2023 Election Environment - Intimidation and Violence
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- Written by: Introduction John Burke, Article Ignatius Banda
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An IPS article appeared in Africa.Com on 13th February 2023 clearly raising international concerns over proven intimidation as Zimbabwe heads into another Election later this year. The ruling party {A military Junta} has a long history of ensuring that they "win" these apparent democratic elections - however for the last 43 years the evidence is overwhelmingly clear that rigging of the votes, violence and intimidation seems to be the main election strategy of Zanu PF and its so called president - Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa his {false and propaganderised} profile is uploaded to Wiki by the Zanu PF regime - Read it Here Not sure if any of it is true, down to his date of birth!
In addition in the United Kingdom, their Home Office has an 'agressive' attitude towards valid Asylum seekers, fleeing the Zanu PF regime and its 'tentacles' in the diaspora. The Home Office claims that CCC { the primary opposition} can "freely" campaign in Zimbabwe. The article below and many, many before it clearly demonstrate that is DISINFORMATION. Shame on the UK Government for such a lack of empathy, and deliberate ignorance of the true state of affairs in Zimbabwe.
The article has been reproduced below and many thanks to www.africa.com and the author Ignatius Banda.
Article By Ignatius Banda is below
With political violence escalating in Zimbabwe, national elections slated for later this year face questions about whether the polls will meet free and fair international benchmarks. Zimbabwe’s elections have routinely met scrutiny largely because of what critics say is state-sponsored violence and the intimidation of opposition political parties. Recent weeks have seen violent attacks on opposition political supporters by suspected members of the ruling.
Zimbabwe African People’s Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) despite regular calls by President Emmerson Mnangagwa for peaceful political engagement among rival party supporters. The main opposition, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), says its supporters have been brutalized by ruling party activists, with analysts noting that political violence is compromising the country’s stated commitment to holding free and fair elections.
In the aftermath of political violence recorded on a widely shared video last month where opposition party supporters were attacked, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC) issued a statement raising concerns about the implications of such attacks on the credibility of the polls.
“As the nation heads towards the harmonized elections, we urge all political players to desist from the use of violence. The people’s fundamental rights should be respected at all times. There is no citizen who should be intimidated or coerced, and worse still, be beaten to make a choice,” the Catholic bishops said in a statement last month.
Read more: 2023 Election Environment - Intimidation and Violence
20th July 2022 FCDO, BBC, AU and SADC Pressure
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- Written by: John Burke
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On the 20th July 2022 in the UK we organised a petition:
- We met at Trafalgar Square
- Delivered our petition to FCDO ( Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office and the Minister for Africa - possibly Vicky Ford? But with the new Government who knows) - [CLICK for Petition Copy]
- To the Ambassador to the Embassy of Senegal (As the Senegal President is currently Chair of the AU) - [CLICK for Petition]
- To the Namibian Consulate (As the Namibian President is Chair of SADC) [Photo] - [CLICK for Petition]
- The the BBC (close to the Namibian Consulate) - [CLICK for Petition]
- It was too late to deal with the Zimbabwe Embassy [but their Scottish Consulate was SERVED!] - [CLICK for Petition]
- We had walked nearly 9 miles to achieve this "Petition Extravaganza" Twitter Tweets
Now we should like the global diaspora to try a similar exercises in their locality over the coming weeks to suit their own timetables. Firstly to check on the address, ambassador/high commissioner names and e-mails of all the Embassies of Senegal, Consulates of Namibia, and the Embassies of Zimbabwe, please access this PDF with live web links [thanks go to https://www.embassypages.com/ for all this data] to them all GLOBAL EMBASSY CONTACT LIST - Click Here to Download or access.
Then you can copy the proforma body text [below - with Read More/Pages] to the Senegal Embassies and Namibian Consulates as shown here. Replace the name of the Ambassador with the name from the PDF database above. Also get the e-mail so you can send them "Notice of Petition Hand Over" [ before the the written petition will be available with an update to this article.] SEE Here for the Written Petition Templates in this article TEMPLATES this includes the Zimbabwe Embassy Templates.
Flickr Website Images of the day CLICK HERE
Systematic Political Abductions
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- Written by: John Burke
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From a purely human rights perspective, what is going on in Zimbabwe, at this moment, can only be described as Political Intimidation and Political Murders.
