The Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe was reported last week to have bought his luxurious HK$40 million home in JC Castle at Tai Po. While the scandal of the president’s wealth becomes the talk of the town in Hong Kong, the forgotten human rights situation of people in Zimbabwe continues to deteriorate.

Since 2000, the government of Zimbabwe has taken measures to silence all critics of its policies. Hundreds of human rights defenders have been arbitrarily arrested and unlawfully detained by the police. In the run up to the 2008 election, the Zimbabwean security forces were implicated in the abduction, killing and torture of known and suspected supporters of the then opposition parties.

On 11 February, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai swore in to become Zimbabwe’s prime minister, which seemingly shows Mugabe’s willingness to share power. Yet, a number of events that have taken place since the swearing in of a the new government suggest that there is a force within the Zimbabwean security forces, that continues ordering violations of human rights as a method of dealing with people they do not like.

On 14 February, police in Bulawayo arrested 10 activists after they participated in a peaceful protest. Seven women from the activists organization Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and three men from Radio Dialogue are being held at Bulawayo Central police station. They have not been charged and their lawyer has been denied access.

Retrogressive government policies and practices have led directly to the reduction of the entire population’s access to food, healthcare, education and housing. In 2008, the country experienced serious shortages of seed and fertilizer. Nearly half of Zimbabwe’s population is dependent on food aid from the World Food Programme. The World Food Programme estimates that about five million Zimbabweans were in need of food aid. Annual inflation was running at over 231,150,888 per cent at the end of July 2008. Despite the high levels of food insecurity and in clear violation of its obligations under international human rights law, the government has consistently used food as a tool to demand loyalty in rural areas. People suspected of supporting the then opposition parties were denied access to cheap maize sold through the state-owned Grain Marketing Board (GMB). In the run-up to the 27 June 2008 presidential election thousands of rural farmers’ food reserves were plundered or destroyed as a punishment for supporting opposition parties.

Most health centres are barely functioning following many years of neglect by the state. The situation is so severe that a cholera outbreak that began in August 2008 has killed over 3,300 people and the death toll keeps rising. Efforts to counter the epidemic have been undermined by a shortage of safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, the collapsing healthcare infrastructure, and the high drop out rate of underpaid health workers.

Children living in poverty in Zimbabwe are losing out on their education. In January 2009, most public schools failed to open as teachers were on strike over poor salaries or could not afford transport to work.

Hundreds of thousands of people who were forcibly evicted during Operation Murambatsvina in 2005 continue to live in destitution. Operation Garikayi/Hlalani Kuhle, ostensibly the government’s attempt to remedy the effects of the forced evictions, did not benefit the victims of the evictions. The programme was exposed by Amnesty International as a public relations exercise which benefited civil servants and others connected to the former ruling party.

The president’s extravagance is a great contrast to the people’s impoverishment in his country.

There are public concerns that the president is taking away fund that belongs to the people in needs, and Hong Kong will become a place for money laundering, especially when the Chinese authorities publicly acknowledged her acceptance for such act.

In fact, China’s response to the Zimbabwean ruler’s lavishness is not surprising at all. China and Zimbabwe established diplomatic relations in 1980. The Chinese authorities described this Sino-Zimbabwean relation as "stable and friendly."  According to the government mouth-piece Xinhua News Agency, Zimbabwe's president is one of the African leaders who have paid frequent visits to China .

During the recent Universal Period Review on China on February 9, 2009, Zimbabwe spoke positively on China's human rights record and praised China for its achievements in protecting freedoms of expression and passing legislation for the protection of human rights, despite the many criticisms on China's many on-going human rights violations by various groups including Amnesty International.

While there is concern about the city being “flooded by blood money”, Amnesty International is concerned about that the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe: with cholera taking thousand of people’s lives, million being in need of food aid, the health and education systems in utter disarray, and that the Zimbabwean authorities continue to harass and intimidate state critics and political opponents. Amnesty is calling on the Zimbabwean government to implement a clear agenda for human rights which include the following five points:

1. Release prisoners of conscience and ensure a prompt and fair trial;
2. Open up the operational environment and provide access for human rights groups;
3. Acknowledge human rights violations by the previous government and take effective measures to guarantee non-repetition;
4. Address impunity and policing for human rights violations by the security forces;
5. Prioritise the full realisation of economic, social and cultural rights. Where it is unable to meet its minimum core obligations, it should seek international assistance.

Refer to the model letter below to write letters in English, French or in your own language and address them to the Hon. Lovemore Moyo:

 Click here to download the model letter in Microsoft Word (24 KB)

A letter, weight not over 30g, sent to Zimbabwe from Hong Kong by airmail costs HKD 3.00 or HKD2.90 if sent by surface mail.

Name:

Email:

Hon. Lovemore Moyo, MP
Speaker of the House of Parliament
Nelson Mandela/3rd Street
Box CY 298
Causeway
Harare
Zimbabwe

Hon. Lovemore Moyo,

I am concerned about the food insecurity in Zimbabwe. According to the World Food Programme, approximately five million people were in need of food aid by December 2008.

The government has used food as a political tool in rural areas. It has employed traditional leaders and local ZANU-PF activists to deny suspected opponents of the party access to cheap or relief maize, as part of its strategy to retain ZANU-PF’s rural support base.

I urge you to ensure that allegations of discriminatory food distribution reported by Amnesty International from 2004 onwards are investigated and that accountability mechanisms, including an ombudsman on food, are set up to ensure that government-subsidized food and food aid are distributed in a non-partisan manner.

Yours sincerely,

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