EU renews Zimbabwe sanctions

EU renews Zimbabwe sanctions

• Mugabe barred from French summit

• EU to extend Zimbabwe sanctions - diplomats

• Britain pushes for sanctions renewal

• US says Zimbabwe under sanctions

• Protest as Majongwe denied UK visa

• Mumbengegwi beats Canada travel ban

• Ncube challenges passport seizure

• Zim seizes opposition spokesman's passport

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• Mugabe targets 15 critics for travel ban

• Zim denies plot to curtail critics' travel

• Prof Jonathan Moyo: New amendments should face battle royal

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• Sanctions not in Zimbabwe's interests

• Tawanda Hondora: Zim sanctions, are they political or economic

• Khanyisela Moyo: US sanctions futile, misguided and deceitful

• Dr Alex T Magaisa: On sanctions, Mugabe and the economy

• Nobuhle Nyathi: It's Zanu PF not sanctions, stupid!

• Tawanda Hondora: Sanctions undermine economy

By Staff Reporter

THE European Union on Monday extended sanctions on Zimbabwe for another year - including an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze on President Robert Mugabe and other top officials.

The list of those affected by visa bans and the freezing of assets includes more than 100 ministers and officials. The EU accuses them of human rights violations, and violations of freedom of speech and assembly in Zimbabwe.

The sanctions were initially triggered by the controversial distribution of white-owned commercial farms to mainly landless blacks and Mugabe’s disputed re-election in 2002.

Critics say the seizures have destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy, turning the country from a regional agricultural leader to a nation barely able to feed itself amid a deepening crisis marked by food and fuel shortages and inflation nearly 1600%.

Mugabe says the sanctions are responsible for Zimbabwe’s economic crisis and he says his land policy was necessary because former colonial power Britain did not make good on promises at the time of Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980.

French President Chirac last week bowed to pressure from Britain and blocked an attempt by President Mugabe to break his diplomatic isolation by attending a Franco-African summit on the French Riviera.

After intense lobbying from London, the French authorities told Mugabe that he would not be welcome in Cannes for the three-day meeting between Chirac and African heads of state.

Chirac was widely criticised for ignoring European Union sanctions and inviting Mr Mugabe when the summit was held in Paris in 2003.

Plans for an EU-Africa summit have been on hold since 2003 because Britain and several other EU countries refused to attend if Mugabe was invited, while African states refused to attend if he was not invited, diplomats have said.

Portugal hopes to stage such a summit in the second half of this year but it is not clear how it will get around the Zimbabwe issue. - Reuters

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