The Gallup Poll conducted in January 2000 showed that it was the state of the economy that was at the top of people minds in virtually all sectors of the community. It was jobs (the lack thereof) and rising prices that was most worrying the ordinary Zimbabwean. Since then some 4 months have passed and the situation in the economy has deteriorated dramatically and the situation will continue to deteriorate in the next two months while we move towards the elusive elections.
What does this mean for the people and the electoral process itself? Can the country recover from the economic crisis after the elections and how long will it take? At the turn of the century Zimbabwe was faced with a huge budget deficit then estimated at about 12 per cent of GDP). Inflation was running at about 60 per cent and incomes were down a third in a decade. The foreign exchange crisis was just emerging fuel shortages started in November and the power corporation stated it was unable to meet its external debts and feared that this could lead to power shedding. At the root of this situation was excessive government spending and spiraling debt.
It is now accepted in business and financial circles that the budget deficit will reach 20 per cent this year a figure first projected by the MDC some 6 weeks ago. Foreign exchange receipts are down to half of what they were at this time last year and we estimate that GDP declined 10 per cent in the first quarter. One consequence of this sharp downturn, is a fall in formal sector employment and we now estimate that 54 000 jobs were lost in the first quarter of the year mostly in the construction, tourism and industrial sectors. Further job losses are now inevitable in agriculture where the winter crops have not been planted and confidence has collapsed. The extent of likely job losses in this sector alone must be about 150 000 jobs in the second quarter of the year.
The policy of maintaining the Zimbabwe dollar at the artificial value of 38:1 against the US dollar has impacted on key export industries especially where the foreign receipts are converted at the official rate through the banking system controlled by the Reserve Bank. Thus tobacco and gold production has been hardest hit as in both cases the foreign exchange goes through the controlled foreign exchange system. For exporters who pay foreign receipts into foreign currency accounts, they must clear 25 per cent through the controlled system but can either use the remainder themselves or sell it to best advantage. In the parallel market the value of the Zimbabwe dollar has now fallen 40 per cent in the past three months. This benefits some exporters but the benefit is limited by bank controls, margins and the official rate paid on a portion of all receipts.
In the general import system, since importers must buy their foreign exchange from people with FCA accounts, they pay the higher rate and imports are therefore rising in cost despite the controls and this is quietly pushing inflation. To fund its burgeoning deficit, government is borrowing from the domestic market, the Reserve Bank and also printing money. The latter two systems are highly inflationary and we can expect that inflation is going to continue to rise.
With the critical shortage of foreign exchange exacerbated by the cost of the war in the Congo, estimated to cost about US$1,3 million a day, we are finding it more and more difficult to service our external obligations. We are about to default on World Bank loans, we are not paying external pensions and the external debts of the National Oil Company and the Power Corporation is not being serviced. Defaults on oil debts are likely to further exacerbate the current fuel shortages. In the power sector we are living on the edge from day to day.
Stocks of raw materials in the country plus the continued loyalty of external suppliers has kept the private sector going during the first four months of this year. However these reserves are now running out and as shortages strike in various sectors so we will see an accelerating decline in industrial output. As long as the artificial rate on the dollar is maintained, so we will see further declines in mining and mineral sales. The continued violence on farms and in rural areas coupled to the bad publicity this situation is drawing will continue to restrict tourist arrivals. These factors will further reduce foreign earnings fuelling the spiral downwards. Investors on the stock market have now realized how serious the current economic crisis is and the index has declined 40 per cent in 2000.
What does this mean for the electoral process? This is already impossibly impaired by the violence and intimidation and the attacks on the opposition. The huge job losses, the rising pressure on living standards of inflation as well as shortages of essential items, will impact most on the poor. The government must be aware that the longer it takes to get to the election, the greater is the possibility that the economy will toss Zanu PF out of the boat of government into the water without a life jacket.
What does this situation mean for the country after the election? It makes Zimbabwe a very volatile place one in which it would not take a great deal to turn the very real anger of ordinary Zimbabweans into a punitive force aimed at the ruling party. It will put enormous pressures on the incoming administration to find solutions to these critical problems. The country will not be able to wait while we try to unravel the mess we have been left in after Zanu; people will look for results, not rhetoric.
The Delimitation Commission is nearing the end of its task and we are waiting to see what has been going on behind closed doors. There is no transparency in this process and we are very afraid that we will be presented with a flawed outcome. We then have the nomination court, which will take 14 days followed by 21 days of campaigning. So it looks like late June or early July at the earliest for the election a long time for all of us.
