Zimbabwe: Will EU sanctions go this year?
The EU slapped the targeted measures in 2002 citing a flawed electoral process and alleged human rights abuses following the violent 2000 parliamentary elections.
The restrictions cover several State entities, including diamond companies.
Since their imposition, the EU has maintained the sanctions, although in subsequent years it has removed several late ZANU-PF officials and others that have left the revolutionary party, among them Dumiso Dabengwa and Simba Makoni who both ldefected to form their own political projects.
Last year, some ZANU-PF politicians, namely former Masvingo governor, Josiah Hungwe, were removed from the sanctions list but refused to accept their newly found freedom to visit EU capitals since being placed on the list is seen as a badge of honour among party faithful.
Bulawayo-based political analyst, Lawton Hikwa, said the EU should unconditionally lift the targeted measures, arguing that they were responsible for the country's economic stagnation.
Hikwa said it was unfortunate that the generality of the population were being made to believe that the restrictive measures were only targeted at President Mugabe and other members of the ruling elite when, in actual fact, they had caused untold suffering among the population.
"There has never been agreement within our body politic that Zimbabwe is under sanctions and yet the country has for years now gone without lines of credit", said Hikwa.
"Sanctions have been slapped on individuals and companies. That is an economic embargo, which has caused untold suffering to ordinary citizens. For this reason, all kinds of sanctions must be lifted without further delay", he said.
Hikwa, who is a lecturer at the National University of Science and Technology, noted that Zimbabwe was under an inclusive government hence slapping some members of the same government with sanctions and expecting the same government to work smoothly was overstating logic.
Psychology Maziwisa, a political analyst, agreed with Hikwa that the EU should move with speed to lift the targeted measures.
"If you want to frustrate economic development in any country, isolate that country. There can be no worse enemy anywhere in the world, as far as nation-building is concerned, than isolation. And Zimbabwe's terrible economic circumstance is largely a direct corollary of that", said Maziwisa.
"The very fact that the basis upon which the sanctions are premised, a mixture of lies and half-truths about rights abuses in Zimbabwe, is rather dubious means that there is no reason why the sanctions should last another day longer".
Maziwisa cautioned that the EU sanctions were likely to remain in place, and could even be tightened, in the hope that they would either finally force President Mugabe out of power or make him more amenable to their interests. "As far as Zimbabwe is concerned, the sanctions are unjustifiably stifling progress and they should go -- if not for the sake of this great nation then for the sake of humanity", he said.
Earnest Mudzengi, another political analyst, said it was fool-hardy to expect the EU to unconditionally remove the targeted measures when the three parties in the coalition government -- ZANU-PF and the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) -- were failing to fully implement the Global Political Agreement (GPA). He cited the lack of wide-sweeping media and electoral reforms as well as other reforms agreed by the coalition partners such as the appointment of new provincial governors.
"There are no chances they will lift the sanctions. The reform progress does not justify the lifting of the so-called sanctions", said Mudzengi.
He noted that at one time last year, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai even called for the lifting of the restrictive measures, but the EU could not budge due to the failure by the three partners in the coalition government to fully implement the GPA.
"This shows they are being guided by principle and may not be persuaded to lift sanctions as long as Zimbabweans continue to wallow in human rights abuses being perpetrated by the very people who have been slapped with the sanctions", added Mudzengi.
As part of pressure to push the EU and the United States to remove the targeted measures, ZANU-PF early last year launched an anti-sanctions campaign in which the party canvassed for more than two million signatures.
ZANU-PF legislator, Guy Georgious, has also filed a lawsuit in Europe in desperate attempts to force the European bloc to remove the sanctions he blames for the crisis in Zimbabwe.
But the EU has continuously renewed sanctions against Presi-dent Mugabe and most of his colleagues in the ZANU-PF party despite repeated requests from the Southern African Develop-ment Community (SADC) that they be abandoned.
South African President Jacob Zuma and other leaders within SADC have called on the EU to lift the restrictions, saying they harm the regional group's ability to resolve the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe.
SADC is the guarantor of the political agreement that brought the power-sharing truce between ZANU-PF and the two MDC formations. Last year, the EU lifted restrictions against 31 people, mostly wives of those on the sanctions list and a few minor political personalities. ZANU-PF supporters have held street demonstrations against the restrictive measures.
But critics of ZANU-PF are adamant the restrictive measures are there to stay unless and until the coalition government fully implements the GPA and speak with one voice.
Financial Gazette (Harare)
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