100 THINGS// Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe 100 Things about Zimbabwean Human Rights

1) Since 1980 Mugabe has been in total control of Zimbabwe, the government, the people and the countries natural resources. During this period thousands of people have been killed, and hundreds of thousands beaten, tortured and traumatised by his regime. This level of control is achieved by obtaining large amounts of money; in the past this came from metal mining and other basic industries like farming. Most recently the discovery of diamond deposits in the Marange fields has allowed huge amounts of money to be embezzled into the corrupt regime. Zimbabwe is now the 6^th largest producer of Diamonds with its own industry worth billions already, despite the primitive mining methods used. The industry is now essentially supporting the regime, despite this international community agrees that the diamonds are ‘conflict free’ due to Zimbabwe passing the Kimberley Process, a deeply flawed regulatory body crippled by corruption and counterfeit. Today the biggest diamond mine in the world is the Marange mine in Zimbabwe, the government massacred hundreds of people to evict them from the land before setting up torture camps, enslaving the local populous and forcing them to mine diamonds, many of which can legally enter the market and be sold in jewellery shops around the world. The following research basically serves as an overview of Mugabe’s practice and how the diamonds coming from this country can easily be classified as ‘Blood Diamonds’.

2) There are widespread reports of systematic and escalating violations of human rights in Zimbabwe under the Mugabe administration and his party, ZANU-PF.

3) According to human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch the government of Zimbabwe violates the rights to shelter, food, freedom of movement and residence, freedom of assembly and the protection of the law.

4) There are assaults on the media, the political opposition, civil society activists, and human rights defenders.

5) From 2001 to September 2006 the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has recorded over 1200 cases of human rights violations by the law enforcement agencies, including
-363 cases of torture,
-516 cases of assault,
-58 cases of death threats,
-399 cases of unlawful arrest
-451 cases of unlawful detention.
Many of these incidents include multiple victims. The organization finds that the law enforcement agencies are encouraged to perpetrate abuses by statements made by high-ranking members of the ruling party ZANU-PF.

6) The situation in Zimbabwe is continuing to deteriorate as public protest against Mugabe and the ZANU-PF increases. Recent government price fixing on all local consumer goods has led to major shortages of basic necessities

7) One notable case was the arrest and subsequent beatings of a group of trade union activists, including the president and secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, at Matapi police station, following peaceful protests on September 13, 2006. The unionists were initially denied medical and juridical assistance.

8) In 1999 Robert Mugabe condemned judges at Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court who asked him to comment on the illegal arrest and torture, by state security services, of two journalists, Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto.

9) In 1999, three Americans - John Dixon, Gary Blanchard and Joseph Pettijohn - claimed to have been tortured after their arrest. The trial judge accepted their evidence of torture and gave them lenient sentences after their conviction for weapons offences.

10) Gukurahundi is a traditional Shona word, which means 'the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains.' It is the word chosen by the Mugabe regime to describe a military operation against a civilian population during the 1980s.

11) In 1980, a few short months after Independence Day, Robert Mugabe signed an agreement with the North Korean President Kim Il Sung to have the North Korean military train a brigade for the Zimbabwean army.

12) The objective of the 5th Brigade was to crush the people of Matabeleland

13) Methods were used to address "reorientation", "change", "unfounded grievances" - methods designed to teach a community to "accept defeat" - included civilian murders, civilian rapes, civilian torture and the destruction of civilian property.

14) “Within the space of six weeks more than 2000 civilians had died, hundreds of homesteads had been burnt and thousands of civilians had been beaten. Most of the dead were killed in public executions involving between one and 12 people at a time." –Witness

15) "The solution is a military one. Their grievances are unfounded. The verdict of the voters was cast in 1980. They should have accepted defeat then ... The situation in Matabeleland is one that requires a change. The people must be reoriented." –Mugabe

16) "We eradicate them. We don't differentiate when we fight because we can't tell who is a dissident and who is not." –Mugabe

17) Opposition gatherings are frequently the subject of brutal attacks by the police force, such as the crackdown on a March 11, 2007 Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally. In the events, party leader Morgan Tsvangirai and 49 other opposition activists were arrested and severely beaten by the police.

