via US not out to get Mugabe: Congressmen – NewsDay Zimbabwe June 30, 2015
THE United States has denied accusations it was pursuing a regime change agenda in Zimbabwe amid indications that Washington was preparing to review sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and his inner circle.
BY RICHARD CHIDZA
A delegation from the US Congress is in Harare to engage Mugabe’s government with a view to “amending” the sanctions regime.
The delegation comprising of Gregory Simpkins and Piero Tozzi — both senior members of the sub-committee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organisations in the US Congress — told journalists yesterday that the American policy was not targeting Mugabe as such.
“We are not out to get him. Is he saying we are out to get him by insisting that he sticks to the things that his government signed to?” Simpkins asked rhetorically. The issue of human and property rights and allowing equal political space to contest for political power is not an American phenomenon. It is something that is in this country’s Constitution and as a friend we are just pointing out these things and saying stick to what you signed to.”
He said the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, which set out the sanctions regime had been “overtaken by events” and urgently required a review.
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