Mugabe's brutality to force election victory is revealed

The Zimbabwean army and police have set up torture camps where the seek to "re-educate" voters into voting for Mugabe, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.

A 40-page report issued today by Human Rights Watch contains comprehensive and graphic witness accounts of the reign of terror being conducted behind a wall of secrecy in sealed-off areas to punish the Zimbabwean electorate for voting for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The result of the 29 March election forced President Mugabe into a humiliating run-off, scheduled for 27 June, against his challenger Morgan Tsvangirai for the first time in his 28-year rule.

The authors, who interviewed more than 70 witnesses to the violence, identify senior military officials and police officers who were "inciting and organising" the fightback, confirming the army's role in orchestrating the brutality after a senior Western diplomat said that the country was now being run by a military "junta" grouped in the Joint Operations Command. The JOC is run by the defence forces chief but also includes the heads of the police, prisons service and intelligence. Many of the camps at which MDC supporters, or perceived opposition supporters, are beaten and mutilated are located on army bases.

The harassment campaign is officially known as "Operation Makavhoterapapi", meaning "where did you put your vote," according to locals. The army is providing known "war veterans" and Zanu-PF supporters with guns, transportation and the bases where the abuses are carried out.

Mugabe is the strangest little tinpot dictator of them all. He could simply declare martial law and announce that he is the leader, but he actually wants the people of Zimbabwe to vote for him, even if he has to beat them into doing so.

I was listening yesterday to Radio 4's Any Answers when a caller asked why Mugabe wasn't arrested when he attended the UN meeting in Rome recently for crimes against humanity and I did find myself nodding along as the caller made his case.

And the fact that he was then allowed to make a speech, condemning sanctions as being part of a British conspiracy to ruin Zimbabwe's economy, bordered on the surreal. With inflation in Zimbabwe running at 160,000% Mugabe needs no help in ruining his economy.

And while Mugabe was conducting this farce in Rome, things were heating up back home:

The report says that 36 people have been killed and 2,000 have been beaten or tortured since the first round of the presidential election on 29 March, in which according to the official result Mr Tsvangirai obtained 47.9 per cent against Mr Mugabe's 43.2 per cent.

In a chilling threat to villagers in Karoi, Mashonaland West province, soldiers handed out bullets to villagers and told them: "If you vote for MDC in the presidential run-off election, you have seen the bullets, we have enough for each one of you, so beware."

Ringleaders are said to include Police Assistant Commissioner Martin Kwainona of the presidential guard, who has been accused of inciting, leading and perpetrating violence in Mount Darwin, Mashonaland Central. The Mashonaland provinces are strongholds of the ruling Zanu-PF party where the MDC made significant inroads in the election.

Mr Kwainona threatened people at a meeting at a school in Mount Darwin on 18 April, saying: "All MDC members in Mount Darwin must be made to disappear, we are busy training our youths to do just that".

Another alleged culprit is an air force commander, Bramwell Kachairo. "He is the one leading the violence," said one witness in Mashonaland East. Another said: "I have seen him beating people in the area. He is very dangerous."

Human Rights Watch says the abuse is the worst it has seen in an election campaign in Zimbabwe, a country where state-orchestrated political violence has a grim record of impunity.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 3,000 people have fled their homes as a result of the violence. Since the official results were released on 2 June, the Mugabe regime has launched an all-out attack on opposition supporters, confiscating ID cards, in a kind of electoral cleansing campaign. More than 100 electoral officials have been arrested and MDC activists have been killed.

And all the while, Mbeki and other African leaders continue to treat Mugabe as a respected politician. This is the same Mbeki who insisted before the recent election that Mugabe would stand down if defeated. And, even when Mugabe refused to do so, Mbeki continues to defend him. Nor does Mbeki feel that United Nations monitors will be needed to observe the run-off of Zimbabwe's presidential poll.

The foreign observers handpicked by the Mugabe regime to monitor the first round, he said, were perfectly capable of performing this function a second time around. He implied that anyone who thought differently was a racist.

It is now racist to say that Mugabe can't be trusted to run a fair election. Racism must be much more prevalent than any of us previously believed then.

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Tags: Mugabe, Mbeki, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zanu-PF, Morgan Tsvangirai