The Zimbabwean government has turned piecemeal repression of opposition activists into a campaign of full-scale systematic violence in recent weeks, taking advantage of the world’s focus on the Iraq war.
Human rights organisations have documented a startling rise in attacks on supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). In the past month, doctors have reported hundreds of patients seeking treatment for injuries they claim were sustained at the hands of state officials.
The government’s increased violence is seen as a reaction to the MDC’s success in holding a two-day national strike on March 18 and 19, and the opposition party’s victories in two parliamentary byelections at the end of March.
An Amnesty spokesperson said: ”Politically motivated violence and arrests have increased dramatically. Public order legislation is being used to harass and arrest critics of the government. There is no hope for a peaceful future in Zimbabwe unless the international community intervenes immediately.”
Civil rights campaigners fear that the effectiveness of the current anti-government strike, which this week again closed virtually all factories and shops in the country, will prompt more violence.
The government denies it is responsible for the attacks, claiming that the MDC is using army deserters to smear it.
The MDC yesterday rejected the claim. ”Who can believe we would send out men in uniforms to beat, torture and kill our own officials and supporters?” a party spokesman, Paul Themba Nyathi, said.
The furious pace of the serious injuries has left human rights workers struggling to cope. At least two deaths have been recorded, according to human rights groups, and doctors say they are treating victims at a rate of 10 a day.
The home of Margaret Kulinji, secretary of the MDC’s women’s league, was invaded by 16 soldiers in uniform at about 1am on March 22. Armed with AK-47 automatic rifles, truncheons and lengths of hosepipe, the men carried a list of MDC officials who were their targets. They beat Ms Kulinji with their fists and rifle butts, kicked her and whipped her with the cord of her iron. They also beat her mother.
”They forced my mother to open her legs and they abused her with the mouthpiece of the AK rifle,” said Ms Kulinji, grimacing as she looked at her sleeping in the next hospital bed.
The soldiers then went to the homes of other MDC officials on their list.
Chained
Kulinji’s experiences are by no means unique. Tonderai Machiridza, another MDC member, was arrested with three friends on April 12 and accused of stealing a pair of handcuffs from a policeman during the March strike. He was severely beaten in police custody. Eventually he was taken to hospital, where he was chained to a bed.
A magistrate ordered his release and he spoke to journalists. But he collapsed and died on April 18. An autopsy showed that he died of internal injuries from beatings.
Police on Wednesday night arrested 55 mourners gathered for his funeral, including his mother and wife, and allegedly beat them. The police then ordered the body to be buried while the mourners were still in detention. The MDC’s president, Morgan Tsvangirai, was also barred from attending the burial.
The police yesterday issued a statement claiming that Machiridza was arrested for striking a policeman with a stone during the March 18 and 19 stoppages. A police spokesman, Wayne Bvudzijena, said two police officers were facing murder charges following his death.
Raphinos Madzokere was also targeted. The MDC district secretary for east Mashonaland was dragged from his home on March 21 by 25 soldiers at about 2am. For three days he was beaten with batons, wires and logs.
”They put wires on my toes, my tongue and my penis and shocked me until I lost consciousness,” said a still dazed Mr Madzokere. He was finally dumped by the roadside and was taken to hospital with fractured vertebrae, head injuries and wounds all over his body.
”They ordered me to give up the MDC, but I refused,” he said. ”I cannot give up our hope for a better government. I would be betraying so many people.” His family has paid a high price. They have moved home four times in six weeks.
”The level of violence against the opposition party has taken a quantum leap,” said a doctor at a Harare hospital. ”It started after the MDC’s national strike in March. That weekend we were inundated with injuries from beatings by the army and others. In some cases we had entire families admitted to hospital – mothers, fathers and children.”
Local campaigners say the army and police, working from lists of MDC members and officials, went from house to house, subjecting them and their families to savage beatings and torture. Often the squads had informers with them who pointed out the MDC supporters, they say.
The MDC says that more than 600 of its officials and supporters were arrested. More than 250 people needed medical treatment in the four days after the national strike, according to figures from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a politically independent body which represents more than 250 civic organisations.
”The majority of the perpetrators were army soldiers in uniform, conveyed in military vehicles to the home of the victims,” the Crisis report said. ”The perpetrators were well equipped with weapons of torture, such as batons, chains, hosepipes and rifles.”
Zimbabwe’s Human Rights Forum confirmed the upsurge in violence, saying: ”The human rights situation is deteriorating critically”.
Diplomats in Harare were alerted to the rise in what the Crisis report calls ”state-organised violence and torture” and saw many victims in hospital. But despite the compelling evidence, South Africa last week led a successful campaign at the UN human rights commission to take no action on Zimbabwe.
The MDC publicised the violence with graphic photographs of the torture victims in advertisements in the privately-owned press. In response, the government is running advertisements accusing the opposition of plotting violence.
Iden Wetherell, editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, said: ”The sheer savagery of this new violence is the government’s reaction to the success of the national strike last month and the opposition’s victories in parliamentary byelections.”
But the political equation has changed, Mr Wetherell said. ”Up to last month Mugabe was able to roll back the opposition and hold the initiative. There has now been a sea change. The opposition is calling the shots. Mugabe is responding viciously, but he is only able to react to events beyond his control.”
As the current three-day national strike has highlighted, pressure is growing on Mr Mugabe because of the massive shortages of basic foods and fuel, inflation of 228% and unemployment above 60%. The latest crisis is a shortage of electric power which has caused power cuts to factories. The reason is that Zimbabwe has not paid its bills for the 35% of its electricity requirements imported from Mozambique, South Africa and Congo.
A sign of the MDC’s new assertiveness is its effort to hold the Mugabe government accountable for the violence. The MDC produced a list, which was published by two newspapers, of police officers accused of torture and violence.
”The Mugabe regime and its agents must be aware that they will be held accountable for their deeds,” said its spokesman, Nyathi. ”We are compiling documented evidence of those responsible for torture and murder. The day of reckoning is not far away.” – Guardian Unlimited Â