Back to Index , Next Page »

Who should be sanctioned?
A P Reeler
Former Director, Amani Trust
Executive Committee Member, The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims
January 31, 2003

Download this document
- Rich Text Format (RTF) version (183KB)
- Acrobat PDF version (245KB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking here.

Since the beginning of the Zimbabwe crisis in February 2000, an enormous number of reports have been published on the gross human rights violations that have been perpetrated upon the people of Zimbabwe. The vast majority have come from within Zimbabwe, and mostly from the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and its member organisations. There have also been corroborating reports from highly respected international human rights organizations: Amnesty International, the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), Human Rights Watch, and Physicians for Human Rights (Denmark).

These latter reports have universally corroborated the reports of their Zimbabwean counterparts. These reports, taken together, paint a very grim picture of the organized violence and torture that has afflicted Zimbabwe since February 2000. They confirm that gross human rights violations have become routine in Zimbabwe, unrepudiated in general by the government, and certainly do not show that there have been any credible attempts by the government to prevent or stop these violations from occurring. The reports overwhelmingly implicate supporters of ZanuPF as the major perpetrators, as well as showing an alarming degree of involvement by state agents such as the police, the intelligence services, and, to a lesser extent, the army.

Terrible things have been done, the former Chief Justice of Zimbabwe, Anthony Gubbay, put it, and they continue to be done. The evidence shows that all the following gross human rights violations have been perpetrated on the citizens of Zimbabwe, and especially the supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC):

• Summary executions;
• Extra-judicial killings;
• Disappearances;
• Torture;
• Mass psychological torture;
• Political rape;
• Rape;
• Illegal arrests;
• Unlawful detentions.

The purpose of all these terrible crimes has been totally transparent: they have been committed in order to win elections and to maintain political power in the hands of ZanuPF. This is not just the conclusion of the human rights monitoring bodies, but also of all responsible election observer missions to the various elections that have taken place in the past three years. The repudiated elections have led to Zimbabwe being accorded pariah status in the international community: suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth, suspended from receiving development aid by a large number of countries, including the European Union, and, in near-desperation, to the application of personal sanctions by the United States and the EU against those perceived to be responsible for the debacle that is Zimbabwe currently.

And yet, despite all the pressure and the diplomacy, both "quiet" and noisy, little changes in Zimbabwe. The human rights violations continue, the economy slides further and further down the slope to catastrophe, starvation looms for increasing millions of Zimbabweans, and there are considerable fears for politicide certainly, and possibly genocide.¹

Tackling the problem
Apart from demarches, suspension of aid, and personal sanctions, how can this looming catastrophe be averted? Robert Mugabe is impervious to all diplomatic pressure it seems, and certainly does not worry about diplomatic demarches. The suspension of development aid now contributes massively to the economic melt down, but this economic collapse now requires that the international community consider increasing humanitarian support to a government that shows no signs of taking the steps to correct the economic slide. Some commentators raise the possibility of military intervention, but this seems unlikely given that the international community cannot even stand united on the illegitimacy question; simply, if the "President" and the ZanuPF government hold power on the basis of illegitimate elections, can they be considered to be a legitimate government? The world is divided on this question, but, a number of so-called Third World states, and especially African states, seem to accept that the de facto power of the Mugabe regime is in some way de jure. The "illegitimacy problem" clearly deserves more attention than it gets at present, and the international community needs to keep this at the forefront of all discussions on Zimbabwe. They also need to keep firmly in mind that this is an illegitimate government doing terrible things to all whom oppose it, and against those who have chosen the path of peace and civil action, not violence, in their challenge to the illegitimacy problem. This makes the organized violence and torture even more sinister and reprehensible.

One possible way forward is to increase the pressure upon those responsible for the mess, and to indicate in the strongest possible terms that they are responsible and will be held responsible for the events that occur from now on. This short paper will examine the "responsibility problem", drawing on the information publicly available.

• Increasing pressure on those responsible: targeting the "middle managers"
• How many are responsible?
• Provinces and Constituencies
• The "Top Fifty": The worst of the worst
  

Conclusions
Quite obviously this analysis can only be a partial examination of the gross human rights violations and those responsible for these. It draws only on the published data, and can be no substitute for a full-blown commission of inquiry, but it raises very serious questions indeed about the responsibility of the ZanuPF government for gross human rights violations against the people of Zimbabwe. This is not the first time such concerns have been raised, and there is still no credible accounting for the gross human rights violations committed in the 1980s.

This analysis shows the involvement of MPs, policemen, government officials, "war veterans",and ZanuPF party supporters, and repeated involvement. It shows patterns of involvement around elections, and in areas in which severe threats to ZanuPF’s political hegemony have been posed. This analysis shows few changes between the two important recent elections in Zimbabwe – the Parliamentary Elections of 2000 and the Presidential Election of 2002 – and indicates one of the strategies behind ZanuPF’s campaign to maintain political power.

It is evident that impunity has been an important factor in allowing the violence and torture to continue, and this impunity has been both formal, using Presidential amnesties, and informal through the failure to ensure that the Zimbabwe Republic Police enforce the law and their constitutional duty. This strongly supports the argument that the violence and torture was organized and condoned.

However, as indicated above, remonstrances, demarches, and publication of the facts have little effect upon the ZanuPF government. Not even sanctions seem to have had an effect. So what can be done to stop further horror and return the country to legality and the rule of law.

Several suggestions can be made.

Firstly, there must be strong pressure exerted by the international community for independent investigations of gross human rights violations and the allegations made by Zimbabwean human rights bodies. This should be a concern not merely for the EU, but for the Commonwealth, SADC, and the AU. Perhaps a multi-platform commission, comprised of representatives of all these bodies, might be mounted and sent to Zimbabwe in order to investigate these allegations. It is no longer enough for the international community to derive misplaced solace from the relatively small number of deaths, and time for the testing of the assertion that massive levels of torture approximate to genocide.7

Secondly, perhaps it is time to review the personal sanctions: not with the intent to remove these, but to apply them more extensively. The persons to whom sanctions should be applied must be those who are accountable for the problems in Zimbabwe. It should include not only those who are politically responsible or responsible for gross corruption, but also those who are allegedly guilty of gross human rights violations.

As this analysis has shown, we know who this latter group of people are likely to be, and they should be not only the subject of sanctions, but also of investigation for gross human rights violations. Although Robert Mugabe and his doubtfully legitimate government are ultimately responsible for events in Zimbabwe, it must also be the case that sanctions and penalties are applied more widely to include those who commit gross human rights violations. This would send a signal the perpetrators that responsibility for violence and torture will have consequences, and will indicate to those members of ZanuPF who desire the return to legitimacy, the rule of law, and international acceptance, that part of the solution lies in their hands too.

• Appendix 1. Reports of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
• Appendix 2. The fifty most frequently mentioned perpetrators of gross human rights violations
• Appendix 3. Name, constituency and role of perpetrators
• Appendix 4. Organised violence and torture per Constituency: 2000 Parliamentary and 2002 Presidential Elections

7 See here especially ZimNews, 22 January 2003, "Is Zimbabwe on the Brink of Genocide?" [www.zwnews.com].

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