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This article participates on the following special index pages:
The Zimbabwe We Want: "Towards a National Vision for Zimbabwe" - Index of articles
Vision
document was 'doctored', allege Jesuits
Ray
Matikinye, The Zimbabwe
Independent
November 24, 2006
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/viewinfo.cfm?linkid=11&id=9134&siteid=1
JESUIT priests have claimed that government
agents censored sections of the original National
Vision document crafted by church organisations calling for
national dialogue and an all-inclusive constitution.
In a newsletter article entitled "The
spirit of dialogue betrayed", Jesuit priests say the discussion
paper published by the Zimbabwe
Catholic Bishops Conference, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches
and the Evangelical
Fellowship of Zimbabwe, was interfered with before it was officially
launched.
The Jesuits show particular concern
with the section on the need for a new constitution. They say the
doctored version abridged a paragraph dealing with the constitution,
completely leaving out: "utilising the information already gathered
by government and civil society and submitting the draft to a referendum
could easily achieve this by mid-2007".
They also said there was need to produce
a constitution around which there was national consensus and this
was only possible when everybody was brought on board in the drafting.
The newsletter cites a number of instances
where changes were made to the original text.
"There is a strong suspicion that the
42-page discussion paper presented to the President and released
to the public to start a free national debate was doctored, presumably
by government agents," the newsletter reads.
It attributes President Mugabe’s dismissive
attitude towards the initiative to his fear of losing power.
"In the eyes of government one thing
is simply not negotiable: that is their hold on power. Anything
that might weaken their hold on power is anathema, that is, unacceptable."
It says references to pre-election
violence were omitted, while references to "oppressive laws" become
merely "contentious laws".
"The paragraphs on ‘freedom of association’
and ‘freedom of speech and expression’ have been left out in the
‘official’ version," the newsletter notes.
The Jesuits say in section 1.2.3 the
original document says: "Some repressive pieces of legislation exist
in our statute books, with the Public
Order and Security Act (Posa) and the Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa) being of
particular concern. Legislation that inhibits peaceful assembly
and the free flow and exchange of ideas seriously impairs the efficacy
of participatory democracy and the accountability of those who govern.
Government has itself acknowledged that at least some of the provisions
of Posa and Aippa need to be amended for consistency with the spirit
and ethos of human rights as contained in our constitution."
They also cite section 7.2.4 where
in relation to the impact of Operation
Murambatsvina the churches did not, as claimed in the official
version, "acknowledge government’s subsequent efforts to build decent
houses …in an operation called Garikayi/Hlalani Kuhle". That claim
was subsequently inserted.
"This is a figment of the censors’
imagination. It is a blatant lie," the newsletter says.
In the official version "state media"
have become merely "media" with the bland remark that the media
is polarised and not always helping national unity.
But the original text stated that the
state-controlled media "promotes a situation of violence by narrowing
space for a meaningful reconciliation process to take place, so
that it has created more confusion than solutions to the process
of nation-building".
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