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Zimbabwe: South Africa Urged to Act On Human Rights Dossier
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SW Radio Africa (London)
26 March 2008
Posted to the web 26 March 2008
Tichaona Sibanda
The International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute has written to the director of Public Prosecutions in South Africa, to urge him to act on evidence of serious international crimes perpetrated by Zimbabwean officials.
Two weeks ago the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) sent a dossier to the National Prosecution Authority (NPA), naming Zimbabwean police officers and other members of the security forces who have killed, tortured, or persecuted opposition figures.
IBA executive director Mark Ellis has now written direct to NPA director Vusi Pikoli, urging him to give the submission serious consideration. The IBA wants Pikoli to use the opportunity to hold alleged perpetrators of serious human rights violations to account, in accordance with the ICC Rome Statute.
Ellis added, 'We are concerned that without the assistance of the NPA to bring perpetrators of these serious international crimes to justice, the Zimbabwean officials implicated will evade accountability and could also use South Africa as a 'safe haven.'
The Southern African Litigation Centre was established by the IBA in partnership with the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. It was designed to promote the effective implementation of human rights in the region, with a focus on three principal areas: support for human rights cases, advice on constitutional advocacy in the Southern African region; and training in human rights and rule of law issues.
Recently Nicole Fritz, its director in Johannesburg, told Newsreel her organisation had passed a dossier urging the NPA's priority crimes unit to initiate investigations with a view to prosecuting senior Zimbabwean police, army and CIO officials responsible for crimes against humanity.
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She told us, 'We are not disclosing who is named in the dossier but it includes people who have committed the most serious of crimes against opposition figures, most of whom have sought refuge in South Africa.'
According to Fritz, the intention behind the initiative is to ensure some form of accountability for the people of Zimbabwe, at a time when the justice system in the country has all but collapsed.
It's believed the dossier also includes names of the political masters, the individuals who have given orders to the rank and file of the security forces to unleash violence against innocent civilians. Fritz said several of the perpetrators named in the dossier have in the past travelled to South Africa on official business, in some instances for military and security exchange programmes between the two countries.
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