GENOCIDE WATCH
Press Release
Politicide Watch for Zimbabwe: January 31, 2002

In his increasingly desperate attempt to fix the March 9-10 Presidential
elections to guarantee his own re-election, President Mugabe has now
forced through Parliament a new "Public Order and Security" law that will
allow his police to ban public demonstrations and will criminalize
statements that could cause "contempt or ridicule" of President Mugabe.
Zimbabwe's electoral supervisory commission will have sole power to
monitor the elections and could ban foreign monitors, although it has not
yet done so because of threats of international sanctions. A proposed law
on the media would require journalists to obtain government licenses, and
would ban foreign reporters. These restrictions on civil liberties have
received widespread international attention.

Far more ominous, and less noted in the international press, is the
organization of militias by the President's Zimbabwe African National
Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). President Mugabe is Shona. These
militias, recruited from unemployed young men, and trained and armed by
the ruling party, have murdered opposition political leaders, including
candidates for Parliament, and have joined with so-called "veterans" of
the independence struggle (many of whom were not even born then) to beat
and terrorize supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change,
a political party that transcends ethnicity, but has its greatest support
in Matabeleland.

President Mugabe's regime has a history of committing genocidal massacres.
From 1982 to 1983, the North Korean - trained Fifth Brigade, composed of
ethnic Shonas, murdered between 2000 and 8000 Ndebele in south-western
Zimbabwe, according to a 2001 investigative report of the Catholic
Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe and the Legal Resources
Foundation of Zimbabwe. The mass murders were assisted by Shona militias
like the militias now being organized by ZANU-PF. The crimes included mass
murder of whole villages, mass rape, and widespread torture. The victims
were often forced to sing Shona songs before being beaten and killed.
Although these massacres were not an attempt to destroy a whole group,
they did intentionally destroy part of an ethnic group and were therefore
genocidal massacres, because victims were chosen by their ethnic Ndebele
identity. No one has ever been prosecuted for these massacres, and
commanders who perpetrated them are now at high levels of the Zimbabwe
armed forces.

Genocide Watch went to Zimbabwe in October 2001 and directly investigated
the alarming developments there. With the Fellowship of Christian
Churches of Southern Africa and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, we
also co-sponsored a conference on conflict transformation attended by
ninety church leaders from all over southern Africa.

Genocide Watch believes that the early warning signs for politicide
(political mass killings) and possibly even genocide in Zimbabwe have now
reached Stage Six: Preparation. Genocide Watch has found that genocides
and politicides develop in Eight Stages, with the actual genocide at Stage
Seven. (Denial is stage eight.)

The first six stages have developed as follows: Classification: the
population is ethnically classified and ZANU-PF has become an ethnic
party. Symbolization: Possession of ZANU-PF party membership cards is
mandatory to avoid beatings by the Shona militias. Dehumanization:
President Mugabe refers to his opposition as "weeds," and has called on
ZANU-PF to "go and uproot the weeds from your garden." In August, Vice
President Msika declared, "Whites are not human beings." Organization: the
ZANU-PF Youth Brigades are militias being systematically trained and
armed, taught Shona songs, and organized like the militias that
participated in the 1982-1983 genocidal massacres. Polarization:
President Mugabe regularly appeals to race and ethnicity, and refers to
his opponents as "traitors" and "terrorists." Preparation: President
Mugabe's latest moves to shut off Zimbabwe from monitoring by human rights
groups, election monitors, and the press, and his new laws to criminalize
anyone who criticizes him, are ominous signs that he is planning at least
massive election fraud. Enemy lists have been compiled by the state and
party intelligence services, a sign that political and possibly ethnic
violence and terror are being planned that President Mugabe wants to hide
from outside scrutiny.

Genocide Watch has three levels of Alerts. A Genocide or Politicide Watch
is declared when early warning signs indicate the danger of genocide or
political mass killing. A Genocide or Politicide Warning is called when
genocide or politicide is imminent, often indicated by massacres. A
Genocide Emergency is declared when genocide is actually underway.

Genocide Watch declares a Politicide Watch for Zimbabwe. We call on
governments to protest not only President Mugabe's new restrictions on
civil liberties, but also to demand, in the strongest terms, that ZANU-PF
dismantle and disarm its Youth Brigade militias. President Mugabe must be
put on notice that if political or genocidal massacres are committed by
these militias or by elements of the Zimbabwe armed forces, he will be
held personally responsible. If such massacres occur, Zimbabwe's leaders
should be subject to strong, targeted political sanctions, and President
Mugabe and those who might perpetrate the crimes should be subject to
prosecution.

Genocide Watch is the Coordinator of the International Campaign to End
Genocide P.O. Box 809, Washington, D.C. 20044 USA. Phone: 703-448-0222
Fax:703-448-6665, E-mail:[email protected] Web: www.genocidewatch.org

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