Zimbabwe Sanctions Must Be Lifted, Says African Union

Zimbabwe: Country’s Sanctions Must Go - AU

Owen Gagare and Sydney Kawadza
Zimbabwe Herald
3 February 2010

Harare — THE African Union has demanded the immediate lifting of illegal Western economic sanctions on Zimbabwe.

Speaking at the Harare International Airport soon after his return from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, yesterday afternoon, President Mugabe described the just-ended 14th AU summit, which made the declaration on the sanctions, as the “most successful” he had ever attended.

In an earlier interview at Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport, Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said the sanctions scrapping proposal was made by officials from Senegal’s Foreign Ministry under instruction from President Abdoulaye Wade.

Minister Mumbengegwi said the summit unanimously adopted Senegal’s proposal.

“The AU has called for the speedy lifting of all sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe. The decision was, in fact, drafted by the Senegalese with our input. The Foreign Minister of Senegal came to us, under instruction from his President, to draft the decision.

“It was unanimously adopted and the chairman of the AU Commission (Dr Jean Ping) was asked to follow the matter up and give a report at the July AU summit,” Minister Mumbengegwi said.

Minister Mumbengegwi said he had “fruitful” discussions with European Commission delegates on the illegal sanctions.

He said the delegates had no problems with Zimbabwe although their member-states needed to change their attitudes.

On recent comments by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband that his country would only remove sanctions when advised by the MDC, Minister Mumbengegwi said it was good that the international community now knew the truth about the embargo.

“To me, it sounded like a confession, and I’m sure the rest of the world heard it. It is now up to the members of the inclusive Government who were mentioned to act but I haven’t heard anything from them about the matter yet,” he said.

Minister Mumbengegwi welcomed Zimba-bwe’s election into the AU’s Peace and Security Council, although some Western nations were angered by the development.

Zimbabwe, he said, had the right to be in any organ as it was an AU member.

He added the fact that Zimbabwe was elected by a full majority showed that Africa had confidence in the country.

Addressing journalists at the Harare Interna-tional Airport, President Mugabe described the Summit as the “best-ever.”

“The summit was a tremendous success. It was one of the best summits that I have ever attended. Even during the election of a new chairman, there was not much hassle and we are very happy that our region has been honoured through the election of President Bingu wa Mutharika (of Malawi) as the chairman.”

On the summit theme — “Information Communication Technologies: Challenges and Prospects for Development” — President Mugabe said the topic remained important to Zimbabwe and Africa.

“We remain committed to the development of communication in our operations as Govern-ment. Information communication technology is very functional in all spheres of governance in the country.”

He, however, bemoaned the lack of growth in some sectors, especially at TelOne saying that company needed a “major overhaul”.

Speaking on Zimbabwe’s election to the AU Peace and Security Council, President Mugabe said the country would use the opportunity to deal with issues of Western interference in other countries’ domestic affairs.

“That (election into the council) is very important. We will be able to ward off interference from external forces that are always trying to tarnish our image,” he said.

President Mugabe met his Tanzanian counterpart, Jakaya Kikwete, on Monday night and shared notes on various issues.

“He briefed me on the Davos (World Economic Forum) meeting and said it went very well. He also told me that they are going to have an African version of Davos in Tanzania where he will invite all African leaders.”

He said President Kikwete briefed him on the forthcoming elections in Tanzania, pointing out they too had experienced undue foreign interference in regard to Zanzibar.

“We, however, would like to work with them so that we strengthen our co-operation with Chama Cha Mapinduzi and our party, Zanu-PF,” President Mugabe said.

The two leaders, he said, had an opportunity to discuss issues outstanding from the Copenhagen Summit on Climatic Change.

“We are yet to be clear where we are going; with Africa in support of the Kyoto Agreement and the West going away from the Kyoto Agreement. They do not want to follow the agreement but as Africa we are directed by the principles of the Kyoto Agreement,” he said.

President Mugabe was received at the airport by Vice Presidents Joice Mujuru and John Nkomo, senior Government officials and service chiefs.

