Zimbabwe: It's getting worse

For background, see previous post on Zimbabwe.

The government of Zimbabwe claims that reports of violence have been exaggerated by the press. Yet, they cannot refute the concrete facts from on-the-ground investigations that have been undertaken by human rights groups.

On April 25th, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that "President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party and state security forces have sharply intensified a campaign of organized terror and torture against opposition activists and ordinary Zimbabweans." With documented abuse ranging from ears being cut off to women and children being pelted with rocks and logs, victims of the attacks are watching their flesh rot as they claim that people will come back to kill them if they went to the hospital. HRW also reported that during a raid on the opposition party's (MDC) headquarters, 40 armed policemen forced "scores of men, women and children into a pickup truck and bus"...their whereabouts are still unknown. There were around 250 people taking shelter in the MDC headquarters from the political violence that opposition members have been subjected to. As torture camps have been set up and homes are being razed, political violence has begun to reach gruesomely, alarming levels.

Reverend Stephen Maengamhuru from a local NGO called ZimRights said: "We now have a situation where people sleep out in the open because they fear spending the night at their homes." A New York Times article today recounts the story of villagers in Manicaland who were taken from their beds at midnight, pelted with stones, ordered by the police to empty their homes the following day by the police, and watched as their houses were destroyed by young thugs. This BBC report catalogues further stories.

As these atrocities continue, the "partial recount" of the presidential poll was completed today and the verification of the results by the candidates will start tomorrow and could take up to a week. The results did indicate that the opposition has taken control of parliament. This spurred MDC leader Tsvangirai to further reiterate that he would not take part in a run-off.

Given these grim state of affairs, assistant US secretary of state for African affiars Jendayi Frazer called for international intervention, claiming that the violence has made a credible run-off election "unlikely." Last week, she had announced that Tsvangirai was the clear victor of the elections.

The top UN human rights official Louise Arbour said: "If serious and systematic human rights violations persist, they will undermine national and regional attempts to defuse the present political crisis." As the UN Security Council gets belatedly briefed on the situation next week, the international community needs to act swiftly to prevent these atrocities to escalate to uncontrollable levels. With the political crisis to be undoubtedly prolonged for at least a few more weeks, international pressure and effective negotiations between the parties will become critical for Mugabe to call off the violence.