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Zimbabwe: Rulers Might Face Additional U.S. Sanctions
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America.gov (Washington, DC)
15 July 2008
Posted to the web 16 July 2008
Stephen Kaufman
The Bush administration is seeking to expand its financial restrictions on Zimbabwe’s leadership to include a greater number of individuals and corporations and government entities, according to the State Department’s top envoy on African issues.
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told U.S. lawmakers July 15 that the United States is encouraging other countries, especially those in Africa and the European Union, to adopt similar measures in the wake the veto by China and Russia of a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have imposed worldwide financial pressure on the regime of President Robert Mugabe. (See "U.N. Security Council Fails to Pressure Zimbabwe's Government.")
Addressing the Senate Foreign Relations African Affairs Subcommittee, Frazer said the United States already has imposed financial and travel restrictions against 135 individuals and 30 corporate entities "who have undermined their country's democratic process," including members of Mugabe's inner circle and some of their family members.
Individual Americans or U.S. corporations who violate the sanctions face penalties ranging from $250,000 to $500,000, she said.
"We are looking to expand the category of Zimbabweans who are covered. We are also looking at sanctions on government entities as well, not just individuals." She added that the U.S. Treasury Department also is looking into ways to target sectors of Zimbabwe's mining industry.
Subcommittee Chairman Russ Feingold (Democrat from Wisconsin) urged harsher worldwide sanctions against the Mugabe regime. "Now is the time to scale up, not give up on global action," he said. "We must not allow Zimbabwe to fall out of the international spotlight as it has many times before."
POLITICAL MEDIATION IS IMMEDIATE ISSUE
Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which won the majority of parliamentary seats in the March 29 election but whose candidate withdrew from the June 27 presidential runoff vote after weeks of violent attacks against its members and supporters, is discussing the terms of talks aimed at finding a compromise solution with the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party.
Frazer said the mediation process between the two sides is "probably the most immediate issue" in solving the violent political crisis and said the talks could succeed if they result in a "transitional government that could then prepare for an election so that we could get back to a democratic path."
She said that ZANU-PF faces internal divisions even though the 80-year-old Mugabe holds most of the power in the country. "We have an old man clinging to power who refuses to move aside," which she said is presenting "a problem for his own party," which does not have a clear successor to Mugabe.
MDC also faces divisions from within, and Frazer urged the opposition to "stand strong" in any discussions "for the will of the people and not just a seat in the government."
U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL MISSED AN OPPORTUNITY
Senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry (Democrat from Massachusetts) expressed displeasure at the lack of international action against Zimbabwe after the violence that swept the country and helped Mugabe hold on to power.
"There's really some sense that the world has lost its capacity for appropriate outrage," he said, referring specifically to the situation in the Darfur region of Sudan as well as Zimbabwe. In the months following Zimbabwe's March 29 election, government supporters killed more than 100 people, injured 10,000, unlawfully detained more than 2000 and displaced more than 200,000.
"Frankly the details are much more horrifying than those statistics convey, because, as we know, women were burned to death, young men were tortured and dismembered, the elderly were savagely beaten, and Mugabe had the audacity to say to the world 'what do I care about an election? An X on a ballot means nothing against the power of the gun.'"
Kerry said international condemnations are inadequate. "The words are really beginning to fall flat, big time. The actions are just not there."
Frazer said that with the failure of the July 11 U.N. Security Council resolution, the council "missed the opportunity to support the courageous efforts of the Zimbabwean people to change their lives peacefully through elections," by taking action against the political violence and demanding that the Mugabe regime reinstate humanitarian assistance and negotiate seriously with the MDC.
Asked if Russia and China vetoed the resolution for financial reasons, she replied "we should follow the money."
Russia's change from its previous support of a multilateral statement threatening financial action against Zimbabwe's government "was a bit of a whiplash for us," she said. "It's hard to explain."
Frazer also said China is still "finding its way in Africa" and urged the government in Beijing to side with the people of Africa instead of nondemocratic rulers. In Zimbabwe's case, given the popular support for the MDC shown by the March 29 vote, Zimbabwe's government largely was rejected by its people.
