by Staff Reporter
President Robert Mugabe’s chequered human rights record worried the British and was warned just two years after independence , a report has revealed.
According to the Hansard HC [32/1005-10], dated 25 November 1982, Hon MP Mr. John Townend asked “Will my right hon. Friend take time today to turn her attention to the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe? Is she aware that public support for the large-scale financial support that we give Zimbabwe could rapidly disappear if that country were to go along the road to a one-party dictatorship and cease to respect basic human rights?”
“We are especially concerned about some of the reports of the absence of human rights for some of those in the air force who have been detained, and we are concerned about reports of torture of those people. My right hon. Friend [ Francis Pym] the Secretary of State made strenuous representations to Mr. Mugabe when he was in Zimbabwe. We are always concerned about failure to observe or uphold human rights, especially as we made provision for this in the constitution that we gave to Zimbabwe”, PM Thatcher replied.
Mugabe who always condemns the British was actually benefiting from them while breaking human rights.
