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	RFK Center denounces Arrest of Zimbabwe Rights Director by Robert Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights   21 March 2013   Arrests, Intimidation and No New Zimbabwe, by Nyarai Mudimu. (AllAfrica/IPS)   Harare — Heightened political tension between the major rivals in Zimbabwe''s coalition government and increased clampdowns on civil society have left questions about the country''s readiness for a true democracy just days after people voted to adopt a new constitution.   Just over three million Zimbabweans voted on Sunday Mar. 17 in support of the draft constitution, which paves the way for elections later this year, while 179,489 rejected it. There were 56,627 spoilt ballots.   However, on the day of the referendum, prominent local human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa was arrested for allegedly obstructing the course of justice. She is said to have requested that police show her a search warrant when they raided Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai''s support staff offices on Sunday Mar. 17. Four staffers were also arrested.   "The government clampdown on individuals and organisations that support democracy... clearly demonstrate that there are forces that are not yet ready to welcome the democratic dispensation that will come with the new constitution," Nixon Nyikadzino, a human rights activist with the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a grouping of more than 350 civil organisations in Zimbabwe working together to bring about democratic change, told IPS.   President Robert Mugabe''s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change led by Tsvangirai (MDC-T), entered a Global Political Agreement (GPA) for a power-sharing government in 2008 after political violence marred the election. Mugabe has been in power for the last 33 years and his time in office have been plagued by allegations of corruption, abuse of power, political intimidation and human rights abuses.   The draft constitution that Zimbabweans just voted for limits the president to only two five-year terms of office, but it also has clear provisions that require security forces to be politically neutral and not to interfere with electoral processes.   Mtetwa and her co-accused are facing charges of impersonating the police, possessing articles for criminal use, breaching the Official Secrets Act and obstructing the course of justice. The act is vague and says that any matter that the state may allege to be "prejudicial to the safety and interests of Zimbabwe" breaches it, but it does not define what "interests" mean.   They are also accused of unlawfully compiling dockets about government officials, including members of Zanu-PF, who are thought to be corrupt.   On Wednesday Mar. 20, Mtetwa and her co-accused were denied bail in the Harare Magistrate''s Court. This is despite a Mar. 18 Zimbabwe High Court ruling that ordered police to release Mtetwa. Police defied the order and she was held in custody and appeared this week in the magistrate''s court.   The move has been condemned by activists here.   "We do not know how a junior court has nullified a senior court''s order. The High Court ordered that she be released but police defied that. Now a junior court has just defied the order again. How the court arrived at that decision is still a surprise to us. We are still studying the decision," the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights spokesman Kumbirai Mafunda told IPS.   Nyikadzino said he was not surprised by the court''s decision to deny bail to the five.   "That is their style: to keep you under their custody for as long as they can, because they know they don''t have a case. I know of cases where the police have had to resort to evoking section 121 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, which allows them to hold suspects for longer periods before they appear in court," he said. In January international rights organisation Human Rights Watch said the justice system still remained "extremely partisan" towards Zanu-PF.   Nyikadzino added that the tension between Zanu-PF and MDC-T suggested that the coalition government was not ready to embrace democracy.   HRW criticised the government in a Mar. 19 statement, and listed a number of "politically motivated abuses against civil society activists and organisations."   Mr. Tsvangirai warned his supporters to expect more violence from Zanu-PF.   "History has recorded that when change is about to happen, there are certain elements who are bent on diverting it. In 2000 we rejected the draft constitution, and a few weeks later, there were land invasions and widespread violence. In 2008 when we signed the GPA how many people were arrested?" he said at a press conference in Harare on Tuesday Mar. 19.   * Amnesty International has called for the immediately and unconditionally release of prominent human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa.   January 15, 2013   The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights (RFK Center) denounced the arrest of Okay Machisa, director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) and the most recent target in a series of arrests against Zimbabwean civil society activists in the lead up to the nation’s 2013 election.   Since August of last year, nearly a dozen organizations—including Women of Zimbabwe Arise, Counseling Services Unit, and the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe—have experienced harassment in the form of office raids, multiple arrests, and physical abuse at the hands of police. Mr. Machisa"s arrest, on the grounds of conspiring to "commit voter registration fraud and publishing or communicating falsehoods" occurred just one month after the arrest of his deputy at ZimRights, Leo Chamahwinya.   Political violence, human rights abuses, and intimidation against civil society activists are nothing new in the lead up to Zimbabwean elections. During the nation’s previous election cycle in 2008, when President Robert Mugabe’s hold on the presidency was threatened by voters, more than 300 members from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were reportedly killed, and countless more civic activists were abducted, tortured, and disappeared by the police, security forces, and associated militias. With elections once again on the horizon, it is of paramount importance for the Zimbabwean government to cultivate an environment that is conducive to peace, social cohesion, and free and fair polls.   "The increasingly brazen steps that Zimbabwean authorities have taken to block civic activism are an unsettling reminder of the violence and intimidation that has marred past elections," said Santiago A. Canton, Director of Partners for Human Rights at the RFK Center.   "In December, President Mugabe resolved to deregister so-called "errant" civic groups that "deviate from their mandate" during his annual political party conference in December. The international community, and in particular, leaders from the Southern African Development Community, must urge the government of Zimbabwe to immediately end all forms of harassment and intimidation against civil society organizations and human rights activists."   Okay Machisa and Leo Chamahwinya remain in custody awaiting bail.   Update: On January 16, Mr. Machisa was denied bail by a Harare Magistrate and remanded in custody until January 30 on dubious grounds. The magistrate, Tendai Mahwe, reasoned that granting bail in this case was unacceptable for three reasons. First, Mr. Machisa"s alleged offense was meant to "discredit national institutions," and second, the court needs additional time to gather necessary evidence. Third, the magistrate argued that the public would "lose confidence in the justice system" if Mr. Machisa, or his deputy, were released from prison, particularly since the case is of "national interest."   http://rfkcenter.org/press-releases/blog?lang=en Visit the related web page
	UN Rights Chief urges more attention to “deplorable” human rights abuses in North Korea by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights   January 2013   The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for the international community to put much more effort into tackling the “deplorable” human rights situation of people in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and said the time had come for a full-fledged international inquiry into serious crimes that had been taking place in the country for decades.   “There were some initial hopes that the advent of a new leader might bring about some positive change in the human rights situation in DPRK,” Navi Pillay said. “But a year after Kim Jong Un became the country’s new supreme leader, we see almost no sign of improvement.”   “I am also concerned that, at the international level, the spotlight is almost exclusively focused on DPRK’s nuclear programme and rocket launches,” she said.   “While these, of course, are issues of enormous importance, they should not be allowed to overshadow the deplorable human rights situation in DPRK, which in one way or another affects almost the entire population and has no parallel anywhere else in the world.”   In December, the High Commissioner met with two survivors of DPRK’s elaborate network of political prison camps which are believed to contain 200,000 or more people. “Their personal stories were extremely harrowing,” she said. “They described a system that represents the very antithesis of international human rights norms. We know so little about these camps, and what we do know comes largely from the relatively few refugees who have managed to escape from the country. The highly developed system of international human rights protection that has had at least some positive impact in almost every country in the world, seems to have completely bypassed DPRK, where self-imposed isolation has allowed the government to mistreat its citizens to a degree that should be unthinkable in the 21st century.”   “The camp system not only punishes individuals for legitimate, peaceful activities – such as expressing dissenting opinions – it also involves rampant violations, including torture and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment, summary executions, rape, slave labour, and forms of collective punishment that may amount to crimes against humanity,” Pillay said.   “Living conditions in the camps are also reported to be atrocious, with totally insufficient food supplies, little or no medical care and inadequate clothing. One mother described to me how she had wrapped her baby in leaves when it was born, and later made her a blanket by sewing together old socks.”   The High Commissioner cited the case of one of the people she met who was born in a camp and spent the first 23 years of his life there, where he was not only tortured and subjected to forced labour but, at the age of 14, was also made to watch the execution of his mother and his brother.   “The death penalty seems to be often applied for minor offenses and after wholly inadequate judicial processes, or sometimes without any judicial process at all,” Pillay said. “People who try to escape and are either caught, or sent back, face terrible reprisals including execution, torture and incarceration, often with their entire extended family.”   The High Commissioner has also previously met with families of Japanese nationals abducted by DPRK agents over many years – particularly in the 1970s and 80s – whose fate remains unknown.   “There is an urgent need to clarify the fate of the many South Koreans and Japanese, abducted by DPRK over the years, as well as the countless civilians in the South rounded up and taken to the North during the Korean War, and to seek truth, justice and redress for their long-suffering families,” the High Commissioner said.   “Six decades after the war, the plight of the tens of thousands of families separated by the conflict across South and North also remains largely unresolved,” she added.   “We have only had glimpses of this terrible system from those who do succeed in getting out, but what we do know should compel the international community to action,” she said.   “For this reason, I believe it is time the international community took a much firmer step towards finding the truth and applying serious pressure to bring about change for this beleaguered, subjugated population of 20 million people.”   Noting that both the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly have adopted strong resolutions, without a vote, condemning the Government for the systematic human rights abuses taking place, the High Commissioner said it was time to take stronger action, and that a very significant first step could be made by setting up an independent international inquiry.   “For years now, the Government of DPRK has persistently refused to cooperate with successive Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in the DPRK appointed by the Human Rights Council, or with my Office,” the High Commissioner said.   “For this reason, and because of the enduring gravity of the situation, I believe an in-depth inquiry into one of the worst – but least understood and reported – human rights situations in the world is not only fully justified, but long overdue.” Visit the related web page
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