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US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad
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July 03, 2008, 19:15
The United States said it expects the UN Security Council to vote next week on sanctions against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and top aides for last week's widely criticised election.
US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters after a closed-door council session that he formally submitted the US-drafted resolution to the full 15-nation council. "We expect a vote on the resolution sometime next week," Khalilzad said.
The sanctions would impose an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and travel bans and asset freezes on Mugabe and 11 other senior government and security officials.
Mugabe won re-election in a June 27 run-off ballot after Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, pulled out because of attacks on his supporters. Tsvangirai had won a first-round vote on March 29.
Council diplomats have said South Africa, Russia and China oppose the idea of sanctions though they said it was not clear if Moscow and Beijing were prepared to use their veto powers given the wide condemnation of Mugabe's re-election.
The resolution will be revised in closed-door negotiations before it is put to a vote. Council diplomats say it is possible there could be changes to the proposed measures and the list of those targeted by the sanctions could shrink.
Targeted measures
It was not clear if the other council members shared Khalilzad's optimism about the timing for a vote.
"Many members of the council need time to consult their capital," Vietnamese Ambassador Le Luong Minh, president of the council for the month of July, told reporters.
Before last week's election, the Security Council unanimously condemned Mugabe's plans to go ahead with the poll, saying the campaign of violence and restrictions on the opposition made a free and fair election impossible.
Khalilzad said the council had no choice but to respond to Zimbabwe's defiance. But they do not want to do anything that would harm the country's already-suffering people, he said.
"We have proposed a resolution that will impose targeted sanctions on those that are responsible for the crisis with the expectation and hope that they will be incentivized to cooperate," he said.
French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, whose country holds the rotating half-year presidency of the European Union, reiterated the EU position that Tsvangirai should be seen as the country's legitimately elected leader.
"We should add some more pressure and we have to take measures against the people who are stealing democracy and freedom (from) the people of Zimbabwe, without harming the people of Zimbabwe," Ripert told reporters.
In addition to Mugabe, the draft text, obtained in full by Reuters, says Zimbabwean central bank governor Gideon Gono, army chief General Constantine Chiwenga and Happyton Bonyongwe, Zimbabwe's head of intelligence, would also face sanctions. - Reuters
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