HARARE, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Broad Alliance Against Sanctions (BAAS), a Zimbabwean anti-sanctions lobby group, on Friday vowed to remain camped in front of the United States Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, until the sanctions imposed more than two decades ago are removed unconditionally.
"We have been here for 2,036 days, which means we have camped here for five years and six months. All we want is for the United States to lift the sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe," BAAS Vice Chairperson Rachael Kamangira said during an anti-sanctions protest held in front of the U.S. embassy to mark the Anti-Sanctions Day which falls on Oct. 25 every year.
The Anti-Sanctions Day was set up by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states in 2019 to protest against the imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe by the United States and its Western allies. In March 2019, the BAAS set up a camp opposite the U.S. embassy compound.
The BAAS will only vacate the area if all sanctions, which have inflicted a myriad of challenges on ordinary Zimbabweans, are removed unconditionally, said Kamangira.
"This is a permanent camp. We even grow our vegetables here. We are currently staying in tents, but we are considering building permanent structures so that they know that we are here to stay," she said.
Calvern Chitsunge, BAAS's co-founder and chairperson, said sanctions are stifling Zimbabwe's development, which hampers regional development.
"The United States should lift all the illegal sanctions that have resulted in the suffering of Zimbabweans. Sanctions have also affected development in the southern Africa region, even the African continent at large. That's why we are saying the United States should lift these sanctions, and we will stay put until all the sanctions are removed," Chitsunge said.
In March, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order terminating a Zimbabwe sanctions program that had been in place since 2003, but immediately imposed sanctions on 11 individuals, including Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Vice President Constantino Chiwenga over alleged human rights abuses and corruption under America's Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
The U.S. also maintained sanctions through the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, enacted by the U.S. government.
In his address at the main event of the Anti-Sanctions Day held in Zimbabwe's second-largest city Bulawayo, Mnangagwa, who is the SADC chairperson, said sanctions are strangling the country's economy, undermining its right to self-determination and compromising the achievement of national collective development aspirations.
"Further, they have limited our ability to trade freely, restricted access to international financial support, stifled investment, and reduced our ability to adequately invest in social services," he said.
Mnangagwa noted that sanctions are impairing Zimbabwe's quest to achieve the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union's Agenda 2063 of achieving inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development over a 50-year period.
"In the face of these realities which threaten our sovereignty and integrity as a nation, it is our individual and collective duty to re-double our efforts to increase production, productivity, and transformational projects, for the prosperity of our motherland, Zimbabwe," he said.
Mnangagwa also officially launched a digital national anti-sanctions petition program for Zimbabweans to express their rejection of the sanctions.
