The European Union has extended targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe for another year, the European Commission announced Monday. The sanctions include an arms embargo, travel bans on top officials and a freeze on their financial assets.
The list includes President Robert Mugabe and more than one hundred ministers and ruling ZANU-PF party officials. Extended until February 20, 2007, the sanctions were first imposed in response to Zimbabwe’s chaotic and often violent land reform drive.
The U.S. government similarly extended its “smart sanctions” late last year.
Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga called the extension of sanctions “a non-event” as the nature and scope of sanctions has not changed.
Parliamentary Liaison Officer Herman Honekom of the Africa Institute in Capetown, South Africa, told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA’s Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that such sanctions have delivered mixed results for the West as a pressure tactic.
More reports from VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe...