Zimupdates

PM in talks with Clinton

Herald Reporter

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has missed another chance to fulfil his Global Political Agreement obligation of lobbying for an immediate end to sanctions on Zimbabwe.

After a meeting on Monday with United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington, PM Tsvangirai instead inferred the US had the "sovereign right" to maintain the illegal and widely discredited embargo that has hurt ordinary Zimbabweans, and was mum on Zimbabwe’s sovereign right to chart its destiny.

After attending the World Economic Forum on Africa in Tanzania — which ran concurrently with a meeting of Southern African liberation movements — PM Tsvangirai flew to the US to "update (Clinton) on the latest situation in the country in terms of where the bottlenecks are, where progress has been made, and what the United States should do".

Media reports quoted PM Tsvangirai as saying afterwards he could not push the US to lift the sanctions that his party called for.

"I can’t decide that. That is a sovereign right of the American government," PM Tsvangirai said.

This comes a few days after he joined President Mugabe and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara in decrying the devastating effects of sanctions at the WEF on Africa meeting in Dar es Salaam.

PM Tsvangirai reportedly told Clinton: "There should be a recognition (by Washington) that there is progress, but (perception of) that progress may not be sufficient to convince the American government.

"It’s for you to judge us on the basis of what has been done on the ground."

PM Tsvangirai agreed under Article Four of the GPA to work with Zanu-PF and MDC in lobbying for an end to the illegal sanctions, but since then has only twice publicly implemented this requirement.

Observers said it was "weird" that the PM felt a need to defend America’s sovereignty at the expense of Zimbabwe’s.

"If he is really concerned about sovereignty he should have been telling the Americans that Zimbabwe has a sovereign right to chart its own destiny without let or hindrance from Americans who impose sanctions because they want us to behave in a certain way.

"People can then legitimately ask if the PM’s remarks are what Cabinet asked him to make while in America or he is talking as the leader of the MDC-T that called for the sanctions," one observer said.