CASH SITUATION URGENT – ROHR ZIMBABWE DRAGS GONO TO COURT
On Thursday 25 September 2008, Restoration Of Human Rights Zimbabwe (ROHR Zimbabwe) filed an urgent court application to the high court for an order to scrap, or else review, the prohibitive cash withdrawal limit that was by then pegged at $1000. On the same day The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono pre-emptively increased his withdrawal limits per day to 20,000, a move that we feel was meant to make the case irrelevant. We instructed our lawyers not to withdraw the application, since we felt that the review was not adequate, cosmetic and unilaterally imposed without prior consultation with the people directly affected. Besides, a week has passed since the review and the queues have not disappeared. On the contrary they have increased.
On 3 October, The Herald newspaper under the headline “CASH CASE NOT URGENT”, quote Justice Joseph Musakwa as saying the cash case in which ROHR Zimbabwe members were suing the Central bank Governor and the Finance Minister is not urgent and should join the long civil case queue for it to be heard. In other words we are supposed to join another queue to stop the cash queues!
Gideon Gono through his unilateral adhoc policies is presiding over the continued suffering and deterioration of living standards of hundreds of thousands of people in Zimbabwe. People’s constitutional rights and the Universal declaration of human rights such as the people’s rights to food, freedom of movement, access to health, and right to life are in the process curtailed due to the inaccessibility of their hard earned cash.
The Organisation pooled together four individuals, who we are sponsoring, to represent all Zimbabwean suffering due to cash problems. The individuals are Rodgers Chigwededza, Tinashe Gotora, Jackson Mabota, and Precious Mateyeni and are all members of ROHR Zimbabwe.
Jackson Mabota’s wife is pregnant and he is the only bread winner. His salary is deposited in the bank and is struggling to get his money from the bank so he can sustain his family needs. Mrs Mateyeni has two school going children who have been missing classes because of the cash crisis caused by Gono’s policies.
Fellow Zimbabweans, We believe that these people’s stories are no different from what most of us are going through. Actually the reality is even worse for a majority of Zimbabweans including nurses, police, security guards and students. Over the week, we have seen an increase in the winding cash queues, which to an observer look resemble political rallies. The elderly, children and women are forced sleep at banks, spend more than 8 hours in the blistering sun and then in the biting cold, day and night, for cash they are not guaranteed to get. There is reasonable risk of the spread of diseases and the situation is unpredictable especially now that a cholera epidemic is wrecking havoc. Denying people access to their hard earned cash is unacceptable.
Furthermore, On Friday 3rd of October, the reserve bank governor suspended the RTGS system ‘with immediate until further notice’, a move that is likely to increase demand for cash as parents would have to be forced to use cash to pay school fees, medical bills and many transactions that could be completed by the RTGS system of transferring money. Given the circumstances, we feel it is unfair to inconvenience the majority of the populace by enforcing policies that are meant to deal with a fraction of the so-called elites and dealers who are abusing the system.
ROHR Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans at large cannot afford to let the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor to continue unabated with such dangerous and ill informed “intervention measures” as long as they stand in the way of the people’s rights. We will pursue the matter with whatever means is necessary until we see a change of behaviour on the part of the Reserve bank.
Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe,
P.O box 8719,
Harare
+263 4 744593, 0912426638,
rohrzimbabwe@gmail.com,
www.rohrzimbabwe.com
Our vision is to see a peaceful, just and free nation that is conscious of and respects human rights.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
ROHR Press Statement - 30 July 2008
RESTORATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRESS STATEMENT
ROHR POSITION REGARDING THE POWERSHARING TALKS BETWEEN ZANU PF AND TWO MDCS
19 July 2008
We as ROHR Zimbabwe, dismiss the outcome of the sham one-man election held on June 27 which was marred by State authored violence countrywide, intimidation, murders, abductions, economic plunder, rape and widespread internal displacements. Far from being a reflection of the will of the people, the June 27 sham election was a blue print of the Zanu PF strategy to retain power at all cost even if it meant loss of life.
We therefore reiterate our position that Robert Mugabe is not the legitimate president of Zimbabwe and that he earned his position at the negotiating table through unorthodox and insensitive means.
He used violence to have an edge over his contestant and then called for talks. This scenario is not peculiar to the current case. In the early 80s, Mugabe purged the supporters of PF ZAPU and the Ndebele people in order to cow them into submission. The negotiations that followed were a result of a desperate and worn out opposition in which huge concessions were granted, much to the detriment of the nation and democracy. Suffice to say PF ZAPU was swallowed in the process resulting in a defacto one party state with Robert Mugabe as life president.
In addition to orchestrating a violent war against the innocent and the defenseless citizens’, the Robert Mugabe regime and ZANU PF denied the dying and sick of food and medical relief from NGO’s and removed all of what remained of democratic space necessary for a credible election thus effectively driving the nation and opposition into submission.
In light of Mugabe’s deployment of violence and terror to earn his place at the negotiating table and his known history of deceitfulness; the weakened position of the opposition in which some of its leaders are either missing in hiding, facing spurious charges or still nursing fresh wounds and the exclusionary nature of the talks were civil society and other stake holders are not involved thereby turning the talks into an elitist form;
We believe that the people of Zimbabwe have a right to a legitimate government born out of the exercise of their right to choose in a free and fair environment.
