Week 6 – Final Blogs – What the U.S. is doing..

In my last blog I posted about what I think the U.S. should… so this blog, my final blog, will be about what the U.S. is doing.

The United States is preparing a new sanctions resolution to the UN Security Council after the controversial runoff election in Zimbabwe.  Yahoonews.com had these quotes about the sanctions…

“The United States is consulting with others to introduce a resolution perhaps this week to impose focused sanctions on the regime” of Robert Mugabe, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters.

“I am sure it will be a period of tough negotiations and discussions. But at the end of the day what’s the alternative? Are we to ignore our own unanimously approved demands that have been ignored? I think that’s not an option.”

 

The sanctions, which will be ready in a “week or two” (seems kind of non-urgent to me….) will include a travel ban on regime officials, economic sanctions aiming to starve the regime of money, and possibly an arms embargo.  One thing I did like that the U.S. was trying to get at was when State Department Tom Casey said, “”We think that it is important that the African Union signal that a sham inauguration that was preceded by a sham election does not make the government legitimate,”

I feel like because Mugabe won the run off election, DUE TO NO OPPOSITION, he feels like he is the legitimate leader and should be left alone and the other African leaders are basically granting him that… so it’s important to let him know that he is not recognized in the African community as the legitimate President of Zimbabwe. 

The last quote that I felt was important from yahoonews.com was, “The ambassador said together with the UN sanctions, the United States also wanted to make sure “that on the humanitarian track, there is an opportunity for continued assistance to the people of Zimbabwe.”  I think its really important not to forget the humanitarian side of things and helping the people of Zimbabwe transition post-Mugabe.

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