{"id":9335,"date":"2012-03-26T15:31:44","date_gmt":"2012-03-26T13:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/03\/activists-push-s-africa-to-try-zimbabwe-rights-crimes\/"},"modified":"2012-03-26T15:31:44","modified_gmt":"2012-03-26T13:31:44","slug":"activists-push-s-africa-to-try-zimbabwe-rights-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/activists-push-s-africa-to-try-zimbabwe-rights-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"Activists push S.Africa to try Zimbabwe rights crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG, March 26<\/span> (Reuters) – Rights activists began a
\nlegal bid on Monday to compel South Africa to investigate and
\nprosecute citizens of neighbouring Zimbabwe suspected of crimes
\nagainst humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The activists argue that South Africa is failing to meet its
\nobligations in international law. A court ruling in their favour
\nwould cause a headache for South Africa, which could see its
\ncourts clogged with prosecutions and its diplomacy with the
\npower-sharing government in Harare hobbled.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

President Robert Mugabe and top members of his ZANU-PF party
\nare already subject to international sanctions for suspected
\nhuman rights abuses including using death squads to intimidate
\nvoters and torturing political prisoners. Zimbabwe’s courts and
\nsecurity apparatus are largely under ZANU-PF control.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The High Court has an opportunity to set an important
\nprecedent, which will ensure that South Africa lives up to its
\nlegal responsibilities to prosecute the perpetrators of
\ninternational crime,” said Nicole Fritz, executive director of
\nthe Southern Africa Litigation Centre, one of the applicants who
\nbrought the case to court.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment but
\nhave said they are looking into the matter. Legal experts say it
\nis questionable whether South African courts could be used to
\nhear cases of crimes committed in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week a court in Zimbabwe found six activists guilty of
\ntrying to topple Mugabe for meeting to watch videos of the Arab
\nSpring protests that toppled northern African leaders, but
\nsentenced them to fines and community service instead of the 10
\nyears’ jail demanded by prosecutors.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Mugabe, in power for more than 30 years, says the
\nallegations of abuses are part of an international plot to
\nunseat him.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa allowed more than a million people from
\nZimbabwe to enter without documents three years ago when its
\ndestitute neighbour was swept up in political violence and its
\nalready unsteady economy was being crushed by hyperinflation.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Many thousands of these say they are victims of political
\nviolence, and so could bring lawsuits if the court decides in
\nfavour of the rights groups.\t<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOHANNESBURG, March 26 (Reuters) – Rights activists began a legal bid on Monday to compel South Africa to investigate and prosecute citizens of neighbouring Zimbabwe suspected of crimes against humanity. The activists argue that South Africa is failing to meet its obligations in international law. A court ruling in their favour would cause a headache […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}