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"A new day is coming in Zimbabwe and China would want to be on the right side of the forces of democratic change," she said.
Once again, in brought day light, in this century,on our continent, Our brothers and sisters are being assaulted and attacked by the greedy sanctionists. This time through a different mode. We will keep our 5 senses open. God protect Zimbabwe. People of Zimbabwe please be strong.
I notice that these 'Greedy Sanctionists' were not being villified when the sanctions were against the Apartheid regime in South Africa, or the Smith regime in Rhodesia ..... what you need to do is get your story straight and decide whether sanctions are good or bad, and then apply that to your philosophy for ALL sanctions. You have been taken in by Mugabe's rhetoric and self image as President of Zimbabwe (a position he only attained with the help of US/UK sponsored sanctions on Rhodesia ..... not just Smith and the government, but blanket sanctions on Rhodesia itself) and you... [Read Full Text]
That is spot on. I think you make perfect sense. People can be quite selective when it suits their needs.
I agree with you afbynature..these sanctionists are a horrid bunch..first they had an unwarranted go at the rhodesians..then the south africans...now mugabe and his cronies..what to do..what to do....LOL. take on the chin like the rhodies did boyo...!!!!
THANKS VERY MUCH FROM OUR HEARTS TO MBEKI
African people fought for freedom which ultimate objectives are the reclaiming their lands and resources. The apartheid ideology was based on the laws dispossessing South African from their lands, and the subsequent creation of the reservoir dubbed “homelands”. The famous law is known as the Land Act. The so-called South African 1994 independence remained a hollow concept. The lands are still owned by the apartheid ideologist minority. Nothing changed in South Africa. Ghettoes are still there. IT HAD NEVER BEEN MUGABE’S LAND REFORM THAT KEEPS THE SITUATION IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN GHETTOES... [Read Full Text]
I love this line, and would love to know where you got it from, bearing in mind that it is complete rubbish:
"Chinese and Russians helped Mugabe defeat the fascist Ian Smith minority regime supported by the very powers which now are aligning themselves behind Morgan."
there are a few points in which this sentence is incorrect:
1: Mugabe did not defeat the Smith regime ..... it was brought down by a series of factors which Mugabe was a minor part. You seem to be forgetting that Joshua Nkomo and ZIPRA were also active in the bush war.
2: The... [Read Full Text]
timberwolf...you have exposed the mindless rant of a dyed in the wool zanupf brainwwashed herald reading fool!!! well done. nealry 30 years of ruining sorry, running the country they still blame the "evil" rhodesians whom in the very next breath he gleefully declares his hero mugabe defeated..ummmm, so if mugabe slayed this evil white rhodesia dragon...how come 30 years down the road it is still able to screw up the economy of zim?? wake up tedede or whatever you handle is, and realise mugabe and zanupf have destroyed, in under 5yrs, what white settlers took decades to build!!!! And do... [Read Full Text]
Thanks Turnex, and you are right, as I stated in my post lower down in the thread, Mugabe knows that Rhodesia and the West have had a negligable effect on the Zim economy ..... it's a 'reds under the bed' ploy to take peoples attention away from his failures and outright corruption regarding Zimbabwe and the people therein, and if the only way to show that to poeople is to challenge one idea at a time, then I'm sure as hell willing to do it that way
absolutely. couldnt agree more. Mugabe has created a non existant enemy to keep himself in power. The west isnt planning to invade Zimbabwe. The west doesnt want to reverse the land program (Save for land given to ministers), the west doenst want to recolonise Zim - never has been mentioned. The only people that mention this is Mugabe and his henchmen. The west doesnt have sanctions on Zimbabwe. They're on specific ministers! Its all lies and people believe it!
It is good to see that at long last some talking between the MDC and ZANU-PF is taking place, but one must be very cautious as to the reason that this is happening. Is Muguabe and his cohorts purely buying themselves time to move their 'assets' to a friendly area or country that will ignore any attempted sanctions, also Muguabe has a history of saying yes and then finding reasons why yes does not in fact mean yes. For Muguabe to decry the former 'colonial rule' and then treat fellow Africans, particularly Zimdabwians, in this inhuman way is certainly no... [Read Full Text]
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