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Resolution
adopted by the IPU Governing Council at 182nd session
Inter-Parliamentary
Union (SA)
April 18, 2008
The Governing
Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,
Referring to
the case of Mr. Roy Bennett, Mr. Job Sikhala, Mr. Tichaona Munyanyi,
Mr. Tendai Biti, Mr. Paul Madzore, Mr. Tumbare Mutasa, Mr. Gilbert
Shoko and Mr. Nelson Chamisa, opposition members of the outgoing
and the previous parliament of Zimbabwe, as outlined in the report
of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/182/12(b)-R.1),
and to the resolution adopted at its 181st session (October 2007),
Recalling the
following information on file:
- Mr. Tendai
Biti and Mr. Nelson Chamisa, along with many others attempting
to participate in a prayer meeting, were arrested in Harare on
11 March 2007, taken to the police station and severely beaten;
according to the information provided by the delegation of Zimbabwe
to the 116th Assembly of the IPU (April-May 2007), the assault
on the parliamentarians and others was debated in parliament and
a motion was moved to call upon the Government and the police
to investigate the incident; it was debated for two days; according
to the police report of 17 July 2007, the meeting was in fact
part of a defiance campaign of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) and was illegal;
- On 18 March
2007, Mr. Chamisa was attacked by eight men, reportedly security
agents, at Harare International Airport on his way to attend the
meetings of the committees of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly
in Brussels; Mr. Chamisa suffered severe injuries as a result;
at the hearing held during the 116th Assembly of the IPU, Mr.
Leo Mugabe, a member of the Zimbabwean delegation, stated that
he himself had insisted publicly on the need for an investigation;
however, in its report of 17 July 2007, the police state that
Mr. Chamisa was being uncooperative as he has not lodged a complaint
despite several invitations to do so; such a complaint was necessary
in the case of assault for the police to be able to start an investigation;
- On 28 March
2007, Mr. Paul Madzore, was arrested at his home on allegations
of petrol bombing several police stations in Harare and possessing
firearms; according to statements by Mr. Madzore, at about 11
a.m. he was called into a room at the Harare Central police station
where there were allegedly about eight men in plain clothes, three
of whom appeared to be drunk; one of them asked Madzore to tell
them who was burning the police stations; when he attempted to
respond, one of the interrogators spat in his face; he was made
to lie on his back with his legs raised against a table and the
men started in turn beating the soles of his feet with metal rods
and a rubber baton; they then asked him if he wanted something
to drink and brought an empty glass bottle and hit him with it
around his knees; one man stepped on his head forcing his head
on the floor with booted feet; the beatings took about 30 to 40
minutes; Mr. Madzore, bleeding profusely, was subsequently moved
to a private hospital, where he was put on a life-support system;
the police, however, moved him forcibly back to his remand prison
cell in Harare and refused him medical treatment; as a result,
Mr. Madzore collapsed twice in his prison cell; on 13 April 2007,
High Court judge Tedius Karwi refused his application for bail,
reportedly on the orders of the Minister for Home Affairs, who
issued a certificate of denial on security grounds; according
to the police report of 17 July 2007, Mr. Madzore was mainly responsible
for the series of petrol bombings earlier that year and intended
to go to South Africa for military training in insurgency, banditry
and terrorism to train MDC youths in such activity; the charges
against Mr. Madzore were withdrawn before plea and he was released
in August 2007;
- Mr. Sikhala
was tortured while in detention from 14 to 16 January 2003; the
police, while initially announcing progress in the investigation,
later stated that they had found it difficult to proceed with
the case because of Mr. Sikhala's failure to cooperate, although
he had provided detailed information and even given names; the
matter is before the High Court under reference HC/645/03; Mr.
