UN to investigate negative impact of sanctions - political oppression hurts worse than sanctions

UN special rapporteur Alena Douhan, from Belarus, is expected to be in Zimbabwe from on October 18 to 28 at the invitation of government.

"She is currently seeking the views of all relevant stakeholders to inform the thematic and geographical focus of the visit and subsequent reporting," reads the UN Human Rights High Commissioner statement.

"In order to gather first-hand information related to the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights in a specific country, enabling her to conduct her assessment and evaluation of such impacts, and thus to prepare relevant recommendations and guidelines on means to mitigate or eliminate these adverse impacts, the special rapporteur undertakes field visits."

The UN is the custodian of international law and the sanctions imposed on Zanu PF ruling elite and a selection of companies were not approved by the UN and per se are illegal in accordance to international law. The UN special rapporteur does not need to visit Zimbabwe to investigate and report on that!

Sanctions, targeted or not, will cause some economic disruption and the consequences of such disruption are bound to be felt by everyone directly or indirectly, sooner or later. So the answer to the question; are sanctions causing economic hardships to the ordinary people, can only be yes.

Accessing the severity of the economic hardships caused by the sanctions is more difficult because there are a multitude of other causes to the country's economic meltdown. One way to access the effect of the sanctions would be to compare the economic activities of the individuals and companies on the targeted sanctions before the sanction and after. All attempts to get such details have been drawn a blank.

Most people have estimated the total value of the frozen assets at US$ 500 million to US$ 1 billion resulting in US$100 million of lost business for the country. This is nothing compared to the US$1.2 billion per years lost to gold smugglers, Mugabe revealed the nation was being "swindled" of US$ 15 billion in diamond, etc.

When President Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe following the November 2017 military coup, he promised "zero tolerance on corruption". He has yet to arrest one diamond swindler and recover one dollar. If anything, the looting is worse now as it has spread to other areas with the emergence of cartels in finance, fuel procurement, etc. 

The most common complain from the Zanu PF government is that sanctions are stopping the regime from accessing financial assistance from such bodies as IMF, WB and Paris Club. These financial institutions stopped assisting Zimbabwe in 2000, long before the 2001 sanctions were imposed, because the country's national debt had already ballooned in two decades to US$10 billion and the regime not failing to service the debts.

After falling out with the IMF, etc., the late Robert Mugabe came up with his "Look East" policy and Zimbabwe started doing business with far east, especially China. The Chinese too soon stopped giving Zimbabwe any financial assistance and loans for the same reason IMF stopped - Zimbabwe was a bad debtor!

A recent Auditor General report showed that Zimbabwe had wasted US$890 million of donor funds to help alleviate the economic hardships brought about by the corona virus pandemic. It is little wonder then that the international community has been loathed to give Zimbabwe even humanitarian aid, a consequence that has made the human suffering even worse.

The reason why Zimbabwe is in such an economic and political mess is because the nation has been stuck for 41 years and counting with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical regime that has rigged elections to stay in power.

Zanu PF will be telling the UN rapporteur that the root cause of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is the sanctions. The very fact that the visit is taking place is a great victory because the regime is desperate to draw attention away from gross mismanagement and rampant corruption, the real big causes of the economic meltdown.

The regime is also keen to use sanctions as the lightening conductor drawing criticism away from its failure to hold free, fair and credible elections, a big issue as the 2023 elections approach.

West imposed the sanction on the Zanu PF leaders because of the regime's bad human rights record including the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. There is no denying Zimbabwe has failed to hold free and fair elections ever since the country's independence in 1980.

If UN sanctions against Ian Smith's Rhodesia were justified and the economic hardship by the ordinary people were a price worth paying to end white colonial oppression then the against this Zanu PF regime are justified too because the nation is suffering under the same yoke of oppression. The hypocrites calling for the lifting of the sanctions today were the ones demanding the imposition of sanctions against Rhodesia. Sanctions hurt but political oppression hurt even more. Oppression is oppression regardless of the colour, gender or creed of the oppressor!

If it was not for countries like China, whose human rights record is as dirty as they come, Zimbabwe would be on fully fledged UN sanctions!