Posted on 07/05/2002 3:08:31 PM PDT by Clive
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's human rights record has again come under scrutiny following last week's unprecedented investigation of rights abuses in Zimbabwe by the African Commission on Human and People's Rights.
Analysts said the fact-finding mission was critical insofar as it should illuminate hitherto hidden chapters of human rights violations and impunity in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights chair Tawanda Hondora said the probe was important because it could expose a catalogue of concealed rights abuses. He said the investigation was also a severe indictment of government.
"It was significant because it showed that Zimbabweans' human rights concerns have now attracted the attention of African leaders," Hondora said. "The mere fact that the commission sent a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe is in itself a serious indictment of government."
National Constitutional Assembly chair Lovemore Madhuku said the commission gathered overwhelming evidence of abuses and could not afford to ignore all of it completely.
"They can't make a finding that there are totally no human rights abuses in Zimbabwe," Madhuku said. "They really have a serious challenge on their hands."
The commission indicated at the end of its mission it had gathered large volumes of useful information. Addressing journalists last Friday, group leader Jainaba Johm said her team obtained "serious allegations" of human rights abuses and, in some cases, evidence of those violations.
She said the team gathered over 20kg of literature including videotapes, photographs, police reports and documents. Eyewitnesses and victims of violence also testified before the commission.
"Having received a large volume of information in document form and orally, our responsibility now is to take time to consider the material at our disposal," Johm said. "Our inquiry will be focused on whether the Republic of Zimbabwe complies with its obligations under the African charter."
The investigation team was in the country from June 24-29. It was led by the commission vice-chair Johm of Gambia and included Barney Pityana, who is the commissioner responsible for Zimbabwe, and Fiona Adolu of Uganda. Pityana is a past chair of South Africa's Human Rights Commission.
The team, which covered the period 1999-2000, came to Zimbabwe following reports of widespread rights transgressions. It met senior government and ruling Zanu PF officials, including President Robert Mugabe, opposition leaders, civil society groups and media representatives.
The opposition Movement for De-mocratic Change (MDC) condemned Mugabe for misleading the commission after he claimed he was the "custodian" of human rights. It said Mugabe should not "amend the truth" to masquerade as a guardian of Zimbabweans' rights when the country was under his "grim dictatorship".
"Evidence at hand demonstrates beyond doubt the regime's culpability in widespread and systematic incidences of murder, torture, rape, abduction, kidnapping, arson, inti- midation and other forms of well-organised political violence," it said.
"In addition to these acts of barbarism perpetrated with state sanction and impunity, the regime has sought to legalise harassment of political opponents and to control what people read, hear or see."
Zanu PF was recently found liable for human rights abuses by a court in the United States following an application by Adella Chiminya and Elliot Pfebve whose husband and brother, respectively, were killed in the run-up to the 2000 general election. The party has been ordered to pay over US$73 million in punitive and compensatory damages.
Johm said persistent complaints of human rights infringements in Zimbabwe caused last week's probe.
"Since the 27th ordinary session of the commission held in Algiers, Algeria, in April 2002, the commission has been receiving reports of alleged violations in Zimbabwe," she said. "The commission responded to these calls by seeking permission from the government of the Republic of Zimbabwe to come to the country and undertake a fact-finding mission."
Hondora said the investigations would give African leaders a chance to understand better what is happening in Zimbabwe.
"It will offer African leaders an opportunity to understand that what is happening in the country has nothing to do with land but has everything to do with issues of governance," he said.
"Zimbabweans have managed to raise the profile of human rights violations to African leaders. It should no longer be possible for Mugabe to hide under the cover of land and Pan- Africanist claims."
The commission came to Zimbabwe at a time when international human rights group, Amnesty International, released a report blaming official impunity for mounting human rights violations. Amnesty spokesperson Samkelo Mokhine said last week at the launch of the report in Johannesburg there had been a pattern of human rights breaches in Zimbabwe since the 1970s.
"The ordinary Zimbabwean hasn't had any sense of justice - not just from the'70s but up to 2002," he said. "With this report we are hoping to jog the international community and the Southern African Development Community into action."
Apart from the current wave of violence and repression, Mugabe's government stands accused of massive human rights abuses in Matabeleland during the 1980s. Rights activists say over 20 000 innocent civilians were killed by government security agencies under the pretext of suppressing dissidents.
Amnesty said impunity - the failure to bring to justice those who commit serious human rights abuse - was now entrenched in Zimbabwe.
"Impunity begins when state authorities feel that they cannot achieve their political goals through legal means or with the support of the people," it said. "Impunity implies the distortion of the rule of law. It is justice being evaded by those for whom the law is an obstacle, as well as violations committed to attack or punish those who should be protected by the law."
When a government adopts a policy of impunity, Amnesty said, other measures may follow: the rights to freedom of expression and assembly are suppressed, the protective role of the police and security forces is eroded and the independence of the judiciary is undermined.
"All this is done in order to form a shield under which impunity for further human rights violations can flourish without scrutiny," it said.
Amnesty further stated: "Impunity has become the central problem in Zimbabwe, where state security forces - police officers, army officers or agents of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) - commit widespread human rights violations without being brought to justice.
"The Zimbabwean government has also organised, co- ordinated or otherwise encouraged 'militias' to carry out threats, assaults, abductions, torture and killings against its perceived political enemies. As a disguised arm of the state, these informal 'militias' are composed of supporters of the ruling Zanu PF, war veterans and unemployed rural youths, sometimes press-ganged into their activities."
Amnesty said police have often accompanied these militias in committing their crimes. However, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri told the African Commission that Zimbabwe police were effective and professional. The MDC repudiated this claim describing the police as "partisan".
Amnesty traced the culture of human rights abuses back to the colonial era.
"In Zimbabwe, the growth of impunity has been a long-term phenomenon that extends back into the days of the nationalist armed struggle in the 1970s when Rhodesian forces committed atrocities against the civilian population in their pursuit of African nationalist armed groups," it said.
"Amnesty International documented many violations by forces of the white minority regime and campaigned for the fair trial or release of Robert Mugabe - now the President of Zimbabwe - as well as many former and current senior politicians."
"Starting in the early '80s, the purported threat of 'dissident' ex-guerilla fighters in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces led to a counter-insurgency war in which several thousands of civilians were killed or 'disappeared'," the grouping said.
Amnesty said government promoted human rights violations by preventing prosecution of rights transgressors through presidential amnesties, clemencies and indemnities; shielding state agents who perpetrate abuses; and blocking rights activists and the independent media from investigating and publishing accounts of rights infringements.
It also said political manipulation of the police and the judiciary as well as repression of civil society by government helped to promote human rights violations.
Do tell. It will be Bill Clinton all over again. Mugabe will be found not guilty, but the white people he slaughtered will be suspect.
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