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Southern Africa's response to Zimbabwe meltdown
Trócaire
September 04, 2007

As inflation rose to over 7000% in Zimbabwe last month, many hoped Southern Africa's leaders would take decisive action to halt the country's freefall. Their hopes were dashed.

The dinner menu of a small, upmarket hotel in downtown Harare reflected a pinch of optimism last week. Next to (near impossible to get) items such as chicken and beef a little acronym had popped up: STA (subject to availability). Unlike his management, the waiter explaining the acronym to querying customers didn't beat around the bush: "There's no beef, there's no chicken. There's no bread either and there's no oil. There's no soap, there's no nothing. the whole situation here in Zimbabwe has become impossible."

Once again the media spotlight is on Zimbabwe. In March it was the scenes of opposition leaders and civic activists as they emerged bruised and battered from police custody. Today, it is the equally upsetting scenes of Zimbabweans as they jostle in queues for bread or prepare to flee the country out of fear and desperation.

With the crisis deepening and spilling in to neighbouring countries, Zimbabwe watchers were keen to follow discussions at the August Summit of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) in Lusaka, Zambia, where Southern Africa's leaders addressed Zimbabwe's crisis. Many felt let down by the public sentiments expressed by SADC leaders during the conference and by their final communiqué.

In March, SADC asked South Africa's President Mbeki to manage a process of political mediation and drew up an economic recovery plan for Zimbabwe. Both steps signalled the recognition by Southern Africa's leaders of the need for regional intervention and domestic reform. But delegates greeted President Mugabe with thunderous applause at the Summit's opening ceremony. By applauding "a man who has destroyed a country" Southern Africa's leaders showed an "utter lack of concern for the plight of Zimbabweans," the South African Bishop Kevin Dowling told Catholic News Service. SADC's leaders did not take the opportunity to press for an end to Zimbabwe's pervasive human rights violations, to set a specific timeline for progress in mediation talks, or agree on a framework for addressing the economic crisis.

Deepening food crisis, mounting human rights violations

With the rate of inflation now officially over 7,000 per cent and with shortages of basic commodities across the board, the price cuts introduced by the government in June to quell the economic crisis appear to have backfired. Even previously cushioned sectors of society such as business people (thousands of whom have been arrested for non-compliance) and urban professionals are feeling the effects of meltdown.

Life is becoming more and more of a struggle for the poor. On August 9, the US-based Famine Early Warning System Network classified the situation as an emergency. They attributed the food crises in the southwest and in urban areas to a poor harvest but also to price controls and restrictions on basic commodity imports.

Since the New Year harassment and intimidation of human rights activists, opposition party members and prominent, outspoken critics of the regime has intensified. In June, Ireland's Catholic Bishops expressed their "deepest concern and dismay at the ever worsening political and humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe."

Police have arbitrarily arrested and beaten hundreds of civil society activists in custody and have continued to use excessive and unnecessary force to disrupt peaceful demonstrations. At the beginning of August, government enacted the widely criticised and feared 'Interception of Communications Bill' and continues to restrict public gatherings and free press through application of oppressive legislation such as the notorious 'Public Order and Security Act'.

Trócaire in Zimbabwe

Trócaire has been working in Zimbabwe since the early 1970s, supporting projects to improve access to food and develop civil society. The organisation spent Euro 1,471,947 in Zimbabwe last year on programmes to alleviate the worsening humanitarian crisis and to promote peace and justice. Trócaire works with local and national organisations to document the situation in the country, and raise awareness among policy-makers in Zimbabwe and internationally.

Organisations supported by Trócaire were represented in a recent meeting between Zimbabwean civil society leaders and SADC 's political mediation team for Zimbabwe. Civil society leaders called for a people-driven review of Zimbabwe's constitution. They also stressed the need to end the organised violence and torture and use of food as a political tool by the government.

But the outcome of the SADC summit sees Zimbabwe's President Mugabe once again evade public censure, timelines and benchmarks. Many fear that on the domestic front, economic challenges aside, he will now move ahead swiftly to intensify the crackdown on opponents with a view to consolidating power in next year's elections.

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