We are gearing up for the event by training 24 000 electoral monitors to work with the Electoral Supervisory Commission in overseeing the actual poll. In the latter respect we are very concerned about reports that the government does not intend to use teachers in the conduct of the poll. Instead they are talking about using "more reliable" people who we can only imagine might be the same people who are responsible for the mayhem in the rural areas. This would be totally unacceptable to us and (I hope) the rest of the world.
Eddie Cross
12th May 2000
STATEMENT OF MDC LEGAL COMMITTEE
SUMMARY OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN
ZIMBABWE
SINCE 1 MARCH 2000
Zimbabwe 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 o ganised 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.
PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE
It is also hard to convey
to outside parties how effective verbal threats can be in silencing and
terrifying rural civilians, particularly in Matabeleland, where before the 1985
election, hundreds of prominent ZAPU supporters were picked up at night and have
never been seen again. Merely to threaten to make people disappear, is a
powerful weapon against defenseless people who have personal memories of
witnessing executions and of being tortured by this government in the recent
past. Psychological torture of this nature is widespread and underestimated in
its power to reduce entire populations to silence.
SOURCES
The
accounts of violence have been gathered from multiple sources, and are backed up
by a formal running database of victims which is being updated daily. The
sources include human rights organizations in Bulawayo and Harare, political
parties, the CFU, the Catholic Church, media reports, and victims in rural
areas. Those affected are predominantly those suspected to be MDC supporters.
The exact ratio of MDC and ZANU-PF as victims and\or perpetrators is summarized
at the end of this brief. As the CFU has its own comprehensive system of daily
reporting, incidents on commercial farms are not given much space in this
summary, but are presented as total figures of farms so far occupied and
assaults recorded.
Much of this violence has already been well documented
elsewhere, but this account specifically includes mention of incidents in
Matabeleland which are perhaps less well known. Human rights violations range
from interference with freedom of movement, speech and association, to death
threats, destruction of property, serious assaults and premeditated
murder.
The violations referred to below have been documented by an
independent human rights NGO, Amani Trust.
STATISTICAL OVERVIEW OF
VIOLENCE
TOTAL RECORDED VIOLATIONS: 5 078 (as documented on Amani Trust's
data)
TOTAL ASSAULTS/INJURIES:
Includes with blunt weapons,
gunshot wounds, Burns, attempted stranglings 1012 Rape: 8
TOTAL DEATHS:
Includes beating, shooting, strangling 19 (NB of these 15 were either MDC
members, supporters or sympathizers. Not one ZANU (PF) supporter has been
killed)
TOTAL PROPERTY DESTRUCTION Houses and property destroyed;
417
Other violations include threats of violence and death, interference
with freedom of movement, speech and association, refusal to register voters.
POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS OF VICTIMS: Unknown (farm workers and civilian
casualties) 50,7% (NB most of whom are thought to have been MDC
sympathizers)
MDC clearly known (rally casualties etc) 41,2%
ZANU-PF
clearly known (rally casualties etc) 6,7%
Policemen 1,4%
POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS OF PERPETRATORS:
ZANU-PF supporters (incl. youths
and veterans) 86,3%
Government employees (police, registrars etc) 5,8%
MDC
supporters 4,3%
Unknown (farm workers and civilians) 3,6%
It will be clear
from the above that ZANU (PF) members and supporters are overwhelmingly
responsible for the violence. Whilst the President of the MDC has repeatedly
affirmed the MDC's commitment to non violent
democratic elections, no such
undertaking has been forthcoming from President Mugabe. On the contrary his
statements have initiated, condoned and inflamed the violence. The violence is
clearly State sponsored and targeted at the members of a specific political
party, the MDC, and a specific ethnic minority. Accordingly the political
violence is a crime against humanity and the international community should now
investigate whether President Mugabe and those also involved in directing and
perpetrating the violence should not be indicted for these crimes.
DAVID
COLTART, SECRETARY FOR LEGAL AFFAIRS
MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE
10th May 2000
SUMMARY OF VIOLENT INCIDENTS SINCE THE REFERENDUM RESULT
20
14 FEBRUARY 2000
Please note: farm invasions are not dealt with
here in detail, although verified cases of violence on farms are mentioned in
general terms. The CFU's figures for farm invasions on 3 May 2000, were that
1190 farms have so far been invaded at some point, and that on 4 May 753 were
currently still occupied. In spite of agreements with the war veterans and
government officials that invasions wold halt, they are clearly continuing, as
is the violence. The CFU figures for violent incidents on farms are that there
have been over 100 such incidents, some involving scores, or even hundreds, of
workers. Exact figures are not more accurately available from them.
a..
