Edneth Gotora

EDM number 852 in 2004-05, proposed by Frank Cook on 08/03/2005.

That this House is dismayed that the Government has resumed deportations to Zimbabwe despite increasing intimidation and brutality by ZANU-PF gangs; is alarmed that individuals who escaped with their lives should be reconsigned to threatening circumstances; notes that one such is Edneth Gotora whose husband was beaten to death by ZANU-PF thugs for no more than distributing leaflets, whilst her infant daughter was injured so badly that she died weeks later from injuries sustained during the attack; further notes that the culprits were apprehended but released immediately on bail whereupon they returned and abducted Edneth to a rehabilitation camp where she was raped and brutalised by the `commandant' and his henchmen such that she had to be hospitalised; further notes that, with assistance from an orderly, Edneth escaped and hid herself prior to making her way successfully to England; regrets that Edneth's plea for asylum was refused on the grounds that her husband was now dead and that she is now safe; is aware that a petition of 17,500 signatures is to be presented to the Home Office by the Reverend Sheila Maxey, Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Reform Church; recognises that, while the Government pays lip service to the issues of domestic violence there is violence on a national scale in Zimbabwe, yet Edneth seems destined to be despatched to the same dangerous circumstances from which she escaped; and therefore calls upon the Home Secretary to exercise his discretion under the law to grant this much wronged lady the shelter she so desperately needs.

This motion has been signed by a total of 64 MPs.