Background

Zimbabwe is a relatively new free country, having being fully recognised as independent only in 1980, after a more-than-40-years-long British domination and 15 years of international disputes and guerrilla uprisings. The results of the first free elections, held in 1979, saw the rise to power of Robert Mugabe, the 56-year-old leader of ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union). Since then Mugabe has been the country's only ruler (first as Prime Minister and then, since 1987, as President) and has dominated the country's political system with chaotic land redistribution campaigns, which crippled the economy and caused frequent shortage in basic commodities. Despite international condemnation, Mugabe falsified the 2002 and 2008 presidential elections to ensure his re-election.

Human Rights Violations

The 2007 and 2008 Amnesty International reports on Zimbabwe brought to light several kinds of human rights violations perpetrated by the Mugabe regime. The 2008 report, in particular, showed “an increase in organized violence and torture, and restrictions on the rights to freedom of association, assembly and expression. Hundreds of human rights defenders and members of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), were arrested for participating in peaceful gatherings. Scores were tortured while in police custody. The economy continued to decline. About four million people required food aid due to the declining economy, erratic rains and shortage of agricultural inputs such as maize seed and fertilizer. Victims of the 2005 mass forced evictions continued to live in deplorable conditions, and the government failed to remedy their situation."

The case of Jestina Mukoko

In the past months the Irish section of Amnesty International handled the case of Jestina Mukoko, a Zimbabwean human rights activist and the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project. She was arrested on 3rd December 2008 under the accusation of being involved in plans for anti government demonstrations and, on 24th December, she appeared in court in Harare to face charges of attempting to recruit people for military training to try to overthrow the government. Her whereabouts during the previous three weeks were unclear and the Zimbabwean police denied opposition claims that she was in their custody. Along with several other individuals, Mukoko was remanded in custody and the case referred to the Zimbabwean High Court. Thanks mainly to the work of international human rights associations that brought the attention of the international community on this case, Jestina Mukoko was released on 3rd March 2009. During the trial, the visibly emaciated Mukoko stated that she was “blindfolded every time I went to be driven from one place to another”. She also said that she “was tortured. At first I was assaulted under my feet with a rubber-like object as I sat on the ground. I was later asked to raise my feet, in a painful pose such as the one you would take for doing stomach exercises. Telling me to hold that pose, my abductors then started hitting me again. That beating went on for five minutes, they took a break after this and continued beating me after a few hours. They were all very drunk and holding bottles of alcoholic beverages throughout the interrogations and beatings." Mukoko also reveals that she was denied medication that she needs daily for ten days. An army doctor, Dr Chigumira, was then called in after ten days as Jestina was now in a very bad way. He claimed to be "shocked" and Ms Mukoko says, "later I was given medication."