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Report
on human rights: 2007
Amnesty International
May 26, 2007
Amnesty International's
2007 report on human rights worldwide is available at: http://thereport.amnesty.org
Republic
of Zimbabwe
Head of state
and government: Robert Mugabe
Death penalty: retentionist
International Criminal Court: signed
The human rights
situation continued to deteriorate, in a context of escalating poverty.
Freedom of expression, assembly and association continued to be
curtailed. Hundreds of people were arrested for participating or
attempting to engage in peaceful protest. Police were accused of
torturing human rights defenders in custody. The situation of thousands
of people whose homes were destroyed as part of Operation
Murambatsvina (Restore Order) in 2005 continued to worsen, with
no effective solution planned by the authorities. The government
continued to obstruct humanitarian efforts by the UN and by local
and international non-governmental organizations.
Background
In January the
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (African Commission)
submitted to the Executive Council of the African Union a critical
resolution on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe that it had
passed in late 2005. In its response, the government of Zimbabwe
asked the African Commission to revoke the resolution, arguing that
procedures had not been followed. The government's arguments were
entirely procedural, and did not address the serious human rights
concerns raised. The government had repeatedly failed to implement
the recommendations contained in the 2002 report of the African
Commission's Fact Finding Mission and the 2005 report by the UN
Secretary General's Special Envoy on Human Settlement Issues in
Zimbabwe.
In August the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe introduced new
banknotes to replace the old ones, reducing their face value
by a factor of 1,000. For example, a Z$20,000 note was replaced
by a Z$20 note. People were given 21 days to exchange their old
notes before they stopped being legal tender, but a limit of Z$100
million (US$400) was imposed on the amount of cash people could
carry. Nationwide roadblocks were established to enforce the programme,
known as Project Sunrise. Human rights abuses were reported at roadblocks
manned by police officers, Reserve Bank officials and in some cases
members of the pro-government youth militia. People were reportedly
assaulted and subjected to degrading and inhuman treatment, including
being forced to remove clothing during searches. Police at some
roadblocks confiscated money, even when the victims had less than
the stipulated maximum.
By the end of
the year inflation was running at more than 1,000 per cent.
Right
to adequate housing
Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle (Better Life), a house-building programme
launched in 2005 ostensibly to provide housing to victims of mass
forced evictions, failed to provide a remedy for the majority of
them.
By May, one
year after the programme's launch, only 3,325 houses had been built,
compared to 92,460 housing structures destroyed in Operation Murambatsvina.
Construction in many areas appeared to have stopped. Many of the
houses designated as "built" were unfinished, without
access to water or sewage facilities, and uninhabited.
Moreover, the
new houses were largely inaccessible to the hundreds of thousands
of victims of the forced evictions. They were too expensive for
the majority to afford, even if they were offered the chance to
purchase them, which frequently they were not. The process for allocating
the new - albeit largely incomplete - houses and bare residential
plots lacked transparency. Houses and land plots were allocated
to people who had not lost their homes during Operation Murambatsvina
and at least 20 per cent of the houses built were earmarked for
civil servants, police and soldiers.
Despite the
government's repeated claims that Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle
was a programme under which houses would be built by government
for victims of mass evictions, in reality people were allocated
small bare plots of land, without access to adequate water or sanitation,
on which they had to build their own homes with no assistance.
The government
continued to forcibly evict groups of people, often from the place
where they had moved after their homes were demolished during Operation
Murambatsvina. These forced evictions were traumatic for victims
and resulted in further loss of possessions. At least three small-scale
evictions were reported in Harare alone.
In April and
May the police threatened to forcibly acquire 200 plots of land
at Hatcliffe Extension New Stands settlement just outside Harare
to extend a nearby police boarding school. Fifteen families would
be affected. After protests by AI and the Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights, the authorities reversed the decision.
On 15 June municipal
police forcibly evicted a group of approximately 150 internally
displaced households who were living in makeshift shacks along the
Mukuvisi river in Harare. The group had been living there since
the brick cottages they had been renting were destroyed a year before.
The police pulled down their structures with crowbars and set them
alight. They told the people they had to move, but provided no alternative
accommodation.
Obstruction
of humanitarian aid
The government continued to hinder and frustrate humanitarian
efforts to provide emergency shelter. After repeated rejections
of UN temporary shelter solutions during 2005, in March the UN was
finally given permission to erect some temporary shelters. By the
end of 2006 approximately 2,300 shelters had been erected. This
compared with a UN target for the provision of emergency shelter,
based on need, of 40,000 households in August 2005, reduced to a
target of 23,000 households in 2006.
The
right to food
Despite
a somewhat better harvest, millions of people continued to experience
serious food insecurity. Inflation continued to place basic food
items beyond the reach of many poor people. According to the UN
World Food Programme (WFP), maize prices increased by 25 per cent
between September and October. The WFP's limited emergency feeding
programme for vulnerable groups experienced shortages of cereals
and pulses, resulting in just 331,000 people being assisted against
a planned 800,000 people for October.
