via U.S. says Zimbabwe vote flawed, won’t lift sanctions | Reuters (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Christopher Wilson)
(Reuters) – The United States believes Zimbabwe’s recent election was flawed and it doesn’t plan to loosen sanctions against President Robert Mugabe’s government until there are signs of change in the country, the State Department said on Monday, despite an endorsement of the vote by Southern African leaders.
Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, is set to be sworn in as president as early as this week, extending his 33-year rule of the country after winning the July 31 election.
The 15-nation Southern African Development Community, which helped broker a power-sharing deal after disputed elections in Zimbabwe in 2008, backed Mugabe’s re-election on Sunday.
“The United States stands by our assessment that these elections, while relatively peaceful, did not represent a credible expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people due to serious flaws throughout the electoral process,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
“We have made clear to the government of Zimbabwe and the region that a change in U.S. sanctions policy will occur only in the context of credible, transparent and peaceful reforms that reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people.”
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, on Friday dropped its court challenge to Mugabe’s landslide win, saying it doubted it would get a fair hearing.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network said registration flaws may have disenfranchised up to a million people out of 6.4 million registered voters.
The United States imposed sanctions on Mugabe in 2003. The sanctions, which ban more than 250 Zimbabwean individuals and companies from doing business with the United States, were extended in 2009.
Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since it gained independence from Britain in 1980 and is Africa’s oldest leader.
Psaki said it was “feasible” that the U.S. could review sanctions toward Zimbabwe if conditions in the country improved, but for now they would remain.
Soon after his nomination as Secretary of State, John Kerry wrote to Mugabe outlining the U.S. position on elections and the opportunities it provided for the country.
The U.S. had said it was willing to roll back sanctions and expand trade and investment if elections were conducted in a free and credible environment.
COMMENTS
GOOD!
So our leaders can’t shop in the U.S. Big deal, when Dubai and Beijing have the same brands of luxury goods in their malls.
Beijing and Dubai may have the same brands but they don’t have the swagger and freedom of the West,our leaders have tasted the West and have an addiction for it. The Western countries know our leaders’ behavior when in their countries that’s why they know its a good way to punish them
Jongwepower you are small minded. Its not about goods in shopping malls. Its about HIV and AIDS drugs, malaria control equipment and medicines, materna lhealth, access to clean water,infant mortality control and a host of other health-related issues which you cant buy from a Dubai shopping mall.Go to the ministry of health and find out who isfunding 90%of Zimbabwe’s health programmes. And all you can think about is shopping malls! Pathetic
I hope Zimbabwe can develop with zero input of America and only help from Asian countries. This way the country will lead Africa into true freedom with no strings attached by some paranoid country.
Zimbabwe cannot afford to give its people the basics, food, health, education. There is nothing the world or Africa can learn from Zimbabwe except how not to ruin a good economy.
jumbe you are a lier.. I dont think you know zimbabwe
Well said, i agree with both your comments.
Why is it we are too afraid to have a free and fair election.
China pachayo inodyidzana neUS. Saka the choice is yours. Ko iko ku West kwacho munenge muchida kunoiteyi? Inga Zimbabwe tinayo wani. Why not develop it so that ma basic standards edu angofanana nekuWest kwacho. Sei tichitadza kana kugadzira road chaiyo west inopinda papi ipapo.
Dream on if you think you can rely on the East – China only pays 10 cents on the dollar for African natural resources – they love dealing with countries run by politicians who think refined diesel flows out of rocks!
The shameless Zanu thugs are literally giving the Nations natural resources away in a desperate attempt to prop up their military dictatorship.
Who is going to suffer here? Not Mugabe, only the people of Zimbabwe. Isn’t this racism at its best? The bottom line is that the West wants to treat Africans as second class citizens, not capable of deciding their destiny.
You are a liar. Mugabe and his cronies including you are the very people who want to treat the rest of Zimbos as second class citizens. Why does Mugabe want to cling to power by force when we rejected him since 2002. You can fool your kids not us.
