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Villagers call for international monitors
Heal Zimbabwe Trust
November 01, 2010

"We are ready to sell our chickens and goats for UN and EU intervention in elections" . . . Muzarabani villagers.

If we are to have elections next year, we want UN and EU to come and observe the elections . . . what does it take for them to come and protect us, if it is money, we villagers in Muzarabani are prepared to sell our chickens and goats to pay them to come, we cannot have a repetition of 2008 where SADC observers were relaxing in hotels while we got beaten here! - Mr. Goto, during one Heal Zimbabwe meeting at Machaya village Muzarabani.

Heal Zimbabwe held four public meetings in Muzarabani on 29 and 30 October 2010. Two of the meetings were held in Muzarabani North at Kapatamukombe School and Hwata Primary School respectively and the other at Machaya and Hoya village. Discussions were made around the Global Political Agreement, its content, achievements and drawbacks so far. About 64% of the people who attended professed ignorance on the composition and duties of the Inclusive Government.

With the recent call of a possibility of holding elections next year, levels of intimidation have increase in Muzarabani. The continued presence of the armed forces and war veterans in Muzarabani is posing a threat to locals who were threatened on Friday that if they attend the Heal Zimbabwe public meetings they will be beaten up during a campaign terror to be launched on 4 December 2010 as part of the intimidators preparations towards elections. Villagers, however, ignored this and attended the peace building public meetings. Villagers were given a platform to air their views and opinions on strategies to use in order to create a more tolerant and peaceful environment that respects each other's political affiliation. They also managed to air their views on the possibility of having elections next year.

Translated versions of some of the villagers' views during the public meetings:

• At least if two or three perpetrators are arrested then we can hope for a peaceful environment, for arrests will send a signal to offenders that they are not bigger than the law, then we can talk of elections.
• What does it take to get people from other countries and the United Nations to intervene and ensure a safe and violence free election? Is it money? .
• Perpetrators of political violence are like animals with rabies, the only way to cure the disease is to inject and quarantine that is sending them to prison for their acts.
• I do not want elections, today, tomorrow or even after three years as long as the prevailing political conditions remain.
• JOMIC should be dismantled, it is too compromised. .
• Chief Kasekete should be removed from chieftainship as he is responsible for the many deaths in the district. How can we talk of peace when our chief speaks about war everyday?.
• All police officers at Muzarabani police station should either be transferred or removed from the force as they are too partisan and corrupt. We cannot have peace in Muzarabani if they continue with their behaviour. .
• Village heads should not be involved during food aid distribution exercises, their partisan approach in handling food aid causes disharmony and is a threat to peace! They are manipulating the current food aid operation by World Food Programme and World Vision.
• We need compensation of all the damages we sustained during the violence period first from both the Government and the perpetrators before they talk of elections. .
• We need food relief programmes that specifically targets victims of political violence because we are vulnerable yet sidelined on political grounds. This is a threat to peace again.
• More civil society organisations should come more frequently in Muzarabani with peace initiative programmes like what Heal Zimbabwe has done as this with time will promote attitude change on the part of agents of political violence. .
• I will definitely go and vote anytime as I'm tired of this Inclusive Government; our country only requires one government for accountability sake.
• If someone steals cattle, he is arrested but if my house is burnt, my husband is killed on political grounds, no one is arrested! Where is justice in this? I say no to the selective application of the law!

These meetings were part of a series of meetings that came as a resolution of a community leaders' meeting on peace under the theme "Kugara Hunzwanana". Meanwhile, Heal Zimbabwe will continue to create platforms for communities like Muzarabani to publicly debate on peace building initiatives and emphasis will be put on community based planning strategies on protection against violence.

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