CALL FOR JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE

Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA calls on the Australian government to take firm action in relation to the violence against peaceful protesters, the attacks on trade unions and the imprisonment of opposition activists in Zimbabwe.

The Australian government needs to place further pressure on the Mugabe regime to cease all violence and to release the opposition activists and trade unionists who have been wrongfully imprisoned with no access to legal representation.

While Morgan Tsvangirai and others from the Movement for Democratic Change were arrested and badly beaten on Sunday night, the trade union offices of the Zimbabwe Council of Trade Unions (ZCTU) were raided and ransacked on Tuesday morning by government security forces "in a concerted effort to try and crush all civic organizations" according to ZCTU President, Lovemore Matombo. ZCTU staff were assaulted and detained.

Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA supports the statement by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) that the latest attack by Mugabe's security forces "shows a determination to try and control the situation by force rather than to work with civil society to put an end to the suffering of millions upon millions of Zimbabweans".

Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA believes the Australian government must work with the Commonwealth, with the African Union, and with countries that support the Mugabe regime with economic aid, especially South Africa and China, to place pressure on that regime to cease the violence, to release the opposition activists who have been wrongfully imprisoned and to undertake meaningful economic reform.

Morgan Tsvangirai, Sekai Holland and Grace Kwinjeh are three senior leaders of the democratic movement who have been badly wounded and imprisoned, along with dozens of other opposition activists. We call upon the Australian government to demand the immediate release of opposition activists and to demand that the ban on political activity be revoked.

© Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA 2003.
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Last Modified: Friday, 23-Mar-2007 10:53:39 EST
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