A leading Zimbabwean rights group on Thursday slammed President Robert Mugabe’s government for failing to ratify a United Nations convention against torture and condoning its use by state agents.
”We don’t understand why Zimbabwe is not yet a party to the UN Convention Against Torture”, unveiled in 1985, Farai Chiweshe, deputy director for the Southern African Human Rights Trust (SAHRIT), told a committee of lawmakers.
Zimbabwe’s image has been tarnished in recent years by allegations of torture and brute force by state security agents to crush opposition to Mugabe’s 26-year rule.
”We are concerned that Zimbabwe has not ratified the convention when all countries in the region have done so,” Chiweshe said.
”A lot needs to be done to ensure police respect human rights,” he said.
The deputy chief of SAHRIT also castigated the Zimbabwean government for repressive laws that critics say have become a tool to muzzle the once-vibrant independent press, hound the opposition and stifle democracy.
”Some provisions of the Public Order and Security Act and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act have been deemed to be inconsistent with Zimbabwe’s obligations under international treaties,” Chiweshe said.
”These laws are unnecessarily restrictive and intrusive and there is a need to bring the laws in conformity with international treaties to which Zimbabwe is a signatory.”
A new law is also in the offing to allow state agents to snoop on private telephone conversations and intercept e-mails and faxes.
In September several labour leaders, including the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions president Lovemore Matombo and secretary general Wellington Chibebe, were brutally assaulted by riot police deployed to crush anti-government protests.
Mugabe later justified the crackdown, criticising the protesters for ”wanting to become a law unto themselves”. — AFP
