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| author/source:Times (UK) |
| published:Sat 18-Aug-2001 |
| posted on this site:Sat 18-Aug-2001 |
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| Article Type : News |
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| "The accounts of human rights abuses ... are terrifying, sickening and horrific" |
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By Melissa Kite, Political Correspondent and Jan Raath in Harare
Tony Blair was under increasing pressure to take action against Zimbabwe yesterday after harrowing new evidence of torture and human rights abuses was uncovered. The Conservatives condemned as shameful the continued silence of Labour ministers as white farmers reported horrific acts committed under President Mugabe's regime. Graphic details of rape and torture were sent to the Foreign Office at the beginning of the week in an e-mail from the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum, a coalition of lawyers and charities, pleading for action. They were made public yesterday by the Conservatives, who accused the Government of ignoring the plea.
The new evidence emerged as the ordeal of 21 white farmers in a lice-ridden jail in Zimbabwe's small northern town of Chinhoyi looked set to drag on to a full fortnight after a judge failed to reach a decision on bail. A High Court judge, Rita Makarau, was to have delivered her ruling yesterday morning, but instead told lawyers that she would postpone judgment until Monday. The Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum detailed attacks with whips, chains, batons, electricity, water and fire. Melted plastic was used to burn victims' bodies, including their genitals, and others were subjected to horrific sex attacks. The victims were not only white farmers, but also anyone suspected of not supporting the Mugabe regime, it said.
Francis Maude, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, called for Mr Blair to take a lead in trying to get Zimbabwe expelled from the Commonwealth. "The accounts of human rights abuses ... are terrifying, sickening and horrific," he said. "We have long called on the Government to take action against Mr Mugabe and his henchmen, but have provoked little response. Now we learn that not only have our warnings and calls for action from Robin Cook and Jack Straw fallen on deaf ears, but they also appear to have ignored the crimes and abuses detailed in this e-mail. Five years ago Tony Blair made promises of an ethical foreign policy. What a joke."
The report collates 77 statements from victims of the violence by "war veteran" squatters who have been attacking white farmers and camping on their land. One victim told how he and a friend had been kidnapped at night and taken to a farm used as a base by the veterans. They were bound then tortured. "They beat me first. Then they used all the same tactics, wrapping my legs, hands and private parts and lighting the plastics. They were taking hot ashes and spreading them on my body. I have burns all over my back, front, buttocks, private parts, thighs and legs." The atrocities were being committed by "black people against black, white, yellow and brown", the report said.
The Foreign Office said that ministers were extremely concerned by the contents of the report, but the Government's tactic was to work with European and Commonwealth partners to put pressure on Mr Mugabe. The European Union is expected to meet Zimbabwean officials within days and a Commonwealth foreign ministers' conference in Nigeria next month offers the best hope to press the Government's case, the spokesman said. "We have repeatedly registered this concern with the Government of Zimbabwe. Together with our European and Commonwealth partners, we will continue to use every opportunity to make these concerns crystal clear."
In Harare, the decision by Judge Makarau, who is regarded as a robust judge, has raised eyebrows in legal circles. Advocate Firoz Girach, representing the 21 men, said that she gave no reason for the delay. On Thursday the judge was told that the farmers had been subjected to arbitrary arrest and harassment by police who illegally shaved their heads, forced them to wear prison uniforms, paraded them in front of state-controlled television crews and refused to allow them medicines and food brought by relations. In the district of Karoi, about 30 miles from Chinhoyi, white farmers have shaved their heads in solidarity with their colleagues in jail and as a tactic to prevent the men being singled out and victimised on their release.
You can read the full ZHR NGO report in the Human Rights section under Reports - "Who was Responsible?"
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