IRIN Focus on fears of growing election intimidation

Human rights groups in Zimbabwe on Wednesday said it was important that international observers visit the country as soon as possible in the run-up to next month’s parliamentary elections because intimidation and violence by government supporters was growing daily. David Jamali, programme coordinator for Zim Rights, told IRIN on Wednesday he feared the intimidation had increased so much that a free and fair election was no longer possible. He said it was also growing more dangerous for the organisation’s monitors to educate people on their voting rights because Zim Rights monitors themselves were being intimidated or beaten up. The European Union and the Commonwealth have said they will send observers to Zimbabwe. “The government supporters do not see us as a civic organisation,” he said. “They simply accuse us of being members of the opposition.” Local election observers assaulted So far, he said 15 Zim Rights election monitors had been assaulted. “Definitely the election scheduled for 24-25 June will not be free and fair,” he said. “More and more people are fleeing their homes in the countryside to seek shelter in town and in the past six or seven weeks we have had 66 families coming to us for help. they need shelter, food, medicine. It is really quite frightening. And if people leave their constituencies, they are not allowed to vote anywhere else.” The Zimbabwe-based director of the Human Rights Research and Documentation Trust, Phil Matsheza, also said observers they had trained to monitor election had also been beaten up. They said most of the intimidation had occurred in the countryside, where since a referendum defeat in February, supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s governing ZANU-PF party led by independence war veterans have occupied more than 700 white-owned farms. In the ensuing violence 23 people, mostly supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have been killed. Hundreds of farm employees have been chased from the land or raped, and the occupation has spread in the past 10 days to some businesses in Bulawayo, the country’s largest timber works and several schools. According to the official daily, ‘The Herald’, over 100 people have been injured and there has been “substantial” damage to property. The debate widens The first group of international observers to visit Zimbabwe have also cast doubt on the credibility of the elections. Mugabe faces what analysts say will be the toughest test yet at the polls in the 20 years he and his party have held power since independence from Britain. Mugabe has so far refused to order his supporters to end the invasions. The observer group from the Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) led by Alex Ekwueme of Nigeria, includes representatives from Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Canada, Kenya and the United States. “The violence has created an atmosphere of anxiety and fear,” Ekwueme told ‘The Herald’. “Citizens are expressing their desire for a meaningful election process that can be accepted by the ruling political party and opposition political parties alike as well as by the electorate.” Although the country was ready for the election, he said conditions for “credible, democratic polls” did not exist. The government blames the MDC The newspaper itself and senior government officials it quoted also blamed the MDC led by the trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai for the violence. Information Minister Chen Chimute-ngwende dismissed the doubts raised by the observers and said Mugabe had barred British observers because “they have already made their conclusions that the elections are not going to be fair”. The NDI was running into the same problem: “The NDI and other observers should approach the elections with an open mind and not rush to conclusions before the elections take place.” South African doubts Meanwhile, politicians in neighbouring South Africa, were also at odds on the likelihood of a credible election in Zimbabwe. While President Thabo Mbeki told reporters during a state visit to Washington he did not think it right to cast judgement on the elections a month ahead of time, at home the position of his ruling ANC party hardened significantly. In a motion to parliament this week, senior ANC official Pallo Jordan asked the house on Tuesday to note the reports of intimidation and violence in Zimbabwe. “Such conditions severely compromise the possibility of a free and fair election,” Jordan said. He appealed to Zimbabweans to ensure the election is free and fair for the sake of “that country and of Africa”. Senior judge raises concerns Meanwhile, Enoch Dumbutshena, the country’s first black chief justice, said he feared the “mayhem” unleashed by Mugabe’s supporters was now out of control. “In one respect I think he can switch it off. But there are many other aspects of it he cannot control now,” Dumbutshena, now retired, told Reuters. “I believe the damage has already been done with a number of people killed, women raped and farms taken and occupied by war veterans and members of ZANU-PF.” Dumbutshena said that people in the cities, which have so far escaped the onslaught, should be able to vote freely. But he said the picture is different in rural areas. The land issue The opposition has said the land occupations are aimed at diverting attention from a collapsing economy and the fact that government ministers and ZANU-PF officials have taken much of the land so far redistributed. “It is a betrayal,” said Dumbutshena. “These people were told that one of the purposes of the war was to give the people land - a legitimate expectation as far as Africans are concerned. But the government has failed them.”