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The European Union condemned yesterday the worsening crisis in Zimbabwe, blasting notably President Robert Mugabe's failure to stop political intimidation, days after renewing punitive sanctions against Harare.

"The EU remains concerned at the worsening situation in Zimbabwe in all sectors," said a statement by EU foreign ministers, confirming the beefing up of sanctions including a travel ban and a freeze on Zimbabwe's assets.

The ministers "deplored the degradation of the human rights situation in Zimbabwe and the failure on the part of the government... to engage in meaningful dialogue with the opposition and civil society.

Last week EU interior and justice ministers adopted without debate an extended list of 95 Zimbabwean officials – including Mugabe - who are banned from entering EU countries and a freeze on their assets.

The EU sanctions, which now enter a third year, also include an embargo on supplies of arms and military equipment to Zimbabwe.

The US has imposed similar restrictions against the southern African country.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw highlighted that those added to the travel ban list include the head of the electoral commission and the head of the media commission "whom we judge responsible for a lot of the intimidation of papers like the Daily News, closing them down (and) intimidating journalists".

Coincidentally, the company that operates the Daily News, which is highly critical of President Robert Mugabe, said yesterday it was firing four-fifths of its 250 employees because the government is preventing it from publishing.

The newspaper, which was launched some five years ago, was closed down by armed police in September last year, at which time it had a readership of some 900 000.

It resumed publishing on January 22 following a High Court order that forced police to vacate its premises and stop interfering with its operations.

The foreign ministers, formally confirming the sanctions, underlined that they "are not directed at the Zimbabwean people," but rather are "aimed at promoting a positive development of the situation".

And it added: "The EU continues to support the mediation efforts of South Africa and SADC (the Southern African Development Community) to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis, which affects the whole of Southern Africa.

Zimbabwe last week called the renewal of the EU sanctions regrettable, saying it was aimed at inciting the people against the government.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Pavelyn Musaka said the government noted with "disappointment that the EU has persisted with the sterile policy of sanctions at the dictates and instigation of Britain, the former colonial power".

"It is regrettable that the UK continues to drag the EU into the unresolved racist and colonial issue brought about by its reneging on the Lancaster House Agreement," she said.

A peace agreement was reached in Britain in 1979 between Britain the country's guerrillas led by Mugabe and the late vice president Joshua Nkomo.

Part of the deal included settlement of the land issue, which did not take much shape until 2000 when veterans of the war of independence violently invaded and occupied white-owned farms across the country.

Britain paid a small amount of the promised money to Zimbabwe in the 1980s, a few years after independence. – Sapa-AFP.

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