20 Feb violence, Chiweshe: ZANU-PF youths with iron bars beat MDC supporters,
incited by Governor of Mashonaland Central b.. 22 Feb violence: Kwekwe, clashes
between ZANU-PF and MDC leave 6 injured and 4 houses burnt. c.. 23 February:
police ban political meetings and marches in Kwekwe between the hours of 6 am
and 6 pm. d.. 28 February: first reports of land invasions in Mashonaland. This
is exactly two weeks after the Constitutional Referendum result: white farmers
had been blamed for the "No" vote. e.. 6 March: violence by ZANU-PF supporters
against MDC in Masvingo and Harare, one woman abducted and 4 MDC cabins
destroyed
f.. 11 March: MDC youths stone ZANU-PF offices: youths in Chegutu
prevent people from registering
g.. 12 March: Dep Min leads attack on MDC
members, resulting in one serious injury
h.. 19 March: Gweru and Kwekwe, 10
people injured in clashes between
MDC and ZANU-PF in 3 incidents
i.. 21 March: Magwegwe, Bulawayo: brutal attack on the chairman of MDC for
this suburb: he was beaten and left for dead by his front gate at night. He
later required emergency brain surgery (medical records).
j.. 23 March,
Muchakata: commercial farmer beaten by 8 youths for meeting with MDC
supporters
k.. 28 March, Kwekwe: clash between ZANU-PF and MDC: MDC attack
war vets' office, 16 people injured
l.. 28 March, Bindura: MDC supporter
killed by stone while leaving a rally on a truck.. Trucks used at rally petrol
bombed and destroyed
m.. 29 March: Bubi farming area: the head of the war
veterans, Chenjerai Hunzvi and around 70 of his supporters brought in from
Mashonaland made an intimidatory propaganda visit to a white game rancher,
together with television cameras from the government sponsored media. They
proceeded to bully this man and confiscate his licensed weapons in front of the
cameras. Property was destroyed and stolen. This was clearly a propaganda stunt
- the farmer was accused of supporting MDC. The weapons were all later returned
by the police, after Hunzvi's departure.
n.. 29 March: Bubi farming area;
the above group of war veterans also beat up the black manager of the local
bottle store.
o.. 29 March: youths wearing stolen MDC tee shirts stone the
Globe and Phoenix Mine, causing $1 million damage
p.. 29 March, Mash Central:
MDC support center petrol bombed, trucks burned, vehicle stoned
q.. 29 March,
Kwekwe, MDC burn down building r.. 31 March, Muzarabani: ZANU-PF supporters
destroy bus carrying MDC posters
s.. 1 April, Harare: a peaceful NCA march of
estimated 4000 civilians is attacked by 150 armed war veterans, resulting in at
least 12 serious injuries
t.. 1 April, countrywide: most cities that had planned marches for this day
have marches banned, although an NCA march goes ahead without incident in
Bulawayo
u.. 1 April; bus set on fire in Gweru
v.. 2 - 5 April, Murewa,
Mahusekwa, Marondera, Chuta, Guruve, Glen Norah, Wadzani and Gweru: in all these
areas, MDC supporters are attacked and intimidated
w.. 2 April, Centenary:
MDC supporter shot and killed in scuffle with war vets
x.. 2 April, Mvurwi:
pregnant woman dies after attack on MDC supporters coming from a rally
y.. 3
April: commercial farmer Ian Kay brutally beaten: farm drivers and farm workers
also beaten on same day on other farms
z.. 4 April: Const Chikwenya is killed by war vets, while conducting police
investigations
aa.. 5 April: commercial farmer assaulted
ab.. 7 April,
Daily News crew held hostage for two hours
ac.. 7 April, Gweru: bus set on
fire 20
ad.. 7 April, Harare: MDC supporters kidnap schoolboy and burn two
vehicles. MDC supporter's house is damaged and MDC supporter injured
a.. 9 April: Zvishavane business center: brutal attack on 20 unarmed
MDC
supporters, including women, by 100 war veterans and armed youths. There was no
dialogue - MDC T-shirts were ripped off people's backs and they were beaten with
stones and sticks. One supporter was left for dead, with a head injury and
seriously fractured femur. He required emergency transfer to Bulawayo and had
stitches in front and back of his head and his elbow, in addition to surgery for
his leg. He can personally identify his attackers, but no arrests have been
made.
