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Legal Monitor - Issue 67
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
October 20, 2010

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Elections: 2008 ghost haunts Gokwe

With a general election next year becoming more of reality, some members of the community here say they are still traumatised by the experiences of the 2008 violent polls.

Participants at a community workshop organised by Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) at Huchu Shopping Centre recently said talk of elections next year had heightened fear in the area.

Gokwe was one of the areas affected by the 2008 election violence that rights groups blamed on soldiers campaigning on behalf of President Robert Mugabe.

A ZimRights bulletin on the workshop, which was attended by over 100 people from surrounding villages, noted that politicians calling for elections next year were out of sync with the public, which is yet to recover from the 2008 poll ordeal.

Both President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, two rivals now trapped in a coalition they both describe as uncomfortable, have been hyping the possibility of election next year.

Mugabe told a meeting of his youth supporters last week that elections would be held mid-next year, insisting he will not yield to pressure to postpone the polls.

Villagers here think otherwise, according to ZimRights, a rights group with strong rural community links.

"Participants expressed their appreciation of the organisation's discussion on torture as this was one of the human rights violation that they had never had a chance to talk about. They added that many people were living in fear of reliving the 2008 violence in the elections that are expected next year," said ZimRights in its report last week.

The organisation reported that participants at the workshop stated that they were tired of being manipulated by politicians for selfish gains.

"Participants agreed that they are still suffering the trauma of 2008, but the political figures they were fighting for have since disappeared. Some of the participation said they are still suffering from the torture experience that include beating of the soles, drowning simulations in addition to emotional trauma."

The country was engulfed in violence in 2008 in the run-up to the disputed June presidential run off. Tsvangirai says at least 200 of his supporters died in the violence.

Tsvangirai, who had won the first round, pulled out of a 27 June 2008 knock out runoff citing violence and intimidation by state agents targeting his supporters. President Mugabe went on to declare himself winner of the polls but the African Union refused to recognise the election, forcing the negotiation of a coalition government.

The fragile coalition government's cracks have been widened because of disagreements on how to share power.

Last week, Tsvangirai boycotted the weekly cabinet meeting in protest over what he says are unilateral appointment of senior state officials by Mugabe in contravention of their power sharing agreement.

Earlier in the week, Tsvangirai said his MDC party rejected all senior appointments - include that of central bank governor, attorney general, six ambassadors and five judges - made by Mugabe without consulting him.

But President Mugabe says the appointments were made in line with the constitution.

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