BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland officially lifts all sanctions against Myanmar/Burma 10 May, except arms embargoes and sanctions against materials that could be used for repression. The government made the decision to do so at the end of April but asked the Federal Department for the Economy to draw up a plan of action. This was approved by the Federal Council yesterday and goes into effect today.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – An arms embargo will remain but other sanctions against Myanmar/Burma have been lifted by the European Union, to take effect the week of 30 April, the EU announced 23 April.The easing comes as a result of the Burmese parliament re-opening and other signs that the repressive regime is serious about opening up the country and improving its human rights record.
Switzerland, whose own sanctions match closely those of the EU, has not yet announced if it will make a similar move. The Swiss began sanctions 12 years ago because of human rights abuses, and it tightened these in 2006.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Nineteen of the 22 members of the Arab League voted Sunday 27 November for sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government, effective immediately. The sanctions include travel bans, freezing government assets and end to Arab investments and dealings with Syria’s central bank.
The sanctions come as the number of deaths in Syria is widely reported to have topped 3,500 during more than eight months of fighting. The US and the European Union (and Switzerland) already have sanctions in place.
Reuters notes that “the Arab League has for decades avoided imposing sanctions its members but has been spurred into action by the scale of bloodshed during Syria’s crackdown and by the failure by Damascus to implement an Arab peace plan. The Arab peace plan called for sending in Arab monitors, withdrawing Syrian troops from residential areas and starting talks between the government and opposition. Damascus ignored several Arab League deadlines.”
The League is calling on the United Nations to adopt similar sanctions.
But the New York Times reported Sunday that the impact of the sanctions could be limited: ”
“Analysts said they expected the impact of the sanctions to be limited, in large part because Syria’s largest trading partners will not participate. Economists estimate that about 50 percent of Syrian trade is with the Arab world, but the largest chunk of that is with its immediate neighbors, including Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan.
“Iraq abstained and Lebanon ‘disassociated’ itself from the vote, Mr. Jassem said. Both countries said they would not enforce the sanctions, and Jordan has issued mixed signals.”
China’s Xinhua news agency cites Syrian state news reports that Syrians took to the streets in protest after the news of the sanctions was announced.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, BBC, Ria Novosti, Xinhua
Mugabe mug, 1981 (photo, © E Wallace)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Robert Mugabe, 87-year-old leader of Zimbabwe, prime minister for 30 years, stepped up his criticism of Switzerland, in comments made 30 October, Sunday, to media at the airport in Harare.
Mugabe, miffed over what he is calling Switzerland’s refusal to issue visas for his entourage, told reporters that his government “is not without means to reciprocate”, which some media in Zimbabwe are interpreting as a threat to Swiss businesses while others appear to see the comment as a reflection of Zimbabwe reportedly filing a complaint with the UN. Ziminfo expanded the quote and pointed directly at Vevey-based Nestle: “Now they are showing that they are vicious and we will reciprocate because they have their properties here. We are not without means to reciprocate.” The news agency added that:
“While Mugabe did not specify which Swiss property he had in mind, but his comments could stir fresh trouble for the Zimbabwean operation of Swiss multinational firm, Nestlé.
“Radical elements from Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party are likely to see his threats as an order to pile more pressure on the giant milk processor to cede control of its Harare plant to black Zimbabweans in line with the country’s controversial economic indigenization programme.
“Nestlé Zimbabwe was already one of the foreign-owned corporations that the government has said should transfer controlling stake to by blacks 2015.
“Under the controversial economic indigenisation and empowerment law that came into force last year foreign-owned firms must sell at least 51 percent shares to indigenous black Zimbabweans or face a host of punitive measures including fines or withdrawal of operating licences.”
Robert Mugabe (photo, wikipedia)
Zimbabwe’s prime minister refused to visit Geneva last week for the ITU World Telecom meeting, and he sent a replacement for the country’s telecoms minister, who is variously reported by Zimbabwe media to have been given orders not to join the Geneva conference or who was too busy.
Switzerland has not responded officially on Mugabe’s remarks or the visa problem, although unnamed officials, presumably Swiss embassy officials in Zimbabwe, have been quoted by the country’s media as saying that visas for Mugabe and one official “were adequate to represent Zimbabwe at the summit,” according to The Zimbabwean.
