US protects Mugabe from prosecution

The US administration has moved to protect President Robert Mugabe of
Zimbabwe from a civil suit in the United States accusing him of ordering murder, torture and terrorism to intimidate political opponents, State Department officials said on Sunday.

Reuters reported that the Bush administration said Mugabe was entitled to immunity as a head of state and cited the principle of reciprocity for US leaders abroad. Mugabe also should be immune because he was visiting the United Nations at the time he was served with court papers in the suit, the State Department argued in a brief filed Friday with a federal court in Manhattan. US intervention on Mugabe's behalf should not be interpreted as reflecting any change in US human rights policy with regard to Zimbabwe, a State Department official said. The plaintiffs, all Zimbabwe citizens, include relatives of three people slain and a political opponent who claimed she was beaten.

Mugabe was served while attending the UN Millennium Summit in New York in September 1999. The suit seeks US $400 million in damages. It was brought under the Torture Victims Protection Act of 1992, which allows foreign citizens to sue foreign authorities over human rights issues in US courts. The US administration also urged the court to grant diplomatic immunity to Foreign Minister Stanislaus Mudenge, who likewise was served with court papers