Member of Parliament, Nelson Chamisa, was brutally attacked on Sunday 18 March 2007 at the Harare airport en route to Brussels to attend the Committee meetings of the African, Caribbean and Pacific/European Union Joint Parliamentary Assembly.
Reports indicate that he was assaulted with an iron bar by approximately six to eight male persons who took his luggage, computer and cell phone and made off in two unmarked cars, one of which was described as a Peugeot 306.
Chamisa suffered a fracture to the bone surrounding his eye and massive lacerations to his forehead and face.
While not being able to identify the perpetrators, it is clear that the attack was intended to stop the participation of the outspoken member of Parliament at the Brussels meeting in his capacity as a representative of the Parliament of Zimbabwe. In the process, he would be in a position to give first – hand report to the Bureau of the brutality of state agents towards those with differing political views, and the increasing impunity, which accompanies their actions.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, a coalition of sixteen human rights NGOs, has placed its grave concerns on record with the Assembly and has respectfully requested that they in turn place this barbaric assault on one of their members on the agenda for the Brussels meetings this week.
