III. Continuing Human Rights Violations

Despite signing a power-sharing agreement with the MDC, ZANU-PF members and supporters continue to intimidate, harass, and arbitrarily arrest MDC supporters and others perceived to be critical of ZANU-PF. ZANU-PF has also used its partisan control of the judicial system to jail human rights defenders and harass members of the media, all in direct contravention of the power-sharing agreement.

Political Violence against MDC Activists and Perceived ZANU-PF Critics

ZANU-PF and its allies, namely so-called “war veterans” and youth militia, continue to commit acts of political violence against MDC activists in Zimbabwe.[5] For instance, they continue to operate sites throughout Zimbabwe that are used for torture, beatings, and harassment of MDC supporters.Additionally, ZANU-PF youth militia have been using schools across the country as centers for abuse, under the guise of being local Ministry of Youth “ward coordinators.”[6]

Recent examples show how the pattern of ZANU-PF violence has continued since the GPA was signed. On July 3, 2009, ZANU-PF supporters beat up MDC activist Ebba Katiyo of Uzumba, Mashonaland East, accusing her of being a member of the MDC. Katiyo was assaulted by assailants who punched her, kicked her with booted feet, and hit her with sticks. A week later, on July 12, Katiyo was again assaulted by ZANU-PF supporters at a public meeting on the instructions of her uncle, the local village headman and a ZANU-PF supporter.[7]

On July 13, 2009, a well-organized group of ZANU-PF supporters and “war veterans” beat up scores of MDC supporters and disrupted a national constitutional conference in the capital, Harare. No arrests were made despite a heavy police presence.[8] The police remain under the leadership of Augustine Chihuri, a self-proclaimed ZANU-PF supporter.

On July 22, 2009, a group of suspected ZANU-PF activists in Mvuma assaulted Athanacia Mlilo, the 73-year-old mother of the MDC’s international relations coordinator, Nqobizitha Mlilo. They attacked Athanacia Mlilo with iron bars, and she was admitted for urgent medical attention at Mvuma hospital.[9]

On August 1, 2009, three soldiers assaulted Finance Minister Tendai Biti’s gardener at Biti’s home in Harare. The victim, Howard Makonza, was rushed to the hospital.[10] While Makonza was reporting the assault at a police station, one of the soldiers who had assaulted him threatened—in the presence of the police—to assault Makonza again.[11] The Zimbabwe Defense Forces remain under the control of generals who support ZANU-PF, and in all the above cases, police either refused or failed to investigate these attacks despite credible allegations of criminal actions.[12] This kind of police and army misconduct is consistent with previous Human Rights Watch findings in recent years.[13] Biti himself recently told the media that he has been the target of death threats, including having received a bullet in the mail at his home.[14]

Ongoing human rights abuses are not restricted to attacks on MDC supporters. On July 26, 2009, police arrested 12 members of the local civil society organization Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) and three members of the public for taking part in a public protest against Mugabe’s three-day national healing and reconciliation program, which, according to the president, was supposed to counter political violence.[15]

Further, ZANU-PF officials in the new government of Zimbabwe have refused to drop politically motivated criminal charges (for banditry and trying to recruit people for training in banditry) against 15 human rights and MDC activists whom ZANU-PF loyalists in the government arbitrarily arrested from October through December 2008—after ZANU-PF and MDC factions signed the GPA on September 15, 2008.[16] The 15 activists were unlawfully held in secret detention for periods ranging from two to eight weeks, before being brought to court. These delays are well outside the 48-hour deadline by which arrested persons must be arraigned, as mandated by Zimbabwean law.[17]

Seven other MDC activists who were abducted in October 2008, together with the 15 mentioned above, remain missing. They are: Gwenzi Kahiya, Ephraim Mabeka, Lovemore Machokoto, Charles Muza, Edmore Vangirayi, Graham Matehwa, and Peter Munyanyi.[18]

Politically Motivated Prosecution of MDC Legislators and Activists

Since the formation of the power-sharing government, a pattern has developed in which MDC legislators and activists are targeted for arrest by the police and the Office of the Attorney General on apparently baseless charges.[19] This pattern points to a drive by ZANU-PF to overturn MDC’s slender majority in Parliament. At the time of writing, at least 16 MDC legislators have been arrested by police on charges ranging from public violence to kidnapping and rape; seven of whom have already been tried and convicted in unfair trials in which the judges are known ZANU-PF loyalists.[20] Of the seven already convicted, four have since been suspended from Parliament under laws that provide that members of parliament (MPs) sentenced to six or more months of imprisonment shall immediately cease to exercise their parliamentary functions.[21]

