Zimbabwe's expulsion of the UN's human rights expert Manfred Nowak is a sign of the deterioration of the country’s situation, Southern Africa expert and advisor to Morgan Tsvangirai, Peter Hermes told Radio Netherlands Worldwide. “Mugabe clearly didn’t want him to see how bad it is”.

Listen to a Newsline interview with Mr Hermes here:

Mr Nowak, who is the UN rapporteur on torture and human rights, arrived in Zimbabwe on Wednesday to investigate allegations of torture by security forces. However, authorities told him to leave the country by today.

The incident is remarkable as Mr Nowak had been invited by President Robert Mugabe's own Zanu PF party.
 

Conflicting schedules
But earlier this week, Mr Mugabe apparently changed his mind and asked Mr Nowak not to travel to Zimbabwe. He said a visit by a delegation from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) had led to conflicting schedules and agendas.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party immediately invited Mr Nowak for a meeting to be held Thursday morning in Harare. On arrival, Mr Nowak was refused entry into the country.
 

Deteriorating
“It’s against the background of the situation the country is in”, Mr Hermes, the former head of the Dutch Institute for Southern Africa (NIZA), told Radio Netherlands Worldwide. “Violence has once again increased over the past few days and people from civil organisations have been arrested. Mr Nowak wanted to visit prisons and human rights activists so he could see how the situation is deteriorating. Clearly, Mr Mugabe doesn’t want to have that kind of people in the country at the moment”.

Mr Nowak told reporters at the airport that he “had never been treated in any other country in this way. This is a major diplomatic incident”.
 

Divisions
It also shows the deep divisions between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Despite forming a unity government earlier this year, there are hardly any signs of unity left. Last week, Mr Tsvangirai’s MDC party left the coalition.

But this latest incident doesn’t show Mr Tsvangirai is losing his authority, says Mr Hermes. “Among the people, Mr Tsvangirai is well respected. His authority in the country is quite high. But Mugabe’s party is undermining him. They’re quite nervous about what’s happening in the country now. They use intimidation and violence to make sure they don’t lose control”.
 

Significant steps
Mr Hermes was in Zimbabwe last week in his capacity as advisor to the MDC party and to Mr Tsvangirai and he saw the political and social deterioration with his own eyes. “There are some improvements in health care, education and the economy, but they are very small. Zimbabwe needs to take more significant steps to make living in the country better than it is now”.

International aid could help the country take those steps. The SADC visit this week could be vital, Mr Hermes says. “Until now, the SADC has been very reluctant in engaging in Zimbabwe. This is their first official visit and so the MDC hopes that this will lead to more pressure from them. Whether that’s realistic I don’t know, as it has done very little up till now”.