[Peace-discuss] Fwd: On the Edge -- Zimbabwe Elections

[Al Kagan]

A couple of people have asked about Zimbabwe.  Here is a first-hand report.

>Delivered-To: akagan at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
>X-Sender: turshen/pop2.igc.org at pop3.norton.antivirus
>Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 10:21:52 -0500
>To: Meredeth Turshen <turshen at igc.org>
>From: Meredeth Turshen <turshen at igc.org>
>Subject: On the Edge -- Zimbabwe Elections
>Status:  
>
>Dear ACAS members and friends,
>
>Please find below the latest article in the The Association of Concerned
>Africa Scholars' "On the Edge" critical commentary series.  This series
>presents selected, sharp viewpoints on current issues from ACAS members and
>friends.  As always, the views expressed do not represent ACAS official
>positions; they are provided to stimulate progressive discussion and debate.
>Responses should be directed to the author.  For further information on ACAS
>see our web site at: http://acas.prairienet.org/
>This commentary is also posted on our web site.
>
>Meredeth Turshen and Michael West
>Co-Chairs
>
>A DREAM BETRAYED         by Janice McLaughlin
>
>I feel as if I'm watching history repeat itself. The actors are different
>but the script is the same. Twenty-five years ago, Ian Smith, then Prime
>Minister of Southern Rhodesia, declared that he would never allow the black
>majority to rule: "Not in a thousand years." "Not in my lifetime."
>
>In 2002, President Robert Mugabe made virtually the same statement
>regarding the strongest opposition that he has faced since he first came to
>power in April 1980. "We will never allow the MDC to rule," he declared,
>claiming that the Movement for Democratic Change, a new political party
>launched in 2000 from a coalition of trade unionists, intellectuals, youth
>and business people, was a puppet of former colonial interests that would
>indirectly reinstate white minority rule.
>
>Both used similar tactics against the opposition - violence, smear
>campaigns, arrest, detention and even death. The presidential elections held
>the 9th and 10th of March gave Mugabe 56% of the votes cast and another six
>years in office. Few observer missions certified these elections as free and
>fair. "From our experience on the ground, we cannot accept the legitimacy of
>the electoral process and therefore its outcome cannot be free and fair,"
>declared the Churches in Manicaland, an ecumenical group encompassing all
>Christian churches in Eastern Zimbabwe. "The electoral process ignored the
>basic minimum electoral norms and standards compiled and accepted by the
>SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) countries,", it said, citing
>the abduction of polling agents, beating, harassment and detention of
>polling agents and those supporting the opposition candidate, and the lack
>of security for ballots. The statement called for "rejecting the culture of
>lies and hypocrisy, intimidation and violence that has flourished in recent
>times and the promotion of honesty, truth and self-sacrifice within private
>and public institutions."
>
>In spite of the almost universal condemnation of the presidential poll where
>thousands of urban voters were denied the vote by reducing the number of
>polling stations and by changing the electoral laws, Mr. Mugabe was sworn
>into office on 17 March, verbally attacking all those who voted against him
>and vowing to send away all those who are opposed to his rule. Like his
>predecessor, Ian Smith, he seems not to care what becomes of the country and
>its people. Already many nations have imposed sanctions and hunger is
>looming. Zimbabwe may soon be as isolated as was Rhodesia after Smith made
>his infamous unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) from Britain in
>1965. In response, the United Nations imposed sanctions on the rebel nation
>and nationalist guerrillas launched a liberation war that took the lives of
>an estimated 80 thousand people until peace was negotiated at an all party
>conference convened by Britain in 1979.
>
>One hundred and ten people have been murdered in political violence over the
>past two years. One of the victims was Takatukwa Mupawaenda, the cousin of
>Maryknoll Sister Claris Zvareva, who works in the Institute of Bio-ethics at
>the Catholic University of  Bolivia in Cochabamba. She was visiting her
>family in the rural areas when her 70 year old cousin was dragged from his
>home early in the morning to a nearby field where he was beaten to death.
>"Every rib in his body was crushed," reported Claris's brother, Jacob.
>According to newspaper accounts: "He was accused of mobilizing chiefs,
>headmen and other traditional leaders against President Mugabe in next
