Government finally agrees to host international jurists

The government of Zimbabwe has finally agreed to host an International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) fact-finding mission and is expected to set the dates in three weeks time, ‘The Zimbabwe Mirror’ reported on Friday.
Justice, legal and parliamentary affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa told the newspaper that the government had decided to accept the ICJ visit, which is expected anytime between July and September. “Yes, I will write them in July to let them know when they have to come. We have not set the date but they should expect my reply in July,” he said. ICJ legal officer Ian Seiderman also confirmed the government had finally agreed to the mission.

Early last month Chinamasa denied press reports claiming that the ICJ had been granted permission by the government to conduct its fact-finding mission in the country. In an interview this week, Seiderman said instead of the mission coming to Zimbabwe in early July as reported earlier, his organisation expected the government to communicate its conditions and date proposals. The agenda of the Geneva-based legal NGO is to examine the allegations of lawlessness levelled against President Mugabe’s government. Since the 2000 parliamentary elections which were marred by violence, legal experts have repeatedly implored the government to restore the rule of law.

Although it insists that its hands are clean, the government has been implicated in violence. Recently the Amani Trust produced a report implicating ZANU-PF in by-election torture allegations. The ICJ will not be the first international legal organisation to dispatch a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. Recently the International Bar Association (IBA) produced a controversial report ruffling government feathers. The damning report, produced by a delegation of distinguished international lawyers and judges, was dismissed by the government as biased.