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African
leaders to study Zim's rights record
Sapa-AFP
August 5, 2004
http://www.tiscali.co.za/news/news_story.jsp?content=123991
Pretoria - Southern
African leaders will examine Zimbabwe's human rights record at a
summit in Mauritius later this month, South Africa's Deputy Foreign
Minister Aziz Pahad says.
Zimbabwe, Nigeria
and Tunisia were cited in a report by a human rights committee of
the African Union "and we can expect discussion on that in Mauritius,"
Pahad told a news conference on Thursday.
Zimbabwe is
a member of the 13-nation Southern African Development Community
(SADC) which is due to hold its summit in Mauritius on August 16
and 17.
At an AU summit
in Addis Ababa last month, Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge
tried to get the report squashed, claiming that his government had
not had an opportunity to comment on it.
The report,
compiled in 2002, said that while violence, intimidation and torture
of political opponents were not directly ordered by Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe's government, it was aware of abuses and could not
absolve itself.
During its trip
to Zimbabwe, the commission found evidence of "political violence...
torture... and arbitrary arrest... of opposition members of parliament
and human rights lawyers," according to the summary of its findings
annexed to the annual report tabled at the AU summit.
"There were
allegations that the human rights violations that occurred were
in many instances at the hands of [the ruling] Zanu-PF party activists,"
the commission said, adding however that it was unable to say that
this was part of an orchestrated government policy.
"By its statements
and political rhetoric, and by its failure at critical moments to
uphold the rule of law, the government failed to chart a path that
signalled commitment to the rule of law," it added.
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