Ending the siege on Zimbabwean people is vital for African progress

Ruvimbo Shingaira

Jun 05, 2003

This week, while African leaders persuaded the G8 heads in Evian to listen to the views of African heads of state on their own development path, the Zimbabwe regime used military force to suppress the views of its people.

The five African leaders argued for a new attitude towards Africa, based not on aid, but on respect for African approaches to solving economic and social problems. While there is debate on the paths being put forward, the idea that powerful nations stop unilaterally restructuring the world to suit their own goals, at the cost of poverty and decline in the south is not in dispute.

This makes the Zimbabwe regime’s efforts to unilaterally restructure economic and political life to secure its own political survival at the cost of a nation’s economic misery and fundamental rights a problem for the continent as a whole. It fundamentally undermines a central African position in global engagement.

Zimbabwe is currently in a freefall to economic collapse. Unemployment has soared, rural production declined, productive land is underutilized, and essential supplies sold at unaffordable prices in the parallel market. Once vibrant production and service sectors have collapsed.

While the long term imbalances of an inequitable colonial economy are not in dispute, the flight of capital, the exile of millions of young Zimbabweans, destructive engagement with the international community, growth of hunger, acute collapse of production and growth in speculation traces back to the policies of the current regime, and its unwillingness to listen to national voices other than its own.

The massive desire for a new people driven constitution has been shelved, and efforts to revive it are met with brutal suppression. Electoral processes have been undermined by violence and suppression of basic electoral rights, culminating in a 2002 presidential election that Southern African Development Community (SADC) parliamentarians said did not met regional standards. People’s efforts to gather within civil society to defend labour rights, to be informed through national media, to join political parties of their choice or to freely chose elected leaders have culminated in arrests, assault, torture and starvation, reinforced by a violent extra legal partisan militia. Frustration over political exclusion, economic decline and rights abuses have led to an increasing level of non-violent social action in 2003, including labour strikes and national stayaways. These too have been met with arrest of civil and political leaders and assault of citizens. Southern African leaders calling for Zimbabwean people’s rights to peacefully protest have been ignored.

In May heads of state from the region travelled to Harare in an effort to broker dialogue. While the need for dialogue was publicly endorsed by both ZanuPF and MDC, there appeared to be no sign of urgency or initiative from the regime to take dialogue forward, nor to resolve the economic crisis. Instead dialogue was tactically blocked by ZanuPF demands that a central agenda issue– that of legitimacy – be dropped.

Angered by poverty, confronted by lack of constructive leadership in the regime, disillusioned by lack of decisive action from regional leaders, ordinary people have now pushed for their own right to act. In a week of collective action from 2 to 6 June 2003 in Zimbabwe, there was an almost complete shutdown of workplaces and stayaway of workers. Thousands of people tried to hold peaceful marches in different parts of the country but were forced back by police, army and armed militias using teargas and live ammunition. People were indiscriminately assaulted with batons and whips, some within their homes. Unarmed youth were forced back using dogs, helicopters with tear gas, water cannons and weapons. By midweek over 300 people were reported to have been arrested, including the MDC President, Morgan Tsvangirai, and Secretary-General, Welshman Ncube, the Mayor of Bulawayo, Japhet Ndabeni Ncube, numerous city councilors, MDC officials and Members of Parliament. A number of cases have been reported of people still missing after being detained by security forces. The major cities of the country have been put under siege through army, militia and police assault and violence to hold people within their areas.

This stand off between ordinary people and the crackdown on democratic rights by security and army operatives in the streets of Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and other parts of Zimbabwe is not simply an abuse of the democratic right to peaceful protest, it is a symbol of the crisis that Zimbabwe has reached. Will Africans vacillate over political uncertainty while ordinary people are abused by military power? The UN Secretary General, an African, urged the MDC to ensure their action was peaceful and lawful, and urged the Zimbabwe government to respect basic principles of freedom of expression and assembly and the human rights of those participating in the mass action. African American Organisations in the US from trade union, African solidarity, church and civil society, coming from a tradition of progressive solidarity with struggles for decolonization and against apartheid, condemned the ‘police brutality and excessive force’ being used. “Such trends in the abuse of human rights are not only unacceptable, they are threats to your country’s stability and they are undermining the economic and political development your people desire and deserve.”

These and other voices are adding to the internal pressure calling for those holding political power to realize that constituent power, not military power, should determine our future in Africa. In the stand off between unarmed people exercising rights to freedom of expression and assembly and armed and violent repression by security forces, it is the hand that holds the ballot and not the gun that fires the bullet that is the basis for our sovereignty.

The bloodshed and abuse of people’s rights in Zimbabwe blots the conscience of the continent. If you agree, petition your media, political leadership, SADC and African Union (AU) leadership condemning the current flagrant abuse of people’s democratic rights in Zimbabwe and calling for:
* An end to the police and military siege of Zimbabwe’s communities;
* Disbanding of militia and an end to police brutality and use of excessive force to repress citizens;
* Recognition of the right to peaceful, non violent collective action;
* An end to political repression and release of political prisoners in Zimbabwe; and
* Immediate and unconditional dialogue between MDC and ZanuPF.

FOUR DAYS OF PROTEST: MONDAY TO THURSDAY

MONDAY:
* Cops shoot live rounds to disperse protestors

Zimbabwean police fired teargas and shot live rounds in the air to disperse several hundred protesters marching towards downtown Harare from the nearby township of Highfield, witnesses said.
* Demonstrators killed, report says
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"Zimbabwe must be seen as a test case for Africa, for the resolve of leaders and peoples to deal with a rogue and illegitimate regime. We in MDC recognise and affirm that violence does not resolve such a crisis, and we will not use the same tools that are used by the repressor." - Morgan Tsvangirai, in an interview with Zimwatch.
* MDC response to protest ban

Zimbabwean police fired tear gas and warning shots at demonstrators in one Harare township on Monday, the first day of a week of opposition protests against President Robert Mugabe, witnesses said.
* Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai released
http://allafrica.com/stories/200306030881.html
AT least 115 people were arrested yesterday as security forces swooped on demonstrators and officials of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a move to crush anti-government protests that are expected to end on Friday.
* G8 concerned about Zimbabwe
* Letter to Mugabe condemns repression
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MDC members arrested in Masvingo, including the member of parliament for Masvingo Central, Silas Mangono, were denied food while being detained, the MDC reported.