia and China to support the sanctions, arguing that Mugabe is refusing to stop repression, halt economic meltdown or accept a genuine negotiating process to end the crisis. The Western powers are said to be promising to support Russian and Chinese interests elsewhere in exchange for a resolution at the UN on Zimbabwe sanctions. This is said to have increased chances of a common position, although Russia and China remain reluctant to back the move.
Western powers recently failed twice at the UN to secure resolutions against Zimbabwe. They only managed to get statements deploring the violence which could not be used as a basis for action.
Zimbabwe's ambassador to the UN Boniface Chidyausiku said yesterday the US, UK and France would fail in their bid. This has raised the stakes on the issue which had divided the UN, AU and Sadc.
However, Zimbabwe is facing pressure from its neighbours, especially Botswana and Zambia, on how it handled the run-off. Mozambique has remained aloof, while Angola is gradually shifting its stance on Zimbabwe due to pressure from Western countries which have considerable investments in the country.
Zambia and Mozambique were key allies of Zimbabwe during the liberation struggle.
The US this week came up with a UN Security Council draft resolution to slap an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and financial and travel sanctions on Mugabe and 11 of his senior officials.
The US, in the draft resolution to be tabled in the Security Council next week, said the UN should impose a worldwide travel ban and an assets freeze on Mugabe, his spokesperson George Charamba, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono, Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, and Rural Housing minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Also included were service chiefs, Defence Forces Commander Constantine Chiwenga, Air Force Commander Perence Shiri, Zimbabwe National Army Commander Philip Sibanda, Director-General of the Central Intelligence Organisation Happyton Bonyongwe, Prisons Commissioner Paradzai Zimondi and Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri.
Mugabe was named in the draft resolution as the head of a "government responsible for activities that seriously undermine democracy, repress human rights and disrespect the rule of law".
The US also wanted the UN to demand that Mugabe's government should "begin without delay a substantive dialogue between the parties with the aim of arriving at a peaceful solution that reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people as expressed by the March 29 elections."
The US draft would also require all UN member states to take the necessary measures to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer to Zimbabwe..."of arms or related material of all types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equipment and spare parts".
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I'm sorry, how is this post relevant to this article? Why do you continually cut and post your comments from one string to the next? What if everyone did that? Do you think that you have written a master piece and the more places your copy it too, the more praise your ego will receive? Do you think your voice needs to be heard 100 times while everyone else just the once? Do you think you are that much more special than everyone else?
Question What is Mugabe's Zimbabwe denying theAnglo American Axis from having? It is being reported that English and American agents are covertly funding Zimbabweans to repeat the process that they used successfully on Moḥammad Moṣaddeq, Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953 when he was removed from power by a coup d'état. These tactics are: using their agents as Mugabiees supporters . while carrying out acts of oppression against all known members of the opposition in the form of. Bombing , murders, flog, in the name of the President, and his party British and Americans also used that strategy in Iraq Their Agents operating in Iraq were killed hundreds of thousand of civilians and was breeding sectarian violence by blowing up mosques and killing shias and sunnis with "death squads" (There are pictures on the web and on numerous Arab and Asian networks clearly show to be CAUCASIANS and BLACKS IN MASKS) This tactics was successfully used in creating a coup in Iran. Bombing and murders were blamed on the President (Mosaddeq ). They won and the Shah was installed to power
Many countries have gone through this tactic to their leaders demise. The US and England comes in, says what it wants from the country, if it does not cooperate, they are replaced or killed like in. Iraq Nicaragua, Guatemala, Paraguay, Venezuela, Panama Haiti, Congo et cetera (Read John Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking community. In his book _Confessions of an Economic Hit Man)_ Then there is economic blackmail, another powerful weapon in their arsenal, using the IMF World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank Trade restrictions, the Seizing of National assets. in to entrap countries in economic servitude Today these are but a few of the tools The Anglo Saxon Diaspora uses to whip stubborn mavericks into line.in order to loot their Countries national and human resources Can Mugabe's Zimbabwe survive the Anglo / American on slaught? Are Asian countries strong enough to come to his rescue? The West has brutally abused Africa for Decades , now there is a new man in town who has come to court her.
