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Political Violence Report - April 2005 - Overview
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
July 15, 2005

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Overview
The month of april was awash with political violations of human rights including 2 murders. The violations are linked to post election retribution that was occurring throughout the country. Fifty five displacements were recorded in the month, which exceeded the total number of displacements recorded from january to march viz 21. This contributed to the number of internally displaced persons (idps) in zimbabwe.

Throughout the country and particularly in mashonaland central province, people were being chased away from their homes for being either mdc activists or for having been election observers or mdc polling agents. A number of people who reported to the police claimed that they were told, in essence, that it was better for them to leave their place of residence because the police could not help them. The human rights forum views such reports with concern as it is the duty of the police to maintain law and order in zimbabwe and protect, not curtail, the rights of all zimbabweans, including their right to form or belong to political parties of their choice, which right is enshrined  in section 21 of the constitution. The human rights forum therefore urges the police force to ensure that innocent citizens of zimbabwe are protected from criminal activities perpetrated for political motives.

In the post-election period, ebrahim mofat, an mdc activist and febby muchacha, a resettled old lady were brutally murdered. The human rights forum deplores the disregard for the sanctity of human life with which such murders were perpetrated. The forum further urges the police to fully investigate both cases and to ensure that the guilty are brought to book.

On 4 april 2005, the mdc held a demonstration against the manner in which the elections had been conducted. Reports are that the demonstration was violent and that property and shops were destroyed. While the human rights forum notes that it is the right of every individual to express themselves through demonstrations, it condemns the use of violence in any form and urges all people who wish to demonstrate to do so in a peaceful manner. After the demonstration, the police allegedly picked up the people involved in the demonstration. The police are said to have been armed and are alleged to have detained the demonstrators for more than 48 hours having subjected some of them to torture

The human rights forum condemns torture as a way of soliciting information or punishing those detained and urges the zrp to conduct itself in a lawful manner at all times. The human rights forum further urges the commissioner of police to investigate these deplorable allegations and bring to book all the perpetrators of such gruesome acts. It is noted with concern that there were other incidents recorded in which the police allegedly acted in collaboration with war veterans and zanu-pf supporters in violating the rights of opposition members. There were also alarming reports of victims, not perpetrators, being detained by the police. The human rights forum urges the police force to be impartial in their enforcement of the law and honour their obligations to all members of the public to protect their rights.

Totals: 1 April – 30 April 2005

Cumulative totals: 1 January – 30 April 2005

The cumulative graph should be read along with the table depicting the monthly totals of violations from 1 January 2005 to 30 April 2005

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