LONDON - Zimbabwe's unity government has failed to keep its promise to reform state institutions to prevent rights abuses, and perpetrators are given the "all clear", according to Amnesty International. Almost two years into the rule of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Amnesty said torture, harassment and politically motivated prosecutions of human rights defenders and perceived opponents have persisted.
The London-based watchdog said residents of some villages suffered “ceaseless intimidation” by supporters of Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party, which began sharing power with Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in February 2009.
Amnesty called on the unity government to halt the harassment of human rights groups. It said several protests organised by civic movement Women of Zimbabwe Arise were “violently” broken up by police in 2009.
“Seventeen human rights and political activists who were abducted by state security agents in 2008 continue to face charges that are widely believed to be trumped up,” it said.
“The government must end the incessant harassment of human rights activists and take steps to seriously protect rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly,” Van der Borght said.
“The onus is on President Mugabe and Zanu-PF to ensure that key institutions under their control are reformed to end the culture of impunity that still threatens stability in the country,” he added.
Amnesty warned there were “early warning signs” that the situation could deteriorate if urgent measures were not taken to stop state security agents from “carrying out violent political campaigns”.
“Past involvement on their part has resulted in gross human rights violations, including deaths and torture of perceived opponents,” it added.
UN torture expert Manfred Nowak told Agence France-Presse in October that Zimbabwe’s unity government “does not function”, after he was expelled from the Southern African country.
There are widespread reports of systematic and escalating violations of human rights in Zimbabwe under the Mugabe administration and his party, Zanu (PF).
According to human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch the government of Zimbabwe violates the rights to shelter, food, freedom of movement and residence, freedom of assembly and the protection of the law. There are assaults on the media, the political opposition, civil society activists, and human rights defenders.
Opposition gatherings are frequently the subject of brutal attacks by the police force, such as the crackdown on a March 11, 2007 Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally. In the events, party leader Morgan Tsvangirai and 49 other opposition activists were arrested and severely beaten by the police.
Human rights defenders in Zimbabwe are systematically targeted and subjected to arbitrary detention, arrest, disappearance and torture.
Post published in: Politics