b.. 9 April: commercial farmer assaulted by farm invaders
c.. 11 - 13
April, Mashonaland: 4 separate reports of assaults of worker on commercial
farms, and two farmers held hostage, and one assaulted by invaders d.. Week of
12 April: civilians living on communal farms near Empandeni Mission,
Matabeleland South, were woken at 2 am and forced by armed war veterans to leave
their homes and stake land claims on two white-owned commercial farms, against
their will. They are being forced to remain on these farms, and told to build
new homesteads there, but they are concerned about their crops at their original
homesteads, as they now cannot harvest them, or protect them from
monkeys.
e.. Week of 12 April; army units wearing red berets were seen in
Bulawayo, and also in Matabeleland North and South: this in intimidatory, as it
reminds people of the murderous 5 Brigade, who wore red berets in the
1980s.
f.. 14- 15 April, Arizona Farm: brutal murder of Dave Stevens, a
member of the MDC and brutal assault and detention of 5 other commercial
farmers, after Stevens' workers attack war veterans
g.. 15 April, Buhera: MDC
workers Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika were killed in a petrol bomb attack
on their vehicle by ZANU-PF supporters. Another man escapes after assaults.
h.. 17 April, Midlands: farm worker found hanged, circumstances
unclear
i.. 20 April, Mashonaland: Stevens' foreman found murdered18
April Shamva: five farms have their workers severely attacked by invaders, and
other farms are also affected. One farm foreman has his foot broken in
Mashonaland, by invaders.
j.. 18 April, Bulawayo: MDC rally broken up by
armed men
k.. 18 April: intimidation of people at Maphisa Business Centre by
Shona speaking ZANU-PF supporters, who forced party card buying. People were
told that if they did not support the government, "Gukurahundi would return", a
reference to the mass murdering that took place in the 1980s. This has continued
since that date.
a.. 18 April: The murder of Martin Olds an MDC sympathizer
on his farm in Nyamandlovu, by 120 armed "war veterans" who were bused in to
Matabeleland from Mashonaland the day before, presumably partly for this
purpose. A convoy of armed war veterans headed out of Bulawayo in organized
fashion in the early hours of Tuesday morning and proceeded to Olds' farm. The
State is complicit in this murder, which was clearly entirely orchestrated by
Government, for the following reasons:
a.. it took a three hour gun battle
before Olds was killed, as he single-handedly kept a hundred armed men at bay
from his house, while repeatedly radioing for help, and an early Police response
would have saved the situation
b.. the Police refused to go to the aid of the
farmer in spite of repeated requests to do so c.. the Police road block turned
back an ambulance trying to reach Olds
d.. the same Police road block allowed through armed war veterans to carry
out the murder
e.. the same Police road block allowed two injured war
veterans to be ferried through for treatment while the shooting was still in
progress
f.. the same Police road block allowed the war veterans to leave the
scene of the shooting and return entirely unhindered to Bulawayo
g.. no
arrests have been made, and two war veterans wounded by Olds in the lengthy
shoot out that led to his death, were treated at a government hospital and
released without questioning
b.. 22 April, Harare: Daily News office has bomb
thrown at it, destroying an art gallery
c.. 22 April, Bindura: farm owner
assaulted by ZANU-PF supporters
d.. 23 April, Wedza: farm worker set alight
by ZANU-PF supporters,
others beaten, barn destroyed
e.. Week of 25 April: eyewitness accounts of the ZANU-PF MP for Gwanda
District conducting his election campaign mainly around the statement that those
who did not vote for him would be murdered and their bodies thrown into the
nearby dam.
f.. 23 April, Harare: 2 white women raped by war veterans 10 km
from Harare
g.. 24 April, Mashonaland; six reports of rapes of farm
labourers' families.
h.. 24 April, Shamva: one MDC supporter killed and
chairman assaulted with an axe, 16 houses of MDC supporters destroyed.
i.. 25
April, Mashonaland: labour forces assaulted on two farms
j.. 25 April, Kariba: Rex Jesus, a war vet, abducts 8 people, brutally
assaults them, resulting in 2 deaths of MDC supporters and three
hospitalizations
k.. 26 April, Mashonaland: reports of Red Brigade style
intimidation, severe beating and indoctrination of farm work forces taking place
regularly at night. Also reports of intimidation of school teachers
l.. Week
of 25 April to the present, Matabeleleland: many first hand accounts given to
AMANI Trust staff of gross intimidation including death threats, threats of
assault, and most ominously threats of disappearance, being repeatedly given at
ZANU-PF rallies, and people feeling coerced into buying ZANU-PF membership
cards. These threats have been widely recorded in Gwanda, Matobo, Tsholotsho and
Lupane Districts so far, and it is rural civilians who are being
targeted.
