Gvt stage-manages UN HR Commissioner’s tour‏
21 May 2012
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Harare(ZimEye)The government of Zimbabwe through the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice David Mangota has reportedly suppressed the interaction between the visiting UN High Commissioner on Human Rights and the local civil service organizations a move viewed as intended to stage manage the High Commissioner’s tour.
Addressing a joint press conference on Monday hosted by the Zimbabwe lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) endorsed by 37 local CSOs Abel Chikomo who read the statement on behalf of the NGO Forum claimed Mangota had instead hired some unknown human rights activists including a top human rights abuser the AAG and Zanu (PF) activist Goodson Nguni to stand as the CSOs in place of ‘the genuine ones’.
“The permanent secretary, David Mangota, ……….unilaterally changed the venue of the meeting, moving it to Parliament building and had invited several other ‘organisations’ that are not known to be doing any work on human rights in Zimbabwe,” said chikomo.
The CSOs said the actions of the government were a clear indication that they are the gross human rights abusers as evidenced by the fact that they have denied the CSOs just a thirty minute meeting with the High Commissioner out of her five day visit.
“Minister Chinamasa is already on record saying the government has nothing to hide – so why are they choosing to suppress interaction between Madam Pillay and credible and trusted CSOs who have been working on the ground for decades? We today are here to make it clear that genuine CSOs will not be commandeered by government to a stage-managed civil society meeting with the High Commissioner which is organised by the government; neither will we legitimise a fraudulent exercise meant to give the UN human rights chief a superficial picture of our country’s human rights situation,” said the NGO forum.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Director Irene Petras said it was not up to government to say there were no human rights abuses but rather to the people who bear the brunt of the government’s abuses and that the actions of the government spoke volumes.
“It is very clear for every logical Zimbabwean who can read and write that the government is (or) could be hiding something. So let the people make their own conclusion on whether there are human rights abuses or not,” said Petras.
Outspoken constitutional lawyer Professor Lovemore Madhuku said the CSOs that had been invited by government to the meeting where just an extension of the state which stands accused of the abuses on its own people.
“These are just an extension of the state now pretending to be involved in Human Rights issues who want to abuse the visit by the High Commissioner; this is how naïve they are,” said Madhuku.
Meanwhile the NGO Forum indicated their intention to boycott the upcoming meeting saying it would not endorse and legitimize tomorrow’s meeting between Pillay and the Zanu (PF)’s purported CSOs by attending it adding that they would only show up at the originally agreed venue.
The NGO Forum said they had already prepared a report they handed to the High Commissioner directly. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

7 Replies to “Gvt stage-manages UN HR Commissioner’s tour‏”

  1. Out of our country u agent of the devil.U want to contaminate our holy land .Your master is bombing spilling innocent blood al over the world.

  2. ZANU is not clever, they are the ones who invited this Human Rights Representative (Pillay) and they thought they are the only ones who are going to have access to her, little did they know that the most important document she is going to consider is the one which was already prepared by the UN Representatives in Zimbabwe. They are from old school, they just think for a limited period. They think that this Pillay will convey a good message to UN Offices supporting their cause of holding elections this year before finishing the new constitution. The ZANU people are day dreaming because they are now confused on how to solve their puzzle. Why didn’t they first ask SADC, AU and finaly UN to check on the Human Rights. They want to continue with their abuse but they want to be sure that UN will not intervene after their dirty game. The cruel ZANU are not ashamed. They can hide it from man but God knows their deeds better.

  3. These NGO gays and lesbians should just pack their bags and leave our country peacefully,their concept of human rights is centred on homosexuality.

  4. If for sure as a country we have nothing to hide then let’s let her meet anyone willing. Zimbabwean politica have become a very violent activity,I think everyone remembr what happened during the 2008 elections,whr people had their limbs cut,bases set up and people being beaten. I witnessed a kombi that I was travelling in during tht time,whr we were all orderd to come out and one by one before we jumped in,were odered to chat a zanu pf slogan,failure to do so was a clap or a tharough bitting. So as a country where are we going? We never had such sad news from the american elections kuti vanhu vaimanikidzwa or kurohwa kunzi va votere obama.

  5. Time for the UN to get first hand information from the “government” which is inclusive of mdc. These Lawyers have nothing to cry for since they can sneak out of the country and go to the UN headquarters and present their own reports. One gets the impression that this UN envoy was denied the right to visit Mutoko, Epworths or Chinhoyi. All in all, we don’t need a Human Rights Commissioner here, she must be ashamed of herself spending 5 days in a peaceful country other than visiting the two Sudans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia and Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel and Palestine among other countries. These are countries where her services are required even in SA where she was once a judge, she knows there are lots of abuses in those grape farms, industries and everywhere by the Boers and Rhodesians to black South Africans. Dhemeti mhani!

  6. What’s new my friend! We could have saved them the air fare and told them that they’d be wasting their time in the first place. Don’t these foreigners ever learn a lesson – you cannot for one minute trust a shona!The NGO’s should all pack up and leave, they cause more trouble than what they are worth. They are only suppressing the problem by continuing to feed the shona with maize grown elsewhere when it should be grown in zimbabwe. They are one of the big problems along with the current shona regime. They are entirely reliant on the Western Donor Organizations and as the months go by they become even more reliant. A joke really, considering that our economy was so healthy all those years ago. I say to these “foreign do-gooders”, stay away and let us as Zimbabweans resolve this problem ourselves regardless of how we intend doing it! The ballot box certainly won’t work but there are other ways of going about our work!!!!

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