The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the case of Mr. Roy Bennett, Mr. Job Sikhala, Mr. Tichaona Munyanyi, Mr. Tumbare Mutasa and Mr. Gilbert Shoko, as outlined in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/180/12(b)-R.1), and to the resolution adopted at its 179th session (October 2006),

Having before it the cases of Mr. Tendai Biti, Mr. Nelson Chamisa and Mr. Paul Madzore, which have been the subject of a study and report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians following the Procedure for the treatment by the Inter-Parliamentary Union of communications concerning violations of the human rights of members of parliament,

Taking account of the hearing held during the 116th Assembly with the President of the Senate of Zimbabwe and Mr. Leo Mugabe, a member of the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe, and of the information they provided,

Noting that the case concerns incumbent and former members of the Parliament of Zimbabwe belonging to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),

Considering the following information on file:

1. Mr. Tendai Biti and Mr. Nelson Chamisa were arrested in Harare on 11 March 2007, according to the source, for participating in a prayer meeting organized by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign to protest against a blanket police ban on meetings; they were part of 50 activists who, once taken to the police station, were told to lie down on their stomachs in the courtyard, and were severely beaten; they were reportedly denied access to lawyers and medical care, the police failing to comply with a High Court order that such access be provided; they were released on 13 March 2007 without charge and no investigations are said to have been opened into the reports of torture and ill-treatment; according to the delegation of Zimbabwe, the ban on public meetings was necessary owing to a series of terrorist acts carried out in the period between January and March 2007 aiming at regime change; Mr. Biti and Mr. Chamisa were in fact addressing the meeting and urging people to overthrow the Government; the alleged assault on the parliamentarians and others was debated in parliament and a motion was moved to call upon the Government and the police force to investigate the incident; it was debated for two days;

2. on 18 March 2007, Mr. Nelson Chamisa was attacked by eight men, reportedly security agents, at Harare International Airport on his way to attend the meetings of the committees of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Brussels; Mr. Chamisa suffered a fractured skull, multiple lacerations to the face and a detached retina as a result of which he could lose his eye, and he was taken to hospital in a critical condition; no investigations are said to have been opened and no one has been charged following the attack; according to the delegation, Mr. Chamisa was attacked at the Harare airport car park early in the morning; no one expected such a thing to happen; the Committee on Transport and Communication, which Mr. Mugabe chairs, asked that security at the airport be tightened and Mr. Mugabe himself insisted publicly on the need for an investigation;

3. on 28 March 2007 Mr. Paul Madzore was arrested at his home together with his wife and child, in addition to other MDC activists, on allegations of petrol bombing several police stations in Harare and possessing firearms; his wife and child were later released from Harare Central Police Station; Mr. Madzore was reportedly tortured in police custody and subsequently moved to a private hospital, where he was put on a life support system; the police, however, reportedly moved him forcibly back to his remand prison cell in Harare and denied him access to medical treatment; as a result, Mr. Madzore collapsed twice in his prison cell, thereby further exacerbating concerns about his health; on 13 April 2007, High Court judge Tedius Karwi refused his application for bail, reportedly on the orders of the Minister for Home Affairs, who issued a certificate of denial on security grounds; according to the Zimbabwe delegation, Mr. Madzore and others are charged with training as petrol bombers; a number of such bombs exploded and these acts are said to have been committed by the anti-Senate faction of the MDC aided by Mr. Madzore; the issue is pending before court;

4. Mr. Job Sikhala was tortured while in detention from 14 to 16 January 2003; the police, while initially announcing that progress was being made in the investigation, later stated that they had found it difficult to proceed with the case because Mr. Sikhala failed to identify the culprits after a team of investigators had been put in place; Mr. Sikhala has filed a lawsuit against the Minister of Home Affairs and the Police on allegations of torture, and the matter is before the High Court under reference HC/645/03;Mr. Sikhala's lawyer, Mr. Gabriel Shumba, who was arrested and detained along with Mr. Sikhala, has also lodged a complaint of torture which is pending before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights; Mr. Sikhala was rearrested on 11 March 2007 in the same context as Mr. Chamisa and Mr. Biti, and taken to a police station; he was released several hours later;

5. Mr. Tichaona Munyanyi was ill-treated in October 2002 while being held on a murder charge which was later dropped before plea; a medical certificate was established attesting to the injuries he sustained; at the 115th Assembly the Zimbabwe delegation stated that Mr. Munyanyi, who is no longer a member of parliament, had himself "abandoned the matter" and that the case was no longer being pursued;

