Swiss renews Zim targeted sanctions

By Alex Bell
15 March 2010

Switzerland has joined the European Union (EU) and America in extending targeted sanctions against Robert Mugabe and his inner circle, in the latest indication of the international community’s growing impatience with the lack of progress made by the unity government.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry in a statement over the weekend said that it was renewing the measures slapped on senior officials of Mugabe’s regime in March 2002.

“The measures include a prohibition on supply of military equipment and materials which might be used for internal repression and targeted financial sanctions, such as freezing of assets owned by the 160-plus individuals in Switzerland,” the ministry said. Individuals on the sanctions list are also prohibited from entering Switzerland or from travelling through the country in transit.

The EU last month also extended its targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe for a further 12 months, after widespread concern that the European powerhouse would remove the measures altogether. The EU instead moved only to de-list six individuals and nine companies, citing a “lack of progress in the implementation of the Global Political Agreement signed in September 2008.”

America followed soon afterwards, with President Barack Obama announcing that US measures would not be removed. Australia and New Zealand have also maintained their visa and financial sanctions against Mugabe and his cronies, regardless of Mugabe trying to blame the targeted sanctions for the economic collapse of the country over the last decade. The sanctions issue has also been used by ZANU PF as a weapon against the MDC, which has been accused of not doing enough to get the West to remove the sanctions. ZANU PF has since vowed not to make any further concessions to its partners in the fragile unity government until the targeted sanctions are removed; leaving the ongoing inter-party talks deadlocked.

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