Britain Looks to Un to Squeeze Mugabe

Gordon Brown said yesterday that Britain would seek to tighten the vice around Robert Mugabe's government through a UN-imposed arms embargo, due to be voted on today.

A US resolution proposed in the security council goes beyond the planned financial sanctions aimed at the regime's leaders, and would hit Russian and Chinese weapons exporters, as well as private European dealers.

The ban would cover the direct supplies of weapons, military vehicles and equipment, Brown said at the end of the G8 summit meeting in Japan.

But it faces the possibility of a veto from Russia and China. China has repeatedly resisted measures it sees as interfering in Zimbabwe's internal affairs.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, agreed to a G8 censure of Mugabe, but said yesterday "no concrete decisions" had been taken on further measures.

Brown pointedly praised his G8 colleagues for backing measures to isolate what he described as the criminal cabal running Zimbabwe. He claimed the resolution would gain considerable, if not unanimous, support at the UN.

The resolution, co-sponsored by five European security council members, also calls for a worldwide freeze on the assets of 14 Zimbabwean leaders, including Mugabe, as well as a worldwide travel ban on the same individuals.

Brown said: "With this resolution there should be no safe haven and no hiding place for the criminal cabal that now make up the Mugabe regime."

British intelligence believes that members of Mugabe's Zanu-PF have transferred assets to Switzerland, currently outside the scope of the EU sanctions. Officials acknowledge that it may take up to a week to get an agreement on the resolution.

"The benefit of this resolution is [that] the whole of the international community will be freezing their assets wherever they are held and will prohibit the 14 named leaders from traveling anywhere in the world," said Brown. His remarks came a day after it was revealed he had used shock tactics to shame the G8 into backing sanctions against Mugabe. Brown showed leaders photographs of the mutilated body of an opponent of the Zanu-PF. The charred body of Joshua Bakacheza was dumped on farmland after he was shot three times.

In the face of Russian reluctance to impose sanctions, Brown is pointing to Medvedev's decision to agree to a statement that supports financial sanctions against certain individuals in Zimbabwe. The G8 statement did not mention an arms embargo.

Brown also defended the plan in the resolution for a UN-appointed envoy to act as a mediator alongside South Africa's effort.

"We have to make it clear that the international community must know from someone representing the international community on the ground about the beatings, the deaths, the intimidation, the violence, the suppression of dissent, the arrest of political prisoners - all that has got be known to the world," he said.

Sir John Sawers, Britain's ambassador to the UN, said it would be "unwise" for Moscow to use its veto to prevent measures against Harare.

Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, told the BBC: "I personally believe that some elements of the draft are quite excessive, in fact incongruous and clearly in conflict with the notion of sovereignty of a state member of the United Nations."

Yuri Fedotov, Russia's ambassador to the UK, told the Guardian: "We're quite sceptical about the efficiency of sanctions. The humanitarian implications have to be taken into consideration, so they need more serious reflection. We see this still as rather a domestic situation."

Sawers cautioned Moscow not to backtrack on assurances given in Japan. "I think the Russians will need to think a little carefully about signing up to such a statement one day in the G8 and then blocking something which implements it in the security council just a day or so later," he told the BBC.

South Africa, which also has a seat on the security council and is Zimbabwe's most important neighbour in the region, has said it opposes sanctions. Diplomatic observers say China is reluctant to impose sanctions but would also be unwilling to wield its veto alone among the five permanent members of the security council.

British officials said last night they expected a vote today.