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Executive
Summary:
African Solidarity Visit to Zimbabwe (26 November
- 1 December 2006)
Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition
December 08, 2006
Please
note the final report will be published in mid-January 2007.
Read Communiqué
on African Solidarity Visit to Zimbabwe 27 Nov -1 Dec 2006
Read statement: Don
Mattera and African solidarity team urge regional action on Zimbabwe
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Executive Summary
The week of 26 November to 1 December 2006 saw seven civil society
representatives1 from different
African countries visit Zimbabwe on a mission coordinated by CIVICUS:
World Alliance for Citizen Participation2
and Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition3.
The aim of the mission was to provide an opportunity for regional
civil society and the international community to offer solidarity
to Zimbabwean civil society during the country’s current humanitarian
and human rights crisis. The mission also sought to discuss with
various stakeholders the ways and means in which civil society can
effectively respond to the repressive legislative environment for
civil society, and assistance that can practically be provided from
abroad.
The visiting team met representatives
of civil society including those from non-governmental organisations,
women, students, business, trade unions and faith-based groups,
as well as individuals in government and opposition parties. They
informed the visitors about the high levels of serious violations
of human rights, such crimes as rape and torture and the struggles
of ordinary Zimbabweans to attain a decent standard of living. They
were also informed of the efforts of the courageous human rights
defenders who are challenging the system and demanding respect for
and restoration of basic human rights, despite ongoing intimidation
and arrests. They observed considerable mistrust of government by
civil society and general intolerance of opposing views, even among
civil society.
Public
Meetings
Members of the visiting team attended public meetings in Harare
and Bulawayo organised by Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, which were
held on the 28, 29 and 30 November. At the public meeting held on
28 November, in one of the high density suburbs, the team observed
that participants were vehemently opposed to the way the government
is dealing with the situation the country is in. They expressed
serious disagreement with the way government is operating, including
the emphasis on "operations" or projects, without any
programme to resolve the main sources of the crisis in the country
which they identified as one of governance and legitimacy. "There
is no respect for human rights. There are very high levels of corruption
and very low levels of service delivery, while prices of these same
services have increased considerably and there is no accountability
from those in authority," explained one of the participants.
The City of Harare had just recently indicated plans to drastically
increase the rates and other municipal charges4.
Residents complained that refuse removal was not being undertaken
and that they sometimes go for days without water.
At the public meeting
held in Bulawayo, participants expressed similar sentiments to those
in Harare regarding engagement with the government, with some taking
a hard line in favour of more defiance, active resistance and demonstrations.
In both meetings, young people were the strongest in expressing
the view that the government can only be removed through a violent
resistance, considering that authorities have resorted to using
brutal force against demonstrators, even women - some with children
on their backs.
At the 'think
tank' meeting held on the morning of 29 November with a variety
of participants from civil society, the opposition and churches,
the majority of participants rejected 'The
Zimbabwe We Want: Towards a National Vision for Zimbabwe'5
document which was the focus of the meeting. Most did so based on
positions already taken by their respective constituencies, some
of which had already met and discussed this issue. They believe
that this so-called initiative of the churches was in fact part
of the government's strategy to derail them from their own initiative
under the Christian Alliance's Save Zimbabwe Campaign.6
At all public meetings,
the team observed a high degree of intolerance towards opposing
views, even among civil society leaders. Those who suggested engaging
the government were booed into silence. This is a cause for concern.
Operation
Murambatsvina The team members visited an informal settlement
south of Harare where around 200 families are living, having been
affected by Operation Murambatsvina7
in 2005. The informal settlers indicated that their shacks, made
out of motor vehicle scrap metal and black plastic sheets, had been
destroyed more than five times, but that they cannot leave as they
have nowhere else to go. They survive from handouts given by well-wishers
and doing small jobs, such as digging the fields of residents from
the nearby townships.
The team was
denied entry into Hopley Farm in the south of the Harare where some
of the Operation Murambatsvina survivors are, as the management
of the camp insisted that this was a government project and could
only be accessed after obtaining permission from the colonel in
charge of Operation Garikai / Hlalani Kuhle8.
Thus the team was not able to talk to survivors of the clean-up
operation now confined inside Hopely Farm. The team then abandoned
the planned visit to Caledonia farm to the east of Harare which
they were informed was similarly guarded and therefore likely to
be inaccessible without a permit from the authorities.
The team then
divided into two groups with one going to Porta farm approximately
30 kilometres west of Harare while the other toured Mbare township
in the south to see the telltale signs of the forced destruction
of housing in these two areas. Those who visited Porta farm were
not able to speak to people around the former settlement, but saw
signs of the forced evictions such as charred clothing and the remnants
of many houses that had been destroyed. Team members also viewed
the 'before' and 'after' Operation Murambatsvina
aerial pictures of the former settlement obtained by Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights and
Amnesty International
for their report "Shattered lives - the case of Porta
farm"9 which allowed them to envision
the extent of the removal exercise. Team members touring Mbare saw
piles of building rubble on the edges of the township roads and
in some cases, cement floors inside the yards of some houses indicating
where housing structures had been pulled down.
Visits to the
homes of some of the survivors of Operation Murambatsvina in Chitungwiza
permitted team members to speak with some of the house owners who
were forced to destroy their backyard buildings during the clean-up
campaign. Most complained of being forced to live in crowed small
houses with their children who previously occupied the now demolished
outbuildings.
Some members of the team
were also taken to a walled industrial stand in Chitungwiza that
was said to have housed small-scale industries and businesses where
they saw the remnants of the demolished structures.
Download
full document
Visit the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition fact
sheet
1. Team members
were: John Kapito (Malawi), Don Deya (Tanzania), Jeremias Langa
(Mozambique), Hannah
Forster (The Gambia), Don Mattera (South Africa), Luckson Chipare
(Namibia), Fatoumata Toure (Uganda).
2. CIVICUS is an international alliance, based in Johannesburg,
South Africa, dedicated to strengthening civil
society and citizen participation throughout the world. Civil Society
Watch, which facilitated the mission, is a
CIVICUS programme which responds to situations where citizen action
and civil society are being threatened.
More information: www.civicus.org and www.civilsocietywatch.org
or email cswatch@civicus.org.
3. Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition is a network of more than 350 civil
society organisations, aiming to bring about
democratic change in Zimbabwe. More information: www.crisis.org.zw
4 The meeting was informed that the Harare Commission Chairperson
held a meeting at the same venue earlier that day during which increases
in rates and other charges were announced.
5. This document was prepared by The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference,
The Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and The Zimbabwe Council
of Churches and first presented to the President of Zimbabwe who
rejected the first recommendation on the need for a new constitution
which was later removed from the document and has since been presented
to opposition party leaders.
6. Christian Alliance convened The Save Zimbabwe Convention which
converged on the 29 July 2006, bringing
together political parties, civic organisations and the churches
towards the resolution of the crisis facing the
country.
7. Operation Murambatsvina (Restore Order), a programme of mass
forced evictions and the demolition of homes and informal businesses
which commenced on 18 May 2005 was reported by the UN Special Envoy
on Human Settlement Issues, Mrs Anna Tibaijuka to have affected
some 700,000 people who lost their homes, their livelihoods or both
in a space of six weeks.
8. "Garakai" and "Hlalani Kuhle" mean "live
well" in Shona and Ndebele respectively. The operation was
launched on 29 June 2005 as a programme to provide new housing and
premises for small businesses, ostensibly to address the needs of
those affected by Operation Murambatsvina.
9. http://www.amnesty.ca/zimbabwe/porta_farm_report_31march06.pdf
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