“Manifestly unfounded”: South Africa dismisses allegations of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe

There are two articles in my zwnews email today that were worth drawing people’s attention too. The first makes me very very angry. If this is the South African government’s position on Zimbabwe then, as far as I am personally concerned, they are not, and probably never have been, honestly and decently engaged with Zimbabwean issue and it’s about time the rest of the countries in the world recognised that. What is their game? Human rights and justice obviously are not a central concern so exactly what is South Africa trying to achieve…? This is an extract from an article published today in The Weekender/Business Day:

The South African government has discarded as “manifestly unfounded” claims of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. Eight former employees of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) treasurer Roy Bennett, who sought political asylum in SA, were recently turned down on the grounds that their fears of persecution in Zimbabwe were “not well founded.” Bennett has also applied for asylum, citing political persecution in that country. The decision, relayed to the eight by the Refugee Status Determination Office in Pretoria, confirms long-held suspicions it has scant regard for the human rights crisis in Zimbabwe. It also exposed its ignorance on what is happening on the ground in its neighbour. The Determination Office’s decision casts doubt on whether Bennett’s application will succeed – since his tribulations can hardly be separated from those who worked for him. Home Affairs department spokesman Nkosana Sibuyi acknowledged Bennett’s application two weeks ago, but said he was not going to be treated differently from other Zimbabwean applicants. He said Bennett had to join the queue of Zimbabweans who had applied for asylum. There is a backlog of 103 000 applications.

What do you think? Do you agree with the South African government that there were no human rights violations on Roy Bennett’s farm? The disturbing images below come from a website that was set up to campaign for Roy Bennett’s freedom while he was imprisoned in Zimbabwe – and be warned, there are far worse images on the main site itself. How can the words “manifestly unfounded” ever be used when images like these exist? And this is a link to several years worth of media reports chronicling the atrocities step by step. Finally, follow this link to see everything broken down into a timeline.

The second article on my zwnews email comes from ZimOnline.

Zimbabwe state security agents stepped up the use of torture against civilians with 19 cases of torture reported in the month of March alone against only three cases recorded the previous two months, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum (ZHRF) said this week. Torture is outlawed in Zimbabwe and the Harare government has in the past denied reports by the ZHRF, churches and pro-democracy groups that its army and police routinely commit torture against perceived opposition supporters. “The month of March saw a rise in the incidents of torture,” said the Forum, in a report on political violence in the month of March that was released earlier this week but made available to Zim Online on Friday. The ZHRF, which brings together 17 of the biggest human rights groups in the country, said in addition to rising torture there were also several cases of assault and unlawful arrest of citizens committed by state secret service agents and security forces while carrying out their duties. “The Forum further urges all government officials to adhere to international norms on torture, stipulated under the Convention Against Torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment,” said the Forum.

But this is all “manifestly unfounded” according to the South African government … The people who made these decisions have to be morally bankrupt!

Update – 13 May 2006: DA calls for review of asylum decision

From the IOL (South Africa)

The Democratic Alliance has called for a review of South Africa’s decision not to grant political asylum to eight former employees of Zimbabwean opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) treasurer Roy Bennett.

“I have today written to the chairman (Claude Schravesande) of the Standing Committee for Refugee Affairs requesting a review of the decision,” DA foreign affairs spokesperson Douglas Gibson said in a statement on Thursday.

Technorati Tags: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Human rights, justice, Roy Bennett, political asylum, asylum, Refugee, Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum, Torture, Democratic Alliance, Mbeki

This entry was posted by Hope on Saturday, May 6th, 2006 at 1:43 pm. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.