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Human rights issues
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2004-16
Monday April 19th - Sunday April 25th 2004

Barely a week after African countries blocked a motion by the United Nations Human Rights Commission from criticizing Zimbabwe’s deteriorating human rights record, evidence of rights violations continued to litter media space. For instance, the private media exposed the continued persecution of members of the judiciary, civic leaders belonging to the MDC, and those perceived to be opposition party supporters at the hands of government authorities and suspected ZANU PF activists.

As has become the norm, most of the reports appeared on SW Radio Africa, which carried 16 stories on rights violations.

The government media carried some of the reports but did not perceive them as human rights violations. Instead, they simply presented the stories as indicative of government’s respect for the rule of law.

A typical example was The Herald story (20/4), MP Masaiti detained, which was a follow-up report on the arrest of Masaiti and 13 other members of the MDC on allegations that they had looted goods worth more than $6 million from a shop belonging to former MDC member and acting Harare mayor Sekesai Makwavarara. The report, which was notable for Makwavarara’s vitriolic attack on the MDC, merely reported that, "opposition MP Evelyn Masaiti is still languishing in police custody since Saturday." The paper was silent on the violation of the suspects’ constitutional right to be taken to court within 48 hours of their arrest.

Masaiti and her colleagues only appeared in court and were granted bail on April 21, about four days after their arrest (ZTV, 21/4, 8pm, The Herald and the Chronicle, 22/4).

Further, the government media only relied on official accounts of the circumstances leading to Masaiti’s arrest without conducting their own independent investigations.

They reported that the accused had organised MDC supporters to hold a soccer match to disguise their plans to avenge the death of an MDC youth during the Zengeza by-election. The accused allegedly "caused commotion in the suburb" and later went on to loot Makwavara’s shop.

However, according to SW Radio Africa (20/4), Masaiti was arrested on her way to Harare after dropping off some youths who had accompanied her to Mutasa, in Mabvuku. According to the station, reports of the violence and looting of Makwavarara’s shop reached the police when she was already in custody. One of her co-accused, MDC councillor Oscar Pemhiwa, was arrested at a pub with some friends in Mabvuku.

In fact, the government media’s unwillingness to expose the authorities’ disdain for MDC officials was further underscored by the manner in which they handled the dismissal of Harare Mayor Elias Mudzuri and the continued harassment of other opposition mayors in other centres.

These media merely viewed the sacking of Mudzuri by Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo as part of government efforts to improve service delivery in Harare.

However, The Financial Gazette (22/4) viewed Mudzuri’s dismissal as politically driven. Citing an urgent High Court application challenging his dismissal, the paper revealed that the mayor had been "denied even the most basic right rights associated with a fair adjudication process" before he was fired.

As if that was not enough, the same paper reported that Chombo had also threatened to dismiss Harare city councillors, whom he accused of "abusing council offices, vehicles and telephones, phoning to the United States and Tony Blair".

The Daily Mirror (23/4), Radio Zimbabwe (22/4, 8pm) and ZTV (22/4, 6pm) carried similar reports. The Tribune revealed that Chombo had appointed a committee led by Jameson Kurasha to monitor the operations of Harare city council.

While Chombo was tightening his grip on Harare’s council, The Daily Mirror (21/4) reported that another MDC mayor for Mutare, Misheck Kagurabadza "was held hostage in his chambers by unidentified people demanding his resignation" over council’s decision to increase rates by 98 percent.

ZTV (23/4, 7am) reported the issue but presented those behind the incident as disgruntled Mutare residents. However, The Daily Mirror (23/4) quoted Mutare Residents and Ratepayers’ Association chairman Geoff White dissociating his organization from the issue.

It clearly emerged in the Zimbabwe Independent and SW Radio Africa (20 & 21/4) that those involved were ZANU PF activists.

Thus The Standard (25/4) viewed the issue as part of government’s ploy to hound MDC-led councils out of office. It revealed that besides problems in Harare and Mutare, MDC mayors were also being persecuted in Kariba, Chegutu and Bulawayo.

What is more worrying however, is the fact that there is no guarantee that opposition members can get protection from the courts. As the leader of barristers in England and Wales Stephen Irwin, QC, noted in the Daily Telegraph story which was also carried by the Zimbabwe Independent, "Zimbabwe judges are being bought or bludgeoned into toeing the line of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party".

Irwin, whose observations were based on his recent visit to Zimbabwe, added that the justice system was being destroyed "in order to hold on to political power".

He further noted that most judges were politically appointed and the "few who continued to maintain their independence were vilified in the state-run media".

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