BRUSSELS: EU foreign ministers have agreed unanimously to impose targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe and to withdraw all EU election monitors from the country.
The decision follows Zimbabwe's expulsion of the Swedish head of the EU's monitoring mission, Mr Pierre Schori.
The sanctions include a travel ban and the freezing of assets of 20 named members of the Zimbabwean leadership and a ban on the export to the country of all instruments of repression.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers said President Robert Mugabe's government had prevented the deployment of an EU monitoring mission.
"The EU remains seriously concerned at political violence, serious violations of human rights and restrictions on the media which call into question the prospects for a free and fair election," they said.
Apart from Mr Mugabe, others on the sanctions list include the Foreign Minister, Mr Stan Mudenge, the Information Minister, Mr Jonathan Moyo, the Justice Minister, Mr Patrick Chinamasa, the Defence Minister, Mr Sidney Sekeramayi, and the Agriculture Minister, Mr Joseph Made.
The EU had threatened to impose sanctions if Mr Mugabe hampered the work of its election monitors.
Four of the 29 EU monitors in Zimbabwe due to report on next month's presidential election are Irish.
Mr Mugabe had stated that monitors from Britain, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden would not be welcome. The EU was careful not to send any British monitors but ministers were not prepared to allow the Zimbabwean leader to determine the nationality of its team.
Mr Schori indicated before yesterday's meeting that he did not favour the imposition of sanctions and that he believed EU monitors should remain in Zimbabwe.
"That would help people to go and vote, they feel secure, the turnout would be higher and the government would be more legitimate coming out of that election," he said.
But the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr Eoin Ryan, said it was necessary to take action to preserve the EU's credibility.
Mr Ryan, who has served as an election observer in the past, added that it was difficult for monitors to be effective if they did not have the support of the government of the host state.
Belgium's Foreign Minister, Mr Louis Michel, agreed the EU's credibility was at stake.
"It is very difficult not to take action because it is not acceptable, this way of behaving," he said.
Meanwhile, six Swedish journalists have been denied press accreditation in Zimbabwe ahead of the elections, one of the reporters said yesterday.
Gorrel Espelund, a South Africa-based correspondent of Sydsvenska Dagbladet newspaper, received a faxed letter from the Department of Information, saying her request for accreditation had been rejected.
Five other Swedish journalists received similar letters denying their accreditation requests, she added.
