MDC petitions AG’s office over murders

By Violet Gonda
August 21 2009

The MDC says hundreds of its supporters were killed in recent years, with at least 500 supporters murdered by Zanu PF and State security agents last year alone. The culprits or perpetrators of violence have never been brought to justice. The party accuses the State of applying the law selectively and only targeting the MDC. Additionally many thousands have been badly tortured, hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced, and there is ongoing harassment and arrest of numerous MDC legislators.

On Thursday the party wrote a letter to the Attorney-General’s office, asking him to urgently deal with the murder cases. They said there is nothing to suggest there have been any investigations, even though most of the cases have been reported to the police. The MDC says under the country’s laws the Attorney General has the power to order the Police Commissioner-General to investigate and report to the AG’s office on any matter which relates to suspected criminal offence.

The MDC Security Director, Chris Dhlamini, is himself a victim of ZANU PF sponsored brutality, and he said: “Reports in some cases were made to the local ZRP stations but the report references were not given to the informants. The police have not gone back to the informants or relatives to inform them of the levels of achievements in their efforts to deal with the said matters in accordance to the law.”

It is reported that many of the deceased were buried without having undergone post mortem examinations to determine the cause of their deaths.
Dhlamini said: “No death certificates are in place in cases where post mortem examinations were not carried out, a matter which has created problems for the relatives of some of the deceased, especially where the deceased left behind children with no birth certificates and in some cases debts.”

The Director of Security copied the letter to SADC, JOMIC, the Public Protector and the Ministers of National Healing and Reconciliation.
Analysts believe a full investigation into these matters is the only way to shape the form and content of the national healing and reconciliation process, which the government and the MDC are supposedly participating in.

Political commentator Glen Mpani said the inclusive government has ‘enabled and legitimised the perpetrators of some of these heinous crimes’. But he added that if a process was to take place to hold those responsible accountable, it may just scuttle the global political agreement. However he pointed out that it is important to record cases of violations, regardless of the fact that there is a lot of scepticism on how justice can be discharged in the current political context.

SW Radio Africa