Arbour condemns murders of opposition activists in Zimbabwe

28 May 2008



GENEVA—The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said Wednesday she was shocked by the news that several more bodies of murdered political activists have been found in Zimbabwe in recent days, and strongly condemned the killings, as well as the continuing harassment of NGO workers, human rights defenders and other members of civil society.

A number of bodies of slain political activists for the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), have reportedly been discovered over the past week, including that of an MDC provincial treasurer, Shepherd Jani, whose body was found on 24 May, three days after he had been reported abducted by four men with guns. The body of another MDC activist, Tonderai Ndira, was also identified earlier this week, some two weeks after he was allegedly taken from his home by armed men.

“It is hard to get a very precise picture of the full range of the violence, or the exact number of politically motivated extra-judicial killings,” Arbour said. “At one level, there appears to be an increasing pattern of people being targeted for politically motivated assassination. At another, arrests, harassment, intimidation and violence – directed not just at people with political affiliations, but also at members of civil society – are continuing on a daily basis.”

Arbour urged the Zimbabwean authorities to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the murders and other unlawful acts, and to take urgent steps to protect all the country’s inhabitants from further attacks in order to create an atmosphere conducive for a free and fair presidential election on 27 June.

Arbour said that the news of more killings in Zimbabwe also gave an even sharper edge to the recent large-scale violence directed against migrants and refugees in neighbouring South Africa. “For some of the Zimbabweans being chased from their homes and jobs in South Africa, this isn’t simply a serious economic issue,” Arbour said. “They now face a potentially a life-threatening situation in both countries. I welcome the steps the South African government has taken recently to clamp down on the xenophobic violence, and hope that such scenes are never seen again in South Africa.”