MDC sets Brussels tour date to campaign for sanctions removal

By Alex Bell
07 April 2010

Despite the lack of progress in the unity government the MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is set to travel to Europe later this month, to campaign for the removal of targeted sanctions still in place on Robert Mugabe and his inner circle.

The lack of political progress has been cited by both the European Union (EU) and the United States as the key reason behind extending the targeted measures, a step taken by both earlier this year. But an MDC delegation, reportedly to be led by Tsvangirai, is now set to travel to Brussels, the home of the EU commission, to plead for the sanctions to be lifted - the MDC’s latest concession to ZANU PF.

According to the MDC’s weekly Changing Times newsletter, Tsvangirai will lead a delegation to Brussels on April 21 to persuade the 27 member EU to “lift the restrictive measures imposed on ZANU PF officials over electoral theft and rights abuses.” The MDC said the sanctions issue is one of the remaining outstanding issues in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that has not yet been resolved at the latest round of talks. The party wrote in its newsletter that “ZANU PF has used the targeted sanctions issue as a bargaining chip,” acknowledging that it has been backed into a corner in an attempt to move the talks forward.

ZANU PF has insisted repeatedly that it would not implement the GPA until the targeted measures were lifted, despite ‘progress’ being lauded in the latest round of talks. ZANU PF insists that the sanctions are to blame for the country’s economic collapse, and equally blames the MDC for the measures being in place. Their rallying call that the measures must be lifted has also been echoed by South African President Jacob Zuma, the regional facilitator in Zimbabwe’s political crisis. Zuma has been actively lobbying for the sanctions to be lifted, which observers and critics have said has been detrimental to his reputation. He has also not once condemned ongoing violence and political persecution that has been the backdrop to the sanctions debate, proving how effective a smokescreen the sanctions issue has been for ZANU PF.

Political commentator Professor John Makumbe said the MDC is embarking on an ‘exercise of futility’, explaining that the party has no influence to persuade Europe to drop the targeted sanctions. He said it was ‘unfortunate’ that they have been backed into a corner and ‘hoodwinked’ by ZANU PF, and warned that “the more concessions they make, the weaker they become as a party.”

“Their strategy seems to be to run along with ZANU PF and to buy time so that the constitution can be reformed and for elections to be called,” Makumbe said, adding: “it is very sad that they are appeasing ZANU PF in this way.”

A report on the talks meanwhile was set to be presented to Zuma on Wednesday, with his facilitation team due back in Zimbabwe this week to carry on ‘assisting’ Zimbabwe’s political negotiators. No details of the report have been made clear, but the MDC’s newsletter says only six issues are still outstanding from their original list of 27. Those outstanding still include the sanctions issue and the most critical issues of the unilateral appointments of Johannes Tomana and Gideon Gono. Observers are now questioning what ‘progress’ was in fact made by President Zuma when he bartered a so called ‘road map’ with ZANU PF and the MDC towards real progress, when these key issues remain unresolved.

Mugabe has also said that the closure of the ‘pirate’ radio stations is an outstanding GPA issue.

We await a visit from an MDC delegation with anticipation.