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from: FARAI MUTSAKA, Associated Press
Posted: Oct 28, 2021 / 11:12 am CDT
Updated: 10/28/2021 / 11:12 AM CDT
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) – A United Nations special envoy on Thursday called on the United States to end the sanctions it believes have exacerbated Zimbabwe’s humanitarian crisis, while also encouraging dialogue to break the impasse between the two countries to end.
The UN commissioner for unilateral coercive measures, Alena Douhan, has been in Zimbabwe for almost two weeks and is investigating the effects of the sanctions on the South African country.
The US imposed travel and financial sanctions on the political, military and economic elite of Zimbabwe and on companies affiliated with the state about two decades ago. This followed the violent mass seizures of white-owned land and alleged election fraud and human rights violations by the late authoritarian President Robert Mugabe.
In its preliminary results, Douhan said the US should “end the national emergency related to Zimbabwe”. She said the sanctions had “exacerbated the already existing economic and humanitarian crisis and prevented the development of essential infrastructures and international and inter-institutional cooperation”.
The US Embassy said this week that Washington “can lift sanctions once it finds that sanctioned individuals have stopped undermining democracy, violating human rights or promoting corruption”.
During her visit, the UN envoy met President Emmerson Mnangagwa as well as representatives of non-governmental organizations and opposition parties.
Zimbabwe has grown from one of Africa’s most promising economies when it gained independence from white minority rule in 1980 to a situation where many of the country’s 15 million people depend on informal trade and food spending by international donors.
The country’s once robust public health system has also deteriorated, while water, transportation, and other public infrastructure lie in ruins. Mnangagwa blames sanctions for this poor service.
The main opposition and the US say corruption and human rights abuses are the cause of Zimbabwe’s suffering.
The sanctions “are not targeting the Zimbabwean people,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ned Price said earlier this month. “We know that Zimbabwe’s economic ills are caused by leaders who abuse power, not US sanctions. Our sanctions only target 83 individuals and 37 companies. “
The sanctions seem to have neither loosened the power of the ruling ZANU-PF party nor improved the human rights situation, say some analysts.
Instead, they have a “reverse effect” and have “come as manna” for the ruling party, which has used them as a scapegoat for the country’s economic decline and also to earn political miles by calling the opposition lackeys of the United States. said Harare-based economic commentator Alexander Russero.
Mnangagwa pledged reforms after taking power from Mugabe in 2017 and urged Zimbabweans to “stop grieving over sanctions”. But with increasing political pressure and seemingly growing resentment, he has returned to Mugabe’s anti-sanctions mantra.
Mnangagwa successfully campaigned for the 15-nation regional bloc, the Southern African Development Community, to declare October 25 an annual anti-sanctions day. In Zimbabwe, the day this year was marked by pro-government marches, speeches and a televised anti-sanctions music gala.
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