Cape Town — Zimbabwe's rulers have adopted a deliberate strategy of exacerbating tensions between the two wings of the country's divided opposition, according to a new report by a church-sponsored human rights group.
In a 44-page report on the current political and human rights situation in Zimbabwe, the Solidarity Peace Trust said it was clear that President Robert Mugabe was preparing for elections next year by "decimating the structures of the opposition".
The group issued an appeal to South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is acting as a mediator in talks between the Zimbabwe opposition and government, to recognize that the protection of human rights was central in resolving the country's political crisis.
The report, entitled "Destructive Engagement: Violence, Mediation and Politics in Zimbabwe," was released by Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, chair of the trust, at a news conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday. It gave a detailed overview of human rights violations in Zimbabwe over recent months, including the beating and abduction of opposition leaders, torture, assaults in people's homes and in public places, and attacks on lawyers.
One of the report's findings was that the vast majority of attacks was on the faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change headed by Morgan Tsvangirai. "It appeared that at first this was fortuitous," the report said, "but the advantage of using this as a divide-and-rule tactic became apparent to the state and they thereafter made it a strategy."
Information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu had publicly described the Tsvangirai faction as "violent", contrasting it with the "non-violent" MDC faction headed by Arthur Mutambara. And justifying the beating of Tsvangirai by police earlier this year, President Mugabe had said of him: "He is supposed to be a leader, aspiring to be president, and he should know how to behave. Mutambara was not beaten because he knew how to behave."
The trust noted that the ruling Zanu-PF party was reported to be recruiting 10,000 "war veterans" into the country's army as a "reserve force" ahead of elections scheduled for next year, as part of a strategy to prevent the MDC from organizing in rural areas. It also recorded high levels of random assaults by police of members of the public in the opposition-supporting urban areas.
"The intention of state violence in public places," it said, "is to send a general message of repression and control, to leave civilians in areas believed to be opposition strongholds in a state of fear and insecurity, so that social drinking, or attending football, or going shopping become activities that could result in being beaten… This lowers morale and makes people disinclined to be linked to opposition politics…"
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The report said that Zanu-PF was most comfortable about negotiating with its opponents when the environment in the country was one of repression. It was thus imperative that the mediation led by President Mbeki should recognize that:
· "An essential part of any conditions for a free and fair election in Zimbabwe must include the end to state violence and human rights abuses..."
· "Discussions on a new constitution must allow for transitional justice issues, such as accountability for human right abuses, and the truth about such abuses, to be placed on the political agenda at the earliest possible stage of a political transition…" and
· "It must be recognised, in particular by the… mediation process, that the protection of human rights is one of the central issues in resolving the political crisis in Zimbabwe… Any any long-term reconstruction of the economy must be premised on the grounding of human rights issues at the centre of Zimbabwe's political transformation."