We believe the continued suffering of Zimbabweans be it economically, socially and politically is needless and avoidable and that this calls for a holistic approach to the Zimbabwean question.
We believe that there is an urgent need for an all stakeholders platform to map the way forward for Zimbabweans. The people of Zimbabwe should not be alienated in deciding their destiny.
A civil rights campaign must be launched to empower the people of their rights and obligations as citizens of Zimbabwe.
The civil society and all stakeholders should demonstrate their displeasure with nature, scope and methodology to the current talks. Further we believe in the unfettered right of citizens to resist unjust laws and polices and their right to be heard as sacrosanct.
ROHR will continue to name and shame the perpetrators of violence .We will also continue to maintain a register at local level of violators of human rights to ensure that justice will be done one day.
As an option a transitional authority from all stakeholders including churches , trade unions, students etc should be established to overseer the creation of a new people driven constitution that guarantees respect for the rule of law, end to human rights violations and bring to justice all human rights violators.
Further the transitional authority should create a conducive environment in which free and fair elections can be held.
Zimbabwe belongs to Zimbabweans!!
Friday, July 4, 2008
Mugabe's illegitimacy to worsen human rights situation in Zimbabwe
Mugabe's illegitimacy to worsen human rights situation in Zimbabwe
Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe notes with apprehension the illegitimate declaration of leadership by the "new head of state" and his subsequent attendance of the African Union Heads of State Summit.
The re-emergence of the mastermind behind the continued deteriorating standards of living for the people of Zimbabwe and the orchestrator of political violence after a peaceful plebiscite sounds a death knell on the nation. More blood will be spilt, more freedoms throttled and more Zimbabweans will sink to lower levels of poverty in the bid to realise "100% empowerment and total independence."
Zimbabweans have reached a stage when they feel all out of solutions as elections have ceased to make a difference, the cost of living is on an upward surge every other second and the economy is on a freefall. At this time, when Zimbabwe is between a rock and a hard place, Africa and the rest of the world should realise that a time comes when silence is betrayal. Quiet diplomacy will not feed the millions of starving Zimbabweans who have been disadvantaged of food aid by a government dictated suspension of field operations by non-governmental organisations under the guise that food was being used as a campaign tool by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T). Leaders the world over should embrace the mandates of their conscience, consider the lives of the millions in Zimbabwe who have stopped believing in what has become an unjust system and intervene.
ROHR-Zimbabwe calls for the refusal by the African Union, SADC and the rest of the international community to recognise the outcome of the recent sham and to isolate the winner of the one man race run on June 27. We recommend that Africa come together and impose travel bans on the proclaimed winner of the facade of an election run on 27 June as a means of illegitimating his self imposed authority.
At the heart of ROHR-Zimbabwe is the respect of every person's fundamental rights, which have so been neglected in the last eight years as a raging war has been waged by the government on its own people. Peace justice and freedom must soon be deposited on the shore of every Zimbabwean's life.
As Martin Luther King Junior once said, when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.
Prayer meeting in support of victims of political violence - 22 June 2008
Over 300 people on Sunday 22 June converged at the Grace Ablaze Ministries International church to join Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe in commemorating the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Zimbabwe has suffered an orgy of state sponsored and engineered violence since March 29 in a retributive campaign to cow people into voting for the Robert Mugabe.
Bishop Magaya of Christian Alliance, who gave the main sermon, castigated the continuing politically motivated violence which has has left the country in limbo. He emphasised the need for peace in the country and encouraged the families that have been displaced, the people who have been beaten and the families of those who have died to continue believing God for an end to all their pain and suffering as He is the only one with power over the life and death of men.
Two victims of politically motivated violence gave testimonials of the twist in their lives since after elections. Pastor Mhike, who was a Zimbabwe Election Support Network observer during the harmonised elections in Guruve North, South and Central said that his wife had been abducted on two occasions as he was not at home when the war veterans had arrived. They had to flee the area because the war veterans were threatening to kill the pastor.
Another victim, Mr Mhizha, watched his brother and sister in law get killed by war veterans and was unable to mourn them as the war veterans threatened to kill him if he remained in the area.
According to a statement made by MDC on Sunday 22 June 2007, the violence has seen the death of over 86 MDC supporters, over 200 000 internally displaced, over 20 000 homes destroyed and over 10 000 injured and maimed and the displacement of over 3000 others.
United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is commemorated every year on June 26, as the day the United Nations Convention on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1997. Over 103 countries have so far ratified the convention, but Zimbabwe is not one of them.
