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Human rights issues
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-31
Monday July 31^st 2006 – Sunday August 4^th 2006

AS the RBZ intensified its purge on perceived ‘saboteurs’ of the economy under its ‘Project Sunrise’, the government media remained silent on the widespread human rights abuses allegedly committed during the operation by state security agents and members of the National Youth Service. Neither did they say which provisions under the Emergency Powers promulgated by President Mugabe to facilitate the enforcement of Gono’s reforms permitted such ill-treatment.

For example, none of the seven stories they carried on the topic (ZBH [one] and government papers [six]) highlighted the degrading treatment subjected to the ‘economic saboteurs’ or the confiscation of their goods and money. These were only revealed in the private media. Instead, these media drowned these issues in their celebration of how many people had been arrested or how much money the State had confiscated during the clampdown. The Herald (3/8) headline RBZ blitz nets billions and, Blitz pays off (Chronicle 4/8) illustrated this.

The only human rights story the official media recorded was the British court ruling allowing the deportation of thousands of Zimbabweans who had failed to win asylum in that country. However, the story was reported in the context of settling political scores with Britain (The Herald 3/8 and ZTV 4/8, 6pm).

In fact, the remaining six stories that the official media carried on human rights issues merely defended government’s human rights record. This defensive stance was mirrored by the way The Herald (2/8) reported on the alleged intimidation of Mutare’s magistrates by State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa over the planned trial of Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa on charges of obstructing the course of justice.

Rather than seek comment condemning the action as an abuse of authority and interference in the administration of justice, the paper passively reported that the charges had been withdrawn because the magistrates in Manicaland all refused to hear the case because they had been "allegedly" intimidated. Only the private media denounced Mutasa’s alleged conduct.

The incident was part of 10 other rights abuses that these media recorded in 33 stories they carried on the matter (private electronic media [27] and private papers [six]. Three of these were on rights abuses committed against informal traders by State security agents and National Youth Service members under ‘Project Sunrise’. The rest comprised the arrest of church leaders by the police, the beating up of members of the public by the army and the deportation of an MDC election expert, Topper Whitehead.

The private media also questioned the rationale and legal context of the violations. For example, Studio 7 (1/8) cited MDC faction leader Arthur Mutambara criticising the RBZ’s use of the youth militia (better known as the green bombers) in ‘Operation Sunrise’ saying they were "illegitimate institutions and you can not use illegitimacy to drive a national programme". The Zimbabwe Independent (4/8) also reported human rights lawyer Arnold Tsunga condemning the "flagrant disregard of the rule of law" by law enforcement agencies during the operation. He said this had resulted in the dehumanising of Zimbabweans at roadblocks by ZANU PF youths "who have no policing authority." However, although he described the operation, authorised by President Mugabe through the Emergency Powers Act, as "unlawful" he did not explain how this was so. Neither was he asked.

The voice distribution patterns of the both the government and private papers is shown in Fig 1 and 2.

Fig 1 Voice distribution in government papers

Fig 2 Voice distribution in the private Press

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