Zimbabwe human rights situations worsening: EU Ambassador

Zimbabwe's human rights situation has changed for the worse in recent months, European Union (EU) ambassador to Zimbabwe Aldo Dell' Ariccia said on Monday, adding the bloc would maintain sanctions against top Harare officials blocking reforms.
Zimbabwe's deputy health minister Douglas Mombeshora had earlier used the ceremony to criticise the EU sanctions and call for their lifting. 
The EU alongside the United States, Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand, imposed targeted sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and his top officials nine years ago as punishment for allegedly stealing elections, human rights violations and failure to uphold the rule of law. 
Dell' Ariccia said the EU visa and financial bans would remain in place until the bloc was convinced the unity government of Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was moving to implement democratic reforms and to uphold human rights.
With violence on the increase, the police have on the other hand stepped up a crackdown on members of Tsvangirai's MDC-T party and his allies in civil society, arresting several on charges human rights lawyers say are trumped up.
A meeting of the Southern Africa Development Community's special security organ last week sharply criticised political violence in Zimbabwe and urged Mugabe and Tsvangirai to speed implementation of their power-sharing agreement, including the adoption of a new and democratic constitution that should pave way for free and fair elections.
Mugabe who says the West imposed sanctions in a bid to weaken him and eventually cause his ouster from power as punishment for seizing land from white farmers has blocked reforms in the security sector saying these and other key reforms could only take place after the sanctions have been first removed.