AU finally onto Zim

ADDIS ABABA – African Union human rights experts have thrown overboard the continent’s long deference to Zimbabwe by circulating a previously secret report critical of the country’s rights record at an AU summit.

The document, the record of a 2002 visit by experts from the AU Commission on Human and People’s Rights, called Zimbabwe a deeply divided society beset by police abuses, a shackled media, illegal land invasions and a politically compromised judiciary. Zimbabwean foreign minister Stan Mudenge denounced the report when it was tabled at a meeting of AU foreign ministers meeting in Addis Ababa last week, ahead of the July 6-8 summit of heads of state in the Ethiopian capital, diplomats said.They said he called the reports’ authors “Blair’s messengers”, a reference to British prime minister Tony Blair, a strong critic of president Robert Mugabe.The paper, reporting on a June 2002 visit, said: “There was enough evidence placed before the mission to suggest that, at the very least, human rights violations occurred in Zimbabwe.”The Mission was presented with testimony from witnesses who were victims of police violence and other victims of torture while in police custody.There was evidence that the system of arbitrary arrests took place.The Mission is prepared and able to rule that the government cannot wash its hands of responsibility for these happenings.”The report said while it could not find definitively that rights violations by ruling ZANU-PF activists were part of an orchestrated government policy, “there was an acknowledgement (by government officials) that excesses did occur”.The report is a marked departure from previous AU statements about Zimbabwe’s political situation, which have tended to accept the version of events preferred by Mugabe’s government, to the extent of endorsing a series of elections widely criticised by Western rights groups as fraudulent.Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, began his current term in 2002 despite protests from the opposition and Western powers that he stole the election.The AU and its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity, have long been urged by rights experts to denounce abuses perpetrated by African governments against their own people and stop closing ranks in the face of foreign criticism.African diplomats said they doubted the report would be approved by the summit and one said he suspected the commission had failed to submit the text of the report to the Zimbabwean government for comment.Commission officials were not immediately available for comment.- Nampa-ReutersZimbabwean foreign minister Stan Mudenge denounced the report when it was tabled at a meeting of AU foreign ministers meeting in Addis Ababa last week, ahead of the July 6-8 summit of heads of state in the Ethiopian capital, diplomats said.They said he called the reports’ authors “Blair’s messengers”, a reference to British prime minister Tony Blair, a strong critic of president Robert Mugabe.The paper, reporting on a June 2002 visit, said: “There was enough evidence placed before the mission to suggest that, at the very least, human rights violations occurred in Zimbabwe.”The Mission was presented with testimony from witnesses who were victims of police violence and other victims of torture while in police custody.There was evidence that the system of arbitrary arrests took place.The Mission is prepared and able to rule that the government cannot wash its hands of responsibility for these happenings.”The report said while it could not find definitively that rights violations by ruling ZANU-PF activists were part of an orchestrated government policy, “there was an acknowledgement (by government officials) that excesses did occur”.The report is a marked departure from previous AU statements about Zimbabwe’s political situation, which have tended to accept the version of events preferred by Mugabe’s government, to the extent of endorsing a series of elections widely criticised by Western rights groups as fraudulent.Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, began his current term in 2002 despite protests from the opposition and Western powers that he stole the election.The AU and its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity, have long been urged by rights experts to denounce abuses perpetrated by African governments against their own people and stop closing ranks in the face of foreign criticism.African diplomats said they doubted the report would be approved by the summit and one said he suspected the commission had failed to submit the text of the report to the Zimbabwean government for comment.Commission officials were not immediately available for comment.- Nampa-Reuters