Sanctions do work

In our considered view, sanctions played a role in modifying the behaviour of Mugabe and his band of fast and loose cohorts.

Although the perpetrators did not feel the immediate sting of the sanctions when they were intensified in 2007-08, the 'inconvenience' gradually took hold, hence the hollering for their lifting.  There has indeed been some improvement in the political situation in Zimbabwe, though isolated incidents of violence against government opponents, among them lawyers and independent journalists, still occur.  There is reason for hope, following the drafting of a new constitution that is in the process of being adopted.