6. in August 2003, Mr. Tumbare Mutasa brought a lawsuit against the authorities for the injuries he suffered during an alleged assault on him by riot police in March 2003; according to the police, the investigation revealed that four of the officers cited in the case were nowhere near the area of the incident on the date it is said to have occurred and were therefore not involved; another officer had retired on 28 February 2004 and was yet to be located and interviewed; the lawsuit is pending; according to theinformation provided by the Zimbabwe delegation at the 115th Assembly, Mr. Mutasa had died of natural causes and the case had therefore been closed;

7. according to information provided by the police in September 2003, while there is no record of Mr. Gilbert Shoko having been assaulted on 22 March 2003, an investigation had been opened on an attack on his house on 1 April 2002, regarding which Mr. Shoko had lodged a complaint,

Considering finally that, with regard to the assaults on Mr. Biti and Mr. Chamisa and the proceedings against Mr. Madzore, the Zimbabwe delegation stated that before leaving for the 116th Assembly it had asked to be privileged with details of the cases but unfortunately had not been provided with any such particulars since the cases had not been concluded,

Bearing in mind that Zimbabwe is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and therefore bound to respect the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment and the rights to liberty and security of the person guaranteed in its Articles 7 and 9, respectively,

1. Thanks the members of the delegation of Zimbabwe whom it heard for the information they provided;

2. Is appalled at the systematic beating up, by law enforcement officers, of the participants in the meeting of 11 March 2007, and affirms that such action constitutes a gross human rights violation, irrespective of whether or not the meeting was authorized; is likewise appalled at the absence of any action taken against the responsible police officers, who must be known and should have immediately been brought to justice and punished in accordance with the law; urges the authorities and, in particular, parliament to ensure that they are held to account without any further delay;

3. Would appreciate receiving a copy of the motion that was filed in Parliament regarding this event and any other parliamentary document pertaining to it which may exist;

4. Is alarmed at the attack perpetrated against Mr. Chamisa on 18 March 2007, and finds it highly worrying that the investigating authorities have failed to provide Parliament with details of the investigation, in particular given that the attack concerns one of its members; urges parliament to exercise its oversight function to ensure that a thorough investigation is conducted into the attack, and wishes to be kept informed in this regard;

5. Is deeply concerned at the allegations of torture of Mr. Paul Madzore while in police custody and denial of the medical treatment he requires; considers that any such allegation should be of utmost concern to the parliamentary authorities and prompt them to probe into these allegations; urges them to visit Mr. Madzore in prison and to ascertain his conditions of detention and state of health; expresses moreover deep concern that the Judge in this case may have refused bail by order of the Home Minister, and would appreciate clarification of this matter;

6. Remains deeply concerned at the failure of the authorities to conduct a full and thorough inquiry into the torture to which Mr. Sikhala was subjected in January 2003, and deeply regrets that Mr. Sikhala was obliged to bring a lawsuit against the competent Minister in this matter when the authorities themselves should have made every effort to hold those responsible for acts of torture to account; once again points out that Mr. Sikhala provided detailed information about what had happened to him, including names, and that this was widely reported in the press;

7. Affirms that it is just such failures of the authorities to investigate torture allegations that encourages police and other security officials to resort to torture and other human rights violations, as amply demonstrated by the recent events;

8. Points out, as regards Mr. Bennett,that the adoption of Constitutional Amendment 17 does not alter the fact that several court judgments ordering that Mr. Bennett's farm be vacated as early as 2002 have not been implemented, thus subjecting him to a grave injustice, and wishes to receive the observations of the authorities on the allegation that not a single farm belonging to parliamentarians of the ruling party has been acquired by the State under the terms of Constitutional Amendment 17;

9. Reiterates its wish to receive a copy of the Supreme Court ruling regarding Mr. Bennett's petition to have the contempt of parliament proceedings against him declared null and void, and Section 16 of the Parliamentary Privileges, Powers and Immunities Act declared unconstitutional;

10. Affirms, with regard tothe cases of Mr. Munyanyi and Mr. Mutasa, that the fact that the aggrieved person has "abandoned the matter" does not release the State and its authorities from the obligation to investigate the behaviour of law enforcement officials when a medical certificate attests to the injuries a person has sustained while in their hands; likewise affirms that the death of a person does not put an end to this obligation, and therefore urges the authorities to pursue the investigation in both cases so as to ensure that justice is done;

11. Wishes to ascertain the result of the investigation into the attack of April 2002 on Mr. Shoko's home;

12. Requests the Secretary General to convey this resolution to the authorities, inviting them to provide the requested information;

13. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session, to be held on the occasion of the 117th Assembly (October 2007).

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* The delegation of Zimbabwe expressed its reservation regarding the resolution.

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