Politicians condemn Zimbabwean support of Myanmar genocide

Opposition politicians and human rights activists have expressed their shock and condemnation at the Zimbabwean government’s decision not to condemn Myanmar’s violent suppression of the Rohingya Muslims. 

Last week, the UN General Assembly moved to condemn the human rights abuses committed against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims by the country’s military, which culminated in arbitrary arrest, torture, rape and murder. Zimbabwe was among only nine countries that voted against the resolution, which passed with 134 votes and 28 abstentions.

MDC Secretary for Education, Fadzayi Mahere, described the move as typical of the government under President Emmerson Mnangagwa. 

“Some are surprised by the government's disastrous vote against the resolution to protect the Rohingya Muslims from military atrocities. We should not be. We know and have experienced that ours is a government that has no moral or legal difficulty with soldiers killing civilians. Shameful”, he said. 

Exiled former Cabinet Minister, Jonathan Moyo, corroborated this critique of President Mnangagwa. 

"The lie of a new dispensation in Zimbabwe [is] exposed. Zimbabwe did not vote at the UN with its SADC neighbours, not with its African Union comrades and not with the Commonwealth it is so desperate to rejoin”, Moyo said. 

"It voted with the enemies of human rights. Shame! If truth be told, the same instigators and enforcers are doing today what they have always been doing since the Mugabe days!"

Other countries which opposed the resolution included Belarus, Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Russia and Vietnam. Most of these countries have poor histories of human rights abuses. 

Zimbabwe itself has also been criticised lately for failing to uphold human rights after the army shot and killed unarmed civilians during a protest in 2018. 

Photo credit: Reuters