The Press
January 24 2007

The worst betrayal
Editorial

Charlene Makaza's short life was not always easy and her death was a shocking one. The 10-year-old was taken to hospital from her Christchurch home with breathing difficulties on January 6. Police inquiries have concluded that she died of suffocation and that she suffered a violent sexual assault shortly before the fatal injuries were inflicted.

With a homicide inquiry in full swing, the police are unsurprisingly saying little about where their investigation is headed. Inevitably, a level of speculation has developed, and while the entire community will be wondering what could have been the reason for such a heinous crime against a child, the fallout from Charlene's killing should give cause for wider reflection.

In time, the full story will come out and, as with any child's killing, it will no doubt be an appalling one. But meanwhile, a few aspects of Charlene's life are known which deserve the community's acknowledgment. She was brought to Christchurch with her sister after their parents were killed in Zimbabwe, to be raised by relatives. Some of those who knew her maintain that she was happy in her life here, but there have been comments that she suffered taunts about her skin colour, her voice and her foreignness -- a symptom of the ignorant attitudes which continue to thrive in pockets around Christchurch and put the lie to noble talk of a city which embraces diversity.

Her death will be particularly difficult for Christchurch's small Zimbabwean community, which has found itself thrust into a high-profile and deeply disturbing tragedy centring on one of its own. Of the increasing range of migrant groups now established in the city, this is one which carries more burdens than most. Not least is that their homeland is being systematically torn to pieces by President Robert Mugabe's regime, a situation which has led New Zealand to accept many hundreds of Zimbabwean migrants under special humanitarian provisions.

While they enjoy sympathy from the community over their country's plight, they are also vulnerable to prejudice -- not just that faced by black Africans newly resident in a white and occasionally ignorant community, but also that relating to the spectre of HIV-Aids.

The disease is as prevalent in Zimbabwe as anywhere, and immigration authorities have failed to test many of the migrants from there for it, forcing the Government to try to track down those people with assurances they will not be penalised for the failure to be tested earlier. The difficulties the authorities have had reflect the strong stigma which still surrounds the disease.

Aids has now emerged in the rumour-mongering about Charlene's death, adding another disturbing element to that tragedy. A variety of conflicting stories is doing the rounds, some of which seem to have no more basis than that the victim was a black African child. Such speculation may be inevitable, but letting it take root in a city with next to no collective understanding of African culture will serve no good.

For now, it is impossible to say whether Charlene could have been protected from whoever caused her death. But one thing is clear: that in this community where she was brought for a better, safer life, she suffered the worst imaginable betrayal.