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Zim facing new sanctions
03/12/2007 19:57 - (SA)
Washington - The United States plans in the next few days to slap new travel and financial sanctions on about 40 more people with ties to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, said a senior US official on Monday.
"The goal is to highlight the absolutely abysmal human rights situation in Zimbabwe," said the official, who asked not to be named. US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, was set to make the announcement later on Monday.
"We are turning the pressure up," he said, adding that the sanctions would be implemented in the coming days.
Mugabe, 83, is accused of plunging the southern African state into its worst economic crisis through a series of controversial policies. He has also cracked down hard on the opposition, and rights groups say he has beaten, tortured and in some cases killed anti-Mugabe activists.
The United States has already imposed sanctions on about 130 people with ties to Mugabe and the plan is to expand that list by putting financial restrictions on about half a dozen more and travel bans on an additional three dozen, the official said.
Included in travel bans will be the offspring of some prominent Zimbabweans studying in the US, whose visas will be revoked.
"The point of this is to show that conditions on the ground are getting worse and that a number of the individuals we are adding are directly responsible for human rights abuses," the official said.
The US has signaled strong support for Zimbabwe's opposition movement, which has been subject to a massive crackdown by Mugabe who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980.
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