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Damning report on Harare kept secret
Jonathan Katzenellenbogen and Dumisani Muleya, Business day (SA)
July 06, 2004

African foreign ministers have avoided confronting Zimbabwe over its human rights by agreeing not to publish a report slamming Harare's record of abuses. Foreign ministers adopted the report earlier, but they yesterday accepted Harare's word that Zimbabwe's government had not had enough time to see a damning report written by an African Union (AU) body two years ago. This means that the report will not be published and that AU leaders attending this week's summit from today in Addis Ababa will not have an instrument with which to call Harare to task, had they the political will to do so. The report on Zimbabwe, which was written by the AU Commission on Human and People's Rights has only now come to light. Though the Zimbabwean claim that it had not seen the report may be a bureaucratic delaying mechanism, the fact that a critical report was written by the AU Commission gives it enormous credibility. But the existence of the report, which is more than two years old, places great pressure on foreign ministers and heads of state to act, something they have balked at doing. There is no AU protocol that would force African leaders at the summit in Addis Ababa to take action against Zimbabwe. Resolutions have been passed dealing with other African crises such as those in the Great Lakes region, Côte d'Ivoire, Somalia and Burundi.

Zimbabwe opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday welcomed the existence of the AU report, which condemned political repression and economic decline. Tsvangirai said the report, which concluded that there "flagrant human rights abuses and arbitrary arrests" in Zimbabwe, was the "most serious African indictment yet of President Robert Mugabe's authoritarian regime". "This is a welcome and significant reaction from the AU to the broad political and economic crisis existing in Zimbabwe. I think it's really a breath of fresh air," Tsvangirai said. "If the AU continues on that path of hearing and seeing evil in some member states then the organisation will consolidate its credibility and perform an important role of liberating the continent of tyrannical regimes." An effort to get comment from the Zimbabwean government failed yesterday. The report was compiled after the commission visited Zimbabwe two years ago to investigate allegations of widespread human rights violations and political violence, especially during the country's elections. The commission's delegation met a cross-section of Zimbabweans, including government, the ruling Zanu PF, MDC and other opposition parties, civilsociety groups, professional organisations and NGOs.

While the government claimed there were no human rights transgressions or a political crisis in Zimbabwe, opposition parties and other groups resisting repression provided mountains of evidence to the contrary. When the commission left after a two-week investigation it said it had gathered more than "20kg" of documentary and video evidence of human rights abuses. The AU's foreign ministers, meeting in the Ethiopian capital ahead of the start of this week's conference of 53 heads of government and state, adopted the report condemning the Harare regime for the arrests and torture of opposition MPs and human rights lawyers, harassment and arrests of journalists, the stifling of freedom of expression and abuse of civil liberties. African foreign ministers ignored the shrill protests by the Zimbabwe delegation, which complained that it had not been given an opportunity to study and respond to the report by the AU's commission on human and people's rights. Harare was given an opportunity to defend itself during the investigation, but refused.

Oluyemi Adenjiji, Nigeria's foreign minister and chairman of the AU's executive council, reportedly allowed the report to stand unamended after "noting" the objections of Stan Mudenge, Zimbabwe's foreign minister. The commission concluded after a thorough probe that "at the very least human rights violations and arbitrary arrests have occurred" in Zimbabwe. It was "particularly alarmed" by the arrest and detention of Sternford Moyo, the former president of the Zimbabwe Law Society, who was arraigned for allegedly collaborating with the British to oust the government. The commission also condemned government for supporting lawless behaviour during the chaotic and often violent land invasions about four years ago. "Many land activists undertook their illegal actions in expectation that the government was understanding and that police would not act against them," said the commission. "Government did not act soon enough and firmly enough against those guilty of gross criminal acts." Zimbabwean society was now highly polarised, the AU organ said, and needed mediators, including religious organisations, to help it to "withdraw from the precipice". The report said that Draconian laws had to be repealed, the judiciary freed from political pressure and the media freed from the "shackles of control". Judgment on opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been set for July 29 in his treason trial in Harare, Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai was accused of plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe.

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