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UN rights chief should press Mugabe on rights abuses
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri
May 08, 2012

Zimbabweans hope that the planned visit to Zimbabwe by the UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay will help put the country-s human rights record under the spotlight.

During her five-day visit starting on 20 May, Mrs Pillay is expected to pile pressure on Mugabe to account for rights violations and to reform ahead of the UN Secretary General-s expected visit in August 2013 for UNWTO.

The public is anxious on which rights abuses will feature in Mrs Navi Pillay-s engagement with the Zanu-pf leader, Robert Mugabe given an ever-growing list of military operations and reluctance to implement the Global Political Agreement.

Of major concern is the regime-s lack of remorse for rights violations during Gukurahundi, 'Jambanja- (the bloody farm seizures), Murambatsvina, Hakudzokwi and Makavhotera Papi and election 2008 political violence.

While Mugabe-s decision to ratify the 28-year old United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT) is commendable, however, his 'Damascus Moment- is suspect as it arguably suggests he is only after the safeguards in the convention before his rule comes to an end.

It is one thing to agree to be bound by a convention, and another to implement it because there is need for political will.

Sadly, the lack of political will manifests itself in many ways including failure to account for the whereabouts of human rights activist Paul Chizuze who mysteriously went missing a month ago.

So is the delayed enactment of the Human Rights Commission Bill with a mandate to investigate pre-2009 rights violations as opposed to only post-2009 incidents as proposed by Zanu-PF.

Furthermore, there is reluctance to investigate the alleged military-run torture camps at Chiadzwa which were exposed by BBC Panorama in August 2011.

Mugabe stands accused of applying the rule of law selectively, whereby 29 opposition activists have been on remand in a maximum security prison for nearly a year for the alleged murder of a policeman, whereas six police officers accused of fatally assaulting a mineworker in Shamva were released on US$50 bail within a week.

In spite of these and other rights abuses, all opposition parties and their leaders have been ineffectual in getting Zanu-pf and Mugabe to observe the rule of law in its conventional sense.

Obviously, Mrs Pillay would be expected to also raise the issue of the SADC Tribunal which was arguably sabotaged by the Mugabe regime - to frustrate white commercial farmers from getting compensation.

Zimbabweans expect the international community to insist that the lifting of targeted sanctions on Mugabe and his allies be conditional on the holding of peaceful at least UN-supervised free and fair elections preceded by key reforms including security sector, media and electoral reforms, the revamping of the voters roll and the adoption of a new constitution in a peaceful referendum.

Although Mugabe cannot afford to alienate the United Nations entirely, he has however, carefully 'cherry picked- the priorities of any association with the world body.

For instance, the Zanu-PF leader has to date attended all annual General Assembly sessions in New York since the 1980s but expelled a UN torture expert, snubbed UN election funding, turned down UN food assistance in 2005 and shot down Tibaijuka-s critical report on Murambatsvina.

The regime has also resisted opposition demands for a probe to ascertain the architects of the widely condemned Murambatsvina amidst revelations it was designed by the CIO. Instead, the regime embarked on a witch hunt.

Reports say prominent academic and publisher Dr Ibbo Mandaza was grilled on 2 August 2005 by state security agents for allegedly writing the damning UN report on Operation Murambatsvina which exposed government to international criticism (Zimbabwe Independent, 07/10/05).

It remains to be seen how the regime will handle the UN rights envoy-s visit, her findings and recommendations. A question on every person-s mind is "Will there be victimisation after the UN envoy-s departure for blowing the whistle on Mugabe-s rights abuses?"

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