Lord Tony Gifford, Q.C. in a letter to "The Guardian" of London on August 28, was full of praise for the operations of Public Tribunals in Ghana.
He lent the full weight of his stature as an eminent jurist and member of the House of Lords (the highest court of appeal in the U.K.) to these Tribunals that operate on a basis quite different from anything generally acknowledged as judicial procedure.
There are no appeals from the rulings of these courts, the President of the Tribunal's sole judicial experience consists of two undistinguished years at the Bar, the rest of the members are selected by the regime and their only credentials appear to be they support the revolutionary ideologies of the ruling regime.
The Ghana Bar Association has on numerous occasions denounced the operations of these Tribunals and asked its members to boycott its sittings and far from Ghanaian lawyers now agree- ing to cooperate with these Tribunals, it is still only the odd lawyer that makes an occasional appearance representing the odd accused person.
People have been tried and sentenced to death by these courts and some have been executed without access to any lawyer.Little things like how evidence was taken by prosecutors are not con- sidered important enough to worry the Tribunal. Nor does the widespread use of torture on accused persons to obtain "confession statements" make the slightest difference whatsoever to the Tribunal.
Many people have been tried and sentenced to long years of imprisonment by these Tribunals for selling a packet of sugar above government laid- down controlled prices; often without any legal representation, often on the evidence of Zealous members of People's Defence Committees. All these and more are considered not to be serious enough infringements on the rule of law or civilised behaviour and the few rumblings of disquiet that have been expressed on the subject need to be stopped by the intervention of an eminent jurist of Lord Grifford's stature, because he spent a few hours in the public gallery of the Tribunals in Ghana.
Six top Zimbabwean Air Force Officers charged with complicity in the destruction of half the planes that make up the Air Force are rearrested after a court had cleared them of the charges preferred against them. There is an international crisis. The six officers had their day in court in an internationally accepted manner, they had access to the best lawyers that good will and money can find and the judge - an independent judge frees them. Their "confession statement" are not worth the papers they were written on because they were extracted from them through the use of torture, the judge found.
Once having found that, the fact that virtually the entire capability of the Air Force went with the sabotage, became relevant. It did not matter that these officers through their commissions had responsibility for the security of the Air Force and the state of Zimbabwe
That is as it should be; that is part of the beauty, the joy and frustrations of one of the heritages bequeathed to the civilised world by the British legal system.
No wonder that many friends of Zimbabwe were dismayed and embarrassed when the officers were re-arrested after the court had freed them. And no wonder many people have made their displeasure known to Prime Minister Mugabe.
What is worrying is the nagging thought that the colour of the six Zimbabweans appears to be the driving factor in these condemnations. Worse things have happened and continue to happen in other parts of the world.
In Ghana, many people do not even have the opportunity to have their day in court; official impatience with what is called "legal mumbo- jumbo" - which is what freed the six officers - means that revolutionary and instant justice is meted out to anybody accused of any crime.
It means that the traditional courts have been silenced and are under constant siege and their findings are overturned by People's Defence Committees regularly. And yet, no criticism is allowed. Or could it be that 'law’ of the jungle which according to the "Daily Express" rules in the continent of Africa should be allowed free rein for as long as the victims happen to be black?
