As Commonwealth talks on the situation in Zimbabwe got under way Thursday in Nigeria, the European Parliament prepared a harsh condemnation of President Robert Mugabe, urging he and his family be banned from travel to the West.
In a strongly worded resolution expected to be voted later in the day, the parliament said Zimbabwe was "sliding into chaos, with a dramatic deterioration in law and order and human rights...as a direct result" of Mugabe's actions.
A "climate of fear" gripped the country, with "vicious attacks of farmers and farm workers in "acts of poltical violence," said the resolution, which alluded to the loss of a quarter million jobs, the worsening food crisis and attacks on the free press.
The resolution urged an informal EU foreign ministers meeting in Belgium this weekend to "prepare concrete steps ... by EU states to bring pressure on ... Mugabe."
It urged EU countries and associated nations to bar entry to Mugabe, "his family and named close associates."
The southern African country with a largely poor majority black population and a largely wealthy white minority has been shaken since February 2000 by seizures of white-owned farms by landless blacks and by violence by pro-government militants -- STRASBOURG (AFP)
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