Zimbabwe's Ruling Party, ZANU PF, Found Liable For Human Rights Abuses in US Court - Hearing to Calculate Damages to Take Place in New York.

Business & Legal Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 24, 2002

Live Court Testimony from Victims Set for

9:30 a.m., Thursday April 25, 2002

A United States Federal Court in Manhattan, New York City has held that the ruling party of Zimbabwe, ZANU-PF, is liable for human rights abuses including beatings, torture, intimidation and extra judicial killings in the run-up to the country's June 2000 parliamentary election. This case offers a unique and potentially precedent-setting finding of liability against a foreign political party or human rights violations.

According to one of the American lawyers working on the case: "Based on prior judgments, we believe that very substantial damages, in the tens of millions of US dollars, are warranted." The amount of the award, however sits with the magistrate judge who will decide on the basis of the written submissions of the plaintiffs and live, eye-witness testimony which will be presented on Thursday, April 25, 2002. Several plaintiffs will be present in the U.S. District Courthouse to give first-hand testimony about the human rights abuses they have suffered and witnessed.

The plaintiffs testifying on April 25 include family members of individuals who were attacked, beaten, tortured and killed by ZANU-PF. The witnesses include Adella Chiminya, whose husband, as an opposition party activist, was doused with fuel and burned in the run-up to the parliamentary election in June 2000; Elliot Pfebve, executive committee member of the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) who stood as a candidate opposing ZANU PF in the same election and whose brother, in a case of mistaken identity, was assassinated by ZANU PF supporters; and Sanderson Makombe, an eyewitness to murder. The witnesses will describe their personal experiences and the organized campaign of terror designed to intimidate all of ZANU-PF's political opposition through harassment, physical attacks, and the assassination of targeted individuals.

The District Court for the Southern District of New York has already entered an order of default judgment against ZANU-PF for its failure to appear before the court and contest the allegations of gross and pervasive violations of the rights of the citizens of Zimbabwe. All that remains is for the plaintiffs to provide evidence as to the extent of the abuses and for the court to set a dollar amount on the judgment that will be entered against ZANU-PF.

A similar case against Serbian, Radovan Karadzic, decided in August 2000 resulted in a judgment of awarded $745 million in compensatory and punitive damages as was reported by leading international media organizations including CNN, National Public Radio in the US, the BBC and The New York Times.

In recent months the government of Zimbabwe has been widely featured in the international press as a poster child for democracy gone wrong.

This case against ZANU-PF and its leader Robert Mugabe, seeks justice against a political party that has intimidated, injured, terrorized, tortured and even murdered its political opponents. The victims of this well-documented violence were wholly unable to obtain any measure of justice in their home country and have turned to the laws of the United States as their last resort.

This case originally named Robert Mugabe, the current de facto President of Zimbabwe and head of ZANU PF, as well as other government ministers, as defendants. Because of U.S. State Department intervention in this suit, the claims against Mugabe have been dismissed. In previous developments the U.S. State Department submitted a "Suggestion of Immunity" to the District Court asserting that Mugabe should be afforded immunity from suit due to his status as a foreign head of state. However, a contested presidential election in March of 2002 resulted in an international outcry about election irregularities and a statement from President Bush himself that the United States does not recognize the validity of Mugabe's re-election.

The hearing on the 25th will finally provide these victims their day in court and an opportunity to speak to the world of the human rights abuses they have suffered. They are represented by the Washington D.C. and New York offices of Hogan & Hartson, L.L.P., and Cooper & Kirk, L.L.C.

The testimony will begin at 9:30 a.m. and will take place before the Honorable James C. Francis IV at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouses, 500 Pearl Street, New York, NY 10007-1312. Main telephone number: [phone].

For further information please contact Hogan & Hartson, LLP at [phone] (Bill Bowman, or if unavailable Mary Ellen Callahan or John Clasby); Cooper & Kirk at [phone], (Hamish Hume); Zimbabwe Democracy Trust at [phone] (Annabel Hughes).