Officials say sanctions will cause civil war

Zimbabwean government officials warned the international community on 11 July 2008 that the type of sanctions currently being discussed in the U.N. Security Council may push Zimbabwe into a civil war. The announcement stated that the sanctions would "remove Zimbabwe's effective government and, most probably, start a civil war." The warning follows past statements by President Robert Mugabe and his aides demanding that the West stop meddling in Zimbabwe's internal affairs. The U.N. Security Council was scheduled to vote on a draft sanctions resolution -- which would include a travel ban and asset freeze against Mugabe and 13 of his top aides and an arms embargo against the regime -- on 10 July, but no information has been released on the progress of discussions or the likely outcome of the vote. Meanwhile, a joint Human Sciences Research Council and Africa Policy Institute study states that not only are Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters increasingly retaliating against Mugabe's militias, but that their attacks were becoming more organized, lending credence to a possible civil war. Despite the MDC's stated commitment to eventual negotiations to solve the political crisis in Zimbabwe, the study reports that Mugabe's relentless campaign of violence against the MDC has forced the opposition supporters to retaliate in a more "programmatic and structured" way.