Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Mugabe must be brought to the Hague
London Review of Books
December 27, 2008

Last week, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Mugabe must be told he could be brought to the Hague if he refused to step down, to face trial for gross human rights violations in Zimbabwe. Desmond Tutu is the first high profile personality to propose such a stringent measure on Mr. Mugabe. In July 2008, some media reports claimed that Thabo Mbeki had warned Mr. Mugabe that he risked trial at the ICC, if he rejected negotiations for power sharing with the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai who had trounced him in march elections. Mbeki had previously dispatched a team of retired military officials to Zimbabwe to investigate media reports of wide spread, officially sanctioned politically motivated violence. While the findings of the team were not officially published, it is known they produced a damning report about the grim reality of the of violence rampantly spreading across the country. Desmond Tutu has said publicly what SADC leaders know and say in private but would never dare mention in public.

Mr. Mugabe has not only destroyed one of Africa "s most promising economies, his regime is sitting on a trail of mass graves. While some are known but officially dismissed with contempt, more dead bodies will probably be discovered on the demise of this bloodthirsty regime. Mr Mugabe himself has publicly boasted of his degrees in political violence, regularly uses inflammatory and inciteful language. At the height of the state-perpetrated massacres of the Ndebele people in the western part of Zimbabwe, Mr Mugabe called the nationalist, Dr. Joshua Nkomo, a snake in the house. After the bashing of Morgan Tsvangirai by Zanu PF-s thugs masquerading as police officers, Mr Mugabe told his supporters, "tinodashura", literally meaning we crush.

Mr. Mugabe clearly has a murderous disposition and his culpability for the political fatalities replete in Zimbabwe's brief post independence political history is irrefutable. A cursory audit of at least the known cases is enough to make a valid and convincing case for his trial at the ICC.

By far the ugliest case of ethnic cleansing is Mr Mugabe-s killing of more than 20 000 Ndebele people in the western part of Zimbabwe and the Midlands, for consistently supporting the Joshua Nkomo led ZAPU party. The Zanu PF regime used the North Korean trained fifth brigade, a partisan military structure operating outside the Zimbabwe National army, and constituted by young veterans of the liberation war to unleash a reign of terror, indiscriminately attacking women, children and men, committing arson and grotesque mutilation of dead bodies. All the killed people were civilians. Pregnant women reportedly had their wombs crudely slit open. Former catholic bishop of Bulawayo, Henri Karlen, told BBC in July that the North Korean trained soldiers had been brought to kill and he believed it. The Catholic Commission for Justice reported of indiscriminate beatings, rape, cold blood executions which caused a massive influx of refugees into Botswana and South Africa. The bishop-s further say that starved people were told that after all their livestock is swept away, they will eat their children. Some mass graves were discovered in the Balagwe area of Matebeleland, where large numbers of victims were dumped in former gold mines. Sadly, there was muted silence from the international community. Mr Mugabe continued to be feted with red Carpet receptions abroad while he committed grave crimes at home. Accordingly, Mr Mugabe has continued on a warpath whenever his political stranglehold is under threat.

True to form, Mr Mugabe has since 2000, branded the Movement for Democratic change rank and file enemies of the state. He has reacted with vengeance whenever Zimbabweans don-t vote his party in elections. Thousands of people were killed including white commercial farmers and their workers; while property and livestock belonging to supporters of the opposition is wantonly destroyed. Operation Murambatsvina displaced more than 700 000 people. The Democratic Institute of South Africa, IDASA in its 2008 report commented that there is a systematic culture of torture of voters inclined towards the opposition in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Peace Project, whose director Jestina Mukoko was since abducted, says that between January and September 2008, 20 143 cases of murder, abduction, rape, torture, assault, destruction of property, and unlawful detention were recorded .73% of the victims were known MDC supporters, and 80% of the perpetrators are known Zanu PF activists.

After losing the March 2008 plebiscite to the Morgan Tsvangirai led MDC, Mr. Mugabe invoked a constitutional technicality to cause a runoff election. He then literally declared an open war on the people of Zimbabwe. The plan was hatched by the military Joint Operations Command (JOC) .It intricately involved military officials loyal to Mr. Mugabe collaborating with gangs of drugged marauding youth who committed some of the most heinous murders the world has ever seen. Mangled and mutilated dead bodies were discovered dumped in bushes within the urban areas. In Mutare, a toddler was burnt to death while the mother escaped when the family hut was torched by ZANU PF Border Gezi trained militias, while several MDC activists were burnt to death after ZANU PF militants burnt down a house they were using as offices at Jerera growth point, in Zaka district. Cases of abductions, detentions and killings are on the increase despite the ongoing negotiations .The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum reported 385 cases of different forms of abuses and political violence for the month of November. According to the Zimbabwe Peace Project, whose director Jestina Mukoko was since abducted, 20 143 cases of murder, rape, torture, assault, destruction of property and unlawful detention were recorded for the period January to September 2008. 73%of the victims are confirmed MDC supporters while 80% of the perpetrators are Zanu PF militias. The world should not let Zimbabwe implode in their face because of one man.

The current cholera outbreak should squarely be blamed on Mr. Mugabe. UK Premier, Mr Gordon Brown has called it an international emergency situation. The UN predicted that more than 20 000 people may succumb to the contagion while more than half of the population is in desperate need of food aid and water. Already one thousand and two hundred people have died. For Mr Mugabe this is a process of purging largely the urban population which has rejected him in every election, Hence the sloppy reaction by his illegal regime. It is ZANU PF which has crippled the service delivery system in all urban areas through political interference. The nation has ground to a halt and government failure is exploding before the face of the regime. Tragically the regime is insensitive and not moved one bit. The world must hold the regime accountable for the many unnecessary deaths.

Zimbabwe is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Cambodia, Yugoslavia and Rwanda have shown the world that it is not enough to just speak. It is important to act timorously. Slobodan Milosevic and Charles Taylor were indicted on the basis of the principle of a responsibility to protect the suffering peoples they were busy annihilating. The same action must be meted on the regime in Harare to help the suffering people of Zimbabwe. A campaign to apprehend Mr Mugabe to bring him to The Hague together with his murderous cohorts should be immediately launched to save the people of Zimbabwe.

*Gideon Hlamalani Chitanga is an immediate past vice president of ZINASU and is currently an MA student on Development Studies, governance and democracy in the Netherlands.

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