In a letter addressed to SADC executive secretary, Tomaz Saloma, Human Rights Watch said the bloc’s leaders should address urgent rights issues in Malawi, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Angola.
It also called on the leaders to stop efforts to weaken the human rights mandate of the SADC Tribunal, which has previously ruled against President Robert Mugabe’s continuing seizures of productive farmland, most of which has been parcelled out to the octogenarian leader’s political cronies.
HRW also urged the regional leaders, scheduled to meet in Angola next week, to promote and strengthen the human rights mandate of the SADC tribunal, rather than weaken it, saying: “The SADC tribunal is an important institution for the protection and promotion of human rights. To promote the rule of law, SADC leaders should strengthen this body, not undermine it.”
“Since January 2011, Zimbabwe Human Rights Watch has documented numerous incidents of politically motivated violence by Zanu (PF) and its allies against real or perceived supporters of its governing partner, the MDC,” says the letter.
“Zanu (PF)-controlled police have arbitrarily arrested scores of civil society activists and routinely threatened and harassed MDC members and supporters.”
HRW also urged SADC leaders to call for an independent, transparent investigation into the killings and use of excessive force in Malawi, where on July 20 2011, security forces fired live ammunition at mainly peaceful demonstrators who were protesting against worsening economic and human rights conditions. Nineteen people were killed.
In Swaziland, King Mswati III has allegedly used repressive tactics to clamp down on political activism, while in Angola, the authorities restrict freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, as well as media freedoms, despite a new 2010 constitution that guarantees these rights.
“The SADC needs to implore its members to heed the complaints of Southern Africans, rather than to try to silence them with bullets,” added HRW.
“To promote good governance and development, the SADC should protect people’s right to gather and to speak their minds. It should be mobilizing now to ensure that resources are available for the long-term monitoring of elections in Angola and Zimbabwe because the potential for abuse – before, during, and after the elections – is very real.”
Post published in: Politics