Zimbabwe: Bobby's Reign of Terror

by Michelle

category: War Crimes & Crimes Against Humanity

Published December 14, 2008 @ 07:14PM PT

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

-- The One and Only, Bobby Mugabe

There is a direct correlation between my level of involvement with Zimbabwe and the prevalence of the word "clusterf*ck" in my vocabulary.

President Robert Mugabe---or Bobby M., as I like to call him---and his ZANU-PF party have, after 28 years of iron-fisted rule, driven Zimbabwe to the brink of collapse, brutalizing and starving the population in their desperate attempt to maintain their grasp on power, and with it the protective shield of impunity.

As former South African President Thabo Mbeki and his lackeys at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) continue to play Mugabe's game, taking a hard line against Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rather than against Mugabe's litany of abuses of power and human rights violations, the country creeps (or rather, hurtles, at breakneck speed) towards famine and a raging cholera epidemic is already creating a regional catastrophe. In yet another display of denial and defiance, Mugabe first claimed that the epidemic had ended, but then said it was germ-warfare initiated by the West to pave the way for re-colonization.

(This is in addition to the fact that there's no electricity, water, hospitals, open schools, functioning economy, etc etc.)

And the human rights situation has reached a point of outright absurdity. The disappearance, torture, and murder of opposition activists has been the modus operandi of the state for decades, but such efforts have significantly scaled up just in the last two weeks---and the targets are expanding to include independent civil society. At 5 o'clock in the morning on December 3, Zimbabwe Peace Project Director Jestina Mukoko was taken from her home by 15 men suspected of being officers of the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO). (One of ZPP's activities is to document the state's human rights abuses, to prepare for the possibility of prosecution after a political transition occurs.)

Jestina is still missing, and that same day, several trade unionists and a journalist were also arrested, including the Secretary General of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe. New abductions are reported every day. Just in the last few of days, six MDC activists were abducted in Manicaland, a province on the eastern border, and a freelance journalist was abducted from his home in Harare today.

I shudder to think of the fate of the abducted---if they're still alive, it's doubtful that the CIO is serving as a good host. Among other sadistic practices, falanga-the beating of the nerve-dense soles of the feet with whips, batons, or metal rods-appears to be one of their favorite methods of torture.

Follow the link for a very brief overview of Zimbabwe's history of political violence, and expect much more in the future. To be clear, I do no think that Zimbabwe has reached the point of genocide, but I also don't think it's out of the question. However, given the severity of the abuses and the humanitarian crisis, which deserve the label of "crime against humanity," Zim deserves coverage on Change.org. I will continue to cover the political situation and the violence, and Michael is covering the humanitarian crisis on the Humanitarian Relief blog.

FREE ZIMBABWE.

Dabbling in Ethnic Cleansing

Mugabe and ZANU have effectively pulled the wool over the world's eyes for nearly three-decades, managing to preserve power through the extensive use of violence while, for many years, reveling as Southern Africa's development darling.

Violence is and has always been the norm, not the exception, of Mugabe's style of governance---in fact, he solidified his power early on with the Gukurahundi in the 1980s, when his North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, an elite unit of thugs, tortured and killed an estimated 20,000 civilians suspected of loyalties to the political opposition. The killings also took had ugly shades of ethnic cleansing, as the targets were almost exclusively members of the Ndebele ethnic group.

[Right: Victims of the Gukurahundi.]

2000 - 2008: Strategically Under the Tipping Point

More recently, and particularly since 2000, rather than engaging in outright ethnic cleansing, ZANU's violence has been lower-scale and targeted---but systemic, strategic, and escalating. The LA Times published an excellent article today characterizing Mugabe's tactic---that is, carefully measuring the levels of violence needed to crush his opposition without drawing international condemnation. Thus far, he's been horrifyingly successful.

We should all find it disgusting that such a line can even been drawn. Looking at the monthly political violence reports compiled by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, it's more than apparent that violence remains Mugabe's favorite game. The reports, which are represent only those the network is able to reach, show consistent and systematic targeting of individuals suspected of supporting the opposition, and are replete with cases of torture, rape, disappearances, and assassinations. Election years see notable increases in reported violence.

Which brings me to...

...March 29, 2008: Presidential elections are held, and a parallel vote count suggests that ZANU lost. But the ballots are shipped to Harare and held by the (Mugabe-appointed) Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for 6 weeks while ZANU tries to figure out what to do. They eventually announce that, while the opposition MDC party won more votes, no one won an outright majority, and set the date for a run-off.

In typical, though perhaps more exuberant, style, Mugabe launches a run-off campaign of torture and terror. I had the pleasure of seeing his campaign posters recently---his slogan was, "The Final Battle for Total Control." Not one of subtlety, is he?

An Amnesty International report documents the intense violence perpetrated by ZANU and state-security forces, including the establishment of makeshift torture camps, the arrests and disappearances of many opposition party and civil society activists, and the general looting, burning, and all-out terrorizing of the population:

"People suspected to have voted for the opposition parties, human rights defenders and officials of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were targeted for beatings, arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention, torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary killing, abduction, forced eviction and displacement. The victims also had their homes destroyed, their food reserves plundered, their livestock killed, or were injured so badly that they could no longer earn a living. Few of these cases have ever been investigated as perpetrators appear to enjoy state protection."

For coverage of the election debacle as it unfolded in March - June, see the Daily Zim-Dates at (the now defunct) Mussolini's Fallacy.

Again, this is but the briefest of overview of an incredibly complex situation. More will follow. Stay tuned.

[Photo on Right: A victim of post-election violence in Zimbabwe.]

Resources:

Kubatana.net

Sokwanele.com's "This is Zimbabwe" Blog

Amnesty International

Frontline Defenders

Voice of America

Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights

Medecins Sans Frontieres

(There are many great civil society organizations in Zim, but not surprisingly, most of their websites are down.)

Finally: My friend and former classmate at the University of Cape Town, Alana Pugh-Jones (a Zimbabwean herself), published a moving poem online about the abduction of Jestina Mukoko. Read it here.