DETAILS of UK-registered companies with links to Zimbabwe whose assets are being frozen are set to be revealed today as European sanctions against Robert Mugabe start to bite.

Graham Dines

DETAILS of UK-registered companies with links to Zimbabwe whose assets are being frozen are set to be revealed today as European sanctions against Robert Mugabe start to bite.

More than 100 members of Robert Mugabe's regime are already subject to economic sanctions and a European travel ban imposed by EU governments.

Now EU foreign ministers have stepped up measures to include another 60 firms and individuals identified as helping to keep the regime afloat.

Conservative East of England Euro MP Geoffrey Van Orden, who has played a leading role to try to bring an end to Mugabe's regime said: “Given the appalling situation in Zimbabwe, stronger sanctions against Mugabe and those keeping him in power are necessary. I welcome the EU measures but they must be rigorously implemented.

“Too often the EU pays lip service to tough action and then finds every way possible to evade its own measures. It is the greatest moral stain on Africa that so many leaders have applauded Mugabe or stood quietly by while the Zimbabwean people have been systematically brutalised and starved.

“It is a sad comment on Britain's standing at this time, and the poverty of its foreign policy, that the Government is unable to persuade Commonwealth African countries, in particular, to take the right action over Mugabe.''

He said it was now crucial to get southern African countries, particularly South Africa, to "disown'' Mugabe.