Sanctions affect only top govt officials - EU

The European Union (EU) on Thursday denied any responsibility for Zimbabwe's worsening economic crisis, saying that its policy of 'smart' sanctions targets government officials and not the country's population.

"The measures adopted by the EU, as a result of the breakdown of the rule of law and human rights abuses, are the freezing of personal assets of senior members of government and other high-ranking officials, the prevention of the same to travel to EU member states, and the embargo on the sale of arms. None of these measures could affect or cause any hardship to the Zimbabwean population," the EU said in a statement.

In 2002 the EU imposed smart sanctions against Zimbabwe's government to protest against President Robert Mugabe's re-election. At the time the EU, the Commonwealth and the United States declared the election was not a true reflection of the will of the electorate. The sanctions were also linked to the government's controversial land reform programme.

The EU was reacting to comments made by officials at a recent Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Dar es Salaam, where Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa reportedly said US and EU sanctions against Zimbabwe were unwarranted and ineffectual, and called for them to be lifted.

The EU said the suspension of development cooperation programmes was mainly because Zimbabwe had "not complied with the provisions of the pertinent bilateral agreements".

It added that the Union remained concerned about the economic crisis in Zimbabwe and in the past two years had contributed US $330 million to humanitarian aid programmes.

The UN World Food Programme has estimated that over five million people across country will require food aid this year. The persistent food shortages have been attributed to ongoing drought conditions and the impact of the land reform programme on agricultural production.