Written evidence submitted by Basil Hone
Zimbabwe
The intentionally acclaimed independent trouble-shooting
organization, the International Crisis Group (ICG) has produced
a 30 November 2004 Zimbabwe Report: "Another Election Chance",
discussing the prospects for free and fair parliamentary elections
in March 2005. The Report states that the odds against
the elections being "free and fair enough to mark an important
turn towards genuine politics" are substantial. This is because
of the lack of will or the means to formulate and implement a
more comprehensible and forceful strategy on the part of the international
community. The Report essentially places the bet of the ICG on
South Africa applying sufficient pressure on Zimbabwe to provide
the space for democracy to work for what will at best be "C-minus"
elections.
This letter presents the arguments that we are
today witnessing an elaborate charade produced by the Southern
Africa Development Community under the direction of South Africa's
President Mbeki to con the world that Zimbabwe will have free
and fair elections. The SADC has adopted a set of Principles and
Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. The Mugabe Regime has
accepted the Principles and Guidelines. Mbeki has turned up the
volume on quiet diplomacy by announcing his willingness to meet
the Zimbabwe antagonists at any time, any place, to mediate a
solution to the Zimbabwe crisis and by meeting the opposition
MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, following the latter's treason
acquittal in September, some eight months after that farce of
a trial had ended. Mugabe has trumpeted his plan to amend the
electoral law to bring it into compliance with SADC Principles
and Guidelines.
The stage is set for the "SADC Electoral
Observation Missions" provided for tinder the Principles
and Guidelines (which will observe the elections only at the invitation
of the Mugabe Regime) to issue a favorable Final Report on the
conduct and outcome of the elections-a report which, the two Presidents
anticipate, will be accepted by the world community, allowing
Mugabe and his cronies to continue unchallenged the terrorization
of the people of Zimbabwe and the pillaging of what is left of
its wealth.
The reality is, and will remain, totally at
variance with the charade which is being played out. In an earlier
paper of April 2004 entitled "Zimbabwe: In Search of a New
Strategy" the ICG analyzed the prerequisites for free and
fair parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe in 2005 as follows:
(a) Repeal of the Public Order and Security
(POSA) and Access to Information and Protection of Privacy (AIPPA)
Acts and amendment of the lctoral Act;
(b) Freeing of the airwaves and permission
for independent papers to publish;
(c) Audit of the voters' roll and, if needed,
new registration under UN supervision;
(d) Replacement of partisan electoral officials;
(e) MDC access to rural areas;
(f) Replacement of the Electoral Supervisory
Commission by an independent Electoral Commission to oversee administration
of the election; and
(g) Unhindered access to the entire process
for credible international observers.
The ICG November Report makes clear that the
only changes since April by the Mugabe Regime with regard to electoral
issues [(a), (d) and (f) above] are for the worse; does not address
the media access, voters' roll and unhindered international observer
access issues [(b), (c) and (g) above]; and describes that MDC's
access to rural areas has deteriorated [(e) above]. What has transpired
since April is this:
(a) Repeal of POSA and AJPPA Acts:
The two Acts remain on the books and, in fact, AIPPA was toughened
up a month ago to make it a criminal offense for anyone to practice
journalism without accreditation by the government appointed Media
and Information Commission.
(a), (d) & (f) Electoral Issues: The
Electoral Act is being replaced by two pieces of legislation,
the one adding to the existing electoral law and the other creating
a Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. A few of the additions address
the requirements of the SADC Principles and Guidelines but only
to deal with election day issues such as translucent ballot boxes
and eliminating mobile polling stations, while other additions
pile on more draconian provisions to the pre-existing law, such
as allowing the police and army to be used as election officials.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, under the second piece of legislation,
becomes the fourth body overseeing electoral functions, thus adding
yet more confusion (and more latitude for government interference)
to the welter of overlapping supervisory responsibilities. Mugabe
will control appointments to the Commission, which will have monopoly
power over voter education On the other hand, the new laws ignore
the glaring flaws of the existing law, namely—as examples—permitting
postal votes only for voters absent from their constituencies
on authorized government business; setting no time limit for hearing
and resolving election challenges; no right of access to electronic
versions of the voters roll, which has no closure time limit before
an election; and no restriction on the power of Mugabe, as President,
to amend the electoral laws by decree.
(b) Free media: Since the publication
of the ICG Report, three independent papers have been closed down
and the new legislation makes no provision for access to the State
controlled airwaves.
(c) Voters' roll: The Zimbabwe Registrar-General
recently produced a new voters' roll for use in the 2005 election.
The opposition party MDC has found that despite the persistent
migration of rural dwellers to urban areas, the major cities,
where support for the opposition is decisive, show significant
declines in the numbers of voters, while the number of rural voters
in areas traditionally supportive of Mugabe has increased dramatically.
(e) MDC in the rural areas: The November
ICG Report has this to say, in the context of the Youth Militias:
"The government is clearly using the youth to seal off the
countryside, making it into no-go-areas for the opposition"
and ". . . mass training of youths is fuelling suspicions
that the government is creating a private army for electoral purposes."
(g) International observers: Besides
barring Western monitors as election observers, the Mugabe Regime
in October added to the prohibited list African observers with
close links to Western countries.
