| The Unleashing of Violence: A report on violence in Zimbabwe as at May 15, 2000 |
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Contents Political violence « » Section B Political violence Editorial comment on whether elections can be free and fair In an editorial on 4 May 2000 entitled "No free and fair poll under terror" the Editor of The Financial Gazette had this to say: Weeks before crucial general elections, terror stalks Zimbabwe's rural areas, farms and urban high-density suburbs, making it impossible to hold free and fair polls. If the widening and escalating intimidation of voters by rampaging gangs of ZANU (PF) is not stopped, then the elections must be postponed. And yet so much in Zimbabwe now depends on the staging of these elections, which many see as the only solution to the country's rapid descent into anarchy. Most foreign and local investors are holding onto their money while others have voted with their feet; key international donors have withdrawn their support and the government itself is postponing several critical decisions such as the local dollar's devaluation until after the elections. In other words, until the elections are held and are seen to be free and fair, Zimbabwe's agony will persist, if not worsen. The police service, funded by the public to maintain law and order, has abdicated its duty and aligned itself with the rampaging mobs, leaving Zimbabweans at the mercy of God and nature. In these circumstances, Zimbabwe's neighbours and the international community must not stand aloof as the country burns because the fallout, especially on countries such as South Africa, will be felt far and wide economically and socially. Zimbabwe's neighbours must stand firm against lawlessness — as indeed all right-thinking Zimbabweans — and make clear that state-sponsored anarchy cannot be tolerated. They must take a leading role in ending the chaos and creating conditions under which a free and fair plebiscite could be held, and not just send election observers to monitor what would be a gigantic fraud. After all, it is also in the interests of these countries that Zimbabwe remains peaceful, stable and prosperous and not a new flashpoint of so much bloodletting that has blighted most of post-independent Africa. The revelation this week by South African President Thabo Mbeki that he and other regional leaders had leaned on Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe at their summit in Victoria Falls to end lawlessness is encouraging, but much more needs to be done and NOW. We hope that Mbeki, who returns to Zimbabwe this week to open the International Trade Fair, will not tire in his efforts but seek bold and effective ways of pressuring a rogue regime to face possible electoral defeat without plunging the entire country and southern Africa into a needless conflict. There is no justification whatsoever for any leader anywhere in the world to virtually suspend law and order so as to win an election by hook or crook. All political parties must be allowed to campaign anywhere in the country without any hindrance, leaving only the Zimbabweans to be the final arbiters of who governs them. No government can ever hope to remain in power through the use of brute force to cow its people. If the people have had enough of corruption and misrule and want change, they should be allowed to bring about that change peacefully through the ballot box or there will be Armageddon. This is the stark choice for Zimbabwe today. It would be foolhardy for this or any future government in Zimbabwe to think that the winds of change can be stopped by the force of arms. TOPThis report was carried in The Independent State sponsored violence against the opposition was stepped up this week. President Robert Mugabe’s militias are on a warpath and the death toll is spiralling as the election war escalates. Nineteen people have been killed so far, all of them opposition supporters. The Zimbabwe Independent established this week that Zanu PF was setting up militias in communal and commercial farming areas to be used to hunt down opponents. This was being done under the guise of a mass political re-education exercise which started off in Mashonaland Central. A militia is being established for each cluster of 10 villages tasked with weeding out opposition supporters, especially rural schoolteachers who have become the latest victims of the political cleansing exercise. At some business centres, unfamiliar persons have been accosted by the militias who are quick to deal with strangers. Statement from MDC Legal Committee on political violence since 1 March 2000 TOPZimbabwe is in the lead up to a general election, and levels of violence and intimidation at the hands of the Government and their supporters continue to rise. It is clear that the necessary conditions for any election in 2000 to be considered free and fair already do not exist. The major challenge at this stage is to try and salvage what courage and resilience still remains among ordinary Zimbabweans, so that they have at least some space in which to cast their votes without fear, regardless of which party they choose to support. What is happening is not chaos; it is carefully orchestrated: it is State organised violence. The violence has little to do with land, legitimate issue though this is - the violence is about the destruction of the first real threat to ZANU-PF in 20 years, the MDC. The violence must be put in the context of President Mugabe’s threat made, at the opening of the Pungwe Water Project several weeks ago that opponents would face death and that white farmers were "enemies of the State". The violence is a direct result of these statements. There is a clear strategy behind these events, which has seen the Government shifting its targets over time, from peaceful occupations of farms, to violence on farms, first against the farmers themselves, then against their workers. The strategy then shifted to encompass civilians in rural areas, rural business centers, rural-based black businessmen and their enterprises, MDC candidates and their communities, and now to large rural industries. The violence is designed to look like the spontaneous uprisings of land or resource-hungry peasants, but is in fact reported as being overseen by a Third Force of hard line army, police and CIO staff, headed by and answerable to President Mugabe. The following summary of violent incidents is far from exhaustive, and includes only those incidents that have been well documented and reliably sourced. The reality is that daily brutal intimidation is taking place throughout the country including in remote rural areas, and most of the possibly thousands of victims do not have access to human rights organizations or other safe parties to whom they can make reports and seek assistance. At other times, reports reaching the cities lack sufficient detail to qualify as reliable, and exact numbers of victims of beatings and type of injuries sustained cannot be verified. Such reports are not included here in quantifications. TOP |