By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Zimbabwean authorities say time is ripe for the commencement of the release of detained activists after the conduct of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) summit held over the past weekend.
The government on Tuesday admitted that 100 activists were detained to keep them from protesting during the summit which had heads of state and government from the region in attendance.
“Those are deviants, and they were dealt with properly. And we are very happy they failed. And they will never succeed again,” spokesperson of the governing ZANU-PF Christopher Mutsvangwa said while defending the action of government during a press conference on Tuesday.
Human rights organizations reacted angrily to the position of government, as they say the detention of the activists is not a laughing matter.
Roselyn Hanzi, director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, which is representing the activists expressed disappointment with the admission of the governing party that the activists were detained to stop them from protesting.
“Every person in Zimbabwe should be worried where the ruling party openly admits that it fully controls one of the key arms of government that is supposed to provide checks and balances and in fact protect the citizens from the excesses of the other two arms: the legislature and the executive,” she told VOA.
“The judiciary is very key and plays a central role in protecting citizens and ensuring that their rights are realized,” she said. “In this case, you see them admitting that there [are] those people that wanted to protest. … Protest[ing] is not criminal, and it’s not a privilege. You should not be negotiating or begging for it.”
Mary Lawlor, a U.N. special rapporteur on human rights, called for the immediate release of the activists, alleging that some had been tortured while in detention by Zimbabwean authorities.
“The disrespect shown by the ZANU-PF spokesperson who laughed and joked about such a serious matter at his press conference is telling,” Lawlor said.
“The president, [Emmerson] Mnangagwa, has shown how little he believes in the rule of law and how little in SADC’s commitment to human rights as chairman. He wants to pretend that everything in Zimbabwe is rosy and fine. But it is not fine. These charges were a travesty.”
Heritage Times HT recalls that the government had alleged that those arrested were planning to disrupt the summit by staging a protest last Saturday where at least 16 heads of state and government from the region converged in Harare, Zimbabwean capital.
Apparently taking a cue from countries on the continent where a raft protests have put governments in fear, the pro-democracy activists arrested were said to have planned to draw the attention of bloc leaders to increasing economic woes, corruption and abuse of human rights under the Emerson Mnangagwa.
Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Nigeria are some countries where government had battled demonstrations related to bad governance and corruption.
“While freedom of expression is a fundamental right, it’s paramount to observe that the enjoyment of that freedom should not be at the expense of the freedom of your fellow citizens,” said Kazembe Kazembe, Zimbabwe’s home affairs minister.
