Amnesty urges SADC to convene emergency summit on Zimbabwe
By Tererai Karimakwenda
June 21, 2008

The Secretary General of the human rights watchdog Amnesty International Irene Khan has written to Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, who is currently the Chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), appealing to him to convene an emergency summit of SADC heads of state, in order to discuss to Zimbabwe’s deteriorating human rights situation. The open letter released on Friday expressed deep concern with the current state-sponsored campaign of violence against perceived MDC supporters, saying it is undermining SADC efforts to end the Zimbabwe crisis.

The letter described in detail some of the horrific findings that Amnesty has documented, including ‘the discovery of 12 people whose bodies were found dumped in various parts of the country after their abduction.’ Khan confirmed that African election observers who are on the ground have also witnessed some of the violence. SADC sent a team of observers to monitor the presidential runoff election due on June 27. But they only arrived just 2 weeks before the critical poll in which Zimbabweans are to select who will be the next president.

The letter attributed most of the violence to ‘soldiers who were deployed first in the rural areas, and later in the urban centres to coordinate President Mugabe’s re-election campaign.’ It said the military forces and the police are operating in a partisan manner and allowing impunity for those committing the brutal acts, thereby ‘failing in their constitutional duty to protect the rights of all, including the right to life and freedom from torture and other forms of ill-treatment.’

Amnesty called on SADC to convene an emergency summit and support the deployment of AU or UN human rights monitors. SADC should also pressure the Zimbabwe authorities to immediately end the violence and withdraw the soldiers that have been deployed around the country.

Amnesty recommends that an independent and impartial body should be set up to investigate all acts of political violence. Its findings and recommendations should be made public.