JOHANNESBURG - Politically motivated human rights abuses have continued
in Zimbabwe contrary to the letter and spirit of a power-sharing
agreement between the ruling ZANU PF party and the opposition,
according to the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum.
The Forum said in its latest monthly report on rights violations in
Zimbabwe that the police had in several cases committed rights abuses
under the guise of preserving law and order.
The report, reviewing cases of rights violations in the month of
September, says a total of 385 incidents of abuse were recorded in that
month alone which is nearly five times the total recorded in the
previous month of August.
Ironically President Robert Mugabe and opposition MDC leaders Morgan
Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara signed on September 15 an agreement to
form a power-sharing government in which the two opposition politicians
would serve as prime minister and deputy prime minister respectively.
"Contrary to the spirit and letter of the Agreement,
politically-motivated human rights violations continue to be recorded
with some violations being perpetrated by members of the ZRP (Zimbabwe
Republic Police) under the guise of preserving public order," the Forum
said in the report made available to ZimOnline at the weekend.
"Furthermore most of the violations in the report occurred after the
signing of the power-sharing agreement," said the Forum, whose report
was released the same week as one of its board members Jestina Mukoko
was kidnapped from her home by people who claimed to be members of the
police.
Mukoko, who is head of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) that majors in
monitoring and documenting politically motivated violence in the
country, was abducted last Wednesday from her home in Norton town, 50km
west of Harare.
Mukoko has not been seen or heard from since then and the Harare High
Court will on Monday hear an urgent application by her lawyers seeking
an order compelling the police to release her or, if they are not
holding her, to probe her disappearance.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Information Minister and
government spokesman Sikhanyiso Ndlovu were both not immediately
available to respond to charges that human rights violations are
increasing and that police have committed abuses.
However the government has in the past rejected criticism of its human
rights record by the Forum, which it accuses of seeking to use false
claims of human rights abuses by state agents as part of a wider
Western-led plot to tarnish and vilify Mugabe’s government.
The Forum said in its report that it had recorded 44 cases of unlawful
arrest and detention of citizens by the police in September alone.
In other incidents, police in Buhera and Masvingo districts allegedly
arrested scores of MDC supporters for celebrating the signing of the
power-sharing agreement, according to the report.
The Forum report also documents 93 cases of politically motivated
assault, including an incident where some MDC supporters were assaulted
by ZANU PF youths in the presence of police officers at Mbare police
station in Harare.
The opposition supporters were allegedly assaulted after they attempted
to reclaim their homes which had been confiscated by ZANU PF supporters
at the height of the June 2008 electoral violence, the report said.
"The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum condemns such acts of violence and
calls upon the parties to the (power-sharing) agreement to honour their
obligations," the report said.
Under the power-sharing agreement, political parties undertook to shun
violence and uphold the freedoms of expression and association.
However the agreement remains in limbo because Mugabe and his main
rival Tsvangirai cannot agree on how to share key ministries and other
top government posts.
Politically motivated violence and human rights abuses – mostly blamed
on state agents -Â have become routine in Zimbabwe since the emergence
in 1999 of the MDC as a potent electoral threat to Mugabe and ZANU PF’s
stranglehold on power.
For example, Tsvangirai says that more than 100 members of his MDC
party were killed and more than 10 000 others displaced in political
violence in the run-up to the June presidential run-off election
Tsvangirai -Â who pulled out of the run-off to protest the violence and
despite having led Mugabe in the first round of voting in March -Â has
said while Mugabe could let be off the hook, those in his inner circle
should stand trial for political violence and other crimes. -Â
ZimOnline.