Human rights lawyers and activists have come out guns blazing against the government of Zimbabwe’s decision to vote against a United Nations human rights committee resolution to condemn Myanmar’s persecution of the Rohingya Muslims.
The resolution which was endorsed by 142 countries, saw only two African countries, Burundi and Zimbabwe joining China, Russia, Belarus, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam to support the continued persecution of Rohingya muslims by Myanmar.
The development left human activists questioning the sincerity of the new dispensation in backing China and Russia to support abuse of human rights in Myanmar.
Leading constitutional lawyer, David Coltart described Zimbabwe’s decision to go against a UN resolution as shameful and uncivilized.
“It is utterly shameful that Zimbabwe failed to condemn Myanmar. So much for the so called ‘new dispensation.’ Little has changed since the days of Mugabe when Zimbabwe regularly voted to protect tyrants.
“I am absolutely appalled that Zimbabwe under Mnangagwa failed to join the civilized world in condemning the human rights situation in Myanmar . I suppose when your own military guns down innocents in downtown Harare you have a natural affinity towards other tyrants.”
United Kingdom based lawyer and academic Alex Magaisa weighed in challenging the government’s newness tag which appears impassive towards human rights violation protection resolutions.
“142 countries voted to condemn human rights violations in Myanmar. Zimbabwe, whose government claims to be a “New Dispensation” joined a group of 10 counties to vote AGAINST the resolution. The regime wants to be taken seriously but still locates itself in notorious corners,” Magaisa wrote on twitter on Saturday.
Without shedding more detail on why Zimbabwe voted against a United Nations resolution, Deputy Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Energy Mutodi told 263Chat that Zimbabwe is guided by its foreign policy which stipulates that they vote alongside Russia and China.
“We have a foreign policy and the policy is that we vote alongside Russia and China,” Mutodi said.
According to the UN report, unarmed Rohingya group in Rakhine State is being subjected to the excessive use of force and violations of human rights by the military and security forces.
Zimbabwe’s neighbor South Africa abstained alongside Lesotho, Namibia and Uganda among others.
