Bruce Baird (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House:

(1)

notes:

(a)

the recent police violence and systematic harassment and intimidation against lawyers representing activists from the Zimbabwean political opposition parties;

(b)

specifically, the incident of 8 May, when police violently stopped a demonstration organised by the Law Society of Zimbabwe to protest against the unlawful arrest and ill-treatment of lawyers Alec Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni; and

(c)

the need for an immediate independent investigation into the alleged misconduct of police officers from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Law and Order Section at Harare Central Police Station in relation to the incident;

(2)

recommends, as a first step to address the human rights situation, the Government of Zimbabwe to fully implement the recommendations of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights in the 2002 Fact Finding Mission Report; and

(3)

condemns the Zimbabwe regime for threats made against church leaders and strongly urges the regime to uphold religious freedom and freedom of expression.

In bringing forward this motion, I would like to share with the House some of the interview with Zimbabwean Archbishop Pius Ncube, which was conducted by Jo Chandler and published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 12 May this year. The archbishop was asked how he can continue to speak out against Robert Mugabe, given the real dangers faced by those who choose to oppose his brutal regime. The archbishop said:

Something kind of breaks in you. It’s like you are challenged in the depths of your personality. Like someone is beating your mother in front of you. You can’t just fold your hands at let it happen. Some kind of ... disturbance stirs deep down in your gut, where you simply say ‘no’. Even if it means death.

He closed with this statement:

You can’t be quiet in the face of gross injustice.

Members of this parliament are well aware of the plight of the Zimbabwean people under the 27-year rule of Robert Mugabe. As far as human rights are concerned, Zimbabwe remains up there with Iraq and the Darfur region of Sudan as places where the world’s focus needs to remain.

Jo Chandler’s article reminds us of some of the truths about the current human rights situation in Zimbabwe. For example, it was recently announced that power would be cut to homes in Zimbabwe for up to 20 hours a day, due to the need to redirect this power to the country’s failing farms. The farms, of course, are not providing enough food to sustain Zimbabwe’s starving population. Life expectancy has plummeted to the world’s lowest: 34 years for women and 37 years for men. Let us just focus on that frightening statistic for a moment. Many of us here in this parliament, including me, have children who have passed this age and I for one cannot imagine or comprehend a situation like this where lives are cut so short.

Inflation runs officially at 3,700 per cent, according to the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank, although the actual figure for inflation is said by some to be closer to 12,000 per cent. Even at the official figure, a loaf of bread costing the equivalent of $A4.20, in reality sells for $28.50. A bus ride, therefore, would wipe out a worker’s entire earnings in one hit. School fees are known to double between one term and the next. This means that most Zimbabwean children are no longer able to attend schooling.

Even as the archbishop was visiting Australia recently, threats were continuing to build against religious leaders such as him who have chosen to speak out against the regime. Mr Mugabe has been quoted saying that Catholic archbishops were embarking on a ‘dangerous path’ if they continued to speak out in this way. Mugabe justifies this threat by stating that archbishops surrender their true spirituality when they venture into political advocacy. Archbishop Ncube is justified in speaking out against the plight of his fellow Zimbabweans, not only as a religious leader or a political advocate but, most importantly, as a man interested in human rights. When the archbishop states:

You can’t be quiet in the face of gross injustice—

he says this as one man who has taken on the responsibility to represent his people and will do anything within his power to ensure human rights are restored in Zimbabwe.

The international community, including this country, must also ensure that we too do not remain quiet in the face of gross injustice. We must continue to find ways to protect those living under Mugabe’s regime, to protect those who have the courage to speak up on behalf of their fellow Zimbabweans—people who speak for those who cannot find this voice. Organisations such as Amnesty International have grave concerns for the safety of spiritual leaders like Ncube, as well as for others who face violence and intimidation for expressing their views against the Zimbabwean regime.

This motion refers specifically to an incident on 8 May this year involving alleged misconduct of police from the Criminal Investigations Department of the Harare Central Police. It appears to me as though the only obstruction of justice in this case was against the two lawyers in question and by the police involved in their arrest.

I move that this House notes these specific human rights violations as symbolic of the overall need for this parliament to continue to condemn the Mugabe regime for its failings against the Zimbabwean people. I call for the Zimbabwean government to fully implement the recommendations of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the 2002 fact-finding mission report. Finally, I ask that this parliament condemn the Zimbabwe regime for threats made against church leaders such as Archbishop Ncube. As a nation, we cannot remain quiet in the face of such gross injustice. (Time expired)

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