Sikhala was rearrested on 11 March 2007 in the same circumstances
as Mr. Chamisa and Mr. Biti, and taken to a police station; he
was released several hours later;
- Mr. Munyanyi
was ill-treated in October 2002 while being held on a murder charge
which was later dropped before plea; a medical certificate was
issued attesting to the injuries he sustained; at the 115th IPU
Assembly, the Zimbabwean delegation stated that Mr. Munyanyi,
who is no longer a member of parliament, had himself "abandoned
the matter" and that the case was no longer being pursued;
- In August
2003, Mr. Tumbare Mutasa brought a lawsuit against the authorities
for the injuries he suffered during an alleged assault on him
by riot police in March 2003; an investigation was opened but
later closed after Mr. Mutasa died of natural causes;
- According
to information provided by the police in September 2003, while
there is no record of Mr. Shoko having been assaulted on 22 March
2003, an investigation had been opened into an attack on his house
on 1 April 2002, regarding which Mr. Shoko had lodged a complaint;
according to information provided by the Speaker of the House
of Assembly, Mr. Shoko has died, which in Zimbabwean law has the
effect of extinguishing the proceedings instituted in this case;
- Several court
rulings ordering Mr. Bennett's farm to be vacated were not executed,
a matter which, according to the authorities, has become moot
pursuant to Constitutional
Amendment 17, whereby all farmland in Zimbabwe now belonged
to the State and anybody who wished to utilize it had to apply
for and be granted a lease agreement; in October 2004, charges
of contempt of parliament proceedings were brought against him
and he was sentenced to one year in prison with hard labour and
was thus prevented from standing in the March 2005 legislative
elections; a petition to the Supreme Court to declare null and
void the contempt of parliament proceedings against him and to
declare unconstitutional Section 16 of the Privileges, Powers
and Immunities Act (which confers on Parliament the right to sit
as a court) was dismissed in March 2006; in early 2006, Mr. Bennett
was forced to flee the country for fear his life and has since
been granted political asylum abroad,
Considering
that legislative and presidential elections were held in Zimbabwe
on 29 March 2008, the official results of which have not as yet
been published,
Bearing in mind
that Zimbabwe is a State Party to the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights and therefore bound to respect the prohibition
of torture and ill-treatment and the rights to liberty and security
of the person guaranteed in its Articles 7 and 9, respectively,
- Deplores
the fact that none of the parliamentary documents regarding parliamentary
action in respect of the incident of 11 March 2007 and the attack
of 18 March 2007 on Mr. Chamisa which the Zimbabwean delegation
to the 116th IPU Assembly undertook to provide one year ago, in
particular the motion that was filed, have been provided; notes
with deep regret that any parliamentary action that may have been
taken has remained without effect;
- Reaffirms
that the treatment inflicted by the police on Mr. Biti, Mr. Chamisa
and many others in March 2007 constitutes a gross human rights
violation, irrespective of whether or not the meeting was authorized
or was or was not a prayer meeting; remains shocked at the absence
of any immediate action against the responsible police officers,
who must be known and should have immediately been brought to
justice and punished in accordance with the law;
- Remains deeply
concerned at the attack perpetrated against Mr. Chamisa on 18
March 2007; stresses that a member of the Zimbabwean delegation
to the 116th IPU Assembly, Mr. Leo Mugabe, according to his own
statement, insisted on the need for such an investigation; is
unaware of anything in Zimbabwean law to prevent the police from
investigating an attack of this nature, which is in the public
domain; believes, moreover, that the failure of the Zimbabwean
police to investigate attacks on opposition supporters may well
dissuade victims from lodging complaints;
- Deplores
the fact that Mr. Madzore was arrested, ill-treated and detained
for five months in the absence of any credible evidence against
him, as shown by the withdrawal of the case against him before
plea; recalls that, under international human rights law, the
authorities have a duty to investigate any allegation of torture,
deeply regrets that no such action has been taken to date and
urges the authorities to comply forthwith with this duty;
- Deplores
the failure of the authorities to conduct a full and thorough
inquiry into the torture to which Mr. Sikhala was subjected in
January 2003, although evidence was submitted to them which would
have enabled them to identify those responsible;
- Stresses
that it is precisely such failures by the authorities to investigate
torture allegations that encourage the police and other security
officials to resort to torture and other human rights violations,
as amply demonstrated by the cases in question;
- Is bound
to note with the utmost concern that in none of the cases in question
have the State authorities, in particular the police and prosecutorial
authorities, complied with their constitutional duties, and nor
has parliament exercised its oversight function effectively; on
the contrary, law enforcement agencies have been allowed to continue
torturing and ill-treating even members of parliament with complete
impunity;
- Calls on
the newly elected parliament to assume its oversight function
to the full to ensure that the law enforcement authorities fulfil
their duties, and stresses that only observance of the rule of
law and human rights can build a truly democratic society;
- Points out
once again, with respect to Mr. Bennett, that the adoption of
Constitutional Amendment 17 does not alter the fact that several
court judgments ordering that Mr. Bennett's farm be vacated as
early as 2002 have not been executed, thus subjecting him to a
grave injustice, and reiterates its wish to receive the observations
of the authorities on the allegation that not a single farm belonging
to parliamentarians of the ruling party has been acquired by the
State under the terms of Constitutional Amendment 17;
- Reiterates
also its wish to receive a copy of the Supreme Court ruling on
Mr. Bennett's application to have the contempt of parliament proceedings
against him declared null and void, and Section 16 of the Parliamentary
Privileges, Powers and Immunities Act declared unconstitutional,
and believes that more than two years after it was handed down
the ruling must exist in writing;
- Regrets that
as a result of his persecution by the authorities Mr. Bennett
was prevented from standing in not only the March 2005 but also
the March 2008 elections;
- Reiterates
its wish to receive a copy of the legal provision stipulating
that proceedings in criminal matters are extinguished in the case
of decease of the victims;
- Requests
the Secretary General to convey this resolution to the authorities,
once more inviting them to provide the information sought;
- Requests
the Committee to continue examining this case and report to it
at its next session, to be held on the occasion of the 119th Assembly
of the IPU (Geneva, October 2008), when it hopes to have the opportunity
to meet with the delegation of the newly elected parliament.
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