Call to deploy Zimbabwe monitors

By Peter Biles
BBC News, Johannesburg

Mr Mugabe has accused the opposition of provoking violence

A leading human rights group has urged southern African countries to deploy monitors in Zimbabwe.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Zimbabwe's government of state brutality in a new report.

Southern African leaders will meet in Zambia this week for a summit expected to discuss the continuing political and economic meltdown in Zimbabwe.

HRW says the leaders must take strong and effective action to deal with one of the region's gravest crises.

Torture claims

It says leaders should insist on tangible improvements in the human rights situation, and it warns that the credibility of the regional grouping - the Southern African Development Community - is on the line.

HRW recommends that as a first step, human rights monitors should be deployed in Zimbabwe.

Human Rights Watch says the government of Zimbabwe has used physical attacks and torture against its critics, but at the last meeting of Southern African leaders in March, there was a failure to mention the arrest and beating of opposition and civil society members.

In the past, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has accused the opposition of launching a campaign of violence and of attacking the police.