CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN ZIMBABWE

Crimes Against Humanity
A former member of the European Parliament, Glenys Kinnock, who was a previous Minister of State for Africa in the United Kingdom, asked during a parliamentary debate, why the British government is not pushing for the prosecution of Robert Mugabe at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity? The United Nations defines a crime against humanity as "a widespread attack on a civilian population." Mugabe should be investigated and indicted by the ICC for the Matabele massacres of the 1980s, continued state-sponsored violence against political opponents and ongoing atrocities in their blood diamond fields.

Justice Denied
In response to these questions, the British Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, David Howell, noted that as Zimbabwe is not party to the Statute of Rome, to get an ICC charge against the dictator would require a UN Security Council Resolution. As both Russia and China are permanent members of the UN Security Council and posses a veto, it means that dictators like Mugabe are effectively beyond the reach of the International Criminal Court.
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Torture
Meanwhile, South African judge Hans Fabricius, of the Pretoria High Court, ordered South African prosecutors to investigate Human Rights abuses and torture in Zimbabwe. This was in response to a case filed by a Human Rights group and Zimbabwean exiles. Mugabe, speaking at a convention in Harare, called the judicial probe by the High Court in Pretoria, a "racist assault!"

Murder
Civil Rights Activists in Zimbabwe have called on the United Nations to set up an office to monitor the deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe. Cephas Magura, a senior member of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC Party, was killed in Mudzi district. According to a local media report, he was stoned to death by a mob led by David Chimukoko, a local official of President Mugabe's ZANU-PF Party.

State Terror
Despite public assurances by Robert Mugabe of peace, tolerance, freedom of choice, freedom of association and non-violence, thousands of people in Zimbabwe have been raped, tortured, beaten and murdered in an ongoing and escalating campaign of state oppression and intimidation. The few remaining white-owned farms and factories continue to be targeted for land invasions, expropriations and looting by Mugabe's ZANU-PF.

Marxist Mismanagement
32 years of Mugabe's ZANU-PF misrule has turned what was once a paradise, with one of the strongest currencies, healthy economies, highest literacy and education rates on the continent, with an excellent agricultural base and the lowest unemployment, in the continent, to the Marxist hell-hole that it now is. Under Mugabe's Marxist policies, Zimbabwe has attained the highest rate of inflation in history, the worst unemployment on the continent, and the most complete destruction of commercial agriculture ever seen.

Dr. Peter Hammond

Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Fax: 021-685-5884
Email:  mission@frontline.org.za

See also:
Violence Continues Against MDC
Chinese Colonialism in Zimbabwe
Chinese Arms in Africa
Mugabe Tsunami in Zimbabwe
Reclaiming Zimbabwe for Christ