UN human rights chief visits Zimbabwe

21 May 2012, 4:14 pm   -   Source: AAP

The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner has arrived in Zimbabwe for a weeklong visit at the invitation of the coalition government.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has arrived in Zimbabwe on the first mission to the troubled southern African nation by the world rights chief.

Officials say Pillay's weeklong trip is at the invitation of the coalition government formed in 2009 after disputed, violent elections plagued by human rights abuses blamed mainly on militants of President Robert Mugabe's party and loyalist police and troops.

"I am here to assess the human rights situation," Pillay told reporters at the Harare airport late on Sunday.

She will meet with Mugabe, political leaders and rights groups, said Mugabe's justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa.

In 2009, chief UN torture investigator Manfred Nowak was barred entry at the Harare airport after claims he was not officially cleared for the visit.

In 2005, another special envoy of the UN secretary-general angered Mugabe by criticising a slum clearance program that left 700,000 people homeless in urban strongholds of the former opposition led by Morgan Tsvangirai, now the prime minister in the power-sharing coalition.

Chinamasa, quoted in the state Sunday Mail newspaper controlled by Mugabe loyalists, said he was not concerned by submissions Pillay is expected to receive from rights activists and non-governmental organisations.

"We are happy we will be able to host her because we have nothing to hide in terms of human rights issues. We are not worried about what our detractors will say," he said.

Pillay is scheduled to hold talks with Mugabe, Tsvangirai, defence and service chiefs, judges, MPs and leaders of rights groups.

She will hear reports of alleged human rights abuses at diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe, where the military has been accused of shootings and torture of villagers driven from mining areas.

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