Mick Hartley

A new report from Human Rights Watch details the situation in Zimbabwe prior to the run-off election in a couple of weeks time:

The 69-page report, "'Bullets for Each of You': State-Sponsored Violence since Zimbabwe’s March 29 Elections,” documents numerous incidents of abductions, beatings, torture, and killings by officials and supporters of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the armed forces and police, “war veterans,” and youth militia against MDC activists and perceived MDC supporters. Human Rights Watch has confirmed at least 36 politically motivated deaths and 2,000 victims of violence. The report also examines the Zimbabwean government’s role in perpetrating and inciting the violence for political gain, and its failure to end the violence and prosecute those responsible. Human Rights Watch researchers conducted more than 70 interviews with victims and eyewitnesses to the violence since March in all 10 provinces of Zimbabwe.  
 
“Since the runoff was announced the violence in Zimbabwe has gotten even worse,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Zimbabweans can’t vote freely if they fear their vote may get them killed.”  
 
ZANU-PF and its allies are also engaged in a politically motivated campaign of looting and destruction, slaughtering animals, stealing food and property, and burning down homesteads. “War veterans” and youth militia have set up roadblocks and taken control of huge swathes of the countryside in order to limit the flow of information on the extent of the violence and to punish those perceived to have voted for the MDC. The government has also ordered all local and international nongovernmental organizations to suspend their operations in Zimbabwe, accusing them of politicizing aid distribution.

…Human Rights Watch researchers gathered extensive evidence of the role of senior-ranking army and police officers in inciting and organizing the violence. For example, several people alleged that Police Assistant Commissioner Martin Kwainona of the Presidential Guard was involved in inciting, leading, and perpetrating violence in Mt. Darwin, Mashonaland Central. One man told Human Rights Watch that Kwainona assaulted him and told him he was going to rid the area of all suspected MDC activists and supporters. Another told Human Rights Watch that Kwainona threatened people attending a gathering in Mt. Darwin on April 18, saying: “All MDC members in Mt. Darwin must be made to disappear, we are busy training our youths to do just that.”

…ZANU-PF and its allies have also established torture camps, and organized abusive “re-education” meetings around the country to compel MDC supporters into voting for Mugabe. Hundreds of people have been subjected to severe beatings, with logs, whips, bicycle chains, and other forms of torture during these meetings and at the camps.  
 
In one of the “re-education” meetings, on May 5 in Chiweshe, Mashonaland Central, ZANU-PF officials and “war veterans” beat six men to death and tortured another 70 men and women, including a 76-year-old woman publicly thrashed in front of assembled villagers. Victims informed Human Rights Watch that “war veteran” retired Major Cairo Mhandu organized and incited the beatings in Chiweshe.

Here's the actual report:

The violence is being orchestrated by the Joint Operations Command, which is headed by senior ZANU-PF officials and includes the heads of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, police, prison services, and the Central Intelligence Organization. In some areas local police are attempting to enforce the rule of law, but they are being undermined by their own superior officers.

Human Rights Watch investigations indicate that the army is playing a major role in supporting the violence. It has provided known “war veterans” and ZANU-PF supporters with guns, transportation and bases from which serious human rights violations are carried out.

The Times is spinning this as a military coup, but, unless I'm missing something, that seems to be misleading. It's not as if Mugabe is being forcibly ousted. If only…