Why have other African leaders muted their criticisms regarding Mugabe? i would have looked to Mbeki to provide some sort of ‘leadership’ in this area - but for now, he seems happy to stay silent.
No bail hearing for MDC deputy leader, IOL, 4 April 2003
Zimbabwe’s deputy opposition leader spent a fifth day in police custody on Friday after a court failed to resume his bail hearing, his lawyers said.
Gibson Sibanda’s prolonged detention, opposition officials said, was part of the government’s increasingly harsh crackdown against dissent in the troubled southern African country.
Sibanda, 59, was arrested on Monday in his hometown of Bulawayo after police accused him of violating stringent security laws for helping to organise a nationwide anti-government strike in March.
The strike, heeded by most people across the country, was followed by hundreds of arrests and a wave of violent retribution against opposition supporters by security forces loyal to the government.
A ruling on Sibanda’s bail application was scheduled on Thursday in the Bulawayo magistrate’s court but never held, said his lawyer, Josephat Tshuma.
David Coltart, the opposition’s shadow justice minister, accused judicial authorities of complicity with police to keep Sibanda in jail for as long as possible.
“It is a shocking, cynical and spiteful ploy. It is a gross violation of the principle that bail rulings on an individual’s liberty must be given as a matter of urgency,” Coltart said.
The opposition has said it was planning further anti-government protests after a March 31 deadline to President Robert Mugabe to start sweeping democratic reforms passed without progress.
A one-day meeting of foreign and defence ministers from southern Africa wound up late on Wednesday in Harare with a call for Zimbabwe’s neighbours to help open fresh dialogue between Mugabe’s government and the European Union, state radio reported on Friday.
The European Union and the United States have imposed travel restrictions on Mugabe and ruling party leaders to protest human rights abuses. The restrictions were imposed after last year’s presidential election, which was narrowly won by Mugabe, but which independent observers said was deeply flawed by political violence and rigging.
Mozambique Foreign Minister Leonardo Simao, who led the meeting of the Southern African Development Community in Harare, announced late on Thursday that the regional bloc would send a task force to Zimbabwe later this month to investigate the political crisis.
“We are worried because Zimbabweans do not live in peace and harmony. We have an obligation to overcome the difficulties Zimbabweans are facing,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, who is in charge of the country’s police force, has threatened to have opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and other officials arrested for planing protests against the government.
Earlier this week Tsvangirai again urged Zimbabweans to join in demonstrations, saying it was the constitutional right of the people to protest against what he termed the “violent misrule” of the Mugabe regime. - Sapa-AP