INTERNATIONAL LAWYERS in Belfast yesterday heard from a Zimbabwean human rights lawyer of the threats facing her profession under President Robert Mugabe’s regime, and how this in turn is affecting the most vulnerable in the troubled African country.
Beatrice Mtetwa told the World Bar Conference that even as she was flying to Ireland for the conference, her colleagues were being targeted by President Mugabe’s militias.
She said that a magistrate was beaten up because he had released some opposition members, while the lawyer who defended them was abducted on Saturday and his whereabouts remained unknown.
“We have a number of lawyers facing criminal charges arising from their action for people in the opposition or other people in society,” she said.
“We have had lawyers leaving Zimbabwe because they are on a death list; we have had members assaulted for carrying out their duties as lawyers. Basically, lawyers doing human rights cases in Zimbabwe right now are being continuously harassed, assaulted and intimidated. More and more lawyers, particularly the younger ones, are refusing to do certain kinds of cases because it is too dangerous.”
Ms Mtetwa said that there was no independent media in Zimbabwe, that “the police do not pretend to exercise any form of impartiality” and that while a number of magistrates still tried to act independently, “the higher up you go in the judiciary, the less is the independence”.
Ms Mtetwa was involved in a number of high profile cases in Zimbabwe defending journalists from newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, the London Guardian, and the New York Times.
She said people could never have believed that matters would deteriorate so disastrously.
“The economy is completely collapsed. The inflation is the highest the world has even seen and the suffering for the ordinary man in the street is far greater than has even been explained. There is a lot of poverty and hunger. The entire medical structure is broken down, and with that combination you can imagine what ordinary life for the Zimbabwean has become.”
She saw little hope that South African president Thabo Mbeki could mediate a solution with President Mugabe. “The whole mediation should not be left to South Africa but should go higher up to the African Union,” she said.
Asked about Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s suggestion that military intervention might be required, she said that should be a matter for the African Union. “Everything must be done that is possible to ensure that a semblance of normality is returned to Zimbabwe, and that the people of Zimbabwe are accorded some of the rights that are taken for granted elsewhere,” she added.
Ms Mtetwa said that regardless of the situation, she was returning to Zimbabwe because that was her duty. “It is not a political thing, it is a legal thing,” she said.
She said she still had hope for her country. “Historically we have seen regimes fall,” said Ms Mtetwa. “You have seen how the Soviet Union crumbled; you’ve seen how apartheid crumbled. Historically, one has to have hope because hope comes from the most ugly situations.”
Kathy Buckle’s Zimbabwe Blog: page 9
