2004 Volume 3

SA PRISONERS IN ZIMBABWE
by Peter Hammond

The controversy over the 70 South African alleged mercenaries being detained in Zimbabwe has raised a lot of questions. Was this a sting operation? If the South African government had evidence that these people were indeed engaged in a mercenary operation, why were they not arrested and tried in South Africa? Is it credible that mercenaries would have openly attempted to purchase weapons from the Zimbabwean government's ZDI?

Amnesty International is convinced that the South African government has set up this whole alleged mercenary case, and that the Zimbabweans are acting upon the SA government's plan. A.I. is of the opinion that the accused were not arrested here in South Africa, because there was no evidence that would stand in any South African court.
Therefore, they engineered for them to fly to Zimbabwe where it was arranged they would be arrested, given a short 'show' trial on an indictment of being a mercenary threat, and given the death penalty, because South Africa no longer has the death penalty.

A.I. believes that the presumption of guilt and the high profile trial of these accused is intended to distract international and domestic attention from the abysmal human rights record and atrocities being perpetrated by the governments in Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe, and to justify the oppressive legislation in these countries.