Top US senator tells Biden administration to condemn repression and abandon negotiations with “entrenched” Zim govt

By Darlington Gatsi

In a scathing rebuke of Zimbabwe’s government, a United States senator Jim Risch says the Joe Biden administration should abandon any hopes of negotiating with President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime instead calling for regional and global pressure on Harare to reform.

Risch, in a statement released Monday, said President Mnangagwa’s regime has been characterised by a lengthy period of human rights repression.

“It is clear the Mnangagwa regime is entrenched. The United States must abandon any misguided belief that it can negotiate with Zimbabwe’s current leaders, who have a lengthy history of human rights abuses, corrupt practices, and anti-democratic actions spanning over two decades. It’s past time the Biden Administration amplify its condemnation of this severe repression,” said Risch.

His comments come amid mounting criticism of Mnangagwa’s regime’s crackdown on opposition and its failure to address the country’s economic woes.

In the aftermath of a disputed election that gave Mnangagwa another term at the helm of the country, the government has been criticised for thwarting opposition.

Several Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) members have been reportedly abducted by suspected State agents.

CCC has issued a clarion call for the intervention of regional bodies in what it has termed a “deteriorating” situation.

Already the US has frosty relations with Zimbabwe which has seen the Southern African country endure sanctions, Risch believes that more needs to be done.

“The United States should use every diplomatic avenue to forge a coalition of regional and global partners to act in support of the aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe, and who will not ignore the government’s manipulation of the dire democratic, economic, and humanitarian situation for its corrupt benefit,” he said.