Back to Index

Political Violence Report - January 2009
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
February 27, 2009

Download this document
- Word97 version (216KB)
- Acrobat PDF version (81KB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking here.

Overview

The month of January saw a marked decrease in the number of cases of politically motivated violence as compared to December 2008 as well as the months prior to the June 2008 Presidential Election Run-off. However, it is important to note that the figures of violations recorded in this report are not substantive as actual numbers of victims were not indicated in some of the incidences. The violence that characterised the month of January was mainly property-related reportedly perpetrated by members of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) as compared to the inter-party violence that was characteristic of January 2008. This report documents the looting of traders' wares by soldiers in Chitungwiza as well as the assault of residents and looting of property in Masvingo. It is alleged that the soldiers, irked that the traders were selling their wares in foreign currency, demanded to see authorisation from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to sell goods in foreign currency. The City of Harare authorities are also reported to have had a scuffle with members of the ZNA and war veterans who had forcibly occupied flats belonging to the city authorities.

Members of the ZNA are also reported to have forcibly closed private schools that had opted to open on the dates originally proposed by the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture. This followed postponement of the opening date for schools. Furthermore, this report documents the raiding of an out-door adventure camp in Ruwa by security forces on allegations that it was being used to train bandits. These allegations of banditry have also been levelled against several human rights activists including Jestina Mukoko, Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, as well as several members of the MDC T party, a move that has threatened the Global Political Agreement between ZANU PF and the two MDC formations.

War veterans were also reported to have looted goods from shops in Ngundu along the Harare Beit-bridge highway, in actions reminiscent of the farm invasions that have taken place over the past nine years. The Human Rights Forum strongly condemns such actions by the war veterans and calls upon the ZRP to take steps to protect property owners from abuse by such groups.

Although the levels of violence recorded in the month of January were much lower than those in most months in 2008, there was a lot of activity in the courts as human rights activists and members of the MDC-T party accused of banditry and other crimes, were taken back and forth through the judicial system. The Human Rights Forum implores the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) to give effect to the letter and spirit of Article xviii of the Global Political Agreement, which guarantees the "Security of Persons and Prevention of Violence", and take positive steps to ensure the immediate release of all abductees from prison.

Download full document

Visit the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum fact sheet

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