Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I am grateful to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, and the Government Chief Whip, Deputy Kitt, for enabling this unprecedented debate to take place. The Minister of State, Deputy Kitt, has championed the cause of African affairs over a long period. Since his appointment, the Minister of State with responsibility for overseas aid, Deputy Conor Lenihan, has expressed an interest in connecting the Oireachtas to development issues in a way that has not been done effectively in the past. I congratulate him on having taken that step.

This is an unusual debate. Often we have been insular in dealing with such issues by way of parliamentary questions or the occasional Adjournment debate. However, to table such a matter as a formal motion is an indication of the seriousness with which this sovereign Parliament regards the situation. It is also an indication of the maturity of our own democracy where we have a role to play in spreading the values of democracy and human rights. Ireland has an honourable tradition in this regard; it was not a colonial power. We are respected in Africa as an independent voice that does not come with baggage. We are now significant players in terms of development co-operation, given the funds the Oireachtas votes for use in Africa.

I warmly welcome the motion but before dealing with it in detail, I will make some general observations in referring to the situation in Africa as a whole. There is a view that Africa is a hopeless case and some people despair of ever seeing development within the continent. I reject that view, however, because Africa is a place of hope. There are many difficulties and challenges besetting the African continent but there is a tremendous movement for democratic change, bedding down democracy, institutionalising human rights and placing in situ in every country on that continent instruments to monitor human rights. The best signs of this are the development of the African Union, the inaugurations of the Pan-African Parliament and the establishment of an African peer review mechanism whereby standards and international norms are reviewed and monitored, not by external forces from North America or Europe but by Africans themselves. These are important developments. However, as citizens of the world, we have a right to comment on affairs in other nations.

The situation in Zimbabwe is an extremely worrying one. As other speakers have noted, Zimbabwe was a shining light, full of hope and optimism, in the immediate years after independence, and some of us had the privilege of meeting Robert Mugabe in those early years. The transcript of the proceedings in the Roy Bennett case in the Zimbabwean Parliament shows that one of the witnesses, a Member of Parliament who alleged that Mr. Bennett had assaulted him too, was one Didymus Mutasa. The Minister of State, Deputy Kitt, will remember this honourable gentleman welcoming us to Zimbabwe as the then Speaker of the Parliament. We know these people and their ability. We have offered and continue to offer the hand of friendship to them. However, since that time of optimism and hope, when Zimbabwe was a front-line state, newly independent and offering the basis for a multi-racial democracy — a model almost for what might be in South Africa, then under the yoke of apartheid — we have seen the hope and promise crushed by a regime that refuses to cede power and, instead, seeks to continue in power by using the instruments of repression and terror.

The past five years in particular have seen a serious deterioration in the human rights situation in Zimbabwe, not only in informal actions but in the enactment of formal regressive legislation. This series of enactments, aimed at suppressing the rights of free expression, free association, free assembly and free dissemination of information, is characterised by the intimidation of any voice of opposition to the regime. For those of us who respect and admire Africa, who were hopeful and remain optimistic for the future, what has happened in Zimbabwe is a cause of pain and deep regret. We have a responsibility, therefore, not simply to decry the instruments of repression against the norms of democracy and human rights but to do something about it, as comrade parliamentarians, to use a phrase the ZANU-PF Administration would understand.

The instruments of repression have been institutionalised in Zimbabwe despite its membership of and accession to a number of international covenants on political rights and freedoms. As the Minister for Foreign Affairs noted, Zimbabwe has endorsed the SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections. It is a sad joke that the notions of free and fair elections, free assembly and free expression should be entirely undermined, ignored and crushed by the same regimes that notionally adhere to and endorse them.

The case this House is addressing is that of Mr. Roy Bennett. I am impressed but not surprised that Zimbabwe would watch this debate and I am glad to hear from the Minister of State, Deputy Kitt, that his information is that this is the case. It is important that those who are striving to protect the norms and decency of human rights and democratic values know that they have allies elsewhere who will stand by them, watch them and not abandon them. Roy Bennett is a Member of Parliament in Zimbabwe representing the Chimanimani district since 2000. He is a native Zimbabwean whose grandfather went to then Rhodesia from this island in 1889. He speaks fluent Shona and has deep and lifelong roots in and commitment to his country, Zimbabwe.

The irony is that he was originally approached by ZANU-PF to stand for Parliament for the Chimanimani district. However, the ZANU-PF central committee did not accept his nomination and he subsequently became a member of the Movement for Democratic Change, the official voice and organ of opposition to the Mugabe regime. There is documented evidence of the pattern of harassment and intimidation which Mr. Bennett and his family endured subsequent to his election, enunciated by some of my colleagues in the House, such as attacks on his farm and farm workers, invasion of his land, illegal annexation of his property and physical threats of violence and death. Unfortunately, his experiences are far from unique in the current climate in Zimbabwe.

Matters came to a head in a nasty exchange in the Zimbabwean Parliament in May of last year when Roy Bennett pushed over the Minister for Justice, Patrick Chinamasa. Undeniably, this is unacceptable behaviour for a parliamentarian. It would have consequences in any parliament and in most would result in a period of suspension. However, the consequences for Mr. Bennett were grossly excessive. As we have heard, no court proceedings were held. Instead, a committee of the Parliament dominated by the majority party held its own hearings and decided in an unprecedented fashion to sentence Mr. Bennett to 15 months including labour, three months of which was suspended.

Twelve months with labour is a grossly excessive sentence for what would normally attract a reprimand in most parliaments, and, if it went through the normal court procedure, perhaps a fine. Clearly, the motivation of those who enacted such a vengeful judgment on Mr. Bennett was to silence a voice of opposition. They expected to prevent Mr. Bennett standing in the Zimbabwean elections which are due to be held on 31 March, just one week from now. I am pleased to hear from the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, that the objective of disqualifying Mr. Bennett from standing in these elections has not been achieved. Pending the denial of the appeal which the Zimbabwe electoral commission intended to lodge, I hope Mr. Bennett will be a candidate and allowed to contest the elections on 30 April, one month behind the rest of the country to allow for campaigning to take place. This would at least be a positive development in an altogether dreadful situation.

I reiterate that, as parliamentarians, we have a responsibility to speak out. The role of Ireland is an honourable one. We have a voice that is respected. President Mugabe cannot denounce us, for example, as he did the UK, as having a vested interest or colonial tradition, or as sinners. We are not a coloniser. Ireland was a poor country that through its own efforts developed its own economy, society and norms. We are far from perfect but we reserve to ourselves the right to speak out in pursuit of justice and human rights.

The situation in Zimbabwe is one of the dark shadows over Africa. It is facing into an electoral process which, going by reports in The Irish Times today, is fundamentally flawed, with incidents already reported of ballot boxes being stuffed, and where there is no notion of a free campaigning atmosphere for those who oppose the current regime.

Ireland must speak out. I welcome the initiative we have taken in tabling this resolution. It will have an impact. I believe it will be read and carried in the media in Zimbabwe. While it might not appear on the official State-sponsored programmes of the media, it will reach those who need more than anyone else to hear a supportive word. They are the people who are determined to establish the norms of human rights, the freedoms of assembly and free expression and the ability of the individual Zimbabwean, whatever his or her ethnic background, to speak fearlessly of his or her views on the future of the country and to express his or her democratic choice for parliament and government without fear or favour. I hope that this resolution and this joint approach across all benches in this House will be the first of many.

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