President Robert Mugabe's government which tried to block issuing a report by the African Union's (AU) human rights watchdog by saying it had not been given the document, in fact had it for five months, Zimbabwe's main human rights organisation said yesterday.

The report by the African Commission for Human and People's Rights condemning "flagrant human rights violations" in Zimbabwe caused an uproar at a meeting of the AU council of ministers meeting.

This was held at the weekend just ahead of the African continent's annual summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which opened yesterday.

It was the first time in the last five years of violent political repression in Zimbabwe than any AU organisation has openly criticised Mugabe's regime.

Observers say that the report represents a major diplomatic defeat for 80-year-old Mugabe, who until now has secured almost total African backing for his rule condemned by the Western world.

Zimbabwe foreign minister Stanislaus Mudenge was quoted yesterday by the state-controlled daily Herald in Harare as saying in Addis Ababa that Zimbabwe "had not been afforded the right of reply", and the report could not be forwarded to the full AU summit for discussion.

The newspaper claimed that "the hand of the British" was behind the report.

However, a statement issued yesterday by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Non-Governmental Organisation Forum, a coalition of the country's civil liberties bodies, said that the African Commission had sent a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe in June 2002 immediately after presidential elections, which were won by Mugabe.

The report was debated and formally adopted in November last year.

"The Forum was reliably informed on February 5 that the fact-finding mission report was with the government of Zimbabwe," it said. The document would be published "together with the comments of the government as soon as this was received". The government has made no mention of receiving the document, although the Herald, regarded as the government's official mouthpiece, admitted the justice ministry received a copy. The justice ministry was the commission's official host in 2002.

"This was dismissed because in terms of protocol the commission should have sent the report through the ministry of foreign affairs," the Herald said.

But the Forum statement said that the "rules of the commission are silent on the ministry to which a mission should be submitted".

Reports were to be submitted to "member states," it said.

"The forum is therefore of the view that the requirement by the African Commission to present the report to the government... was adequately satisfied." It was unclear yesterday whether the report would be forwarded to the AU summit, after Mudenge mounted sustained objections. Mugabe's election victory was dismissed by independent international observers, including the Commonwealth, as the result of fraud and violent intimidation.

The commission's report accused the government of "flagrant human rights abuses and arbitrary arrests," and condemned the "shackles of control" around the country's media. – Sapa-DPA.