Zimbabwe`s President Robert Mugabe has blasted the United States, Britain and their allies for maintaining “illegal” sanctions on Zimbabwe.
Addressing world leaders at the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Mugabe said western nations are always pre-occupied with asserting their dominance on weaker states.
“Shame, shame we say on you the United States, shame, shame on you Britain and all those countries that continue with sanctions on Zimbabwe.”
“Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans, so are its resources. Please remove your illegal and filthy sanctions from my peaceful country,” he said.
Mugabe said the sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States violated the UN Charter on state sovereignty and condemned them as a “foreign-policy tool to effect regime change”.
“Zimbabwe strongly condemns the use of unilateral economic sanctions as a foreign policy tool to effect regime change,” he said.
The fearless and eloquent 89 year old also said the West speaks daily on democracy and freedom, which they totally disregard and have imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe in a failed bid to effect regime change.
“The relentless persecution of the small nation of Zimbabwe has happened again through Washington‘s recent rejection of the democratic elections, even though they were applauded by all regional blocs on the African continent,” he said.
Mugabe and dozens of his associates were sanctioned after the country had undertaken the land reform programme in a bid to empower its local black citizens.
The US introduced economic sanctions on Zimbabwe through the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, 2001. (ZIDERA) Through this enactment Zimbabwe’s access to finance and credit facilities was effectively incinerated.
ZIDERA empowers the US to use its voting rights and influence (as the main donor) in multilateral lending agencies, such as the IMF, World Bank, and the African Development Bank to veto any applications by Zimbabwe for finance, credit facilities, loan rescheduling, and international debt cancellation.
The US cites Zimbabwe’s human rights record, political intolerance and absence of rule of law as the main reasons for the imposition of sanctions.
The ZIDERA also suggests that if Zimbabwe acts to correct these ills, then the sanctions will be removed and economic support measures are suggested
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