A delegation of Zimbabwean human rights lawyers is in Mozambique to seek support from civil society in that country to pressure Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to introduce political reforms, Vista News reports.
This was revealed by Radio Mozambique in a report on Tuesday quoting the leader of the Zimbabwean lawyers’ delegation, Tafadzwa Mugabe.
Mugabe [the lawyer] and his delegation of two other lawyers are being hosted by the Mozambican Lawyers’ Association (LDH).
Their visit to Mozambique comes after lawyers had suffered physical aggression and intimidation from the Zimbabwean government when they tried to seek the release of their clients, who were arrested after the March 11 demonstrations.
The demonstrations resulted in the severe beatings of opposition Movement of Democratic Change leaders, their supporters and the subsequent killing of a youth at the hands of the police.
The opposition politicians had tried to address a prayer meeting organised by the Save Zimbabwe Coalition in Highfields, a suburb of Harare.
Meanwhile, the LDH said in a press release issued on Tuesday that it wanted the Mozambican government to take a position on the regime of Robert Mugabe in relation to the recent events.
The association said the ”gross violation of human rights of Zimbabwean citizens does not happen as an isolated issue in the African or global context, but affects everyone”.
The LDH said the Zimbabwean government was ”ignoring its own Constitution, African Union laws as well as those of Southern African Development Community (SADC) and those of the United Nations’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.
The Zimbabwean situation had started having negative effects on the African countries, said the LDH.
The association said it was the responsibility of civil society, the academics and intellectuals to press the African states to take immediate action to solve the situation in Zimbabwe.
The LDH said it would soon formally send letters to the Mozambican government and the national Parliament, calling on them to take a united decision on the Zimbabwean issue. — Sapa