David Norris (Independent)

I am grateful to my friend and colleague, Senator Ross, for allowing me to share in this debate. Perhaps the Leas-Chathaoirleach would indicate to me to leave some time for my colleague, Senator Henry, because I am inclined to run on.

I had the opportunity of meeting Mr. Bennett on 21 May 2003. He told us that the European countries, particularly Ireland, could be of considerable help in the disastrous situation in Zimbabwe through using the fact that we were signatories to various human rights protocols and so on. Senator Ross has made an excellent case and I do not propose to repeat it. However, I spoke this afternoon to Mr. Hanley, the person who briefed all three of us, and he gave me some up-to-date news. He spoke last week to Mr. Bennett's wife and gave me some information about the terms of his imprisonment.

He is allowed one visit every two weeks for half an hour. It is a two-hour drive for his wife, and he is in a cell with 11 other people. A guard has taken a particular dislike to him and if any of Mr. Bennett's cell mates show any degree of friendship towards him, they are punished as well. As Senator Ross has said, there is a whole series of grounds under which Ireland can appeal in terms of human rights and legal protocols, for example, the whole question of lack of impartiality and the fact it was a star chamber. The Minister could make such an argument not within a eurocentric framework. It might be useful for him to know that the African Commission on Human and People's Rights found in a similar case that regardless of the character of the individual members of such tribunals, its composition alone creates the appearance of an actual lack of impartiality. That is a view from within Africa. The matter is all the more urgent because of the fact Mr. Mugabe has called an election.

We know the way in which Mr. Mugabe has actually vitiated election processes in the past. He has made a career of doing so. People are intimidated and excluded, there is impersonation, mass violence and fraud of every type. That is known inside. People such as Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, will say this. I have had the opportunity to meet him as well. International observers say it too; we know it is a completely corrupt process and yet the opposition parties have decided to stand. I was told this afternoon that Mr. Bennett has also decided to stand, very courageously, for a seat in this election. It is important, in a democratic sense, that a member of parliament should be allowed to take to the hustings, in particular because it was a star chamber comprising as it did, five members, three of them from the government party. What other finding could one expect?

The whole outcome of this case is wrong. It is important that this man is allowed to get out and to campaign in the election. I have been asked to point out that a campaign of letter-writing is about to get under way. All Deputies and Senators will be contacted by the group supporting Mr. Bennett, with the assistance of Amnesty International. They will be trying to campaign to ensure that he has an opportunity to stand in the election and is released from jail, as would be appropriate. In this House I once described Mr. Mugabe as a dictator. I had to withdraw the phrase as it was an insult to a Head of State. I would welcome further opportunities for so insulting him.

Senator Ross was, in his normal way, very delicate about the rights of parliamentarians and so on. Some of them are pretty robust. I remember when Bernadette Devlin took a wallop at Reginald Maudling. I do not think that there was any sanction against her at all. It was regrettable and I was rather horrified by the incident, but she certainly was not put in jail for 15 months by a star chamber of one of the most corrupt politicians in a pretty corrupt continent.