Zim challenges US on claims

STAFF WRITER

Government has challenged the United States of America  to present evidence on human rights  violations  and corruption  it claimed were committed by the  Southern African nation’s leadership.

The challenge   is being made just three days after Washington rescinded  Executive orders  passed on March 6, 2003  but imposed  specific  sanctions on the county’s leadership.

However, Harare is piling pressure on   Joseph Biden, the US President,  to remove all sanctions against Zimbabwe.

In a statement, President  Emmerson Mnangagwa reminded the US that  Harare has a right to choose whatever path it wants to follow, no matter how small.

“We  demand  that the Biden Administration  provides evidence  in support of these   gratuitous accusations, failure which  the Administration must, without any further delay, withdraw unconditionally. It cannot be right, let alone  a healthy basis for conducting  international relations  or building  friendship, for a country, however mightily it views itself, to slander  innocent souls  of other nations, while also misaligning  those same nations  for daring  to be independent  and sovereign, and for reversing  a baneful legacy of settler colonialism, in line with the United Nations  Charter,” President Mnangagwa said.

He added: “Further, Zimbabwe  takes great exception to gratuitous  slander, and defamatory remarks by officials  of the Biden Administration  against Zimbabwe leadership  and its nationals. This  slander has been repeated  here on Zimbabwean soil by local  staff of the  United States Embassy.

“What adds  to the outrage  is that these  bald  and damaging  accusations, coldly and mechanically made through  a predrafted  standard text of high-handed  pillory  by the US, are not backed by any iota  of evidence, nor do they follow  any internationally recognised  show of due  process in competent courts,” the President said.

Harare condemned   these malicious statements as completely uncalled for, as defamatory, provocative  and as a continuation  of wanton hostilities against Zimbabwe by the US government.

He said  Washington has remained  obdurate  and indifferent hence Harare cannot thank the former for the rescinding of the Corrective order after  two decades of suffering.