Swiss Foreign Affairs Department spokesperson in Bern, Pierre-Alain Eltschinger, told GenevaLunch Monday that the ministry generally doesn’t comment on specific visa-decisions. He noted, in an e-mailed statement, that “decisions by Switzerland on visa matters are taken in accordance with applicable law and take account in particular of Switzerland’s obligations as the host state of the ITU. As this is an official delegation to a conference held by an international organization with which Switzerland has concluded a host state agreement, questions that could possibly arise in this context will, if necessary, be discussed with the organization concerned.”
He points out that “in this context, Switzerland will have to reconcile the obligations that it has in international law with the imperatives deriving from sanctions imposed on certain persons.”
Swiss sanctions against Zimbabwe have been in effect since 2002, with the travel restrictions list updated in 2010.
All the states invited to the ITU conference were “able to be represented by a delegation”, says Eltschinger. “As a principle of law, a State is entitled to be represented at international conferences by its head of State.”
Mugabe last week told media that the delegation of five scheduled to join him for the Geneva meeting was refused visas by the Swiss government; all of them, plus his wife, are on the list Zimbabwe individuals with European Union and Swiss travel restrictions, part of the sanctions against Zimbabwe. Mugabe and delegations have previously visited Geneva for UN meetings.
The five are Zimbabwe’s foreign and transport ministers, central intelligence minister, Mugabe’s press officer and his aide.
Nehanda Radio and Zimbabwe Metro are two of several media that picked up a Monday front page story published by the Zimbabwe Herald, a newspaper run by the state:
“‘We were surprised, if not saddened, by what they have done. Much more, the Swiss government has always held itself as a neutral country that did not countenance war as it was neutral in any conflict even during the First and Second World wars,’ he said.
“‘Now they are showing that they are vicious and we will reciprocate because they have their properties here. We are not without means to reciprocate,’ he said. As hosts of a United Nations meeting, Mugabe said Switzerland had no right to bar delegates of any member-state of the UN from attending. ‘It is a violation of rules and regulations governing host countries of UN meetings. They are alongside the United States of America because the main part of the UN is hosted in New York and the other part and agencies related to the UN are in Geneva. As host country, you should undertake not to inhibit or prohibit visits on UN business,’ the Zanu PF leader said.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – China and Russia used their vetoes in the UN Security Council late Tuesday to stop a United Nations draft resolution that threatened sanctions against Syria. It would have been the first such UN decision since March, when President Bashar Assad’s military regime began using tanks and soldiers to crack down on protester. US Ambassador Susan Rice walked out after the vote and remarks against the US by Syria.
The double veto 4 October was the first by the two countries since 2008, when they opposed sanctions against Zimbabwe and it came after several attempts to renegotiate the draft text failed.
The vote was 9-2, with four countries abstaining: India, South Africa, Brazil and Lebanon.
NPR in the US reports that “Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council after the vote that his country did not support the Assad regime or the violence but opposed the resolution because it was “based on a philosophy of confrontation,” contained “an ultimatum of sanctions” and was against a peaceful settlement of a crisis. He also complained that the resolution did not call for the Syrian opposition to disassociate itself from ‘extremists’ and enter into dialogue.
Ria Novosti reports that Russia “stands firmly against any mention of sanctions citing the example of Libya where the Nato countries largely overstepped the UN mandate in a military operation against Muammar Qaddafi’s regime, said the text of the document was ‘unacceptable’ despite several changes to the draft. The Russian news agency cites Churkin’s complaint that “the document did not contain provisions on the unacceptability of an external military intervention.”
China’s Ambassador Li Bandong says that China is concerned about the violence but that sanctions achieve little and can complicate the situation rather than help it.
Links to other sites: BBC, The Globe & Mail, NPR, Ria Novosti, Xinhua
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland’s extended list of individuals from Syria, including President Bashar Al-Assad, whose assets are being blocked, is effective today, Wednesday 25 May. The government yesterday said it was expanding its 18 May list of people whose assets are frozen and who cannot travel to or through Switzerland, from 13 to 18.
The president is now listed, along with Mahir (or Maher) Al-Assad, as the mastermind of the repression against Syrian protesters, but he is also named as the organizer.
