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Report of Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians Mission to Zimbabwe, 28 March - 2 April 2004
111th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and related meetings - Geneva, Sep 28 - Oct 01, 2004
Geneva - October 01, 2004
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)
October 01, 2004

B. Concerns of the committee and the council prior to the mission
The Committee and the Council's concerns related primarily to the following allegations:

• attacks on MPs, their families and/or their property by non-State agents, with the authorities reportedly taking no action to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators (David Mpala, Abednico Bhebhe, Peter Nyoni, Jelous Sansole, Roy Bennett, Paul Madzore, Milton Gwetu, Fidelis Mhashu, Gabriel Chaibva)
• torture and ill-treatment in detention; ill-treatment (beatings) inflicted on the MPs concerned by State agents, primarily the police (Justin Mutendadzamera, Job Sikhala, Tichaona Munyanyi, Moses Mzila Ndlovu, Abednico Bhebhe, Peter Nyoni, Roy Bennett, Paul Madzore, Austin Mpandawana, , Edwin Mushoriwa, Gilbert Shoko)
• arbitrary arrest and detention; bringing fabricated charges (all MPs concerned)
• arbitrary interference with freedom of expression and assembly (all MPs)

C. Brief historical background
In 1923 the British proclaimed Zimbabwe, then called Southern Rhodesia, a self-governing British colony. From 1953 to 1963, it was a member of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which was dissolved in 1963. From the 1960s onwards the people of Zimbabwe were involved in a civil war to oust the colonial government which after April 1964 was led by Ian Smith. When the British government refused to grant independence with assurances for ultimate African control, Ian Smith declared unilateral independence in November 1965, coupled with a state of emergency. Guerrilla warfare was waged by both the armed wing of ZANU, the Zimbabwe African National Union, led initially by Reverend Sithole, and later Robert Mugabe, and by the armed wing of ZAPU, the Zimbabwe African People's Union under Joshua Nkomo. In late 1976, they formed the Patriotic Front. The civil war and the international sanctions imposed upon the country finally led Smith to agree to multi-racial elections in 1979. Bishop Abel Muzorewa was elected as the country's first black Prime Minister. Because his government was widely perceived as a black front for continued white rule, it failed to win popular support and the civil war continued unabated. A final peace settlement with the Patriotic Front was reached in 1979 at the Lancaster House Conference in London in late 1979, and signed on December 21. In the elections of 1980, Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU-PF) won a landslide victory and he became Prime Minister. Independence from the UK officially began on 17 April 1980. It should be mentioned that under the peace agreement, a general amnesty was granted which meant that all those who had committed serious human rights violations during the 1970's could not be prosecuted.

However, despite independence, political violence did not come to an end. There were problems in integrating the armed wings of the two liberation movements into the National Army. Conflicts between the ex-combatants led to the Entumbane uprisings in November 1980 and February 1981. After arms caches were discovered in February 1982, ZANU-PF openly accused ZAPU of plotting another war and ZAPU leaders, including Joshua Nkomo, were arrested or removed from the Government. However, the treason trial against six ZAPU leaders failed to prove the charges against them. In early 1983, the government sent the Fifth Brigade to Matabeleland to quell dissent, in a campaign known as the Gukuruhundi (literally, the rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains). It has been estimated that at least 5,000 and as many as 10,000 to 20,000 civilians died during the Fifth Brigade's campaign between 1983 and 1986. In 1986, unification talks between ZANU and ZAPU started which led in 1987 to a National Unity Accord and the merging of the two parties into ZANU-PF.

In 1987, the Constitution was amended and Robert Mugabe became Zimbabwe's first Executive President. He won re-election in 1996 by a large margin. His party also won the 1990 and 1995 parliamentary elections.

Increasing economic difficulties lead to riots in January 1998, a nation-wide general strike in March and clashes between students and police later that year, resulting in the closing of the University of Zimbabwe and Harare Polytechnic. Also that year, Zimbabwe joined Angola and Namibia in supporting President Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which put considerable further strain on the country's economy.

In April 1999, a constitutional commission was established to prepare a new constitution. The draft presented in November 1999 after a lengthy consultation process by the commission was amended by the Government so as to maintain the executive presidency. The draft constitution also contained a clause empowering the government to seize land held by white farmers, who had to seek compensation from the UK. In the referendum of February 2000, voters rejected the draft constitution. In April 2000, however, a constitutional amendment allowing for the seizure of farmland was passed. After the referendum, the invasions of farmland multiplied and hundreds of large white-owned farms were occupied and their black employees driven out¹. The Supreme Court declared the majority of the farm take-overs illegal. On 6 September 2001, Zimbabwe signed the Abuja Commonwealth Agreement in which it undertook to halt invasions of commercial farms until the formulation of a workable land redistribution plan and to take steps to restore the rule of law and to respect human rights. The agreement has, however, not been implemented.

By September 1999, the Movement for Democratic Change had emerged with the leader of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Morgan Tsvangirai, as its President. In the elections of 2000, which were characterised by high levels of violence, the MDC won 57 of the 120 elected seats. In October 2000, President Mugabe issued a decree granting a general amnesty for politically motivated crimes that had occurred between 1 January and 31 July 2000.

Politically motivated violence continued throughout 2001 and intensified after January 2002 in the run-up to the presidential elections of March 2002 in which Robert Mugabe was declared the winner. The Commonwealth Election Observer Mission concluded that "conditions in Zimbabwe did not adequately allow for a free expression of the will of electors".² Observer missions from other countries and organisations, including the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC) concurred with this assessment. Zimbabwe was suspended from membership in the Commonwealth for one year. In December 2003, the Commonwealth decided to maintain the suspension until Zimbabwe complied with the principles of the Harare Declaration and resolved at the same time to encourage and assist the process of national reconciliation. As a result of its continuing suspension, Zimbabwe withdrew from the Commonwealth. The European Union, for its part, had imposed sanctions on the country in February 2002, after one of the EU electoral observers had been expelled from the country, and the United States was soon to follow suit.

In 2003, scores of MDC members were arrested in connection with the National Stay-Away of March and June 2003, organised by the MDC. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for March 2005 and it is widely feared that the country may plunge into further violence.

1 According to reports of national and international human rights NGOs, within two years 150 people were killed, thousands tortured and at least 70,000 rendered homeless in this process.

2 MDC candidates have challenged both the 2000 parliamentary and the 2002 presidential elections results; no judgments had reportedly been made. In his discussion with the delegation, the Chief Justice stated that a committee of four judges had been appointed and had started liasing with the lawyers, without making much progress. When he was appointed Chief Justice, he removed the judges and summoned the lawyers, telling them that a date would be set "whenever they were ready". As a result, the process had accelerated. A first case had been resolved two months previously and four or five cases were ready to be heard. He explained that the court system was not well suited to settling some of the issues that had come up, such as unorthodox means of getting people to vote. It would be necessary for the court to travel around the country to check the facts for itself as all witnesses were biased. A new system was therefore needed to resolve this type of problem.

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