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Civic
groups, opposition threaten protests over Mugabe's human rights
commission
ZimOnline
March 27,
2006
http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=11858
HARARE - Zimbabwe's
main political opposition and National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) civic alliance on Sunday threatened
to call street protests and to go to court to stop the government
from unilaterally setting up a commission to monitor human rights
in the country.
Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa at the weekend told the state-owned Sunday Mail
newspaper that President Robert Mugabe's Cabinet and his ruling
ZANU PF party had approved plans to amend the Constitution to facilitate
the setting up of a Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission.
Chinamasa said
it was not necessary to consult the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party or civic society groups on the matter, saying
they could make their input once the Bill to amend the Constitution
was tabled in Parliament for debate.
NCA chairman
Lovemore Madhuku said his group accepted the need for a human rights
commission but would not accept one imposed by Mugabe and ZANU PF.
Madhuku, whose
NCA brings together churches, women's groups, human and civic rights
groups, opposition political parties, the student and labour movement,
vowed to "take the state head-on over that matter, in the streets
and in the courts".
He added: "As
NCA we want a human rights commission since there are several unreported
and unattended to human rights abuses (committed in Zimbabwe) since
1980 but especially in the last six years. But the commission we
want is one which all people will claim ownership to, not this one
which Chinamasa and Mugabe are planning."
The spokesman
of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC - seen as the main wing of the
divided opposition party - Nelson Chamisa, dismissed the government-proposed
human rights commission as a "smokescreen" to cover up
on the government's poor human rights record.
He said plans
by the government to "again unilaterally" change the Constitution
justified last week's calls by Tsvangirai for mass protests to demand
a new and democratic constitution for Zimbabwe.
"It is
ZANU PF that violates human rights so that party cannot be its own
prefect (by appointing commission)," said Chamisa. He added:
"This reinforces our call for planned protests to demand a
new constitution. This action by ZANU PF calls for a broad-coalition
to be in the streets calling for a people's constitution."
Tsvangirai urged
Zimbabweans during last week's congress of his party to engage in
mass revolt against Mugabe and demand a new constitution that could
lead to free and fair elections.
But the government
has warned Tsvangirai it will crush protests by his supporters telling
him that mass action would lead to bloodshed.
The Zimbabwe
government routinely uses armed soldiers to stifle opposition and
dissent to its rule, a situation which saw the southern African
country earlier this month classified by the United States State
Department among the worst violators of human rights in the world.
Zimbabwe was
the only African country ranked alongside North Korea, Burma, Iran,
Cuba, China and Belarus, considered to be nations where political
power is concentrated in the hands of rulers who are not accountable
for their actions.
In his interview
with the Sunday Mail, Chinamasa said the creation of a human rights
commission was merely to keep pace with trends in the region and
not an admission that Zimbabwe had a human rights problem.
ZimOnline was
unable to reach the Justice Minister for his reaction on threats
by the opposition and the NCA to call protests against plans by
the government to appoint the human rights commission without consulting
all stakeholders.
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