Mugabe's wife on EU sanctions list

No more trips to Europe for Zimbabwe's first family

European Union foreign ministers have agreed to extend sanctions on the leadership of Zimbabwe to include an extra 52 people.

This is in addition to the 20, including President Robert Mugabe, already covered by the first wave of EU sanctions agreed in February.

[Sanctions] will stop Grace Mugabe going on her shopping trips in the face of catastrophic poverty blighting the people of Zimbabwe

Glenys Kinnock European MP

Those on the new list include family members, such as Grace Mugabe, and other political and business leaders.

They will also be banned from travelling to EU countries and any assets they hold there will be frozen.

The EU's action was welcomed by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe.

The MDC's foreign affairs spokesman Tendai Biti said that it underlined that "the eyes of the international community are still firmly fixed on Mugabe and his illegitimate regime".

Unanimous

"All the members of his cabinet and leading members of the ruling Zanu-PF party are now on the blacklist, according to an EU diplomat, quoted by Reuters news agency.

The sanctions list now includes deputy minister and assistant secretaries in government departments.

Robert Mugabe: UN flight

The vote on the new sanctions was unanimous and "underlines the EU's political will on this issue," the diplomat said.

The British Labour Party member of the European Parliament, Glenys Kinnock, said that the sanctions, "will stop Grace Mugabe going on her shopping trips in the face of catastrophic poverty blighting the people of Zimbabwe".

The European Union (EU) imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on a number of the country's leaders before the Zimbabwean elections in March.

'Man-made disaster

The EU took the measures after the head of its elections observer team was expelled from the country in a row over election violence, but there has been criticism that the sanctions are not working.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the new sanctions applied to "the whole ruling elite".

Zimbabwe has many shops and people can go shopping in Zimbabwe

Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo

"Our quarrel has never been with the people of Zimbabwe but with those who have created the mounting food crisis and what is mainly a man-made disaster".

He said the ban on travel was increasing the Zimbabwean leadership's sense of isolation and was "extremely inconvenient and humiliating" for the political leadership.

Mr Mugabe got round the travel ban last month, visiting Rome for a United Nations-sponsored food conference.

'Period of transition'

But EU diplomats argue that wider economic sanctions just are not an option - suspending aid, they say, would hurt exactly the people they are trying to protect.

EU does not want sanctions to hurt the poor

In its announcement welcoming the sanctions, the MDC called on the EU to expand the sanctions again if the "illegitimate Mugabe regime fails to take steps to end the political violence in Zimbabwe".

The movement also appealed for more humanitarian aid for southern Africa to cope with the widespread threat of famine.

Zimbabwe's Home Affairs Minister, John Nkomo, told the World Today, that political violence was not increasing in Zimbabwe.

"As a sovereign state we must be allowed to govern ourselves.

"There are human rights in Zimbabwe - we are going through a period of transition from when there were no human rights for black people in Zimbabwe."

He added: "We do not need to go shopping in Europe. Zimbabwe has many shops and people can go shopping in Zimbabwe.

"What is Europe anyway? There are other parts of the world."