Zimbabwe regime jubilant at failed UN sanctions bid

AFP on Yahoo ^ | 7/12/08 | AFP

[NormsRevenge]

HARARE (AFP) - President Robert Mugabe's government was triumphant Saturday at the failure of a UN bid to impose fresh sanctions on Zimbabwe as Britain pledged to return to the Security Council if political violence continued.

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown would discuss further measures with EU partners next week, a spokesman for the premier said in a statement.

"We will continue to stand firmly for human rights and democracy and will return to the Security Council in the absence of early progress on mediation, humanitarian access and an end to violence," the statement added.

Mugabe's government, meanwhile, thanked those countries that opposed the US draft resolution aimed at imposing an assets freeze and travel ban on Mugabe and 13 of his closest allies.

Harare reserved particular praise for South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been criticised for his policy of "quiet diplomacy" with Mugabe.

Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu described him as a "leader par excellence" for not yielding to "international pressure and to the machinations of the West led by Britain and United States."

China and Russia on Friday vetoed the US draft while South Africa, Libya and Vietnam voted against the resolution. Indonesia abstained.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the decision would be "incomprehensible" to the people of Zimbabwe and America's UN envoy warned that Russia's veto cast doubt on its reliability as a G8 ally.

Russian slammed criticism by both the US and Britain as "unacceptable."

"Representatives of the United States and Britain have declared that our vote betrayed the G8 Tokyo summit accords on Zimbabwe and that this posed questions about Russia's reliability as a partner in the G8," government spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said in a statement.

"We consider such statements unacceptable," he added.

[NormsRevenge]

China and Russia on Friday vetoed the US draft while South Africa, Libya and Vietnam voted against the resolution. Indonesia abstained.

[NormsRevenge]

Gotcha again, Suckas!

AFP

[Anti-Bubba182]

If Mugabe escapes even these mild UN actions there is no reason for him and his crew to restrain themselves at all.

[detective]

Once gain the UN shows itself to be a bloated, dysfunctional bureaucracy incapable of accomplishing anything useful.

[Gay State Conservative]

Russia and China will eventually get around to taking their pound of flesh.Unfortunately,that flesh will come from ordinary Zimbabweans....not the psychopaths who now rule it.

[xDGx]

They need to send Carter in.

[bigfootbob]

This is the start of some really bad ju-ju headed SA’s way. The compassionate socialists who run SA have been deporting 16,000 or so Zim’s a day for awhile now.

Put on the Jiffy-Pop, the show is about to get bloody.

[P.O.E.]

If you have the stomach for it, try and catch a viewing of the controversial 1964 film “Africa Addio”. Too many similarities to today’s Africa.

[rocksblues]

Exactly. How strong is the South African government?

[Southack]

How long before “humanitarians” beg for U.S. aid for Zimbabwe again?!

Mugabe at least serves as a living example of the total failure of communism. He’s managed to run Zimbabwe down into the leagues of Cuba and North Korea, with the added “bonus” of near-anarchy and chaos and violence at the local level.

[detective]

The Carter Administration is responsible for putting Mugabe in power in the late 1970’s.

[villagerjoel]

Can you say, “impotent?”

[hellbender]

In a separate statement, the Russian foreign ministry condemned the violence in Zimbabwe but warned the proposed UN resolution would have set a "dangerous precedent" for interference in countries' internal affairs.

As an expert in murdering its own citizens, Russia doesn't want the UN to intervene in Communists' "internal affairs." Neither do China and Vietnam.

[Anti-Bubba182]

"How strong is the South African government?"

I don't know, but no government can be strong with that high a crime rate and lead by a government of ANC thugs. All they can unite on is hatred of the US and White pepole.

[Chubby]

Nothing shocking, same old story out of the U.N., China, Russia & their tin pot cohorts.

[rocksblues]

I hear you. Sort of like the governments of Detroit, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Milwaukee or any other city, state run by Democrats!

[Billthedrill]

It is darkly amusing to review the original aims of the UN and contrast them with what it has become. Without tedious enumeration, it was intended to promote a basically Western set of ideals concerning representative government, non-violence, and human rights. It has become the principal means for countries who oppose these ideals to block them. It is long past time for the United States to cease subsidizing this corrupt, cynical, travesty of an organization.

[Category Four]

Once gain the UN shows itself to be a bloated, dysfunctional bureaucracy incapable of accomplishing anything useful.

And Mugabe's Zim is likewise, for which reason the sanctions failed. I seem to remember something about birds and feathers ...

[NormsRevenge]

agreed ,, achieving true progress thru indecision and stalling has never worked.

ceaucescu time works for me at this point, the populace will need to make it happen. It will mean more to them long-term if they over throw this regime than to have outside forces jump in.

[Non-Sequitur]

The Carter Administration is responsible for putting Mugabe in power in the late 1970’s.

Oh give it up. Ian Smith's regime wasn't going to last, Carter or no Carter. The boobs in Zimbabwe put Mugabe in. They kept him in. They're reaping the results of their poor decisions.