Christopher Dube

The severity of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe has increased in the past three years, according to a recently released Human Rights Watch report. State security institutions are directly involved in the violations — a new development since 2000, when militias and war veterans were mainly responsible.

A South African military analyst has warned that the rumoured imminent deployment of 3 000 Angolan police officers to Zimbabwe could backfire on the Mugabe government if the salaries of Zimbabwean security forces are not increased. Over the past few months there have been increasing reports of desertions by Zimbabwean security force members who are dissatisfied with low pay.

In its seventh consecutive year of economic recession, Robert Mugabe’s stranglehold on power is atrophying in a way that was unimaginable a year ago. The Franco-African summit in Cannes went ahead recently without Mugabe after the French bowed to pressure from Britain to rescind their invitation to the Zimbabwean head of state.