Zimbabwe’s appalling human rights record will come under intense
scrutiny at the weekend when Amnesty International secretary-general
Irene Khan meets face to face with President Robert Mugabe.
It would be part of Khan’s mission to assess the humanitarian situation
in the country at a time when western countries are refusing to give
the country financial aid because of lack of reforms there.
“From June 13-18, Khan will lead a high-level mission to Zimbabwe,
during which she plans to meet human rights activists, victims of
human rights violations and senior government officials, including
Mugabe,” Amnesty said.
Mugabe was once classified by Amnesty as a “prisoner of conscience”
during his anticolonial struggles in the 1960s and 1970s, but was
later condemned for human rights abuses.
Zimbabwe has a long history of gross human rights abuses since 1980.
Hundreds of opposition political activists were killed last year during a violent general election.
The new Harare administration has established a national healing
ministerial team that will address the violence that characterised the
troubled country especially in the run-up to last year’s run off poll.
Amnesty International has challenged Zimbabwe’s inclusive government
to impose the rule of law in the country and that the administration
acts against state agents and government officials who continue to
violate human rights.
Amnesty said it was concerned about the apparent lack of political will by the power-sharing government to create an environment in which
human rights and media workers could freely do their work.
Amnesty’s Africa spokeswoman, Aliane Drakopoulos, said that Khan would also meet Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai some time this month in London.
Tsvangirai is in the US as part of a tour that includes a visit to Europe to seek financial aid to rebuild the country’s collapsed economy. He is scheduled to meet US President Barack Obama on Friday and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tomorrow. He is expected to ask for funds and the lifting of sanctions imposed on Harare in 2001.
“The president (Obama) looks forward to welcoming Tsvangirai to the
Oval Office on Friday,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a
statement on Tuesday. Two weeks ago the US sent senior congressman Donald Payne to Harare to initiate dialogue on economic aid and sanctions.
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson said political, social and economic reforms were needed before aid
could start or targeted sanctions could be lifted. “There is no indication that the US government is prepared to lift economic sanctions against those in Zimbabwe who have been most responsible for undermining the country’s democracy and destroying its economy,” Carson said.
“Increasingly substantial aid is dependent upon them making political
concessions and fulfilling the agreements that they have already made
and in turning the country back towards more democratic rule.”
Judging by Tsvangirai’s meeting with Netherlands Prime Minister Peter
Balkenende on Monday, western countries are unlikely to give him money and remove sanctions. Balkenende told Tsvangirai that without serious reforms, no money would be forthcoming.
