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HARARE - Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge said the European Union has no right to demand that Harare accept EU observers at the hotly contested presidential election in March, in a statement received Thursday.

"It is the position of my government that there is nothing in the Cotonou Agreement giving the EU the right to make such a demand or issue such an ultimatum," Mudenge said Wednesday at a regional task force meeting on Zimbabwe.

The Cotonou Agreement signed last year governs relations between the European Union and Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

The deal created preferential trading status for the countries involved, but also insisted that members uphold human rights and democratic standards.

EU foreign ministers have given Zimbabwe a February 3 deadline to accept its observers at the poll, or face sanctions targetted against President Robert Mugabe's regime.

The sanctions could include a suspension of EU aid, as well as travel bans and freezing of assets for Mugabe and 20 others in his inner circle.

Mudenge said Zimbabwe would invoke article 98 of the Cotonou Agreement, which allowed members to bring a dispute before the EU-ACP council of ministers for settlement.

The statement followed a meeting Wednesday by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), which voiced concern over Mugabe's crackdown on political opponents ahead of elections.

"It is clear to us that the manner in which the situation in this country is being treated by the CMAG and the EU is an attempt to perpetuate an archaic colonial relationship between Europe and Africa," Mudenge said.

"We have no dialogue, but a monologue, for although we have raised our own concerns about external interference, we have received neither a response nor an acknowledgement," he said.

Mudenge was speaking at the start of Southern African Development Community (SADC) task force meeting in Harare on Zimbabwe's crisis.

On Monday, Mugabe invited several organizations, mostly of African states, to send observers to the election.

The EU and the Commonwealth were invited, but he specifically excluded Britain from joining their teams.

Mugabe also said the EU could only come as part of a joint delegation with the ACP, which the ACP would lead.

Mugabe's government has come under increasing international pressure ahead of the election over the sometimes deadly campaign of intimidation led by his supporters against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Nampa-Sapa-AFP