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The legal monitor - Issue 10
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
August 31, 2009

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'Release violence report'

Southern African human rights organisations have joined hands to pressure leaders attending this week's regional summit to push the South African government to make public a report by the country's army generals on Zimbabwe's pre and post-election violence.

The 29th Southern African Development Community (SADC) Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government and its preceding meetings will be held in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, from 2 - 8 September.

The Southern African Litigation Centre, the South African History Archive and the Southern African Centre for Survivors of Torture have said they want regional leaders to use the summit to force South Africa to release a report on the election violence that killed over 120 people before and after last June's presidential election run-off.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki in May last year commissioned six retired South African army generals to assess allegations of election violence in Zimbabwe and to present a report to him on such findings. Mbeki commissioned the generals in his role as the SADC-appointed facilitator of political dialogue in Zimbabwe.

That report has never been publicly released. In response to a request made earlier this year by the consortium of non-governmental organisations for the release of the report, in terms of South Africa's Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA), the SA Presidency maintained that no written report had ever been produced, nor had any terms of reference been given the generals..

Three regional human rights organisations said the non-disclosure of the generals' report had implications for the South African executive's constitutional obligations in respect of accountability for expenditure of State resources and the public's right of access to information.

"These groups call on the 29th SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government to make public the report by South African Generals on election violence in Zimbabwe. Only by producing a written report could the obligations owed to SADC members be properly discharged," the consortium of non-governmental organisations said. The organisations said the non-disclosure of the report on violence had implications for the obligations of accountability and collegiality owed by members of SADC in respect of one another.

"In the absence of any written report compiled by the Generals or any written terms of reference for such report, it is hard to imagine how the mediator might have discharged, in good faith, his duty in respect of the Troika specifically and the Summit of Heads of State and Government, more generally," the statement added.

The NGOs urged the 29th Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government, in line with SADC's commitment to the right of access to information as set out in its Protocol on Culture, Information and Sport, to "produce the Generals report, if in possession of the Summit, the Troika, or any SADC institution, or, in the alternative, to clarify how it may discharge, in good faith, its several obligations in promoting peace and security when it has not considered so important a report on developments in Zimbabwe".

Torture camps were allegedly set up in the wake of President Robert Mugabe's shock defeat in the general election of 29 March last year. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, now Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, won 47.9 percent of the vote, but fell short of the 50 percent plus one ballot required for a first-round win of the presidency during the election. Mugabe got 43.2 percent of the vote, in a general election that saw ZANU PF lose control of parliament for the first time since independence from Britain in 1980.

High levels of political violence made Tsvangirai decide to withdraw from the presidential run-off, which Mugabe subsequently won as the sole candidate. African leaders disputed the credibility of the poll, forcing SADC leaders to broker the transitional government running the country today. Since the March 2008 elections senior army officials were deployed to rural districts, where they took charge of all operations previously handled by local government officials.

A statement by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said it was disturbing to "note that the Office of the President of the Republic of South Africa is refusing to make public such an important document".

"ZLHR is concerned about the potential for breeding impunity among perpetrators of violence whilst at the same time denying victims and their surviving families access to justice and truth, all essential ingredients for engaging in any meaningful national healing and reconciliation process," the rights lawyers said.

"If the Zimbabwe Government has the report, it is our intention to demand that the report be made public, failing which we shall also approach the courts seeking the release of the report in terms of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA)."

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