The European Union is on Friday expected to renew a raft of sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and his close associates.

However, anxiety has gripped many within Mugabe's Zanu PF party, as the EU has indicated that it is willing to drop 51 names from the list of those that are sanctioned and have travel restrictions imposed on them.

The EU imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his associates a decade ago in response to what the bloc termed human rights abuses and the breakdown of the rule of law, following the 2000 and 2002 general and presidential elections respectively.

Mugabe denies the accusations and instead says the EU and its western allies imposed the sanctions in a bid to weaken him and eventually cause his ouster from power as punishment for seizing land from white farmers.

Since then the president routinely blames the country's economic problems on the sanctions.

Renewal of the sanctions comes at a time when Mugabe and his party launched a spirited campaign to have 2 million Zimbabweans sign an anti-sanctions petition, in the hope that this will persuade the EU to relax the restrictive measures.

The country, through its Attorney -General Johannes Tomana, has also indicated that it had finished drafting court papers to mount a lawsuit against the EU over sanctions. The lawsuit was viewed as the first legal step by the government to compel the EU to lift the embargo.

Fear of sanction removal

While the lifting of sanctions on an individual means they can travel to Europe, many fear that if their names are dropped from the list they may be viewed as sell outs or at least as people who collaborate, with what Mugabe has described as enemies of Zimbabwe.



Already, details filtering through are that two of Mugabe's right hand men - Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi might be struck off the list.



Fifty one of Mugabe's allies and 20 mostly government owned or controlled companies will be removed from the sanctions list that Brussels has updated several times since it first imposed the punitive measures a decade ago.



The restrictive measures are renewed annually in the hope that this will force Mugabe and about 200 hundred of his close associates to restore Zimbabwe to democracy.

The current term is set to expire at the end of February.

The bloc began deliberations in January on Zimbabwe that might culminate in the extension of targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe, citing failure by Zanu PF to fully implement the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

The EU, which is currently assessing progress made since the formation of the inclusive government in 2008, had promised to lift the sanctions if the parties in the GPA implemented all outstanding issues.

"[The] EU is currently busy discussing different options with regard to the targeted measures," a diplomat said.

"The current situation in Zimbabwe is not the way that we had all hoped, when it comes to implementation of the GPA.

So it is difficult for the EU to lift the targeted measures. However, at the same time the EU will like to send a strong message that it would like to see relations normalised as it is looking at possibly easing some of the measures."

Zanu PF, despite developing a hard line stance against the EU, seems desperate to get the West to ease sanctions. "Sanctions are not healthy for the country and we hope that they would be removed if not reduced in some way," party spokesman, Rugare Gumbo said.

In 2009 Zimbabwe set a re-engagement team led by Mumbengegwi to explore ways of normalising relations between Harare and the EU.

Zimbabwe Europe Network (Zen), a consortium of more than 20 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in nine countries, says sanctions on Zimbabwe must stay intact until human and property rights violations stop.