PRESIDENT MUGABE . . . has vowed he will not cede any further ground in negotiations with Tsvangirai’s MDC until all sanctions against him and his cr

Divisions have rocked the European Union about whether to renew targeted measures against Robert Mugabe and his regime cronies or heed Morgan Tsvangirai’s plea to end them to try and coax the geriatric Zimbabwean leader into fulfilling outstanding issues in the Global Political Agreement which ushered in Zimbabwe’s unity government early last year.

The EU’s council of ministers meets on 16 February to decide on the matter and authoritative diplomatic sources say it is now most likely that some names would be struck off the sanctions list as a compromise among the differing EU countries. But these would mainly be names of companies sanctioned over their close links to regime cronies and not those of targeted individuals.

The authoritative diplomatic sources said some countries led by Germany and Denmark favoured an easing of the measures to try and prod Mugabe into cooperating with Tsvangirai in addressing all outstanding issues in the GPA. 

Another group led by the Netherlands and the United Kingdom was of the view that the targeted measures should stay because nothing much has changed in terms of fostering the rule of law in Zimbabwe.

In the end, the view of some softening of the measures, accompanied by an equal easing of language to “acknowledge the reality of the GPA and encourage its implementation” would prevail, the sources said.   

Mugabe has vowed he will not cede any further ground in negotiations with Tsvangirai’s MDC until all sanctions against him and his cronies are lifted.

Sources disclosed that Tsvangirai had written to the EU recently urging the powerful bloc to lift the targeted measures, arguing that there would be no movement in talks to resolve the outstanding issues in the GPA unless the sanctions were lifted.

Last week a meeting of six “like minded countries” met in Denmark to review the situation in Zimbabwe and formulate a position ahead of the 16 February council of minister’s meeting. The meeting was attended by Zimbabwean desk officers in the foreign ministries of Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Ireland, UK and Sweden.

Sources said the meeting was told that Zimbabwean civic society very much wants the targeted sanctions to remain until there was real progress in implementing the GPA.  

But it was also argued in that meeting by the Europeans that “removing the sanctions in an incremental fashion could well be used in the bargaining power with ZANU PF….” to move the GPA forward.

It was also suggested that efforts be made to engage directly with hardliner elements in the defence forces and reformists in ZANU PF to move the reform process forward. 

Countries like Denmark and Germany supported softening the sanctions regime to encourage reforms. “Their view is that any softening of sanctions is not rewarding ZANU PF but the MDC after Tsvangirai asked for the removal of the sanctions,” said another source.

Because the EU works by consensus, the view that would finally emerge is on lifting at least some of the restrictions but not the entire package of measures, said one diplomat.

“Although the final decision will be on the 16th, you can expect the knocking off some 10 percent of the measures.  Ninety percent will then remain pending implementation of the GPA. This 10 percent would be restricted to the removal of names of companies on the sanctions before any individuals are considered…” said a diplomat.

But senior Members of the EU Parliament (MEPs), who spoke at a meeting organised by the Zimbabwe Europe Network (ZEN), this week made it categorically clear that they want to see the sanctions maintained.

MEP Anna Gomes from Portugal of the socialist S&D party told the meeting held in the EU Parliament premises that EU MEPs had wanted to visit Zimbabwe in December to get first hand feel of what was happening on the ground and had first been invited before being blocked at the last minute by the Zimbabwe government which said the time wasn’t right.

She said they were still anxiously waiting for a new date of a visit to be confirmed by the Zimbabwean embassy in Brussels. She emphasized the need to maintain the sanctions until serious progress was recorded.

Her sentiments were shared by MEP Olle Schmidt from Sweden of the liberal ALDE party who described it as a “huge shame” that Mugabe was still in power as well as Geoffrey Van Orden from UK of the Conservative ECR party, who noted that while there have been progress a lot still needed to be done.

“It seems for every two steps forward made in this process, there is always one huge step backwards…,” said Van Orden, insisting that sanctions should stay.

Prominent Zimbabwean rights activists argued for the sanctions to stay .

In fact, Gabriel Shumba, after chronicling a list of violations of the GPA by Mugabe, said he was puzzled by any suggestions that the sanctions should be lifted.

“The debate should instead be on intensifying the restrictive measures against people thwarting the implementation of the GPA,” he said.

Okay Machisa of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (Zimrights) said the restrictive measures must be maintained until there was real democracy in Zimbabwe.

The implementation of the GPA has stalled over Mugabe’s refusal to cede further ground on issues like appointment of MDC governors, reversal of his unilateral appointments of Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana, among others.

He argues that the MDC should ensure the lifting of sanctions and put an end to broadcasts by “pirate radio stations” into Zimbabwe.  Although it is secretly lobbying for the lifting of the sanctions, the MDC publicly argues it has no liability over the sanctions measures imposed in reaction to poor governance in Zimbabwe. – ZimOnline.