Tsvangirai wants UN tribunal
2008-04-17 20:25
Johannesburg - Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called on Thursday for a special United Nations tribunal to be set up to bring perpetrators of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe to justice.
Tsvangirai said while his party had opposed pursuing retribution against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF regime, it now appeared to be the only way to deter them from committing abuse.
"I think the current wave of violence against the people must stop and the only way to stop is that those who are committing those crimes must know they will be answerable one day," he told reporters in Johannesburg.
"In fact we are actually considering that the UN must actually consider setting up an international crimes court just like they set up one in Sierra Leone, in DRC (the Democratic Republic of Congo) and others."
Tsvangirai said that Mugabe supporters had embarked on a wave of attacks in the aftermath of disputed elections on March 29.
"As I speak, our people are being murdered, homes burned, children molested, women raped," said the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Tsvangirai, who ended up with serious head injuries after being assaulted by the security forces in March last year, said that the recent attacks followed a long pattern dating back to the early 1980s when up to 20 000 people were killed in clashes with soldiers in southern Matabeleland.
"There was violence against the opposition when we formed the (MDC) party. There is violence now against the people as we stand," he said.
"It's a record of human rights abuses... It would be very difficult to convince even the most forgiving to say let him (Mugabe) go scot free."