Freedom in the World 1999 - Zimbabwe

1999 Scores

Status: Partly Free
Freedom Rating: 5.5
Civil Liberties: 5
Political Rights: 6

Ratings Change

Zimbabwe's political rights rating changed from 5 to 6 due to increased government repression of the media and the muzzling of the constitutional reform process.

Overview

Zimbabwe in 1999 continued its descent towards increased political authoritarianism, which raises the specter of sustained civil strife and deepened economic hardship. Despite widespread sentiment for a more open political system, President Robert Mugabe attempted to manipulate a constitutional review process to ensure continued dominance of his ruling ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African People's Union-Patriotic Front) party. His government repeatedly sought to intimidate and silence critics in the press and in civil society. Zimbabwe forces were engaged in a Vietnam-style morass in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which provided commercial and economic benefits for Mugabe's cronies. Economic decline also fueled growing opposition to Mugabe's rule.

Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980 after a violent guerrilla war against a white minority regime that had declared unilateral independence from Britain in 1965 in what was then Northern Rhodesia. From 1983 to 1987, a civil war suppressed resistance on the part of the country's largest minority group, the Ndebele, to dominance by Mugabe's majority ethnic Shona group. Severe human rights abuses accompanied the struggle, which ended with an accord that brought Ndebele leaders into the government.

Zimbabwe is facing its worse crisis since achieving independence in 1980. The country is arguably a de facto one-party state, reflecting ZANU-PF's grip on parliament, the security forces, and much of the economy. The party has dominated Zimbabwe since independence, enacting numerous laws and constitutional amendments to strengthen its hold on power. Yet Mugabe cannot yet exercise unfettered power. The judiciary remains largely independent and trade unions powerful. Corruption among senior officials is reported by a small independent media. Massive protests by war veterans and trade unionists have challenged the regime and been met with deadly violence by security forces.

A key issue is constitutional reform. The government created a constitutional commission, which reported its findings to President Mugabe late in 1999, prior to the national elections scheduled for April, 2000. The official commission faced a counterpart organization, the National Constitutional Assembly, which was formed by a coalition of non-governmental groups including the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, the Legal Resources Foundation, women's organizations and the powerful Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. The process of providing Zimbabwe with a new national constitution became a farce, however, when the head of the government-organized commission abruptly declared a draft version approved, and presented it to President Mugabe. In effect, the government gave the country two choices: to endorse a government-sponsored but largely flawed draft constitution or face the continuation of the present, deeply unpopular national constitution.

In recent years Mugabe has turned against white landowners, student groups, labor unions, and homosexuals. Inflation rages at 65 per cent, unemployment stands at more than 50 per cent, corruption is rampant, and living standards are dropping. The country is also mired in an unpopular war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zimbabwe's problems were compounded when ministers and members of parliament awarded themselves 182 per cent pay increases Mugabe faces increasing resistance to his deployment of 8,000 soldiers to back Kabila in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

The potential for Zimbabwe's citizens to elect their representatives and change their government through democratic means has become increasingly distant as President Mugabe's nearly two decades of rule have worn on. Since 1987 there have been 15 amendments to the constitution by ZANU-PF which have made the constitution less democratic and given the government, and particularly members of the executive, more power. These include the scrapping of the post of prime minister in favor of an executive president in 1987 and the abolishment of the upper chamber of parliament, the senate.

ZANU-PF swept nearly all the seats contested in parliamentary elections and local polls in April and October 1995, entrenching its de facto one-party rule. Mugabe won another six-year term of office in 1996, tallying nearly 93 percent of votes cast. Less than one-third of those eligible voted in a noncompetitive contest in which the opposition had no real hope of victory. Voter registration and identification procedures and tabulation of results were judged by independent observers to have been highly irregular. The heavily state-controlled or influenced media offer very limited coverage of opposition viewpoints, and ZANU-PF uses state resources heavily in its campaigning.

Serious concerns exist about the current voter-registration system and an apparently biased system of election administration. In 1999, a human rights group, the Foundation for Democracy in Zimbabwe, conducted a survey of eight voting wards. In the homes it visited, 75 per cent of the total of registered voters, it found that 25 per cent of those listed on the rolls were dead, unknown or else were registered several times. In recent urban-council elections, many recently registered voters said they were not allowed to cast their ballot because their names had not been included in the electoral rolls.

Political unrest has led to the creation of new political parties. For example, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has been created. The party has sprung from a newly dynamic trade union movement, which has called, successfully, two general strikes in the past year to protest against government policies. The new party's leader is Morgan Tsvangirai, a long-time union leader whose opposition to Mugabe has landed him in jail and resulted in beatings.

The judiciary remains largely independent and has repeatedly struck down or disputed government actions. The Public Order and Security Bill, however, restricts rights, limiting public assembly and allowing police to impose arbitrary curfews. Intelligence agencies are included among law enforcement agencies empowered to disperse "illegal" assemblies or arrest participants. Security forces, particularly the Central Intelligence Organization, often ignore basic rights regarding detention, search, and seizure.

Judicial rulings are at times ignored by the government. In addition, the right of free assembly is constitutionally guaranteed but generally respected only for groups that the government deems non political. For example, Zimbabwean police violently repressed a demonstration protesting intimidation of the media, although a high court judge had approved the march.

Mugabe has increasingly made use of legislation that grants him authority to undertake arbitrary action in what are supposed to be exceptional situations. He invoked the Presidential Powers Act twice in three weeks, for example, for matters relating to prisoner accommodations and capital gains taxation.

Several groups, including the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Organization (Zimrights), and the Legal Relief Fund focus on human rights. A 1997 report detailed the officially sanctioned brutality of the repression of Ndebele rebels in the mid-1980s, in which thousands of people were murdered by government forces, but perpetrators of the violence still enjoy impunity. Mugabe has continued his verbal attacks on homosexuals.

Prison conditions are harsh. Amnesty International reported in 1997 that Zimbabwean prisoners on death row sleep shackled and naked. The report argued that the dreadful conditions and psychological torment endured by death row inmates violated the right to be free from cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment.

The government directly controls all broadcasting and several newspapers, including all dailies; it indirectly controls most others. A small independent press is overshadowed by state-run media. The Parliamentary Privileges and Immunities Act has been used to force journalists to reveal their sources regarding reports on corruption before the courts and parliament. A publisher whose newspaper reported on a suspected coup plot in Zimbabwe was arrested the day after two of his employees were released after being tortured in detention. Three supreme court justices subsequently called on Mugabe to affirm the rule of law by reminding the army that it had no right to arrest civilians and that torture by anyone was unacceptable. Instead Mugabe defended the military's conduct, denounced the press, and called on the justices to resign.

Women's rights enjoy extensive legal protection, but de facto societal discrimination persists. Women have few legal rights outside of formal marriage. The supreme court issued a ruling relegating African women to the status of "junior males" within the family, declaring that African women who marry under customary law leave their original families behind and therefore cannot inherit property. Married women still cannot hold property jointly with their husbands. Especially in rural areas, access to education and employment for women is difficult, Domestic violence against women is common; a 1997 survey by a women's organization found that more than 80 percent of women had been subjected to some form of physical abuse. Zimbabwe has signed international human rights treaties, such as the Women's Convention.

Zimbabwe's once lively economy is now in precipitous decline. The manufacturing sector has shrunk by about 40 percent while per capita income per month continues to slide in a country where unemployment is pegged above 50 percent. The economy registered an outflow of nearly $430 million between January and October, leading to a significant shortage of foreign exchange. Inflation exceeds 70 per cent.