Cape Town — A leading international human rights group has warned of escalating violence in Zimbabwe as the August 23 elections loom.
The New-York based Human Rights Watch says in a report issued on Thursday that "there is widespread concern" that physical assaults against opposition leaders and followers could increase as the election approaches.
"The ruling ZANU-PF and its political allies have commonly used violence as a tool of political coercion," says the report. "The overwhelming majority of victims of violence during the country’s previous elections were officials and members of the opposition, their supporters, and those perceived to be against ZANU-PF, including ordinary Zimbabweans and civil society activists."
Against this backdrop, the report cites only a few cases of violence by Zimbabwe's opposition supporters.
The report, written by Idriss Ali Nassah, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch’s Africa Division, finds that a "seriously flawed electoral process threatens the fundamental rights of Zimbabweans to freely choose their representatives."
In support of its conclusion, it cites:
-- The adoption and use of repressive laws,
-- The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s "lack of impartiality",
-- Partisan conduct by the police,
-- Intimidation and violence against the opposition,
-- Lack of access to voters' rolls by opposition parties, and
-- Impunity for those who have committed election-related abuses.
The report is entitled “‘Crush Them Like Lice’: Repression of Civil and Political Rights Ahead of Zimbabwe’s August 2023 Election”. The title is drawn from a speech by Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga in February 2022, in which he is reported to have said of the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change, "you see how we crush lice with a stone... You put it on a flat stone and then flatten it to the extent that even flies will not make a meal out of it. That is what we are going to do to CCC".
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In a news release issued with the report, Nassah said that "Zimbabwe’s authorities have yet again demonstrated a lack of respect for the basic freedoms necessary for a credible, free, and fair election... The inability of many candidates to campaign freely and openly throughout Zimbabwe raises serious concerns about whether the election results will reflect the political will of Zimbabwe’s people.”
Human Rights Watch called on the Zimbabwean authorities to ensure that the police act "in a neutral and non-partisan fashion" and that police and other officials who violated human rights should be held to account.
The group also called on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and African Union (AU) member states to pressure the Zimbabwe government to allow access to all election sites by national and international electoral observers.
"They should also urge the government to implement the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, and ensure that SADC and AU election observers remain in Zimbabwe for a sufficient period beyond the vote count to monitor possible post-election related human rights violations," Human Rights Watch said.
