Corruption, a by-product of sanction
Nevanji Munyaradzi Chiondegwa
Correlation is an English word which mean that there is a mutual relationship or connection between two or more things. It is against this vein that I am highly disappointed that a country with over 94% literacy levels and with people who brag about being educated are so easily manipulated into missing a simple connection between sanctions and corruption!
The United States of America itself does not even hide the connection but when engaging the supposedly educated people from a certain country between two mighty rivers, they make it look like their sanctions programme on the teapot shaped country is for their own good.
They make it look like they are saviours of the people from the corruption, mismanagement and looting by the elites instead of being the killers of the economy they are.
They hide in plain sight the fact that it is their sanctions that create the looting elites, the corruption and of course the policy inconsistency they always preach.
Year in, year out, especially between August and October, they engage certain Zimbabweans including scribes and even educated people who should know better in their drive that it is not sanctions but the corruption and the mismanagement or looting or anything else but sanctions.
Why that period one may ask?
It is the period before and during which SADC and African Union meet to and then go to the United Nations General Assembly to condemn the Unilateral Coercive Measures against Zimbabwe. It is also a period before the 25th of October, a day SADC has set aside to condemn the sanctions on their member State.
The guns for hire against Zimbabwe or the US lackeys lap up whatever they are told by The United States Embassy and its agents tell it to say against Zimbabwe for a few pennies in their pockets, never mind the consequences.
They do not realise that the few pennies in their pockets against the billions lost by the country due to their Ephialtes like nature affect the nearly 16 million citizens of Zimbabwe and the future of the country as a whole.
To the untutored, Ephialtes was a Greek who revealed to the Persians under Xerxes, the existence of a rear path leading behind the Greek lines at the battle of Thermopylae during the Second Persian Invasion of Greece by the Persians. Their nature of selling out the country is however like the last stand of the 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians against the 300 000 Persians, is creating heroes and a legacy for resistance against tough foreign measures of Zimbabwe and its people.
But I digress, the issue is, The United States of America is aware of the effect of sanctions on the growth of corruption, misrule, mismanagement, policy inconsistency and looting of nations under sanctions by the elite or connected.
In an article by Jill Jermano for Just Security, she says, “The Biden administration’s policy review of U.S. sanctions is a positive step in acknowledging the need to anticipate potential unintended consequences when designing sanctions. A public summary of the findings highlights examples of how sanctions have imposed costs on designated actors and exacted some concessions, but notes that unwanted effects can still occur. It calls for calibrating sanctions to avoid harming a sanctioned regime’s population – a problem that the shift from “comprehensive” embargoes to “targeted” sanctions in the early 2000s did not entirely solve. However, there is another unintended consequence the calibration process should consider: CORRUPTION (emphasis mine )”
She goes on to say, “Research on this topic argues that sanctions expand the shadow economy in target states and foster endemic state corruption.
Early case studies focused on the “criminalizing consequences” of multilateral sanctions against the Former Republic of Yugoslavia and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Like Haiti, those states were subject to comprehensive United Nations trade embargos and other measures.
Corruption and illicit activity increased in all three countries as political, military, and business elites and criminal networks exploited opportunities to smuggle sanctioned goods.
The regimes’ response to sanctions, in turn, contributed to the hardship their populations experienced by forcing civilians to turn to the informal sector to survive.”
Still on the topic she further says, “The ADVENT OF TARGETED SANCTIONS DID NOT MITIGATE THIS PROBLEM. Concern about adverse humanitarian impacts drove an international initiative to replace broad trade embargoes with weapons and travel bans and financial restrictions aimed at specific individuals, entities, and economic sectors while attempting to spare the population as much as possible.
However, an ASSESSMENT OF U.N. TARGETED SANCTIONS CONCLUDED THAT ENHANCED CORRUPTION AND CRIMINALITY WERE THE PRIMARY UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE OF THESE TARGETED MEASURES.”
Now, clearly, if our journalists including those who pride themselves in being investigative journalists could spare a moment to carry out simple research and investigations, they would know there is enough data and research in the area to show a correlation between the increase in corruption and sanctions.