Currently, there appears to be 13 main opposition party members [including 3 sitting Mp's] behind bars without charge. These abductions are in addition to the horrendous murder and mutilation of CCC activist Moreblessing Ali, and Mr Tuesday - again brutally murdered.
This vicious campaign is typical of the violent nature of the Zanu PF leadership [if you could call it Leadership - as it resembles a military cabal rather than a government]. Indeed, Amnesty International in their 2021 end of year report on Politics in Zimbabwe states:
""The human rights situation continued to deteriorate, with the government demonstrating hostility to human rights defenders, protesters, political activists and journalists. They were harassed, arrested, prosecuted and subjected to prolonged pretrial detention; one activist was killed allegedly by supporters of ZANU-PF, the ruling party. The state weaponized Covid-19 lockdowns to restrict political activity. Security forces carried out unlawful killings. The Supreme Court quashed a 20-year prison sentence against two opposition supporters. Thousands were forcibly evicted from their land. Public hospitals remained underfunded and poor healthcare infrastructure put women’s and girls’ health at risk. Many people were at risk of becoming stateless..""
With an assessment like this you would think that the current regime's tenancy would be short lived - but No, this is 42 years since independence!
This has to end. SADC {Southern African Development Community} and the AU {African Union} with respect, must put it's 'collective' House in Order. For the incoming Chair of SADC this is a difficult task for His Excellency; Dr Hage Geingob, President of the Republic of Namibia. We wish to alert him to the facts of the matter from a Human Rights perspective, and to trust that the Zanu PF officials are not whispering their justifications in his ear - Zanu PF seem to be under the impression that Zimbabwe is simply a "One-party State".
The African Union {AU} at its meeting on 17th July 2022 needs to uphold its core values on democracy and Human Rights - as the sitting Zimbabwe regime seems not to comprehend a single word of the AU's "Values" published here:
""Agenda 2063 envisions a continent in which there is a universal culture of good governance, democratic values, gender equality, and respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law. The AU works with member states to develop and implement policies that aim to building strong well governed institutions and enact laws that will ensure Africa’s citizens are fully engaged and involved in policy making and development initiates and that these citizens are provided the safe and secure environments in which to live.""
In the United Kingdom, and given the fact that the sitting 'regime' wishes to be included, once more, into the Commonwealth - with Economics Minister Mthuliu Ncube currently in the UK begging for some sort of support and looking for "Investors" it is incumbent upon the FCDO to at least intercede upon these clear intimidation tactics by the regime.
We as Human Rights defenders wish to petition all of the above to try to influence the regime to accept the democratic process, rule of Law and the existing Constitution of Zimbabwe - all of which are deficient in terms of justice, any aspect of morality or even empathy towards their fellow citizens. All these aspects need to be bolstered - to protect the citizens from a deliquent 'government' of 'occupation'!
It is self evident that Zanu PF are both an illegal government [rigged 2013 elections] and are unworthy of the title of government - they are a "Lootocracy" and an affront to Human Rights or any form of the democratic process. They must change.
As if this issue is not bad enough, the economic mismanagement of inflation and the doomed [to repeat the currency chaos of 2008] real-time gross settlement (RTGS) dollar has impoverished most Zimbabweans see our article "Workers being Robbed..... It's not as if the Zanu PF regime has been warned time and time again - to keep making the same mistakes see this item from December 13th 2019 and see if it still applies today - or is it worse? An excellent article by Keith Jefferis, Econsult Botswana, Peace Operations and Peacebuilding Consultant, ISS Pretoriaellent.
Free Moreblessing Ali
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- Written by: John Burke
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Petition by: Kennedy Masiye- recipients: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Department of State, Commonwealth Heads of States, EU Parliament, Freedom House, SADC, The African Union, The United Nations - High Commissioner for Human Rights, Lord Oates, House of Lords - 'co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Zimbabwe', HM United Kingdom Government
- Why the 'Attack' on Traditional Chiefs
- How Many Ministers to Change a Lightbulb
- Zimbabwe and COP26
- Climate Crisis or Gravy Train?
- Mnangagwa ‘Totally Ignorant’
- Zanu PF See Money in the Climate Targets
- Why are Zanu PF UK Here? (2)
- ZHRO Says NO to 'Green Bombers'
- Nick Mangwana Loses his Mind
- The Zambia Impact
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