Rule of law still lacks in Zim: civil society
30/10/2010 09:02:00
Harare, October 29, 2010 – A group of civil society organizations which is
monitoring the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) which
brought the unity government has said the government has failed to improve
the respect for the rule of law by police and the office of the Attorney
General.
In a 54 page report to outline compliance and non- compliance by the unity
government in the last 6 months, Civil Society Monitoring Mechanism (CISOMM)
said there have been no respect for the rule of law while draconian laws
like the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) are still in place.
The report accused President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF as being complicit in
failing to respect the rule of law while the army and state security
institutions have been used by the party to disrupt the constitutional
making process.
“There has been no improvement in respect for the rule of law. In fact, the
law is being used to persecute individuals on behalf of Zanu PF, through the
office of the Attorney General,” Cisomm said.
“Independence of the Bench remains a distant dream. Furthermore, there is a
failure on behalf of law enforcement agencies to correctly and impartially
implement judgments or law.”
“POSA is still being used by the police to curtail freedom of association,
expression and movement. Unlawful arrests and detentions of human rights
defenders have continued, with the intention of frightening people into
silence or to cease their activities,” Cisomm said.
Civil society organizations said ‘coercion’ by Zanu PF has mainly been
prevalent in rural areas where soldiers and war veterans teamed up to
intimidate people to not to contribute in the constitutional making process.
“Zanu PF sponsored coercion has escalated in the rural areas in a bid to
curtail the expression of opinions in the upcoming constitutional outreach.
The abuses are mainly being perpetrated by soldiers, youth militias, war
veterans and some village headmen,” Cisomm said.
“Political violence and intolerance resurged in advance of the
constitutional making outreach. Military and quasi-military agents were
deployed to threaten and intimidate citizens.”
The report said state media is still being used by Zanu PF to peddle lies
and hate language as well as to be partisan to the party.
Despite the government having a monitoring body called the Joint Monitoring
and Implementation Committee (JOMIC), Cisomm said they had to form a
parallel monitoring body as they anticipated the ‘compromises’ that will
befall JOMIC.
“CSOs (Civil Society Organizations) realized the compromises that can befall
this body, hence the decision to set up an independent monitoring
mechanism,” Cisomm said.
JOMIC which is made up of 12 senior members of the three political parties
who are signatories to the GPA. The body has failed to ensure that
government implement all the reforms that were agreed in the GPA.
The unity government of Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been
facing in the last tensions weeks after the latter complained that Mugabe
unilaterally appointed ambassadors and provincial governors without
consulting him.
Mugabe has rubbished the accusations saying according to the constitution he
is entitled to make the appointments.
Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic (MDC) have been denied to hold
meetings by police several times in the past two weeks while Mugabe has been
having