American labour delegation deported from Zimbabwe despite having visas

By Tichaona Sibanda
23 September 2006

It has emerged that a seven member delegation from the American Centre for International Solidarity in the AFL -CIO union federation deported from Harare Friday was granted visas by the Zimbabwean embassy in Washington .Wellington Chibhebhe, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions secretary-general said the trip had been planned months ago but that the Mugabe regime developed ‘cold feet’ at the last minute. He said government feared the delegation would observe first hand evidence of the torture labour union leaders endured two weeks ago under police custody.

‘Contrary to what government is saying, (that the delegation had no visas) the ministry of Foreign Affairs was notified of the trip in early August and no one objected to that,’ Chibhebhe said.

Led by Bill Lucy, the head of delegation at the Cosatu 9 th National Congress, the group had gone to visit injured ZCTU officials following the protests two weeks ago. This follows a similar deportation of members of the South Africa 's Young Communist League (YCL) who were declared prohibited immigrants.

Meanwhile a delegation from a militant pro-democracy Zimbabwe group Free Zim youth, on Friday met officials from the South African embassy in London to present a document on how best the Mbeki government can resolve the Zimbabwe crisis.

Co-ordinator of the group Alois Mbawara said they were received well by the officials who accepted the document on behalf of their government. The two groups later held discussions that lasted two hours.

‘We touched on a lot of issues. We basically discussed everything that concerns Zimbabwe today. We also appraised them on what initiatives their government can do to help the situation. We were impressed by their response. Unfortunately we cannot divulge what they told us today until they send our document to Pretoria ,’ said Mbawara. Soon after the embassy meeting Mbawara and his delegation joined over 40 demonstrators from the British Trade Union congress, the TUC , outside the Zimbabwe embassy in central London .

Mbawara said the demonstrators braved a heavy afternoon downpour to protest the regime’s arrest and torture of the country’s labour union leaders and activists during ZCTU protests last week.

The recently held Cosatu congress resolved to make this Friday an international day of solidarity with the labour unions in Zimbabwe and had planned several protests and petitions in various countries. These were supposed to target Zimbabwean embassies across the globe. At the time of going on air only the British Trade Union Congress ( TUC ) had demonstrated at the Zimbabwean embassy in London .