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Mudzuri calls for UN intervention
The Standard (Zimbabwe)
July 25, 2004

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/skinned/local_reader.asp?st_id=4631

Engineer Elias Mudzuri, the dismissed Harare Mayor, has taken his case to the United Nations where he is urging Secretary General Kofi Annan to set a team of eminent persons to look into the Zimbabwe crisis.

Mudzuri — a member of the opposition MDC who has fought a running battle with the Zanu PF government — was dismissed in April by President Robert Mugabe for alleged incompetence.

This was after a commission and a committee instituted to investigate him recommended that he be fired. It cited numerous allegations of misconduct, gross insubordination, mismanagement of public finances and city affairs.

Mudzuri is challenging his dismissal in the courts and cites Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo and President Mugabe as respondents.

Last week he met UN officials on the Africa desk in Washington and petitioned secretary general Annan to help "bring sanity and prevent agony, persecution and the death of the people of Zimbabwe."

Mudzuri said there was need to investigate human rights violations, and the state of the rule of law, with special emphasis on the removal of elected persons and the frequent arrests of those elected persons such as MPs, councillors and mayors.

"The UN should also look at the electoral process and ensure that the Zimbabwe electoral system adheres to basic standards for elections as stipulated by SADC," said Mudzuri.

Other issues he raised were the need to disband the militias and creation of safety nets for people persecuted by the regime.

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