18) Edward Chikombo, a journalist who sent images of beatings to foreign media, was abducted and murdered a few days later.

19) After his release, Morgan Tsvangirai was found to have suffered horrendous abuse.  

20) The police action was strongly condemned by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, the European Union and the United States.

21) While noting that the activists had suffered injuries, but not mentioning the cause of them, the Zimbabwean government-controlled daily newspaper The Herald claimed the police had intervened after demonstrators "ran amok looting shops, destroying property, mugging civilians, and assaulting police officers and innocent members of the public". The newspaper also argued that the opposition had been "wilfully violating the ban on political rallies".

22) http://www.sokwanele.com/ -Great database of facts and figures about human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

23) There are currently nineteen members of the Zimbabwe Human rights NGO forum:
-Amnesty International (Zimbabwe)
-Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (Zimbabwe)
-Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe
-Justice for Children Trust
-Legal Resources Foundation
-Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe
-Media Institute of Southern Africa
-Nonviolent Action and Strategies for Social Change
-Research and Advocacy Unit
-Students Solidarity Trust
-Transparency International (Zimbabwe)
-Women of Zimbabwe Arise
-Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender
-Zimbabwe Association for Doctors for Human Rights
-Zimbabwe Human Rights Association
-Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
-Zimbabwe Peace Project
-Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association
- Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust

24) The Research and Documentation Unit publishes special reports on organised violence and torture and human rights violations. The Transitional Justice Unit has published two reports on Zimbabwe’s current transition from an authoritarian order to a democratic one. The Public interest Unit has over 700 active cases before the High Court for compensation and 5 cases before the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe.

25) The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum also known as “The Forum” is a Non Governmental Organisation based in Zimbabwe with an International Liaison Office in London, England.

26) The National Youth Service is a programme of the Zimbabwean government for Zimbabweans of ages 10 to 30

27) The opposing view, both inside Zimbabwe and abroad, holds that the service indoctrinates its members with absolute loyalty to ZANU-PF and trains them for military operations to enforce its dominance.

28) The speeches given to NYS glorify Mugabe's land reform programme and ZANU-PF heroes Border Gezi and Chenjerai Hunzvi. They accuse the Movement for Democratic Change of seeking a return to white rule.

29) Recruits at Zimbabwe's notorious youth camps live in substandard barracks, get very little food and may be at risk of sexual abuse

30) Trainees at the National Youth Service camps set up in 2001 supposedly to instil patriotism in young Zimbabweans frequently go to bed hungry and are fed a monotonous diet of sadza (corn paste) and beans or cabbage for lunch, according to a parliamentary report.

31) Critics of National Youth Service camps,  are alleging that trainees are brainwashed into beating up opposition supporters.

32) At Kaguvi Vocational Training Centre, MPs heard how one youth had his arms broken in a scuffle with army personnel over delays in the provision of meals.

33) There were worrying reports that some female recruits to the National Youth Service had been sexually abused by male instructors and trainees, said the Financial Gazette.

34) "They started beating us. They suspended us in the air and whipped our backs and our backsides. They beat the soles of our feet. They were organised, very systematic.” –Testament about NYS beatings carried out on public.
- When they reported the incident to the police, they were arrested. No action has been taken against their attackers.

35) The recent rise in violence has been blamed on a local by-election planned for March 29 and 30. Scores of youth militia were brought into Kuwadzana and quickly established an unofficial curfew to stop residents congregating at night.

36) "They beat up anybody found out on the streets or in beer halls after 6pm," Account of NYS lead abuse.

37) "They teach political orientation and history of the liberation struggle," a young man who went to one camp said. "They do teach some skills, like carpentry, but we did lots of military training and physical exercise. We learned songs. In military training we learned methods to interrogate and beat people." Testimony from NYS soldier.

38) He has said that he established the youth league three years ago as a kind of poor boys' Peace Corps, enlisting his country's sizable 18-and-under population for desperately needed community service projects.

