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Response to statement issued by ZINASU on 11 May 2010
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
May 13, 2010

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has noted the "media release" purportedly issued by a ZINASU spokesperson, one Grant Tabvurei, on 11 May 2010 and circulated by e-mail. We further note that this emanates from the e-mail address zinasupublicity@gmail.com under the name "ZINASU information" despite the fact that at a press conference held on 4 May 2010 it was advised that all formal publicity would be undertaken using the e-mail address zinasuresearch@gmail.com

Be that as it may, this "media release" goes on to allege in relation to a court hearing in Bindura on 11 May 2010 that "The lawyer who is supposed to handle the case Tawanda Zhuwarara from ZLHR failed to turn up for the second time but had a replacement today in the form of Jamela . . . The President Obert Masaraure expressed apprehension on the manner in which ZLHR is operating and avowed that it is not proper for the lawyer to inform the accused students on the trial day that he will be absent for the trial (sic)."

ZLHR wishes to note its strong disapproval in relation to this "media statement". The organisation has, for more than a decade, committed itself to being the leading defender of human rights defenders. Student activists have been the most frequent beneficiaries of the free legal support services offered by ZLHR and its members throughout the country, and we have never lost a case in which we have represented their interests.

The correct facts in this matter are that ZLHR was aware of the matter, having responded to provide initial emergency legal support upon arrest of the 26 individuals and follow-up services. Despite the misleading information provided by Tabvurei, ZLHR sent not one, but two, of its lawyers, namely Mr. Lizwe Jamela and Mr. David Hofisi - to represent their interests in court on 11 May 2010. Tabvurei himself was one of the beneficiaries of ZLHR's free legal support services in Bindura yesterday, as was Joshua Chinyere, who has been successfully and freely assisted several times in the recent past. Obert Masaraure, who seems at pains to seek to tarnish the image of ZLHR, was recently also a beneficiary of our services when university authorities were forced to reinstate him after suspension due to the intervention and efforts of ZLHR.

It is a thankless and dangerous job which human rights lawyers in Zimbabwe take on when interacting with state agents who do not find it difficult to attack such professionals in the course of their duty with impunity. Statistics of such attacks are freely and publicly available for any person who has the slightest concern for the continued assault of the human rights legal profession in Zimbabwe.

ZLHR project lawyers and members willingly put themselves at risk daily to defend the rights of human rights defenders due to our belief in a free and just society where the rights of all are protected equally and without fear or favour. We do not expect thanks for this, but we also do not deserve insults, insinuations, threats and defamatory characterisations such as those contained in the aforesaid e-mail.

ZLHR expects that a retraction shall be issued in the same form, and with the same speed and gusto with which the original e-mail was mass circulated on 11 May 2010, before the close of business on 12 May 2010, failing which we shall have no option but to take further action.

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