Recent reports from The Herald, Talk Zimbabwe and associated Zanu Mouthpieces are claiming that France is actively working to have “Sanctions” removed from Zimbabwe. I have trawled the Independent news Services for hours and can find no mention of this story. The latest diplomatic statement from the french Government was made in late June. Full statement HERE. The statement can be condensed into a single paragraph which is printed below.

Following the example of its EU partners, however, France feels that it is premature to lift European sanctions. For Paris, restoring the rule of law is a precondition for normalizing relations.

Only 18 months ago, the same French Ambassador ( Contini) who is being quoted as wanting sanctions lifted made a speech (HERE), where he castigated the Zimbabwe Government on it’s Human Rights abuses. In the same speech he reinforced the EU stance that Targeted sanctions would not be lifted from those persons responsible for “Killing democracy” inside Zimbabwe. I quote the section of his speech which deals with the sanctions issue below.

“As for the so called sanctions which are all too often portrayed as responsible for all evils including cholera (!!!), let me take this opportunity to stress that they target ONLY those individuals responsible for trying to kill democracy in Zimbabwe: We are talking about 178 individuals who are banned from travelling to the European Union and whose asset’s in the Union have been frozen, as well as about a general embargo on the sales of weapons to the military authorities of this country. NOTHING ELSE. and especially nothing against the people of Zimbabwe, quite the contrary as our efforts to support them are permanent and unfaltering.”

Ambassador Contini….June 2008

I now await with interest the reaction of the French Government to this obvious and transparent attempt to manipulate the outgoing ambassadors words for political gain. I also anticipate a strongly worded rebuke to the Herald from the French Government.

DFE