Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has cut short his
visit to Europe to return to his embattled country, it emerged on Sunday.
In a message posted on his Twitter account on Sunday
afternoon, Mnangagwa said, “In light of the economic situation I will be
returning home after a highly productive week of bilateral trade and investment
meetings. We will be ably represented in Davos by Minister of Finance Mthuli
Ncube. The first priority is to get Zimbabwe calm, stable, and working again.”
Earlier on Sunday, the Democratic Alliance threatened to
approach the International Criminal Court (ICC) to consider a preliminary
investigation into human rights violations in Zimbabwe.
The DA urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to re-consider his
“Quiet Diplomacy 2.0” on Zimbabwe and intervene directly to “stop the ongoing
human rights violations by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government”, DA
spokesman Stevens Mokgalapa said in a statement.
“If Rampahosa fails to intervene and advise Mnangagwa to
stop the military clampdown on civilians, the DA will be left with no option
but to approach the International Criminal Court (ICC) to consider a
preliminary investigation into these violations as outlined in the Rome
Statute.”
The ICC’s office of the prosecutor was empowered by the
Rome Statute to “…determine whether there is sufficient evidence of crimes of
sufficient gravity falling within the ICC’s jurisdiction, whether there are
genuine national proceedings, and whether opening an investigation would serve
the interests of justice and of the victims”.
The DA strongly believed that the current human rights
crisis in Zimbabwe was of sufficient gravity to warrant an ICC investigation,
because, according to the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, at least 12 people
had been killed, 78 shot at, and 240 faced “assault, torture, inhumane, and
degrading treatment”.
“President Rampahosa is faced with an easy choice – either
he intervenes to stop civilian abuse by the military in Zimbabwe or his
government will be one of the parties that will answer to the ICC on why they
failed to act to stop the human rights violations,” Mokgalapa said.
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