In addition, Washington said it would work to convince the international community, especially Zimbabwe's neighbors, to ratchet up pressure on President Robert Mugabe and his aides to end their repressive behavior and press them to hold "early free and fair elections."
To that end, the State Department released a glossy 16-page pamphlet entitled "Zimbabwe's Man-made Crisis" documenting a litany of abuses committed by the country's leadership since independence in 1980.
"Mugabe has brought the country of Zimbabwe untold suffering," said Scott Carpenter, an official in the department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor which published the booklet.
"By riding roughshod over the political and human rights of his fellow Zimbabweans, by demonstrating his total disregard for human rights and democracy, Robert Mugabe has succeeded in reducing a once-promising nation with a bright future to a state of ruin, desolation and isolation," he said.
The booklet, distributed just five days after US President George W. Bush ordered frozen the assets of Mugabe and 76 other Zimbabwean officials, is to be widely distributed at the annual meeting of the UNHCR which gets underway next week, he said.
"We hope it will have a strong impact and stir a vigorous debate," Carpenter said.
Senior State Department officials said they hoped to lobby South Africa and other African countries on the 53-nation commission to sponsor a resolution condemning Zimbabwe at the meeting.
But, if unsuccessful in doing that, the officials said the United States, backed by Britain and some Latin American countries might sponsor a resolution themselves.
South Africa, which has pursued a policy of "quiet diplomacy" toward Zimbabwe and along with Nigeria has called for lifting Harare's suspension from the Commonwealth, is unlikely to sponsor such a resolution, they said.
That wavering, coupled with France's invitation for Mugabe to visit Paris for a French-African summit last month despite an EU travel ban, threaten to undermine the effectiveness of the sanctions, the officials said.
"Now is not the time to lift the sanctions," said Mark Bellamy, a senior official in the State Department's Bureau of African Affairs.
"This is the time that we need to apply maximum pressure on the government of Zimbabwe to abandon these repressive policies and to begin a process of liberalization leading to early free and fair elections," he said - Sapa-AFP
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