Harare — PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday met representatives of the Federation for Associations Connected to the International Humana People to People Movement which was started in Zimbabwe in 1980.
He met the group on the sidelines of the 64th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in the United States, which he will address on Friday.
The Zimbabwean Head of State and Government, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, met the Humana People to People Movement representatives so that they could brief each other on developments in the country.
The two sides also explored ways of increasing pressure for the lifting of the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the US and its Western allies.
Sources said: "Apart from the obvious issue of the illegal sanctions, they also talked about ways in which Humana's affiliate organisation, Development Aid from People to People, could expand long-term co-operation with Zimbabwe in the fields of education, health, agriculture and rural development."
Dapp-Zimbabwe employs 372 people and benefits over 300 000 people through its development and co-operation institute in Shamva. Group chairman Ms Maria Darsho said their organisation had committed itself to assisting small-scale farmers by providing seed and fertilizer.
Ms Darsho said the use of humanitarian assistance as a political weapon was unacceptable.
She praised the resilience and productivity of Zimbabweans, saying despite the hardships they had endured over the past decade, their commitment to hard work was unparalleled.
US President Barack Obama was scheduled to meet African heads of state yesterday, but it could not be established at the time of writing if the meeting had gone ahead and if so, if President Mugabe had attended.
President Obama earlier this year extended the Bush era sanctions and Washington has said it is not considering lifting the illegal embargo in the near future; putting a dent in hopes of a quick rapprochement between the two countries.
On Monday, President Mugabe held talks with two US Congressmen who said they would work for the speedy lifting of the sanctions.
The talks were a follow-up to an extremely brief meeting in Harare earlier between President Mugabe the two members of the Congressional Black Caucus who had come to Zimbabwe as part of a larger US delegation.
Congressman Gregory Meeks of the 6th Congressional District and Congressman Danny Davis of the 7th Congressional District of Illinois told President Mugabe that they would do what they could to impress upon their legislative colleagues to repeal the widely discredited Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act.
Sources said the President began the discussion by highlighting Sadc's role in laying the foundation for the creation of the inclusive Government and that the present engagement with Washington was only helpful if it led to the lifting of the sanctions.
"President Mugabe told them that the engagement would only be sustainable if they appreciated that the US imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe as a reciprocal measure to thank the British for supporting the invasion of Iraq and that the engagement would be meaningless if it did not lead to the lifting of those sanctions.
"He also told them that the inclusive Government had made tremendous progress in improving the livelihoods of ordinary people, but again these gains would only be short-term ones if the sanctions that work against national economic development were lifted.
"The President also touched briefly on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's visit to Washington in June as part of his tour of Western nations which led to a US$73 million humanitarian aid package being made available to Zimbabwe but he pointed out that this deal benefited NGOs and did not address the damage to infrastructure caused by the sanctions," the sources said.
Comments 1 to 5 of 6 Post a comment
If Obama, the not so black, President of the imperialist country called USA decides to exclude our President from his meeting with African Heads he should not claim to have met African Heads of State but stooge African Heads of State - as he would have shown that he wants those Africans who nod their heads in approval and not question some of the policies being followed by his regime.
For that is the whole idea of excluding our President - to ensure that there is no opposition in that meeting - its all smiles as if everything is fine the world over; as if Zimbabweans are not dying of sanctions he has extended; as if our schools and hospitals are now fully functional; as if cholera, spread by American agents in Zimbabwe as now been totally eradicated; as if the CIA and MI6 are no longer practicing extraordinary rendition; as if innocent civilians are no longer being bombed in Iraq and Afghanistan; as if Palestinians are no longer living under occupation from the Zionists in Israel and as if America and its allies are no longer sucking the blood of poor people around the world.
We have nothing to lose by not meeting with the idiot who extended sanctions imposed by a severely discredited regime (the Bush regime). After all Obama has already shown that he is black outside but white inside he is serving the interests of those who colonized us, who enslaved us, who subjugated us and who killed us yesterday.
This is to be expected as it is coming from a ..... you say it because you know what I mean. You can rest be assured that if it was a descended of a former field slave at the White House; illegal, racist and barbaric sanctions on Zimbabwe and its people would have long been lifted.
Takunya, a question for you... if the US has these so called sanctions on zimbabwe, then why is the IMF relasing funds to the country?
That's because Takunya's an idiot of the first degree. Wants things from the west and slags them off in the same breath. Must be Bob's apprentice.
Lunatic tak is still dreaming of criminal Mugabe as being his national hero! He is at pains to realize Mugabe is now the world's most notorious pariah. Mugabe is shameless; he sent emissaries to the White House praying people in the corridors to prevail upon Obama to invite him too.
It's indeed another blow to the criminal that he is considered illegitimate president of a rotten banana republic! Obama knows that Mugabe is a murderer, a thief, a bloodstained dictator. That is why Mugabe is target of selected sanctions.
That is how democracy can be promoted in Zim. Tell the truth about the bloodstained monster that Mugabe has turned into.
It's a big lesson in democracy for Mugabe to remember in his tomb, if ever he would not be forced like Mobutu to run away to die in foreign land !
Obama is not so black because HE IS MIXED RACE - GOOD FOR HIM !!!SOUR GRAPES FOR THE PEOPLE WHO STILL HATE MIXED RACE PEOPLE!!! I BET YOU IF THE HEAD OF STATE WAS A DECENDANT FROM THE SLAVE STOCK AND THEY DID NOT AGREE WITH YOU MAMPARAS YOU WOULD FIND SOME EXCUSE TO DISLIKE THEM!!!
See All Comments