adminled by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Policy, Lady Catherine Ashton.
The Zimbabwe delegation made up of Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa (Zanu-PF); Energy and Power Development Minister, Elton Mangoma (MDC-T) and Regional Integration and International Co-operation Minister Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga (MDC) made it clear that there was no justification for the continued existence of the sanctions that were never justified anyway.
That spirit of Team Zimbabwe, no doubt, sent a clear message to the EU representatives that the sanctions do not serve any purpose apart from hurting the ordinary man and straining relations.
This unity of purpose, no doubt, explains why the EU has announced a major decision on the sanctions by the end of July after consultations among the 27-member bloc.
We are equally encouraged by reports that the dialogue was frank and cordial.
We take this opportunity to remind the EU that Zimbabwe has no quarrel with Europe.
As they consult about lifting the embargo, EU leaders should never lose sight of the fact that the matter they are set to deliberate on is a purely bilateral dispute between Harare and London, which should never be divorced from its historical origins.
History tells us that in November 1997, the Labour government of Tony Blair violated the international law of succession by refusing to be bound by agreements entered into with the Tory administration of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, which was to fund land reforms in Zimbabwe.
The sanctions Blair canvassed for were an attempt to cover his own violation of international law as they were imposed in retaliation to the Government’s decision to acquire white-held farms without compensating the holders for the land, a duty that was rightly put at London’s doorstep.
As such EU leaders are not only deliberating on illegal measures instituted outside the purview of the United Nations system and in contravention of the Cotonou Agreement governing relations between EU and ACP countries but their consultations will be a throwback to the Berlin Conference of 1885 where Africa was excluded even though it was the agenda item.
Isn’t it ironic that the man who mobilised the sanctions, Blair, in the opinion of the majority of the British voters, is a suitable candidate for The Hague and is today in the dock accused of embarking on an illegal war in Iraqi, the same way he launched an economic warfare against Zimbabwe?
It is high time the EU washed its hands off Blair’s mess by scrapping the illegal sanctions and restoring normal relations with Zimbabwe.
This was never the EU’s fight anyway.
The lie that sanctions were and are targeted at the Zanu-PF leadership was exposed by Britain itself which was forced to airlift its pensioners resident in Zimbabwe to safety after they were rendered destitute by sanctions-induced hyperinflation that wiped out their savings and pensions at the height of the hyperinflationary period.
Unfortunately Zimbabweans, who know no other home but this one, were left to weather the wrath of the sanctions to this day, which is why they have unequivocally condemned the sanctions in their totality.
The sanctions have to go in toto.
Online Reporter