New Zealand extends travel sanctions on Mugabe regime

By Henry Makiwa
12 December 2007

New Zealand on Tuesday extended targeted sanctions against Robert Mugabe's regime by announcing that it will deny visas to students whose parents are associated with the ruling Zanu PF.
The move widens existing sanctions that prevent members of Mugabe's cabinet and their spouses from visiting New Zealand. It also follows the targeted sanctions on Mugabe’s cronies by the European Union, Australia and the US. The development is in line with increasing the pressure on Mugabe’s administration, as incidents of state-sponsored political violence escalate in the country ahead of next year’s crucial elections.

In a statement the New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, said his government was “deeply concerned by the continuing destructive conduct” of Mugabe. The measure aims to increase pressure on senior officials to change government policies, Peters added.
In August this year Australia deported eight Zimbabwean university students whose parents are senior members of Mugabes’ government. Both countries say they are concerned about the rising levels of political violence in Zimbabwe. In addition, Mugabe’s policies are blamed for the nation's economic collapse, which has seen the country plunge into nine years of economic recession.
A Zimbabwean pressure group, the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, has welcomed the tightening of screws on the Mugabe regime.

New Zealand based Manda Akhe Dube said: “This is a progressive move by my host government. Every effort to increase the heat on the Mugabe regime is needed until a return to democracy and good governance is obtained. Zimbabwe's education used to be any envy to many in the global community and that should be the case. So it is immoral that those who have 'killed' the education be the first to avoid the institutions by sending their children outside the country to study. Who knows these kids may well be funded off the public purse.”

The US also announced recently that they would revoke the student visas of the children of ZANU-PF officials studying in that country and deport them. International pressure is growing as Mugabe remains defiant and appears to be headed for elections next year, without making any major changes that could lead the country towards democracy.

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