Calling me names wont change the situation majon. People voted for Mugabe. Spin it anywhere you want and it wont change the facts. I am very open minded and if you have proof not generalization, I would love to hear it.
nesbert you don know politics. if it was not of mugabe you wont even be having that name
Black in America live and enjoy better freedom that any other black anywhere else, so don’t be fooled, travel a bit more.
Black Americans indeed live so well. With all the complaints they have about Whitey keeping the brother down, they know very well that in Africa, their own brothers and sisters keep each other down. That’s why with all their talk about Afrocentrism, they will only travel to the “whitest” parts of Africa, such as Cape Town and Nairobi.
Qiniso, Mugabe has, though out his 33 years on power treated ordinary Zimbabweans as second class citizens. He has now introduced the bucket toilet system in places like mbare, something not heard Rhodesia.
He receives medical care overseas. His jails are rffectively death chambers while he received his degrees in Ian Smith’s jails.
He is chancellor of state universities but none are good enough for Bona.
So I fail to see how the US view a.on an election so compromised that no electronic voter’s roll has been seen can, by any stretch of imagination be interpreted as being treated as second class citizens. In fact, by not laying a level plain field for Zimbabweans to freely choose who should lead them Mugabe is treating his own people as inferior beings.
Yes, people have been voting Mugabe on and off for the past 33 years and they deserve what they got.In 2008, zanu intimidated people but they voted mdc and it won the parliamentary elections. Its debatable whether tsvangison got more than 50% but he chickened out in the re-run. In 2013 zanu pf didnt intimidate anyone. It had a message and people of zimbabwe loved it, hence the majority. mdc took people for granted hence the consequences Rudadiso.
Do i like zanu pf? NO
Did it outfox mdc? YES
Did it win the election? YES
Where the elections free? YES
Fair? NO…no elections are ever fair. The elections were
free from intimidation.
The west plays double standard. Its selective democracy. If they’re for democracy, then they should play fair…that word again, nothing is fair in this world. The west invested in tsvangison and its hard for them to climb down and accept the situation. i dont have to give you examples of double standards practiced by west Rudadiso. You’re smart enough.
Qiniso u r missing the point completely. Bottom line is irrespective of the hypocrisy of the West, the elections did not meet the basic standards set by both the AU and SADC. For goodness sake even as we speak there is no voter’s roll – something as basic as that.
May I remind you that when gukurahundi massacres happened, America and the rest of the world didn’t utter a single word of condemnation. Mugabe was a beneficiary of the western hypocrisy then.
And by the way Qiniso, Mugabe is a master of double standards. You only need to look at who gets arrested in this country and who doesn’t. So, what’s new?
Question – are you saying we should be happy our compromised electoral process just because Americans are hypocrites? Ko isu pachedu tinoti kudii? Are we happy that in a country where people fought and some died for the right to vote it is ok to now have a significant proportion disenfranchised for political expediency?
No elections are ever fair?? Which world do you live in?
Zim elections were peaceful, yes, but there were neither free nor fair.
FREE means everybody freely votes for whoever they want. With a million voters turned away and voters bussed in broad daylight plus an abnormal volume of assisted votes, and intimidation in rural areas, that disqualifies the poll from being FREE.
FAIR means the process is transparent for everybody concerned. Reports of a duplications in the voters roll, extra polling stations, unavailability of the voters roll up to election time, watermarked ballot papers, disenfranchising voters in opposition strongholds, renders it UNFAIR.
Gloat over it all you will, but Zanu PF will never win a FREE and FAIR election!!
They have chosen their own destiny, they chose Mugabe! Now let them enjoy if they can.
The West haisi iyo yati usadeveloper. U have everything in your country that is needed to develop saka chatadzisa chii? Chatinorambira kubvuma kuti Mdara wawondonga nyika chii? Zviripachena kuona how this country has been torn apart by humbavha.As I said before eg Mpofu Obert a Minister earning 800 US pamwedzi akavhura Bank mari yacho aiwanepi? Hupfumi hweZimbabwe hurikuiswa mupocket nevashoma, vamwe vedu tichingosevenzeswa. Kusvikira rini
tine destiny yechii isu tichiponda munhu simply because of a different political affiliation. Imhosva here kusapota rimwe bato risiri Zanu if so WHY? When we kill 20000 of our own people ndiyo here destiny yacho. Qiniso may you explain.
