EDITORIAL COMMENT: All forms of sanctions are past their sell by date Philippe Van Damme
 Philippe Van Damme

Philippe Van Damme

THE EU this week announced that it was lifting its trade sanctions on Zimbabwe save for travel bans on President Mugabe and First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe.

The EU announced on Thursday that trade sanctions against Zimbabwe would be lifted today, but the travel restrictions against President Mugabe and First Lady, Dr Grace Mugabe would remain in place until February next year. We want to categorically state that lifting Article 96 of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement, which governed relations between the EU bloc and African, Caribbean and Pacific, at the same time maintaining Article Nine until February next year that relates to the First Families, shows the contempt and disrespectful manner the bloc treats Africa.

The irony is not only in the European bloc’s insistence on keeping a sanctions regime well past its sell by date, but in finally admitting that they have maintained an economic sanctions regime on Zimbabwe since February 2002.

All along the EU bloc and its acolytes in the opposition MDC denied the existence of economic sanctions on Zimbabwe to abet their claim that the country’s socio-economic problems stemmed from mismanagement by President Mugabe and Zanu-PF.

Lies, it’s said, run sprints but the truth runs marathons. The truth has finally touched the ribbon. The illegal sanctions regime is estimated to have cost Zimbabwe over $42billion in revenue in addition to shrinking the economy by a factor of over 40 percent since the turn of the millennium.

Economic sanctions are a form of warfare which is why former Cuban president Fidel Castro likened their effects to silent atomic bombs. The EU can’t just say they are lifting the sanctions without making amends for the destruction wrought by the illegal coercive measures over the past 12 years.

If the bloc was sincere they would not be making a piecemeal removal but complete rescission coupled with reparations for damages wrought.

This is because Zimbabwe never had a quarrel with the EU but just a bilateral dispute with London stemming from the latter’s violation of international law in refusing to be bound by the law of succession which bid successive governments to honour agreements entered into with predecessors.

So rather than this piecemeal overture, we expect the EU to remove the sanctions they maintain on the First Family for the simple reason that they are the face of the nation and must be allowed unfettered movement globally as they conduct Government businesses.

Keeping the First Family on the embargoes and hypocritically scraping trade sanctions, is not only undiplomatic, but divisive and meant to pit the President and the local business community.

The President, besides being the Zimbabwean leader and face of the nation, is also a successful businessman. Retaining him on the sanctions list means violating his democratic right to conduct business with fellow businesspeople in the EU bloc as well.

Technically, retaining President Mugabe on the sanctions list and lifting trade embargoes, means that Zimbabwe is still under fully fledged economic and political sanctions.

As long as President Mugabe remains on the EU travel ban list, all the so called re-engagement efforts between Zimbabwe and the bloc will flushed into the drain because Zimbabweans will not tolerate such shenanigans.

Any sane businessman or woman will not engage a bloc that shuns his or her President and if that happens, such businesspeople might be branded sell-outs, bent on lining their pockets at the expense of national interests.

This time Zimbabweans, rich or poor should stand up and condemn the EU’s divisive stance on Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwean businesspeople, parastatals and State linked companies have endured the effects of the diabolic sanctions for more than a decade now and surely to be hoodwinked at this juncture to believe the EU, will be the greatest betrayal of one’s country and people.

Patience is a virtue and we implore the business community to hold their guns until February next year when the EU removes President Mugabe and his wife from the sanctions.

Yes, some may attack this idea as unreasonable, but remember, the last part of the journey is the most painful one.

Besides, President Mugabe is the most powerful man in Sadc as its chairman and is also African Union deputy chair, as such the continued existence of the embargoes is an assault not only on Zimbabwe but the African continent as a whole.

Time is up for the region and the continent at large to stand up and say enough is enough, “our decisions” have to be listened to and respected by the West unconditionally.

If Sadc, the AU, China, the Russians and Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries that observed the July 31 harmonised elections that Zanu-PF overwhelmingly won against the MDC formations declared them free, fair and legitimate, who is Britain, America and the EU to decide otherwise.

We hope wisdom shall prevail when the EU convene again in February next year and remove President Mugabe and his wife Dr Grace Mugabe from the sanctions, marking the end of a decade long era of illegal embargoes.

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