UK threatens to deport Zimbabwean journalist to Iraq

UK threatens to deport Zimbabwean journalist to Iraq

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By Staff Reporter

BUNGLING British Home Office officials have threatened to deport a Zimbabwean journalist to IRAQ.

Genius Chitiyo, a former chief sub-editor of banned Daily News on Sunday applied for asylum in the United Kingdom in October last year.

But in a letter rejecting his asylum application, dated April 13, the Home Office threatened to send him to war-torn Iraq.

The Home Office letter read in part: "You have claimed that your removal to Iraq would be a breach of the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights).

"In order to engage the United Kingdom’s obligations under the ECHR, you would have to show that there was a real risk of you suffering a flagrant denial of your rights under that Article."

Chitiyo was one of several Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) journalists arrested by the Zimbabwe government after police marched on the paper's offices in Harare and closed it down in 2003.

To add to the confusion, the Home Office letter then touches on Zimbabwe, disputing Chitiyo's claim that he was arrested, although he presented a letter from the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists confirming his detention.

The Home Office said: "It is not accepted that you were arrested in October 2003 as you have claimed.’’

The British government also refused to accept a letter from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) -- for which Chitiyo says he is a member -- confirming that the journalist has done some work for the MDC.

The Home Office letter, signed by one C. Pethard of Reliance House, Water Street, Liverpool, quotes the MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube as having said that ". . .only the Secretary-General was authorised to confirm a person’s membership."

Chitiyo’s MDC confirmation letter was signed by Tendai Biti, the secretary-general of another MDC faction who assumed the position when the MDC split into two factions in 2005.

Chitiyo, who has worked for the now defunct Daily Gazette and Sunday Gazette and later the Financial Gazette, told of his shock at the Home Office letter.

Chitiyo said last night: "I was surprised. My initial thoughts were that when these guys get our claims, they already want to dismiss them, they don't take them seriously.

"You can tell they are not concentrating...they are dealing with a case but they forget the nationality of the claimant. That is very strange."

A Home Office spokesman last night said while it is policy not to discuss individual claims, they would look into Chitiyo's case.

"Clearly, a mistake has been made," said the spokesman.

Scores of journalists have fled Zimbabwe in recent years to escape harassment by government security forces. Many now work in South Africa, Britain and the United States.

Last month, Edward Chikombo, a Zimbabwean photographer who supplied pictures of opposition torture victims to the international media was kidnapped from his home in Harare and murdered by suspected government agents.

Journalists Gift Phiri and Luke Tamborinyoka were also abducted and tortured by security forces as President Mugabe's government battles with growing opposition.
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