Report adds to Mugabe’s isolation

Robert Mugabe’s government has committed severe human rights abuses against the opposition party, has actively repressed the press and the judiciary and is largely responsible for the famine that is currently gripping Zimbabwe, according to a Commonwealth report distributed to heads of government this week.

The Guardian has obtained a copy of the confidential report by Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth secretary general, which says Zimbabwe has suffered significant ”deterioration” in its political, economic and social spheres. It blames Mugabe’s land seizures for the nationwide famine.

”The harassment of opposition and civil society leaders and activists continues,” the report says. ”There have also been several cases of harassment of the press and the judiciary. Legislation prejudicial to freedom of speech, the press and association remains on the statute book.”

The report, which was commissioned in March 2002 when Zimbabwe was first suspended from the Commonwealth, categorically refutes assertions made last month by Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa, and Nigeria’s leader, Olusegun Obasanjo, that the situation in Zimbabwe had improved. It will make it increasingly difficult for the two African leaders to gain support from Commonwealth members for the lifting of Zimbabwe’s suspension.

The report is designed to convince Commonwealth leaders that Zimbabwe’s suspension should continue until the heads of government meet in Nigeria in December.

The findings are also expected to fuel the demand for the Commonwealth to send a team to Zimbabwe to investigate state-sponsored violence against the Movement for Democratic Change, the main opposition party.

The report was only issued after Mugabe repeatedly evaded McKinnon’s at tempts to speak to him. ”All efforts by the secretary general, direct and indirect, to engage in dialogue with President Mugabe have been rebuffed,” said the report.

McKinnon stuck to the findings of Commonwealth observer groups that the parliamentary elections of 2000 and the presidential election of 2002 had not been free and fair and had been marred by violence.

Turning to Zimbabwe’s land controversy, McKinnon emphasised that ”there has never been any doubt about the need for land reform in Zimbabwe, a fact which I have repeatedly acknowledged publicly”. He adds: ”There is clearly a moral case for the United Kingdom to contribute towards transparent, equitable and sustainable land reform in Zimbabwe.” But he found that the Mugabe government’s controversial and often violent land seizures had not been supportable.

The report endorsed the findings of the United Nations Development Project that the land programme had been ”chaotic” and ”the cause of much political, economic and social instability”.

Although the Mugabe government has stated repeatedly that the land seizures ended in August 2002, the report finds that compulsory acquisitions continued until March 2003.

”Reports have continued of a disproportionate number of the best farms being allocated to leading members of the ruling elite, including members of government and senior members of the security services and their families,” McKinnon states.

The report also blames land seizures for causing the famine that is gripping two-thirds of Zimbabwe’s 12-million people. The Mugabe government is also criticised for ”conclusive evidence of the politicisation of food assistance”.

”Regrettably, to date there has been no positive response by Zimbabwe to the [Commonwealth’s] call for political dialogue and national reconciliation,” the report says.

”The depressing situation offers even more grounds for the government of Zimbabwe to change course and to engage in meaningful dialogue with international partners.”