Published by the government of Zimbabwe
11 July 2008
Harare — ZIMBABWE'S permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku, yesterday expressed dissatisfaction with the partial manner in which the world body, especially the Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, is handling the Zimbabwean issue.
Ambassador Chidyausiku was speaking after the United States-led push for a Security Council resolution on Washington's draft sanctions against Zimbabwe was put aside as the organ had to deal with the killing of seven UN and African Union peacekeepers in the Darfur region.
"We have noticed a partiality on the part of the Secretary-General who we feel has been siding with the United States and Britain whenever he has had to deal with Zimbabwe.
"He is supposed to be an impartial broker, but we find that all his briefings pertaining to Zimbabwe are one-sided and have no grounding in the realities obtaining in the country.
"We find that he is parroting whatever America and Britain say about Zimbabwe and this will only dent the credibility of the office of the Secretary-General. This is wholly unacceptable," Ambassador Chidyausiku said.
He said the US tabled its draft sanctions resolution last week but it was "highly unlikely" that it would be debated yesterday as the Security Council had its hands full.
"On Tuesday night, the US put their draft on 'blue', which means they wanted it up for discussion within 48 hours. On Wednesday, they called on members of the Security Council to take action but we have a 48-hour rule and so it was resisted.
"It was postponed to today but as things stand right now it does not seem likely that the Security Council will treat the matter as urgent.
"They are more concerned about what is going on in Darfur where their peacekeepers were killed and you might know that the International Criminal Court is also looking into that matter.
"That is more urgent business for them and this is worrying America and Britain because they wanted to steam-roll their resolution through the Security Council.
"They fear that the longer it takes, the more likely other members are to see the duplicity of (George W.) Bush and (Gordon) Brown," he explained.
Ambassador Chidyausiku said even if the draft was put up for discussion there would not be any unanimity in the 15-member Council over whether or not Zimbabwe deserved sanctions.
"There are some in the Council who feel strongly that the Americans and the British are being very high-handed. They feel that it would set bad precedence for the Security Council to decide on the legitimacy of elections of a sovereign state. They are saying that if they are to intervene in Zimbabwe in such a manner, then where will it all stop. It's a bad precedent.
"Then the African members of the Security Council, as well as other non-African members, are saying that the African Union resolution on Zimbabwe endorsing President Thabo Mbeki's mediation should prevail.
"They believe, like the AU, that no one should be starting any new processes that will derail the progress that has already been made," he said.
Right now, Ambassador Chidyausiku said the political parties were meeting in South Africa negotiating and so the wisdom of the AU should be respected.
"The same thing came out from the seven African countries that attended the G8 meeting in Japan. Security Council action will not help anything at all."
He said he hoped that sense would prevail and people would see that Britain and the US were persecuting Zimbabwe for embarking on its revolutionary Land Reform Programme.
Government has said that the US, Britain and their Western allies are hoping to use the UN legitimise the illegal sanctions they have already placed on Zimbabwe.
Several attempts by the country's detractors in the past to bring Zimbabwe before the Security Council have flopped dismally with South Africa, Russia, China and other countries blocking these attempts.
South Africa, a non-permanent member of the Council, has already said it will not support the push for sanctions while Russia, a permanent member with veto power, has also said it would not support sanctions believing the ongoing dialogue between the parties was the best way to go.
Furthermore, Vietnam, which is the current president of the Security Council, views the US and British-orchestrated onslaught on Zimbabwe with suspicion.
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