adminWe are reminded of this saying by outgoing United States Ambassador Charles Ray’s denial of the existence of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by his country.
We all thought Mr Ray had seen the light when he blasted the western media’s reportage on Zimbabwe during an address to the Africa Travel Association congress in Victoria Falls on Saturday evening. Accolades were even thrown his way.
The ambassador was probably drunk on Zimbabwean hospitality, which he is going to obviously miss very badly, when he said the bad perception portrayed by the media, especially the global media power houses such as CNN and the BBC, were misleading as he found the country to be safe.
A day later, Mr Ray goes on to deny the existence of sanctions his country, in cahoots with their cousins in Europe, imposed on Zimbabwe for daring to take control of its resources.
We reported yesterday that Mr Ray angered businesspeople attending the congress when he said the sanctions issue was just “a smoke without a flame used by people who did not want to make things happen”.
During a question and answer segment at the ongoing ATA congress in the resort town, Mr Ray said the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA), a US sanctions law imposed on the country in 2001, was put in place to just oppose and vote against new loans for the Government.
Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe board chairperson Advocate Jacob Mudenda had asked Mr Ray why he was talking about marketing the country’s business interests to the American market when production in the country was being hindered by sanctions.
In response, Mr Ray said: “Sanctions are more rhetorical than reality. I want to say at the present moment ZIDERA has not had any impact, actually it has been stalled. Trade between US and Zimbabwe grew last year by 16 percent and so we have seen a growth in US-Zimbabwe bilateral trade.
“So the sanctions issue is just smoke without flame, it is used by many not willing to make things work,” amid disgruntlement from some business people.
Really, Mr Ambassador? Wasn’t it only recently that diamond producers Mbada Diamonds and Marange Resources were added onto the US sanctions list? Apart from senior Government officials, that list also comprises companies which have over the past decade struggled to remain in business as they cannot access overseas lines of credit. And is that mere rhetoric?
We could not believe our ears, especially coming from a man who has been here for the past three years and has seen first hand the devastating effects of the illegal sanctions.
It appears Mr Ray does not understand his country’s laws, ZIDERA to be specific, and the sugar-coated Zimbabwe Transition to Democracy and Economy Recovery Act of 2010 which sought to give the impression that the sanctions had been eased whereas nothing has changed.
It still remains a sanctions law whichever way one looks at it bars Zimbabwe from accessing lines of credit from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and any multilateral financial institutions in which the US is represented or has a stake.
Early in the 1990s, the World Bank funded a programme to support infrastructural programmes with a number of local authorities in Zimbabwe, including Harare and Bulawayo. This came to an abrupt end in 2001 with the introduction of the sanctions which Mr Ray claims do not exist. The result has been there for everyone to see: poor service delivery by local authorities.
Even the US’ allies in the MDC formations have privately and publicly admitted that sanctions continue to hurt the ordinary Zimbabwean and the sooner they are lifted the better.
We would have thought that Mr Ray was going to take a cue from the Zimbabwe-European Union re-engagement committee that recently met in Brussels, Belgium, to explore ways of normalising relations between Zimbabwe and Europe.
In fact, the Americans, at the behest of their British cousins, jumped onto what was purely a bilateral quarrel between Harare and London. It is high time they woke up to the reality that Zimbabwe has done nothing to deserve these sanctions and the sooner they re-engage on an equal footing, the better for everyone.
Surely, Mr Ray and his handlers in America cannot continue burying their heads in the sand and pretend that there are no sanctions in Zimbabwe. Denying the existence of US and European sanctions on Zimbabwe is like denying the Holocaust.
We reiterate that sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the western powers, led by Britain and the United States, are hampering a speedy economic recovery.
The sanctions are unjustifiable and illegal and Mr Ray would do well by advising Washington to re-engage Harare.
Zimbabwe is just a small and peaceful country which is demanding its place in the sun, nothing more, nothing less. Of course, we are resource rich and we surely must not be punished for that which the Almighty gave us.
Sanctions are a gross violation of the rights of Zimbabweans to choose their own destiny and to enjoy the fruits of what lies in their land and underneath it.
We hope the visiting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms Navanethem Pillay will take note of this brazen but subtle violation of our rights to enjoy the fruits of our independence by the West.
Online Reporter