THE international opposition to the Government of Zimbabwe by the West is not driven by the need to protect human rights and respect of the law, but is driven by a sustained desire to create space for multinationals to access the massive resources that the country has, the Affirmative Action Group has said. In a statement last week, AAG secretary-general Tafadzwa Musarara said global politics should not continue to be manipulated by powerful Western nations anymore, but by the amount of natural resources any country has at its disposal. He said Zimbabwe had fallen victim to Western machinations as they did not want the country to exploit its resources and indigenise the economy. For this to happen, Musarara said, the West must cease to interfere with the country’s internal affairs since it is a sovereign state, which has its own laws that govern its people and give it dominion over its land and natural resources. “The Affirmative Action Group recognises that the international opposition to the Government of Zimbabwe whatever its form is bridled not by the need to protect human rights and the respect of law, but by a sustained desire to create space for multinationals from Europe and America to access the massive resources that the country has,” said Musarara. “We believe that contrary to the misguided belief that the world is now free from the vices of imperialism, Zimbabwe is facing a dangerous onslaught from these forces to its own detriment if the people of Zimbabwe do not rise to this challenge in their millions to protect themselves from a real possibility that their country is up for grabs in the global political markets. “Sovereignty is not divisible, rather it is total from the bottom-up, and within and beyond the nation, we find therefore, that the incessant interference by the so-called international community into the affairs of the State of Zimbabwe completely unwarranted and has the effect of stalling economic progress and effective nation building.” The AAG also called for the immediate lifting of the illegal economic sanctions that Western countries imposed against Zimbabwe saying the widely discredited embargo is destroying the country economy. “The vicious nature of the policies pursued by the Western nations has crippled the ability of the State of Zimbabwe to supply an array of public goods to its people,” Musarara said. “AAG condemns in the strongest terms possible this untenable position that has been reinforced by the imposition of illegal sanctions.”