m.. 28 April, Mashonaland: serious assaults of work forces on 5
farms, 10 hospitalised
n.. 28 April, Mutoko: ZANU-PF supporters burn down 4
MDC houses and beat workers at a quarry
o.. 29 April, Mashonaland: serious
assaults on 5 more farms: in Masvingo, vehicle smashed, two assaulted, worker
missing. Houses of 100 farm labourers destroyed by farm invaders
p.. 1 May,
Manicaland: farm labourer beaten, and in Mashonaland, 3 staff abducted on a
farm
q.. 1 May, Gweru: Shop and business of Timothy Mukahlera, MDC candidate,
are bombed and burnt.
r.. 2 May: confirmed report of two black businessmen
from Maphisa, a small business center in Matobo District, having been illegally
detained and taken to Gwanda. They are known MDC supporters. They were held for
several days and then released.
s.. 2 May: report of an attempted petrol bomb raid on a business in Maphisa,
confirmed by the state media
t.. 2 May, Mashonaland: incidents of violence
reported on 6 farms, resulting in hospitalization of 9 people
u.. 2 May,
Bulawayo: reports of door to door intimidation by ZANU-PF supporters in North
End, who threaten to note down house numbers and send the Youth back to "sort
you out", if people cannot produce ZANU-PF cards
v.. 3 May, Bindura: Matthew
Pfebve brother of MDC candidate is murdered and other relatives severely beaten
and houses burnt, by several hundred ZANU-PF supporters
w.. 3 May,
Mashonaland: 8 assaults on labour forces, 5 death threats to farmers
x.. 3 May, Filabusi: the MDC candidate is very seriously assaulted by ZANU-PF
supporters
y.. 4 May, Bulawayo: war veterans try to force civilians off buses
at Renkini Bus Terminus, to board buses for the airport to welcome Presidents
Mugabe and Mbeki to Bulawayo. Civilians object strongly, violence threatens to
erupt, but the police control the situation
z.. 4 May, Bulawayo: a street
vendor selling herbal products that carry a warning in Ndebele that touching the
product makes the palm of the hand hot, is accused of supporting MDC, on the
grounds that his product mentions the palm of the hand! (Tshisa Isandla). His
wares are confiscated, and when he resists, he is severely beaten on the street,
then taken to nearby ZANU-PF headquarters where he is further beaten. He is
hospitalized at Mpilo.
aa.. 4 May, Harare: MDC candidate has his hammer mill
petrol bombed 5 hours after MDC president addresses a rally there.
ab.. 4
May, Mashonaland: farm labourers assaulted on one farm
ac.. 5 May, Masvingo: game scouts abducted and assaulted. Politically
inspired labour unrest immobilises operations in Hippo Valley, a major cane
growing area.
ad.. 6 May, Harare West: rival factions of land invaders have a
brutal confrontation with each other
ae.. 7 May, Beatrice: Allan Dunn MDC supporter is beaten to death by people
believed to be war veterans
af.. 7 May, Beatrice: assaults on farm labourers
reported on 4 different farms
PLEASE SEND YOUR REPLIES/E-MAILS TO:
SUPPORT@MDC.CO.ZWDear Friends,
³Man has all the wisdom of his forebears put together, and just look at
what a lunkhead he is!²
³A war always proceeds as if humanity had
never hit upon the notion of justice²
"Some sentences release their
poison only after years"
-Elias Canetti 1942
When trying to grasp the core of the crisis here, the one thing you must let
go off for a while, is the land question as this is the mask hiding the most
sinister and cynical manipulation of people here and observers there. Make no
mistake the land issue is very important, economically, spiritually and for our
integrity, if it were not, it would not have been dragged into the government's
arsenal to re-ignite its waning support and so providing it with the umbrella
for the atrocities that abound.
It appears that president Mugabe alone
stands for land reform and anybody who opposes him and his government, is also
opposed to land reform. He waves his fist at them, insults them, and accuses
them of running Zimbabwe down to the ground. Land reform is his monopoly, his
domain, his cliché that snares and exploits any unwary leader, organisation or
periodical who support its fundamentals, as we all do, into a fateful alliance
with a propaganda that endorses a policy of disrespect for law and order.
