|
Back to Index
The
Legal Monitor - Issue 19
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
November 03, 2009
Download
this article
- Acrobat
PDF version (875KB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader
on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking
here.
Pariah
State . . . deportation, arrests, abductions
Zimbabwe last
week confirmed its pariah status by deporting the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on Torture, while a spate of arrests of human
rights defenders and abduction of political activists underscored
the deteriorating human rights conditions.
The deportation,
arrests and abductions occured exactly a year after the forced disappearance
and torture of several rights and political activists by State agents
that were later condemned by the Supreme Court.
But it was the
deportation of UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Manfred Nowak that
showed how little Zimbabwe cares about ending rights abuses.
Organisations
under the umbrella of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum expressed
concern at the continued use of repressive legislation to curtail
freedoms, adding that the infrastructure of violence remained intact.
The deportation
of Nowak, "together with other retrogressive incidents such
as the arrest and detention of NANGO
Board Chairperson Dadirai Chikwengo and Chief Executive Officer
Cephas Zinhumwe on Sunday, 25 October 2009; the continued persecution
and prosecution of human rights defenders like Alec Muchadehama;
the arrest in Hwange of ZESN employees, Ndodana and Thulani Ndhlovu,
and the recurrence of cases of enforced disappearances are all worrying
signs that ZANU PF is reverting to its culture of human rights abuses".
It added: "These
incidents are reminiscent of the reign of terror that characterised
2008," the NGO Forum said in a statement.
"Of particular
concern," it stated, "are increasing reports coming out
of the communities that people are being mobilised in a manner similar
to the run-up to the 2008 elections, and equally perturbing is the
resurgence and perpetuation of hate messages in the official media."
The Special
Rapporteur had been invited by the Zimbabwe government to conduct
an official fact-finding mission from 28 October to 4 November 2009.
On arrival at OR Tambo International Airport in South Africa, in
transit to Harare, Nowak was advised that the government had, on
26 October 2009, postponed the mission because officials would be
busy attending to a Southern African Development Community (SADC)
team visiting to mediate in President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai's stand-off.
Tsvangirai's
attempt to revive the mission by writing an invitation letter to
Nowak failed as immigration officials rejected the Prime Minister's
letter. The top UN official was denied entry, detained overnight
at the airport and deported to South Africa the following morning.
The Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO Forum recommends that:
- the Government
of Zimbabwe complies with its international obligations by allowing
the Special Rapporteur back into the country and takes all necessary
steps to ensure that he is able to conduct his mission.
- the SADC
Troika takes strong measures, as the guarantors of the Global
Political Agreement, to ensure that all outstanding issues are
resolved, and
- the international
community vigilantly monitors the developments taking place in
Zimbabwe.
Download
the full document
Visit the ZLHR
fact
sheet
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
