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Rise
in human rights violations in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
November 14, 2013
This week the
world literally stopped as it stood in solidarity with the victims
of storm Haiyan in the Philippines. On 11 November, during Armistice
Day, the world again stopped to remember those who lost their lives
during the ravaging world wars. As the world stood still in solidarity,
the Zimbabwean Government did not stop to unleash torment on its
long-suffering people. Families lost businesses and other means
of livelihood as government razed ‘illegal’ structures
that comprised convenience stores on the outskirts of Harare and
threatened to raze houses down in the satellite city of Chitungwiza.
The Government did not stop there, but judicially persecuted
a leading human rights defender and the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO
Forum’s Executive Director Abel Chikomo whose trial for running
an ‘illegal’ organisation commenced on 13 November.
At a time when
the Government is pleading with the international community for
re-admission in to the international fold and for the world to feed
its estimated
2.2 million people who are facing starvation, one would think they
would begin to soften on their legacy of human rights violations.
This would, one would think, earn them legitimacy through performance,
having lost legitimacy during the recent elections. However this
is not the case as events of this week reveal. The hopes brought
by the recent government’s recent appointment of the Prosecutor
General to bring in more accountability, is likely to be short lived
if the legacy of judicial persecution does not cease.
The trial of
Abel Chikomo, finally commenced on Wednesday 13 November 2013 with
the human rights campaigner pleading not guilty to charges of running
an “unregistered” organisation in a court hearing viewed
as yet another official harassment of civic organisations and human
rights defenders. Chikomo was arrested in 2011 and his case on charges
of contravening Section 6 (3) of the Private
Voluntary Organisation (PVO) Act (Chapter 17:15) took almost
three years to be brought to trial.The human rights campaigner stated
that Section 2 of the PVO Act exempts “anybody or association
of persons, corporate or unincorporated the benefits from which
are exclusively for its own members.” He said the Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO Forum is a forum, association and common law universitas
of 20 member organisations
In a separate
occurrence, On 6 November 2013 the government started
demolishing housing structures, which it alleges, were illegally
built. The demolished structures included convenience shops (tuck-shops)
in Ruwa and Damofalls warning that the programme would be rolled
out in all urban centres throughout the country. Human Rights Groups
have noted with great concern the recent announcements by the Government
of Zimbabwe to demolish tens of thousands of houses in Harare and
Chitungwiza. They castigated in the strongest of terms the abrupt
manner in which the process intends to proceed with no clear alternative
plan.
The threatened demolitions have caused untold psychological trauma
to the people who are likely to be affected. In its report, Heal
Zimbabwe Trust highlighted
on the plight of women, children and those living with HIV especially
as this happens with the approaching rain season.
At a time when the world is desperately helping the victims of the
Philippines storm, it is sad that some governments are inflicting
storms on their own people instead of standing in solidarity with
the suffering Philippines. The operation only reminds Zimbabweans
of the infamous Operation
Restore Order in 2005, when in her report Mrs. Anna Kajumulo
Tibaijuka UN Special Envoy on Human Settlement Issues, after the
infamous Operation Murambatsvina in 2005 stated ‘while purporting
to target illegal dwellings and structures and to clamp down on
alleged illicit activities, was carried out in an indiscriminate
and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering, and,
in repeated cases, with disregard to several provisions of national
and international legal frameworks. Immediate measures need to be
taken to bring those responsible to account, and for reparations
to be made to those who have lost property and livelihoods.... 'The
Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights issued an Ultimatum
on 6 November to the Government to desist from the threatened operation.
Visit the Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO Forum fact
sheet
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