President Robert Mugabe’s government fails to investigate widespread human rights abuses that include killings and politically motivated violence that have haunted supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for many years.
The absence of rule of law and lack of effective judiciary system raise fears of further abuses going unchecked during the upcoming 2011 general elections, Human Rights Watch says in a recent report.
The 2011 Report published Tuesday, 8th of March, 2011 "Perpetual Fear: Impunity and Cycles of Violence in Zimbabwe," documents graphic and disturbing individual accounts of torture and politically motivated violence that expose the government’s unwillingness to protect individuals attacked due to their political affiliations.
The report is a chronicle of horror stories that include torture, violence and disappearances perpetrated by government security forces such as the police force, military and the notorious Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) agents.
A young man who is barely in his twenties (whose name withheld for security reasons) bears the scars: scalded arms and feet, part of his face including lips and a missing right eye. After elections three years ago in which Mugabe lost - the military locked him and other supporters of the MDC in a building and set it ablaze for having campaigned for the opposition. He now cannot use his hands properly and can barely walk.
In the same year, an MDC supporter who chooses not to have his name identified for fear of reprisals from government secret police says his leg was cut off with an axe by Zanu (PF) militia during a campaign in the July 2008 controversial election rerun.
He says the attackers had his hands and legs tied and threatened him with death.
He said: "They started cutting off my leg as if it was firewood,
“I remember seeing my leg where they threw it, and my shoe was still on it”, he recounted.
The stories and images are compelling, heart-breaking and send a chill running through the spine. These are not isolated accounts; but reflections of the widespread evidence of the human cost for fighting for democracy in the face of Mugabe’s dictatorial regime in Zimbabwe.
The personal accounts documented by Human Rights Watch offer a glimpse into the levels of impunity, cycles of violence and intimidation that have terrorised ordinary Zimbabweans for years; and more worryingly continue to this day despite the two –and –half year government of national unity.
Human Rights watch notes that Zimbabwe is a signatory to the The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which requires that ‘states adopt measures, including through the legal system, to protect fundamental rights’. The rights group however say despite this ‘complaints of political violence filed by victims or their relatives have largely been ignored by the police or have stalled in the courts.’
Mugabe’s regime continues to ignore calls by civic and human rights groups to investigate and bring to account those accused of human rights abuses.
For years human rights groups have been urging Robert Mugabe's government to honour its obligations by prosecuting those responsible for rights abuses.
Human Rights Watch say ‘the government should put transitional justice mechanisms in place while reforming the criminal justice system to ensure that it meets international legal standards’, thus ensuring individual rights of Zimbabweans are protected regardless of political or religious affiliations.
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