European Union lifts aid restrictions but keeps up pressure on Mugabe
Source: Reuters
The European Union lifted curbs on aid to Zimbabwe on Monday and held out the prospect of removing sanctions from Zimbabwean officials to encourage political reform – though not from President Robert Mugabe and his inner circle.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels lifted the aid restrictions with immediate effect but said a broader relaxation of sanctions would depend on a referendum on constitutional changes due this year in Zimbabwe being "peaceful and credible".
The step is part of the strategy by western countries of rewarding Zimbabwe's uneasy coalition government for progress made since a disputed 2008 vote, while keeping up pressure on Mugabe to carry out more political, economic and social reforms.
A spokesman for Mugabe's Zanu-PF movement said the EU's decision proved his party's long-held view that Zimbabwe was under economic sanctions, and that a case the southern African country filed last month with the general court of the EU challenging the sanctions was valid.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/23/zimbabwe-robert-mugabe
