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Dell's freedom speech patronising, dishonest
By Jon’osi
Sibanda,
IN A RECENT speech (read speech) Christopher
Dell, the US Ambassador to Zimbabwe said economic decline in Zimbabwe
was the result of the absence of freedom of expression.
Dell’s speech was patronising, factually incorrect, and given the level of US complicity in Zimbabwe’s economic collapse, dishonest.
Most people will accept that there are serious human rights violations in Zimbabwe, including the severe restriction on the media and freedom of expression. But to suggest that this and other human rights concerns primarily explain Zimbabwe’s economic collapse is nonsense.
Why does Dell not talk about the nature and effects of America’s economic sanctions against Zimbabwe?
Dell would like us to believe that US sanctions are not against Zimbabwe, are targeted only against a few individuals and do not affect the common person. The phrase of choice is; smart sanctions. So successful has been the US in implanting the idea that sanctions against Zimbabwe are targeted and not economic in nature that there has been very little informed debate both in Zimbabwe and the world over the nature and effect of sanctions in place.
When the US enacted the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, 2001, (ZDERA), Zimbabwe’s economy was far from stellar, but nowhere near collapse.
Dell should tell the world; does ZDERA impose economic sanctions against Zimbabwe as a nation?
Section 4(c) of ZDERA provides that American Executive Directors to the IMF and the various multilateral development banks must oppose and vote against any loan, credit or guarantee application made by Zimbabwe. The same Executive Directors are obliged to oppose and vote against any application for the cancellation or reduction of indebtedness made by Zimbabwe to the US government, the IMF or the multilateral development banks.
And the following are the multilateral development banks which will not deal with Zimbabwe because of the American sanctions: the African Development Bank, African Development Fund, the Asia Development Bank, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Development Association, the International Finance Corporation, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Inter-American Investment Corporation, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.
Dell, would you quibble with a contention that through its shareholding and and/or influence in all of the above-named multilateral development banks and the IMF, the US government can veto finance applications made by Zimbabwe to these international financial institutions?
And Dell would do well to tell us whether by blocking Zimbabwe’s ability to access finance in the international finance markets, the US did not impose economic sanctions against Zimbabwe?
And while at it, perhaps Dell would explain whether the US actions do not constitute an abuse of power.
Is it any wonder then, given Zimbabwe’s isolation from the international finance system at the instance of the US government that the country’s economy is imploding?
Put differently; against the global might and influence of the US, what chance does Zimbabwe – small and poverty-ravished - have of surviving? Yet to insult our intelligence, Dell hectors and postulates that Zimbabwe’s economy has collapsed because of the government’s failure to respect freedom of expression!
To pre-empt a usual argument; it would not be correct to allege that Zimbabwe had already defaulted on its international debts and that is the reason why it remains excluded from the international finance system.
Zimbabwe is not the first or only country to have defaulted on its international foreign currency debts. Other countries’ overdue debts have been rescheduled enabling them to stabilize their economies and with time resume international debt payments. To give two examples; during the height of apartheid in the 1980s, South Africa defaulted on its international debts, as did Argentina a few years ago. Both countries’ debts were rescheduled. Is Zimbabwe’s human right record worse than the apartheid policies of South Africa in the 1980s?
Using their shareholding and influence in the IMF, the US and the EU have denied Zimbabwe the opportunity to reschedule its debts while working on strengthening the economy.
In 2005, unreasonably and unfairly threatened with expulsion from the IMF, Zimbabwe printed ZW$21 trillion which was used to offset close to US$210 million owed to the IMF.
Given the provisions of ZDERA, Dell would agree that Zimbabwe had a snow ball’s chance in hell of rescheduling its IMF debt? But for the payment, Zimbabwe would have been expelled from and by the IMF at the instance of, and to further the foreign policy interests of the US and the EU.
Printing ZW$21 trillion to fund the IMF debt payment has consequences; hyperinflation, increasing shortages of basics such as food and medicine, increasing collapse of the country’s infrastructure, and an erosion of all else that the country achieved after 1980.
These Dell are the consequences of the punitive economic sanctions imposed against a small developing country by the sole super power of the world.
Dell, the reason why Zimbabwe’s downward spiral is unmatched by any other country not at war is directly attributable to your country’s policies against Zimbabwe. By blocking Zimbabwe’s access to the international financial markets and by attaching and freezing assets belonging to Zimbabweans, the US actions constitute aggression and an act of war. It is only because Zimbabwe is small and weak which explains its inability to reciprocate in like manner.
To argue that US sanctions are only against individuals or companies connected to Zanu PF is misleading.
Dell, US sanctions have led to misery and untold suffering of the ordinary Zimbabwean.
Unfortunately for the common person in Zimbabwe, their aspirations, livelihoods, dreams and achievements of a people are being decimated and eviscerated by a combination of Zanu PF insanity and US and EU cruelty.
The US no doubt is at liberty to choose its trading partners and those it extends its largesse. Unfortunately Zimbabwe is not one such country.
Zanu PF must also accept that as the governing party it, ultimately has failed the people of Zimbabwe, the hopes and aspirations of the liberation struggle. It has been involved in unimaginable acts of violence and murder against its own people. It has destroyed the institutions and traditions that make Zimbabweans a proud people. And it has given ammunition to foreigners to criticise the country, even though their intentions and actions are questionable.
The MDC also shoulders part of the blame. ZDERA was imposed, ostensibly to enable Zimbabweans achieve “peaceful, democratic change.” This is coded American for regime change in Zimbabwe. The MDC must realise that Zimbabweans are suffering immensely. ZDERA was imposed in order to enable the MDC to obtain political power. The MDC must call for the removal of these sanctions if history is not to judge them harshly.
It is a shame that Zimbabweans bicker while the country burns. There is no reason at all for Zimbabwe to be in a state of perpetual political and economic crisis. What unites us as a people is more than what divides us.
Jon’osi
Sibanda is writing in his personal capacity and can be contacted at
jbbsibanda@yahoo.co.uk
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