Britain has frozen 76 000 pounds in assets belonging to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF Party, the government said on Wednesday.
The $118 000 dollars (119 000 euros) were seized under sanctions imposed by the European Union on Mugabe and his senior allies after international outrage at rigged elections in March.
Junior foreign office minister Denis MacShane said that by freezing assets, the financial markets of the EU and Switzerland had been put “off limits.”
It had also helped signal the “increasing isolation” of the Zanu-PF elite, he told parliament.
The EU imposed sanctions on the Mugabe regime in February, following the expulsion from Zimbabwe of the head of its team of observers monitoring the run-up to presidential elections a month later.
All 15 member states imposed a travel ban on Mugabe and about 20 of his close political associates. It was also agreed that their assets in EU countries would be frozen.
Following the poll, EU leaders agreed to pursue further “targeted” sanctions aimed at the veteran leader and his closest allies, while allowing the continued flow of humanitarian aid into Zimbabwe, which is suffering its worst food shortages in many years.
The March election saw 78-year-old Mugabe — president of Zimbabwe since independence in 1981 — claim a further six-year term with 54% of the votes.
But the legitimacy of his victory over Morgan Tsvangarai of the Movement for Democratic Change was widely questioned because of evidence of intimidation and violence against opposition supporters. – AFP