By IPS Correspondents
BRUSSELS, Jan 28 2004 (IPS)

Opposition leaders from Zimbabwe have appealed to the European Union to extend sanctions against the government of President Robert Mugabe.

Delegates from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) made their appeal at meetings with members of the European Parliament this week.

The delegation was hosted by member of the European Parliament (MEP) Glenys Kinnock, co-president of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)-EU joint parliamentary assembly.

The European Union imposed travel restrictions on 72 government officials including Mugabe and members of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party in 2002. The EU said they were responsible for human rights abuses and electoral fraud.

The sanctions include a freeze on the assets and foreign bank accounts of senior figures in the Mugabe regime. There is also a ban on arms exports to Zimbabwe.

The measures are currently in force until Feb. 20. Extension of the ban is now under review.

“We are here to ask the EU not only to renew sanctions against the Mugabe government, but also to expand them,” Gibson Sibanda, leader of opposition in the Zimbabwean parliament and MDC vice-president told media representatives. “The sanctions should be expanded to cover these people who are economic pillars of the regime. The international community needs to put more pressure on Mugabe to come to the negotiating table.”

Sibanda stressed the MDC only wanted the international community “to put pressure on Mugabe to allow free elections.” But he said the sanctions should be accompanied by “a promise to lift them at a particular stage of negotiations.”

Sibanda said the travel ban on Zimbabwe’s politicians had not been strictly enforced. “There are too many loopholes in the present system and the EU should look at what we can do to stop these politicians making a mockery of the Zimbabwean situation.”

Sibanda appealed to the EU to seek ways to ask the United Nations Security Council to consider action under Chapter VII of its charter, which empowers it to take military action against an aggressor.

“The Zimbabwe crisis under the Mugabe regime poses a threat to regional and ultimately international peace, and the regime’s brutalities constitute clear crimes against humanity,” he said. “These are more than sufficient grounds for the intervention of the UN Security Council.”

Brian Kagoro, spokesperson for the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a coalition of 300 civil society groups in Zimbabwe said there is a need to put stronger pressure on the Mugabe government. “The violation of human rights is a universal issue,” he said.

The European Parliament passed a resolution earlier this month urging the Council of Ministers to take a more “active and urgent” approach to Mugabe’s regime. The council brings together the heads of state or government of the 15 member states of the EU and the president of the European Commission.

The resolution sought curtailment of economic links with Harare and measures against those financing ZANU-PF activities.

Kinnock said the EU Council of Ministers had done the background work to extend sanctions “so the paperwork could be done quickly.”

She backed several demands of the Zimbabwean opposition. “I believe that travel sanctions should include business leaders who are doing business with Mugabe family members or those in the ZANU-PF party,” she said.

The MDC plans to campaign this year for a free and fair election.

Mugabe who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980 won a new mandate in 2002 in an election many international observers said was marred by vote rigging and intimidation.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of Zimbabwe has fallen 40 percent over the last four years. Annual inflation now runs at 620 percent and at present rates will pass 1,000 percent this year. Unemployment stands at 70 percent and some 6.5 million people need food aid in a population of 12.5 million.

Zimbabwe’s ambassador in Brussels Gift Punungwe said sanctions were placing “a stranglehold” on the country’s economy. “Outside is where the agenda of the country is being determined,” he said.

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