ROHR Zimbabwe pledged 30 blankets and groceries for the victims of violence who were present at the event
Tonderai Ndira given hero's burial
DAILY ALERT
Hero’s farewell for Tonderai Ndira
25 May 2008
Hero’s farewell for Tonderai Ndira
25 May 2008
More than 1000 people from across Zimbabwe gathered today at the Warren Hills cemetery to pay their last respects to Tonderai Ndira who was assassinated on the 14th of May. Ndira will ever be remembered for his heroic activism in the struggle for the democratisation and restoration of people’s freedoms in Zimbabwe. The funeral was attended by Morgan Tsvangirai the MDC party president and its top leadership, civic society members, MDC youths, friends and relatives. They all gathered united by Ndira’s death who they gave a hero’s farewell. Tonderai Ndira was killed in the hands of Zanu Pf after he was kidnapped at his home in Mabvuku a fortnight ago. His body was found in Goromonzi, where signs of brutal torture were visible.
MDC president, Morgan Tsvangirai addressing mourners at Tonderai Ndira’s funeral
The untimely death of Tonderai Ndira comes at a time when Zimbabwe is going through the worst politically motivated human rights crisis which has so far claimed more than 60 people, 3000 internally displaced from their homes and hundreds of casualties. Morgan Tsvangirai urged youths not to be used by Zanu PF to engage in violence for money. Tonderai Ndira’s father appealed to the MDC and the mourners present for assistance with the welfare and upkeep of the children who have been untimely robbed of their father and bread winner.
Tonderai Ndira has left behind a wife and two children.
TICHANZII GANDANGA
As a result of his deteriorating condition, ROHR Zimbabwe national coordinator who is also the director of elections in MDC, Mr Tichanzii Gandanga is scheduled to go abroad to receive medical attention. Tichanzii Gandanga was lucky to survive a Zanu PF assassination attempt after he was abducted on 18 April this year by 6 members of the notorious CIO, beaten severely, legs run over by a twin cab truck about 6 times and left for dead in Chihota. We wish him a speedy recovery
MDC president, Morgan Tsvangirai addressing mourners at Tonderai Ndira’s funeral
The untimely death of Tonderai Ndira comes at a time when Zimbabwe is going through the worst politically motivated human rights crisis which has so far claimed more than 60 people, 3000 internally displaced from their homes and hundreds of casualties. Morgan Tsvangirai urged youths not to be used by Zanu PF to engage in violence for money. Tonderai Ndira’s father appealed to the MDC and the mourners present for assistance with the welfare and upkeep of the children who have been untimely robbed of their father and bread winner.
Tonderai Ndira has left behind a wife and two children.
TICHANZII GANDANGA
As a result of his deteriorating condition, ROHR Zimbabwe national coordinator who is also the director of elections in MDC, Mr Tichanzii Gandanga is scheduled to go abroad to receive medical attention. Tichanzii Gandanga was lucky to survive a Zanu PF assassination attempt after he was abducted on 18 April this year by 6 members of the notorious CIO, beaten severely, legs run over by a twin cab truck about 6 times and left for dead in Chihota. We wish him a speedy recovery
ROHR Zimbabwe statement on Africa Day
STATE OF THE NATION ON AFRICA DAY
ZIMBABWE UNDER SEIGE
ZIMBABWE UNDER SEIGE
INTRODUCTION
“As I sit in Qunu and grow as ancient as its hills, I will continue to entertain the hope that there has emerged a cadre of leaders in my own country and region, on my continent and in the world, which will not allow that any should be denied their freedom as we were; that any should be turned into refugees as we were; that any should be condemned to go hungry as we were; that any should be stripped of their human dignity as we were. I will continue to hope that Africa’s Renaissance will strike deep roots and blossom forever, without regard to the changing seasons.” Nelson Mandela addressing United Nations General Assembly in 1998:
Africa Day was first marked on May 25, 1963 with the establishment of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which was transformed into the African Union (AU) in 2002. 25 May is a day when Africa should be celebrating unity, diversity and tolerance. The situation in Africa today is a far cry to the goals set by the African body, which is failing to come up with concrete solutions that effectively end conflict in the Darfur and Somalia among other conflict zones in Africa.
Zimbabweans joins the whole continent in commemorating Africa day although they have nothing much to celebrate about. Africa day comes as a sad reminder of the deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe exacerbated by the political violence unleashed on the citizenry by Zanu Pf after the March 29 election of 2008 as reprisal for voting for the opposition.
BACKGROUND
There is a new dispensation, a paradigm shift in the fight for human rights and civil liberties in Zimbabwe. The dichotomy of the Zimbabwean human rights fighters is premised in the irony that they themselves are now the hunted, the victims of Zanu PF’s terror campaign. Some say the post election violence is symptomatic of the proverbial last kicks of an ailing horse yet the evidence on the ground suggest otherwise. The ceaseless attacks on opposition members and human rights activists is consistent with the warnings Mugabe sent well before the March 29 harmonised elections, that Zanu PF will never be removed through the ballot. The service chiefs also competed against each other in sending sentiments to the same accord and making careless innuendos that they will go back in the bush and start war if any other political party won the elections. Many people dismissed these statements as mere threats. Now that the election is over, the sincerity of the threats is now surfacing. Fully blown evidence of intolerance to defeat is widespread. There are systematic arrests, detentions without hope for trial in the immediate future, heavy torture by police, abductions and daily kidnapping of opposition and human rights activists, and graphic murder by heavily funded Zanu PF operatives.
HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE
Fighting for human rights in the face of a Zanu PF onslaught has always been risky since Zimbabwe got it independence in 1980. Indeed. Since the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change human rights defenders have experienced uncountable incidences of intimidation, assault, abductions and arrests on a certain scale but have remained resolved that whatever it takes, the moral justification of our fight, the good fight for liberty, justice, freedom, good governance, transparency and accountability, supersedes all forms of threats on human life.
Since 1997, Zimbabwe has seen a growth in scale and numbers institutions championing human rights and civil liberties. To name but a few there are Organizations like Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, National Constitutional Assembly, Zimbabwe Lawyers For Human Rights, ZimRights, Human Rights NGO Forum, Zimbabwe Congress for Trade Union, Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), NANGO,YIDEZ among others.
Each institution, either individually or in collective capacity through networking with other organizations, has managed at one point in time to pressure for some changes in their respective field one way or the other. And for sure we have made noise, a lot of it, making sure that our cries and screams, demands and claims, lawsuits and demonstrations, amplify the underlying craving of the Zimbabwean people for real freedom and tangible development of life. The whole essence of the struggle is to put pressure on the incumbent governing authorities to promote good governance and democracy, make efforts to craft policy that bring sustainable development and take steps, even baby steps, towards respecting people’s rights, freedoms and people’s general welfare.
POST ELECTION VIOLENCE AND THE REALITY ON THE GROUND
It is close to two months since people went to vote on 29 March, and for the first time in Zimbabwean history, Robert Mugabe came second after an opposition leader, and Zanu PF lost control of parliament to opposition. Now the nation is bracing for a very painful presidential runoff, at a time when the nation is now flowing in rivers of blood that is being shed by Zanu PF’s well funded network of war veterans, youth militia and state organs such as the army, CIO, state security agents and police.
In the Zanu PF campaign known as ‘Operation Mavhotera papi?’ (Who did you vote for?)’ military bases have mushroomed in every constituency where war veterans, youth militia and the army are terrorising people in the rural areas. To date more than 50 people from opposition MDC have been killed. Thousands have fled from their homes in the rural areas and reports of Internally Displaced People (IDP) are still coming in. Hundreds have broken arms and legs, many rendered crippled for the rest of their lives. There are volumes of graphic pictures showing people who have been assaulted severely by the Zanu PF supporters who are under specific instructions to intimidate people into voting for Robert Mugabe ahead of the July 27 presidential election runoff. The available medical institutions which experienced a flooding influx of casualties are failing to cope with casualties. A report from Zimbabwe Doctors of Human Rights shows that hundreds of patients are being sent home because of capacity constraints.
There is a huge humanitarian crisis looming in Zimbabwe and people are dying. Over 3000 families have been displaced and institutions are failing to contain them. Some churches are sheltering some internally displaced people (IDP) but the scale of the crisis is of a magnitude never imagined that it will take a more holistic consented effort to really help the victims.
THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS – Effects of an Early Winter
Countrywide there are reports that people have fled their homes and are now living in mountains. Most people interviewed in Masvingo have been sleeping in the mountains for more than a month now because their houses have either been burnt or they received credible threats to their lives from Zanu PF supporters. Their homes have been burnt to ashes and the victims have been attacked and chased away.
This year’s winter season is proving to be the worst as the cold is already biting deep early on in May. Winter has come at a time when thousands of people are not living in homes. Most of the victims do not have blankets as they were burnt during the politically motivated attacks.
Churches have been housing people since the beginning of the reprisal against opposition supporters and have been mobilising communities to assist the victims with food, clothes, blankets and other necessities, albeit not enough to abate the humanitarian vacuum created by the chaos. The government has not spared the churches either. Church pastors and reverends in Harare and Bulawayo are being victimised for keeping the victims in ‘Safe houses’.
Although MDC party has had the primary responsibility of providing for the welfare of the people, they do not have enough resources to help the victims. Some civic organisations are chipping in and helping out but still, what can be done by a conglomerate of organisations with limited funding in the face of a national onslaught by the State against the millions of people who voted against it?
ABDUCTIONS AND KILLINGS IN ZANU PF BASES
The presidential election runoff has been set for 27 June 2008. Until then people will have to brace for a very tough and rocky road towards the election. The reports of abductions are coming in daily and the trend so far is proving that once a person is abducted, the chances of them coming back alive are very slim. The past few days speak volumes. On 21 May the nation buried Cain Nyeve and Godfrey Kauzani in Harare, who were abducted and killed in cold blood, their eyes gouged and tongues cut out. Their bodies were dumped in Goromonzi district, Mashonaland East.
On 17 May 2008, MDC buried Better Chokururama who was killed by the same people who abducted and murdered Nyeve and Kauzani in Murewa. On 22 May 2008, Tonderai Ndira was confirmed dead after he was kidnapped at home in full view of his family in Mabvuku. He was found dumped in Goromonzi a week after the abduction, his body already decomposed. His eyes and tongue were also removed during the blue kill. He was buried today (25 May 2008) at a time when African is celebrating Africa Day. On 24 Saturday the senatorial candidate of MDC in Murewa north, Shepherd Jani, who had been kidnapped from his office in Murewa around 1100 hrs on Thursday 22 May 2008, was reported dead, killed by suspected state secret agents. On Friday two men and one female were found dead in Uzumba, Mashonaland East, although their identity is not yet verified.
