Site: World Trade Organization Member Countries

28 July 2010

Following recent talks with a delegation of Zimbabwean officials, the European Union has proposed a mechanism to allow individuals and companies under EU travel and financial sanctions to approach Brussels on an individual basis and present documentation as to why their names should be taken off the list.

Like the United States, Australia and other countries, EU member countries imposed sanctions on President Robert Mugabe and about 200 members of his inner circle over the past decade, citing human rights violations.

The EU offer came as South African president Jacob Zuma relaunched his mediation efforts in Harare after a break during the World Cup of soccer which his country hosted from mid-June to mid-July.

Sources said lead South African facilitator Mac Maharaj was meeting Wednesday in Harare with all three principals of the national unity government set up in February 2009 and often troubled since then over a lengthening agenda of so-called outstanding issues relating to the 2008 Global Political Agreement for power sharing.

Energy Minister Elton Mangoma of the Movement for Democratic Change formation led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai led the recent Zimbabwean government delegation to Brussels. Mangoma told an MDC publication that the EU said listed individuals and companies could apply for the release of assets to meet basic needs.

President Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party have long maintained that the country’s precipitous economic decline over the past decade was caused by Western sanctions, which they said were in response to land reform.

Said Mangoma: “They can request the council with supporting documentation justifying why the (EU) Council decision to put them on the list should be reconsidered and they can also challenge the Council decision to include them on the list before the General Court of the European Union.”

ZANU-PF has taken the position that Western sanctions must be lifted before it will implement the Global Political Agreement in full. It has also demanded that radio broadcasts into the country from abroad must cease.

But the EU and the MDC say ZANU-PF can help its cause most by bringing into line party hardliners who are resisting full implementation of the power-sharing agreement on a number of points.

ZANU-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo said the EU’s latest proposal was not serious. But political analyst Charles Mangongera said ZANU-PF members cannot take the EU up on the offer because their hands are dirty.

Elsewhere, the Zimbabwean Cabinet on Tuesday reconfirmed a week-old resolution that controversial ZANU-PF musical spots which some refer to as “jingles” are inappropriate and should be taken off the air. A cabinet source told VOA that the issue was discussed at length during the weekly cabinet meeting.

Despite last week’s resolution, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation Chief Executive Happison Muchechetere has refused to pull the songs which say President Mugabe remains in charge despite power sharing.

Liberation war veterans of the ZANU-PF-related Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army or ZANLA support the songs, while ex-fighters of the Zimbabwe Peoples Revolutionary Army or ZIPRA oppose them. ZIPRA was the armed wing of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union or ZAPU, absorbed into ZANU-PF in the 1980s.

ZIPRA veteran Max Mnkandla, head of the Zimbabwe Liberators Peace Initiative, said the war is over so there is no need for the national broadcaster to air songs which he said are insulting to the Zimbabwean people.

BRUSSELS - European Union (EU) foreign ministers Monday approved a list of sanctions on Iran which go well beyond the measures approved by the UN, officials confirmed.

The sanctions are meant to pressurize Iran into ending its disputed uranium enrichment programme. Tehran says that the programme is purely for peaceful means, but the UN wants it halted until Iran proves that it is not trying to build a nuclear bomb.

EU foreign ministers approved a list of sanctions after a short debate, the council of EU member states said in a brief statement.

Details of the sanctions are only expected to be published Tuesday when the measures officially take effect.

But ahead of Monday’s meeting, diplomats said that they would target Iran’s banks, shipping companies and airlines and ban the transfer of European equipment and technology to the country’s oil and gas sector.

“We have a comprehensive set of sanctions … This is something where you’ll see all 27 (EU) countries working together,” the EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, told journalists as she arrived at the monthly ministerial meeting.

Ministers stressed that the purpose of the sanctions was to encourage Iran to negotiate, admitting that the measures themselves would not be enough to halt the enrichment programme.

“I remain to meet anyone who thinks that this issue is going to be sorted out by sanctions alone, so I think we’ll have to look at the different ways in which we can strengthen and emphasise the diplomatic track,” Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said.

Ministers also warned that the EU’s sanctions regime, by going beyond UN measures, could have unwanted side-effects on EU companies.

“When it comes to measures which are not implemented by the whole international community, then it allows other countries not to follow them … Countries in the region, countries in East Asia could easily substitute European businesses” in Iran, Cypriot Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou said.

Most of the sanctions, such as asset freezes on regime figures and businesses, are due to come into force as soon as they are published in the EU’s official journals.

However, others will have to wait for national legislation to put them into effect, a process which could take some weeks.