53 Zimbabweans removed from Australia ‘smart sanctions’
Violet Gonda
05 June 2006

53 individuals and two dead people have been removed from an Australian sanctions list against members of the Mugabe regime. The revision also corrected dates of birth and job titles. The list originally contained the names of 127 people. It’s reported that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) says the sanctions lists are compiled using information "available at the time" gathered in Canberra by diplomatic posts and from “like-minded countries.”

Some of those targeted received apologies. One of those targeted in November last year was newspaper mogul Trevor Ncube - publisher of Zimbabwe's last two independent newspapers and South Africa's Mail and Guardian. The South African based publisher had complained to Australia's High Commissioner in SA and had received an apology within 48 hours.

He is quoted as saying; "I was shocked and really could not understand why my name had been included amongst a list of people who to me looked like government officials, people who are pro the Mugabe regime, which is a government that has abused the human rights of a lot of Zimbabweans and cannot be said to be a democratic government."

Australia first imposed bi-lateral sanctions against the Mugabe regime in 2002 in an effort to influence the government to return to good governance and the rule of law.