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US slams Zim's rights record
01/04/2003 14:31 - (SA)
Washington - The United States on Monday ripped into Zimbabwe's human rights record, accusing President Robert Mugabe's government of conducting an intentional, systematic campaign of abuses.
In addition to the criticism levelled at Harare in its annual global human rights review, the State Department also called on the government to respect the results of weekend by-elections that returned two opposition MPs to parliament.
"The United States calls on the government of Zimbabwe to ensure that all parties to the elections peacefully accept the results," spokesperson Richard Boucher said of the March 29 polls.
He noted that the victories of the two candidates from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) "occurred despite a political playing field that has been and remains far from level".
And, Boucher said the pre-election period was "marred by a substantial escalation in political violence" committed by the government and supporters of Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.
He also accused Zanu-PF supporters of having intimidated US and other foreign election observers during the voting.
Shortly after Boucher made his comments, the department released its annual survey of human rights practices which said the country's record was "very poor" and that Mugabe's government "continued to commit numerous, serious abuses."
"President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party used intimidation and violence to maintain political power," it said.
The report accused the government of extrajudicial killings as well as beatings, rapes and torture, restricting freedoms of speech and the press, undermining the judicial system and failing to crack down on blatant rights abuses.
In addition, it repeated criticism of Mugabe's controversial land-redistribution program under which many commercial, white-owned farms were seized without compensation. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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