Australia, an outspoken critic of the Zimbabwe government, on Thursday acknowledged mistakes in the list of people facing sanctions for cooperating with Mugabe’s increasingly authoritarian regime.
The 37 new names on the Australian list include Trevor Ncube, publisher of the South African Mail & Guardian, and the Zimbabwean Standard and Independent weekly newspapers — all newspapers critical of the Zimbabwe government.
According to The Associated Press (AP), the Australian ambassador in Zimbabwe, Jon Sheppard, said the list had been difficult to compile and may have been released prematurely.
”It will be reviewed and we expect deletions,” he told AP. ”We are asking people who are surprised to find themselves on the list to bear with us.”
Sheppard said Australia has gone a step further than other countries by including senior executives of state-owned enterprises on its list of people facing sanctions.
”It shows we are trying to do something,” he said.
But when the Mail & Guardian Online telephoned Sheppard on Friday, he denied making the comments, and then slammed the phone down.
”I am not aware of saying that. Not to you, not to anyone. Please phone media enquiries. I am not in the position to answer questions. I have to refer you back to our media officers.”
To compound matters, Zimbabwe authorities also this week seized the passport of Ncube under new laws targeting perceived government critics, preventing him from returning to South Africa.
”I’m obviously shocked at both actions. I’m barred from Australia and now I’m barred from leaving Zimbabwe,” he told the Mail & Guardian Online.
Ncube said that the Australian embassy in Zimbabwe had phoned him to apologise ”profusely”.
Britain, the United States and European Union have also imposed targeted travel and financial restrictions against Mugabe’s regime.
Ncube said he is in negotiations to have his name removed from the Australian sanctions list.
The list includes a leading economist and executives of private firms and banks in Zimbabwe.
Economist Eric Bloch, who fled Nazi Germany as a child, also features. He is an adviser to the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank but says he is guided by a desire for reform.
Bloch is in his sixties, but the list gave his age as 24 — a typographical error, Sheppard said.
With additional reporting from AP