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‘Economic government’ and the democratic deficit

The comment pages of today and the weekend’s papers were understandably filled with reflections on a potential Greek bailout and the wider implications for the euro and the EU as a whole. We argued in our recent briefing that a bailout would have far-reaching negative implications for the eurozone, establishing a precedent for rescuing profligate states that fails to address the inherent problems of a monetary union between the eurozone’s differing economies without the harmonisation of fiscal policies, for which there is no public support.

The crisis is nonetheless being used to justify the establishment of EU ‘economic government’ - the next step towards the federalists’ Holy Grail of fiscal or political union, with common taxes and budgetary redistribution across the eurozone. This marks a significant change to the rules of the game, with the EU now largely dictating the terms of Greece’s economic policy to the Greek government. This is precisely what citizens were told wasn’t going to happen when EMU was designed and agreed, even if certain politicians had other ideas.

In the Weekend FT Tony Barber wrote that:

It looks very much as if Greece’s fiscal sovereignty will be, for most practical purposes, temporarily suspended. [The EU] can either clutch its worry beads and hope that Greece, acting under formidable outside pressure, will transform itself into a self-disciplined polity. Or it can exploit this crisis as an opportunity to shift European monetary union into a higher gear by taking irrevocable steps to closer fiscal integration.

In the Guardian, Gary Younge noted that the eurozone crisis is emblematic of an EU democratic crisis:

The issue is not the failure to match economic and monetary ­union with political union. It is the naked disregard for democratic engagement in the entire system that in no small part ­explains why voter turnout in EU elections has plummeted by more than 30% in the last 30 years. Whenever people vote no to a phase of integration – as they did in Ireland two years ago – the EU simply orders them to vote again until they produce the right result. Once they vote yes there is no turning back.

The Weeken FT’s leader writers concurred:

…even for advocates of closer integration in Europe, this is a mistake. The EU suffers from a lack of popular legitimacy. The manner in which the Lisbon treaty was passed was unedifying, giving the impression that the EU is a stitch-up by a small elite. If Europe, or just the Eurozone, is to become more deeply joined, it should be a deliberate and honest process, not an accidental and covert one.

There is a short term path of less resistance. As the Weekend FT article argues:

There is no need for the EU to expose itself to these difficulties. It has another option for saving Greece: the International Monetary Fund. It would be embarrassing for a member of the EU to receive help from the Washington-based Fund, so admitting the continent could not solve its own problems. But better that than sleepwalking into constitutional upheaval.

Going to the IMF is the best of a bad bunch of short term options but the EU’s leaders have a nasty habit of staking pride and prestige ahead of the democratic process.

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The 2010 Havan Book Fair, Expression of a Socialist Society

Havana February 12, 2010

The 2010 Havana Book Fair, expression of a socialist society

Raúl and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attend inauguration at La Cabaña fortress

Pedro de la Hoz

PRESIDENT Raúl Castro Ruz inaugurated the XIX International Book Fair at the La Cabaña Fortress, east of the capital, on Thursday night.

The publication of approximately 1,000 titles and the availability of seven million copies at the 19th International Book Fair is explained by the priority that a socialist revolution gives to culture in a country blockaded by imperialism for 50 years.

That idea was contained in the speech prepared by Zuleica Romay, president of the Cuban Book Institute who, because of a throat condition, was unable to read it, and it was read by Rafael Bernal, first deputy minister of culture. Her speech highlighted the enormous efforts made to satisfy the demands of readers who, for 10 days in Havana and two more weeks in 15 other cities, will be at the center of this event.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke in the name of his country, the fair’s guest of honor, expressing thanks for the event. Others attending the inauguration, in addition to Cuban Party and government leaders, were Salvadoran Vice President Salvador Sánchez; Ticio Escobar, Paraguayan minister of culture; and Nobel Literature laureate Nadine Gordimer of South Africa.

The quality of Cuba’s arts education was demonstrated with performances of difficult pieces by Dmitri Shostakovich and Pyotr Tchaikovsky by the Youth Symphonic Orchestra of the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory. The contribution from the sizeable Russian cultural delegation at the event came from saxophonist Igor Butman and his jazz quintet.

Translated by Granma International