Pro democracy advocates brief UN on rights abuses

By Violet Gonda
27 April 2007

A united front of pro-democracy activists from Zimbabwe gave first hand accounts of Robert Mugabe’s brutal suppression of opponents at the United Nations on Wednesday. The group is in the United Stated to also brief western institutions like the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and the Woodrow Wilson Centre for International Relations on the state of violence and the human rights abuses that are taking place in Zimbabwe.

Media reports said the group, which included civic activists, lawyers and senior officials from the MDC, briefed international diplomats at the UN on the horrors suffered under a brutal government crackdown that began two months ago.

Organised by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), the delegation includes civic leaders Dr Lovemore Madhuku, Jacob Mafume, human rights lawyer Otto Saki and opposition official Grace Kwinjeh.

The MDC’s deputy secretary for Foreign Affairs Grace Kwinjeh was able to provide a first-hand account of her torture in police custody. Kwinjeh said; ‘Riot police officers told us to put our phones on the ground and then they started to beat us. They had people whom they had specifically targeted. They called people by name. Morgan Tsvangirai, what do you do? they asked before beating him,’

Otto Saki, the acting director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights reportedly said they are trying to meet with as many institutions as possible while in the States to build support. Tawanda Mutasah, executive director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, said the regime is still torturing innocent civilians beyond the events of 11th March.

The delegates also had a Congressional briefing on Friday. The Mugabe regime embarked on a vicious campaign against the opposition and members of civic society that has led to an estimated 600 people injured or arrested. Several journalists have also been caught in the crossfire, including the murder of a journalist from the ZBC, Edward Chikomba.

This week more than 60 people including babies from the pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) were beaten in police custody. Their ‘crime’ was staging a sit-in at the local offices of the state electricity supplier demanding better service delivery.