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EU
imposes another year of sanctions
IRIN
News
February
16, 2010
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88127
The European
Union's decision to extend sanctions against Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe and senior members of the ruling ZANU-PF party was
endorsed by a leading human rights organization."In view of
the situation in Zimbabwe, in particular the lack of progress in
the implementation of the Global
Political Agreement (GPA) signed in September 2008, the restrictive
measures ... should be extended for a further period of 12 months,"
the Official Journal of the European Union reportedly said on 16
February 2010.
The EU first
imposed sanctions on 18 February 2002, including travel bans and
freezing bank accounts; the list has since grown to more than 200
targeted individuals and 40-odd companies linked to Mugabe and his
party.
"These
targeted sanctions are aimed solely at those whom the EU judges
to be responsible for the violence, for the violations of human
rights, and for preventing the holding of free and fair elections
in Zimbabwe," the EU said in a previous statement.
The EU resisted
calls by bodies such as the Southern African Development Community
to lift sanctions when Zimbabwe's unity government was formed on
11 February 2009, and, along with the US - which has also imposed
targeted sanctions - adopted a "wait-and-see" approach.
Mugabe and ZANU-PF
have argued that Zimbabwe's dire economic situation, near collapse
of social services, and prolonged food insecurity are the consequence
of these sanctions; Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, has blamed it on
decades of misrule by Mugabe, who has held power since 1980.
Apparatus
of oppression
The decision
not to lift sanctions "shows that the EU is well aware that
there have been no improvements of the human rights situation ...
[since the unity government was formed]. All [ZANU-PF's] apparatus
of oppression remain in place and I see no movement [towards democracy]
as along as the status quo remains," Tiseke Kasambala, a senior
Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, told IRIN.
She scoffed
at fears that extending sanctions might make ZANU-PF adopt a more
hardline stance. "In our view it will not make much of a difference
as ZANU-PF has not complied at all with the GPA ... Lifting sanctions
would have been a tacit approval by the EU of ZANU-PF's actions."
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