Findings

Congress makes the following findings: (1)Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe and leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, has ruled Zimbabwe for 30 years. (2)During President Mugabe’s regime, Zimbabwe has gone from being the bread basket of Africa to the world’s fastest shrinking economy. (3)In 2000, the Government of Zimbabwe initiated a farmland redistribution program, designed to reallocate foreign commercial farmland to poor and middle-class citizens of Zimbabwe. (4)The redistribution program led to the confiscation of industrial, fertile, and previously settled lands, led to mass chaos, undermined the Constitution of Zimbabwe, and caused more than 400,000 farmers to lose their homes and livelihoods. (5)In 2005, President Mugabe implemented a project known as Operation Murambatsvina, translated into English as Operation Clean Out the Filth. (6)Under Operation Clean Out the Filth, the Mugabe regime bulldozed and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, leading to an estimated 700,000 internally displaced persons. (7)The majority of the people of Zimbabwe live on less than one dollar a day. (8)The current unemployment rate in Zimbabwe is 95 percent, which has forced an estimated 3,000,000 of the people of Zimbabwe, a quarter of the overall population, to migrate to neighboring countries. (9)All of those actions by President Mugabe’s regime have caused significant economic hardships that persist in Zimbabwe. (10)Presidential elections were held on March 29, 2008, between President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. (11)Tsvangirai won 47.8 percent of the vote, compared to President Mugabe’s 43.2 percent. (12)Because Tsvangirai failed to achieve 50 percent of the votes needed to win outright, a run-off was scheduled for June 27, 2008. (13)President Mugabe declared that, regardless of the election outcome, he would not relinquish power, and directed a crackdown on opposition parties, stating, Only God, who appointed me, will remove me. (14)As many as 400 members and supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change were killed during the run-off campaign period. (15)Tsvangirai dropped out of the run-off race, and took refuge in the Embassy of the Netherlands, stating that he could not ask people to vote when that vote could cost them their lives. (16)The violence surrounding this unfair election came to the world’s attention and specifically to that of the Southern African Development Community, compromised of 15 southern African countries, and the United States. (17)Pressure from the Southern African Development Community and the United States led to the creation of a power-sharing agreement between Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front and Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change called the Global Political Agreement, which was signed into effect on September 15, 2008. (18)The Parliament of Zimbabwe amended the Constitution of Zimbabwe to allow for the creation of the power-sharing government. (19)Mugabe remained President and Tsvangirai was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe on February 11, 2009, and Tendai Biti was appointed Minister of Finance by Prime Minister Tsvangirai. (20)Since the appointment of Biti as Minister of Finance, the economy of Zimbabwe has seen remarkable recovery in a short period of time. For example, to combat inflation, Minister Biti abandoned the currency of Zimbabwe and adopted foreign currencies, including the United States dollar and South African rand, and subsequently reduced the previous inflation rate of 15,000,000,000 percent in 2008 to 5.1 percent one year later. (21)During Biti's time as Minister of Finance, the real gross domestic product of Zimbabwe also improved, increasing from negative 14.4 percent in 2008 to a positive 3.7 percent in 2009. (22)The salaries of government employees have also been reissued, allowing those employed in basic government services like medicine, education, and transportation to return to work. (23)The overall economy and well-being of the citizens of Zimbabwe have made tremendous advances since Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change have gained power-sharing authority in the Government of Zimbabwe. (24)In 2001, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 (Public Law 107–99; 22 U.S.C. 2151 note) was enacted into law in the United States, imposing sanctions on the Mugabe regime and members of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. (25)Section 4(c) of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 specifically directs the United States Executive Director to each international financial institution to oppose and vote against any extension by the institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe or any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution. (26)In order to restore fully the economy of Zimbabwe and assist in the process of transition to democracy, the sanctions imposed under the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 and burdening the power-sharing government in Zimbabwe must be repealed.