Staff Reporter
The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a US Think Tank which prides itself as an advocate for new ideas rooted in diplomatic engagement and military restraint, has joined Regional, Continental and other International bodies in the call for the removal of the illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe by the United States.
Reporting through its online magazine, Responsible Statecraft (RS), the Quincy Institute called on the US to end its sanctions on Zimbabwe, as they have achieved nothing except inflict poverty and harm to the ordinary people of Zimbabwe.
“Washington has active sanctions against nine African countries more than any other continent. One of the longest-running programs is Zimbabwe, which has been targeted by US sanctions for nearly 20 years, with little to show for it,” read the report.
RS took a swipe at the insincerity presented by former and current US leaders in imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe and misrepresenting that the sanctions are targeted at a certain clique of people and are meant to better the lives of the ordinary people.
Announcing the 2002 sanctions, President George W. Bush said, “Soon the people of Zimbabwe again will enjoy political and economic freedom.”
Meanwhile nothing has happened to that effect, due to continued meddling by the US in the political affairs of this country, through puppet political parties such as the MDC led by Nelson Chamisa. The Economic turnaround has been slow due to sanctions that have tied the country’s hands through embargoes. If anything, in almost 20 years since sanctions began, conditions in Zimbabwe have continued to deteriorate, until President Emmerson Mnangagwa through his engagement and re-engagement policy managed to open markets for Zimbabwe, the process is on-going.
Further, the RS states that between 2002 and early 2017, Zimbabwe ranked among the world’s most repressed economies due to the effects of sanctions.
“According to the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedoms sanctions have left Zimbabwe’s economy smaller today in constant GDP terms than it was in 2002,” read the report.
SADC, the African Union, and the United Nations Security Council have never supported the imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe. The European Union followed suit by suspending its sanctions on Zimbabwe in 2013. Recently at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), African countries such as South Africa and Botswana called for the unconditional removal of sanctions on Zimbabwe ahead of Zimbabwe’s Anti-sanctions Day on 25 October 2021. On this day Zimbabwe will be joined by countries in the region, continent and international community to denounce sanctions and call for their immediate removal.
