Judges seek protection

Supreme Court judges in Zimbabwe are seeking protection from veterans of the country’s war of liberation, who accuse them of bias towards white farmers in their rulings on an ongoing dispute over farmland, the government-run ‘Herald’ newspaper said on Friday. The judges are trying to meet the country’s presidency to see if it can persuade the war veterans to stop intimidating them, the paper said. In December the war veterans issued a two-week ultimatum to the Zimbabwean judges - who comprise two whites, two blacks and one of Asian origin - to resign or risk being removed from office by force. "We as judges, take these threats seriously," wrote chief justice Anthony Gubbay in a letter to the presidency, quoted by the newspaper. "We are fearful of our safety and the safety of our families. We find it difficult to carry out our onerous judicial duties when placed under pressure of this nature," the letter said.

Expressing implicit support for the war veterans, Justice, Legal and parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa, meanwhile accused the judiciary of having turned into a de facto opposition party, and called for the judges’ removal, AFP reported. "It is as like we have an English court on Zimbabwean soil," said Chinamasa, in a statement also carried by the ‘Herald’. "With one of the three arms of the government playing opposition or perceived to be playing opposition ... what need is there of MDC or a real political opposition?" he said, referring to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.