By Own Correspondent- The MDC has called on government to stop shooting and killing civilians in order for sanctions to be removed.

The party said just like any other Zimbabwean, they are keen for sanctions imposed by the United States on the country to go since they are affecting citizens.

Said MDC secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora:

“Denouncing sanctions does not lead to their removal; what leads to the removal of sanctions is for Zanu PF to do those things that the people who imposed sanctions said they should do.

They must stop those things that they were told to stop. They must stop killing their own people; they must stop shooting unarmed civilians using live ammunition.

I do agree the sanctions are hurting the ordinary person and as MDC we are ready to play our part to make sure that these sanctions, together with the brutality that brought the sanctions into place in the first place, are removed.

Sanctions are never a good thing for any country. They inevitably affect the poor and the down-trodden. They also hurt the government.

But who was responsible for these sanctions? The people who are responsible for these sanctions are people who killed Zimbabweans in cold blood in 2008.

It is the people who detained without trial Zimbabwean citizens; it is the people who threw away the rule of law; it is the people who abandoned constitutionalism, so they have to right their wrongs so that the people of Zimbabwe live in peace and prosperity.

We are for the engagement of Zimbabwe into the international community, but all of us have a role to play first, but principally, Zanu PF has a big role to play.

They must stop human rights abuses, shooting of civilians by the government must stop; harassment of civilians by the State must stop.”