The four others added to the sanctions list are all accused of aiding repression:
Munzir Al-Assad, born 1961 (correction to earlier spelling)
Asif Shawkat, born 1950
Hisham Ikhtiyar, born 1941
Faruq Al Shar’, born 1938
Muhammad Nasif Khayrbik, born 1937
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Iranian officials said Tuesday 24 May that the country will take Switzerland to court at the United Nations over what the officials say is a recent decision not to allow Iranian aircraft to refuel in Geneva. The Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation (Foca) told GenevaLunch that the Swiss government has not made any such decision. “Yes, it’s correct that Iran’s planes are not being refueled in Geneva”, a Foca spokesperson says, “but it’s because the oil companies will not do it. We are working with Seco (Swiss economic ministry) and the Foreign Affairs Department to find a pragmatic solution.”
The weekly IRNA Tehran-Geneva flight has not been cancelled, but in late April major oil companies began to refuse to fuel the planes, which have stopovers in Eastern and Central European cities. Swiss news agency ATS quotes Geneva Fuelling Services as saying that it has had no business relations with IRNA since April. It and other companies reportedly have refused to refuel the planes because sanctions against Iran are not clear.
Switzerland in January tightened its sanctions against Iran to bring them in line with European Union ones, over Tehran’s nuclear activities.
One Swiss official implied to GenevaLunch that sanctions may not even be the issue, without expanding on the remark.
Troops in Syria reportedly gained control of the city of Banias, on the coast, Tuesday 3 May, as the Syrian government clampdown on protesters continues. The National Organization of Human Rights in Syria says a new wave of arrests has involved 1,000 people, with Banias mostly sealed off by the army and security forces. Government troops last week took over Deraa, in the south, where the uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad began in mid-March. The Assad family has ruled in Syria for 41 years.
European leaders Tuesday and Wednesday morning began stepping up calls to for sanctions against Libya, while a US State Department spokesperson called the actions of the Syrian government “barbaric”.
Links to other sites: Guardian, newsfromsyria, Radio Free Europe
The European Union has removed 35 people from the list of more than 160 in Zimbabwe who are sanctioned: they are not permitted to travel to the EU and any assets they might have are frozen. The move came without explanation, although as allAfrica points out three of them have died and the others are virtually all spouses of officials in Robert Mugabe’s regime. It suggests that the idea might be to encourage those still on the list to “mend their ways”.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government is increasing sanctions against Iran to the same level as those put in place by its main commercial partners, the government said Wednesday morning 19 January. The tougher measures were taken to ensure that Switzerland is not used by Iran to get around the stricter sanctions put in place by the European Union, in particular, in October 2010.
The list of persons whose assets are frozen is also being extended, the same day that the Swiss have moved to freeze assets of former Tunisian President Ben Ali and Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire, who has refused to give in to pressure from other countries to acknowledge he did not win his country’s recent elections.
Swiss exports to Iran were CHF700 million in 2010, mainly pharmaceuticals, machinery and agricultural products. Imports came to CHF41 million. The volume of trade fell by CHF63 overall, compared to 2009.
The new level of sanctions is also needed to give legal protection to Swiss companies operating internationally, according to Bern, as they now risk being caught between two levels of sanctions.
Decision
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Bank UBS took too long to in July to give shareholders information about looming losses in 2007, the Swiss Stock Exchange sanctions commission has ruled. Friday 14 January it handed the bank a CHF100,000 fine, the end of a three-year investigation. The bank was bailed out by the Swiss government when it posted large losses in 2008.
UBS shareholders in May 2010 refused to give the bank’s directors a requested discharge of responsibilities for 2007, highly unusual for a Swiss company.
Timing of loss announcements broke the rules, says sanctions commission
“In accordance with stock exchange rules, an issuer must inform the market of any potentially price-sensitive information as soon as it becomes itself aware of the main points of such information,” explains Six, the Swiss exchange, in a press release.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Four new names have been added and as many deleted from the Swiss federal government’s black list for people with suspected Al Qaeda links. Assets belonging to anyone on the list are frozen and people with any knowledge of fiinancial transactions linked to those on the blacklist must by law report them.
