Signs of progress - ZimRights

There are signs that the Zimbabwean government is trying to honour commitments it made to its neighbours at the recent Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Malawi, a leading human rights activist told IRIN on Tuesday.

"We are seeing signs of the government respecting commitments it made to SADC (because) at the last meeting SADC really came down heavily," ZimRights director Bidi Munyaradzi said. He added that in spite of violence reported at an opposition rally in Bulawayo at the weekend, it seemed as though the government was moving to clamp down on violence and keep some of its promises.

The first sign of possible compliance, he said, was that the government was now willing to allow international observers into the country for the 9-10 March presidential election. Another was that a dreaded media bill drafted by minister of state for information, Jonathan Moyo, was not debated by parliament as planned on Tuesday. Munyaradzi said ZimRights had heard that the bill had been shelved indefinitely.

In addition, he said, Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo, considered by ZimRights to be "level-headed and principled", had publicly instructed the security forces to ensure law and order across the country. "The last time such instructions were issued by him to the police, there were large numbers of veterans arrested and fined. As ZimRights we respect him. We have approached him and written to him on a number of issues before," Munyaradzi said.

He said that as a result of the order, a heavy police presence was visible in Harare's high-density suburbs at the weekend. The urban areas are seen as the stronghold of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

"We are confident that if the police continue with what we saw this weekend, the violence is going to die down and stop. We are all a bit optimistic that the elections are going to be held in a free environment and in a non-violent manner," he said. In the past police have been accused of being partisan and their presence has served to further intimidate residents.

However, Munyaradzi warned: "Much of the violence, as you know, is recorded before the elections. We surely should not forget that there was a high level of violence leading up to (parliamentary) elections the last time around."

He also said there was great concern about the fact that non-governmental and human rights organisations in the country were being labelled as opposition party supporters.

The international secretariat of Amnesty International said in a statement on Monday that baseless allegations against a human rights organisation printed in Zimbabwe's state-controlled daily, The Herald, signalled "the newest phase in the government's campaign to undermine civil society".

It said that the newspaper reported on 17 and 18 January that the Amani Trust had been funding covert operations against President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF, was financially linked to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and that its assistance to victims of political violence was actually a means of carrying out torture.

"This is a contemptible twisting of facts - to describe an organisation assisting victims of torture as perpetrating torture," the statement said. "We unreservedly condemn the campaign of slander that attempts to portray Amani Trust or other human rights organisations as politically motivated and involved in political violence. We are concerned that this gives a green light to state-sponsored militia to perpetrate violence against human rights defenders."

Munyaradzi said he believed that such reports were calculated to "create a culture of fear and intimidation" within civil society.