| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa Subsaharan |
| EU broadens Zimbabwe sanctions |
| 2008-07-23 |
| BRUSSELS - The European Union widened sanctions against Zimbabwe Tuesday despite a deal between hardline President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai aimed at ending the political crisis. EU foreign ministers, at a meeting in Brussels, added 37 more people to a list of individuals under a visa ban and whose assets have been frozen, as well as four "legal entities", or companies. The list -- which had already included Mugabe, his wife and other senior officials -- now totals 168 people and four companies, and sees the EU for the first time target business people and companies in Zimbabwe. The new names were not immediately released so as not to alert those concerned and allow them to transfer their assets to safety. The move came despite the signing Monday of a deal between the veteran president and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai on a framework for talks on a future government. Despite the deal, ministers said it was important to keep up the pressure. "We decided to go for sanctions, because sanctions weigh heavily," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency until the end of the year. He said the ministers took the decision "not for the pleasure of imposing sanctions, but because it is a political weight and because we want to play a positive role alongside the African Union." |
| Posted by:Steve White |