BY NORM DIXON
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) have escalated the violent harassment and repression of their critics. Mugabe faces a presidential poll in 2002. He will be hard-pressed to defeat the challenger from the trade union-backed opposition Movement for Democratic Change in a free and fair poll.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was charged with inciting violence on February 16. Tsvangirai faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He was released on bail until the trial, which is set to begin on April 30.
The charges stem from a September speech in Harare in which Tsvangirai told opposition supporters that Mugabe should retire or he may face an uprising.
On February 6, police arrested the MDC's parliamentary leader and deputy president Gibson Sibanda and the MDC youth league leader Nelson Chamisa. Police accused the pair of "inciting public violence", under the terms of the Law and Order maintenance Act which is still on the books from the days of racist Rhodesia.
Sibanda had addressed a rally in the southern city of Bulawayo and urged MDC supporters not to back down in the face of violent attacks by pro-Mugabe thugs. "I said they have the right to defend themselves", Sibanda said.
The arrests are the latest incident in a wave of violence and harassment directed at critics of the government. On January 13-14, Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front won a by-election for the rural seat of Bikita West. ZANU-PF lost the seat to the MDC at the last general election in June. Mugabe's party won the seat with the aid of massive intimidation by pro-government thugs masquerading as liberation war veterans. At least one person was killed and 240 injured during the campaign.
In one incident, ZANU-PF thugs beat up 13 MDC campaigners and dumped them in the middle of a lion-infested game reserve. "War veteran" leader Chenjerai Hunzvi's ZANU-PF thugs went door-to-door and threatened to kill peasants who voted for the MDC. They camped near several of the district's polling stations. Despite the one-sided violence, police during the campaign arrested 109 MDC supporters and charged them with violent crimes. Only four supporters of the ruling party were detained.
Ruling party thugs also targeted public sector workers who went on strike on January 25 for a wage rise. Three striking teachers were assaulted and a mass meeting was surrounded by riot police and "war veterans" in Harare.
On January 29, Zimbabwe's security forces were put on alert after the government claimed the MDC planned an "insurrection". On that day, riot police broke up a march by members of the MDC youth league. The youth were protesting the bombing of the presses of the main non-government daily newspaper the day before.
The Daily News presses were destroyed by several military-issue landmines. The attack came just hours after the minister of information Jonathon Moyo and Hunzvi pledged to silence the newspaper. The anti-government newspaper's circulation has soared to 150,000 while the pro-government, state-owned daily Herald sells only 70,000. On February 2, riot police prevented 100 journalists from holding a march to protest the bombing.
ZANU-PF has also signalled its intention to stack the country's supreme court with government supporters. The chief justice in early February was forced to resign after the government refused to provide him protection following death threats by "war veterans". The remaining judges — one white, one Asian and two Africans — have been given notice because they are too "anti-black".
The supreme court has consistently ruled against the government on the issue of land redistribution. It also recently overturned a presidential decree that banned the opposition from challenging disputed parliamentary results in the courts.
Most ludicrously, the ZANU-PF government is considering banning the MDC's open-hand salute because it gives "political connotations" to greetings and farewells. "Waving hands is an international symbol of happiness created by God and using it on political grounds is a total violation of human rights", states a petition to the government sponsored by ZANU-PF MPs and a fundamentalist Christian church.