The US has made its position clear only zanu muppets would be dumbfounded by this simple principled approach. It boggles the mind why zanu muppets refuses to take heed of citizens voice by disenfranchising a significant percentage of the population.
put yourself in the usa position then think what message would be sent to lift sanctions on a blatently rigged election ,zanu and Mugabe think they have won but the truth is they have completely exposed themselves.
America and the west wants to be the matrons of this world.They can keep their sanctions and our resolve is now even stronger.If their choice candidate does not win then the elections are a farce.We have seen their double standards in egypt and mind you people of zimbabwe are educated to read between the lines.We can’t live in a world where the Americans patronise us in everything we do.
Someone talked about china,mind you even during the colonial era the chinese were the ones who supplied us with arms and ammunition when the rhodies were butchering us and the America you talk about was folding its hands.
China has got more than 2trillion American dollars in its reserves more than the whole American budget.
It shows you have been brainwashed by the americans to think that china is an evil investor whilst it is America’s biggest trading partner.Emancipate yourself from your mental slavery,none but yourself can free your mind.
We have lived with these sanctions for quite a while and to tell you zimbabwe is beggining to find its feet with or without the sanctions.Watch the space!
emman kurota hakurambidzwi. Ramba wakadaro nepfungwa dzako idzodzo coz its your choice. Haufaniri kupondwa nokuti wafunga saizvozvo but munyika inonzi Zimbabwe ukava nepfungwa dziri anti Zanu Didmus Mutasa anouya opisa imba irere vana vako(Headlands)
The sites have CIO making idiotic comments and being paid with our tax money to create the impression that Mugabe has support. Nobody with half an education would think this way. Please could you people ask Chinotimba or our new MP from Kwekwe to post comments, we all need a laugh.
CIO kushandiswa chete because ruzhinji rwavo hapana chavanacho.Madhara arikulooter maCIO achidya nhoko.
If the country survived for ten years with sanctions, which are not as biting as they used to be; I think it may be an error of judgement on the part of USA. My only worry is how my fellow countrymen seem to embrace these sanctions. Why should we suffer to realise how bad Mugabe is or for Tsvangirai to get into power? I am worried by our way of thinking.
Daddy the country has not survived, it has taken a knock, there are so many Zimbabweans who met an early grave. Cholera unnecessarily killed thousands, untreated AIDS killed hundred of thousands, the skilled workforce whose education the country had invested in for more than 25yrs all went out to help build the economies of other countries just so they can look after their families. People’s pensions became worthless when the zim dollar became less valuable than the paper it was being printed on. The national airline, national railways, national oil reserves all took a terminal knock. If you have been travelling in other African countries you will notice that the gap between them and Zimbabwe has grown, not maily due to them developing very quickly but because Zim has gone down badly.
Very good news for Zimbabwe, that even gives the chinese free play, and as long as your economy is no dependent on uncle sam, then you know you are a free people. Plenty of other countries willing to trade with Zim.
Reason, so you now want China to be the new colonial masters? Mugabe shouts himself hoarse about imperialist Britain and America but will not utter a single word when Chinese employers abuse zim workers. They underpay and physically assault with impunity just because Mugabe wants to prove that he has friends. Isn’t that just dumb?
Go to the geological survey offices and you can be shown reports of our new colonisers, the Chinese, understating both quantity and quality of the minerals they extract from this country. The story of the environmental degradation being caused by the Chinese will one day be told in it’s entirety.
One had to wonder how The Chinese can be allowed yo destroy even our wetlands. Mugabe and fellow African leaders who included the late Julius Nyerere planted trees in the early eighties. We were told the trees were a sign that our wetlands were sacred. Fast forward to 2013 snd lo and behold, a Chinese hotel and shopping mall now stand on a wetland. The Chinese do not disturb their own wetlands andate busy rreclaiming those that had been destroyed through an era of ignorance. Then they comr heare and we allow them, carte blanche, to wreck such havoc.
I suppose these sort of things are acceptable to you Reason.