Reports are still trickling in every single day of the same stories countrywide and it is increasingly becoming difficult to collate and compile the accurate statistics of the casualties since it is an ongoing operation of weeding out any potential threats to Zanu PF rule. Peoples’ houses are currentlty being burnt on a large scale in the rural areas and the numbers of Internally Displaced People (IDP) is increasing daily. All this violence comes at a time when Mugabe, who claims to be a pan African leader, is coming out in the state newspaper saying that violence should stop. He echoed the same rhetoric today during the launch of Zanu PF campaign ahead of the July 27 presidential run-off elections.
ZANU PF STRATEGY OF ELIMINATION AND INTIMIDATION AHEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL RUNOFF
The Zanu PF strategy of winning elections is multi-layered. Firstly it is apparent that displacing opposition supporters or anyone suspected to have voted for MDC from their home areas is aimed at disenfranchising the populace of their right to vote. The logic is simple. To date thousands and thousands of people have fled from their homes because they have either been beaten or had their houses burnt.
The strategy is quite effective in the rural areas because, with the geographical arrangement of rural settlements, people know each other and in most cases their political orientation is known. Since the partial Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced that the Presidential runoff will be ward based, MDC will be robbed of hundreds of thousands of votes of people who fled from their constituencies who will constitutionally not be able to vote in their temporary residence where they are sheltered. Presently there is no evidence that people will find confidence of returning to their homes to vote because of the presence of Military bases in the constituencies.
Secondly MDC might fail to launch an effective campaign in hot areas such as Mash East, Mash West and Central. In areas like Uzumba, Maramba and Pfungwe, Mt Darwin, Mutoko, Mudzi, Murewa etc, there is no illusion that MDC will not succeed in sending people to campaign let alone send in polling agents on the day of elections. They have been informally declared MDC no-go-areas. The intimidation campaign is just beginning.
The abductions and killings are not only aimed at intimidating people, but to cripple and paralyse the system and decision making arsenal of the opposition, destabilising its structures and even weeding out its influential leadership so that no one will stand out to the task of completing the victory pattern that had been gained in the recently held elections.
Zimbabwe has become a dangerous terrain and it is individuals not organisations that are targeted and arrested, detained, abducted and killed. Human rights activists can no longer operate the way they have been doing in the pre -election period. By then the worst possible things that could happen were arrests, detentions or assaults. But now it is a blessing to be arrested by the police, because then people can trace one’s whereabouts. The current abductions being done by the State on MDC members and human rights activists are paralysing the strength of the opposition and intimidating the citizenry and the trend shows that no one is found after being kidnapped.
For the past two weeks, more often than not, the people who have been abducted were either found dead or badly beaten and left for dead. ROHR Zimbabwe national coordinator Tichanzii Gandanga, who is also the provincial director of elections in MDC, is a case in point. He was abducted from his office in Harare and found three days later, having been stripped naked by more than 12 men in the middle of the night at some place in Mash East, beaten heavily in the back by sticks and his legs run over by a 4x4 truck more than six times. Having been left for dead, Tichanzii Gandanga was lucky to be alive and is still struggling with his legs. He’s in hiding and is no longer performing duties effectively. His wife is being tracked by unknown men and has since been put into hiding.
SECURITY CONCERNS FOR OPPOSITION MEMBERS AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
All the remaining Human rights activist and champions of human rights, journalists, politicians alike, are on high alert, because Zimbabwe is now a dangerous terrain and that fact can never be over-emphasised. There comes a time that one has to think about his/her own security and take steps to avert a potential tragedy on oneself because once you are abducted very little can be done to help. People are being fished out from their homes, offices and even while travelling on foot or in cars, and when that happens you will be alone and vulnerable.
Any of this is in the backdrop of enthusiastic teams of Central Intelligence Officials who are heavily funded for the operation. What can institutions, organisations, opposition parties do, nothing. Maybe the least they can do is to increase security for its members, assist them in finding safe houses and any other strategy that can avoid the abductions. Once a member is taken, there is no more organisations can do for their members except to pray and hope that he or she will be found alive. Police is either apathetic to such incidences or actively participating in the operation.
RECOMMENDATIONS
As Africa commemorates Africa day, serious thought should be given towards the plight of Zimbabwean who seem to have been left at the mercy of a marauding leader who is committing human rights crimes under the managed impression that is it is a necessary measure of ensuring that the gains of the revolution are protected.
It is imperative, in the light of the current ongoing onslaught on the opposition and human rights groups, that there be a massive movement that calls for immediate International Intervention.
Africa Union and United Nations must step in decisively and deal with the now defunct rule of Zanu PF which has lost all credibility and legitimacy so that life can be preserved.
