Perspectives

Open Letter to President Barack Obama: End Sanctions Against Zimbabwe

By Organizations | Last updated: Aug 19, 2013 - 6:01:45 PM

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Harlem, New York Rally on July 31. Photo: December 12th Movement.

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500 

Mr. President,

Following Zimbabwe’s recently concluded elections, there is no longer a basis to maintain the illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe, therefore they should be removed immediately.

From its inception, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 [ZDERA] has had nothing to do with “Democracy” and everything to do with “Economics,” i.e. improving the profits of the U.S. Zimbabwe’s “land reform program” of returning land to the indigenous Zimbabweans from whom it was stolen threatened the economic status quo.

The goal of ZDERA and its companion sanctions brought by Great Britain and other former colonial powers were to maintain control of the land and secure for the West the vast natural resources of Zimbabwe—gold, diamonds, platinum, copper, coal, nickel, tin, tobacco, cotton, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, etc.

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As outlined by Chester Crocker, Ronald Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, who testified in support of the ZDERA, the sanctions were to create such international isolation, economic disruption and impoverishment that the people of Zimbabwe would oust President Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF from power.  If this regime change was successful, the British-created opposition, Movement for Democratic Change [MDC], would put the country’s economy and resources back in Western hands.

The leading sponsors of and advocates for ZDERA used  the “democracy” fig leaf to hide their personal/network financial interests which intersected with prospective areas of investment in Zimbabwe, e.g., Jesse Helms, tobacco; Hilary Clinton, mining;  Chester Crocker (through his marriage to a Rhodesian), land; National Security Advisor Susan Rice, coal.

Mr. President, our point simply is that the ZDERA is a violation of the UN Charter on non-interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign nation. Its alleged concern with “democracy” is hypocritical and self-serving.

ZDERA is a Western imperial vehicle for regime change. The people of Zimbabwe have spoken and given their overwhelming support to President Robert Gabriel Mugabe and his party ZANU-PF. The international monitors in Zimbabwe, i.e. the African Union, SADC, COMESA, the ACP Group of states and the UN have all acknowledged that the elections were “free and fair.” The U.S. must now acknowledge the failure of its would be coup. You must take the first step by lifting the sanctions now and let Zimbabwe exercise its right to development free from outside interference.

Yours,

December 12th Movement International Secretariat
Afrocentricity International
African Poetry Theatre
Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People
Freedom Party
International Association Against Torture
Pan African Solidarity Hague Committee
Women In Support of the Million Man March, Inc.
World African Diaspora Union