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State accuses youth organizations of organizing an armed struggle
Zimbabwe Youth Forum (ZYF)
December 04 , 2007

The Youth Forum is deeply disappointed by premeditated mediocre attempts by the state to pacify youths ahead of next year's harmonized elections. The state through its media mouthpiece the Herald has launched a massive media onslaught on youth organizations in Zimbabwe as it has started a serialization of falsehoods on the operations of youth organizations, accusing them of harboring intentions to wage an armed struggle reminiscent of the liberation war of the 1970s.

Today, the government controlled Herald newspaper carried a lead story which alleges that one of the Youth Forum's partner organizations the Zimbabwe Youth Movement (ZYM) sought guerilla training in March this year from certain SADC countries in an endeavor to dislodge the despotic leadership of Robert Mugabe (83) from office. The state further alleges that the president of the Zimbabwe Youth Movement (ZYM) Collen Chibango is in Lisbon, Portugal alongside other youths whom it alleges have been smuggled to Portugal to demonize Zimbabwe. This claim is ridiculous, fictitious and imaginary and goes miles in showing the paranoia that has gripped the Mugabe regime. Mr. Chibango is actually in the country and has never made any attempt to leave the country.

The government through the same paper claims that the Zimbabwe Youth Council represents all the youth in Zimbabwe yet it is a publicly acclaimed fact that the Zimbabwe Youth Council which is housed in the 3rd floor at the ZANU-PF headquarters in Harare has been advancing the interests of the ruling party since its inception. Recently the Youth Forum sought the intervention of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Youth, Gender and Women Affairs to ensure that the Zimbabwe Youth Council as a statutory body assumes a more neutral venue which represents the diversity of the interests of young people in socio-economic and political issues.

These allegations are consistent with the acts of political violence and widespread repression that the state has embarked on since March this year under the disguise of combating terrorism. This has seen more than 50 youths from the MDC and the civic society being detained for more than sixty days and only to be released without any charges being preferred against them.

The Youth Forum widely views these allegations as an attempt by the state to foil youth political activism ahead of the elections next year but as Youth Forum we urge young people to resist this move and continue fighting for their rights.

Meanwhile, the Youth Forum urges all the Zimbabwean youths in Portugal attending the EU-Africa summit to represent the interests of the Zimbabwean youths without fear and expose the political rot that has been perpetuated by the regime of Robert Mugabe. We are solidly behind them.

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