Zimbabwe has warned the UN Security Council that the sanctions it is considering could push the African nation toward civil war.
Zimbabwe’s UN mission also said in a letter provided by the UN on Thursday that the punitive measures proposed by the US and Britain against President Robert Mugabe’s government could turn Zimbabwe into another Somalia, a Horn of Africa nation where warring factions have clashed for the past 17 years.
Those sanctions, the mission said, would lead to the removal of Zimbabwe’s “effective government and, most probably, start a civil war in the country because, in their obsession with ‘regime change,’ Britain and the USA are determined to ignore real, entrenched, fundamental and enduring issues that lie at the heart of Zimbabwe’s internal politics.”
The UN Security Council on Thursday delayed a vote on an arms embargo and financial freeze on Mugabe and top officials in his government as the Harare government and its opposition resumed South African-mediated talks.
But Western powers are still pushing for a vote this week on the UN sanctions. The US and France say they have the nine votes that are required for the 15-nation council to pass the resolution.
South Africa, a council member, has led the opposition to the sanctions, arguing it is not a threat to international peace and security, and therefore not a proper matter for the council to take up. The US, Britain and France say it is.
Russia has threatened to veto it, and China also has opposed sanctions; both have veto power on the council, like the US, Britain and France. But Russia and China also could let the sanctions resolution pass by abstaining from the vote.
Mugabe pushed ahead with the June 27 runoff although the opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, pulled out of the race because of state-sponsored beating and killing of his followers.
Zimbabwe’s UN mission said the nation is “not at war with itself and poses no threat to its neighbors or any other country” and would put the Security Council in the position of becoming “a force multiplier in support of Britain’s colonial crusade against Zimbabwe.”
Mugabe’s government acknowledged through its UN mission “some isolated and localized cases of violence have indeed occurred in Zimbabwe” since the March 29 vote that Tsvangirai won, but not by enough of a margin to avoid the runoff last month.
But the mission’s letter accused Tsvangirai’s opposition party of “premeditation, planning, stage management and exaggeration of this violence, with ever increasing signs of very active British and American encouragement and collusion, as part of a grand strategy aimed at inviting foreign intervention in Zimbabwe.”
ZANU-PF, Zimbabwe’s ruling party, and the opposition were set to hold their second day of talks in South Africa yesterday as the parties lay the ground for substantive negotiations on the country’s crisis.
Nqobizitha Mlilo, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change’s (MDC) chief spokesman in South Africa, said the two sides would continue to discuss conditions needed before fully fledged negotiations can go ahead.
“We are meeting them [the ruling party] face-to-face. We are not afraid of them,” Mlilo said.
The MDC insisted substantive negotiations could only take place following a cessation of all violence, the release of more than 1,500 political prisoners, an expanded mediation team including an African Union permanent envoy and the swearing in of lawmakers as the opposition now controls parliament.
“Those are the issues, that’s the sole agenda. There is no substantive agenda,” Mlilo said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was