January, 22 2009, 07:40am EDT
Zimbabwe: African Leaders Should Intervene
Abusive Policies Deepen Humanitarian Crisis and Need for Protection
JOHANNESBURG
The African Union should put concerted political pressure on Robert Mugabe to end Zimbabwe's longstanding political crisis, which has led to an ever-deepening humanitarian emergency and a regional crisis, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The African Union will hold a summit meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from January 26 to February 3, 2009.
The 33-page report, "Crisis without Limits: Human Rights and Humanitarian Consequences of Political Repression in Zimbabwe," details the Zimbabwean government's responsibility for the country's humanitarian crisis. A cholera epidemic has left over 2,000 Zimbabweans dead and another 39,000 ill. Over 5 million Zimbabweans face severe food shortages and are dependent on international aid. Repeated political interference by the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in the work of humanitarian agencies has severely hampered international efforts to tackle the country's multiple crises.
"Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party have shown scant regard for the welfare of Zimbabweans," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director for Human Rights Watch, "It is way past time for the African Union to act to help end their massive suffering."
The Global Political Agreement signed by ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the opposition movement that won the country's parliamentary elections, has all but collapsed and has not led to a credible government of national unity or ended ZANU-PF's widespread abuses. ZANU-PF has repeatedly breached the terms of the agreement that committed the two parties to demonstrate respect for democratic values and human rights. ZANU-PF's violations of basic human rights and various governmental policies have worsened the country's humanitarian crisis.
"Crisis without Limits" is based on research conducted by Human Rights Watch in six of Zimbabwe's 10 provinces from November 16 to 30, 2008. In-depth interviews were conducted with victims of human rights violations as well as representatives of local and international nongovernmental organizations and humanitarian agencies, United Nations officials, MDC members, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Grain and Marketing Board, lawyers, health experts, economists, and diplomats.
Human Rights Watch research identifies the causes of the food shortage, the cholera outbreak, and the collapse in Zimbabwe's health system. Repressive government and extensive corruption have led directly to an interlinked economic collapse, humanitarian crisis, and growing public desperation.
The report also documents how ZANU-PF continues to use state institutions such as the police and the justice system to violate the civil and political rights of MDC members and supporters, civil society activists, and human rights defenders. The police continue to use violence to break up peaceful protests, and routinely persecute MDC activists.
Human Rights Watch expressed concern about the lack of progress in mediation efforts by the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Ongoing human rights abuses have not ceased and those responsible have not been held to account.
Human Rights Watch called on the African Union to insert itself formally into the mediation process and set basic principles, specific human rights benchmarks, and timelines for resolving the crisis. Among the steps it should take are to condemn and call for an end to ongoing abuses by the ZANU-PF authorities, including an end to politically motivated violence, enforced disappearances, torture, and the release of MDC members and human rights activists who are being arbitrarily detained. Human Rights Watch urged the AU to suspend Zimbabwe from the organization if - within a specific time frame - it does not meet specific human rights and good governance benchmarks.
Food Shortages
Human Rights Watch research found that the Zimbabwean government bears primary responsibility for the severe food shortages in the country. State-sanctioned political violence led to the destruction of food granaries serving thousands of Zimbabweans who were forcibly displaced by ZANU-PF supporters, "war veterans," and soldiers and left them dependent on food aid. Official interference in the operations of humanitarian agencies that distribute food aid worsened the crisis.
Endemic corruption within state-run agricultural institutions such as the Grain and Marketing Board and by ZANU-PF's political elite has also led to severe shortages of seed and other farming supplies such as fertilizer. Many of the government's agricultural policies have benefitted the pro-ZANU-PF political elite. The Zimbabwean authorities have diverted state-subsidized maize, seed, fuel, and cheap tractors meant for local farmers to local ZANU-PF officials and governors, who have then sold them on the black market at high prices unaffordable for most Zimbabweans. And the government has done little to address the corrupt practices that have affected the food supply.
Health Crisis - Cholera
The Zimbabwean authorities have been aware of the potential for a major cholera outbreak for nearly a year. In December 2007, 459 cases of cholera were reported in two high-density suburbs of the capital, Harare, and 11 people died from cholera and more than 300 were hospitalized in Bulawayo. Despite repeated calls to address the epidemic and to ensure that municipal water sources were properly treated, the government did not respond adequately.
While the capacity to respond to the cholera outbreak may have been undermined by a lack of medical and financial resources, health officials informed Human Rights Watch that the Zimbabwean government initially refused to acknowledge the extent of the cholera crisis and the urgent need to respond. Despite an alarming increase in cholera deaths and infections, the government did not immediately appeal for international help and initially refused to declare the outbreak an emergency.
Zimbabwe's failing health system, in which ordinary Zimbabweans are no longer able to get basic health care, has aggravated the cholera epidemic. Many district hospitals and municipal clinics in Zimbabwe are either closed or operating at minimum capacity. Dilapidated infrastructure, equipment failures, shortages of drugs, and a "brain drain" of medical professionals have all contributed to the collapse of the health system.
"The Zimbabwean government is responsible for the humanitarian crisis and the failure to protect Zimbabweans from its consequences," said Gagnon, "The government has violated the basic rights of Zimbabweans to food, health, and clean water."