There have been other assaults by the Mugabe
Regime upon democratic freedoms since publication of the April
2004 ICG Report. The most egregious of these assaults is the Non
Governmental Organisation legislation. which establishes an NGO
Council controlled by the government (10 Mugabe Regime representatives,
five NGO representatives selected by the Social Welfare Minister).
The Council will accredit NGOs at its discretion. The legislation
prohibits foreign funding "to carry out activities involving
or including issues of governance". The Mugabe Regime is
also amending the Criminal Law legislation to create an offense
of publishing or communicating a false statement prejudicial to
the State (including an "abusive, indecent or obscene statement"
about Mugabe), punishable by 20 years imprisonment.
Concern about these adverse developments has
been voiced by several observers in recent months. As examples.
the new US Ambassador to South Africa stated in September: "There
is clearly a crisis in Zimbabwe and everyone needs to state that
fact. The economy is in a free fall. There is a continuing repressive
environment. There needs to be a return to democracy." The
International Parliamentary Union adopted a resolution about Zimbabwe
in September, which contained this passage: "(the IPU) stresses
that the fundamental notion underlying democracy is the respect
of the other; democratic life entails both the right to differ
and the acceptance of such difference by all; therefore notes
with deep concern the perception which the executive authorities
in particular have of the opposition MP's, whom they tend to demonise
and criminalise so that they are not only prevented from discharging
the mandate entrusted to them by their electors, but also in many
cases suffer serious infringements of their human rights, including
the right to physical integrity and security." And, the World
Association of Newspapers had this to say in November: "In
Zimbabwe, freedom of the press continues to be limited under President
Robert Mugabe. The 2002 Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act continues to be used to muzzle what remains of the
independent press in the country. Most recently, a new bill has
been proposed to regulate non-governmental organisations and,
if enacted, will further silence critics and deprive the public
of its right to access information."
What has been the reaction of President Mbeki
to these Mugabe Regime moves denying any chance of free and fair
elections? "Quiet Diplomacy" has be come Mbeki's Mute
Diplomacy. There has been no criticism, except for an oblique
remark attributed to an unnamed source close to Mbeki claiming
that the latter did not like the NGO legislation nor the banning
of newspapers.
Given Mbeki's description of their relationship
as freedom fighter buddies ("In the African Revolution we
shared the trenches together"), the chances that the South
African President will, of his own volition, be prepared to coerce
Mugabe into free and fair election mode, are so remote that the
West must play an urgent active role and not one, as the ICG Report
implies, of silent Commission. A few of the additions address
the requirements of the SADC Principles and Guidelines but only
to deal with election day issues such as translucent ballot boxes
and diplomacy. The Report mentions that South Africa's civil society
is emerging as a formidable force for change in Zimbabwe. To answer
the ANC's 2 December message to ZANU-PF ("The ANC wishes
to reiterate its firm support for the people of Zimbabwe under
the leadership of Zanu PF") the West should unabashedly assist
and encourage the civil institutions to wean Mbeki from his attachment
to Mugabe. As an example, the Congress of South African Trade
Unions (COSATU), which. Together with the Africa National Congress
(ANC) and the South African Communist Party, comprise the alliance
governing the country, has split with the ANC over Zimbabwe. COSATU
sent a delegation to Zimbabwe to investigate trade union and human
rights abuses which was promptly railroaded out of the country
out of the country by the Mugabe Regime. Mbeki and the ANC have
sided with the Regime. COSATU has threatened a border blockade.
The West, and particularly the United States, should openly support
the COSATU position.
Time is of the essence. Even if the Mugabe Regime
converted to free and fair elections immediately, four months
is hardly any enough time to give the MDC an equal opportunity
to present itself to the electorate as an alternative to ZANU-PF.
Besides, human rights abuses and denying maize, the staple food
of the poor, to political opponents continue unabated.
And to:
General Colin Powell, Secretary of State, Washington
DC
Dr. Condoleeza Rice, National Security Adviser,
Washington DC
Senator Lamar Alexander, Chair, Africa Subcommittee,
US Senate, Washington DC
Representative Edward Royce, Chair, Africa Subcommittee,
House of Representatives, DC
The Hon. Phil Goff, Foreign Minister, New Zealand
The Hon. Alexander Downer, Foreign Minister,
Australia
The Hon. Pierre Pettigrew, Foreign Minister,
Canada
The Rt. Hon. Chris Mullin, U/Secretary For Africa,
Foreign Office, UK
Mme Barbara Brandtner, EU External Relations,
Belgium
Mr Gareth Evans, President, International Crisis
Group, Brussels, Belgium
The Hon. Donald McKinnon, Secretary General,
Commonwealth Secretariat, London UK
Members, Africa Subcommittee, US Senate, Washington
DC
Members, Africa Subcommittee, House of Representatives,
DC
Ms Constance Newman, African Affairs, US State
Dept, Washington DC
Dr Paula Dobriansky, US State Dept, Washington
DC
CC: Ms Cindy Corville, NS Staff, The White
House, Washington DC
Mr Thomas Woods, Bureau of African Affairs, US State
Dept, Washington DC
Basil Hone
4 December 2004
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