Other MDC legislators also face charges that carry potential prison sentences in excess of six months and they too are at risk of losing their seats in Parliament. Finance Minister Tendai Biti faces a treason charge that potentially carries a death sentence. Deputy Youth Minister and MP for Nkulumane Thamsanqa Mahlangu faces a charge of stealing a mobile phone and is on bail awaiting trial. Senator Roy Bennett is charged with illegal possession of “arms of war” and is on bail awaiting trial. Blessing Chebundo, Kwekwe Central MP, faces a charge of rape and is on bail awaiting trial. Trevor Saruwaka, Mutasa South MP, faces a public violence charge and is on bail awaiting judgment.[22]

Five MPs face charges of abusing subsidized farming inputs. They are currently on bail awaiting judgment and are: Hamandishe Maramwidze, MP for Gutu North; Heya Shoko, MP for Bikita West; Edmore Marima, MP for Bikita East; Tachiona Mharadza, MP for Masvingo West; and Evelyn Masaiti, MP for Dzivarasekwa, Harare.[23]

These prosecutions are not only politically motivated; they are also often presided over by politicized and partisan officials loyal to ZANU-PF, making a fair and impartial hearing near impossible.

Not a single ZANU-PF legislator has been arrested or prosecuted for criminal offenses since the GPA was signed, although a number are directly implicated in last year’s political violence and other serious abuses, which resulted in the killing of over 163 MDC supporters between March and June 2008.[24] Similarly, there has been no meaningful action to charge those responsible for brutalizing thousands more MDC supporters over that period and since. And, despite overwhelming evidence, no member of the police or armed forces has been charged with abuses in the Marange diamond fields, despite evidence of serious human rights violations there, which Human Rights Watch has documented in detail.[25]

Politically motivated prosecutions of MDC legislators and the failure to prosecute MPs from ZANU-PF implicated in violence or other serious crimes demonstrate that the Office of the Attorney General and sections of the police under ZANU-PF control continue to abuse the judicial system for political ends.

Harassment of the Media

As mentioned above, the police in Zimbabwe continue to harass members of the media and to improperly limit the right to free expression.

In an unusual case marking the first time journalists working for state-run media have been charged under repressive media laws, on April 7, 2009, the police arrested Brezhnev Malaba, the editor of the state-run and pro-ZANU-PF provincial daily newspaper, the Chronicle, and one of its reporters, Nduduzo Tshuma, on charges of defaming the police in contravention of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (CLA).[26] The two journalists were later released but charges against them remain on the books. The arrest of the two journalists appears to have been driven by personal reasons on the part of senior police officers named in a published article alleging corruption at the Grain Marketing Board, rather than a case of harassment on political grounds.[27]

On May 11, 2009, police arrested Vincent Kahiya and Constantine Chimakure, editors of a privately run weekly paper, the Zimbabwe Independent, on charges of publishing falsehoods with the intention of undermining public confidence in law enforcement agents, in contravention of the CLA.[28] There was no basis for prosecuting Kahiya and Chimakure because they merely published information from indictment papers presented in court by the Office of the Attorney General, which are a matter of public record.[29] The trial of the two journalists is ongoing, but they have since appealed to Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court on the grounds that the sections of the CLA under which they were charged are unconstitutional.[30]

On June 7, 2009, police barred four freelance journalists from covering a regional trade summit taking place in Victoria Falls, despite their having produced a valid High Court order granting them permission to cover the event.[31]

Persecution of Lawyers and Judicial Officers

Human Rights Watch has also found evidence that ZANU-PF loyalists in the judicial system have used prosecution to persecute, intimidate, and harass lawyers and judicial officers. On February 10, 2009, a day before Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister, police arrested two project lawyers with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), Roselyn Hanzi and Tawanda Zhuwarara, for allegedly taking part in a public demonstration organized by Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA). The two lawyers, who told Human Rights Watch that they did not take part in the demonstration, were charged with causing a breach of peace, an offense under the CLA.[32] The lawyers were released on bail on February 12, 2009.[33]

On May 14, 2009, police from the law and order section of the police Criminal Investigations Department arrested a prominent human rights lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, and charged him with obstruction of the course of justice, in contravention of the CLA. Police alleged that Muchadehama had connived with a judge’s clerk to facilitate the improper release on bail of three accused persons (two of them were MDC officials) whom he was representing.[34] Muchadehama was released on bail, and went to trial where a magistrate eventually dropped the case against him.[35] Muchadehama has a long record of defending human rights defenders, MDC activists, and other members of civil society, and has frequently been the target of ZANU-PF harassment.

