africalegalbrief.com

American Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Charles Ray has said Washington and Harare should engage in dialogue to end a decade of "corrosive and antagonistic" political and economic relations. His remarks come barely a month after Washington added two diamond firms, Mbada Diamonds and Marange Resources on the sanctions list.
Speaking during an editor's roundtable in Harare, Mr Ray said the bad relations between Harare and Washington have not benefited anyone.
"Over the years, we let our relationship erode and began talking more to ourselves than each other. That really has not gotten us very far; instead it led us to replace the sharing of information with assumptions that were not necessarily true," he said.

Mr Ray said he was in Zimbabwe to advance US interests and "to get things done".

"I strongly believe that US interests and Zimbabwean interests largely overlap. To advance those common interests, we need to talk. We need to brainstorm. We need to share ideas, explain what elements of them can work and what cannot.

"We need to be willing to take the risk of being honest with ourselves and each other if we are going to do something together jointly to benefit both of our people," he said.
He said the American embassy in Harare spent the whole of last year trying to highlight "those common objectives that the US and Zimbabwe share".
"And, through making progress to advance those goals and through better communication with your Government and the Zimbabwean people, we have sought to set bilateral relations on a more nuanced and balanced track.

"As both of our economies struggle to come out of slumps, we have a great opportunity to help one another. Our renewed economic growth is a wonderful opportunity to establish and expand trade and investment relations and my team has focused intensively on building these linkages over the past year, to very good effect," Mr Ray said.
He said trade between Harare and Washington could serve as an engine for growth and also provides a platform for "our people to interact with one another and establish our own, new perceptions of each other rather than rely on tired old views that may no longer be valid".

The American envoy also talked about the takeover of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme chairmanship by the US and its implications on Zimbabwe.
"I know that there is a fair bit of angst in Zimbabwe that the US just assumed the chair of the Kimberley Process. In that capacity, we intend to play a strong role of facilitation and have no intention or desire to impose decisions on anyone.

"The KP has an effective arrangement in place regarding Marange and it is clear to us that there is a strong commitment from Zimbabwe, the monitoring team, the US and other KP members to allow that process to continue," he said.

Added Mr Ray: "Working together with South Africa, the vice chair, we will aim to elicit the input of the membership to reform the KP as appropriate to ensure that the KP addresses the new and emergent dynamics in the global diamond trade."

The US imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe under a law they called the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act.