Europe should not "give lectures to Zimbabwe about democracy and elections," Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe told a visiting EU envoy Monday, according to state television. Nicholas Westcott, the managing director for Africa for the European External Action Service, told Mugabe during a one-hour meeting in Harare that the bloc would only lift sanctions against the president if free and fair elections were held in the southern African country, according to dpa. Mugabe reportedly responded by asking why the European Union was "keen on dictating what Zimbabweans should do," according to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, and said it was wrong for "Europe to give lectures to Zimbabwe about democracy and elections." The EU imposed sanctions against Mugabe and his inner circle in 2002 as punishment for human rights abuses and alleged vote rigging. The bloc has renewed the sanctions, which include asset freezes, an arms embargo and travel restrictions on Mugabe and more than 160 allies, every year since then - including since the formation of a coalition government between Mugabe and former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in 2009. Westcott said: "It would be fair to say that if the people of Zimbabwe and the parties here achieve full implementation of the (coalition deal) and there are elections held that are free, fair, transparent, peaceful, then I can see no reason why sanctions should continue." Despite opposition from Tsvangirai, Mugabe has called for elections by March 2012. He has ruled out allowing election observers from the EU or former colonial power Britain.
