Senior Obama Advisors Meet SADC Over Crisis

SW Radio Africa (London)

Lance Guma

2 May 2011

Several senior advisors to US President Barack Obama last Thursday met a high powered delegation from the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) in Washington, to discuss mounting violence and arrests in Zimbabwe.

Members of the SADC secretariat and representatives from Namibia, Zambia and South Africa met US officials from the National Security Staff, the Department of State, the Department of Treasury, and the U.S. Agency for International Development to discuss the situation in Zimbabwe.

Jacob Zuma’s International Relations adviser, Lindiwe Zulu, one of those facilitating the inter-party talks in Zimbabwe, attended the meeting. Part of the US delegation included Ambassador Mary Yates (Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor for African Affairs) and Ambassador Johnnie Carson (Assistant Secretary for African Affairs).

Although the focus of the meeting for the US seemed to be the mounting violence and arrests in Zimbabwe, the SADC delegates focused on the removal of targeted sanctions placed on companies and individuals aligned to the Mugabe regime.

Speaking to SW Radio Africa on Monday Lindiwe Zulu told us their delegation was, “on a mission to speak about the lifting of sanctions basing ourselves on the decisions that were taken by SADC last year, decisions that were taken by the AU and the decisions that were taken by the parties themselves, for the calling of the lifting of sanctions.”

While Ambassador Carson emphasized concern over the mounting violence, Zulu told us their reaction was to cite the communiqué issued by SADC at the conclusion of the Troika summit in Zambia at the end of March. That summit delivered an unprecedented rebuke of the violence and harassment in Zimbabwe. She said the SADC leaders had already made their position of the violence very clear and it had to stop.

We asked Zulu whether the lifting of the targeted sanctions was being used as an incentive to encourage reforms. “There is progress in as far as the process is concerned. We are already talking about a roadmap to elections, which is being developed and has been completed by the negotiating team,” she said. With another SADC extra-ordinary summit slated for May 20, Zulu told us the regional grouping would maintain the same tough line on Zimbabwe as the previous Troika summit did.

During the meeting the US “affirmed the importance of SADC’s role as guarantor of the 2008 Global Political Agreement and lauded SADC’s recent announcement that it would support Zimbabwe’s efforts to formulate guidelines for peaceful, free and fair elections.”

They also emphasized ongoing support for Zimbabwe “in the areas of public health, education, agriculture, and food assistance and its desire to help Zimbabwe become a country that is peaceful, stable, democratic, and prioritizes sustainable economic development and social prosperity for its citizens.”

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