Calls made for wider sanctions as Mugabe defies EU travel ban

Date: 13/06/02

By David Cronin

MEP Glenys Kinnock has urged Europe's leaders to widen their sanctions against Zimbabwe's ruling elite after President Robert Mugabe this week sidestepped a travel ban to attend a UN conference in Rome.

The 78-year-old Zimbabwean dictator took advantage of international entitlements, which supersede the EU action, to attend the four-day food and agriculture summit as a head of state.

Kinnock, who chairs the joint Parliamentary assembly with the African, Caribbean and Pacific bloc, denied that Mugabe's trip to Italy proved the sanctions - imposed last February - were ineffective.

'Mugabe and his cronies are clearly unhappy about Europe's travel ban and are using this opportunity to undermine public confidence and try to force a change of policy,' said Kinnock.

'We must send a clear signal that the EU will not pander to Mugabe's desire to parade on the international stage.'

She wants EU foreign ministers to extend the scope of the 'smart sanctions' on Harare during their Luxembourg meeting next week (17-18 June).

The measures, which include the freezing of assets and the denial of visas, were taken after the Zimbabwean authorities thwarted the work of an EU team sent to monitor the disputed presidential elections in March.

Kinnock believes the sanctions should now cover all cabinet members, business leaders, advisors to Mugabe and their families.

It was deeply ironic, she said, that the leader should attend a food summit when hunger is a daily reality for many of his people.

'Instead of staying at home, where inflation is at 113, unemployment at 60 and where a quarter of the population faces starvation, Mugabe chooses to climb into his custom built, state-of-the-art Mercedes and board Zimbabwe Airlines, where no doubt he will have commandeered the first class cabin, if not the whole plane.'

Mugabe's visit to Italy was also condemned by Conservative MEP Geoffrey Van Orden.

Speaking at the opening of the Parliamentary plenary session in Strasbourg on Monday, he said: 'President Mugabe's visit to the World Food Summit in Rome is an act of astounding hypocrisy.'

'The mass food shortages and starvation in many parts of Zimbabwe can be attributed in significant measure to his misgovernment and corrupt land 'reforms'. The fact that he is able to travel to Rome at all is a mockery of international law and of the EU's travel ban. The international community must find more effective ways of controlling the actions of Mugabe and his courtiers.'

Mugabe used the summit as an opportunity to defend his policy of forcing white farm owners off their land and transferring it to blacks.

He said this would enable the indigenous people to 'fight poverty by directly working on their own land'.

MEP Glenys Kinnock has urged Europe's leaders to widen their sanctions against Zimbabwe's ruling elite after President Robert Mugabe sidestepped a travel ban to attend a UN conference in Rome.