Brussels | Saturday
ZIMBABWE, facing possible EU sanctions, missed its Friday deadline for pledging in writing that it will accept international observers and journalists for its March 9-10 elections, sources said.
”They had a week to respond, and I’m not aware of any response having been received yet” by the Spanish EU presidency, said one diplomatic source.
”If they haven’t gotten anything, it may lead the EU to conclude certain things,” he said, stressing however that the deadline was ”not legalistic” and that the 15 member states were still ”examining all options.”
”They are being cautious. Nothing is being prejudged,” he said.
The ”next critical moment” would come on January 28-29 when EU foreign ministers review Zimbabwe policy at their regular monthly General Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, the source said.
A second diplomatic source confirmed that a response from Harare was not in hand at the end of the working day on Friday.
The EU turned up the pressure on Zimbabwe last Friday when it gave President Robert Mugabe’s government a week to state in writing that it would accept international observers and news media before and during the polls.
The demand was tabled by the Spanish EU presidency, on behalf of all EU member states, during a meeting in Brussels with a delegation from Harare, led by Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge.
Possible sanctions might include a European travel ban on Mugabe and associates, a freeze on their assets, and the suspension of development aid which has been averaging 20-million euros ($18-million) a year.
Speaking in parliament in Harare on Wednesday, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa who was part of the delegation to Brussels said ”we are inclined to invite some countries of the EU” to send poll observers.
”Those who we know have already made up their minds, they cannot come. They can come as tourists maybe, but not as observers,” he added.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean attorney Raymond Moyo is filing an urgent application in Harare on Saturday morning to try and gain access to 17-year-old opposition activist Tom Tawanda Spicer who was abducted on Thursday night.
Tom, the son of well-known Zimbabwean filmmaker Edwina Spicer, is an Movement for Democratic Change youth activist.
Edwina Spicer was told after he disappeared on Thursday night that he was due to appear in court on Monday in Marondera, Zimbabwe, a statement from the MDC said.
Tom Spicer speaks fluent Shona and often addresses rallies with MDC youth leaders.
No-one has been allowed access to the boy.
Spicer said she had been told that her son and some friends travelled to the Marondera rural area, just over an hour east of Harare on Thursday night to distribute pamphlets and posters.
New government regulations make it nearly impossible to openly distribute or display such political literature.
”At around midnight their car apparently broke down and after a time they saw a group of people. Tom apparently told the others to run away because he said that he thought he could handle the situation. Later we received a report from usually reliable sources that he had been chained to a tree all night and beaten.
”We gave all this information to the Marondera police who at about midday said they had found him and by about 2pm we were told he was at the Marondera police station. Neither his lawyers, Ray Moyo and Bryant Elliott, nor his father have been allowed to see him. No-one has been allowed access to him. ZBCTV on Friday night said it is he who will be charged with kidnapping, but we have had no other confirmation from police or anyone else.”
It is not known where the boy is now being held as police claim he is no longer at Marondera police station. – AFP, Sapa
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