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Rights
abuses and the law
Media
Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2004-48
Monday November 29th – Sunday December 5th
2004
THE country’s
dismal human rights record continued to attract media attention
with the private media reporting that government intended to enact
more legislation that will further erode the remnants of whatever
rights Zimbabweans still attempted to exercise under the country’s
Constitution.
The Financial
Gazette (2/12) and The Daily Mirror (3/12) followed up
on an earlier Standard (28/11) report revealing that the
Criminal Law (Codification
and Reform) Bill proposes punishment of up to 20 years imprisonment
for anyone communicating statements perceived to be prejudicial
to the State.
The papers quoted
independent analysts describing the Bill as unconstitutional saying
it amounted to the consolidation of repressive laws that are inconsistent
with democratic principles. This tallied with earlier but generally
inadequate coverage of the Parliamentary Legal Committee’s findings
that the proposed legislation contained several provisions that
violated the constitution.
The Daily
Mirror quoted lawyer Sternford Moyo saying the Bill contained
certain "aspects of the Rhodesian era Law and Order Maintenance
Act and the South African apartheid era Internal Security Act of
1982".
University of
Zimbabwe political scientist Eldred Masunungure and human rights
lawyer Brian Kagoro agreed.
Masunungure
told the Gazette that the Bill was part of government’s "grand
scheme or total strategy to strangulate the media or those still
expressing views contrary to those of government or the ruling party,"
while Kagoro told the same paper that the aim of the legislation
was to outlaw Zimbabweans from criticising the State.
Said Kagoro:
"It’s probably worse than AIPPA. The State itself is
not infallible, so as such it is bound to make mistakes. The safeguard
of every citizen is to be a critic of the State."
Once again,
the government media ignored this issue.
Besides exposing
the erosion of the citizenry’s rights through the promulgation of
patently unconstitutional laws, the private media also highlighted
the continued harassment of opposition supporters by ZANU PF activists
and the authorities’ politicisation of food aid.
These media
carried about 22 stories on these issues.
In one of the
stories, SW Radio Africa (01/12) reported that two MDC officials
from Buhera South in Manicaland Province had been arrested for convening
a rally where slogans denouncing President Mugabe were allegedly
made. However, no police comment was sought to balance the report,
which solely relied on the MDC provincial spokesperson Pishayi Muchauraya.
More evidence
of intolerance of the opposition in Manicaland appeared in The
Standard (5/12). The paper reported on the alleged "brutal
attack" on four MDC activists in the province by a
group of war veterans, who accused them of being "saboteurs".
Muchauraya was
quoted saying the assault was part of a "purging exercise"
that ZANU PF had started in the area ahead of next year’s general
election.
However, police
spokesman Oliver Mandipaka told the paper that he was not aware
of the violence report although the paper cited the MDC as saying
the matter had been reported at Chipfatsura Police Station, which
took no action against the suspects.
The paper also
reported on the brief hold-up of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai by
immigration officials at the Harare International Airport on his
return from overseas.
Meanwhile, SW
Radio Africa (30/11) and Studio 7 (2/12) reported that a delegation
of civic organisations from Zimbabwe had made submissions to the
African Commission on Human and People’s Rights in Dakar on the
continued rights violations in the country and had petitioned the
Commission to release it’s report on Zimbabwe’s human rights record.
Studio 7 and
SW Radio Africa (2/12) also reported that the International Crisis
Group had released a report noting that the situation in Zimbabwe
continued to deteriorate.
The ICG noted
that there was still widespread abuse of human rights in the country,
including political repression and the politicization of food aid.
SW Radio Africa
(2/12) quoted ICG South Africa director Peter
Kagwanja saying: "We are saying that we have to mount
pressure on the Zanu PF government to institute electoral reforms.
We are arguing that if electoral reforms are put in place without
political reforms then elections will not be free and fair."
Typically, the
government media ignored such reports.
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