A HUMAN rights lobby group has challenged government to stop making false claims about civic organisations while trying to divert attention on the abduction and alleged torture of three MDC Alliance officials last month.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum said government should stop looking at civic organisations as “avid critics of government”, but lawful entities that exist for constitutional causes.

The Forum was reacting to claims by Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe on Thursday implicating opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, churches, rights lawyers and doctors as well as western embassies in participating in a “fake” abduction of Harare West MP Joanah Mamombe, activists Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova.

He implicated the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights and the Counselling Services Unit, all members of the Forum, a grouping of 20 human rights organisations, saying they were all complicit in the abductions.

The Forum said its members were performing their constitutional mandates and have been assisting government, especially during the COVID-19 crisis, and wonders how the State has chosen to describe them adversaries of the state.