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Zimbabwe Briefing Issue 56
Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition
(SA Regional Office)
December 14, 2011
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Police
Intensify Crackdown on Civil Society Actors
That president
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's only leader since attainment of
independence in 1980, and is Zanu PF party are strongly calling
for elections early next year gives a false impression that major
steps have been taken to level the political field in preparation
for free and fair elections.
However the
developing trend of intensified harassment, intimidation and detention
of civil society activists confirms that very little has changed
- politicized and partisan state institutions such as sections
of the police continue to align themselves with Zanu PF in their
persecution of civil society actors through a subversion of the
rule of law and use of various draconian pieces of legislation that
remain on statute books.
On 5 December
Gwanda police arrested
two Media
Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) employees, Ms. Fadzai
December and Ms. Molly Chimhanda together with MMPZ member, Gilbert
Mabusa for allegedly contravening section 25(1) (b) of the Public
Order and Security Act (POSA), for allegedly 'participating
in a gathering without seeking authority from the regulating authority'
and also for allegedly contravening section 37(1) (b) of the Criminal
Law (Codification and Reform) Act, by 'distributing material
that is likely to provoke a breach of peace'.
On Tuesday 6
December 2011 police in Harare raided
and picked up MMPZ Project Coordinator, Andrew Moyse for allegedly
possessing some materials on Gukurahundi (the 1980s massacre of
members of the minority Ndebele people) and confiscated some Digital
Video Disc (DVD)'s from the organisation's offices.
They later released
him after going through an interrogation session which lasted several
hours. The unwarranted acts of harassment and intimidation are not
isolated. In recent weeks police have arrested and detained independent
media editors and journalists on spurious, politically motivated
charges.
Zanu PF is strongly
resisting any reforms to the police and other sections of the security
sector to make them genuinely independent, professional and non-partisan.
In the absence of such critical security sector re-alignment to
desist from political interference and from partisan conduct, Zimbabwe
cannot hold free and fair elections.
In light of
renewed attempts by state agents to muzzle the independent press
and silence civil society actors as characterized by the unwarranted
harassment, detention and intimidation of journalists and activists,
Zimbabwe's civic movement has taken long to rally together
in defence of fundamental freedoms. The human rights and democracy
community has not always publicly identified with victims of regime
brutality for a number of reasons, such of which may have to do
with a false sense of security that is derived from maintaining
deafening silence when colleagues are under attack.
The onslaught
on democracy and its defenders will not relent because citizens
have chosen the route of silence. Only open defiance and speaking
out in defence of our rights can stop this upward trend in rights
abuses.
These unfortunate
and worrying attacks be the regime show clearly that, contrary to
pronouncements by those within Zanu PF that Zimbabwe is ready and
should go for polls early in 2012, little has changed in our political
environment characterized by extreme repression and subversion of
the rule of law. The political field remains uneven, titled in favour
of Zanu PF. Under such conditions, there is no way Zimbabwe can
hold free and fair elections.
It is great
wonder why anyone would blindly push for sham elections under an
skewed political field, unless the idea is for a particular political
party to benefit from the uneven political field.
2011 saw little,
painfully slow progress being made in the areas of instituting critical
electoral reforms; 2012 should be devoted to completing critical
reforms that pave way for free and fair polls.
Essential pillars
for any functional democracy are a robust, free and independent
press and a vibrant civil society sector. It is no wonder that elements
opposed to fundamental freedoms would target these two pillars for
attack, harassment, intimidation and vilification. When subjected
to such a relentless onslaught, it is of paramount importance that
individuals and institutions concerned with democracy should come
together under a common banner to defend values they cherish.
The Southern
African Development Community (SADC), and particularly South African
which is mediating over Zimbabwe's peace process should insist
that there should be no elections in Zimbabwe until the political
field is level, state institutions are independent and guarantees
are in place for a free and fair election where violence or intimidation
play no part.
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