Full statement by the Deputy Chief Secretary (Presidential Communications), Office of the President and Cabinet, George Charamba on U.S. sanctions on Zimbabwe issued on 06 March 2024:
Zimbabwe has been under the United States of America’s formal illegal sanctions since 2001 when the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, ZDERA, was promulgated by America as part of a raft of reprisals for Zimbabwe’s legal Land Reform Programme, and as an open and frontal challenge to Zimbabwe’s sovereignty as a fully-fledged independent African Nation under the United Nations Charter.
That heinous Act which the United States of America passed unilaterally, and outside the confines and auspices of international law and the United Nations respectively, was given effect through a series of equally illegal Executive Orders by successive Presidents of the US, by which the US Government sought to make laws and punitive policies for a sovereign African State with which it shares neither common geography nor history, and against which it has no defensible legal case. All those measures were illegal and unjustified then; they remain so to this very day and until they are unconditionally dropped.
The announcement two days ago, on 4th March 2024, by US President Joseph R. Biden, purporting to rescind all illegal Executive Orders passed by his predecessors since March 6, 2003, some 21 years later after these debilitating sanctions against our Nation, can never atone for, let alone write off, heinous crimes committed against Zimbabwe and her people through these illegal, blanket country; sanctions.
Noteworthy, these arbitrary US coercive measures against Zimbabwe were condemned by the United Nations as illegal, vindictive and unjustified under any pretext. Until now, the United States Government remained obdurate and indifferent.
Today Zimbabwe cannot be expected to thank or be grateful to President Biden and the US for announcing palliative measures towards finally rescinding an illegality and an outrage, even then at its own pace, perpetrated for more than two decades, and in flagrant violation of international law.
Nothing short of some prompt, unconditional removal in toto of those illegal coercive measures, including the infamous ZDERA, is acceptable to Zimbabwe and her long-abused, innocent people.
Further, Zimbabwe takes great exception to gratuitous slander, and defamatory remarks by officials of the Biden Administration against the sanctioned Zimbabwean leadership and its nationals. This slander has been repeated here on Zimbabwean soil by local staff of the United States Embassy.
What adds to the outrage is that these bald and damaging accusations, coldly and mechanically made through a pre-drafted standard text of high-handed pillory by the US, are not backed by any iota of evidence; nor do they follow any internationally recognized show of due process in competent courts.
We condemn these malicious statements as completely uncalled for, defamatory, provocative, and a continuation of wanton hostilities against Zimbabwe by the US Government.
We demand that the Biden Administration provides evidence in support of these gratuitous accusations, failure which the Administration must, without any further delay, withdraw them unconditionally.
It cannot be right, let alone a healthy basis for conducting international relations or building friendship, for a country, however mightily it views itself, to slander innocent nationals of other Nations, while also maligning those same Nations for daring to be independent and sovereign, and for reversing a baneful legacy of settler colonialism, in line with the United Nations Charter.
Might can never be right, or trash rights of Nations, however small, which are recognised as full members, under the United Nations Charter.
Zimbabwe reiterates its deep gratitude to the Southern Africa Development Community, SADC, the African Union, AU, the progressive world and the United Nations, UN, for supporting her just struggle against these illegal coercive US measures.
Zimbabwe urges these organizations, and all men and women of goodwill worldwide, to maintain the momentum against the so-called targeted sanctions, which in reality are country sanctions, and which must be removed in toto, and unconditionally.
Further, Zimbabwe extends solidarity to all peoples and Nations similarly affected by such illegal sanctions from any quarter, outside the framework of the United Nations.
As a government leading a country with pretensions to global leadership, the Biden Administration must lead by example in showing the rest of the world how to act in accord with international law, rather than acting arbitrarily, both at bilateral and global levels.
On its part, Zimbabwe will stand firm in defence of her hard-won sovereignty, and in pursuit of her chosen destiny, consistent with its policy of being a friend to all, and an enemy to none. No amount of sanctions or hostilities will deter or detract her from her chosen path.
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