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Supporters rally for Morgan Tsvangirai
Human Rights Group Urges End to Violence in Zimbabwe
by
findingDulcinea Staff
With the presidential election only three weeks away, watchdog group Human Rights Watch says Robert Mugabe must end all political violence in his country.
30-Second Summary
In a new report, Human Rights Watch said it has documented 36 deaths and more than 2,000 injuries at the hands of Mugabe party militants, but that the actual number could be much higher.
"There's no way a credible runoff can take place unless there are drastic improvements in the remaining weeks," Tiseke Kasambala, the Human Rights Watch researcher who compiled the report, said.
Violence has rocked the country since Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai ran against each other in a presidential election in late March.
Tsvangirai beat 28-year incumbent Mugabe, but not with enough votes to avoid a second round. The country will hold a runoff election on June 27.
But some worry political violence could sabotage a fair election.
Last week, while driving to a rally, Tsvangirai and his officials were stopped at a roadback and taken to a police station in the far west of the country. They were released later that day.
The presidential candidate and his party said the detainment was the latest of the government's attempts to sabotage their campaign.
Speaking last week in Bulawayo, a large city in the southwest of the Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai said that Mugabe is determined to turn the country into a "war-zone" in order to steal the election.
"But we will not stop campaigning, the people will not stop supporting the MDC and together we will defeat this illegitimate and desperate regime," he said.
"There's no way a credible runoff can take place unless there are drastic improvements in the remaining weeks," Tiseke Kasambala, the Human Rights Watch researcher who compiled the report, said.
Violence has rocked the country since Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai ran against each other in a presidential election in late March.
Tsvangirai beat 28-year incumbent Mugabe, but not with enough votes to avoid a second round. The country will hold a runoff election on June 27.
But some worry political violence could sabotage a fair election.
Last week, while driving to a rally, Tsvangirai and his officials were stopped at a roadback and taken to a police station in the far west of the country. They were released later that day.
The presidential candidate and his party said the detainment was the latest of the government's attempts to sabotage their campaign.
Speaking last week in Bulawayo, a large city in the southwest of the Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai said that Mugabe is determined to turn the country into a "war-zone" in order to steal the election.
"But we will not stop campaigning, the people will not stop supporting the MDC and together we will defeat this illegitimate and desperate regime," he said.
Headline Link: Improvements needed before election
In its new report released Monday, Human Rights Watch said that in addition to deaths and injuries, thousands of Zimbabweans have been displaced since the March election, "scores" of opposition activists have been arrested, and homes and businesses of opposition supporters looted.
Source: The International Herald Tribune
Background: Zimbabwe’s presidential election
Mugabe’s recount further delayed the announcement of the election results. Amid reports of violence, opposition leader Tsvangirai fled the country.
Source: findingDulcinea
Related Topics: Unrest following the March election
Last week, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said that Tsvangirai, as well as the party's vice-president, national chairman and security personnel, were being "illegally detained" at the police charge office in Lupane by the government.
Source: The BBC
Observers are concerned that a second election round cannot be free and fair due to escalating political violence. The diplomats who were interrogated by police had been touring hospitals and an alleged torture camp when police asked them to prove that they had official permission. The incident was “a message to us, to try to control what we are doing,” said U.S. Embassy spokesman Paul Engelstad.
Source: International Herald Tribune
In May, hackers shut down the website of Zimbabwe's state-owned Herald newspaper for three days. The newspaper is widely seen as the official mouthpiece of the Zanu-PF party. Headlines on the site were replaced by the word "Gukurahundi," a reference to a campaign of atrocities the government is accused of committing.
Source: Reuters
U.S. ambassador James McGee, in response to accusations by the Herald that he is trying to demonize the government, criticized the Zimbabwean government for doing nothing to stop postelection violence. “The degree of the violence is brutality like I’ve never seen before. I’ve even been in war zones.”
Source: Voice of America
The Zimbabwean justice minister has suggested creating cross-party teams to investigate allegations of political violence. “Whenever there is a claim of an act of politically motivated violence committed, it should be very good that we form joint teams made up of the Zanu-PF and MDC so that we can establish the veracity of these claims,” Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said last month.
Source: The BBC
Reference: Zimbabwe’s history and relationship with Mugabe
To understand Zimbabwe’s contemporary situation requires an overview of the past century of the country’s history and the long, tyrannous reign of Robert Mugabe.
Source: findingDulcinea
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