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Political violence report: Overview - December 2007
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
February 13, 2008

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Overview
It is with the deepest regret and sadness that ten years after the formation of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (The Forum) to assist victims of the 1998 Food Riots, the organisation is still in existence battling with the same phenomenon of fighting impunity, seeking justice for victims of state sponsored and organised brutality and trying to combat torture on a larger scale. The year 2007 started and ended on a bad note in terms of politically - motivated violence and general abuse of state power by the police and state security agents. Several confirmed and unconfirmed reports to the Forum from January - December and in the press indicated excessive use of force by the state agents. Amidst deteriorating political, economic and social conditions, various groups such as the NCA, WOZA, ZINASU, ZCTU, lawyers and many other human rights defenders demonstrated to draw the Government of Zimbabwe's (GoZ) attention to these issues.

In February and March 2007, civil society activists attempted to hold numerous meetings and demonstrations in response to the plummeting political and economic conditions within the country. It had also become apparent by then that President Mugabe was planning to set the next parliamentary and presidential elections for March 2008, and opposition parties attempted to hold several meetings to launch their election campaigns. The ZRP did everything possible to try to prevent these activities and any other form of dissent from taking place. They disrupted, tear - gassed and banned meetings and demonstrations, and arrested close to 300 people in February alone. Many of those arrested over this period were tortured while in police custody, usually at the hands of the notorious Law and Order Section of the ZRP.

On 11 March 2007, a very gruesome tragedy occurred when police disrupted a planned prayer meeting organised by civil society organisations under the banner of the Save Zimbabwe Campaign. Close to 168 would be participants were tortured by the police on that fateful day in police stations dotted all over Harare. Furthermore, the ZRP shot and killed one Gift Tandari, NCA member allegedly for being the ring - leader in the running battles that ensued between the police and the people intending to have the prayer meeting.

Despite promises of changing the political environment especially in recognition of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mediation initiative between the ZANU PF and the two MDC factions, politically motivated violence, and use of force by state security agents in Zimbabwe continued. In separate responses to the concerns raised by civil society and the MDC on the continuing politically motivated violence, the GoZ through the Minister of Home Affairs, Kembo Mohadi¹and President Mugabe² noted that any allegations of violence after the 11 March 2007 incidents were false. However, the Forum contends that the year 2007 has been the worst and evidence to corroborate these allegations is available.

Of the politically - motivated and state sponsored violence that occurred countrywide in 2007, statistical figures in this report show that there were 19 cases of abductions, 855 of assaults, 3 477 violations on freedoms of expression, association and movement, 586 cases of torture, 3 352 cases of unlawful arrest and detention in total and 3 murders. In the majority of the torture cases, members of the ZRP or the CIO or both working in concert were involved.

This report first gives a run down of the human rights violations that took place in December 2007 before giving a comparative analysis between 2006 and 2007. The statistics for 2006 and 2007 vary in terms of violations. However, what is quite apparent is that the violations which mainly restrict people in political participation increased significantly in 2007. Violations which mainly involve the police, CIO and other state security agents, such as freedom from torture, unlawful detention and arrest, assaults, freedoms of expression, association and movement were seriously violated in 2007.

This report is significant in the sense that it helps give an overall analysis on information submitted to the Forum on politically - motivated violence in 2007. There is no doubt that politically - motivated violence informs and influences political thinking amongst citizens and ultimately voting patterns in favour of those responsible for the violence. Given that the electoral process includes incidents that occur and influence elections, the March 2008 election has already been tainted by the violence that was attendant on the year 2007.

In 2007, the ZRP issued two reports, entitled 'Opposition Forces in Zimbabwe: A Trail of Violence'³ (Ist report) and 'Opposition Forces in Zimbabwe: The Naked Truth, Volume 2'⁴ (2nd report). The reports sought to portray opposition parties and civic organisations as grouped together for the purpose of violently removing the Mugabe government. The Forum issued a response in August 2007⁵ after making a thorough assessment of the ZRP's allegations and came up with the conclusion that the arguments raised in the reports were false and did not hold water. This report will assist in disproving the allegations raised in the two ZRP infamous reports.

1. See The Herald, Thursday 25 October 2007 at 1. Mohadi is reported to have said that the allegations made by the MDC were all hearsay and there seemed to be nothing of substance in them.
2. See The Saturday Herald 27 October 2007at 1.
3. See Trail of Violence
4. See Naked truth: Opposition forces in Zimbabwe - Vol. 2
5. At Best A Falsehood, At Worst A Lie: Comments on the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Reports

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