EU threatens to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe

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Leading article: Sanctions are the only answer to Mr Mugabe

The European Union will give Zimbabwe a final warning next week that it will impose sanctions if President Robert Mugabe refuses to accept European observers at the leadership elections next year.

But Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister, Stan Mudenge, said the EU would not be allowed to send in election monitors for the election unless they proved their neutrality.

If sanctions are imposed, they would almost certainly include a suspension of aid and trade concessions worth millions of pounds. The EU might also consider visa bans or a freeze on the assets of senior figures in the government.

The European Commission has already challenged the Zimbabwean government over issues such as illegal land occupation, the use of violence as a means of enforcement, and the controls exerted over electoral procedures, the media and the judiciary. But talks have failed and EU foreign ministers will issue a "final warning" on Monday. Sanctions would not be automatic but could be imposed after two months.

One Belgian diplomat said there is "impatience on the European side". Another EU official said that the reaction of the Zimbabweans was "disappointing". Mr Mugabe has been put under further pressure by the arrival of a group of Commonwealth ministers in Harare yesterday to review Zimbabwe's land problems.

A wave of violence had been unleashed by Mr Mugabe's policy of seizing white-owned commercial farms. On 6 September, with the signing of the Abuja treaty, Mr Mugabe had promised to put an end to the practice in exchange for financial support from Britain and other countries. But despite this move, militant government supporters have occupied many hundreds more farms since then, and white farmers say that the violence has only intensified.

Dave Hasluck, the director of the mainly white Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said this week that militant government supporters had occupied about 700 farms after the accord was signed. The CFU predicts that Zimbabwe's agricultural output will fall next year by over 40 per cent because of the continuing violence on the farms.

Britain, which is sending its relatively junior Africa minister, Baroness Valerie Amos, said it was approaching the Harare meeting ''without great hope''. However, it still did not intend to present Mr Mugabe with an ultimatum on the issue.

Zimbabwe government ministers this week accused Britain of "hijacking Abuja" and using the accord to support the opposition in Zimbabwe. They said that Zimbabwe had done everything to implement Abuja and that it was Britain that was dragging its feet on releasing money to pay for land reform.

Some government ministers visited occupied farms and appealed to illegal settlers on the properties to avoid violence. But critics said the move was just a propaganda exercise aimed at hoodwinking the visiting Commonwealth ministers.

The looting continued this week. A farmer, Guy Coke-Norris, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars when war veterans destroyed two hectares of his flower crop, which was ready for export to Holland.

A tearful Mr Coke-Norris said he had been preparing to start harvesting the crop at the weekend when rowdy war veterans, who have occupied his farm since last year, drove a tractor across his field, destroying two hectares of exotic Kangaroo Paws. The war veterans have also destroyed his gumtree plantation.

Mr Coke-Norris' brother, Anthony, who owns the adjacent Lavestock Farm, and another neighbouring farmer, Brian James, had abandoned their properties earlier this week, voicing strong disappointment at the failure of the Abuja accord.

Mr Coke-Norris said he had been left with no option but to leave his property after his market gardening project and his brick moulding factory were destroyed. Two houses owned by his sons on the farm had also been looted and he said he had received death threats.

Analysts in Harare suggested yesterday that it was naive of the international community to expect an end to the violence before the forthcoming presidential elections.

One diplomat said: "The land issue is the only platform that (the ruling) party has. The economy is in complete collapse so the promise of land – however illusory – is the one thing Mr Mugabe can use.

"To add to that, he is now totally hostage to the war vets. They are like a government within the government.''