Freedom
of association and assembly curtailed
The
Public
Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Miscellaneous Offences
Act continued to be used selectively to prevent the political opposition
and civil society groups from meeting or engaging in peaceful protest.
Hundreds of human rights activists were arrested or detained under
these laws during the year.
Freedom
of expression
Repressive laws, including the Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Broadcasting
Services Act, were used to curtail freedom of expression. In
July the government introduced the Interception of Communications
Bill in Parliament which if passed into law would further restrict
freedom of expression. It would allow the authorities to intercept
both telecommunications and mail, and raised fears that the government
would use it to spy on the activities of human rights organizations
and the political opposition.
The trial of
trustees and staff of Voice of the People, an independent radio
station that broadcast from outside Zimbabwe but maintained offices
in the country, started on 25 September. The state withdrew charges
against the individuals and was to charge the Voice of the People
Trust under the Broadcasting Services Act for broadcasting without
a licence.
Human
rights defenders
Human rights defenders came under sustained attack by the
authorities and the police. Repressive legislation continued to
be used to obstruct their work, and hundreds were subjected to arbitrary
arrest, torture, ill-treatment and harassment.
In the early
hours of 18 January, two police officers and a soldier arrived at
the Mutare home of prominent human rights lawyer Arnold Tsunga,
demanding to see him. When they were told that he was not there,
they detained his domestic staff. The workers were later released
without charge after Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, of which
Arnold Tsunga is Executive Director, intervened. On 21 January,
police visited his house in the capital, Harare, apparently to arrest
him as a Voice of the People trustee. Arnold Tsunga was not there,
and police arrested a driver and a caretaker, allegedly for obstructing
investigations when they said they did not know where he was. On
26 January, Arnold Tsunga received a credible warning that the Zimbabwe
Military Intelligence Corps had been ordered to kill him.
On 11 September,
over 100 members of the activist group Women
of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) were arrested ahead of a planned peaceful
sit-in at Town House in Harare to protest against deteriorating
services. Among those arrested and detained were five mothers with
babies and a pregnant woman, who reportedly went into labour while
in police custody. Many were detained in deplorable conditions for
longer than the 48 hours allowed in law, and were held until 14
and 15 September. The women were charged with "participating
in a public gathering with the intent to cause public disorder,
breach of peace or bigotry." They were acquitted on 23 October.
On 13 September
police arrested Lovemore Matombo, President of the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Wellington Chibebe, the ZCTU
Secretary General, Lucia Matibenga , ZCTU First Vice-President,
and 12 other activists from the ZCTU and the Movement for Democratic
Change, the main opposition party. They had been attempting to undertake
a peaceful protest about deteriorating social and economic conditions
in Zimbabwe. All 15 were reportedly tortured in custody at Matapi
police station on 13 September. They were transferred to Harare
Central Police Station on 14 September and released. Medical reports
confirmed that they had injuries consistent with beatings with blunt
objects, heavy enough to cause fractures to hands and arms, and
severe multiple soft tissue injuries to the backs of the head, shoulders,
arms, buttocks and thighs. The doctors also stated that eight of
the activists had injuries consistent with the torture method called
falanga (beatings on the soles of the feet), which can cause permanent
problems with walking. The beatings were so severe that Lucia Matibenga
had one of her ear drums perforated as a result.
Scores of ZCTU
members were also arrested and detained in Harare, Beitbridge, Bulawayo,
Mutare and other urban centres. On the eve of the protests, on 12
September, in an apparent pre-emptive action, police had also reportedly
arrested a number of ZCTU leaders at their homes and offices in
Rusape, Gweru, Chinhoyi and Kariba.
Domestic
Violence Bill
The Domestic
Violence Bill was passed by the House of Assembly (lower chamber
of Zimbabwe's Parliament) in November and awaited transmission to
the Senate. If the bill became law it would outlaw harmful cultural
practices including pledging of women or girls for the purposes
of appeasing spirits, female genital mutilation, forced wife inheritance,
and forced virginity testing. A council mandated to deal with domestic
violence issues would be established and it would be mandatory for
all police stations to establish a section to deal with cases of
domestic violence. Human rights commission
In September
the government embarked on a consultation process for the establishment
of a human rights commission. The process was facilitated by the
United Nations Development Programme. The government's proposal
to establish a human rights commission was widely seen as yet another
move by the government to divert attention from the serious human
rights crisis unfolding in the country.
AI country
reports/visits Reports
o Zimbabwe:
No justice for the victims of forced evictions (AI Index: AFR 46/005/2006)
o Zimbabwe:
Quantifying destruction - satellite images of forced evictions (AI
Index: AFR 46/014/2006)
o Zimbabwe:
Shattered lives - the case of Porta Farm (AI Index: AFR 46/004/2006)
Visit
AI delegates
visited Zimbabwe in April/May.
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