'Harare lied'

2004-07-06 21:17

Harare - President Robert Mugabe's government which tried to block issuing a report by the African Union's human rights watchdog by saying it had not been given the document, in fact, had had it for five months, Zimbabwe's main human rights organisation said on Tuesday.

The report by the African Commission for Human and People's Rights condemning "flagrant human rights violations" in Zimbabwe caused an uproar at a meeting of the AU council of ministers meeting.

It was the first time in the past five years of violent political repression in Zimbabwe than any AU organisation has openly criticised Mugabe's regime.

Observers say the report represents a major diplomatic defeat for 80-year-old Mugabe, who has secured until now almost total African backing for his rule condemned by the Western world.

Zimbabwe foreign minister Stanislaus Mudenge was quoted on Tuesday by the state-controlled daily Herald in Harare as saying in Addis Ababa that Zimbabwe "had not been afforded the right of reply", and the report could not be forwarded to the full AU summit for discussion.

Had sent a fact-finding mis

The newspaper claimed that "the hand of the British" was behind the report.

However, a statement issued on Tuesday by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Non-Governmental Organisation Forum, said the African Commission had sent a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe in June 2002 immediately after presidential elections, which were won by Mugabe.

The report was debated and formally adopted in November last year.

"The forum was reliably informed on February 5 that the fact-finding mission report was with the government of Zimbabwe," it said.

The document would be published "together with the comments of the government as soon as this was received".

The government has made no mention of receiving the document, although the Herald, regarded as the government's official mouthpiece, admitted the justice ministry received a copy.

The justice ministry was the commission's official host in 2002.

Reports were for 'member states'

"This was dismissed because, in terms of protocol, the commission should have sent the report through the ministry of foreign affairs," the Herald said.

But the forum statement said the "rules of the commission are silent on the ministry to which a mission should be submitted". Reports were to be submitted to "member states," it said.

"The forum is therefore of the view that the requirement by the African Commission to present the report to the government... was adequately satisfied."

It was unclear on Tuesday whether the report would be forwarded to the AU summit, after Mudenge mounted sustained objections. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA