Zambia defies UN law on refugees and deports Biti
Zambian authorities deported top Zimbabwe opposition figure Tendai Biti on Thursday, rejecting his claim for asylum after he had fled on allegations of inciting postelection protests.
“As I am speaking to you right now he has been handed over to the Zimbabwean police,” Biti’s lawyer Gilbert Phiri told AFP, charging that his client had been deported in defiance of a court ruling.
A veteran figure in the opposition MDC, Biti fled to Zambia on Wednesday, amid what his party says is a crackdown over its claims that the July 30 landmark elections in Zimbabwe were rigged. The UN’s refugee agency said it was “gravely concerned about reports of the forced return” of Biti, an internationally respected finance minister in Zimbabwe’s 2009-2013 power-sharing government.
“Forcibly returning refugees and asylum-seekers to their country of origin is a serious violation of international refugee law,” the UNHCR said.
It called on Zambia to “investigate this incident urgently”.
Zambia had swiftly rejected Biti’s asylum claim and said he would be sent back across the border, but his legal team filed a challenge keeping him there until the case was reviewed. However, Zambian government spokeswoman Dora Siliya said the order had not been received until it was too late.
“His asylum was denied on the basis that in his country there is no breakdown in the rule of law,” she said, adding that Biti, 52, was “running away from the due process of the law” as he is wanted by authorities.
“The court order only came after he was handed back to the Zimbabwe authorities,” she said.
MDC leader Nelson Chamisa said he was “extremely concerned” by the news that Biti had been deported and that his whereabouts were unknown.
“Those who took him are people we have not been able to identify,” Chamisa told AFP.
Chamisa has repeatedly claimed that the July 30 presidential election, the first since veteran autocrat Robert Mugabe was ousted by the military in November, had been rigged. The MDC would launch its legal challenge against the results on Thursday, Chamisa said.
Mugabe’s successor President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared the winner with 50.8% of the vote, just enough to avoid a run-off against Chamisa.
According to the state-run Chronicle newspaper, Biti is among nine suspects sought for inciting deadly protests on August 1. The army opened fire on the protesters in Harare, killing six people and prompting an international outcry.