Brussels, 18/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - Three weeks from the presidential elections to be held on 9 and 10 March in Zimbabwe, the Foreign Ministers of the EU15 decided, on Monday, by unanimity, to formally close consultations between the Union and this country, to impose "targeted sanctions" on its leading elite and to carry out withdrawal of all Union observers still in place in Harare. Sanctions consist in the freeze of assets held abroad and of visas for travelling to the Union of 20 government members - notably Robert Mugabe or those close to him - as well as an embargo on all exports of arms and equipment that could be used for internal repression in Zimbabwe.
The expulsion, on Saturday, of the head of the EU electoral observation mission - Swedish diplomat Pierre Schori - who was ordered to leave Zimbabwe, and the picture that he gave to ministers of the worsening of the situation on the ground have played a decisive role in the decision to implement the threat of sanctions made on 28 January if the conditions for free, transparent and equitable elections were not met. The conditions included the demand that Zimbabwe should allow Union observers to carry out their mission successfully, that they grant free access to the international media for coverage of the elections, and that they prevent any serious deterioration of the situation in terms of human rights violations or attacks against the opposition. Pierre Schori's report convinced people that none of the conditions had been met. The report pointed out that the 26 long-term observers had been trained and motivated but that political violence on a greater scale than during the general elections of 2000 and the government heavy-handed intervention against the opposition and the media had made the situation unpredictable and did not guarantee that the observer mission could be carried out credibly and with respect.
In legal terms, the texts adopted by the ministers included the Council's conclusions explaining their decision; a decision to close the consultations that had been launched on 11 January under Article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement a Council common position on restrictive measures against the government; a list of the 20 targeted people; and a regulation to implement the sanctions with immediate effect. The sanctions will apply for twelve months, after which the situation will be reviewed.
The Council therefore concluded that the negotiations aiming to find a solution to the problems of human rights violations, violations of democratic principles and the rule of law in Zimbabwe had failed. The adopting of a common position means that all the Member States agree with the majority view that "intelligent" sanctions should be applied (proposed on the initiative of the UK). Portugal, Finland and Spain were calling for an observer mission to be maintained, possibly on a bilateral basis, but agreed to lift their reservations, while France and Belgium, which had doubts about the effectiveness of the proposals sanctions, made no attempt to hide the fact that they would have preferred to wait for the elections before imposing sanctions. Spain shared this view but did not want to oppose the majority view.
The withdrawal of the EU's observers will take place over the next 24 hours, but it does prevent n the EU from financially supporting the presence of other international observers. Commissioner Chris Patten said that the EU had mobilised EUR 700,000 towards the sending of observers by the SADC.