|
Back to Index
This article participates on the following special index pages:
2008 harmonised elections - Index of articles
Zimbabwe:
Impact of organised violence and torture on the election climate
Southern
African Centre for Survivors of Torture (SACST)
March 27, 2008
The Southern African
Centre for Survivors of Torture (SACST) is a non-governmental organisation
based in Johannesburg dedicated to the promotion and provision of
medical, psychosocial and legal services to primary victims/survivors
of organised violence and torture. The SACST flagship project, the
Zimbabwe Torture Victims Project (ZTVP), was established in 2005
to provide assistance to torture victims and survivors fleeing deteriorating
and abusive conditions in Zimbabwe.
Since 2005, SACST / ZTVP
have assisted hundreds of Zimbabwean victims and survivors of organised
violence and torture. There are now over 20,000 Zimbabweans who
have applied for political asylum, despite widespread and ongoing
constraints to access the process. To date, fewer than 300 have
been granted refugee status - although SACST believes than
many more are indeed eligible.
Conditions
for free and fair elections?
There has been considerable media coverage dedicated to assessing
the conditions for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. In recent
elections (i.e. 2000, 2002 & 2005), there has been overwhelming
empirical evidence that levels of organised violence and torture,
primarily sponsored by state agents and / or surrogates or proxies,
have increased significantly during the run up to elections. Levels
of violence in between elections have also remained unacceptably
high.
According to
our colleagues from the Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO Forum, more than 600 incidents of torture were
recorded in Zimbabwe during 2007. This is corroborated in our recently
released report, Victims of organised Violence and Torture in Zimbabwe
attending Refugee Reception offices in South Africa: Prevalence
& Associated Features. Since 2001, the Forum has recorded over
30,000 individual violations. This does not represent the sum of
violations, but only that which has been recorded by a smattering
of largely under-resourced human rights NGOs who are members of
the Forum.
This situation has directly
contributed to a massive internal displacement within Zimbabwe,
as well as an unprecedented exodus of its citizens to South Africa
and elsewhere. This, in turn, has resulted in the disenfranchisement
of hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans who no longer have an opportunity
to exercise their right to vote in these upcoming elections. As
seen elsewhere, organised violence and torture in Zimbabwe has been
utilised as a political weapon designed to manipulate election outcomes
in favour of incumbent political powers.
In the run up
to the 29 March 2008 elections, media reporting on incidents of
organised violence and torture has noticeably decreased suggesting
that it is not being employed as a tactic in the same way as in
previous elections. Nevertheless, SACST urges the media to take
note that reports of violence and torture continue to be received.
According to the Zimbabwe
Peace Project (a member organisation of the Forum), for example,
over 1775 incidents of political violence have been recorded by
their monitors since November 2007 (up to early March 2008).
SACST reminds
observers and commentators of the Zimbabwean situation that analysing
conditions for free and fair elections requires a broader and longitudinal
perspective on electoral conditions and the factors influencing
them and cannot be reduced to a narrow set of factors around polling
day. Such an approach necessarily includes experiences of election-related
violence (pre and post-election). In this context, organised violence
and torture have played a powerful role in transforming the political
playing fields in Zimbabwe, as well as elsewhere. The impact of
prior experiences has not been addressed and has not dissipated,
but rather the situation is compounded by continuing abuses, as
well as ongoing and widespread impunity for the perpetrators of
such violations.
Stopping
organised violence and torture and an end to impunity
Beyond this election, it is evident that there can be no stable
and prosperous future in Zimbabwe without meaningful efforts to
firstly eradicate ongoing incidents of organised violence and torture,
and secondly to address the impact and repercussions of organised
violence and torture, through the provision of services to victims
and survivors (including an opportunity to have their stories heard
without fear of repercussion), and to employ processes that ensure
those responsible for these violations are held to account.
In accordance with the
Johannesburg Declaration (signed by over 60 Zimbabwean Human Rights
organisations in August 2003), the SACST calls on Zimbabwe's
political leadership to demonstrate the required maturity to honour
these most basic commitments as an integral component of rebuilding
this fractured nation.
A copy of our
recently released report, Victims of organised Violence and Torture
in Zimbabwe attending Refugee Reception offices in South Africa:
Prevalence & Associated Features can be obtained from SACST,
by calling +27 (0)11 339 4476/4728/4798 or emailing Lynn Merckel,
lrmerckel [at] gmail.com
For further information,
please call:
Dr. Fazel Randera - Chairperson +27 (0)83 633 7180
Mr. Piers Pigou - Board member +27 (0)83 3817150
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
