EU extends sanctions on Zimbabwe for another year

By Staff Writer
31 January 2006

The European Union on Monday extended for another 12 months a series of sanctions against Zimbabwe.

According to Reuters, the sanctions include an arms embargo, travel bans on certain officials and a freezing of their assets.

The list of visa bans and freezing of assets includes Robert Mugabe and his two deputies, and more than a hundred ministers and officials who the EU accuses of human rights violations.

The regime in the country is also accused of violations of freedom of speech and assembly. The sanctions were extended until February next year by EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels.

The targetted sanctions were initially triggered by the controversial handing of white-owned commercial farms to mainly landless peasants and Mugabe’s disputed re-election in 2002.