SADC task force to investigate human rights situation

A Southern African Development Community (SADC) task force on Zimbabwe will visit the country next week to investigate allegations of human rights abuse, media reports said on Friday. After a ministerial meeting of the SADC defence and security organ in Harare, Mozambique's Foreign Minister Leonardo Simao said the task force would meet farmers' unions, NGOs, church leaders and the opposition. However, Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge was reported as saying the task force visit was "my initiative and my strategy". The aim was "to ensure that my colleagues in SADC, who are subjected to so much propaganda, a lot of it untrue, do come and get a better view, and a better impression of the situation in Zimbabwe." A communiqué released after the meeting by most of the region's foreign ministers said that "the meeting noted that those opposed to Zimbabwe have tried to shift the agenda from the core issue of land, by selective diversion of attention on governance and human rights issues". Chris Maroleng, a researcher at the Institute for Security studies told IRIN: "The land reform programme is indeed over, so it's only correct that there's a shift to the economic situation and the erosion of human rights." However, he added: "Although the task team's visit is a step forward, I don't know if anything will materialise from it. I don't know how they will gather information, or what mandate they will have, because the situation in Zimbabwe does not allow for easy access to views detrimental to the government. "Some studies have been conducted by the [now shut down] Amani Trust and Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, but the Mozambican official would have to choose people very carefully as it will be a very difficult task." In the last few weeks several human rights organisations and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have issued statements highlighting their concerns over arrests and alleged harassment of opposition supporters. The party claimed that up to 500 of its members were arrested or detained during and since an MDC-organised protest action on 18 and 19 March. This included its vice-president, Gibson Sibanda, who has been in custody since Monday after his arrest under the Public Order and Security Act for organising the two-day stayaway. ZimRights director Bidi Munyaradzi told IRIN that the organisation had received news of the task force's planned visit, but "we have also noted that unfortunately these meetings don't try to consult widely and with human rights institutions. We agree that Zimbabwe should have a home grown solution, but that should be after wide consultations with many groups".