Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) EU playing games: Foreign Minister

EU playing games: Foreign Minister
by Staff Reporter
16/06/2010 00:00:00

FOREIGN Affairs minister on Tuesday accused the European Union of delaying a new round of talks meant to assess progress in meeting long-delayed political and human rights reforms.

"It seems to suggest to us that the EU has never taken this dialogue seriously at all," Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said after meeting with Portugal's deputy foreign minister Antonio Braga.

"They are just playing games with the lives of people of Zimbabwe and I know that in international relations, morality is the first casualty," he said.

"We are still waiting for the EU to indicate to us when our delegation should go there and they certainly seem to be taking their time."

A Zimbabwean government delegation was supposed to travel to Brussels in May for talks on improving ties, but the trip was cancelled as a result of the cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland that disrupted flights over Europe.

Relations between Zimbabwe and the European Union were strained 10 years ago by elections marred by violence and widespread allegations of human rights abuses by President Robert Mugabe's government.

[Land reform. - MrK]

EU leaders in February renewed sanctions against Mugabe and his inner circle for another year, citing a lack of progress in implementing political and human rights reforms.

Mugabe and his Zanu PF party are pushing for the removal of the sanctions and have vowed not to make further concessions in talks with coalition partners until the measures are removed.

However British foreign secretary William Hague has insisted that any review of the sanctions would depend on progress in implementing reforms agreed in the political deal signed by Mugabe and long-term rival Morgan Tsvangirai, now the country’s prime minister.

Labels: EU, NEOCOLONIALISM, SANCTIONS, SIMBARASHE MUMBENGEGWI

posted by MrK @ 1:28 PM