Anger at Zimbabwe UN envoy snub

Source: BBC

The UN's torture investigator has made an angry return to South Africa after being refused entry to Zimbabwe. Manfred Nowak was detained by officials in Harare who said he had no clearance to visit, despite his insistence he had an invite from the prime minister.

"This is a major incident because you can't on the one hand invite a special rapporteur to meet the prime minister and on the other hand somebody gives an order to the immigration police not to let me in," he told the BBC's World Today programme.

His said his treatment showed there were clearly parts of the government who did not want him to assess "the current conditions of torture", and promised to file a strongly worded complaint. Mr Nowak's original invitation to come and investigate allegations of torture and mistreatment came from Zimbabwe's justice minister, who is a member of Zanu-PF. But it was withdrawn at the last minute, with officials citing a clash with a visit by a mediation team from the Southern African Development Community (Sadc). Nevertheless Mr Tsvangirai intervened and authorised the UN investigator to proceed with his visit.

Earlier this week, the MDC warned that Zanu-PF militia had launched a campaign of violence against it, reminiscent of last year's post-election violence. Human rights group Amnesty International has warned the country is on the brink of sliding back into violence.



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8331633.stm

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Things are looking bad in Zimbabwe again.