Somehow I suspect there are millions of people in Africa who have no idea they just "united," and who have no more clue who "Mugabe" is than that peasant in Holy Grail. |
Posted on 07/04/2004 5:27:34 PM PDT by blam
Africa unites to condemn Mugabe's regime
By Christopher Munnion in Johannesburg
(Filed: 05/07/2004)
African nations combined for the first time yesterday to condemn the Zimbabwe government for its "flagrant human rights abuses", signalling a shift in their attitude towards President Robert Mugabe's increasingly repressive regime.
The African Union's executive council, meeting in Addis Ababa ahead of this week's conference of 53 heads of state, adopted a report damning Mr Mugabe's regime for the arrests and torture of opposition MPs and human rights lawyers, harassment and arrests of journalists, the stifling of freedom of expression and abuse of civil liberties.
African foreign ministers ignored the protests of the Zimbabwe delegation, which complained that it had not been given an opportunity to study and respond to the report by the AU's commission on human and people's rights. The commission found after interviewing victims of political violence and torture in Zimbabwe that "at the very least human rights violations and arbitrary arrests have occurred".
It was "particularly alarmed" by the arrest and detention of Stanford Moyo, the president of the Zimbabwe Law Society.
Referring to the invasion of white-owned farms by so-called veterans of the war for independence that led to the flight of many landowners and the collapse of the country's economy, the commission reported: "Many land activists undertook their illegal actions in expectation that the government was understanding and that police would not act against them. Government did not act soon enough and firmly enough against those guilty of gross criminal acts."
Zimbabwean society was now highly polarised, the commission said, and needed mediators, including religious organisations, to help it to "withdraw from the precipice". Draconian laws should be repealed, the judiciary freed from political pressure and the media from the "shackles of control".
Oluyemi Adenjiji, Nigeria's foreign minister and chairman of the AU's executive council, allowed the report to stand unamended after "noting" the objections of Stan Mudenge, the Zimbabwean foreign minister.
Observers said the indications were that the African heads of state would endorse the report at the summit
Ping.
It's about time! What on earth were they waiting for?
I feel a cold breeze coming up from underneath the earth.
It must be getting epidemic there. I said from a while ago that no one will care till the lives of millions are at stake. Let's see if this rises above mere blather.
A condemnation, thats all. No assassins or troops of liberation.
:sigh: Harsh language instead of bullets as if that ever solved anything.
Too communist for the rest of the communists?
bttt
Nasty note to follow?????
These African "leaders" must learn from the U.N.
Too little too late. Seriesly.
bttt
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Somehow I suspect there are millions of people in Africa who have no idea they just "united," and who have no more clue who "Mugabe" is than that peasant in Holy Grail. |
"...Mugabe's increasingly repressive regime..."
How can it get more repressive?
johniegrad: you win the writing award for this post with...
"Too communist for the other communists."
Congratulations.
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Every time I read something like "Africa unites" I am reminded of the scene in Monty Python's Holy Grail where Arthur comes upon some peasants working in a field. He introduces himself as Arthur, the King. "Oh, and who make you King?" the peasant replies.