As Zimbabwe’s president addressed the United Nations’ 71st General Assembly Wednesday morning, Sept. 21, in Midtown Manhattan, he utilized the opportunity to present his case on why the economic sanctions against his country should be lifted. Throughout his approximately 15-minute presentation, Robert Mugabe’s primary focus was eradicating from his country, and the Motherland, all remnants of European colonialism.
He opened by mentioning the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which he had presented at the very same forum in September 2015, and how the economic sanctions are negatively affecting his country.
“Our biggest impediment to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda is the burden of punitive and heinous sanctions imposed on us by some hegemonic and neo-imperialist powers amongst us here,” Mugabe stated. “My country, Zimbabwe, is the innocent victim of the spiteful sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western powers, and these countries, for some 16 years now, have maintained these sanctions on us.”
Suggesting that his country is being singled out because they possess the intestinal fortitude to stand up and refuse to bow down to Western imperialists’ demands, he says his people will continue their self-determining efforts regardless.
“As a country, we are being collectively punished for exercising the one primordial principle enshrined in the United Nations charter, that of sovereign independence,” he explained. “We’re being punished for doing what all other nations have done, and still do … that is, possess all of their natural resources, and listen to the basic interests of their people.”
The 92-year-old African leader said, “Those who have imposed these sanctions would rather have us pander to their interests at the expense of the basic needs of the majority of our people. As long as these economic and financial sanctions remain in place, Zimbabwe’s capacity to fully and effectively implement Agenda 2030 will be deeply curtailed.”
He continued, “I repeat my call to Briton, Europe and the United States, and their allies, to remove the illegal and unjustified sanctions against my country and its people. Let us all be bound to our commitment to Agenda 2030 in which we agreed to eschew sanctions in favor of dialogue. Agenda 2030 recognizes that sustainable development cannot be achieved without the full rights of the people living under colonial and foreign occupation.”
