EU's record on Zimbabwe 'scandalous'
Posted, June 23, 2008 @ 16:00
Geoffrey Van Orden, the Conservative MEP who has been banned from Zimbabwe for spearheading the European Parliament's opposition to the Mugabe regime, has called on the EU to intensify its sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Van Orden, who has initiated all six resolutions of the European Parliament on Zimbabwe, said:
"Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from this vicious pantomime of an election with an urgent appeal to the international community to halt the systematic genocide by Robert Mugabe of his own people.
"The EU's response must be to intensify its sanctions and implement them with total rigour. The record of the EU on this is scandalous, and real co-operation must ensue with other sanction making bodies to prevent the kind of evasions we have thus far seen.
"African leaders, especially from South Africa, must urgently condemn the crimes against humanity being perpetrated in Zimbabwe, and recognise the MDC victory in the Presidential election of March 29. Nelson Mandela should use his enormous moral authority to call on Mugabe to step down.
"The Ambassadors of all European states represented in Africa should be demanding action from the African Governments to which they are accredited. Only a global coalition of political will is now enough to lift the night from the darkest days in the history of Zimbabwe."
"Additionally, states such as China and Libya that have so far been content to turn a blind eye to Mugabe's tyranny, and even to prop up his brutal regime, must recognise the gravity of the crisis and participate in the efforts of the UN Security Council to act against the despot.