Back to Index

Summary on politically-motivated human rights and food-related violations - September 2011
Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP)
October 28, 2011

Download this document
- Acrobat PDF version (929KB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking here

Summary

The country's Global Political Agreement (GPA) marked its third anniversary during the month under review with a number of tasks still outstanding. The month of September is widely recognized as the month of peace the world over but this was not the case for Zimbabwe as more politically motivated human rights violations were witnessed throughout the country. There was an increase in incidents of politically motivated human rights violations from the 720 recorded in August to 791 during the month under review.

An analysis of the violations trends during the month of September over the past four years reveals that the month has always had fewer incidents compared to the other months. The highest number of violations during the month of September was witnessed in 2008 despite it being the month the GPA was signed by the three leaders from Zanu PF and the two MDC formations.

Politically motivated violations took a dip in September 2009 when 931 cases were recorded and continued on a downward trend for September 2010 to 861 incidents.

Cases of politically motivated violence remain high and the atmosphere has remained volatile in the Manicaland, Midlands, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East, and Masvingo provinces. Zanu PF supporters have been accused of leading political violence in the many incidents that were recorded during the month.

The political environment remained very tense despite a major climb down by President Robert Mugabe on his call for elections in 2011 announcing that elections will be held no later than March 2012. The tensions in the political environment were also heightened by the revelations from the whistle blower website Wikileaks on the political views of most prominent figures in the country's politics.

Zanu PF and the MDC-T were the most affected as their leaders were allegedly exposed by some of their own in several meetings with the United States of America diplomats where they discussed the country's political situation. Senior Zanu PF leaders are alleged to have privately indicated their desire to have President Robert Mugabe step down as leader. However, President Mugabe is yet to respond publicly to the Wikileaks revelations while Prime Minister is on record as having encouraged his party to ignore the revelations although there are rumours now that the revelations are tearing the party apart.

During the month under review ZPP also recorded the murder of a villager from the controversial Chiadzwa diamond fields by police officers while in police custody. More human rights violations have continued to be recorded from Marange in Manicaland.

In this report ZPP also reports on the police's failure to take action with regards to a number of violations that have been organised and perpetrated by Zanu PF's Chipangano militia group based in Mbare.

Download full document

Visit the ZPP 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