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AU rejects damning report on Zimbabwe
Itai Musengeyi, The Herald
July 06, 2004

http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=33498&pubdate=2004-07-06

The African Union has rejected a damning report on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe produced by the African Human Rights Commission because Harare was not given a chance to respond to the allegations in the report.

The commission had presented the report to the AU Council of Ministers, which is made up of foreign ministers, for discussion ahead of the AU Heads of States Summit, which opens here today.

But the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cde Stan Mudenge, objected to the presentation of the report, saying Zimbabwe had not been afforded the right of reply to the damning allegations as per requirement on such matters.

The commission sent a mission to Zimbabwe in 2002 to investigate alleged human rights abuses in the country. It met Government officials, the opposition, civil society and other stakeholders.

"The Council of Ministers decided that the commission had not solicited the response of the member-state concerned. It said in future the commission must submit reports with the response of member-states concerned.

"Council also recommended that the Heads of State should not publish the report until the commission gets Zimbabwe’s response," said Cde Mudenge.

He said the foreign ministers also rejected similar damning findings on alleged human rights situations in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea because these countries had not been given a chance to respond.

The position on the three countries followed the protest by Zimbabwe, Cde Mudenge said.

"There is no report on Zimbabwe. We have not discussed it because it was not properly presented," said Cde Mudenge.

He said the commission was still to present its report in the correct procedure.

Sources who saw the report, which was leaked to the international Press and released on the Internet, said it claimed that the land issue was not at the core of problems in Zimbabwe.

They said the report — borrowing the language of Britain and its allies — claimed that the core of Zimbabwe’s problems was the need for regime change.

This was despite the fact that the African Union, Southern African Development Community, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Non-Aligned Movement, Africa, Caribbean and Pacific states and other regional and international groupings had said that Zimbabwe’s problems stem from the land issue.

Even the Commonwealth, from which Zimbabwe pulled out last year, recognised that the core of Zimbabwe’s problems was the land question.

According to the sources, the report was similar to reports produced by the British-funded Amani Trust, which is well-known for its anti-Zimbabwe stance and falsifying the situation in the country.

"The hand of the British in this matter is evident by the leaking of the report to some British media," said a diplomatic source.

He said there had been a build-up to the release of the report to condemn Zimbabwe and use the report to put Harare on the United Nations Human Rights Commission agenda.

Britain and its allies have for the past three years failed to get the UN Human Rights Commission to condemn Zimbabwe on alleged human rights abuses.

Last week, the British House of Lords constituted a team of African ambassadors accredited to London to appear before a committee and give testimonies condemning Zimbabwe, sources said.

The ambassadors would have condemned Zimbabwe even against the resolution by the groupings to which their countries belonged.

There was also debate in the British House of Commons last week on what action to take against Zimbabwe.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has admitted working with the MDC and some people in Africa to effect regime change in Zimbabwe.

"This build-up was to use the African Human Rights Commission report as a basis by Britain to put Zimbabwe on the UN agenda," the sources said.

They added that a top Department of Foreign and International Development official Chris Mallen was also expected in Addis Ababa and his presence would have coincided with a release of the report.

"The same report condemned Nigeria, the incoming chair of the commission, the DRC and Equatorial Guinea, but did not give them the right of reply," said another source.

He said the commission had tried to argue that it sent a report to the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, but this was dismissed because in terms of protocol, the commission should have sent the report through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The sources said following this development, the commission has since withdrawn the report from the Internet.

Meanwhile, President Mugabe arrived here yesterday for the third AU Summit expected to discuss peace, the economies, integration and the vision of the AU.

He was accompanied by senior Government officials and was met at Addis Ababa International Airport by Cde Mudenge and Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Ethiopia Cde Andrew Mtetwa, who had been attending preparatory meetings for the summit.

The AU First Ladies Summit, which is the first such summit, will run concurrently with summit of Heads of State and Governments.

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