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Letter to The Editor, The Sunday Mail
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR)
August 17, 2003

Dear Sir

I refer to the article on the front page of the Sunday Mail of August 17th 2003.

It seems worthwhile to again lay out the aims and purposes of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR). ZADHR is a non-political professional association of doctors, with other health workers having associate status. To date ZADHR has approximately 130 members from all branches of the medical profession, working throughout the country.

The primary objective of the Association is to uphold the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which the Government of Zimbabwe is a signatory. ZADHR will respond to human rights violations, including organised violence perpetrated by any group, political or not, in power or in opposition. ZADHR is also concerned with issues of equity and rights to health care, including in relation to HIV/AIDS.

ZADHR has had no interaction of any kind with the British Government or the British High Commission.

The Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr David Parirenyatwa, has been fully informed about the objectives and activities of the Association.

Yours truly,

Dr D M Gwatidzo
Chairman, ZADHR

Visit the ZADHR fact sheet

Uproar over attempt by UK to politicise doctors' association
The Sunday Mail (Zimbabwe)
August 17, 2003

By Political Editor Munyaradzi Huni THERE is an uproar in the medical community following attempts by the British government through its High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, Mr Brian Donnelly, to use the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights to transform the Zimbabwe Medical Association from a medical to a political association, investigations have revealed.

The doctors are saying the British government is trying to use the ZADHR to politicise ZIMA and make it an extension of opposition politics in the country.

It is understood that this move, the brainchild of Mr Donnelly, is being spearheaded by the Mashonaland branch of ZIMA led by Dr Peter Iiiff. Most members in this branch are whites who are closely connected to some white commercial farmers.

This Mashonaland branch has since pressured some of its members to come up with resolutions aimed at changing the constitution of ZIMA that are set to be discussed at the association's annual general meeting to be held in Nyanga this coming Saturday.

The ZADHR is believed to be a creation of the British government that is working with Mr Donnelly to produce medical reports of victims of common crime that they are presenting as victims of Government and Zanu-PF-sponsored violence. This move is allegedly meant to create the false impression that there is widespread torture perpetrated by uniformed forces in the country.

Doctors who spoke to The Sunday Mail during its investigations said they were being dragged into politics at a time when they should be concentrating on how to curb the HIV/Aids pandemic.

"We know what these members of ZADHR are up to and we are going to make sure that their sinister motives fail during the AGM on August 23. We have seen the letter they wrote to all members of ZIMA with their suspicious resolutions and I can assure you that their efforts will fail.

"We can't allow our professional association to be hijacked by these few guys who want to play politics. Our duty is to look at the welfare and health of patients and if one wants to do anything more than that, then they should know that ZIMA is not the workshop for that," said one doctor, who spoke to The Sunday Mail on condition of anonymity for professional reasons.

Another doctor said: "I know of the heavy influence of whites in ZIMA's Mashonaland branch, but I can tell you that ZIMA members are so professional that they will not let anyone tarnish their credibility because of political interests.

"We are ready to deal with these guys if they think we are all into politics. We have seen the e-mails they have been sending to all ZIMA members asking for support, but they should just wait for the AGM for them to see that we have also been doing our work."

Although efforts to get a comment from the ZADHR proved fruitless yesterday, in a letter dated August 1 2003, addressed to all ZIMA members, the chairman of the association's Mashonaland branch, Dr Tapiwa Bwakura, notified the members that his branch had adopted by popular vote the following resolutions:

"Resolution 1: The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) is to be an affiliated Association of the CAA (Council of Affiliated Associations).

"Resolution 2: The following to be included in Section III, 'Objects' of the Association: To work with the Government of Zimbabwe and members of civil society to ensure that all Zimbabweans enjoy access to an adequate standard of health care and that their rights as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in particular their right to protection against all forms of torture and abuse, are respected".

The president of the ZIMA, Dr Billy Rigava, yesterday said he was not yet aware that the Mashonaland branch of ZIMA had come up with such resolutions, adding that members of the association could come up with any resolutions but should know that ZIMA is an apolitical organisation.

"All members of ZIMA, including those in the ZADHR, can come up with anything they want to be included on the agenda of the AGM. What I know at the moment is that the ZADHR is not an affiliate of any arm in the medical community.

"ZIMA is an apolitical body that works with the government of the day and I believe the ZADHR is not really a political association but they have been dealing with certain people with questionable association," said Dr Rigava.

He said he had gone through the ZADHR constitution and had found nothing to suggest that they are a political association. However, he added: "The timing of the formation of ZADHR leaves people with questions. People will ask these doctors where they were in, say, 1979 or 1985. And they will want to know why that association has been formed at this particular time."

He said whatever happens during the AGM in Nyanga, ZIMA would remain apolitical.

"We will tell them (ZADHR) what we stand for as a professional association and let me make it clear that once they are an affiliate of ZIMA, their policy will be directed by the national executive of ZIMA.

"So they will not speak for ZIMA but for now they can say whatever they want because they don't belong to us. Once they are our affiliate, we won't allow them to pursue a political agenda. For lack of a better word, I can say we will 'castrate' their ability to speak as an independent association once they are a ZIMA affiliate," said Dr Rigava.

Some doctors said this attempt to transform ZIMA from a medical to a political association started way back in the year 2000 during the association's congress in Kariba whose theme was HIV/Aids.

"We were in Kariba when there was commotion after one lady who was later introduced to us as Inge Genefke, believed to be from Denmark, suddenly appeared saying she wanted to present a paper on torture in Zimbabwe. This lady was accompanied by two other ladies from Britain and Sweden.

"Organisers of the congress refused to give this woman, whose arrival suspiciously coincided with the arrival of the international media including BBC and CNN, the chance to make the presentation.

"After the commotion, it was later discovered that these ladies had been invited secretly by some white doctor with keen interest in politics," said the doctor.

After the failure to penetrate ZIMA at that time, the doctor believes that the British government tried to use lawyers, NGOs and the so-called independent media to create stories about alleged human rights abuses in the country.

"In 1999, the British government's strategy was to bribe and politicise the academic community. This was followed by the mobilisation and bribing of NGOs so that they could become an arm of opposition politics, then came the bribing and politicisation of the independent Press, then the lawyers and now finally the doctors," said one doctor.

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