Since the end of October, ZANU-PF has used the police and other state agencies to arbitrarily arrest and "disappear" more than 40 MDC members and human rights activists. Thirty-two MDC members and human rights activists have been detained by the Zimbabwe authorities on various charges of attempting to overthrow the government - charges that Human Rights Watch believes are politically motivated. Most of the activists who have been charged say they were tortured by state security agents during their detention. The authorities are refusing to disclose the whereabouts of 11 other MDC members.
Regional leaders have repeatedly ignored the violations of human rights inflicted on Zimbabweans by Mugabe's government and have not taken serious steps to help their suffering, Human Rights Watch said. SADC leaders have also failed to take any measures that would promote genuine democratic transition. At the same time, the combination of political instability, the cholera outbreak, and severe food problems have driven thousands of Zimbabweans into neighboring countries. The influx has also taken cholera across Zimbabwe's border to neighboring countries, including Botswana, Mozambique, and Zambia.
"The urgent humanitarian needs of Zimbabweans are a direct consequence of ZANU-PF's abusive rule," said Gagnon. "The AU can only restore the security and well-being of people in the region by openly acknowledging the scale of the crisis, putting human rights at the top of the agenda, and holding abusers to account."
Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
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I look forward to offering amendments tomorrow to cut billions in offensive military funding to Israel from the proposed national security supplemental package and protect essential humanitarian operations. We cannot continue to fund this horrific war. pic.twitter.com/8JpxpT7IX2
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 23, 2024
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Over 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by U.S.-backed Israeli troops, and Columbia University students have been suspended and arrested by New York Police Department officers in recent days for protesting the slaughter—which led to a walkout by the Ivy League institution's faculty on Monday.
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Summary of events from the last day not related to Columbia:\n\n- Israel has not provided evidence that UNRWA staff are part of Hamas\n- A mass grave, including women/children was discovered\n- Doctors did an emergency c-section, saving a baby after an airstrikes killed her mother— (@)
The walkout in New York City followed 54 Columbia Law School professors sending a letter to administrators that states, "While we as a faculty disagree about the relevant political issues and express no opinion on the merits of the protest, we are writing to urge respect for basic rule-of-law values that ought to govern our university."
"Procedural irregularity, a lack of transparency about the university's decision-making, and the extraordinary involvement of the NYPD all threaten the university's legitimacy within its own community and beyond its gates," they wrote. "We urge the university to conform student discipline to clear and well-established procedures that respect the rule of law."
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The national group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) on Monday accused Columbia of creating "a climate of repression and harm for students peacefully protesting for an end to the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza" over the past six months.
"Columbia University has actively created a hostile environment for students who are Palestinian or who support Palestinian freedom. Additionally, the administration's actions have made the campus much less safe for Jewish students," JVP said.
According to JVP:
Instead of listening to the calls of Columbia and Barnard students to divest from the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli government, the university has called in the NYPD to arrest students, suspended them, and even expelled them. At present 85 students, 15 of whom are Jewish, are suspended.
Yesterday's statement by the White House, like the administrators of Columbia University, dangerously and inaccurately presumes that all Jewish students support the Israeli government's genocide of Palestinians. This assumption is actively harming Palestinian and Jewish students.
The administration has not only harassed Jewish students and failed to ensure their safety and well-being, it has also obstructed their religious observances during Shabbat and prevented them from accessing their Jewish community on the eve of Passover.
While President Joe Biden's Sunday statement was officially about Passover—a Jewish holiday that begins at sundown on Monday—and not the protests at Columbia and other campuses across the country, it was widely received as a response to the latter.
Biden said in part that "we must speak out against the alarming surge of antisemitism—in our schools, communities, and online. Silence is complicity. Even in recent days, we've seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous—and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country."
Jonathan Ben-Menachem, a Ph.D. student at the university, toldCNN that "Columbia students organizing in solidarity with Palestine—including Jewish students—have faced harassment, doxxing, and now arrest by the NYPD. These are the main threats to the safety of Jewish Columbia students."
"On the other hand, student protesters have led interfaith joint prayers for several days now, and Passover Seder will be held at the Gaza solidarity encampment tomorrow," he added. "Saying that student protesters are a threat to Jewish students is a dangerous smear."
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine said in a lengthy statement that "we are student activists at Columbia calling for divestment from genocide. We are frustrated by media distractions focusing on inflammatory individuals who do not represent us. At universities across the nation, our movement is united in valuing every human life."
"As a diverse group united by love and justice, we demand our voices be heard against the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza," the statement continues. "We've been horrified each day, watching children crying over the bodies of their slain parents, families without food to eat, and doctors operating without anesthesia. Our university is complicit in this violence and this is why we protest."
The Columbia Spectator reported Monday that Columbia College passed a divestment referendum that "asked whether the university should divest financially from Israel, cancel the Tel Aviv Global Center, and end Columbia's dual degree program with Tel Aviv University," with respective votes of 76.55%, 68.36%, and 65.62%. However, a statement from a university spokesperson signaled the referendum would not lead to any shift in campus policies.
Beyond Columbia, there are ongoing demonstrations at institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, the University of Michigan, and Yale University, another Ivy League school, where at least 47 peaceful student protesters were arrested on Monday.
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