The European Union's foreign ministers will meet in Brussels next Monday and add new names to the list of 171 members of the Harare administration already banned from travelling to Europe because of their links to alleged human rights abuses, a draft EU paper which will be presented to the ministers said.
The bloc will also call for the Kimberley Process – an international certification scheme set up to ensure diamonds do not fund conflict – "to take action with a view to ensure Zimbabwe’s compliance with its Kimberley obligations".
"The (EU) Council supports action to investigate the exploitation of diamonds from the site of Marange/Chiadzwa and their significance in possible financial support to the regime and recent human rights abuses," the document said.
Zimbabwe produces about 0.4 percent of the world's diamonds, the majority of which is exported according to the Kimberley Process. But the World Diamond Council in December raised concern about possible illegal exports of Zimbabwean diamonds "for the personal gain of a few".
The Southern African country is in the grip of an unprecedented economic and humanitarian crisis that is marked by a world record inflation of 231 million percent, poverty and a cholera outbreak that has claimed close to 3 000 lives since August.
A power-sharing agreement clinched in September and seen as the best opportunity to save Zimbabwe's crumbling economy, has stalled over control of key Cabinet positions and senior government appointments, leaving the once prosperous country hovering on the brink of total collapse.
The latest push by Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders early this week to try to persuade Zimbabwe's political rivals to agree to form a unity government ended in Harare without an agreement. A full summit will be held in South Africa on Monday to see if the Zimbabwe crisis can be resolved.
The EU and other Western nations 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.
Last 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.
The worsening humanitarian situation has led to growing international pressure on Mugabe – in power since independence from Britain in 1980 – to step down.
In November 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.
"The (EU) Council condemns the regime for its ongoing failure to address the most basic economic and social needs of its people . . . The Council urges stakeholders to comply with the power-sharing agreement," the EU draft said.
Critics say Mugabe’s policies, such as the seizure of white-owned farms for resettlement of landless blacks who have failed to maintain productivity on the farms resulting in the country – once a net exporter of food – failing to feed itself, have ruined Zimbabwe’s economy.
But Mugabe says Western sanctions are responsible for Zimbabwe’s hardships. – Zimonline
Post published in: Economy