CHOGM panel to monitor Zimbabwe

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) has given a three-person panel the authority to initiate action against Zimbabwe - should the presidential election on 9-10 March be deemed not free and fair. The CHOGM decided not to take any action against Zimbabwe until after the election, in which President Robert Mugabe faces the toughest challenge yet to his two-decade rule from Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai. CHOGM's statement on Zimbabwe expressed "deep concern about incidents of violence and intimidation surrounding the election campaign" following reports of torture of opposition supporters by ruling party militia. The co-author of one such report, Dr Hans Draminsky Petersen of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), said the Zimbabwean government could no longer deny that opposition supporters have been tortured and harassed. Last month the Zimbabwean government dismissed the PHR report as "sickening disinformation". However, the CHOGM statement, in light of such reports of human rights abuses, has left the way open for sanctions and the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth. CHOGM's three-man panel consists of President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo and Australian Prime Minister John Howard. They will "in close consultation with the secretary-general, and taking into account the Commonwealth Observer Group Report... determine appropriate Commonwealth action on Zimbabwe in the event the report is adverse". Such action would range "from collective disapproval to suspension". The PHR report was co-authored by Shari Epple of the Amani Trust, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that documents torture, and Petersen, a founder of PHR in Denmark. They had documented cases of severe torture and harassment of MDC supporters, allegedly by ruling ZANU-PF militants, in rural Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's Deputy High Commissioner to South Africa, Danson Mudekunye, had told IRIN last month that the PHR report was "sickening disinformation" and "utter nonsense". Apart from instances of torture and the denial of healthcare to opposition party supporters, the PHR report also contained allegations that identity documents (IDs) of MDC supporters were being stolen to prevent them from voting. Petersen has now written to Mudekunye to defend his report. He wrote: "Our own findings document organised and planned torture and other human rights abuses committed by ZANU-PF supporters against persons identified by the perpetrators as supporters of the political opposition. "We had statements from torture victims who clearly needed hospital care for injuries caused by torture that a document issued by the police was necessary to be allowed treatment in hospital." The report by PHR stated: "In three cases, the police issued documents apparently necessary at any hospital (in a particular district in southern Zimbabwe) in order for health staff to be allowed to administer treatment to people who arrive with obviously politically motivated injuries. In one case in this district they refused to write the needed letter, resulting in a 24-hour delay of treatment at the hospital. Treatment was eventually given only as the result of the victim having a relative on the hospital staff." Petersen was in rural Zimbabwe in mid-January and took statements from torture victims. "But of course, I may be wrong and (Mudekunye) right, although (Mudekunye does not) give any reference or argument (to substantiate his claim). Three of the torture victims that we examined reported that the perpetrators (ZANU-PF supporters) robbed their ID cards. We state that this means that the victims thereby are deprived of the possibility to vote," said Petersen A voter must produce his or her ID card at the polling station, or a drivers licence or passport. "According to local experience, the authorities for the time being only issue very few new ID cards, allegedly because of lack of time," Petersen said.