The Zimbabwean government has termed the United States' allegations against President Emmerson Mnangagwa "defamatory."
Zimbabwe, through the presidential communications office, said on Wednesday that the US imposed sanctions on Mnangagwa on March 4 based on allegations Washington could not prove.
In a statement on Monday, the US' National Security Council accused President Mnangagwa and senior government officials of aiding gold and diamond smuggling in Zimbabwe, allegations that Zimbabwe has come out to deny.
"Zimbabwe takes great exception to gratuitous slander, and defamatory remarks by officials of the (President Joe) Biden administration against the sanctioned Zimbabwean leadership and its nationals," the Southern African nation said in a statement.
'Damaging' accusations
"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 damaging accusations, coldly and mechanically made through a pre-drafted 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."
Zimbabwe added that it was condemning "these malicious statements as completely uncalled for, as defamatory, provocative, and as a continuation of wanton hostilities against Zimbabwe by the US government."
Harare has dared Washington to "provide evidence in support of these gratuitous accusations, failure which the (US) administration must, without any further delay, withdraw them unconditionally."
Zimbabwe said the US was perceiving itself to be superior to the African nation, hence the "slander (of) innocent nationals of other nations, while also maligning those same nations for daring to be independent and sovereign..."
Rights of nations
"Might can never be right, or trash rights of nations, however small, which are recognised as full members, under the United Nations Charter," Zimbabwe said.
President Mnangagwa, Vice President Chiwenga, Zimbabwe's First Lady Auxilia Mnangagwa, Police Commander Godwin Matanga, and Defence Minister Oppah Muchinguri were among the 11 people sanctioned by the US over alleged abuse of human rights and corruption. Three Zimbabwean entities were also named.
The declaration of sanctions on the said-persons means that they are prohibited from entering the US, and their assets in the US, if any, will be frozen.
In the Monday announcement, the US said it was lifting sanctions on certain Zimbabwean citizens, including President Mnangagwa's eldest son.
Strained relationship
The raft of sanctions on Mnangagwa and top government officials is a culmination of a strained relationship Zimbabwe has had with the US, particularly after the August 2023 elections.
The US said the Zimbabwean presidential election "did not meet regional and international standards for credibility."
As a result, the US imposed sanctions on senior officials of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
The electoral board declared Mnangagwa the winner of the August 23, 2023 presidential election, with nearly 53% of the vote against opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa's 44% of the vote.
Opposition MPs lose seats
After the polls, at least 33 MPs belonging to the main opposition party, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), lost their seats in disputed circumstances after a party official wrote to the speaker of parliament, saying the legislators had ceased being members of CCC.
Chamisa said the move was an artificial political crisis aimed at crippling the opposition, and that an impostor posing as a party official had been used in the plan.
CCC party now remains a shell of its former self after Chamisa resigned as its leader in January, saying the party had been "contaminated" and "hijacked" by government.
Anti-government protests in Zimbabwe have often faced a harsh response.
Economic sanctions
Zimbabwe, as a country, has been under US sanctions since 2003, but Washington said in its recent statement that: "Sanctions on these individuals (Mnangagwa and ten others) and entities do not represent sanctions on Zimbabwe or its public."
Zimbabwe terms the decades-long economic sanctions "illegal and unjustified."
"These arbitrary US coercive measures against Zimbabwe were condemned by the United Nations as illegal, vindictive and unjustified under any pretext," Zimbabwe said.
Critics against the US sanctions say the world's largest economy at times abuses the tool to punish unfriendly establishments.
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