Police commissioner reportedly orders criminal cases relating to politically motivated murders to be dropped.Fungai Chisvo dabs her eyes with the edge of her white shawl,
struggling to hold back the tears as she describes how her uncle's son
was shot before being set alight inside the building of opposition
group the Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, in rural Masvingo in
June 2008.
He was among eight MDC supporters that had sought refuge in the party
offices after fleeing violence at our home, the 29-year-old told IWPR
on February 16.
Soldiers and ZANU-PF militia first shot them through the windows of the office before petrol-bombing the building.
They were all burnt beyond recognition inside the office. We buried
them en masse without any [viewings of the bodies] as the sight was
horrendous and too grisly to see, she continued, before breaking into
uncontrollable sobs.
Scores of MDC supporters and officials have reported similar accounts
of violence inflicted on them following the March 29 elections, when
their leader Morgan Tsvangirai outpolled President Robert Mugabe but
failed to secure the majority he needed to assume power.
In the parliamentary election held the same day, the two MDC factions easily won the majority of seats in parliament.
Following these defeats, supporters of ZANU-PF reportedly unleashed a campaign of terror against the MDC.
So-called war veterans and militias – apparently accompanied by
uniformed soldiers – are said to have gone on the rampage, assaulting,
raping, murdering and looting the property of those perceived to
support the opposition.
According to the MDC, more than 200 of its supporters were killed in
cold blood by militias supporting the ruling party; several thousand
were seriously injured; and more than 200,000 were displaced.
The opposition leader then pulled out of a presidential run-off on June
27, 2008, citing this intensifying violence, leaving Mugabe to stand
unopposed.
This is why there was such an outcry this week at reports that police
commissioner-general Augustine Chihuri has ordered all charges relating
to murders committed ahead of last year’s presidential run-off to be
dropped.
An article reportedly carried by the online news site The Zimbabwe
Times said that a police circular, dated February 10 and addressed to
all provincial commanders, ordered that they close all murder cases
relating to incidents committed before the second round of presidential
elections.
According to reports, the news site said that beneficiaries of the
amnesty would be ZANU-PF supporters, among them youths, top war
veterans and government officials accused of inflicting atrocities on
people during the election period last year.
The Zimbabwe Times piece reportedly said that Chihuri had dispatched
Deputy Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga to visit all provinces
personally to explain the implications of the alleged directive to
senior officers.
The apparent instruction, however, has been reportedly met with
resistance from law officials in government, who say it is impossible
to drop the charges.
We told [Matanga] that we will not be pushed and that the law has to
take its course, unless President Mugabe [personally] pardons [those
accused of crimes], a court official reportedly said in the Zimbabwe
Times piece.
IWPR made efforts to contact both ZANU-PF and the home affairs ministry
to check the veracity of Chihuri's alleged remarks, but neither could
be reached.
Meanwhile, human rights campaigners are up in arms over the reported call for a blanket amnesty.
Okay Machisa, national director of ZimRights, said it was a travesty of
justice to let perpetrators of political violence off the hook.
He said that those suspected of abuses should stand trial.
ZimRights believes that anyone who violates and abuses human rights
should be brought to court and only the courts can provide judgement,
Machisa told IWPR.
Anyone involved in the perpetration of violence, he said, should be
made accountable for the loss of people's lives, property and peace in
Zimbabwe.
Anyone who tries to stop the course of justice is equally violating
the same rights. It is quite disturbing and seriously inhumane if the
commissioner of police has made such instructions, Machisa went on.
Such instructions are grossly painful and can provoke chaos among the people of Zimbabwe.
Machisa said he believed that the new inclusive government, formed
between ZANU-PF and MDC and inaugurated on February 13, should ensure
that transitional justice is delivered.
But there are concerns that Tsvangirai might be reluctant to pursue the
perpetrators of the violence after joining Mugabe in the unity
government last week.
In his inauguration speech on February 11, Tsvangirai urged ZANU-PF and MDC supporters to bury the hatchet.
People of Zimbabwe, I call upon all of us to put aside our
differences, to begin a process of national healing within every
community, to work across party lines and look forward with hope, while
learning from a sad past that has so devastated our nation and our
people, he said.
But Reverend Useni Sibanda, national director of the Zimbabwe Christian
Alliance, ZCA, a network of church and civic bodies, said a blanket
amnesty was no medicine for healing the nation.
The transitional government needs to first allow a national debate on
how the people of Zimbabwe want the transitional justice issues to be
handled, said Sibanda.
[A] blanket [amnesty] does not take into consideration key ingredients
that bring healing to a nation. The process of healing a nation
involves truth telling, confession, forgiveness, justice and then
reconciliation.
The clergyman said the country needed to know who committed these
offences, under what circumstances and who ordered that these offences
be committed. The victims needed to be involved from the onset, he
added.
The people that [Chihuri] has [reportedly] ordered to be forgiven
should ask for that forgiveness from the victims. It is not just an
issue of murder – pre-and post-election violence involved in most cases
rape [or] destruction of property and this was done by people in the
same neighbourhood, said Sibanda.
Pius Wakatama, an elder of the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance and the
organisation's media manager, warned that an amnesty could spark a
backlash, leading to further violence.
Sweeping issues under the carpet will create a simmering volcano that
will erupt soon. Most of the victims, if they discover that the courts
will not deliver justice to them there, will resort to their own means
of gaining justice, he said.
There is therefore an urgent need to set up a truth, justice and
healing commission that will be given the mandate and framework to deal
with election violence and also [to] include violence that has occurred
since 2000.
Jabu Shoko is the pseudonym of an IWPR-trained journalist.
Post published in: Politics