The black list is part of the larger list Switzerland maintains, of economic sanctions against people from 18 countries.
The five countries with veto power within the UN Security Council have agreed to tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear plans, and what US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is calling a “strong” draft resolution is being circulated among the 15 members. Iran agreed just a day earlier, Monday 17 May, to a deal with Turkey that Brazil helped broker, which has it sending most of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for enriched fuel for a research reactor, a deal similar to one suggested by other Western countries in 2009.
The US accused Iran Tuesday of trying to deflect criticism of its nuclear programme. The new, fourth sanctions package is a carrot-and-stick solution to dealing with Iran: it offers tough measures against shipping and banking, and would stop any shipments to Iran of conventional arms, but it also encourages Iran to cooperate with nuclear inspections.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, BBC, Financial Times, Reuters/New York Times
Credit Suisse may pay $536 million
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has announced it is close to an agreement with US financial regulators concerning its dealings with countries that are subject to US economic sanctions. The bank says that it has closed its representative office in Tehran, Iran as part of its own probe into the investigation by US and New York regulators.
As part of the deal Credit Suisse may pay a $536 million fine, and says it has booked a pre-tax CHF445 million provision in the current quarter.
Update 8 October Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, is making an unannounced trip to Geneva to take part in Telecom, the Swiss Foreign Affairs Department (DFAE) has confirmed to GenevaLunch. Mugabe arrived in Geneva 7 October. [Ed. note: Telecom TV reports on his appearance at the show and his remarks which "baffled the media."]
Right to visit UN overrides Swiss sanctions
Mugabe is under visa and financial sanctions from the United States, the European Union and Switzerland, but as the host country of a UN-sponsored event, Switzerland cannot ban his visit to a UN event, a spokesperson in Bern says. The situation is identical to that in New York in September, when Mugabe attended the General Assembly of the UN.
Mugabe is explicity banned from entering Switzerland, except for UN events. Two accounts with a value of CHF547,000 have been blocked in Switzerland in connection with the sanctions, which were put into effect because of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and to prevent money laundering.
Switzerland’s legal obligations as the host country also mean Mugabe cannot be shadowed constantly during his visit to ensure that he and his entourage do not have contact with financial advisors or bankers, although the penalties are steep for a bank dealing with any of the 240 people on the Zimbabwe sanctions list.
Vevey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Nestlé subsidiary in Zimbabwe buys milk produced on Gushunga Dairy Estate farms seized from their owners between 2002 and 2004, the UK’s Sunday Telegraph reports 26 September.
The dairy farms are part of an estimated 4,800 hectares of prime agricultural land reportedly owned by Robert and Grace Mugabe. Both are on what the EU has labeled “targeted sanctions” lists, with visa and some trade restrictions set for more than 20o individuals and some 40 countries. These were first imposed in 2002 in the wake of the seizures of lands owned by white farmers, part of Mugabe’s land reform. They were extended following the disputed presidential elections in June 2008.
Switzerland also adopted targeted sanctions, in line with those of the European Union [ed. note: UK media have incorrectly reported that Switzerland does not have sanctions because it is not part of the EU], but the Gushunga Dairy is not on the identical EU and Swiss government list of blacklisted businesses. A spokesperson at the finance ministry in Bern told GenevaLunch Monday that the ministry contacted Nestlé when it became aware of the milk sales and it has been assured that the sales are entirely the business of its Zimbabwe subsidiary. “Nestlé confirmed that no individuals or companies in Switzerland were in any way involved in the relevant transactions. Therefore, no further investigations are planned at the moment.” The Bern office noted that the “Swiss legislation on international sanctions, including the sanctions against Zimbabwe, deploys its effects only in the territory of Switzerland. Foreign subsidiaries of Swiss companies are not subject to the Swiss legislation. The dealings of Nestlé Zimbabwe (Private) Ltd are therefore not in violation of the Swiss sanctions regulation against Zimbabwe.”
Swiss and EU sanctions involve only transfers of money or transactions with companies outside Zimbabwe: Even if Gushunga Dairy were on the list, the sanctions would not apply.
