Honourable President/Members:

I have proposed this debate in the context of this Parliament supporting African initiatives to resolve African problems.

In this regard I believe we must first applaud the initiative of the Southern African Development Community in recently appointing the President of the Republic of South Africa to attempt to address and find solutions to the various crises in Zimbabwe and we must offer him our support.

The weight of the Pan African Parliament must, surely, be firmly placed behind this effort in addition to our own endeavours.

We cannot use the huge responsibility placed on the shoulders of one man as an excuse to avoid our own obligations and responsibilities to the people of Zimbabwe.

We cannot allow the very real crisis in Zimbabwe to be solely relegated to what could be alleged by some to be "friends of the family" - SADC.

I see no reason why the Pan African Parliament should not -- as it has done in the past elsewhere throughout Africa -- send its own fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe.

I see no reason why this House should not fully support this proposal and make it its own in the knowledge that in so doing we are doing what is right and what is expected of us by the people of Africa.

The mission should have an unrestricted mandate insofar as meeting whomsoever relevant persons and bodies it wishes to meet -- and including of course representatives of the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

The matter is urgent and I have proposed that the mission would need to report its findings back to this Parliament at its next plenary session.

This Parliament was privileged to have been addressed this week by the chairman of the African Union and the President of Ghana, HE John Kufor.

In an interview after his address to us he is reported to have said that Africa should be "worried" about the crisis in Zimbabwe and he went even further:

He said: "When the leader of the opposition gets beaten up, for good or ill, naturally all concerned should be worried."

Those of us who have access to unfiltered media -- television, radio and print -- have seen, heard and read for ourselves all manner of reports about the arrest and assault by police of opposition political activists and journalists in Zimbabwe.

Mr Edward Chikomba, the cameraman said to have transmitted the images of the battered leader of the MDC, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, was recently abducted from his home in Harare and later found murdered. His murder remains unsolved.

Numerous other journalists and political activists have been officially detained and brutally assaulted and in one case there has been an allegation of torture while in police custody.

This week we read of armed police violently breaking up a peaceful demonstration of lawyers wearing their traditional legal gowns outside Zimbabwe's High Court. Some were taken away in a truck to an area of ground where they were viciously assaulted.

We in this Hon. House are all mandated to "promote and protect human and people's rights, consolidate democratic institutions and culture and to ensure good governance and the rule of law." (I quote from the Constitutive Act of the African Union).

Clearly a multi-strategy approach is required regarding Zimbabwe involving the African Union, SADC and the very people who have been elected to be a voice of the people's of Africa - the Pan African Parliament.

This Parliament cannot sit on the sidelines and nor can it be silent on the range of issues affecting Zimbabwe and the security of its citizens.

We must place human rights and respect for the rule of law at the forefront of all that we do.

We must ask ourselves in all honesty whether we can place on the agenda of this Parliament debate on the Great Lakes Region, the situation in Dafur, the Cote d"Ivoire, Chad, Somalia and The Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic and omit Zimbabwe?

There is a saying that "sunlight is the best disinfectant" and it is now time that this Parliament places its spotlight on Zimbabwe and, indeed, anywhere else in Africa (as we have previously done) where we believe we can and must play a positive role.

In proposing this debate I have no other agenda other than the agenda of the African Union and the agenda of this Parliament to which I have sworn allegiance. This is our common agenda.

Today we debate Zimbabwe. Tomorrow it may well be, for whatever reason, my own country - or your country. or the country of your neighbour.
None of us should be afraid to hold a mirror up to ourselves and have a good hard look at what we see. If we are afraid to hold up that mirror, then we should not be sitting in this House.

History will judge us harshly if we do not do so.

We must be aware that just as we must shine our own spotlight throughout Africa as we work to honestly and justly represent the peoples of Africa, the people's of Africa are looking at us too.

We must ask ourselves whether we can withstand their scrutiny and if not; why not?