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Political parties express views on sanctions
Bulawayo
Agenda
March 18, 2010
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Bulawayo
- Political parties have expressed various views on the
extension of sanctions/restrictive measures that were extended by
the United States of America and the European Union in the last
couple of weeks.
At a public meeting organized
by Bulawayo Agenda, Mr. Eddie Cross, the MDC-T representative, emphasized
that Zimbabwe was not under sanctions but only 252 individuals comprising
ZANU PF officials and their close associates were under travel restrictions
that prevent them from traveling to the European Union and North
America unless on United Nations business. He said the only legislative
piece that was close to sanctions was the Zimbabwe Democracy and
Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) which stops US firms from extending
guarantees on loans to Zimbabwe.
Mr. Edwin Ndlovu,
of MDC, said that section 4.6 of the GPA
clearly speaks of sanctions and not restrictive measures. MDC-T
was a signatory of the agreement and it is hypocritical of them
to say there are no sanctions. MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai had
recently called for removal of sanctions and hence there was disharmony
within their party on the issue.
Dr. Callistus Ndlovu,
of ZANU PF, explained that drawing an analogy between the current
sanctions regime and those borne by Rhodesia was misplaced as the
circumstances are different. He said western nations have failed
to see that in the morden world, applying sanctions on an individual
is meaningless as there are so many alternatives and coping mechanisms.
He said countries like China and the other Asian tigers provided
alternative trading partners.
Advocate Steven Nkiwane,
representing ZAPU, said that ZANU PF had brought about sanctions
in the country because of the land-grab exercise. He said it was
unfortunate because the same land reform program was the brainchild
of ZAPU which would have immediately implemented it soon after independence
if they had managed to win the majority vote.
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