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01 July 2008
By Promise Mkwananzi
Zimbabwe has been going through an unprecedented crisis over the last ten years. The crisis escalated to unimaginable levels recently when there were general elections which produced a groundbreaking outcome, eliminating the ruling party’s majority domination over parliament and government spanning over 28 years.
Analysts say the fact that the ruling party Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) lost its majority in parliament and its candidate, long time president Robert Mugabe was beaten by the opposition, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai had turned the political landscape of Zimbabwe forever.
However the opposition fell short of the 50.01 percent required to form a government and hence there was a need for a second runoff between the two candidates to determine the winner. While the run up to the 29 March 2008 harmonised elections was relatively calm, scenarios in the post election period reflect that there has been a surge in state sanctioned violence targeted at opposition supporters, Human Rights Defenders/Monitors and civil society.
The violence in the aftermath of the March 29, 2008 general election, and ahead of the presidential run-off election on June 27, 2008 is a reaction to thwart the victory of the opposition and undermine the democratic process. The post election era has witnessed frightening increases in state sanctioned politically motivated violence with 4359 cases having been recorded in April 2008, indicating a 470% increase in monthly recordings from pre election levels of 795 (Zimbabwe Peace Project, 2008).
Scores of opposition supporters have been brutally murdered in cold blood. Tens of thousands have been internally displaced and 3 million (DFID 2008) have fled the country to seek socio-economic refuge in neighbouring countries. Many more are thought to be unrecorded illegal immigrants, all in all, the total figure of Zimbabweans living abroad is thought to be around 5 million, which is almost half of the entire population. All these people are not allowed to vote as they are perceived to be likely to vote for the opposition.
The leader of the main opposition party Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested more than 5 times in two weeks and prevented from campaigning freely since his return to Zimbabwe from exile on the 24th of May 2008. His secretary general, Tendai Biti was arrested on the 12th of June 2008 and remains in police custody beyond the 48 hours which is the stipulated time within which the police can withhold a suspect. . He is being charged with treason, causing disaffection in the military ranks and insulting President Robert Mugabe and faces a death penalty if these charges are proven. More than 3000 opposition activists are in police custody including 9 members of parliament.
Against this background, the opposition, MDC candidate Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai has pulled out of the presidential runoff which was scheduled for the 27th of June 2008. His rival, Mr. Robert Mugabe has responded by saying that the withdrawal by Morgan Tsvangirai has been filed well out of time and for that reason the withdrawal was of no legal force or effect. The ZANU PF pliant Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) said it does not recognize the purported withdrawal and it is proceeding with the Presidential run off election this Friday as planned. The ballot papers have been printed and dispatched and advising Mr. Tsvangirai accordingly.
The leader of the MDC, Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai cited the reasons stated above for his party’s withdrawal. He also said that his party, MDC has unearthed an elaborate and decisive plan by ZANU PF to rig the elections through the following measures:
• Commandeering the uniformed forces to use the postal ballot and forcing them to vote in front of their superiors.
• The prevention of MDC election agents to get to the polling stations through roadblocks and arrests.
• The three Mashonaland provinces have been identified as rigging centers where ballots are going to be stuffed.
• Villagers are having their national identity cards confiscated denying them their right to vote.
• There is a plan to record the serial numbers of ballot papers so as to intimidate voters.
• The holding of forced pungwes (overnight meetings) where MDC supporters are beaten and forced to undergo “re-education”.
• The abuse of traditional leaders and the use of massive violence as a weapon to influence the ballot.
The international community has been dismayed by the killings, torture and intimidation of the opposition in Zimbabwe. There is a growing consensus that if Mugabe goes ahead with the election with himself as the sole candidate and thereafter declare himself, the international community will not recognize him. In addition, on top of the sanctions which are already there, talks are already underway to extend the sanctions to be more hurting on Mugabe, his henchmen and their families.
The obvious difficulty has been how to come up with sanctions which do not have the side effect of hurting the ordinary people more than Mugabe, hence the personal sanctions which target key individuals of the Mugabe regime and the people who have been and continue to derive benefits from the evil deeds of this regime.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), the European Union and the United Nations have all clearly pronounced the disapproval of what is happening in Zimbabwe and urged Mugabe to postpone the election, allow a facilitation for dialogue led by SADC and AU and supervised by the UN . The dialogue should lead to a fresh election to be held under a transitional authority observed, supervised and supported by the international community.
While the efforts of the international community are very commendable particularly the unanimous decision of the UN security council to discuss and condemn the Mugabe regime, it is the considered view of this author that if the international community does not quickly become more assertive and take concrete to steps the madness of the Mugabe regime, the situation could quickly slide into an even more horrifying, bloody genocide. These sentiments are shared by Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian Army General who led a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Rwanda just before the genocide, Mr. Dallaire told a workshop on peace and security in Pretoria, South Africa that the situation in Zimbabwe and the Darfur Region was similar to that of Rwanda during the pre-genocide era.
