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Zimbabwe
police storm civil society meeting
Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition
August 28, 2008
Heavily armed police
officers stormed a meeting of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition,
in Harare hotel around 12:30 this afternoon disrupting proceedings
of an Annual General Meeting (AGM) of its membership, gathered for
the administrative business of electing new office bearers.
This happened as South
Africa's president Thabo Mbeki, mediator in Zimbabwe's power-sharing
talks, arrived in Zimbabwe for what is expected to be a next leg
in his efforts to enforce an unpopular government of national unity.
"They are
being very rough, and unreasonable. They are threatening us with
arrest and saying that our gathering is illegal", said Elinor
Sisulu, a spokesperson of the group. "This whole attack of
civil society flies in the face of the provision the memorandum
of understanding of which says that there should be an environment
in which social welfare organizations, of which Crisis has a sizeable
members who are gathered here today, should be enabled to carry
outs their activities without intimidation".
On July 21, 2008 Mbeki,
and the mediating parties MDC leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara and ZANU PF's Robert Mugabe, co-signed an MOU agreeing
to ensure that "they will work together to ensure the safety
of any displaced persons and their safe return home and that humanitarian
and social welfare organizations are enabled to render such assistance
as might be required".
Five million Zimbabweans
face the severe threat of food insecurity, humanitarian groups such
as the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and
World Food Programme (WFP) have warned. This is an increase of as
many as one million people from last year, the groups say.
Zimbabwe has the highest
inflation in the world, a direct consequence of Mugabe's poor economic
policies and massive corruption. Once the breadbasket of the region,
the southern African country has become the begging bowl with its
current GDP sitting at third worldwide, after the warring territories
of Palestine in the Middle East region
"This is
completely outrageous," says Isabella Matambanadzo, Zimbabwe
Programme Manager of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa,
OSISA. "Since 2004 Zimbabwe's civil society and media groups
have been under persistent and systematic attacks by the government.
It is high time that the SADC, AU and UN took these threats against
Human rights Defenders seriously. There have been more than enough
incidents of rape, deaths and shocking levels of torture to enable
the UN to act decisively. Rights groups have documented what shows
beyond a shadow of any doubt a systematic project of elimination
pioneered by ZANU PF," she explained.
Zimbabwe's octogenarian former liberation leader Robert Mugabe,
installed himself as president following a self styled election
re-run on June 27, in which he claimed that some 85% of the population
had voted him into power. The election was condemned as being overshadowed
by extremely high levels of violence and intimidation and therefore
not free or fair by the region's electoral observation groups, such
as the Pan African Parliament.
"This latest event
highlights the need for this mediation to deliver a popular, homegrown
constitution that protects citizen's civil liberties, such as freedom
of association and assembly. It is an outrage that while ZANU PF
is able to freely organize its members to it uses its power and
influence over the police to prevent others from enjoying such a
fundamental rights".
Visit the Crisis
in Zimbabwe fact
sheet
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