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The European Union political and security committee that met in Brussels on the 17th of this month and resolved to lift the illegal sanctions imposed on the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation should be commended for finally seeing light that the world is bigger than the bloc’s 27 members.

Yes, the move is welcome, but we insist the sanctions that everyone the world over admits are illegal, should be lifted on their entirety and allow Zimbabwean companies free access to the world’s lucrative markets.

We are calling for the progressive world to put pressure on the bloc to explain why they have lifted the sanctions only on the ZMDC while leaving President Mugabe, Amai Grace Mugabe, some senior ZDF officers, war veterans and some companies on the sanctions list.

The EU foreign ministers, we are aware, met before the July 31 harmonised elections and agreed to lift the illegal sanctions if the elections were free, fair and credible.

We are shocked by the bloc’s double standards that after the elections were endorsed free, fair and a true reflection of the will of the people of Zimbabwe by Sadc, the AU, Comesa and the progressive world, only one company is removed from the sanctions so that the bloc continues to loot our diamonds.

We challenge Belgium that if it genuinely wants to trade in our diamonds, it should convince its colleagues in the EU to remove the sanctions on the rest of the people and allow Zimbabweans uninterrupted trade in all products with the EU.

As Zimbabweans, we feel we are being unfairly treated and short-changed by the West because there is no guarantee that in the meantime, the companies exploiting the diamonds in Marange will enjoy the sanctions relief since the US and Britain have continued with their illegal actions regimes.

There is no doubt money meant for the Marange diamonds is still going to be intercepted by the United States of America State’s Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) because the US has not lifted sanctions on Zimbabwe.

All transactions in US dollars go through the US State Department and this means we are likely to see more money meant for diamonds in Marange still failing to reach its destination because the US Government has vowed to put more Zimbabweans and companies on sanctions.

The progressive world should ask these so-called superpowers what sin Zimbabwe has committed for them to continue their onslaught.
They claimed they would be guided by the conduct of elections and we delivered a credible poll.

We insist that the EU should have lifted the sanctions on everyone given that ZMDC did not run the elections, but the Government of Zimbabwe and the polls were won by President Mugabe and Zanu-PF.

The Zimbabwean polls have received a clean bill and we are disappointed to see the EU continuing with its diatribe that it is concerned with the issues highlighted in the Sadc, AU and domestic observation mission reports which raised questions about the fairness and credibility of the process.

Zimbabweans, mainly civil servants have been wallowing in poverty for a long time, earning meagre salaries that are way below the poverty datum line which is above US$500.

It was everyone’s hope that now that the country had fulfilled what the West wanted and delivered a credible election, the embargo was going to be lifted.

The way forward we think, is for Zimbabwe to look for more friendly countries that deal with diamonds and offload most its gems there so that despite lifting the sanctions on the ZMDC, Belgium will be unable to enjoy maximum benefits from the country’s diamonds.

President Mugabe’s tit for tat approach will be useful here and we encourage the authorities to use our Marange diamonds to also divide the West, trade with Scandinavian countries and like-minded countries in the EU and the Far East.

We produce more than 25 percent of the diamonds in the world and we refuse to be treated like this by the West.