UPDATED. UN human rights expert Deported
UPDATE: United Nations human rights expert Manfred Nowak was deported from Zimbabwe on Thursday after being detained by security officials on arrival overnight, a U.N. official said.
“We are boarding the plane to Johannesburg now,” the official said by mobile phone from Harare airport.
Nowak said he had been invited to Zimbabwe by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai whose power-sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe is under severe strain.
HARARE, Oct 28 – United Nations human rights expert Manfred Nowak was detained at Harare airport on Wednesday by Zimbabwean security agents and he may be deported to South Africa on Thursday, airport security told Reuters.
Zimbabwe earlier barred at the last minute a week-long visit by Nowak who had been invited to the country by the government, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
The Austrian academic was only told his visit had been postponed as he arrived in Johannesburg on his way to Zimbabwe where his fact-finding mission was set for Oct. 28-Nov. 4.
The invitation marked the first time that Zimbabwe had offered to open up to an expert working for the U.N. Human Rights Council. Nowak is the Council’s special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
Posted by Dave Fish Eagle
on October 28, 2009. Filed under Local News.
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