EC to review Zimbabwe poll setback

Schori left Zimbabwe Saturday evening.

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- EU foreign ministers are to discuss on Monday whether to respond to the expulsion of its election monitoring chief from Zimbabwe.

Swedish diplomat Pierre Schori was effectively thrown out of Zimbabwe ahead of presidential elections in the country on March 9-10, after he was told he had shown "political arrogance."

He had already compiled a report for the European Union on the situation in Zimbabwe.

His expulsion will have added to the EU's concern about the status of the existing 30-member monitoring team, and one senior diplomat told Reuters that the imposition of sanctions could be back on the agenda.

The EU had staved off from such action last month as part of a deal with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe which allowed election monitors to enter the country.

Emma Udwin, spokeswoman for the European Commission, said: "Now that Schori has been forced to leave, an assessment has to be made on the viability of the EU mission in Zimbabwe and that will be the task of the ministers in Brussels on Monday."

The senior diplomat told Reuters: "Our objective is not just to keep the observers there.

"They also have to be operational. If the ministers feel the mission is being frustrated, strung along...I think they'll conclude that sanctions are unavoidable."

The situation has been worsened after at least one Swedish journalist was also told to leave Zimbabwe just hours after Schiro was expelled.

Gorrel Espelund said on Sunday that she had received a faxed letter from Zimbabwe's Department of Information informing her that her application to cover the presidential elections had been turned down.

Espelund -- the South Africa-based correspondent for the Sydsvenska Dagbladet newspaper --told Reuters that two other journalists working on different newspapers had been sent the same letter.

Sweden is one of six countries Mugabe has refused to give accreditation to.

Mugabe faces his biggest electoral challenge in his 22 years of rule.

Britain is another of the half dozen countries barred from covering the election. Members of the British Broadcasting Corporation have been prevented from entering the country for the past year for alleged bias.

Zimbabwe's parliament passed a tough new media bill two weeks ago that restricts access for foreign reporters and imposes tight controls on the local media in the run-up to the poll.

Britain had been one of those countries pushing for economic sanctions before the agreement was struck with Zimbabwe, but France has been sceptical about the possible effectiveness of them.

The Zimbabwe government says Sweden and the other five countries have shown bias in their coverage of the country's events.

A senior Zimbabwe government official, talking about Schori's expulsion, said on Saturday: "Schori is in breach of his visa conditions. He is guilty of trying to impose himself on our electoral process.

"He is guilty of political arrogance and of insulting behaviour and this cannot continue. He is not welcome, he cannot stay."

Schori said in a statement before his departure: "Leaving Harare today, my feelings are more of sorrow than of anger."

The Swedish ambassador to the United Nations, had been head of the EU observer team for the June 2000 parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe. In his report to the EU, he concluded the elections were neither free nor fair.