By IPS Correspondents
BRUSSELS, Jan 23 2002 (IPS)

European Union foreign ministers may seek to impose targeted ‘smart sanctions’ against Zimbabwe after the southern African country failed to give adequate assurances on press freedom or detail how international observers will be able to monitor upcoming presidential elections.

EU diplomats have signalled that Zimbabwe’s general willingness to invite foreign observers to help ensure free and fair presidential elections on Mar 9-10, as spelt out by Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge in a letter to the EU Monday, was too vague and insubstantial to stave off sanctions.

Mudenge met with an EU delegation in Brussels 10 days ago in this regard. EU delegation leader Javier Conde then urged Zimbabwe to end political violence and Harare’s tolerance of it, organise free and fair elections, ensure protection of freedom of the press and independence of the judiciary, and end the illegal occupation of white-owned farms.

Under the Cotonou Agreement, a trade and aid pact with 77 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, the EU can suspend development co- operation and impose sanctions over concerns over good governance, human rights, press freedom and other issues, following official ‘consultations’ with the errant state.

As part of that process, Mudenge was asked to address these concerns within one week in an official letter to the European Presidency, currently held by Spain.

But the foreign minister’s letter, received on Monday, several days after the agreed deadline, struck an aggressive tone.

“We believe that ‘demanding’ or ‘insisting’ on the sending of European Union observers to observe our presidential election is not consistent with the spirit of the Cotonou Agreement,” wrote Mugende.

Mugabe faces his strongest challenge in 21 years of power from Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change.

The Zimbabwean economy is in a dire state with inflation running at almost 100 percent, bread and even the staple food, maize-meal, are becoming luxuries and over half of the population is without work.

Britain, Zimbabwe’s former colonial power, has been the most outspoken proponent of imposing smart sanctions on Harare, designed not to make the situation any worse for the common people. Measures under consideration include visa bans and a freeze on overseas assets on senior government figures.

Last month, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw threatened “diplomatic action” after a spokesman for Mugabe labelled several journalists “terrorists” and threatened to launch a “war against terror”.

Controversial media legislation was under debate Tuesday in the Zimbabwean parliament, which critics say is designed solely to keep President Robert Mugabe in power. It would forbid reports deemed to cause ‘alarm and despondency’ and require local media to apply annually for government licences to publish, or face prison terms.

Against this background, several British members of the European Parliament have called for immediate punitive action.

Labour MEP Glenys Kinnock described Mudenge’s response as totally inadequate. “This four page letter is further evidence of the fact that the Government of Zimbabwe has no intention of meeting the two most important criteria. They have failed to understand that violence and intimidation must end and that a timescale for the entry of election observers should have been clearly given,” she said.

“The letter from the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Harare denies that there is any problem with the rule of law. Yet this very weekend (Jan 19- 20) a peaceful opposition rally was broken up with tear gas, and it is claimed that hundreds of Zanu-PF (Mugabe’s party) youth militias were instrumental in the attack,” said Kinnock.

Mudenge’s letter had also claimed that Britain has “funded opposition parties” in what it described as “blatant interference in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe,” a charge that Kinnock called a “complete fantasy” which has been thoroughly rebutted in Harare by the British High Commission. EU foreign ministers will consider sanctions against Harare at the General Affairs Council. MEP Geoffrey Van Orden, a British Conservative Human Rights spokesman, said in a debate in Strasbourg on the matter that the Zimbabwean Government must provide detailed, unequivocal and verifiable evidence that it is fulfilling the pledges made to the EU or face targeted sanctions.

“There must be an immediate end to political violence and intimidation, the media must be allowed to report freely, foreign journalists must be allowed in, international observers (including from the EU) must be given free rein to monitor the elections, and intimidation and harassment of the opposition must cease,” he said.

“If these commitments are not forthcoming, or if there is continuing evidence of abuse” then EU foreign ministers must “impose smart sanctions, in co-operation with the United States and others, on Mugabe and his cronies”, said Van Orden. He called on the EU to be ready for “immediate implementation” as of Feb 1.

The situation in Zimbabwe has regional consequences, as investors stay clear of the political strife there and refugees continue to stream across the borders, mainly to South Africa.

The International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels-based think tank, has argued that for international pressure on Zimbabwe to stop state- sponsored violence and ensure free and fair elections is to succeed, it must be championed by those with the greatest influence and stake – namely Zimbabwe’s neighbours.

For the past eighteen months, South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, has pursued a policy of ‘quiet diplomacy’ with President Mugabe, but he must now acknowledge that this policy has failed, said the ICG in ‘Zimbabwe’s Election: The Stakes for Southern Africa’, a briefing paper released last week.

“Zimbabwe represents a crossroads for Southern Africa. Violence, instability and abandonment of the rule of law are tarring positive regional trends in democracy and economic development. However, the outcome in Zimbabwe can be influenced positively or negatively by what South Africa and the region decide to do,” said John Prendergast, ICG’s Africa Programme Co- Director.

However, while Mbeki has hinted that Harare might be censured by Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states, he has said they would not use economic sanctions.

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