The international community should certainly do more than what is has done so far, for example there is need to push the AU during the forthcoming AU Heads of State Summit on the 30th of June 2008 in Cairo, Egypt to suspend Mugabe from the African Union for violating its ban on unconstitutional transfer of power and take assertive action towards reconstituting Zimbabwe into a democratic state taking measures to avert a possible military coup through working with the international community.
They should then establish a UN backed peace keeping mission and refuse to give development aid through the illegitimate ZANU PF until the situation in Zimbabwe returns to normalcy and there is clear and evident compliance with the rule of law, democratic principles, protection and promotion of human rights and clear and sustentative accountability systems and mechanisms which will ensure that the government does not manipulate aid to further its political goals at the expense of the intended beneficiaries of the aid.
ZANU PF has in the past asked people to produce evidence that they support it in order to get food aid, land employment and any other service which the government should provide to its entire people regardless and in spite of their political affiliation.
There is need to totally isolate Mugabe and send him clear message that it cannot be business as usual when he came to power though a bloody campaign and ruling the country illegally. South Africa must use its economic leverage on Zimbabwe by threatening to and if need be blockade the Zimbabwe-South Africa border and refuse Zimbabwe permission to use their port until the Zimbabwe government adheres to internationally accepted standards of democratic governance, rule of law and good governance.
The South African border strategy helped pressure the colonial regime of Ian Smith in 1980 to surrender power to the black majority government when the South African government threatened to close the border. Immediately, the Smith regime resumed dialogue and allowed a majority government. The South African government has no option but to take this bold stance to help censure Mugabe and his criminal cabals.
It would be interesting to conclude by reflecting on what is likely to happen to the political landscape of Zimbabwe in the near future. As unreasonable as it seems, Mugabe and his cronies will go ahead with the elections and contest themselves, attempting to argue without success that the opposition withdrew because they feared defeat and that the withdrawal meant that Mugabe was duly elected after all. They will then hasten to inaugurate Mugabe and try to continue with business as normal. This will not be the case; it will not be business as usual. Mugabe will be increasingly isolated and his illegitimacy and contempt for democratic governance will be laid bare for all to see and will result in widespread condemnation and further isolation.
The economy will continue to sink further and further prompting more and more disgruntlement from the people and forcing Mugabe to continue to rely on violence, threats and intimidation to silence the people. This will see the continuation and even escalation of the purging and killing of any potential voices until the international community cannot take it anymore and everything possible will be done to stop Mugabe or his regime will collapse by itself from financial problems and an economic abyss. There are many probabilities of what will happen, however what remains is that the political landscape of Zimbabwe has been irreversibly changed.
ZANU PF, by its own admission lost a majority in parliament and it is now clear to everyone including the international community that ZANU PF`s contract with the people has expired and no matter how hard they try to cling, their demise is nigh. They will have to contend with dialogue with the opposition, facilitate for a fresh election backed by the international community which they will lose dismally. It is now official; ZANU PF will never win an election or be a legitimate government ever again.
Mugabe will go, ZANU PF will fall and some people will pay! Personally, I have followed the tragic events in my country with a bleeding heart. The disappointment and anguish is beyond what words can describe. What might have started off as a systematic purging of key opposition personnel is fast spiraling out of control and escalated into genocide. The killings have rapidly assumed mass-murder, coordinated patterns and the so called international community, covenants’, responsibility to protect and all that rhetoric is still being reproduced at the corridors of power and bureaucracy while the people perish.
As I indicated earlier on in this article, the Zimbabwe times recently quoted Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian army general who led a delayed United Nations peacekeeping mission in Rwanda as saying that the situation in Zimbabwe is comparable to that of Rwanda during the pre-genocide era. He could not have been mistaken. The scores of MDC supporters who have been murdered represent a much bigger problem if the international community does not immediately step in to bring the situation to a halt.
This situation is untenable, despicable and unsustainable. The brutal and shameless mass-murder and torture of the people of Zimbabwe merely for voting against ZANU PF is certainly now beyond sovereignty. The International Community (Here I mean SADC, AU, EU, USA, and UN) can longer afford another hour without acting on flimsy claims of internal affairs rubbish! The attention of the international community is drawn to their Responsibility to protect populations (in this case Zimbabweans) from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
This is an international commitment by governments to prevent and react to grave crises, wherever they may occur reached in 2005 where world leaders agreed, for the first time, that states have a primary responsibility to protect their own populations and that the international community has a responsibility to act when governments fail to protect their own peoples especially the most vulnerable groups.Any ZUNU PF senior official implicated in the murders who dares leave Zimbabwe must be immediately arrested for crimes against humanity. The International Community must send a peace keeping mission NOW and make it clear to Robert Mugabe that he will not be allowed to rule the country through illegal, murderous and illegitimate means.