>month's presidential poll. Mupawaenda was attacked by more than 30 ZANU PF
>supporters in his home.. They used sticks and sharp instruments to kill
>him." The irony is that Mupawaenda was a respected religious leader in the
>area and had given Mugabe's guerrillas spiritual guidance during the
>liberation war.
>
>Like many others, he had become disillusioned after twenty years of Mugabe's
>rule. "We had such high hopes after Independence," recalls Mrs. Agnes
>Mapfumo, a youth trainer at Silveira House, a leadership-training center on
>the outskirts of Harare where I work. Mrs. Mapfumo knows Robert Mugabe
>personally as well as two of his sisters who used to work at the Center.
>"Our lives improved at first," she says. "The first ten years after
>independence saw enormous gains being made in health and education. Rural
>development was also a priority of the new government. Irrigation schemes
>were built, loans were made to small-scale farmers and new markets were
>pened for their products. We were happy and felt that the sacrifices we had
>made during the war had not been in vain." Now she is one of those calling
>for change.
>
>Chaz Maviyane-Davies is another outspoken advocate for change. Zimbabwe's
>leading graphic artist, Chaz has won numerous international artistic awards.
>But he is proudest of the work that he has done at home to overcome voter
>apathy. Both in the 2000 parliamentary elections and the 2002 presidential
>elections, Chaz produced one poster each day for a month that visually
>reminded viewers of the importance of their vote. Powerful graphic
>commentaries on the problems in the country, these "Portals of Truth", as he
>called his latest series, have appeared in the media both nationally and
>abroad. His courageous expressions have not earned him applause in the
>ruling circles and he was deliberately bypassed in recent government awards
>to Zimbabwe's leading artists.
>[All the Portals of Truth can be seen and downloaded from www.agitnet.org]
>
>I met Chaz shortly after Independence when he was just starting his own
>studio. Although he needed new clients to survive, he always volunteered his
>work free of charge to non-governmental groups like those for whom I worked.
>Recently he designed the cover of "Tusimpi", a book of Tonga proverbs that
>grew out of an advocacy program that I am promoting among one of the most
>disadvantaged groups in the country. The Tonga people are calling for the
>preservation of their language and culture. Chaz used some of the proverbs
>from the book in his "Portals of Truth."
>
>People ask me how I feel personally when the former liberators, whom I once
>supported, are now the oppressors. "Did we make a mistake?," a friend in the
>anti-apartheid movement recently asked me. "I would do it all over again," I
>replied. "I supported what they stood for in the 70s. I cannot support what
>they stand for now." As a result, I am involved in groups that help to
>expose what is happening in present-day Zimbabwe such as Amani Trust, an
>organization that provides medical, legal and counseling services to the
>victims of violence. Amani is a founder member of the Human Rights Forum
>that brings together nine of Zimbabwe's leading justice and peace groups to
>document violations of human rights. The Forum has produced some of the most
>thorough and well researched information about Zimbabwe's descent into
>lawlessness and anarchy.
>
>In 1977, as press secretary for the Catholic Commission for Justice and
>Peace in Rhodesia, I compiled similar reports about the atrocities committed
>by the Smith regime. I am proud to be supporting a new generation of
>prophets who are exposing present-day atrocities. I do not believe that
>isolation will change Zimbabwe, any more than it changed racist Rhodesia.
>Sanctions may make it more difficult for Mugabe's government to do business
>as usual but they will also cripple those working for change. Rather I would
>call on the international community to support the courageous civic groups,
>organizations and individuals, like Chaz Maviyane, Amani Trust and Silveira
>House, that are working peacefully to bring change.
>
>Janice McLaughlin, MM, is the leadership development coordinator at Silveira
>House, a Jesuit training center that offers civic education and advocacy,
>conflict resolution and mediation, sustainable agriculture, community-based
>AIDS education and practical skills training. She is also on the board of
>Amani Trust and the African Forum for Catholic Social Teaching.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Meredeth Turshen, PhD
>Professor
>Rutgers University
>School of Planning and Public Policy
>33 Livingston Avenue
>New Brunswick, NJ 08903 USA
>tel: 732 932 4101 X681
>fax: 732 932 0934

-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu