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Harare just putting a front in extolling rights of the child
ZimOnline
June 21, 2006

http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=12322

HARARE - Twenty-nine year old Rudo Mangenje recoils in anger whenever President Robert Mugabe's government presents itself as a defender of children's rights.

Mangenje is bitter that the Harare authorities detained her together with her three-year old daughter Maidei for more than

24 hours in a filthy cell at Harare Central police station last month for violating the country's tough security laws.

She says the fact that the Harare authorities could detain young children such as Maidei, shows that the government should not be taken seriously when it presents itself as a defender of children's rights.

"It is amazing how this government talks loudly about children's rights when it had the temerity to jail an innocent three-year old girl. They have no shame," says Mangenje.

Zimbabwe last Friday joined the rest of the African continent to mark the Day of the African Child. The day is marked by seven days of activism that seeks to foster the respect for children's rights.

But critics of the government such as Mangenje say Harare's celebration of the Day of the African Child is a mere propaganda stunt by a government that easily ranks among the worst violators of children's rights in the world.

Social scientist and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) official, Gordon Chavhunduka, said the Zimbabwean government had a narrow and myopic understanding of child abuse that limited it to sexual abuse of minors.

But when this narrow understanding is removed, Mugabe's government would square up with some of the worst abusers of children's rights, said the respected former University of Zimbabwe vice-chancellor.

Chavhunduka said: "The government is pulling back Africa in this regard. We have children who have resorted to prostitution and other criminal activities because the government has created conditions that make it impossible for them to go to school and earn a better living.

"Some are now being forced to marry as early as 13 because of state-sponsored hunger. Children are being trained as violent militia under the guise of national service. The list of child rights violations by the government is endless."

Thousands of children have dropped out of school with a significant number being forced into prostitution due to a severe six-year old economic crisis gripping the country many blame on Mugabe's policies.

The government is also accused of brain-washing graduates of the country's controversial national service programme who have been used to commit heinous crimes against Mugabe's political opponents.

Mangenje insists that examples of the abuse of children's rights need not be drawn from the secretive national youth service programme but from what happened to her and her three-year old daughter.

Mangenje was part of a group of National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) activists who were arrested in May for defying a police ban on a march to commemorate a controversial home demolition campaign that left hundreds of thousands homeless.

Among those arrested were eight children aged between three and five.

"What is the difference between South Africa's apartheid government that shot and harassed children in violation of children's rights and our government that refuses to release three-year olds from jail because their mothers have peacefully marched to Parliament?" said Mangenje.

Charles Kwaramba, a lawyer who represented the NCA protesters was equally scathing in his criticism of the government for detaining children in filthy cells.

"I could not imagine this happening in Zimbabwe, a country liberated from colonialism. The conditions in our jails and police cells are appalling even for hardcore criminals, let alone children under the age of five," said Kwaramba.

Lovemore Matombo, the President of the militant Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions says Zimbabwe's children have never been as vulnerable to abuse as they are right now, all because of poor policies by the government.

"Today's children are vulnerable to AIDS, poverty and child labour. Most of these problems faced by our children can be traced back to poorly administered government policies.

"If a country's economy and political sphere is well managed, then you don't have 12-year olds engaging in prostitution or working on the farms. They will be going to school," said Matombo.

But Youth Development Minister, Ambrose Mutinhiri, rejected charges that the Zimbabwe government is a violator of children's rights.

"Some people might want to politicise issues here. But when one looks at our work (in government), there is a trace of seriousness in combating child abuse. Laws are there and more are coming to deal with child abuse," he said.

But for Mangenje and her daughter, there is no greater abuse by the government that beats being forced to share a filthy cell with hardcore criminals in a Harare jail. - ZimOnline

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