When we first met to come with the “We are watching
Campaign” for the Zimbabwe 2013 elections, this is the kind of thing we had in
mind. We would find out instances of ZANU PF’s flagrant disregard of the will
of the people and their desire to stay in power by any means they deemed
necessary.
The Zimbabwean today reported that the Leaders of
the Joint Operations Command has started dispatching high ranking soldiers to
spearhead ZANU (PF) campaigns across the country. The Joint Operations
Command, which brings together the army, police and intelligence chiefs, has
played a strong commissariat role for ZANU (PF) in elections, and recently
there have been reports of the increased presence of soldiers in many rural communities. There
are increase reports of soldiers harassing villagers for not producing national
identification documents and supporting the opposition MDC party. It is also
reported that the soldiers have been imposing unofficial curfews and are carrying
out late-night visits to suspected MDC-T activists’ homes as intimidation
intensifies.
The GPA has a statute for the reform of the
security sector. This remains undone and recent statements made by senior ZANU
PF ministers that the security sector reforms were not part of the GPA. Meaning
it is unlikely that these reforms will be done in time for the elections. In a
true democracy the army like all other state organs and institutions must perform
their duties ethically and professionally, for this to happen they must be
trained on subjects like human rights, international humanitarian law and statute
law. Members of the armed forces must understand and fully appreciate their
roles and duties in a multi-party democratic system and ensure that all state
organs and institutions strictly observe the principles of the rule of law and
remain non-partisan and impartial.
WE ARE WATCHING!!!
Justice Melusi Sibanda
Organising Secretary – ROHR Zimbabwe/Bradford
Branch
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