A rude awakening for Zimbabwe...

AS JESTINA AND 17 OTHERS ARE ROBBED OF THEIR FREEDOM AGAIN! 

The circus of contradictions within the inclusive Government has now gone beyond the awkward. We are not concerned much with internal power struggles happening in the Government but when that spills over to constrict the freedoms and personal liberty of civilians, it becomes a human rights issue and obviously a concerning matter to all of us.

Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe is disturbed by the state’s continued violation of the rights of Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) Director Jestinah Mukoko and 17 other Human rights and opposition activists who were re-detained when they appeared for routine remand on 5 May 2009. We believe the right to liberty is fundamental, as are other civil and political rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the government should either respect or cause them to be respected within its borders. What disturbs us more is the prior knowledge we have about the dreaded conditions in the Zimbabwe prisons. They are overcrowded, filthy and people die due to starvation and diseases.  

The activists who are being accused of sabotage, terrorism and banditry were re-detained under the Criminal procedures and Evidence Act Section 66.1 which posits that once a person is indicted the bail is terminated unless the Attorney General agrees to remand them out of custody. The state’s reluctance to agree for further remand out of custody leaves a lot to be desired considering that Mugabe has for long been breaching the terms of the inclusive government entered between Mugabe (ZANU PF), Tsvangirai (MDC-T) and Mutambara (MDC-M). 

We share the defense lawyers’ opinion that the Magistrate court did not have the capacity to withdraw bail as this was an agreement reached by the political parties in the inclusive government on the issue of political detainees. It is an outright violation of the right to liberty as enshrined in the Zimbabwean constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR). Article 6 of the ACHPR notes that “everyone shall have the right to liberty and to the security of his person…no one may be arbitrarily arrested or detained”.

This gibberish is a further blow to the little credibility our new Government was gaining in the eyes of the people, investors and donors. The interpretation for these continued violations, including those happening at the farms daily, is that ZANU PF is still firmly in power and so is its strong fabric of human rights violation. Apparently it appears that the former opposition party is still detached from the handles of power and MDC’s calls for an end to travel sanctions for ZANU PF leadership now come across as public relations and politicking. 

The true emancipation of the people of Zimbabwe from the ZANU PF’s are curse of rights violations and vindictiveness is yet to be realized. The headlines we hear every day about violations in farms, prisons are a sad reality that are setting the tone of our new dispensation. To all those who ever hoped and believed that ZANU PF has reformed, yesterday is your answer. It’s is not yet uhuru for Zimbabwe.

  ….. End …..