Fed: Downer says Zimbabwe sanctions more lilkely
CANBERRA, Aug 16 AAP - It was now more likely Australia would implement targeted sanctionsagainst the leadership of Zimbabwe, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.
Mr Downer said what to do about Zimbabwe remained a tough question and if there wasanything simple, it would have been done long ago.
He said the government flagged some time ago that it was considering targeted sanctionsagainst Zimbabwe which would restrict the banking and travel of the president and seniorofficials.
"We haven't done that because of the Commonwealth troika initiatives which includedthe establishment of envoys from both South Africa and Nigeria who were to endeavour totry to produce some sort of process of reconciliation between President Mugabe and themovement for Democratic Change, the Opposition," he said on ABC radio.
"That has not been successful. So the prime Minister as the chairman of the troikaand the other two are in contact to see what further steps can be taken."
"We could of course move to introduce our smart sanctions that we flagged some timeago. That I think is quite likely."
Mr Downer said the situation in Zimbabwe was getting worse and there was a sense thatthe time had come to introduce those sanctions.
He said the Zimbabwean government's forcing of farmers from their land was plungingthe country into a serious food shortage.
"They are getting close to suffering famine," he said.
AAP mb/sdh/de
KEYWORD: ZIMBABWE AUST
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий