EU’s doublespeak does not help anyone

The EU leaders did not do much about the economic embargo that has brought so much suffering to the ordinary person. The bloc, instead, chose to play up the rhetoric that the sanctions are targeted at a few individuals by making a show of removing development aid restrictions.
But as we have always said the real sanctions that we want removed are the economic restrictions that precipitated the economic decline of the past decade. The sanctions so severely constrained livelihoods that the British government was forced to airlift its pensioners resident here when their pensions and savings were rendered worthless by sanctions induced hyperinflation.
We find it quite ironic that the EU leaders claim the sanctions are aimed at fostering democracy yet they are doing the exact opposite in trying to influence the envisaged referendum and forthcoming elections. It is up to Zimbabweans to decide what to do with the constitution and who to vote for at the polls.
The GPA that outlines the roadmap has, as one of its key objectives, decimating foreign interference in our internal affairs. The three parties in Government have made it clear that the ruinous sanctions have to go in toto which leaves us wondering on whose behalf the European bloc is maintaining its sanctions regime.
We hope the EU will move to normalise relations as we never had a quarrel with the 27-member bloc, but just a bilateral dispute with one member, the United Kingdom. The Labour government of Tony Blair violated the international law of succession by refusing to be bound by obligations made by the Tory administration of Margaret Thatcher at the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference in 1979.
The Tories, backed by pledges from the US administration of Jimmy Carter, committed themselves to funding land reforms in Zimbabwe since land was a major driver of the liberation struggle.
We take this opportunity to remind the EU that, apart from permanent estrangement with Zimbabwe, the only option is dialogue, which is provided for under Article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement which governs relations between the EU and Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific member states.
The time for reengagement is now in the same spirit that sees EU member states exchanging diplomatic envoys with Zimbabwe. It’s quite ironic that the EU continues citing concerns over the implementation of the interparty political agreement, the GPA which it claims has not been implemented to expectations.
The last time we checked the GPA was a purely Zimbabwe and African affair, which is why its guarantors are Sadc and the African Union. These two bodies have expressed satisfaction with the way the inclusive Government has worked. Not only that but the three parties in Government have also expressed similar sentiments. So what were the EU leaders pontificating about?
What we always find ironic is the EU claim that the sanctions are being maintained to further the implementation of the GPA when the same GPA is quite explicit that the sanctions have to go and its implementation can never be complete with the ruinous coercive measures in place.
To this end we challenge the Americans, who bought into a fight that was never theirs in the first place, to also commit to dialogue and reengagement. It’s high time our country benefited from its membership of global multilateral institutions that hitherto are constrained from extending lines of credit due to the US sanctions law, the so called Zimbabwe Transition to Democracy Act.
The EU’s doublespeak does not help anyone.