We categorically state that Zimbabwe can no longer afford to be held at ransom by the illusion that Thabo Mbeki’s purported SADC mandate to mediate will brew anything meaningful for Zimbabwe when people are dying in numbers.
In the face of overwhelming evidence exposing the Zanu PF terror campaign, the victims languishing in hospitals and people being buried in shallow graves in the rural areas, Mr. Mbeki affords to say ‘there is no crisis in Zimbabwe’ and that Zimbabwe can solve its own problems. The President of MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai was in exile, but SADC was comfortable with the notion and mere hope that Zimbabwean crisis is manageable.
Thabo Mbeki recently admitted that he cannot solve the Zimbabwean problem. It is probably so because South Africa is even failing to restrain its own people to stop the xenophobic attacks on foreigners currently spreading around the country like veld fire claiming more than 50 lives in the process.
Today African Union is faced with historic tests on its effectiveness in dealing with conflict in the Sudanese Darfur, Somalia, DRC, and Eritrea and now Zimbabwe is promising to be an explosive situation that begs for decisive action from the world bodies.
CONCLUSION
Zimbabwe is in an abyss of confusion and probably at its darkest moments since the Gukurahundi massacre of Ndebele people in the mid 80s’. The environment is not conducive for the holding of a free and fair runoff and we call upon an end to the terrorism on citizenry by its own government which has a constitutional mandate to protect them and create a free environment where freedom of speech, expression and association is respected and maintained. People of Zimbabwe should be accorded the right of political association without fear of reprisal for holding differing political opinions. We call for immediate international intervention to stop the killings and elimination of opposition members and human rights activists. The people of Zimbabwe can only hope, and continue hoping that SADC, AU and UN will stop hoping together with us but start acting upon the plight and send various commissions of inquiry to quickly arrest the progression of a crisis in the beleaguered South African country.
Africa Day was first marked on May 25, 1963 with the establishment of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which was transformed into the African Union (AU) in 2002. 25 May is a day when Africa should be celebrating unity, diversity and tolerance. The situation in Africa today is a far cry to the goals set by the African body, which is failing to come up with concrete solutions that effectively end conflict in the Darfur and Somalia among other conflict zones in Africa.
Zimbabweans joins the whole continent in commemorating Africa day although they have nothing much to celebrate about. Africa day comes as a sad reminder of the deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe exacerbated by the political violence unleashed on the citizenry by Zanu Pf after the March 29 election of 2008 as reprisal for voting for the opposition.
BACKGROUND
There is a new dispensation, a paradigm shift in the fight for human rights and civil liberties in Zimbabwe. The dichotomy of the Zimbabwean human rights fighters is premised in the irony that they themselves are now the hunted, the victims of Zanu PF’s terror campaign. Some say the post election violence is symptomatic of the proverbial last kicks of an ailing horse yet the evidence on the ground suggest otherwise. The ceaseless attacks on opposition members and human rights activists is consistent with the warnings Mugabe sent well before the March 29 harmonised elections, that Zanu PF will never be removed through the ballot. The service chiefs also competed against each other in sending sentiments to the same accord and making careless innuendos that they will go back in the bush and start war if any other political party won the elections. Many people dismissed these statements as mere threats. Now that the election is over, the sincerity of the threats is now surfacing. Fully blown evidence of intolerance to defeat is widespread. There are systematic arrests, detentions without hope for trial in the immediate future, heavy torture by police, abductions and daily kidnapping of opposition and human rights activists, and graphic murder by heavily funded Zanu PF operatives.
HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE
Fighting for human rights in the face of a Zanu PF onslaught has always been risky since Zimbabwe got it independence in 1980. Indeed. Since the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change human rights defenders have experienced uncountable incidences of intimidation, assault, abductions and arrests on a certain scale but have remained resolved that whatever it takes, the moral justification of our fight, the good fight for liberty, justice, freedom, good governance, transparency and accountability, supersedes all forms of threats on human life.
Since 1997, Zimbabwe has seen a growth in scale and numbers institutions championing human rights and civil liberties. To name but a few there are Organizations like Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, National Constitutional Assembly, Zimbabwe Lawyers For Human Rights, ZimRights, Human Rights NGO Forum, Zimbabwe Congress for Trade Union, Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), NANGO,YIDEZ among others.
Each institution, either individually or in collective capacity through networking with other organizations, has managed at one point in time to pressure for some changes in their respective field one way or the other. And for sure we have made noise, a lot of it, making sure that our cries and screams, demands and claims, lawsuits and demonstrations, amplify the underlying craving of the Zimbabwean people for real freedom and tangible development of life. The whole essence of the struggle is to put pressure on the incumbent governing authorities to promote good governance and democracy, make efforts to craft policy that bring sustainable development and take steps, even baby steps, towards respecting people’s rights, freedoms and people’s general welfare.
POST ELECTION VIOLENCE AND THE REALITY ON THE GROUND
It is close to two months since people went to vote on 29 March, and for the first time in Zimbabwean history, Robert Mugabe came second after an opposition leader, and Zanu PF lost control of parliament to opposition. Now the nation is bracing for a very painful presidential runoff, at a time when the nation is now flowing in rivers of blood that is being shed by Zanu PF’s well funded network of war veterans, youth militia and state organs such as the army, CIO, state security agents and police.
