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Zanu PF panicks over UN envoy

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The recent visit by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay seems to have unsettled top Zanu PF officials with party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo saying her tour was a ploy for military intervention. Pillay was in the country for five days after she was invited by Justice and Legal Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa. […]

The recent visit by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay seems to have unsettled top Zanu PF officials with party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo saying her tour was a ploy for military intervention.

Pillay was in the country for five days after she was invited by Justice and Legal Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa.

Some of these UN human rights reports were used as a pretext to intervene in Libya and now currently in Syria, Gumbo said.

Pillay left on Friday after a five-day working visit to assess the countrys human rights situation.

She warned against rushed elections at her final address to journalists, saying this could lead to a repeat of the deadly political violence that marked the 2008 presidential election runoff.

While we welcome Pillays visit to the country, we wish to place on record our concern regarding UN organisations visiting Zimbabwe, Gumbo said.

The country has had a nasty experience of UN missions being sponsored to write negative reports about life in the country.

A classic example is the mission by Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, (former executive director of UN- Habitat) who was used by Western countries to write a damming report on the country about (Operation) Murambatsvina.

Tibaijuka stunned Zanu PF when she wrote a damning report after government tried to guide her assessment into the operation that displaced over 700 000 poor Zimbabweans in 2005.

Former Information minister Jonathan Moyo claimed Pillay had made conclusions about Zimbabwe before her visit.

First, does Pillay or any other right-thinking person honestly believe that she can objectively assess the human rights situation in Zimbabwe in 96 hours with any credibility worthy of being taken seriously by Zimbabweans and fair-minded observers around the world? Moyo wrote in the State media on Friday.

Second, is Pillay aware that the talk in the NGO (non-governmental organisation) community is that she arrived in Zimbabwe on Sunday with the remarks to be made at her Press conference already written and wired in her laptop waiting for delivery today (Friday).

Chinamasa said the government would only accept genuine issues arising from Pillays engagement with Zimbabwe, but would not take already written statements about the country derived from unknown sources.

Meanwhile, Gumbo said the UN was free to monitor Zimbabwes forthcoming elections, although the United States and the European Union would remain barred because of the travel and trade embargo they imposed on top Zanu PF officials.

I dont think we will deviate from previous positions that there is nothing wrong with the UN, but we will not accept the EU and US, he said.

The United Nations did not impose sanctions on us so there is nothing wrong with them coming.

Pillay told President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to ensure a free and fair election.

The MDC-T wants the UN and Africa Union to deploy monitors six months before and six months after elections to ensure a peaceful transfer of power if they win.

Political analyst Charles Mangongera said Zanu PF had much to hide, hence its jitters.

It shows Zanu PF has skeletons in the cupboard, politically that is, he said.

As perpetrators of violence, they become very anxious on institutions likely to expose these violations.

This explains why even during Tibaijukas visit, they were her gatekeepers and she had to break out of their programmes to see the true picture.