US mooting new sanctions against Zimbabwe

Washington, Mar 15 (UNI) The Bush administration is considering new additional sanctions against Zimbabwe in protest against Sunday's ''arrests and beatings'' of opposition leaders in capital Harare.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, Barry Lowenkron will raise the issue during his consultations with the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, today, and will press for a stronger African response to the Harare government's action.

State Department's Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey, who gave this information yesterday, said the United States would consult ''other like-minded countries,'' including members of the European Union, on possible punitive measures against the Mugabe government.

He said the current US sanctions, imposed in 2002 and 2003, had been ''very specific and focused on individuals who have been associated with some of these repressive policies''.

Mr Casey said Lowenkron would ''see what we can do with our African Union partners to push the Zimbabwean government to allow for peaceful political participation from its citizens and from the opposition''.

Zimbabwe's political opposition, including Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai, plan to participate in Saturday's funeral of a protester who was killed during the police action during an opposition ''prayer meeting'' on March 11.

The US spokesman called on the Zimbabwean government to refrain from any actions against that funeral and events surrounding it and to allow that to move forward peacefully and without any further incidents of violence or intimidation.

He said, ''US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell intends to meet Tsvangirai, who is recuperating from injuries reportedly received while in police custody, as soon as he is physically able to receive visitors.'' Mr Casey also said the Bush administration wanted to see the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva address the issue.'' A state Department official noted that although beatings and acts of intimidation against government opponents have occurred before, such as during the country's previous election, ''this is a qualitatively different kind of reaction to opposition efforts.'' ''People really ought to be shocked to see how this happened, and to not only see that the initial breakup and violent breakup happened, but to then have people who are basically in the leadership of a substantial portion of the Zimbabwean political community be savagely beaten while in detention and then denied medical treatment on top of it,'' the official said.

UNI