k of widespread and credible political pluralism threatens the enjoyment of democracy. “Zimbabwe is a country with a serious democratic deficit,” said the report drafted by a committee of human rights commissioners.
The committee, a panel of 18 legal experts which reviews nations’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is worried that the ruling Zanu (PF) party receives a disproportionate part of public funds and holds almost two thirds of the 150 parliamentary seats and Senate.
The Zimbabwe government was particularly taken to task over what the committee called “recent reports of excessive use of force by the police” and the army during peaceful labour demonstrations in September last year which elicited a brutal and unprovoked crackdown from riot police and youth militia.
The committee also asked for an independent investigation into reports of excessive use of force by government agencies in Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces mostly inhabited by the country’s roughly two million minority Ndebele tribe.
Post published in: News