The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, pooling 16 civic groups last weekend released the statement on the brutal violence that followed President Robert Mugabe and Zanu (PF)’s devastating electoral loss, in which more than 200 people were killed by security forces and vigilante groups loyal to President Mugabe. The conflict, which ended in 2009 with the formation of a unity government between Mugabe and former opposition leader and now Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, was characterized by widespread and systematic violations of international humanitarian and human rights law by both protagonists, including murder, rape, and torture.
Govt failure
The government has failed to carry out any meaningful investigations or prosecutions for these serious crimes, and has stalled on commitments to establish a truth and reconciliation commission and a special tribunal to prosecute crimes committed during the conflict. A tripartite multi-party committee of ministers tasked with spearheading national healing has been a dismal failure. Human Rights NGO Forum said a study it conducted had revealed that many people were calling upon the Zimbabwean government to take immediate action to bring the perpetrators from all sides of the conflict to justice.
The Forum visited 13 constituencies and met and discussed with people from all backgrounds; teachers, police officers, mothers, youths, elderly people, clergymen, traditional leaders and other professionals. In the consultative meetings, actors, sponsors and victims of violence were discussed, the report says:”The participants noted the manifestations of these violent acts in rape, torture, murder, extortions, kidnappings, blackmail, disappearances, destructions of property, humiliations, selective food and agricultural input distributions and so many other methods.
Victims from all walks of life
“Actors in violence were identified as men, women and youths, soldiers in uniforms, the policemen on duty, secret police and youth from the National Youth Training Service commonly known as the Green Bombers among others. The victims also cut across sections of Zimbabweans from all walks of life.” The participants made interesting contributions that should be used to inform and shape the direction of transitional justice discourses in Zimbabwe, the NGO said. “The participants noted that a truth commission could establish the truth about what happened during Zimbabwe’s dark past and recommend steps toward victim reparations,” says the report. “The participants noted that for the case of Zimbabwe, the establishment of a truth commission could address the dual victim/perpetrator identities since most of the post independence perpetrators are themselves victims of the colonial past including Mugabe and his top security men who are accused of perpetrating violations” The participants were concerned and noted that any truth seeking exercise had to be comprehensive and not only attempt to punish or seek revenge.
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