ADDIS ABABA, Jan 22 (AFP)
The African Union (AU) has failed the people of Zimbabwe by turning a blind
eye towards human rights abuses, a Zimbabwean rights group said Thursday.
Representatives of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum met in Addis Ababa a week
before the start of the AU's annual summit and urged the pan-African body to
take over "failed" mediation efforts to solve Zimbabwe's political crisis.
Gabriel Shumba(human Rights Lawyer)
"We are not happy that the AU has not outrightly condemned the crimes
against humanity that are happening in Zimbabwe," Gabriel Shumba, head of
the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, told AFP.
"It has generally failed the people of Zimbabwe as an institution by not
being able to stop the human rights violations going on in the country."
The rights forum also said in a resolution that efforts to solve the crisis
in Zimbabwe should be placed under the direct authority of the AU.
Humanitarian groups have sounded alarm bells over the deteriorating
situation in Zimbabwe, where a large proportion of the population is in need
of food aid and where a cholera outbreak has claimed more than 2,700 lives.
Zimbabwe's economy has been in freefall for years but a humanitarian crisis
has exploded since disputed elections last March, when opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai defeated President Robert Mugabe in a first round
presidential vote.
Political violence blamed on Mugabe's ruling party then erupted, leading to
a stalemate which mediation efforts by nieghbouring countries have failed to
break.
In a report released Thursday, New York-based Human Rights Watch said that
the African Union should suspend Zimbabwe from the 53-nation group if
Mugabe's government failed to end the political violence and other rights
abuses.
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