Answer
Why is Zimbabwe still afloat? China Why the Anglo American axis is trying to stop Mugabe China
By HANY BESADA Special to Globe and Mail Update July 2, 2008 at 8:59 PM EDT How has Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe managed to avert a complete state collapse thus far? His disillusioned citizens are facing a new wave of price increases that will put the most basic of food essentials even further out of their reach. On the streets of Harare, a loaf of bread costs the equivalent of what a dozen new cars would have cost a decade ago (when factoring current consumer price indicators and inflation figures). With public wages largely unchanged, as many as three million Zimbabweans have been forced to take up menial jobs in neighbouring South Africa to support their families. Figures released by independent economists in Zimbabwe last week show that the annual inflation rate has reached 9 million per cent. With the worthless Zimbabwean dollar trading at more than one billion to £1, the country's central bank announced the introduction of a billion-dollar banknote. With a sinking economy and hyperinflation that has produced millionaires and billionaires struggling to feed their families, how is it that Zimbabwe is still afloat? One answer may be China. By many accounts, China has become one of Zimbabwe's most important foreign investors, following the exodus of Western multinationals in the mid-1990s as a result of the worsening political and security situation in the wake of the seizure of white-owned farms. Last month, China's ambassador to Zimbabwe said a Chinese company was seriously exploring the possibility of investing $500-million (U.S.) for electricity generation in Zimbabwe. This comes on the heels of discussions between the two countries on expanding bilateral trade and investments. In the past two years, China has thrown Zimbabwe's disintegrating economy a lifeline with energy and mining deals, reportedly worth more than $1.6-billion. It was reported that these deals gave China access to Zimbabwe's precious mineral resources, including the world's second- largest deposits of platinum, as well as gold, chrome, coal, nickel and diamonds. These major investment projects included the construction of three coal-fired thermal power stations to assist the state power company, which was cutting customers' electricity for seven hours a day. It also included a deal with the China Machine-Building International Corp. to mine coal and build thermal-powered generators in Zimbabwe, with the aim of reducing the country's electricity shortage. Indeed, Beijing's economic support for Harare remains strong and, through its efforts, China has secured the contracts to develop Zimbabwe's agricultural, mineral and hydroelectric resources. Tobacco counts amongst Zimbabwe's top exports, and China is Zimbabwe's largest importer. China has made large investments in the country's tobacco production and processing industry, and also has injected more than $200-million into Zimbabwe's farming, manufacturing and mining sectors. China supplies Zimbabwe with expertise, technical assistance and agricultural equipment. Chinese investors also helped Zimbabwe process tobacco into cigarettes and export them as finished products. And investors and a local company undertook a joint venture in the form of a large cement factory in Gweru to meet the national demand for cement. Western analysts and Zimbabwean critics contend that Beijing will continue to support Harare unconditionally, while piling up various claims on Zimbabwe's natural resources and other commodities. With a lack of direct competition by Western firms in the local market, Zimbabwe will remain one of China's important resource bases. But Zimbabwe's fragile state is putting Beijing in an increasingly vulnerable situation, as Western condemnation of China's long-standing ties with the autocratic Mr. Mugabe is becoming increasingly more vocal. China's continued involvement in Zimbabwe, particularly in the agricultural and mining sectors, also carries significant sovereign risk and Beijing is gambling it will be able to manage relations so as to guarantee its claims in what would almost certainly continue to be a chaotic transition period. Zimbabwe's socio-economic profile has undergone a seismic change. The growing importance of China in the country's economy is evidenced by economic assistance and foreign investment deals in the extractive sector, in state-owned enterprises and in the agricultural sector. The key to this is China's willingness to use barter trade to secure investment deals, and it appears as though China's motives are actually economic namely, to satisfy its growing economic needs. A constructive engagement with China will have to be put in place, focusing on improving transparency in contracts, investment deals and loan agreements. This will be particularly critical in any post-Mugabe economic reconstruction period if ordinary Zimbabweans are to reap the full benefits of increased Chinese investments instead of only a current handful of political elite in Harare.
Hany Besada is a senior researcher at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ont.