China and Russia on Friday vetoed targeted UN sanctions on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe over his disputed re-election, prompting an angry reaction from the US, which cast doubt on Moscow’s reliability as a G8 partner.
The Chinese and Russian envoys joined their colleagues from South Africa, Libya and Vietnam in opposing a US draft resolution in the Security Council, which would have imposed an assets freeze and a travel ban on Mugabe and 13 of his cronies, as well as an arms embargo. Indonesia abstained.
It was the first double veto by Russia and China since January last year, when they vetoed a draft resolution in the 15-member council that would have urged Myanmar to ease repression and release political prisoners.
Voting in favor in Friday’s vote were the US, the UK, France, Burkina Faso, Belgium, Costa Rica, Italy, Panama and Croatia.
“China and Russia have stood with Mugabe against the people of Zimbabwe,” US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad said.
Zimbabwe’s UN envoy, Boniface Chidyausiku, told the BBC that Mugabe was “happy to know that the United Nations is still a body where there’s equal sovereignty of every member of the United Nations and there are checks and balances within the system that protects the weak from the powerful.”
Sponsors of the draft said the sanctions were needed to pressure Mugabe into stopping the violence against his political foes and agreeing to a genuine power sharing deal with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Opponents countered that passage of the text would undermine ongoing South African-mediated talks between Zimbabwe’s ruling party and its opposition and would have run counter to the wishes of African Union leaders at their summit in Egypt earlier this month.
British Ambassador to the UN John Sawers, whose country is Zimbabwe’s former colonial ruler, said the 15-member council “missed the opportunity to impose a legal obligation on Mr Mugabe’s government to end the violence and intimidation which have scarred Zimbabwe.”
Khalilzad singled out Moscow for special criticism.
“The U-turn in the Russian position is particularly surprising and disturbing,” he said, saying it raised questions about Moscow’s “reliability as a G8 partner.”
Chidyausiku expressed gratitude to those council members which he said refused “to be intimidated” by the US and Britain.
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