Those who are hidden and are benefitting from the sanctuary of ZANU PF must be warned that Mugabe will go, ZANU PF will fall and they will pay heavily for their sins. There are some who are publicly speaking for and on behalf of the machinery, who are much younger and have prospects of living far beyond the demise of Mugabe’s political and biological lifespans. We will not tire, they will have to explain their misdeeds and pay the (ULTIMATE) price which justice will charge/demand. There will be no forgiveness in the name of moving forward or national healing. Each and every one of us must and will have to be responsible and account for his or her actions. This is not a threat, it is a promise and people must take heed and disassociate themselves from criminal activities before it is too late.
About the Author
Promise Mkwananzi is a former student Leader who fled Zimbabwe after repeated threats to his life. Promise Mkwananzi was the President of the Zimbabwe National Students Union and worked very closely with the Zimbabwe human rights civil societies and with the opposition, MDC. Promise Mkwananzi continues to fight for democracy in Zimbabwe. He is presently the Spokesman of Global Zimbabwe Forum, an organization of Zimbabweans outside the country fighting for democracy. He is also working with Europe External Policy Advisors (EEPA) to lobby and advise the European Union to take a more assertive stance on Zimbabwe.
About Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born February 21, 1924, he had two older brothers, and one of them, Michael, was very popular in the village. Both his older brothers died, leaving Robert and his younger brother, Donato. His father, Gabriel Mugabe Matibiri, a carpenter, abandoned the Mugabe family in 1934 after Michael died, in search of work in Bulawayo. Mugabe was raised as a Roman Catholic, studying in Marist Brothers and Jesuit schools, including the exclusive Kutama College, headed by an Irish priest, Father Jerome O'Hea, who took him under his wing.
Through his youth, Mugabe was never socially popular nor physically active and spent most of his time with the priests or his mother when he was not reading in the school's libraries. He was described as never playing with the other children but always enjoying his own company. He qualified as a teacher, but left to study at Fort Hare in South Africa graduating in 1951 , Originally graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Fort Hare. Mugabe subsequently earned six further degrees through distance learning including a Bachelor of Administration and Bachelor of Education from the University of South Africa and a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Laws, Master of Science and Master of Laws, all from the University of London External Programme. The two Law degrees were taken whilst he was in prison, whilst the Master of Science degree was taken during his premiership of Zimbabwe.
He rose to prominence in the 1960s as the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). For 11 years in the 60s and 70s Mugabe was a political prisoner in Rhodesia. He left Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) in 1976 to join the Liberation Struggle (Rhodesian Bush War) in Mozambique. Mugabe was hailed by Africans as a hero when he won the general elections of 1980 and became the first President of black-ruled Zimbabwe after calling for reconciliation between formerly warring parties, including white people as well as rival parties.
Mugabe is an outspoken, controversial and polarizing figure. His relationship with the former colonial power the United Kingdom, has been particularly contentious; he is characterized as a violent dictator in the British press, and he in turn denounces the British establishment as inveterate colonialists. The 2008 Zimbabwean presidential election in which he is involved has been marked by accusations of violence and vote rigging.
He has been accused of mass murder during the Gukurahundi massacres in which 30 000 people from the country’s minority tribe were brutally murdered and continues to murder more people indiscriminately. There is a growing fear that Mugabe’s faculties may no longer be functioning efficiently due to fatigue, old age and senility. He has been issuing outrageous orders to kill, displace and harass people. He recently declared that he was appointed by God and only God would remove him.
Famous quotes
Magarate Thatcher can jump in the Thames; she is in concubunage with Satan Botha (1979, during Lancaster House Talks, later apologized for his ‘immoderate language’)
If yesterday you hated me, today you cannot avoid the love that binds me to you and you to me, let us let bygones be bygones (19 April 1980, inaugural speech)
They are the ones who started this violence, now they have gotten more than they bargained for; we have degrees in violence (02 March 2002, shortly before the Presidential elections)
You can never claim to be a leader until and unless the interest of your people become the focus of your leadership (12 June 2004, condemning his Ministers on corruption)
The MDC will never be allowed to rule this country, never ever, only God who appointed me will remove me (21 June 2008, addressing a presidential runoff campaign rally)
They can shout as loud as they like from Washington or from London, or from any other quarter. Our people, only our people, will decide, and no one else (25 June 2008, defying international community and pledging to press ahead with an election in which he has become the only competitor)
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