In the Zanu PF campaign known as ‘Operation Mavhotera papi?’ (Who did you vote for?)’ military bases have mushroomed in every constituency where war veterans, youth militia and the army are terrorising people in the rural areas. To date more than 50 people from opposition MDC have been killed. Thousands have fled from their homes in the rural areas and reports of Internally Displaced People (IDP) are still coming in. Hundreds have broken arms and legs, many rendered crippled for the rest of their lives. There are volumes of graphic pictures showing people who have been assaulted severely by the Zanu PF supporters who are under specific instructions to intimidate people into voting for Robert Mugabe ahead of the July 27 presidential election runoff. The available medical institutions which experienced a flooding influx of casualties are failing to cope with casualties. A report from Zimbabwe Doctors of Human Rights shows that hundreds of patients are being sent home because of capacity constraints.
There is a huge humanitarian crisis looming in Zimbabwe and people are dying. Over 3000 families have been displaced and institutions are failing to contain them. Some churches are sheltering some internally displaced people (IDP) but the scale of the crisis is of a magnitude never imagined that it will take a more holistic consented effort to really help the victims.
THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS – Effects of an Early Winter
Countrywide there are reports that people have fled their homes and are now living in mountains. Most people interviewed in Masvingo have been sleeping in the mountains for more than a month now because their houses have either been burnt or they received credible threats to their lives from Zanu PF supporters. Their homes have been burnt to ashes and the victims have been attacked and chased away.
This year’s winter season is proving to be the worst as the cold is already biting deep early on in May. Winter has come at a time when thousands of people are not living in homes. Most of the victims do not have blankets as they were burnt during the politically motivated attacks.
Churches have been housing people since the beginning of the reprisal against opposition supporters and have been mobilising communities to assist the victims with food, clothes, blankets and other necessities, albeit not enough to abate the humanitarian vacuum created by the chaos. The government has not spared the churches either. Church pastors and reverends in Harare and Bulawayo are being victimised for keeping the victims in ‘Safe houses’.
Although MDC party has had the primary responsibility of providing for the welfare of the people, they do not have enough resources to help the victims. Some civic organisations are chipping in and helping out but still, what can be done by a conglomerate of organisations with limited funding in the face of a national onslaught by the State against the millions of people who voted against it?
ABDUCTIONS AND KILLINGS IN ZANU PF BASES
The presidential election runoff has been set for 27 June 2008. Until then people will have to brace for a very tough and rocky road towards the election. The reports of abductions are coming in daily and the trend so far is proving that once a person is abducted, the chances of them coming back alive are very slim. The past few days speak volumes. On 21 May the nation buried Cain Nyeve and Godfrey Kauzani in Harare, who were abducted and killed in cold blood, their eyes gouged and tongues cut out. Their bodies were dumped in Goromonzi district, Mashonaland East.
On 17 May 2008, MDC buried Better Chokururama who was killed by the same people who abducted and murdered Nyeve and Kauzani in Murewa. On 22 May 2008, Tonderai Ndira was confirmed dead after he was kidnapped at home in full view of his family in Mabvuku. He was found dumped in Goromonzi a week after the abduction, his body already decomposed. His eyes and tongue were also removed during the blue kill. He was buried today (25 May 2008) at a time when African is celebrating Africa Day. On 24 Saturday the senatorial candidate of MDC in Murewa north, Shepherd Jani, who had been kidnapped from his office in Murewa around 1100 hrs on Thursday 22 May 2008, was reported dead, killed by suspected state secret agents. On Friday two men and one female were found dead in Uzumba, Mashonaland East, although their identity is not yet verified.
Reports are still trickling in every single day of the same stories countrywide and it is increasingly becoming difficult to collate and compile the accurate statistics of the casualties since it is an ongoing operation of weeding out any potential threats to Zanu PF rule. Peoples’ houses are currentlty being burnt on a large scale in the rural areas and the numbers of Internally Displaced People (IDP) is increasing daily. All this violence comes at a time when Mugabe, who claims to be a pan African leader, is coming out in the state newspaper saying that violence should stop. He echoed the same rhetoric today during the launch of Zanu PF campaign ahead of the July 27 presidential run-off elections.
ZANU PF STRATEGY OF ELIMINATION AND INTIMIDATION AHEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL RUNOFF
The Zanu PF strategy of winning elections is multi-layered. Firstly it is apparent that displacing opposition supporters or anyone suspected to have voted for MDC from their home areas is aimed at disenfranchising the populace of their right to vote. The logic is simple. To date thousands and thousands of people have fled from their homes because they have either been beaten or had their houses burnt.
The strategy is quite effective in the rural areas because, with the geographical arrangement of rural settlements, people know each other and in most cases their political orientation is known. Since the partial Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced that the Presidential runoff will be ward based, MDC will be robbed of hundreds of thousands of votes of people who fled from their constituencies who will constitutionally not be able to vote in their temporary residence where they are sheltered. Presently there is no evidence that people will find confidence of returning to their homes to vote because of the presence of Military bases in the constituencies.
