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German firm, Zim business 'over'
02/07/2008 13:38 - (SA)
Berlin - A German firm says it has bowed to pressure and will stop supplying blank banknotes to Zimbabwe, where the regime of Robert Mugabe fills them with ever increasing numbers of zeros.
"By stopping with immediate effect we are taking into account the position of the (German) government and the international sanctions initiative of the European Union and the United Nations," Giesecke and Devrient GmbH spokesperson Heiko Witzke said.
The Munich-based firm had supplied Zimbabwe for several years with the sheets of blank notes with security features like watermarks, which were then completed in the southern African country.
Once a vibrant economy, Zimbabwe had suffered a financial collapse in recent years with the Mugabe government responding to runaway inflation by printing more and more banknotes of ever dizzier denominations.
Mugabe re-elected
The firm, founded in 1852, also supplied banknotes to the Weimar Republic in 1920s Germany when it too was suffering from hyperinflation. It also printed tickets for the 1936 Olympic Games in Nazi-era Germany and currently provides banknotes to 60 countries including Germany.
German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul wrote to the company last week asking it to stop supplying Zimbabwe, and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier echoed these concerns in a phone call with its CEO, the spokesperson said.
Mugabe, 84, was re-elected for a sixth term on Friday in a one-man election after opposition leader and first round winner Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew because of violence and voter intimidation.
Giesecke and Devrient's spokesperson added that it was subject to "very strict" international conditions when it supplied banknotes, and that any central bank it did business with must have World Bank accreditation.
Mugabe's spokesperson told the West on Tuesday it could "go hang a thousand times" over its criticism of the vote.
- AFP
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Zimbabwe Special Report
