The European Union has announced it will impose sanctions against an additional 52 members of the government of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe. At a meeting in Brussels Monday), E-U foreign ministers added the 52 people to a list of 20 top officials whose European assets are currently frozen, and who are banned from travelling to the continent. E-U officials say the proposed new sanctions would target Zimbabwe's elite without affecting ordinary citizens.
The European Union wants Zimbabwe's government to stop interfering with press freedom, end repression of the political opposition and halt a land reform policy that is driving white farmers off their land and slowing food production. The country faces a severe famine, which threatens half its population.