Zimbabwe deports UN rights expert
Updated on 29 October 2009
United Nations human rights expert Manfred Nowak is deported from Zimbabwe despite being invited to the country by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mr Nowak was detained by security officials on arrival in Zimbabwe yesterday, a UN official said. The UN expert said he would recommend that the body's Human Rights Council act against the country.
The Austrian academic told reporters after arriving in South Africa that his mission had failed following his detention by security officials in Harare overnight and his deportation this morning.
"I have never been treated by any other government like this. It means that the mission has failed," Nowak said.
Zimbabwe's state-owned Herald newspaper accused Nowak of trying to "gatecrash into the country". The newspaper said Nowak had been informed by the government that he could not visit because the country was hosting foreign ministers from the Southern African Development Community.
"Government had already communicated to him that he would have to visit on a later date," the Herald said. The SADC delegation will be reviewing the power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe.
Renewed tensions have emerged between Mugabe and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has stopped cooperation with Mugabe's ZANU-PF in the unity government.
Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, formed a power-sharing government with Tsvangirai to end months of feuding in the impoverished country.
But Tsvangirai said two weeks ago he was boycotting the arrangement until problems had been resolved.
Nowak's invitation marked the first time Zimbabwe had offered to open up to an expert working for the UN Human Rights Council.
