RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE:
"Dictatorship Is Temporary"
Interview with Nelson Chamisa, Zimbabwean Member of Parliament

Nelson Chamisa

HARARE, Jun 5 (IPS) - Fourteen members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, a Bulawayo-based human rights organisation, are being held in two prisons in the capital Harare. They were arrested while marching to demand that the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) intervene to end post-election violence; their case is just one illustration of escalating human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

A leading human rights lawyer, Andrew Makoni, has fled to South Africa after receiving credible warnings of a plan to murder at least one lawyer to deter others from publicising abuses and defending victims of state-sponsored violence. According to the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, four of Makoni's clients have been murdered in the past two weeks.

Since elections on March 29, at least 22 people have been killed in a campaign of torture, beatings and destruction of homes that the Solidarity Peace Trust reports has been carried out by supporters of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) supporters -- including war veterans, the party's youth wing and serving members of the Zimbabwe's security services.

IPS reporter Tonderai Kwidini spoke with Nelson Chamisa, a Movement for Democratic Change party spokesperson and member of parliament, who was himself attacked at the Harare International Airport last year, while on his way to an international meeting of parliamentarians in Brussels. And last week four of his family members were also severely assaulted by soldiers and suspected ZANU-PF militias.

IPS: What impact the violence has had on campaigning for the June 27 run-off elections?

NELSON CHAMISA: This is the worst political environment we have ever experienced in the history of our party. We are fighting a regime that is staring defeat in the face but is determined to stay in power and has become desperate. Our supporters are being maimed, tortured and killed and no one has been arrested. This is a situation you can only expect to get from a barbaric state.

IPS: How is the ongoing violence affecting or changing the political landscape in Zimbabwe?

NC: The violence has displaced voters. Remember we are going to be using a ward-based system and lot of our supporters have been forced out of their homesteads as a result of the violence. It has not just displaced voters, it has eliminated the electorate. We have over 50 supporters who have been killed since March 29.

IPS: A recent report from Solidarity Peace Trust describes this repression in painful detail. The report also recommends further mediation and the establishment of a transitional government. The International Crisis Group has made a similar recommendation: what is your response to this suggestion?

NC: It's simple: no one is against the idea of a government of national unity, because Zimbabwe will need one as it shapes up its nation-building efforts. But that government can only be chosen by the party that wins the elections because only then will it have the mandate of the people.

We are calling on the international community, SADC, the African Union and the United Nations to deploy peace keeping forces as well as monitors to come to Zimbabwe and save the people from ZANU-PF.

IPS: What is the message you are giving to MDC supporters in the face of this extreme violence?

We are just telling them that this is the last hurdle and it is going to be painful, but it will come to pass. We are telling them to vote with their conscience -- they have to be strong. This is the end: we spoke on 29 March and we have to speak again on 27 June.

IPS: We understand that your political party has been prevented from holding rallies in certain parts of the country. What has been the effect of these bans on your political activities?

NC: You don't have to talk about those bans alone as we have some rural areas that have been declared by ZANU-PF as no-go areas for the opposition. Those bans have not only managed to disrupt our campaign strategies but have given the ZANU-PF regime an edge against us. The whole idea is to render our party comatose.

IPS: Can you describe how you are campaigning in this environment?

NC: Our rallies have been banned, so we are now resorting to doing door to door campaigns.

IPS: What needs to be done to make the June 27 elections a free and fair contest?

NC: Firstly, there is a need to de-politicise the police force as it has become partisan in favour of the incumbent. Then there is a need to create conditions in which all political parties are covered fairly in both public and private media.

I was in Rwanda recently and I have learnt a lot about how the media can be used as a tool to fan violence. The ZANU-PF campaigns on national radio and television are genocidal and have to be stopped before it's too late.

IPS: Have you at any time felt a threat to your life as a result of the crackdown on political freedoms?

NC: Everyone within the party's leadership is living in constant fear of being abducted, tortured before being killed. We are now security animals and we have to be careful. We are dealing with a vampire regime. But remember: dictatorship is temporary and we are witnessing the end of Robert Mugabe's tyranny. (END/2008)