UN torture investigator held, then expelled from Zimbabwe
Was supposed to have meeting with Tsvangirai
JOHANNESBURG - A UN torture investigator who was supposed to meet Zimbabwe’s prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, was instead detained under guard at the airport overnight Wednesday and ejected from Zimbabwe yesterday morning.
Manfred Nowak, the UN special rapporteur on torture, said his treatment by the party of Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, was “totally unheard of behavior’’ and illustrated Tsvangirai’s lack of power in a government he ostensibly runs with Mugabe.
Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader, joined the government in an effort to end the nation’s political crisis, but he and his party say they continue to be assailed by Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF, through its selective enforcement of “shadowy charges.’’
Zimbabwe’s state-run media, controlled by Mugabe’s party, depicted Nowak as a “gate crasher.’’ He had been officially invited to conduct a mission in the country, but said he was informed en route to Zimbabwe that the government wanted him to postpone his eight-day mission because of a two-day visit from regional ministers addressing the country’s political crisis.
“It’s a serious diplomatic incident,’’ Nowak said in an interview, adding that he would not return even if invited.
His deportation occurred as ministers from Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Swaziland gathered in Harare, the capital, to try to shore up Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government, badly shaken since Tsvangirai and his party began boycotting cabinet meetings two weeks ago, citing ZANU-PF’s bad faith.
In fact, Nowak was on the same flight from Johannesburg Wednesday night as the ministers from across southern Africa. But upon arrival, they were whisked through to the VIP lounge, while Nowak was waylaid by an immigration official who said he had orders not to let him enter the country.
The episode, combined with recent arrests of senior civic leaders and what Tsvangirai’s party described as the abduction of one of its managers, is likely to heighten fears in Zimbabwe that the relative peace that has prevailed in the country in recent months is threatened.
The leaders of Zimbabwe’s National Association of Non-governmental Organizations, which represents more than 1,000 civic groups, were arrested Sunday in Victoria Falls after a three-day conference at which five plainclothes security agents sat taking notes in the audience, said to its spokesman, Fambai Ngiranda. They were charged with convening a political meeting without police clearance, the state-owned Herald reported.
Dadirai Chikwengo, chairman of its board, and Cephas Zinhumwe, its chief executive, spent two nights in cells with no light, sleeping on the floor, Ngiranda said.
