Ten Things Zimbabweans Must Do To Fight US Sanctions

US sanctions choking people.

The US economic sanctions on Zimbabwe are undoubtably economic warfare, designed to destroy Zimbabwe’s economy, political integrity, social cohesion and military capacity.

Through the deployment of very sophisticated forms of sabotage, embargoes, sanctions, deception and economic weapons of war, it is clear that the US poses a danger to the Zimbabwean people and we need to take action urgently.

To get clarity on the warfare, we must make an effort to read ZDERA S494 (the original document, not the amendments), the executive order sanctions EO13288, EO13391, EO13469 and the acts that imposed the economic war on Zimbabwe: National Emergency Act and International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Read link for more information on these sanctions https://www.iamrutendo.com/insights/uszimsanctionswmdsexplained

These Are Not Sanctions But War

We must read and understand the War & National Defense Title 50 measures deployed through these acts to appreciate how this is an indirect declaration of war and these Executive Orders weaponize the sanctions by allowing for the US president to put troops on Zimbabwean soil if and when the economic weapons of the IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act) don’t work to neutralize the threat the Zimbabwe poses, through this single declaration.

US Manufactured Consent

The United States government designed these sanctions to cause mass suffering and internal divisions among our people to culminate in civil unrest, a military revolt or an opening for foreign military intervention in Zimbabwe.

This is why the sanctions senders continue to advance lies, misinformation, propaganda and manipulation upon Zimbabweans through the US Embassy, key opinion makers and our opposition politicians that there are no sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe, to ensure that we continue to believe that the cause of our suffering is our government‘s ineptitude and corruption.

This is done so that people don’t realize that US economic warfare [sanctions] is the source of our unhappiness and economic crisis.

Nonetheless, the cause and effect of US sanctions and the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy is axiomatic because ever-since the advent of the sanctions, despite being the most educated Africans on the continent, our people having a solid work ethic, the endowment of our land, resources and control of our own economy; the US and her European allies have frustrated our ability to leverage those assets to advance Zimbabwe by implementing a strategy they refer to as “making the Zimbabwean economy scream”.

The consequence has been the drying up of our government coffers, the blocking of our access to global markets, resulting in divestment, rapid deindustrialization, tumbling of our standards of living, deterioration of our infrastructure, the inability of our ministries to deliver services to the poor and the inevitable fragmentation of our national integrity which has led to many fleeing the country as refugees of the economic war.

They have also successfully achieved the aim of dividing the nation by manipulating citizens to believe that the US is their savior and our government or anyone opposing sanctions is the enemy.

This has led to the fragmentation of families and nationals along political lines in a strange dichotomy between those who support sanctions and those against them.

Countrymen have turned against the state and fellow citizens as the nation is systematically disintegrated by an unseen enemy.

The sanctions have literally divided us in preparation for conquest but now it’s time we took a stance to reverse the division and become a united nation in victory.

What is happening in Zimbabwe is not a new phenomenon as the US has used sanctions and warfare since the 1600s to cripple and destroy other nations in the same way they are trying to destroy Zimbabwe now. A strategy they have successfully used to control global resources and become the most powerful nation on earth.

What We Must Do

1. Those who get to read and understand these sanctions, it’s imperative that we simplify them and share our knowledge with our circle of influence until we generate awareness and make Zimbabweans understand the imminent danger the nation faces.

2. Zimbabwe is basically under the same assault that was visited upon Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Syria in this new age of US imperialism and hegemony. So we must learn from the lessons of those nations and awaken our people to the enemy before it’s too late.

3. Sadly, our nation has no capacity to defend against these measures through conventional warfare, however, public sentiment [local and global] and reversing the misinformation around these sanctions are two of the most potent weapons we can use in defense or offense.

Otherwise we risk the same weapons of sentiment continuing to be used against us by the Americans, to keep us divided and fighting each other instead of us challenging their assault on our nation.

The Objective

4. Our primary objective should be awakening the Zimbabwean mind to the truth of the warfare the nation is under. The majority must be brought to realize that the US has been attacking them for the past eighteen years, destroying their healthcare, education, law enforcement, currency and economy, all for America’s desire to control our resources.

5. This should bring us [as a people] to put our differences aside, get us to unite and collectively vocalize our discontent through mass protests and public campaigns, which will generate global media publicity on this silent war that is being waged against the poorest Zimbabweans for our resources.

Our duty in countering this is to:

a) Read up on the sanctions.

b) Understand and simplify what we learn into the following key points:

• The United States imposed war on Zimbabwe’s government and its citizens

• The weapons currently being deployed are economic but if the sanctions are not effective they can be escalated to military invasion under the guise of military intervention [using the right to intervene] against human rights abuses.

This will not require any further declarations of war by congress because the US President already declared war on Zimbabwe when he identified Zimbabwe as an extraordinary and unusual threat against US nation economic, security and foreign policy interests.

• The economic weapons are destroying Zimbabwe’s economy, healthcare, education, infrastructure, economy, culture, moral fiber and our ability to defend ourselves militarily, which all has a direct impact on citizens social, economic and cultural rights.

d) WE MUST ACT TO STOP THIS WARFARE

e) Let’s take the above simplification and educate Zimbabweans and non-Zimbabweans on the war that is on the Zimbabwean people and the weapons of economic mass destruction being deployed.

f) We must draw the parallels between Zimbabwe, Nicaragua, Iran, Venezuela, Iraq, Syria and Yugoslavia, all nations that were destabilized because of US hegemonic sanctions.

g) And make people realize that the US is attacking all Zimbabwean people not just 144 SDN [Special Designated Nationals].

The Zimbabwean government, its ministries that serve the poor, its companies that trade our resources and buy our strategic supplies [fuel and fertilizer inputs], private institutions, NGOs, private companies and financial institutions are on the Special Designated Nationals list and any other companies trading with them is tainted too, causing a contagion effect on all Zimbabwean companies, financial institutions and banks.

The recent announcement by South African banks that they will not sell US dollars to Zimbabwean banks because of fear of incurring fines from the US OFAC, is confirmation that Zimbabwe’s private institutions are contaminated by the 144 SDNs and therefore indirectly under sanctions.

The fact is the individuals on the list are being used as a ruse to disguise the intents of the sanctions, which is to attack the Zimbabwean economy through crippling the nation’s ability to engage in international trade and financial markets.

h) Make people realize that the US has been causing the pain, suffering and lack of development in the country with this war.

i) Make people understand that the US is an enemy and threat to the people of Zimbabwe because of its national interest in our strategic resources [uranium, lithium, natural gas, chrome, rhodium, platinum, oil and many others that we don’t know of] which will see them use all options to control our resources.

j) Spread the message that we must unite and mobilize [march, protest, approach the international courts, challenge NGOs to act, lobby companies and other nations to push for the removal of these sanctions] against this war against humanity.

k) Report the sanctions to multilateral institutions like the UN, the UN Human Rights Council, IMF, SADC and the AU to internationalize the fight, galvanize solidarity and mount international pressure on the sanctions senders.

l) Mount a legal challenge of the sanctions in local courts, African courts and international courts to get a judicial ruling that will force sanctions senders to abide by international law.

Let’s stop this war that like all other wars fought before it, intends to take resources and make us the slave labor of American multi-national corporations.

For too long, America has enslaved Africans, killing our women and children for the resources of our land to enrich the owners of capital in America.

We owe it to our future generations to fight to save our resources for them or we must use them to create wealth and a legacy for them.

Written By Rutendo Bereza Matinyarare 28 October 2018