On May 22, 2009, police arrested Tapera Sengweni, a lawyer representing Blessing Chebundo, an MDC MP from Kwekwe Central, who is facing rape charges, and Kwekwe’s MDC mayor, Shadreck Tobaiwa, on politically motivated charges of obstructing the course of justice, in contravention of the CLA.[36] Both of their trials are pending.

On March 6, 2009, police arrested Magistrate Livingstone Chipadze in the city of Mutare and charged him with criminal abuse of office under the CLA. They alleged that he improperly ordered the release on bail of MDC Senator and Deputy Agriculture Minister-Designate Roy Bennett.[37] Chipadze was sent to trial, but was eventually acquitted on August 4, 2009.[38] While police have been quick to make these kinds of arrests based on politically motivated charges, no action has been taken against those who attack MDC members and supporters.

On May 8, in connection with the case of Muchadehama cited above, police arrested High Court Clerk Constance Gambara and charged her with abuse of office for allegedly improperly facilitating the release of two MDC officials and a journalist on bail. The 26-year-old clerk was jailed, with the consequence that she had to take her nine-month-old baby to jail with her.[39] Although Gambara was granted bail, the prosecutor invoked article 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (CPEA), resulting in Gambara’s remaining in remand prison with her baby for a week before eventually being released. An assistant master of High Court, Caroline Mafuka, was also arrested in connection with the same case.[40] At the time of writing the case had not yet been finalized in court.

Targeting of Commercial Farmers

Human Rights Watch has documented scores of illegal attacks on commercial farms since the power-sharing government took office. The vast majority of farm invasions were led by people with close links to ZANU-PF or by those holding senior positions within the party or government. They have used violence and threats of violence to forcibly evict sitting owners from their properties.[41]

The invasions typically disregarded due process of law, which stipulates that the only lawful method of removing a sitting occupier from his land is by a valid eviction order from the courts. In addition, any such order must be enforced by someone with the properly designated legal authority, usually a deputy sheriff or a messenger of court.[42]

The power-sharing government acknowledged the problem of farm invasions and announced a ministerial fact-finding team, led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, to investigate.[43] The team visited a few farms in Mashonaland West province and ordered farm invasions to end.[44] However, the ZANU-PF-aligned invaders ignored that directive. As of August 2009, violent farm invasions by those with affiliations to ZANU-PF continue. In open defiance of both the political directive and the rule of law, the owner of Mount Carmel farm, one of the farms that the ministerial fact-finding team visited, was forcibly evicted from his farm soon after the ministerial team had left. No arrests have yet been made.[45] Police have refused to investigate or take any effective steps against the invaders, either to arrest them or to protect farm owners.[46]

Ongoing Human Rights Abuses in the Marange Diamond Fields

Human Rights Watch has documented serious human rights violations perpetrated by Zimbabwe’s security forces in the Marange diamond fields since November 2006.[47] Zimbabwe’s armed forces, under the firm control of ZANU-PF, seized power in the diamond fields in late October 2008, a month after the signing of the power-sharing agreement, after killing more than 200 people.[48]

The government of Zimbabwe has failed to remove its armed forces from the diamond fields and to end related human rights violations there despite calls by the global diamond industry body, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), for the government to take corrective action by July 20, 2009, or face suspension from the KPCS.[49] Human Rights Watch found that instead of removing security forces from Marange and reforming its internal diamond industry, the government of Zimbabwe has rotated new army units into Marange to maintain its control. Human rights violations and smuggling continue, and witnesses to earlier abuses are being harassed and threatened.[50] Human Rights Watch continues to receive reports of serious human rights abuses in Marange; however, due to tighter military security, it has become increasingly difficult to access information.