They would know that the very government extending the sanctions and shrilly denying that it is their sanctions is fully aware that it is those sanctions, “targeted” or otherwise that are responsible for the problems they want to lay on the targeted regimes.
Under the subheading, Corruption an intended Consequence and Corrupting Effects of Countermeasures, Jerlano writes the following, “ The administration’s(Biden) June 2021 National Security Study Memorandum identifies combating corruption as a foreign policy priority and lists sanctions as a tool for holding corrupt actors accountable. However, given SANCTIONS CAN FUEL CORRUPTION, then their design should account for the risk.”
She raises the issue of how sanctioned actors or a nation may resist the measures and whether this can increase corruption and she says the following, “Sanctions evasion in the form of smuggling is a typical response to arms embargoes and trade restrictions on essential commodities like fuel. Indeed, the SANCTIONS-CORRUPTION CORRELATION IS UNSURPRISING, given the prevalence of weapons bans in UN sanctions regimes – and natural resources embargoes in the 1990s and early 2000s.”
Now given all the evidence abound in the field on sanctions and corruption correlation, one wonders why then does The United States keep the embargoes in place. One further question why the US Embassy, UK Embassy and EU in Zimbabwe, before and immediately after the SADC Anti-sanctions Day are in frenetic frenzy tweeting about how its not sanctions but corruption that affects Zimbabwe?
They want to point out to Zimbabwean fruits and vegetables found in European stores as proof that sanctions do not exist. This is further harped and hyped by the fringe lunatic and the paid lackeys who think it enhances their political chances in Zimbabwe. They will publish a few stories about Zimbabweans purchasing top of the range vehicles from their countries or buying this or that from them and make it look like sanctions do not affect the majority.
Funny that, seeing those people they publish about, are not the ,majority at all but an elite created by their very measures. Their measures were meant to make the Zimbabwean economy scream. The intended effect of making the Economy scream was clearly spelt out by Chester Crocker, former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, who on June 13 2000 said, “To separate the Zimbabwean people from ZANU PF, we are going to have to make their economy scream, and I hope you, Senators, have the stomach for what yo have to do.”
The truth in this is further admitted by Senator Chris Coons who in an interview in May 2018 speaking on ZIDERA said, “But as long as there are significant sanctions by Western countries on Zimbabwe, that raises both direct and indirect challenges for them…it makes it harder for them to access capital, to attract the sort of interest and engagement that would revive the Zimbabwean economy”
I have heard ridiculous arguments that suggest the sanctions have no effect. Some empty-headed journalists and even so-called political commentators and well the lunatic fringe we are saddled with called opposition say there are only targeted sanctions or the sanctions don’t affect Zimbabwe. Hello, if the Americans who authored ZIDERA know the effect of sanctions and admit there are sanctions on Zimbabwe, how is it that a certain cretin, because he has a column or a following on social media decides to say otherwise?
Political differences and the love of money should never ever make citizens of a nation side with those who are plunging the nation into poverty. Seeking political mileage and personal gain at the expense of the whole citizenry is a treacherous behaviour and a betrayal of the nation at a high level.
In the case of sanctions on Zimbabwe, the fact that they are written in legal instruments settles the questions of their existence. To deny them is like to say Zimbabwe or South Africa has no Constitution when we can all simply read it and see for ourselves. The more intelligent debate must relate to their effect on our economy!
It is rather unfortunate that when it comes to engaging on their effect on the economy, sanctions denialists then switch to other factors that have led to our economic problems as solid proof that the sanctions narrative is untrue. Given that we all studied logic directly or indirectly, its a useless diversion and must not be entertained!
Critique the instruments as they are written and executed. Its perfectly alright to be an ‘Afro-saxon’ or a House Negro or Uncle Tom or whatever your preference is and salute the foreign flags if you want, that is all great. But this Zimbabwe is the only country that we have and the one which our children must inherit!
Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo, are you building Zimbabwe or partnering with foreigners to destroy it? Why defend the actions of foreigners on Zimbabwe while slamming your government and country?
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