Brussels | Tuesday
EU foreign ministers on Monday threatened the Zimbabwe government with “targeted sanctions” from February 3 if it does not agree by then to allow the deployment of EU observers for March elections.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who pushed hardest throughout the day’s ministerial meeting for the sanctions threat, warned Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to cooperate with EU demands or “pay the price”.
“Mr Mugabe now has a choice,” Britain’s Press Association quoted him as saying. “Either he calls off the thugs, allows the media to operate freely, and lets the population of Zimbabwe make a democratic choice, or he and his key ministers will pay the price.”
The European Union would target Mugabe and 20 top individuals in his inner circle and their families, the PA reported.
They would be banned from travel to the European Union member states and their assets in the EU would be frozen, the report said.
In addition, the sanctions would include a ban on the export to Zimbabwe of arms and equipment which could be used for “internal repression,” it said.
Straw called the ministers’ decision “clear, unambiguous and unanimous.”
The statement issued earlier by the ministers did not specify what sanctions might be imposed.
Straw was expected to propose similar sanctions to the Commonwealth’s Ministerial Action Group on Zimbabwe when it meets in London on Wednesday on concerns over Mugabe’s hardline political style.
British sources said Straw had come to Brussels prepared to lay out a “short, fixed timetable” of sanctions ahead of the crucial March presidential elections, seen as a tough challenge to Mugabe’s 22-year grip on power.
The EU observers would be sent to monitor the propriety of the elections.
The foreign ministers said that, in addition to sanctions, they would break off talks in progress with Harare if the government continued to oppose the observer mission.
Both measures, they said, would equally apply if Zimbabwe agreed to the observers but then prevented them from doing their job.
In addition, they said in their conclusions, the threats would apply if the Harare government stood in the way of the “free movement” of the international press covering the March 9-10 elections.
The “targeted sanctions” might also apply if there were “a serious degradation” in the country’s human rights situation or “aggression” against the political opposition.
And, they might apply if the March elections are not run in a “free and fair manner,” said the ministerial conclusions.
Britain, former colonial master in the country that was formerly Rhodesia, earlier Monday reacted coolly to reports that Mugabe had invited observers excluding British officials to the presidential election. – AFP