The attachment of these properties is something that is of major symbolic value. After ten years of the annihilation of property rights in Zimbabwe where no one has been compensated, the long arm of the law is finally reaching out to make itself felt.
Of course the attachment of four Zimbabwe Government properties is a drop in the ocean compared to the theft of the thousands of once productive agricultural properties in Zimbabwe that were the homes and livelihoods of over 2 million farmers, farm workers and their families; but this is a huge symbolic step in the quest for global justice through the international courts.
When has anyone ever heard of a Government having its properties outside its borders attached because of its contempt for an international court? It is a historic day on the road to accountability. This judgment is saying that when dictators rule their own countries against the universal declaration of human rights, justice will be served. It is saying that dictators can no longer get away with destroying life, liberty and property with impunity: there are consequences to acts of tyranny.
This is a major precedent and it will be built upon so long as the Zimbabwe Government continues to trample on the rights of millions of its citizens so that they are left hungry and in desperate poverty.
Post published in: News