Canadian MP seeks Mugabe indictment for crimes against humanity

By Lance Guma
05 July 2006

A Canadian member of parliament, Dr Keith Martin, has been able to get the Foreign Affairs Committee in that country to pass a motion calling on the government to use its ‘crimes against humanity legislation’ and try to bring bring Robert Mugabe to justice. The Committee passed three motions from Dr Martin that seek to address the ongoing crises in the Congo, Darfur and Zimbabwe. The motions received support from the two main opposition parties and passed during a marathon parliamentary session a few weeks ago in Canada.

Speaking on the Behind the Headlines series Dr Martin says he is disappointed with the attitude of the international community towards the Zimbabwean crisis. He said there is little attention being given to problems in the country and the same applied to the conflict in the Congo and Darfur where you ‘have the longest serving genocidal regime in the world.’ The MP once worked in Mozambique as a doctor during the civil war and says its very difficult for people in the West to have a real appreciation of the challenges faced by people in African hotspots because most of the images are only seen via television. This he says allows them to ‘shut it off’ from their minds. His experience in Mozambique showed him first hand what it’s like.

His motion on Zimbabwe reads: ‘That the Committee recommends that the government work with victims in Canada to ascertain the feasibility of using existing, domestic crimes against humanity legislation to indict Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe for crimes against humanity as well as press for a resolution at the Security Council to invoke a Chapter 7 article 41 resolution against President Mugabe and that the Minister of Justice report back to the Committee by November 15th on his efforts.’ Dr Martin argues the motions will give the Canadian government clear direction on how to implement effective actions, ‘that will diminish the endemic cycle of violence and appalling human suffering occurring…These motions make our responsibility to protect, an obligation to act.’

He is also calling for the redirection of financial resources from the Zimbabwean government to local NGO’s because he believes the authorities are misusing them and withholding food to opposition supporters. He says the withholding of food and anti retrovirals (ARV’s) was effectively a death sentence in a country with a high HIV infection rate. Turning to the last minute u-turn by Koffi Annan on meeting Mugabe Dr Martin said ‘its our collective guilt when something is not dealt with,’ but he quickly added it was a bit naïve to expect Mugabe to negotiate in good faith when all he had shown was a desire ‘to acquire and retain power.’ He added that the Gukurahundi massacres where thousands of Ndebele’s were killed in Matabeleland showed Mugabe’s determination to cling on to power.

For the full interview with Dr Keith Martin (MP) tune in to Behind the Headlines with Lance Guma next week Thursday and Friday.