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Summary on politically motivated human rights and food related violations - December 2010
Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP)
February 21, 2011

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Summary

This report summarises the human rights violations recorded during the month of December 2010 from the ten provinces of Zimbabwe with a keen interest on breaches of peace that were documented by the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP)'s permanent pool of community based peace monitors.

Politically motivated human rights violations continued tremendously following the conclusion of the Zanu PF annual national conference that was held in Mutare in the second half of December. Among some of its resolutions, Zanu PF agreed that they would dissolve the inclusive government in 2011 and that they would be elections during the same year.

President Robert Mugabe was also endorsed as the party's presidential candidate. The party also resolved Mugabe's call for punitive laws against Zimbabweans who call for sanctions as well as grab foreign owned companies in retaliation against sanctions imposed by the West on the party's leadership and some state-owned companies.

The festive season also saw a marked decline in recorded incidents of political violence in the provinces of Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South. However incidents of politically motivated human rights violations were very high in the Midlands Province (180).

ZPP has noted that the Midlands Province has seen very high figures of violations during the month of December with 201 cases having been recorded in December 2008 and again 195 violations were witnessed in December 2009.

It is also very worrying to note that cases of politically motivated violence remain high and the atmosphere has remained volatile in the Midlands, Manicaland, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East and Masvingo provinces.

The report also notes the re-establishment of torture bases manned by war veterans and members of the ZANU PF youth in Mashonaland Central where such bases have been maintained in Muzarabani and Bindura districts.

Cases of displacement were also recorded in the same province where initial beneficiaries to the government's land reform programme are now being evicted on suspicion of belonging to the MDC-T.

ZPP has noted that the local governance structures in rural Zimbabwe have been politicised to a very large extent that they clearly and effectively serve the interests of Zanu PF party. This has resulted in the perpetrators of human rights violations being the District Administrators, war veterans, ZANU PF youth militias, chiefs, police officers and serving members of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA).

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