Zimbabwe: Stop this year’s elections descending into violence

A voter from the 2008 Zimbabwean election, with ink stained finger to proving she'd voted. © Robin Hammond/Panos ACTION TYPE LETTER / FAX

The last time Zimbabwe held an election it descended into extreme violence. 200 people were killed and thousands more injured.

This year Zimbabwe is due to go to the polls again and we want to stop the bloodshed that shook the country five years ago.

We believe that the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which is made up of Zimbabwe’s neighbour countries, can play a key role in influencing the Zimbabwean authorities and the main political players in this election.

March referendum - a sign of things to come?

Zimbabweans went to the polls on 16 March to vote on a new referendum, in what has been seen as a dry-run for the upcoming presidential elections. While the referendum was for the most part peaceful, police bans on short-wave radios and detention of human rights activists are worrying signs for the elections to come. Read more on our blog

Crackdown on activists

Jestina Mukoko is Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), which monitors human rights violations. On 8 March, Jestina was charged with ‘operating a private voluntary organisation without registration’. That same day, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission issued a statement that organisations facing police investigations would not be allowed to monitor the referendum or elections.

In February, ZPP's offices were raided and its staff put at risk of arrest when the Zimbabwean police classified them as being a ‘threat to state security’. These are only some examples of a governmental crackdown on human rights groups and activists in the run up to the elections. Read more information

Enter your contact details below to send an appeal letter to the key SADC members calling on them to do everything they can to make sure this year’s election is free from violence and fear.

We will email you the appeal letters for you to print and put in the post or fax. See full contact details for the key SADC members

Tweet

Jacob Zuma Jacob Zuma

President of South Africa

Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete

President of Tanzania

Armando Emilio Guebuza Armando Emilio Guebuza

President of Mozambique

Subject

Your Excellency

Following the first round of the presidential election in Zimbabwe in March 2008, there was a period of extreme violence and instability in the country. There was an unprecedented wave of state-sponsored human rights violations, which resulted in over 200 people being killed, at least 9,000 injured and 28,000 displaced.

Torture and ill-treatment of opposition supporters was widely reported. Human rights defenders and political activists and their family members were abducted and human rights violations were often carried out with impunity. There has still been no accountability for the majority of the human rights violations that occurred at this time.

On 28 May 2008, 14 members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) were arrested during a peaceful demonstration calling on the Southern African Development Community (SADC), to help bring an end to the state-sponsored violence. WOZA leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu were detained for 37 days and the other 12 were detained for 17 days.

This year Zimbabwe is due to hold new elections and Amnesty International is calling for there to be no repeat of the violence that occurred in 2008. SADC can play a critical role in ensuring the 2013 Zimbabwe elections are free from violence and fear and I urge you to use your key position within SADC to make this happen.

I call on SADC to:

• Press the Zimbabwean authorities to undertake measures to ensure the 2013 elections are free from violence against peaceful human rights defenders, civil society activists and all supporters of political parties, before, during and after the elections.
• Urge the Zimbabwean authorities to allow human rights defenders, civil society activists and all supporters of political parties to peacefully exercise their right to freedom of expression, association and assembly.
• Pressure the Zimbabwean authorities to investigate all reports of political violence that occurs in the context of the 2013 elections and ensure the perpetrators are held to account for that violence.
• Deploy election observers, including human rights monitors, before, during and after the Zimbabwe elections.

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Take Action

Zimbabwe: Stop this year’s elections descending into violence

March referendum - a sign of things to come?

Crackdown on activists