The European Union (EU) has condemned Zimbabwe government’s restrictions on access to justice and targeting of journalists and other government critics.
The EU said it had observed that the situation had ‘significantly deteriorated in Zimbabwe with multiple reports of arbitrary detention, harassment, torture and inhuman treatment’.
It is understood that scores of campaigners and protesters have been arrested in an expansive clampdown in the country.
In a speech to the nation on 4 August, President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared that his government was facing ‘many hurdles and attacks’ and that ‘the bad apples who have attempted to divide our people and to weaken our systems will be flushed out’.
He added, ‘We will overcome attempts at destabilisation of our society by a few rogue Zimbabweans acting in league with foreign detractors’.
The EU said that the detention of untried prisoners in a maximum security prison together with convicted criminals suggested a serious violation of the principle of presumption of innocence.
‘The EU reiterates our ambition to support Zimbabwe in implementing concrete political and economic reforms, but for these reforms to stand the test of time, they require an environment ensuring an inclusive national dialogue’, EU said.
EU added that there was a need for Zimbabwean authorities to allow citizens to exercise all their rights, including their freedoms of assembly, association, and expression.
The European body said that the Covid-19 pandemic should not be used by the government of Zimbabwe as an excuse to limit the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Source: New Zimbabwe
Photo source: Thijs ter Haar
