OWN CORRESPONDENT, London | Monday
AN international panel of high-ranking lawyers returning from a fact-finding visit to Zimbabwe reported on Monday that democracy and the rule of law there were “in the gravest peril.”
In the report written for the International Bar Association (IBA) they said the government of President Robert Mugabe was deeply implicated in the intimidation of judges and lawyers for political ends.
“The events of the last 12 months have put the rule of law in Zimbabwe in the gravest peril,” the report said.
“The circumstances which have been disclosed show, in our view, conduct committed or encouraged by government ministers which puts the very fabric of democracy at risk.”
With the Commonwealth planning to send its own delegation to Zimbabwe in the next few months, the IBA’s report will add to the already substantial international pressure on Mugabe.
The delegation included the former chief justice of India, A.M. Ahmadi, and George Bizos, counsel to former South African president Nelson Mandela. US District Judge Andre Davis also took part.
While in Zimbabwe, the delegation met with Mugabe and Anthony Gubbay, who was forced to resign from his post as the country’s chief justice after pressure from the government.
Gubbay had angered Mugabe by handing down judgements defending the freedom of the press and the anti-Mugabe opposition.
Demeaning and defamatory statements have been publicly made about individual judges,” the IBA report said.
“Some of the people who are supposed to protect the judiciary and stamp out intimidation are the very ones who are fanning the flames of a culture of threat and intimidation of the judiciary.”
Zimbabwe Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa was singled out for criticism in the report for his alleged attacks on the judiciary.
“We regard any attempt by a government minister, but especially the justice minister, to obtain the resignation of a judge whose decisions against the government were found unpalatable as a serious breach of the independence of the judiciary.”
The report also called on Zimbabwe to uphold the law in respect of the illegal occupations of white-owned farms by government activists.
Mugabe should issue “a clear and unambiguous statement” that the occupations are “unlawful and the time has come for all who are occupying farm lands now to leave those farms.”
Meanwhile, Mugabe’s regime has begun moves to seize the 2_300 hectare farm of a 72-year-old white widow, scarcely two months after suspected state agents gunned her down in a hail of automatic fire.
Silverstream farm in the Nyamandlovu district about 80 km north of the western city of Bulawayo, was among 138 farms formally listed in the government gazette on Friday for “compulsory acquisition” by the state, under the name of Alfred Olds.
But friends of the family confirmed Saturday that he was the late husband of Gloria Olds, shot dead at dawn in early March, at dawn in early March.
She was found dead with 15 bullets in her body, lying inside the gate of her homestead where she lived alone. Her son, Martin, was murdered a year ago on his nearby farm in an independence day raid by Mugabe’s so-called guerrilla war veterans and members of his notorious secret police, according to eyewitnesses.
“It’s shocking that the government is rushing to grab Gloria’s farm so soon,” said a friend of the family who asked not to be named. They said the family would challenge the proposed seizure in court. – AFP
ZA*NOW:
‘Hands off’, Bob tells Britain April 19, 2001
Zimbabwe snubs mission and ‘British diktat’ March 21, 2001
Zim minister bellows at ‘racist’ UK March 15, 2001
Activist lucky not to be shot like dog’ March 8, 2001
Mugabe wants to see whites ‘beaten’ February 22, 2001
World wags warning finger at defiant Zim February 19, 2001
Mugabe government plumbs new depths February 18, 2000
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