Zimbabwe foreign minister: UN trip a 'provocation'

[October 30, 2009]  HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Zimbabwe's foreign minister on Friday sharply criticized as "a provocation of the highest order" an attempt by the U.N. torture investigator to visit Zimbabwe and investigate alleged attacks by thugs linked to the ruling party on its opponents.

Manfred Nowak had flown to Zimbabwe on Wednesday, saying it was at the invitation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, but was held at the airport overnight and returned the next morning to South Africa, where he held a news conference to angrily described his treatment. Nowak said he believes Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe may be the reason he was blocked from the nation.

Tsvangirai, a longtime opposition leader, joined the government with Mugabe in February but withdrew from Cabinet earlier this month after accusing Mugabe's party of human rights violations.

Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi dismissed Tsvangirai's invitation as meaningless.

"The invitation by the Prime Minister was a nullity," he told a news conference in Harare.

Tsvangirai was not immediately available for comment.

Nowak had planned to investigate alleged attacks on Tsvangirai's supporters by militants linked to Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. Mugabe, who has been in power for nearly three decades, is accused of trampling on human rights and democracy and holding the international community in contempt.

The U.N. investigator said he had a meeting scheduled Thursday with Tsvangirai, even though other Zimbabwean officials had told him he was not welcome and should come later.

"What he did is unprecedented in the history of U.N. protocol by forcing himself on a country," said Mumbengegwi, a ranking ZANU-PF member. "They wanted to create a diplomatic incident."

Upon returning to South Africa on Thursday, Nowak used almost the same language, calling his treatment a "serious diplomatic incident" as well as alarming evidence of the split in Zimbabwe's coalition government. Tsvangirai has stuck with the so-called unity government, saying it is the only way to rescue Zimbabwe from economic ruin and political violence.

Amnesty International's Zimbabwe researcher, Simeon Mawanza, said Nowak's barring reflects an "increased level of desperation among those forces who are opposed to the unity government."

[Associated Press; By ANGUS SHAW]

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