Italy today called on other European Union members to withdraw their
ambassadors from Harare to show their disgust at the state-sponsored
violence that has gripped the country since Robert Mugabe lost the election
to Morgan Tsvangirai on March 19.
The European Union, which imposed economic and diplomatic measures in 2002
after Mugabe refused to let its monitors observe the elections, has
threatened further punishment. EU leaders have already discussed the
Zimbabwe situation in a summit held in Brussels last weekend.
EU leaders, under the Slovenian presidency, discussed more punitive
sanctions against the Mugabe regime at the two-day summit that started last
Saturday. They resolved to adopt a wait-and-see stance, but reiterated that
a free and fair election was critical to the resolution of a political and
economic crisis in the former British colony
“The European Council reiterates its readiness to take additional measures
against those responsible for violence,” said the EU statement.
US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice told an informal meeting of the UN
Security Council last week that the Mugabe administration had subverted
democratic principles and processes in the run up to the sham poll.
The United States is also threatening further punitive action, with US
ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee describing the situation in Zimbabwe as
“State-sponsored terrorism.”
UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon said he was “anxious about the situation,”
appealing to Zimbabweans to stay calm and saying they “showed amazing
commitment and patience in the way they are committed to democracy.”
The EU six years ago cut off E128-million in development aid for the
2002-2007 period, banned all travel to the EU for Mugabe and his cronies and
froze their assets in Europe .
Zimbabwe is currently suffering the worst economic crisis in decades with
inflation running at almost 2 million percent. The country is also facing
acute shortages of fuel, power, food as well as shortages of both hard cash
and local currency.
Further ostracism of the Harare regime is poised to cause worsening economic
hardships and regime collapse.