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Human rights monitoring report - August 2007
Zimbabwe Peace Project
October 10, 2007

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Executive Summary

• During the month of August, the cases of assault have intensified with a number of victims suffering severe injuries which resulted in hospitalisation. There is a definite increase in the level and degree of violence in Mashonaland East with one case of murder being recorded.
• Political intolerance continues unabated in Harare and Chitungwiza and at the personal level, landlords continue to evict tenants for putting on t- shirts of the opposition party MDC. This could be a result of most citizens being paranoid about overtly supporting the MDC.
• The arms of government including the army and the police are looting, harassing and even beating people in queues for basic commodities, which are now very scarce.
• Citizens were forced to contribute in cash or kind towards the Heroes' day celebrations. Those not supporting the ruling party are excluded from the festivities while being expected to make a contribution. National events such as the Heroes day celebrations have also been used as a forum for the president to air his views about the opposition MDC and the West.
• The price blitz continued to have a negative impact on community relations as some people took the law into their own hands and seriously assaulted business people, vendors and shopowners. There are also reports of intra party violence in the ruling party with some members being victimised for not being enthusiastic about the ruling party policies and actions.
• The voter registration exercise saw people being asked to bring stamped confirmation letters as proof of residence from Councillors, traditional leaders and Zanu PF officials. Officials from the Registrar General's office seemed to have been under the control of the politicians as they failed to professionally manage the process.
• Some traditional leaders in Masvingo have instructed people in their areas that they should all support the ruling party and threatened that they will personally oversee their eviction from their areas if they continue to support the opposition, MDC.
• There are reports of a possible resurgence of land invasions in Manicaland. It is reported that politicians from the ruling party were conspiring to invade the few remaining commercial farms especially in Chipinge and parcel them out among themselves. At least three farms Buzi, Whittington Valley and Wolfstead farms were reportedly taken over by high ranking politicians.
• Space for the Church and civil society continued to shrink as well. The ruling party continues to declare that certain areas are Zanu PF strongholds and the wearing of t-shirts of organisations such as the NCA is seen as being anti-government and those seen wearing these t- shirts are harassed and intimidated.
• In Mashonaland West and Central, those opting to contest the Zanu PF council elections have been targets of political violence from the ruling party.
• Inputs and food continue to be distributed along partisan lines as those not supporting the ruling party are told that they are not supposed to be beneficiaries of food aid.
• The requirement that those intending to register or procure national identity cards should produce proof of residence has led to discriminatory tendencies among the councillors and chiefs who have only been willing to provide these to supporters of the ruling party with the proof of residence.
• In Matebeland North - There are reports that those taking part in activities organized by the EPIZ initiatives under the Zimbabwe We Want Campaign are reportedly being threatened with assault by ruling party activists who view the programme as being MDC and British sponsored.
• In Binga, there are reports that some village heads of unknown political affiliation from Chief S's area were allegedly threatened by Chief S and the District Administrator, with stripping of their headship for allegedly being affiliated to the opposition MDC. The Village Heads are now urging their subjects to support Zanu PF because of the victimization.

Brief victim- perpetrator analysis

In the month of August, the ruling party members perpetrated most of the violence. With a staggering 82% of the cases being perpetrated by Zanu PF activists and sympathisers and state agents were also biased against members of the ruling party. In some cases persons were victimised by the MDC indicating that political parties are perpetrating the majority of the violence since the country is in election mode.

The MDC continues to have the highest number of victims followed by persons of no known political affiliation, a significant number of victims were from Zanu PF with 15.5% were from Zanu PF., while 0.4% were state agents. Those of no known affiliation are could be targeted because of their lack of participation in ruling party activities.

Victims by gender and affiliation

This month ZPP looked at the gender of victims and perpetrators. In August the majority of victims are males at 514 against 230 females mainly from the MDC. However, it is worth to note that among those of no known affiliation there was a high number of women (142) compared to the males (92). This could be as a result of the fact that most women continue to be excluded from politics while at the same time they are being targeted as victims because their affiliation is not known. In a highly polarised environment, the disengagement of women from politics is seen as a possible threat by both the ruling party and the opposition MDC, since those of no known affiliation are assumed to be an untapped resource which any political party can use for its mileage.

The majority of the perpetrators are males as indicated by the graph above. In total this month ZPP recoded 1345 perpetrators and the majority were from the ruling party. A few of the cases were perpetrated by female and in total, only 10.6%, while males perpetrated in 89.3(%) of the cases

Recommendations

• ZPP recommends more targeted advocacy work for political parties to desist from using violence in the campaigning period.
• Traditional authorities may also need to continue to receive education in respecting of human rights since they are the custodians of most of the land and people in rural areas.
• Civil society organisations with capacity may need to lodge complaints against irregularities with the voter registration exercise.

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