EU sanctions on Mugabe to remain

THE European Union said yesterday it will not remove sanctions targeting Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his loyalists or resume development aid until more is done to implement a year-old power-sharing agreement andrestore human rights.

Winding up the first visit by a high-level EU delegation since 2002, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Karel de Gucht said sharp differences remained between Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader, over their coalition agreement signed on September 15, 2008.

“They do not have the same reading of the same document,” he told reporters at the end of a two-day visit.

International Co-operation Minister Gunilla Carlsson of Sweden, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said the delegation’s talks with Mugabe were “open and frank”. But traditional ties between the 27-nation bloc and Zimbabwe, severed over the expulsion of an EU election-monitoring mission in 2002 and surging political violence at the time, remained on hold.

The EU has protested continuing arrests andharassment of members of the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai’s political party that shares power with Mugabe’s ZANU-PF. The EU also has criticised efforts byMugabe’s party to block the appointment of a new attorney general, regional governors and the head of Zimbabwe’s central bank.

Carlsson said the slow pace of restoring the rule of law and the implementation of democratic, constitutional and media reforms were among concerns raised with coalition leaders.

Mugabe says international sanctions, which the EU calls “restrictive measures,” hold back the unity government’s progress in rebuilding the country. The EU has imposed a European travel ban on 203 senior Zimbabwean government officials, including Mugabe. Their assets also have been frozen in the EU, as well as those of 40 companies with links to Mugabe and ZANU-PF.

De Gucht said Mugabe reiterated his criticisms of sanctions at their meeting.

De Gucht said, as a result of years of violence, European funding for Zimbabwe was channelled from development aid into humanitarian assistance.