Some folks never are so colonised to pathetic levels whats there to celebrate abt american sanctions when its your relative who wil suffer from shotage of medicine e.t.c . I will tell this these sanctions have taught us only one thing being self reliant is the only indipendence any one can thonk not f.d.i with e.s.a.p wake up africans we have gone this far there is no going back
I fail to understand all this anti American talk.Why worry about a country that is an ocean away and as has been said they have had sanctions on Zimbabwe for the last ten years or more.We have China, Singapore,South Africa in fact the whole continent our side including Somalia to help if we need AID which we are going to need very desperately, very soon.
Some folks are so colonised to pathetic levels whats there to celebrate abt american sanctions when its your relative who wil suffer from shotage of medicine e.t.c . I will tell you this ,these sanctions have taught us only one thing being self reliant is the only indipendence any one can think of ,not f.d.i with e.s.a.p wake up africans we have gone this far there is no going back
Mkast you need to take off your blinkers and read the small print. If you were in business you will know that if you wanted to import or export any of your goods to the West you could have done that, there is no sanction for than kind of business. If you look at the trucks carrying goods in Zimbabwe most of them are American and British made trucks which have been imported into Zim without restriction. Zimbabwe made goods such as Cereals(Cerevita), biscuits and alcohol are available to buy in England for example, they have been imported without restriction. The sanctions relate to Zanu pf people travelling to the West and Zanu pf people’s companies and investments dealings with Western businesses. Its basically a punishment for the Zanu pf leaders, so if you are one of them i can understand your sadness. However these Zanu pf companies do nothing for the economy in the first place, neither does Mugabe travelling to Western cities.
Officially, we are under “sanctions”. Behind closed doors, away from the eyes of peasants like us, its business as usual.
I think as Zimbabweans and Africans we should start asking questions like:
1. Which people of Zimbabwe do these countries refere to?
2. Are they interested in democracy or in mere change of government to allow them to foster their selfish interests?
3. Who do these people care about? Zimbabweans or “Zimbabweans”
Africans, we are facing perril. The wriring is on the wall, clearer and clearer everyday. These people will not only recolonise us, but will make the black race extinct. And mind you, they are losing patience. They are getting more and more hungry.
Chims2013, indeed Africa is facing “peril” as you put it. However, this is because our rulers plunder our national resources and invest outside the continent. We have a President who drawas money from the treasury in order to gofor treatment overseas. We are told each trip costs a minimum of $3 million. He also lives in 3 houses and is escorted in a 33 vehicle motorcade. We are the only country with 2 vice presidents.Our government is bigger than that of SA and most developed countries. All this in a country where people still die of medieval diseases such as cholera and typhoid. Who would want to colonise such a hell hole?
This is politics my friends lm not supporting mugabe or tswangirai .{ruzhova paumba ibatano yemhuri chii chakaita kt tswangirai akumbire zvirango zveupfumi kune America neBritan .vimbayi nayo America muchachema
The Gukurahundis should stay in Gukurahundiland – Period!!
The US is 100% correct. They should keep the “sanctions” in place (although sanctions is hardly the word for it). Further, they should totally disinvest from Zimbabwe. What’s more, they should punish South Africa for its erstwhile and long support of Mugabe, for as a country, it is almost wholly to blame. I feel sorry for Zimbabweans as a people as they are good folk, but they should have risen up against Mugabe and his thugs years ago. They now have only themselves to blame. There are many places in the world deserving of investment. Souuthern Africa is not one of them, and will not be until such time as human rights are respected and until such tie as its leaders actually start caring for their people. As things stand, they care more for power and their ill-gotten wealth. President Zuma has a lot to answer for. I heard just last night that there are huge numbers of people at the Beitbridge border post queueing up to leave Zimbabwe, destination South Africa. Trouble’s brewing. Watch this space.
vanhu vezanu hamuneti makaitasei . hamusati maguta namanje , zvakwana veduwe . this is enough, how we be ruled by one person throughout. .yu guys have been stealing votes for too long, our crime is .yu went to war and liberate us. may God intervene.
If you are a true Zimbabwean its better to luv ur country and respect it.Nomater what they want to do (the US) let them do.Only God knows about Zimbabwe.