National healing elusive, as torture bases re-emerge

The three political parties quickly set up a national healing ministry, headed by top officials from the three parties, to spearhead a national healing process and promote re-building of the country hit by political strife and economic decline for a decade. These were Ministers John Nkomo (Zanu (PF)) (now Vice President), Gibson Sibanda (MDC-M) and Sekai Holland.

A year later, Zimbabweans are becoming disillusioned, as healing appears elusive.

Civil Society organisations fear another escalation of political violence if the new unity government does not reform the uniformed forces and state security departments.

With the increasingly polarized political landscape, a resurgence of is institutionalized human rights violations, particularly in regard to harassment of human rights activists and increased use of repressive legislation are expected. And if Zimbabwe is not to return to the pre-June 2008 era, there is an urgent need for institutional reforms, warns the Civil Society Monitoring Mechanisation (CISOMM).

CISOMM is a grouping of civil society organisations independently monitoring and evaluating the performance of the inclusive government.

The conduct of the Police, Army and Prison officials has remained in breach of the spirit of the Inclusive Government intended to reform these and inculcate a culture of respect for human rights. At the same time these institutions have not yet received any of the human rights training that was also a requirement of the GPA,” it says.

This is disappointing, given the shared responsibility of the Ministry of Home Affairs by MDC and Zanu (PF) Ministers. Training curriculum for the uniformed forces should be urgently revised, with the inclusion of experts from the civil society and implementation to be monitored. This will bring an immediate halt to political violence and intimidation and harassment of political activists, lawyers and journalists. This will also see an increased respect for the freedoms of assembly and association by uninterrupted political rallies, meetings, and workshops of all kinds.

Unaware of healing

A recent survey has shown that most rural Zimbabweans are unaware of the healing process. The survey conducted in all the countrys 10 provinces by the Mass Public Opinion Institute, said 65 percent of the rural population interviewed said they had never heard of the National Healing Organ and its responsibilities.

They said they had no clue about the programme. It also came out in the report that 62 percent of f Zanu (PF) supporters wanted perpetrators of political violence to be given an amnesty, while 59 percent of MDC supporters demanded an immediate arrest of the perpetrators of the June 2008 political violence.

We are surprised that the programme of national healing is talked of in hotels, leaving out the rural areas where the victims are. The other problem is that some of the people who were appointed to spearhead the programme are politicians who were the initiators of political violence. To them it makes no sense to denounce political violence. We must remember that political violence is always initiated by politicians who mobilise people for their political gains and its difficult for the same people to de-campaign the act, says an observer, Bernard Kwangwari.

“This responsibility was supposed to be given to the churches as they are known for praying for peace not some of these politicians who are murderers, commented Sheila Kamangira, another observer.

Torture bases

There have been reports that torture bases have been set up in Nyanga North, Makoni, Chegutu farms, and Gokwe Gumunyu. These are said to be manned by armed personnel and youth militia. Some villagers have been threatened with death if they refuse to support the Kariba Draft when the constitution making teams visit them to solicit their ideas.

CISOMM says it is concerned at the re-emergency of militia controlled torture bases in rural areas ahead of the countrys constitution making process, harassment of human rights activists, journalists and the few remaining white commercial farmers.

Fresh fears have gripped Zimbabwes media fraternity following the arrest of distributors of The Zimbabwean ******, an independent newspaper published in the United Kingdom but widely distributed across Zimbabwe.

The director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zimbabwe chapter, Nhlanhla Ngwenya, said the arrests betrayed the inclusive governments lack of commitment to open up media space.

We have to bear it in mind that this incident comes just a few weeks after journalist Stanley Kwenda fled the country after receiving death threats, and the brief detention of another journalist, Adrison Manyere, says Ngwenya.