British Members of the House of Commons are pushing to have self confessed Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operative Phillip Machemedze referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in Netherlands for crimes against humanity.
State electronic media, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), has been on a crusade alleging Machemedze was never a member of the CIO although the organisation has not commented openly on the matter.
Machemedze reportedly admitted to kidnapping and torturing people in Zimbabwe when he was employed as a bodyguard for the late Zimbabwe Cabinet minister Enos Chikowore.
Machemedze, who went to the UK in 2000 with his wife because he had had “enough of the torture”, is reported in the media to have admitted that he smashed the jaw of an MDC-T activist with pliers before pulling out his tooth and stripping another naked and threatening to force him to rape his daughters if he did not give information.
He also reportedly confessed to electrocuting, slapping, beating and punching “to the point of being unconscious” a white farmer suspected of giving money to the MDC, and to “putting salt into the wounds” of a female MDC member.
Machemedze was granted asylum in the United Kingdom amid cries of protest from the British media which demanded he be deported to Zimbabwe. This week Machemedze was the centre of attraction during debate in the House of Commons with MPs seeking to have him referred to the ICC to answer charges of crimes against humanity.
The ICC was established to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes against humanity.
During debate in the House of Commons, Lord Maginnis, asked what Britain was doing to refer Machemedze to the ICC.
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But Machemedze’s salvation, it would appear, is that Zimbabwe is not a signatory to the Rome Statutes which govern the operations of the ICC.
Lord Howell, Britain’s Foreign minister responded to the enquiry saying the ICC had no jurisdiction over Zimbabwe because it was not a signatory to the Rome Statutes that governed the court.
