Teachers flee rural violence

At least 250 schools across Zimbabwe have closed down in recent weeks in the wake of a campaign of political intimidation against teachers.

Human rights activists told IRIN had fled from violence or the threat of violence by supporters of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party. There are some 6,000 schools in Zimbabwe.

Bidi Munyaradze, director of the rights organisation, ZimRights told IRIN on Monday that teachers were perceived as supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the main contenders against ZANU-PF in the June 24-25 parliamentary elections.

He also said that in other rural violence ensuing from the occupation of more than 1,000 white-owned farms, a total of 6,028 people had fled the countryside to seek help at ZimRights offices in towns and cities.

"Our concern now is that with three weeks to go before the elections, we are still getting reports of problems," he said. "We do not have political maturity or tolerance in this country and we are convinced that the elections will not be free and fair."

He said the presence of international observers from the Commonwealth, the European Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), while comforting, had not "come close" to addressing the political violence in the run-up to the election.

The head of the Zimbabwe Teachers Association, Leonard Nkala, and Munyaradze said it was difficult to trace many of the teachers because they were nervous of being followed.

Nkala said some schools had not opened this term because of insecurity, while human rights activists said that ruling party supporters and independence war veterans behind the farm occupations had accused teachers of indoctrinating students, and frequently summoned pupils and teaches for "re-education' sessions. Many teachers had been beaten or humiliated in
front of their pupils, and many had gone into hiding.