By Stembile Mpofu
Yesterday, the UK Government placed sanctions on individuals that head the Zimbabwe Republic Police and Central Intelligence Organisation. Sanctions were also placed on the individual who headed the military operation in the August 1 2018 insurrection. Zimbabwe’s Minister of State Security was also placed under sanctions.
I have deliberately not named the individuals in these positions because in reality the UK government has not placed sanctions on them for any individual act they have committed.
They have been placed on Sanctions because of the positions they hold. If any of them leaves their position we can be assured that whoever comes to occupy those positions will in time meet the same fate.
We can therefore conclude that these Sanctions have been placed on Zimbabwe’s Security ORGANISATIONS and not individuals as the British are trying to claim.
These sanctions are an Act of Aggression and are in violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which defines an act of aggression as being:
“The use of armed force by a state against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another state, or IN ANY OTHER MANNER inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations.”
We must examine and understand the intention of the UK’s action.
The reason given for invoking these sanctions is that these organisations committed human rights violations against Zimbabweans on August 1 2018 and on January 19 2019 against PEACEFUL PROTESTORS.
The world knows that the insurrections on these two occasions were not peaceful. The Independent Motlanthe Commision found that the insurrectionists instigated the violence that took place on August 1, property worth millions was destroyed and looted on this occasion. Private property of individuals and property at Zanu PF headquarters was burnt by insurrectionists.
The amount of violence experienced on August 1 in Zimbabwe was a great deal more than that experienced on Washington’s Capitol Hill on January 6 this year. In both incidences the military was called in and in both incidences a similar number of people were killed.
The January 19 insurrections were even more violent. A police station was breached and guns were stolen, a toll gate was set alight and running battles were fought on the streets of Harare. Footage of unidentified armed men walking through the streets of Harare were also seen.
The number of deaths from January 19 has been placed at 17 people. This number is not from any official Zimbabwean source but is derived from a set of coordinated Tweets issued by Western embassies on January 19.
The only link to a Zimbabwean source is that one of the embassies tagged Human Rights Activist Dewa Mavhinga on their post. On being asked to name these 17 people, the embassies did not respond. Mavhinga, on being asked who these people were by a Twitter follower, went on to proffer 8 names. The circumstances of their deaths was not clarified. Where or who killed these 8 or why they were killed is unknown.
We have established that these were not peaceful protests but well coordinated insurrections that threatened National security. If Zimbabwe’s security organisations are being put on sanctions for responding to these insurrections, what is the UK Government saying? That Zimbabwe’s security apparatus will be punished for acting in defence of the country and it’s people? That where there is an attempt to overthrow the government of Zimbabwe, the Police, Military and Intelligence organisations must not act but allow violent insurrections to take place.
Should we assume that this Act of Aggression by the UK has been undertaken because they support insurrectionists? That they had a vested interest in the outcome of the August and January events and these sanctions are a punishment against Zimbabwe’s security apparatus because they thwarted that intent?
It would be difficult to think otherwise because Nigeria, Uganda and Ethiopia have had more violent incidences where their security organisations dealt with insurrectionists in a more deadly manner than in Zimbabwe.
Nigeria’s end SARS protests saw 69 people being killed by security forces. Ugandan pre election protests saw 45 people killed by security forces. The death toll from Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict are unknown. The USA’s Capitol Hill protests saw 5 people killed by security forces. Not one of these country’s has had Sanctions put on them for Human rights violations.
From this we can safely conclude that these sanctions have NOTHING to do with human rights.
We should also expect the same sanctions to be put on Zimbabwe by the EU and the US. This is based on the coordinated Tweets Western embassies issued on January 19.
Zimbabwe, the sovereignty, territorial integrity and our political independence is under threat from the West. According to the UN Charter these sanctions constitute an Act of Aggression.
Zimbabwe remains an ideological threat to Western interests and they will use any means necessary to oppress and subjugate our nation.
The surest way of losing a war is not realising that you are in a war.
We must recognise that we are still at war for our independence and must unite against this new phase of the colonial agenda.
