Opposition seeks UN investigation of rights abuses

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai wants the United Nations to investigate alleged human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai told IRIN on Tuesday that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was hoping a UN investigation would "stop the carnage, the violence and human rights abuses that are taking place in the country".

When asked what kind of intervention the MDC was seeking, Tsvangirai said: "It is clear that the [political] crisis is deepening and we want the UN Security Council to consider the matter. What we want is to stop the violence against the people, we want a UN Security Council investigation into the matter."

Tsvangirai lost the March presidential elections to President Robert Mugabe. However, the MDC has rejected Mugabe's victory as fraudulent, claiming the poll was rigged in Mugabe's favour and that opposition supporters were intimidated or prevented from voting.

The United States and the European Union imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe's ruling elite after the March poll, while the Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe's membership.

"We are seriously considering contacting the [UN] Human Rights Commissioner to put the matter before the [Security] Council. We will be moving on that issue very shortly.

"We believe that there's not just the humanitarian crisis with regard to hunger [about six million people require food aid until March 2003], but regarding ethnic cleansing that is taking place, the selective application of the law and serious and deliberate displacement of people, especially farm workers. The human suffering has gone beyond just a question of hunger, there have been serious abuses," Tsvangirai alleged.

A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva told IRIN that the office "on its own cannot initiate an investigation" and would have to have a UN mandate based on a request.