Where is this enemy that he needs to smash out of existence? This invisible
mass of people lumped together with the British for good measure, to pull at the
anti-colonial heart strings and stir the emotions. Can he name one Zimbabwean by
name, black, white or green for that matter, who is openly opposed to land
reform.
€ Because you think it is short-sighted, destructive and illegal for Œso
called¹ war veterans to invade farms, violently attack the owners and their
families, burn machinery, tractors and barns, uprooting the eco-system, halt the
production of food and valuable foreign currency generating exports, killing and
maiming the work force and evicting them to be paraded and humiliated in
Å’re-education¹ camps, then you oppose land reform??
€ Because you question
what happened to the billions of misappropriated dollars already invested into
land redistribution, then you oppose land reform??
€ Because you want all
the responsible parties to sit around a table and transparently and equitably
try to resolve the impasse on land, then you are opposed to land reform??
€
Because you do not support racism and discrimination of any sort, then you are
opposed to land reform??
€ Because you question our involvement in the DRC
war, which has nothing to do with us and is draining our human and financial
resources, which are so badly needed here, then you are opposed to land reform??
€ Because you want 'free and fair' elections, then you are opposed to land
reform??
Alas this is political football. By encouraging the land invasions and
supporting them at all costs, ignites ignored disaffection on land rights,
ensuring the ball is now firmly at his feet and with it, the right to claim the
moral high ground of the majority, so that he alone, can be seen as the saviour
from that eternal pariah.
Lest we forget whose government lacked the
political will to do anything about this disaffection (except for enriching
themselves) over the last 20 years, always only holding out land as a seductive
carrot to use, come election time. This time, because people are run-down and
tired of unkept promises, the writing is on the wall for them, so they created a
lethal carrot, marinated with bitterness and vengeance, and an unsavoury taste
for those who democratically rejected them at the recent referendum conceived to
consolidate our leader¹s power.
Now, a violent campaign rips through the
country under the guise of Å’land reform¹ where already too many people have been
killed and thousands injured and violated. A more apt term would be Å’human
reform¹. Its authors believe that by terrorizing and intimidating a nation, the
fear will Å’reform¹ their dire need for change, into blind allegiance of their
tormentors. It won¹t work, at least, not forever, that definitive moment they so
dread, will come when meaningful and legitimate reformation will take place.
Tell me what the land has to do with the war veterans/zanu supporters latest
scourge of brutal attacks/rapes of school teachers and their families, sometimes
in front of their students. As I write this, there is fresh news of 16 school
teachers that have been abducted in the Mudzi area. God knows what will become
of them and more importantly who next. Its all out of control as all these
isolated people are so vulnerable, with no one to turn to, as their demise
appears to be rubber stamped by the state. These are the same teachers who
probably educated many of their persecutors and their children, and whose only
crime is that they are perceived as people who can think for themselves and by
that, could influence others to do likewise.
For a moment lets pull back the
veneer of the spin put on Å’land reform¹ and look behind it for some real
understanding of where its all coming from and here we are saved the expense of
reading between the lines:
"We do not want another war. If you want peace you should support me and the ruling party. If you want trouble, then vote for another party¹¹ -Josaya Hungwe -Governor of Masvingo province
³If the opposition win the elections, we will go to war² -Chengerai Hunzwi -Leader of the War Veterans Association
We did not win the power in this country by elections but by armed struggle. And we are also going to win these elections by armed struggle² -Chen Chimutengwende -Minister of Information
³We have degrees in violence² -Robert Mugabe -President of Zimbabwe
Votes, immortality and everlasting power are the reasons to create an anarchy
that today holds democracy hostage.
Land is an issue but don¹t be confused
by the smoke and mirrors when you support a just cause, that is used unjustly to
taint the landscape with blood. It will come back to haunt you.
The
writer/journalist Fergal Keane, recollects the phrase Å’spiritual damage¹ used by
another journalist while covering the Rwandan genocide and stated that if we
ignore evil we become authors of a guilty silence.
What is being allowed to
happen here is in danger of not only destroying any remnants of democratic
freedom we have been painstakingly building, but violates almost every right of
the human family, ultimately eroding our dignity and almost ensures a future of
misery and bankruptcy. Look around us.
You cannot 'reform' people by
bludgeoning them into submission as this will only strengthen their resolve.
Respect, tolerance, truth, accountability, peace and the value of human life are
the weapons of the wise and the true legacy for civilisation.
The University
of violence only leaves us with scars that dehumanize and debase mankind...
-spiritual damage.