Britain’s Minister for Justice Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede yesterday told the House of Lords that he did not know anything about detained Citizens Coalition for Change activists who have been in custody for more than a month following their arrest in June.
He was responding to a question from Lord Oates who wanted the minister to make it clear to the Zimbabwe government that the new British government stands with all people standing up for their fundamental rights.
Britain has a new government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer whose Labour Party beat the Conservative Party, which had been in power for 14 years, on 5 July.
Lord Oates said he was gravely concerned that 78 CCC supporters and their leader Jameson Timba had been in detention for 39 days and had been denied bail by a “captured” judiciary.
“My Lords, does the Minister agree that respect for human rights and the rule of law are key pillars of any free society, both at home and abroad?” Lord Oates asked.
“The Government will be aware of the brutal arrest and detention of Zimbabwe opposition leader Jameson Timba and 78 of his supporters, including a mother with a one year-old child. They have now been detained for 39 days in appalling conditions and denied their constitutional right to bail by a captured judiciary.
“Will the Minister make it clear that the new Government stand with all people standing up for their fundamental rights? Will he ask his ministerial colleagues to convey this message strongly to the Government of Zimbabwe?”
Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, replied: “I thank the noble Lord for his question. I am not sighted on that issue, but I will absolutely take up his suggestion that the relevant Ministers make clear their position regarding the importance of human rights in all parts of the world, and in the example he gave as well.”
Lord Oates, who taught in Zimbabwe in 1988, said in another debate yesterday “courageous Zimbabweans who have been waging a long struggle for freedom and the rule of law see us repeatedly trying to pick winners rather than standing for consistent values.
“Ahead of the Southern African Development Community summit that will be held in Harare in August, an all-out assault on democratic space is under way. The opposition leader Jameson Timba has been in detention with 78 of his supporters for 39 days, and just yesterday a Zimbabwe National Students Union meeting was violently broken up by police and 44 students were arrested, including the president of the student union.
“Today we hear that Tambudzai Makororo, one of the women arrested with the opposition leader, is in a critical condition in jail. She was brutally beaten by police and lost her baby in prison. She had surgery on 8 July to deal with her injuries from police beating and has now developed sepsis as a result of the terrible prison conditions. It is absolutely essential that she is released without any delay for medical treatment. Sadly, the UK has remained silent through all this,” he said.
“I hope the Government’s policy of progressive realism will recognise that one day, however long it takes, Zimbabweans will achieve their democratic aspirations and, when they do, they will remember who stood by them and who abandoned them—who just spoke about values and who actually lived up to them.”
Timba and 78 activists, two of whom were released, were arrested for holding an illegal gathering with intent to promote public violence and disorderly conduct.
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