Secondly MDC might fail to launch an effective campaign in hot areas such as Mash East, Mash West and Central. In areas like Uzumba, Maramba and Pfungwe, Mt Darwin, Mutoko, Mudzi, Murewa etc, there is no illusion that MDC will not succeed in sending people to campaign let alone send in polling agents on the day of elections. They have been informally declared MDC no-go-areas. The intimidation campaign is just beginning.
The abductions and killings are not only aimed at intimidating people, but to cripple and paralyse the system and decision making arsenal of the opposition, destabilising its structures and even weeding out its influential leadership so that no one will stand out to the task of completing the victory pattern that had been gained in the recently held elections.
Zimbabwe has become a dangerous terrain and it is individuals not organisations that are targeted and arrested, detained, abducted and killed. Human rights activists can no longer operate the way they have been doing in the pre -election period. By then the worst possible things that could happen were arrests, detentions or assaults. But now it is a blessing to be arrested by the police, because then people can trace one’s whereabouts. The current abductions being done by the State on MDC members and human rights activists are paralysing the strength of the opposition and intimidating the citizenry and the trend shows that no one is found after being kidnapped.
For the past two weeks, more often than not, the people who have been abducted were either found dead or badly beaten and left for dead. ROHR Zimbabwe national coordinator Tichanzii Gandanga, who is also the provincial director of elections in MDC, is a case in point. He was abducted from his office in Harare and found three days later, having been stripped naked by more than 12 men in the middle of the night at some place in Mash East, beaten heavily in the back by sticks and his legs run over by a 4x4 truck more than six times. Having been left for dead, Tichanzii Gandanga was lucky to be alive and is still struggling with his legs. He’s in hiding and is no longer performing duties effectively. His wife is being tracked by unknown men and has since been put into hiding.
SECURITY CONCERNS FOR OPPOSITION MEMBERS AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
All the remaining Human rights activist and champions of human rights, journalists, politicians alike, are on high alert, because Zimbabwe is now a dangerous terrain and that fact can never be over-emphasised. There comes a time that one has to think about his/her own security and take steps to avert a potential tragedy on oneself because once you are abducted very little can be done to help. People are being fished out from their homes, offices and even while travelling on foot or in cars, and when that happens you will be alone and vulnerable.
Any of this is in the backdrop of enthusiastic teams of Central Intelligence Officials who are heavily funded for the operation. What can institutions, organisations, opposition parties do, nothing. Maybe the least they can do is to increase security for its members, assist them in finding safe houses and any other strategy that can avoid the abductions. Once a member is taken, there is no more organisations can do for their members except to pray and hope that he or she will be found alive. Police is either apathetic to such incidences or actively participating in the operation.
RECOMMENDATIONS
As Africa commemorates Africa day, serious thought should be given towards the plight of Zimbabwean who seem to have been left at the mercy of a marauding leader who is committing human rights crimes under the managed impression that is it is a necessary measure of ensuring that the gains of the revolution are protected.
It is imperative, in the light of the current ongoing onslaught on the opposition and human rights groups, that there be a massive movement that calls for immediate International Intervention.
Africa Union and United Nations must step in decisively and deal with the now defunct rule of Zanu PF which has lost all credibility and legitimacy so that life can be preserved.
We categorically state that Zimbabwe can no longer afford to be held at ransom by the illusion that Thabo Mbeki’s purported SADC mandate to mediate will brew anything meaningful for Zimbabwe when people are dying in numbers.
In the face of overwhelming evidence exposing the Zanu PF terror campaign, the victims languishing in hospitals and people being buried in shallow graves in the rural areas, Mr. Mbeki affords to say ‘there is no crisis in Zimbabwe’ and that Zimbabwe can solve its own problems. The President of MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai was in exile, but SADC was comfortable with the notion and mere hope that Zimbabwean crisis is manageable.
Thabo Mbeki recently admitted that he cannot solve the Zimbabwean problem. It is probably so because South Africa is even failing to restrain its own people to stop the xenophobic attacks on foreigners currently spreading around the country like veld fire claiming more than 50 lives in the process.
Today African Union is faced with historic tests on its effectiveness in dealing with conflict in the Sudanese Darfur, Somalia, DRC, and Eritrea and now Zimbabwe is promising to be an explosive situation that begs for decisive action from the world bodies.
CONCLUSION
Zimbabwe is in an abyss of confusion and probably at its darkest moments since the Gukurahundi massacre of Ndebele people in the mid 80s’. The environment is not conducive for the holding of a free and fair runoff and we call upon an end to the terrorism on citizenry by its own government which has a constitutional mandate to protect them and create a free environment where freedom of speech, expression and association is respected and maintained. People of Zimbabwe should be accorded the right of political association without fear of reprisal for holding differing political opinions. We call for immediate international intervention to stop the killings and elimination of opposition members and human rights activists. The people of Zimbabwe can only hope, and continue hoping that SADC, AU and UN will stop hoping together with us but start acting upon the plight and send various commissions of inquiry to quickly arrest the progression of a crisis in the beleaguered South African country.
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