The Guardian’s Zimbabwe correspondent, Andrew Meldrum, was deported last night even though three separate court orders were made prohibiting his expulsion.
After spending 23 years reporting on the country, Meldrum was manhandled into a car outside the offices of Zimbabwe’s immigration service, driven to the airport and put on a plane to London.
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, led worldwide condemnation, saying: ”I’m very concerned at this case. Petty and vindictive actions like this simply expose the Zimbabwe regime for what it is.”
Michael Ancram, the shadow foreign secretary, said: ”This is yet another disgraceful action showing the lack of respect for freedom of expression and speech of Robert Mugabe’s evil regime. This is the act of a dictator.”
A US state department representative said the treatment of Meldrum, an American citizen, ”reflects ongoing erosion of basic rights and the rule of law, and is yet another example of the intimidation faced by journalists in Zimbabwe, who have endured threats, arbitrary arrests and violence at the hands of the government and its supporters.”
Meldrum’s wife, Dolores, spoke to him on his mobile phone. ”He told me the immigration officials had covered him with a jacket, hooded-style, and drove him around a dirt road. When they got to the airport he was locked up in an underground room,” she told Reuters.
Meldrum’s lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, claimed his deportation signalled a ”complete breakdown of the judicial system and the entire state machinery”.
The disturbing sequence of events began yesterday morn ing when Meldrum (51) presented himself at the headquarters of the immigration service. He was told that he was considered a ”prohibited immigrant” and ”an undesirable inhabitant”and would be deported. He emerged from the building surrounded by officials and police.
Meldrum shouted to waiting reporters: ”I’m being deported. This is a vindictive action of a government afraid of a free press.” He was manhandled by police officers, one of whom grabbed him by the collar, and bundled into an unmarked police car before being driven to the airport.
During the day the high court in Harare issued three orders at three hearings that Meldrum should not be deported.
At the second of the hearings yesterday afternoon Mtetwa argued that the immigration officials were in contempt for ignoring Meldrum’s right to appeal a previous de portation order last July to the supreme court. That appeal has still to be heard.
The state attorney, Loice Matamba-Moyotold, said she did not know why the home affairs minister, Kembo Mahadi, issued the deportation order because he had said it was not in the public interest to disclose why Meldrum was deemed an ”undesirable”.
Judge Charles Hungwe said he saw no reason why the reporter should be detained. ”He must be able to enjoy his freedom,” the judge said. He said the state’s reluctance to give reasons for Meldrum’s deportation left ”suspicions in one’s mind”.
After the third hearing yesterday evening, Mtetwa raced to the airport and served the new order prohibiting Meldrum’s deportation to Air Zimbabwe staff. Though immigration officials rushed away when they saw her, she also managed to serve the or der on them. Nevertheless, Meldrum was put on a flight to Gatwick. He managed to wave to friends and make a phone call to reassure them that he was all right.
Mtetwa said it was clear the state attorney and the immigration officers were not acting independently.
The editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, said: ”The deportation of our reporter Andrew Meldrum from Zimbabwe is a political act which should invite the strongest possible condemnation from the international community.
”The Zimbabwean authorities have been persecuting Andrew for the past 12 months and their determination to deport him can only be interpreted as a concerted effort to stifle any free press within the country. This is an extremely grim day for Zimbabwe.”
The latest attempts to deport Meldrum began last week when immigration officers ar rived at his home after dark and said he was wanted for questioning.
On Tuesday Meldrum voluntarily went to the immigration offices, where he was told he had been writing ”bad stories” about Zimbabwe. His residence permit and passport were confiscated. He was subsequently told to appear at the immigration offices yesterday.
Johann Fritz, director of the International Press Institute, said: ”Meldrum’s illegal and unwarranted removal is yet another example of the ongoing attempt by the government of President Mugabe to prevent information on the appalling situation in Zimbabwe finding its way out of the country.”
Paul Themba Nyathi, secretary for information and publicity for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, described the decision to deport Meldrum as ”another nail in the coffin for press freedom in Zimbabwe”. – Guardian Unlimited Â