SWEDEN has become the first European Union country to call for the removal of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe following disputed elections in 2002.
The Nordic country’s outgoing ambassador to Zimbabwe said Wednesday he was “disappointed” to be leaving after a five-year posting with the travel and trade embargo targeting government officials and state-owned firms still effective.
“I am disappointed that I have to leave with most of the restrictive measures still in place,” Sten Rylander said in an interview with the News Day newspaper.
On Tuesday, Rylander bade Vice President John Nkomo farewell before he leaves the country this week to return to Sweden. He retires from the government early next year.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the ambassador said: “I told the Vice President that I hope that something will happen sooner rather than later.
“A lot of things are happening in different capitals in Brussels, London and Washington because we can’t maintain the so-called sanctions for long.”
The European Union imposed the travel embargo on President Robert Mugabe and progressively more than a 100 other government officials following disputed elections in 2002. The EU also barred trade between its citizens and Zimbabwean state-owned enterprises, including banks.
Rylander revealed his country had tried to use its Swedish presidency of the European Union last year to move for the embargo to be lifted in response to the formation of a power sharing government between President Robert Mugabe and former opposition rivals Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara which ended a decade of political conflict.
Regretfully, the ambassador said, Tsvangirai’s MDC party briefly pulled out of the coalition in October 2009 – frustrating Sweden’s effort to normalise relations between Zimbabwe and the EU.
“ … we lost momentum because we could not have someone from the government to talk,” Rylander said.
Rylander said a recent visit to Brussels by a delegation from the Zimbabwe government to negotiate a normalisation of relations was a “credible process”, and hoped the coalition partners would move quickly to resolve disagreements.
“There is now a consolidated and united opinion on this (sanctions) within the Zimbabwean government and this will make progress easier. I am trying to encourage our side to be more forthcoming, and to think outside the box,” ambassador Rylander said.
Sounding an upbeat message about Zimbabwe’s turnaround, the ambassador said “the formation of the inclusive government and the work done up until now has been quite impressive in many areas”.
He added: “Zimbabwe has turned the corner and is now on a much more positive track. Progress is more clearly seen in the economic and social sectors. There is, no doubt, slow movement in some areas, which is regrettable.
“There is also no doubt, I think, that the blame for this slowness cannot be put on the MDC formations.”
He hoped the “huge diamond find” in the eastern parts of the country would “help Zimbabwe to come out of the cesspit”, adding: “Much remains to be done to arrange for orderly, transparent and accountable procedures for the production and sale of the diamonds.
“The proceeds of these sales must not continue to disappear over loose borders but be benefiting the national fiscus.”
Rylander’s comments on sanctions will be welcomed by Southern African leaders who at their two-day summit which ended in Namibia on Tuesday called for their removal.
SADC “reiterated its call on the international community to lift all forms of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe in view of the negative effects they have on Zimbabwe and the SADC region in general”, the leaders said in a communiqué.
The leaders mandated the new SADC chairman Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia and South African President Jacob Zuma “to engage the international community on the issue of sanctions on Zimbabwe.”