'39) 'For me it got too bad,'' he added. ''There was too much beating -- old people, young people, our own aunts and uncles. I had to run away.''

40) Bakare’s spokesman claimed that the disturbances took place in the presence of the police who did not do anything to stop Kanonga’s thugs from assaulting members of the congregation. This occurred when NYS soldiers started beating populous.

41) John Luscious, 22, said he recalled setting fire to the homes of those who opposed the president. He said he ransacked white-owned farms, beat white farmers and stood by laughing as his superiors raped women.

42) The Marange diamond fields are an area of widespread small-scale diamond production in Chiadzwa, Mutare West, Zimbabwe.

43) A mineral rush began in September 2006, but accelerated following the government take-over. By mid-December 2006, around 10,000 illegal artisanal miners were working very small plots at Marange, and an immediate water, sanitation and housing crisis developed.

44) In a scarcely credible article this week, the Herald accused the political attaché at the British embassy in Harare of financing the opposition and warned that she risked "going home in a body-bag". 2007.

45) Although the official plan was for the government to mine at Marange, in practice mining has been carried out to the benefit of senior government and Zanu-PF officials and those close to them, with little income returned to the government.

46) By late 2008, mining was being carried out by soldiers, using local villagers for forced labour. The soldiers occasionally pay the villagers with diamonds and surrender much of the produce to their senior officers.

47) in November 2008 the Air Force of Zimbabwe was sent, after some police officers began refusing orders to shoot the illegal miners. Up to 150 of the estimated 30,000 illegal miners were shot from helicopter gunships.

48) The main torture camp uncovered by the programme is known locally as "Diamond Base". Witnesses said it is a remote collection of military tents, with an outdoor razor wire enclosure where the prisoners are kept.

49) The company that runs the mine is headed by a personal friend of President Mugabe.

50) He and other former captives said men are held in the camp for several days at a time, before new prisoners come in. Women are released more quickly, often after being raped, witnesses said.

51) Even if someone dies there, the soldiers do not disclose, because they do not want it known," an officer in Zimbabwe's military told the BBC.

52) In Marange, the police and military recruit civilians to illegally dig for diamonds for them. Those workers are taken to the camps for punishment if they demand too large a share of the profits.

53) "They would handcuff the prisoner, they would unleash the dogs so that he can bite," he said. "There was a lot of screaming”. Account of use of dogs for mauling prisoners in marange diamond mines.

54) He said one woman was bitten on the breast by the dogs whilst he was working in the camp. “I do not think she survived," he said.

55) "Nothing has changed between 2008 and 2010... a lot of people are still being beaten or bitten by dogs." First hand witness account.

56) In July 2010 the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme broke down under intense pressure from the African Diamond Council and finally agreed that diamonds from Marange could be sold on the international market after a report from the Scheme's monitor a month earlier described diamonds mined from the fields as conflict-free.

57) On August 11, buyers flew into the country's capital, Harare, from all over the world, including Israel, India, Lebanon and Russia to capitalise on the sale of over US$1.5 billion worth of diamonds.

58) “A very influential member of the Kimberley Process has cast a vote of no confidence in the Kimberley Process, which will affect the way the whole world views the Kimberley Process going forward.” Speaking about Global Witness Leaving KP.

59) In Zimbabwe the freedom of assembly is severely restricted by law.

60) the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Miscellaneous Offences Act (MOA) are used to violently disrupt peaceful demonstrations and justify the arrest of civil society activists.

61) An amendment enacted in 2005 introduced prison sentences of up to two years for journalists working without accreditation.

62) The state controls all broadcast media as well as major dailies such as The Chronicle and The Herald. The coverage is dominated by favorable portrayals of Robert Mugabe and the ZANU-PF party and attacks on government critics.

63) According to Freedom House, the government also monitors e-mail content.

64) Candidates and supporters of the opposition party, MDC, have been restricted from campaigning openly in some areas, and have faced harassment, violence and intimidation.

65) In one incident, police took no action when a ZANU-PF candidate threatened to shoot MDC polling agents.

