Brussels, 02/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - Morgan Tsvangirai, President of the Movement for Democratic Change, Zimbabwe's leading opposition party, will be visiting Strasbourg on Tuesday 3 July. While there, he will meet European Commission Vice-President Neil Kinnock and External Relations and Development Commissioners, Chris Patten and Poul Nielson. He will speak at a meeting with MEPs organised by John Corrie, President of the EU/ACP Joint Parliamentary Assembly, and Glenys Kinnock, who is one of the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly.
On this occasion, the leader of the opposition in Zimbabwe plans to call on the EU to: - put pressure on President Mugabe to ensure that free and fair presidential elections take place in March next year; - impose targeted sanctions on the Mugabe regime, in particular travel bans on Mugabe and his Ministers; - provide humanitarian aid to the population of Zimbabwe, if and when food shortages reach a critical point this autumn.