University of New South Wales
Zimbabwe’s Shadow Justice Minister, David Coltart, has called for Australia’s help to indict President Robert Mugabe for crimes against humanity. He warned that without international intervention, the current demolition campaign in Zimbabwe could turn to genocide.
Mr Coltart was speaking at a briefing hosted by the Australian Human Rights Centre in the Faculty of Law.
The former human rights lawyer was elected to Zimbabwe’s parliament in June 2000, representing the Bulawayo South constituency for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the country’s main opposition party.
Mr Coltart told the audience that more than 300,000 people have been left homeless since the Government started it campaign to demolish urban shantytowns. “What has happened since May 19 is a crime against humanity. Under Article 7 of the Treaty of Rome, this is an unlawful transfer of a population.”
These latest atrocities follow the March general election in Zimbabwe in which the MDC secured all but one of the urban seats, “the first meaningful challenge to Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party”,” Mr Coltart said.
He said Australia could help lobby for a UN resolution authorising the International Criminal Court to prosecute the regime. “Australia has a unique role to play. It was at the vanguard of the struggle against apartheid and has moral authority in Africa. It could also use its influence in the Asia Pacific region to help gather support.”
Mr Coltart said ‘Operation Clean-Up’ has pushed Zimbabwe to the brink of a humanitarian crisis. “We are afflicted by one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS and more than four million people are in need of food aid.”
He also described the collapse of the rule of law. “Since 2000, there has been a systematic campaign to subvert the judiciary and the Supreme Court has been turned on its head.”
Mr Coltart has campaigned for decades to advance human rights in Zimbabwe and throughout the region. He is in Australia as part of the Bond University/Baker & McKenzie Distinguished Visitors Program and will deliver the Gerard Brennan Lecture, entitled ‘The erosion of law in Zimbabwe’, at Bond University this week.