SA, Nigeria block UN action on Zim
Staff Reporter
4/11/02 4:55:51 AM (GMT+2)
A MEETING of the United Nations' Commission on Human Rights in Geneva has so far failed to pass a resolution against gross human rights abuses in Zimbabwe because South African and Nigerian officials are not prepared to endorse any action against the southern African state, it was learnt yesterday.
Human rights groups, non-governmental agencies and members of the 15-nation European Union want the UN to pass a resolution that allows the commission's thematic investigators to visit Zimbabwe to probe the charges of human rights abuses by the government. Samkelo Mokhine, spokesman for Amnesty International's Southern Africa Development Community Network which is attending the Geneva meeting, said the passage of the resolution hinged on support from Nigeria and South Africa. He said organisations attending the six-week-long meeting did not want mere condemnation of human rights abuses by ruling ZANU PF supporters, but a strongly worded statement spelling out what action should be followed to rectify the situation. "If they (Nigeria and South Africa) don't back the resolution, it will not fly," Mokhine told the Financial Gazette by telephone from Johannesburg yesterday. "We are looking not only for a mere condemnation but a strongly-worded statement and a request within it that special investigators will then be invited to Zimbabwe to investigate the human rights abuses." He said such a resolution had to be made as quickly as possible in order to keep the spotlight on Zimbabwe so that it was not overshadowed by the Middle East crisis. The non-partisan nature of the Commission on Human Rights and Zimbabwe's adoption of the UN Convention on Human Rights would prompt President Robert Mugabe to take the resolution seriously and accede to demands by UN investigators to probe the abuses. UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and outgoing High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson have already indicated their deep concern at the rampant human rights abuses by ZANU PF followers. According to human rights groups, ZANU PF activists killed at least 12 opposition Movement for Democratic Change supporters in March alone, while scores of people have been subjected to threats, violence, sexual torture, rape and wrongful detention and arrest. The Commission on Human Rights' 58th meeting is expected to come up with nearly 100 resolutions on human rights violations, civil and political rights, freedom of expression and the independence of the judiciary, among other issues.
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