Austria closes its Harare embassy

Austria has closed its embassy in Harare as part of austerity measures to ease the financial crisis which has hit hard on European countries and is now affecting other parts of the world.

The financial crisis which is currently wrecking havoc on European countries has badly affected Austria which is now implementing measures to cut down on costs.

As part of such measures, Austria has closed its embassy in Harare.

Outgoing Austrian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Ms Maria Moya Goesth paid a courtesy call on the Acting President, Cde Joice Mujuru to bid farewell following the closure of the country's embassy in the capital.

In an interview after meeting Cde Mujuru, Ms Goesth said her country is in the process of cutting down on expenditure and various foreign missions have been affected.

However, she denied that the closure could be a result of sour diplomatic relations between the two countries.

"This has nothing to do with the bilateral relations between the two countries but it is part of a series of closures due to the financial crisis, of which no country is competely immune to," she said.

Just like her counterparts from Western countries who have denied the existence of illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe, Ms Moya Goesth also continued to sing from the same hymn book as the EU, preferring to call them restrictive measures which will only be lifted if certain unspecified conditions are met.

Zimbabwe and Austria have not quarrelled in any forum but Vienna joined other EU members in slapping Harare with illegal sanctions.

This came after Britain internationalised its bilateral dispute with Zimbabwe after the country embarked on the agrarian reform to correct colonial imbalances.