Nowak questions Tsvangirai's power after Zimbabwe rout (Roundup)

By Clare Byrne Oct 29, 2009, 11:36 GMT

Harare - The refusal by Zimbabwean officials to allow United Nations torture rapporteur Manfred Nowak enter the country, despite being invited by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, shows where the 'real power' lies, an angry Nowak said Thursday.

A major diplomatic spat between Zimbabwe and the UN was looming after Nowak was barred by immigration officials at Harare airport on Wednesday evening from entry and made take the first flight out of the country back to Johannesburg on Thursday.

The immigration officials said he had 'no security clearance,' despite Nowak having a letter of invitation from Tsvangirai, whom he was due to meet today.

'I should say I have never been treated in any other country in this way,' Nowak, an Austrian independent human rights expert who was named special rapporteur in 2004, told the German Press Agency dpa. 'This is a major diplomatic incident.'

Speaking later to the BBC he said the incident 'sheds a certain light on the present situation on unity government in Zimababwe.'

That the 'prime minister who invites me cannot get clearance for me to enter the country, says a lot... where the real power in this country lies.'

Zimbabwe's state media, which is controlled by President Robert Mugabe's party, defended his exclusion, saying that he had tried 'to gatecrash' the country.

Nowak, an Austrian, had 'ignored' a request by the government to postpone the visit and had 'tried to claim' he was coming to visit Tsvangirai, the Herald daily wrote.

The furore coincides with a worsening standoff between coalition partners Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

Three Southern African ministers were in Harare on Thursday to try to revive the flagging eight-month-old transitional government, which was thrown into crisis after Tsvangirai's party began boycotting cabinet two weeks ago.

Nowak had been invited earlier this year by justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, a senior member of Mugabe's Zanu-PF, to visit the country to meet with officials, activists and prisoners and compile a report for the Security Council.

But on Monday the foreign ministry, which is also controlled by Zanu-PF, revoked the invitation, on the basis that Mugabe and Tsvangirai would be locked in talks Thursday with the ministers from the Southern African Development Community.

Nowak has questioned that reasoning, noting that the SADC meeting is a one-day affair and that he was planning to stay for a week.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, to which Nowak is attached, said his visit was crucial given reports of a renewed campaign of intimidation against Mugabe critics.

'Recent allegations that MDC supporters and human rights defenders have been arrested, harassed and intimidated during the past few days, highlight the urgency of objective fact-finding by an independent UN expert at this crucial stage,' the OHCHR said in a statement Wednesday.

Human rights group Amnesty International also warned this week of a return to the violence that characterized last year's presidential election run-off. The MDC said Wednesday a party official had been abducted by unknown agents, days after a party residence was ransacked by police allegedly looking for weapons.

Almost exactly a year ago, as Zimbabwe slumped into economic chaos and political violence, a visit by a delegation of The Elders grouping of leading statesmen was also 'postponed' at the last minute.

The Elders delegation had consisted of United States president Jimmy Carter, former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and Graca Machel, activist and wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela.