French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said EU foreign ministers had added
11 more names to a list of 160 Zimbabweans banned from visiting the
bloc, a move meant to increase the pressure on Mugabe’s government.
The EU and US have maintained visa sanctions and asset freezes on the
Harare administration since 2002 following disputed elections,
allegations of human rights abuses and the often violent seizure of
white owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.
Early this year the Western countries widened the sanctions to include
companies and individuals doing business with Harare following Mugabe's
re-election in a vote widely condemned as undemocratic.
Last month the US blacklisted four allies of Mugabe's government – John
Bredenkamp, Muller Conrad Billy Rautenbach, Mahmood Awag Kechik, a
Malaysian urologist and one of Mugabe’s doctors, as well as a Thai
businesswoman said to be involved in business deals for Mugabe and his
wife Grace, Nalinee Joy Taveesin.
Zimbabwe is in the grips of a growing humanitarian crisis – dramatised
by a spreading cholera epidemic, acute food shortages and deepening
economic collapse – which has heightened calls for Mugabe’s resignation.
Mugabe blames Western sanctions for Zimbabwe’s hardship while his
critics blame wrong policies by his government such as the seizure of
white-owned farms for resettlement of landless blacks who have failed
to maintain productivity on the farms resulting the country – once a
net exporter of food – failing to feed itself.
"I think the moment has arrived to put all the pressure for Mugabe to
step down," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said before the
ministers’
meeting in Brussels.
The United States, former colonial power Britain, Botswana and Kenya
have all called for the veteran leader, in power since Zimbabwe's
independence from Britain in 1980, to leave office so that the
crisis-torn country can have a fresh start.
But Zimbabwean Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu dismissed calls
against Mugabe saying: "No foreign leader, regardless of how powerful
they are, has the right to call on him to step down on their whim," he
said.
South Africa’s powerful COSATU trade union federation said on Monday
that 38 members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions arrested
during protests last week had been released after five days in
detention.
Seven of those released had appeared in court and been charged "with
inciting the public to rise against the government" before being
released on bail, COSATU said. – ZimOnline