66) In May 2005 the government embarked on Operation Murambatsvina, a program of mass forced evictions and demolition of homes and informal businesses in poor urban areas.

67) Examining the result of the operation, Anna Tibaijuka, the UN Special Envoy on Human Settlement Issues in Zimbabwe, reported that some 700 000 people had lost their homes

68) A further 2.4 million people had been affected in varying degrees

69) Women are disadvantaged in Zimbabwe, with economic dependency and social norms preventing them from combating sex discrimination.

70) Customs such as forced marriage are still in place.

71) While labor legislation prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace, such harassment is common and generally not prosecuted.

72) While the law recognizes women’s right to property, inheritance and divorce, many women lack awareness of their rights.

73) President Mugabe has criticized homosexuals, attributing Africa's ills to them.

74) In some cases it also criminalizes the display of affection between men.

75) The government of Zimbabwe has generally responded to accusations of human rights violations from Western countries by counter-accusals of colonial attitudes and hypocrisy, claiming that countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States are guilty of similar or worse transgressions, for example in the Iraq War.

76) 

 

87) Zimbabwean diamonds are not considered conflict diamonds by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.

88) In the past, the chaotic production at Marange and smuggling resulted in monitoring by the World Diamond Council. In July 2010, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme agreed that diamonds from the country's disputed Marange Diamond Fields could be sold on the international market, after a report from the Scheme's monitor a month earlier described diamonds mined from the fields as conflict-free.

89) The National Youth Service carries out the majority of beatings and tortures.

90) Mugabe was elected into power in 1980. He served as Prime Minister from 1980 to 1987, and as the first executive head of state since 1987.

91) At the end of the war in 1979, Mugabe emerged as a hero in the minds of many Africans.

92) A number of people have accused Mugabe of having a racist attitude towards white people.

93) When the United Kingdom once condemned Mugabe's authoritarian policies and alleged racist attitudes as being comparable to those of German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Mugabe responded with an extremely controversial remark, mocking the UK's claims by saying about himself and his policies that "I am still the Hitler of the time. This Hitler has only one objective, justice for his own people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people, and their right to their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold."

94) Mugabe has been uncompromising in his opposition to LGBT rights in Zimbabwe. In September 1995, Zimbabwe's parliament introduced legislation banning homosexual acts. In 1997, a court found Canaan Banana, Mugabe's predecessor and the first President of Zimbabwe, guilty of 11 counts of sodomy and indecent assault.

95) When Zimbabwe gained independence, 46.5% of the country's arable land was owned by around 6,000 commercial farmers and white farmers, who made up less than 1% of the population, owned 70% of the best farming land.

96) On 8 December 2003, in protest against a further 18 months of suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations (thereby cutting foreign aid to Zimbabwe), Mugabe withdrew his country from the Commonwealth. Mugabe informed the leaders of Jamaica, Nigeria and South Africa of his decision when they telephoned him to discuss the situation. Zimbabwe's government said the President did not accept the Commonwealth's position, and was leaving the group.

97) Less than a year after Muzorewa's victory, however, in February 1980, another election was held in Zimbabwe. This time, Robert Mugabe, the Marxist who had fought a seven-year guerilla war against Rhodesia's white-led government, won 64% of the vote, after a campaign marked by widespread intimidation, outright violence, and Mugabe's threat to continue the civil war if he lost.

98) On 11 March 2007, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested and beaten following a prayer meeting in the Harare suburb of Highfields. Another member of the Movement for Democratic Change was killed while other protesters were injured. Mugabe claimed that "Tsvangirai deserved his beating-up by police because he was not allowed to attend a banned rally" on 30 March 2007.

99) Mugabe's critics accuse him of conducting a "reign of terror" and being an "extremely poor role model" for the continent, whose "transgressions are unpardonable".

100) The Times charged that on 12 June 2008, Mugabe's Militia murdered Dadirai Chipiro, the wife of Mugabe's political opponent, Patson Chipiro, by burning her alive with a petrol bomb after severing her hands and feet.