The European Union (EU) on Monday said it had no intentions of lifting sanctions against President Robert Mugabe, cutting short Zanu PF celebrations that the decade-old embargo was coming to an end.
Zanu PF officials were already claiming victory following reports by a British newspaper — The Telegraph — last week that the EU would scrap the sanctions when it meets in Brussels next Monday.
A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Michael Mann, yesterday told international media that “there was no question” of lifting sanctions on Mugabe or anyone involved in continued human rights abuses.
“The EU is reflecting on policy towards Zimbabwe,” Mann said.
“There is no question of lifting sanctions (an asset freeze and travel ban) against Mugabe or anyone involved in continued abuses of human rights, incitement to violence — that is simply not up for discussion.”
He said Mugabe would not be among individuals removed from the sanctions list if ever the EU was to adopt the advice they got from United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay, who was in Zimbabwe in May to assess the situation.
“The President of Zimbabwe would not be among those given a reprieve,” Mann said.
Claims that the EU was considering lifting the sanctions imposed in 2002 after Zimbabwe deported the bloc’s election observer mission had also infuriated the British government, reports said last week.
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Mugabe was accused of electoral fraud and gross human rights violations, especially during the violent seizure of white-owned commercial farms in 2000.
It has since emerged that the EU would be under pressure from some quarters to even tighten the embargo following threats by Zimbabwe’s security forces to block a democratic transition.
British MP and former Cabinet minister Peter Hain yesterday said he would call for stricter measures against the Zimbabwean leader when the issue is debated in the House of Commons today.
He claimed: “Mugabe and associates are planning further election violence to keep the rival Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from power, using money siphoned from the country’s ‘blood diamonds’.”
Hain said he would base his argument on a recent report by Global Witness, which claimed that Chinese businessman Sam Pa has been funding the Central Intelligence Organisation in return for access to diamond deposits in Marange.
The House of Commons would be discussing allegations that diamond revenues are being used to fund parallel government structures in Zimbabwe.
Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo last night said they were not moved by the latest EU position.
“That’s good for them. We just go on as if nothing happened,” he said.
“We have never expected them to remove the sanctions because we know what they think. They want to make it difficult for Zanu PF in the forthcoming elections.”
Three ministers from Zanu PF and two from the MDC travelled to Brussels early this year to negotiate the removal of sanctions and it was agreed that Zimbabwe would furnish the EU with reasons why the embargo must be lifted.
In February, the EU removed a visa ban and asset freeze on 51 of 150 people targeted by the restrictive measures and 20 of 30 companies.
Attorney-General Johannes Tomana is challenging the imposition of the sanctions at the EU Court and some Zanu PF-aligned analysts were already claiming that the bloc wanted to pre-empt the court case.
