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Human
rights abuses
Media Monitoring
Project Zimbabwe
Extracted from Weekly Media Update
2004-25
Monday June 21 - Sunday June 27 2004
WHILE the government
media spiritedly reported about the alleged international community’s
transgressions against Zimbabwe it was ironically quiet about government’s
own human rights violations against the Zimbabwean citizenry.
The rights abuse
issue, particularly topical in the week under review because it coincided
with international calendars to mark the World Refugees Day and the
International Day Against Torture, only found expression in the private
media. Private
radio stations alone carried a total of 12 stories on human rights
abuses in the country and recorded four incidents. Ruling
party members or state security agents were named as the perpetrators
of the abuses while their victims ranged from MDC activists to individuals
and organisations perceived to be sympathetic to the opposition party.
Notwithstanding
this, The Herald and Chronicle (21/06) still asserted
that Zimbabwe has had "prolonged years of peace, tranquility
and stability coupled with a good human rights record since independence…"
In fact, The
Herald (23/6) article, Refugees find Zimbabwe comfortable,
used the "influx" of refugees in
the country to paper allegations of rights abuses saying the fact
that more people were seeking refugee in Zimbabwe shows that the
"the situation starkly contrasts with the image of the
country portrayed by mainly foreign media houses and the country’s
so called independent newspapers…"
But event reports
by the private media on the human rights violations on the ground
seemed to belie this. For
example, SW Radio Africa (21/6) reported some Binga villagers as
being "very angry" with ZANU-PF over the
death of five people who were attacked by a buffalo but "failed
to receive any medical treatment because they support the MDC."
The station
quoted villagers alleging that the five who were attacked around
7 am lost " a lot of blood while waiting for an ambulance
that (finally) arrived at 5pm…" because the local
councillor argued that the buffalo was "more valuable than
the traitors who voted for the MDC…"
Similarly, the
station and The Daily Mirror (21/6) reported on the
violent break-up by riot police of women activists from Women of
Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) intending to hold a protest march in Bulawayo
against the political situation in the country and in remembrance
of exiled Zimbabweans, as part of their commemoration of the World
Refugees Day. About 70 women were reportedly arrested and detained.
It is such high-handedness
by State security agents, which the Law Society of Zimbabwe and
the International Confederation of Trade Unions condemned on SW
Radio Africa (22/6) and in the Independent.
In fact, Studio
7 (24/6) and the Independent reported local churches and
NGOs voicing concern about the prevalence of State-tolerated torture
in Zimbabwe during the commemoration of the UN International Day
in Support of Victims of Torture.
And vindicating
their concerns was Amnesty International, which recently wrote a
letter to South African President Thabo Mbeki to "ratchet
up pressure" on the Zimbabwean government to end the
on going rights abuses, (the Zimbabwe Independent).
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