Violations (10-08-07)

um in Harare documented 5,307 human rights violations from January through the end of June compared to 2,868 during the same period a year ago.
The group said the violations included two politically linked deaths, 328 cases of torture, 481 assaults by state personnel and militants, 802 cases of unlawful arrest and detention, 935 incidents of political victimization and intimidation, and 1,937 violations of freedom of expression and movement.
The group said it did not include the deaths of two other opposition activists in its report because evidence in the cases was still being collected.
The Human Rights Forum, a group of 16 non-governmental organizations based in Harare , produces regular reports on human rights violations in the country. It also provides legal and social assistance to victims of organized violence and torture, according to its Web site, and was founded in 1998 when President Robert Mugabe deployed troops to crush food riots triggered by soaring inflation.
Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980, blamed largely on the seizures of thousands of white-owned farms began in 2000. Unemployment is around 80 percent, and foreign investment, loans and development aid have dried up.
To stifle potential political unrest, Mugabe has violently cracked down on opposition movements, launched mass arrests and asserted increasing control over media and communications.
There was no immediate public response from the Zimbabwe government to the report. But the government in the past few months has justified its clampdown on opposition activists by saying they are part of a Western conspiracy to harm the country.
In addition to the political clampdown, more than 7,000 business executives, store managers and traders have been arrested since July in a drive to enforce a government order to slash prices of all goods and services by half.
Official inflation is 4,500 percent annually — the highest in the world — although independent estimates put it closer to 9,000 percent. The International Monetary Fund has forecast inflation could rise to 100,000 percent by the end of the year.