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NEWS STORY
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EU: Keep Sanctions on
Mugabe's Inner Circle
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Human Rights Watch
January 29, 2010
(New York) - The European Union should maintain its travel
restrictions and asset freezes on President Robert Mugabe and his
inner circle until Zimbabwe carries out the concrete human rights
reforms set out in the 2008 Global Political Agreement, Human
Rights Watch said today. The EU is currently reviewing its
sanctions policy toward Zimbabwe.
The Agreement, which established a power-sharing government,
was implemented in February 2009 by Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe
African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), and the
then-opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Morgan
Tsvangirai. It contained specific measures to promote freedom of
speech and the rule of law, end politically motivated violence,
and apply laws of the country fully and impartially in bringing to
justice all perpetrators of politically motivated violence. But
the repression has continued, and the perpetrators are not being
held to account for their actions.
"ZANU-PF has continued committing grave human rights abuses and
acting as if the agreement had never been signed," said Georgette
Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The European Union
runs the risk of reinforcing ongoing repression and impunity in
Zimbabwe if it eases the sanctions now."
In September, the European Union sent a delegation to Zimbabwe
to assess the implementation of the Agreement. The delegation
found that the inclusive government had failed to meet the
benchmarks the EU had established for resuming development
cooperation with Zimbabwe and lifting targeted travel and
financial restrictions on senior ZANU-PF members. The Swedish
minister for international development, Gunilla Carlsson, who was
part of the EU delegation, said then that targeted sanctions
against Zimbabwe would not be lifted until human rights abuses
ended.
Human Rights Watch's ongoing research and analysis in Zimbabwe
show that the human rights situation there remains virtually the
same as during the EU delegation's visit. As Human Rights Watch
said in an August report on Zimbabwe's new power-sharing government,
state agents affiliated with ZANU-PF continue to abduct and kill
MDC activists without punishment and to arrest its legislators on
spurious charges. Zimbabwe's oppressive media laws remain
unchanged. Illegal invasions of commercial farms, frequently led
by military personnel allied with ZANU-PF, are continuing; and
there has been no meaningful progress in instituting promised
human rights reforms or in demonstrating respect for the rule of
law.
Some government-owned companies subject to EU sanctions, like
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), are also actively
involved in mining diamonds in eastern Zimbabwe, where Human
Rights Watch has
uncovered rampant abuses by the armed forces, including forced
labor, child labor, killings, beatings, smuggling, and corruption.
These abuses continue and justify the need to maintain pressure on
ZANU-PF to honor its signed commitment to reform, Human Rights
Watch said.
The European Union in 2002 began imposing travel restrictions
and asset freezes on Mugabe and about 200 senior ZANU-PF
officials, as well as on some state-owned companies with close
ties to the party. The first round of sanctions followed Mugabe's
controversial re-election that year, a breakdown of the rule of
law, systemic human rights violations, and chaotic and often
violent land seizures.
"Some in Europe might believe that making concessions is the
way to get ZANU-PF to moderate its behavior, but ZANU-PF has shown
that it would only take this as a sign of weakness and dig in its
heels even further," Gagnon said. "The European Union should
insist before it takes any action that ZANU-PF makes the concrete
and irreversible improvements in human rights and the rule of law
that it agreed to."
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