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March 2011 Vol 30 Edition 1, Human rights and abuse

Zimbabwe human rights group calls for international intervention

By Staff reporter and agencies   Wed, Mar 23, 2011

Johannesburg - A Zimbabwean human rights group on Wednesday questioned why Africa and the United Nations were intervening in conflicts in Libya and Ivory Coast, while largely ignoring events in Zimbabwe.

'It's all very well to mediate in the Ivory Coast and Libya, but what about Zimbabwe?' Pedzisai Ruhanya of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition asked a media briefing in Johannesburg, South Africa.

He said elections that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was planning presented an opportunity for South Africa, the African Union, the Southern African Development Community and the United Nations to be proactive in restoring stability there, because 'we don't want to come to the point of Libya and see rivers of blood.'

Ruhanya compared Zimbabwean civil rights groups' struggle against Mugabe to that of blacks under apartheid South Africa, and noted that the international community clearly targeted the South African government with sanctions and isolation during the apartheid era.

Ruhanya said human rights activists in Zimbabwe wanted the international community to monitor the unity government and should at least deploy monitors with peacekeeping powers, rather than just observers.

Mugabe's government is regularly criticized for human rights abuses.

By Staff reporter and agencies

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