China has begun supplying oil to Iran in the past month and already accounts for one-third of the country’s fuel imports, the Financial Times reports. Oil imports are not part of a United Nations sanction and the supplies are legal, but the move comes as G20 world leaders, meeting in New York Wednesday 23 September, discuss enforcing sanctions against Iran to discourage it from further developing its nuclear programme. Iran insists the nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, as a source of energy, and that it is not building bombs. The country is one of the world’s largest oil producers, but its aging system is inefficient and it imports 120,000 barrels a day, according to the FT. China agreed in 2004 to purchase oil from Iran and to invest in its system. The $100 billion deal in 2006 prompted concern in the US, with observers saying that China appeared to be rushing to sign the deal ahead of sanctions. In the latest twist to the story China’s oil replaces that from companies such as BP which have stopped supplying Iran. Washington Post, 2006, Brookings Institution editorial, July 2009
Targeted sanctions on leading Zimbabwe government officials, in place since disputed presidential elections in 2002, will not be lifted soon, according to a high-level delegation from the European Union (EU) which ended a two-day mission to Zimbabwe 13 September.
After a meeting with President Robert Mugabe, Gunilla Carlsson, Sweden’s international development minister, said “The political agreement was an important step forward, but much needs to be done. The key to re-engagement is the full implementation of the political agreement“. Mugabe has called for a lifting of the EU sanctions, arguing “sanctions are serving no humanitarian purpose, they are causing lots of suffering among the people right at the bottom”.
The EU is Zimbabwe’s main donor and its aid budget is currently frozen at €90 million. A Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting 8 September called for Western sanctions to be lifted. Al-Jazeera, The Sunday Telegraph
Southern African nations meeting in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo,8 September called for an end to Western sanctions on Zimbabwe. Sanctions have been in place since before a unity government was formed in 2008 with President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The call to lift sanctions is seen as a significant victory for Mugabe, who says that the country urgently needs $10 billion in development aid. Tsvangirai has called for the full implementation of the accords before sanctions are lifted.
Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa and a key member of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), said at the beginning of the conference that he hoped the Zimbabwe government’s divisions could be healed quickly in order for foreign aid to be resumed. At the end, he said that he now sees no reason why conditions should be imposed before lifting sanctions. BBC, Reuters, AllAfrica
North Korea says it is in the “final stages of uranium enrichment” and that extracted plutonium from spent fuel rods is “being weaponized”. Both technologies are steps in making a bomb. Experts outside the country believe Pyongyang may have enough plutonium to make about eight bombs.
In a letter to the UN Security Council the North says it is ready for dialogue, but that “if some permanent members of the UN Security Council wish to put sanctions first before dialogue, we would respond with bolstering our nuclear deterrence first before we meet them in a dialogue.” International sanctions have been tightened on the North, and North Korean ships have been trailed at sea and challenged. Recent overtures by the Pyongyang government have largely been ignored: two US journalists were released and a North Korean delegation was sent to the lying-in-state of deceased South Korean former President Kim Dae-jung. The US is trying to get North Korea to return to stalled six-party talks with South Korea, Russia, China and Japan to discuss its nuclear programme. BBC, CNN, Reuters
The Financial Times has learned that Italy has blocked the sale of two luxury yachts for an estimated $17.8 million because it suspected they were for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The sale would have broken international sanctions against the country. Financial Times
The North Korean government announced it would enrich uranium and weaponize its plutonium stocks in a defiant response to the UN Security Council’s resolution to impose stricter sanctions on the country. The sanctions include a ban on arms purchase from North Korea, with which it finances its nuclear program, and searches of its ships at sea. The United States is considering applying greater restrictions on North Korea’s access to the international financial system. FT, BBC, CNN
Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Vaud parliament’s upper house (cantonal council) has submitted to the ruling Grand Conseil its new law that will prohibit indoor smoking in public places starting 1 September 2009, reports the Tribune de Geneve. The ban, approved by voters 30 November 2008, covers administrative offices, prisons, schools, museums, theatres, cinemas, public transport, shopping malls, tents, and public buildings.
North Korean military are preparing a long-range missile test launch that violates existing United Nations sanctions Wednesday 24 March. These activities have heightened political tension with neighbouring countries and the US. North Korea’s last test rocket blew apart seconds after takeoff July 2006. Reuters, International Herald Tribune
