Amnesty International Report 1998 - Zimbabwe

(This report covers the period January-December 1997)   An opposition leader remained on trial for treason, punishable by death. At least 10 people were sentenced to death and 12 were executed. In February the Supreme Court overturned the government's use of the controversial Private Voluntary Organisations (pvo) Act to dismiss the directors of a women's organization and replace them with government appointees. In September the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a law that had provided the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union– Patriotic Front (zanu-pf) with approximately us$3 million in state funding each year since 1992. The Supreme Court stated that excessively high thresholds for qualifying for funding meant that only zanu-pf received funds, limiting freedom of expression and putting opposition political parties "at a severe disadvantage" in elections. In March, two Zimbabwean human rights organizations presented President Robert Mugabe with a report entitled Breaking the Silence, which detailed atrocities carried out in the 1980s by forces of the army's 5th Brigade in the southwestern region of Matabeleland. Compiled over five years from testimony by more than 1,000 people, the report was leaked to a South African newspaper after months of silence from the government. The government did not respond to the report's recommendations, which included creating a public development fund as compensation Starting in April, war veterans carried out a series of public protests to demand their share of a war victims' compensation fund, which was allegedly defrauded of millions of dollars by senior government officials. In July the government imposed a two-week ban on all public demonstrations and strikes after a demonstration by veterans at the time of an investment conference of black us businessmen. In September, when President Mugabe promised the estimated 70,000 veterans a tax-free pay-out and a stipend for life, the World Bank froze balance of payments support, just after lifting its 1995 suspension on aid In December the authorities flouted a High Court order not to block a planned demonstration in Harare, the capital, to mark a one-day nationwide general strike. Police used tear-gas and batons to disperse tens of thousands of people who gathered peacefully to protest against proposed new taxes and violent clashes ensued. The Home Affairs Minister stated that police would shoot anyone demonstrating against the tax rises, and the Commissioner of Police reportedly said that the strike organizers, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (zctu), would be crushed if the strike went ahead. Less than 48 hours later, several people assaulted and severely injured zctu Secretary-General Morgan Tsvangirai in an incident later condemned by President Mugabe. The zctu alleged zanu-pf involvement in the attack. In December, more than two years after his arrest, opposition leader the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for conspiring to assassinate President Mugabe (see Amnesty International Reports 1996 and 1997). He remained at liberty pending appeal. The High Court ruled in November that the Terrorism Act, under which the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole had been charged, was unconstitutional because it forced a suspect to prove his or her innocence. The Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole maintained his innocence, alleging that the evidence against him had been fabricated by the state Central Intelligence Organisation. In October Amnesty International received reports that the government had forcibly returned scores of refugees to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (drc), formerly Zaire. Reports indicated they may have been returned because they were suspected of opposing drc President Laurent Kabila. More than 10 people were sentenced to death, and 12 were executed for murder, the largest number of executions in any single year since independence in 1980. No public notice was given before the hangings, and the last four were executed in September, just a year after the Supreme Court had dismissed their appeals In May Amnesty International wrote to President Mugabe to protest at the growing number of executions, as well as the apparent secrecy before the hangings Before President Mugabe assumed the chairmanship of the Organization of African Unity (oau) in June, Amnesty International wrote an open letter to the President urging him to accept and implement recommendations in the report Breaking the Silence, and describing the documented atrocities as "tantamount to crimes against humanity". In October Amnesty International expressed concern about the possible deportation of Georges Bizimana back to Burundi, and of Jean Hubert Feruzi Mbayo to the drc Country Entries