Human Rights Monitor No

The Human Rights Monitor celebrates its second birthday in January 2002. This month (December 2001) we summarise the year’s information on human rights violations, including reports which came in after our monthly cut-off deadlines. But even these figures are not final.

We hope readers will not be put off by all the figures! We think it important that all Zimbabweans get ‘the big picture’ as well as information from their own areas. As usual, we start with an overall comparison of ‘ordinary’ and ‘political’ violations of human rights.

As Table 1 shows, for each report of human rights violations, there are on average nearly 13 victims. Sometimes these are different violations to one person, who may, for example, have been kidnapped, assaulted, and tortured to death. In other cases, hundreds if not thousands of people are violated in the same way in the same incident. To give some of the most common examples, all workers have been displaced from some occupied farms. All enrolled children were affected when their schools were closed by ‘war veterans’ accusing their teachers of supporting opposition parties, or when their teachers refused to return after school holidays because they had been threatened with death if they did. Dozens of prison officers were suspended for allegedly supporting the political opposition. Nearly two dozen Chinhoyi farmers were imprisoned. Urban voters have been assaulted en masse by the army and/or police.

Table 1. Human rights violations during 2001 in Zimbabwe, including those resulting from political violence.

Type of Violation Ordinary: Ordinary: Political: Political: Total

reported unreported reported unreported

Total reports 368 18 605 151 1142

Total victims >8505 23 >6029 213 >14770

unlawful killings: total 72 2 49 2 125

(by state officers) (16) (2) (3) 0 (21)

attempted killings 9 0 22 0 31

unlawful detention >312 2 >397 24 >735

(by state) (302) (2) (>229) (22) (>555)

(by Zanu-PF/ZNLWVA) (>6) 0 (164) (2) (>172)

(by others) (4) 0 (4) 0 (8)

assault by state officers >170 16 >610 22 >818

by Zanu-PF/ZNLWVA >25 0 >1070 60 >1155

by MDC 0 0 >82 0 >82

disappearance/kidnap 23 0 >420 21 >464

firearms offences: total 115 0 36 0 151

(by state officers) (23) 0 (6) 0 (29)

(by others) (92) 0 (30) 0 (122)

death threats 22 1 210 10 243

death penalty 11 0 0 0 11

political intimidation >3 0 32 26 >61

torture 4 2 181 33 220

child abuse 15 0 2 0 17

child sex abuse / rape 14 0 0 14

political discrimination >4542 0 41 4 >4587

property-related >3168 0 >2877 11 >6056

> means more than

As Table 1 shows, the picture is not a pretty one, with over 14 770 victims of human rights abuses. We note that these are absolutely minimal numbers. We are extremely conservative in our counting. Where a report refers to unspecified numbers of victims, we include only one extra.

We deplore the 125 deaths, and offer our condolences to all the families affected by the loss of loved ones and breadwinners. Zimbabweans should not kill one another at the rate of one every three days simply because they disagree, politically or in any other way.

There were regrettably also 31 attempted murders, 243 death threats and 220 reported cases of torture. On average during 2001, every four days five people were kidnapped, usually to be assaulted or even tortured. We regard this behaviour as completely unacceptable. Those responsible for the killings, kidnappings and torture should be brought to account for their actions. Zimbabweans do not wish to live in a society where these violations are routine, everyday happenings, as they are now.

Moreover, our police, army and other State officers must stop unlawfully locking up and/or assaulting an average of more than four of us every day. And we note that Zanu-PF and/or ‘war veterans’ were reported to have assaulted 14 people for every one beaten up by MDC supporters.

Although directly ‘political’ cases accounted for only 40,8% of the total victims in Table 1, we now see the ‘knock-on’ effects of our collapsed rule of law. Huge numbers of property violations were no longer necessarily associated with political violence but accounted for 41% of all victims.

Table 2 shows the pattern of ‘political’ violations by province and district. For each province we have included a month-by-month analysis of ‘political’ violations of human rights. Readers may then compare what happened in their own provinces with what happened elsewhere. In only seven districts was no violence reported. So Binga, Chirumanzu, Chivi, Gutu, Mutasa, Nyanga and Umzingwane have been omitted from table 2B.

Table 2. Political violations of human rights by province and district, 2001

2A Provincial distribution

2B Distribution by district

Province	District	Rep’d	Unrep’d	Total
na	unknown	3	0	3
Manicaland	Buhera	5	1	6
Manicaland	Chimanimani	4	0	4
Manicaland	Chipinge	2	0	2
Manicaland	Makoni	20	2	22
Manicaland	Mutare	4	0	4
Mashonaland Central	Bindura	64	18	82
Mashonaland Central	Centenary	19	4	23
Mashonaland Central	Guruve	11	6	17
Mashonaland Central	Mazowe	9	2	11
Mashonaland Central	Mount Darwin	14	12	26
Mashonaland Central	Rushinga	0	2	2
Mashonaland Central	Shamva	17	7	24
Mashonaland West	Chegutu	18	0	18
Mashonaland West	Hurungwe	12	14	26
Mashonaland West	Kadoma	7	1	8
Mashonaland West	Kariba	2	0	2
Mashonaland West	Makonde	11	0	11
Mashonaland West	Zvimba	19	1	20
Mashonaland East	Chikomba	11	9	20
Mashonaland East	Goromonzi	11	0	11
Mashonaland East	Hwedza	8	2	10
Mashonaland East	Marondera	23	0	23
Mashonaland East	Mudzi	2	0	2
Mashonaland East	Murehwa	11	0	11
Mashonaland East	Mutoko	2	4	6
Mashonaland East	Seke	3	0	3
Mashonaland East	UMP	0	1	1
Masvingo	Bikita	23	22	45
Masvingo	Chiredzi	9	3	12
Masvingo	Masvingo	22	0	22
Masvingo	Mwenezi	7	0	7
Masvingo	Zaka	7	0	7
Matabeleland North	Bubi	1	0	1
Matabeleland North	Hwange	3	0	3
Matabeleland North	Lupane	3	0	3
Matabeleland North	Nkayi	8	0	8
Matabeleland North	Tsholotsho	2	0	2
Matabeleland North	Umguza	20	0	21
Matabeleland South	Beitbridge	2	0	2
Matabeleland South	Bulilima-Mangwe	1	0	2
Matabeleland South	Gwanda	1	0	2
Matabeleland South	Insiza	1	0	2
Matabeleland South	Matobo	2	0	2
Midlands	Gokwe North	10	6	16
Midlands	Gokwe South	16	6	22
Midlands	Gweru	2	0	2
Midlands	Kwekwe	10	1	11
Midlands	Mberengwa	6	1	7
Midlands	Shurugwi	2	0	2
Midlands	Zvishavane	0	1	1

Tables 3 A-G cover only the constituencies where by-elections or municipal elections were held. They show clearly the close relationship between political violations and our electoral process.

A summary of 2001

3A Bikita West constituency, Masvingo Province (January 2001)

3B Bindura constituency, Mashonaland Central Province (July 2001)

3C Makoni West constituency, Manicaland Province (August 2001)

3D Chikomba constituency, Mashonaland East Province (Sept 2001)

3E Masvingo mayoral election (May 2001)

3F Bulawayo mayoral election (September 2001)