SPT-Zimbabwe Update No.3. June 2011: Beyond Livingstone

The excitement over the resolutions of the SADC Troika meeting in Livingstone, Zambia, at the end of March 2011, was largely focused on the stronger stance taken by the organ over the abuses of the Mugabe regime, and more particularly the continued obstacles placed by the latter over the implementation of the GPA. In effect however, the Livingstone resolutions brought into effect the major strength of the SADC mediation, which has been to lock the Mugabe regime into structures of accountability. Whatever the weaknesses of the GPA, and there are many, it has forced Zanu PF into closer accountability for its behavior at different levels including cabinet, parliament, JOMIC, the constitutional reform process, SADC, the AU and its relations with the West.

For authoritarian parties like Zanu PF, all these forms of having to answer to various fora are anathema, as they provide varying means of eroding the monopoly of power that the regime has become completely accustomed to. The accumulation of small reforms and the slow dispersal of power provide a major challenge for such structures of authoritarian power, as they provide the possibility of a cumulative momentum of dissent that can be very difficult to control. When combined to the major challenge of the succession problem in Zanu PF, now an very urgent issue in the light of Mugabe’s waning health, these factors have pushed Zanu PF into emergency election mode.

The challenge for Zanu PF since the signing of the GPA, and more urgently following the Livingstone meeting, has been to decide on what strategies to deploy in the next election campaign. The party’s recidivist impulse to return to violence is clearly very strong, particularly given the increasing control of the party and the state by the securocrats. Moreover the reports of various human rights organization have shown growing evidence of the low level, pre-election intimidation...Read more

SPT-Zimbabwe Update No.2. March 2011: The Silencing of the Bones

Over the last few days, I have watched, listened to, and read with growing horror and dismay, about events unfolding in Mount Darwin, Zimbabwe, where human remains are currently being hauled out of mine shafts by completely unqualified individuals. I have examined with great sadness, photographs of dishevelled piles of skulls, long bones and other indiscriminately exhumed human remains.

There are 206 bones in each human body – each hand has 27 bones and each foot has 26, meaning half of our bones are in our hands and feet – does the average war veteran currently hurling around the dead in Mount Darwin know this, or care? What is happening to all those delicate wrist and hand bones, in the chaos that is going on?

Does the average Mount Darwin exhumer understand that in order to age, or sex, a set of human remains, they need to be complete – an expert will consider various indicators on a human skull, pelvis, long bones and a particular rib, before drawing a probable conclusion on whether the deceased is male, or female, and 18 years or 65 years old. Knowing that the majority of people in a particular site are of a certain age and sex, for example, could help unravel the circumstances of their deaths. But this opportunity has already been largely taken away by the fact that it is not possible to be sure which bones make up which person at this stage.

An expert forensic anthropolist will be able to tell you not only that a certain set of remains is a woman, but will be able to tell you whether she was pregnant or not at the time of murder, and whether she gave birth during her life time. An expert will be able to tell you that a particular man was 1m 78cm tall when alive, that he was left handed, and that he broke his leg as a child. In short, an expert can give an unusual voice to the dead – can return identity and life experiences to an otherwise silent pile...Read more

SPT-Zimbabwe Update No.1. March 2011: The effects of the events in North Africa on Zimbabwean Politics

Given the economic and political convulsions that have marked Zimbabwean politics for the last decade, it is not surprising that the momentous events in North Africa have been imported and constructed in contested ways by the major political players in Zimbabwe. With the Zimbabwean landscape torn by the polemical rupture between the redistributive language of the ruling party Zanu PF that has monopolized the legacy of the liberation struggle, and the opposition MDCs and civic movement that were formatively shaped by the politics of human rights and constitutionalism from the 1990′s, the complex events of the Maghreb have resonated differently within Zimbabwe.

Mugabe’s Zanu PF have responded with a combination of renewed coercion of opposition and civic leaders, and combined this with the launch of their campaign for the next election which could take place in either 2011 or 2012. Soon after the events in Tunisia and Egypt, Zanu PF organized a form of pre-emptive demonstrations and violence demanding a greater indigenization of the economy. This action and its accompanying demand need to be understood within the context of the Mugabe regime’s attempt to construct the ‘sanctions’ or ‘targeted measures’ imposed by the EU and US on key figures of Zanu PF for human rights abuses since 2000, as a regime change strategy that amounted to broader economic sanctions against the people of Zimbabwe. The sanctions campaign has thus become the central focus of the ruling party’s strategy both as a central election strategy and as an attempt to mobilize popular opinion to give the impression that the real heirs of the events in North Africa are not the opposition forces but the ruling party itself. In this scenario the popular risings in North Africa have been interpreted as struggles against authoritarian regimes propped up by Western imperialism...Read more

The Solidarity Peace Trust urges humane treatment of Zimbabwean Refugees

The Solidarity Peace Trust condemns the relentless harassment of Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa at a time when Zanu PF is once again terrorising Zimbabweans in some parts of their country.

We draw South Africa’s attention to the fact that Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) members and supporters are once again being abducted or arrested – in some cases after being attacked by marauding gangs. In some rural areas, it is alleged that homes are being burnt down, crops destroyed and food aid withheld. Soldiers are alleged to be taking part in the harassment and threats.

South Africans need to be aware of the escalating destabilization that is preventing asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants from going home. The majority of Zimbabwean exiles would prefer to return to their families and rebuild their lives but they continue to perceive that it is unsafe to do so.

The Trust acknowledges that the South African government has consulted widely with refugee organisations and NGOs and is taking steps to improve the situation. We commend the Department of Home Affairs for becoming more proactive and setting up mechanisms to fast-track the documentation processes.

However, there are still worrying issues that need to be addressed. Members of the South African Police continue to harass, arrest and assault asylum seekers and economic migrants, threatening them with deportation, and in numerous cases demanding bribes.

Although there is currently a moratorium on deportations, the situation could change on 1 August when the deadline for new Zimbabwean asylum-seeker applications and the amnesty period for regularising documentation expires. The Zimbabwean government’s failure to provide passports and other vital documentation continues to stall the process. In April 2009, Human Rights Watch reported that as many as 18 000 Zimbabweans were deported...Read more