Spalte #col2
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Resources
Desperately Seeking Sanity: What Prospects for a New Beginning in Zimbabwe? view details>>
Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace: A report on the disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands (summary report) view details>>
Underreporting of cases from Africa view details>>
Crisis without Limits. Human Rights and Humanitarian Consequences of Political Repression in Zimbabwe view details>>
Enforced disappearances Zimbabwe
| Numbers and Context |
|---|
| UNWGEID Cases |
| 4 disappearances have been denounced, of which 1 has been clarified and 3 remain outstanding. |
| NGOs Numbers |
| While there is no exact data a number of NGOs have collected some data on enforced disappearances in various conflicts in Zimbabwe. In colonial times, when Zimbabwe was still called Rhodesia there were a number of enforced disappearances, however there was no pattern of disappearances as such. Post independence violence led to several periods in which enforced disappearances occurred. The most concrete data on enforced disappearances in those phases is from a study by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe (published with Legal Resources Foundation). This data is mainly from Matabeleland and the Midlands. In a first phase in 1983 many disappeared and were buried clandestinely. However NGOs have a good record of who is buried where. In 1984 enforced disappearances increasingly were used as part of a Government policy. In 1985 (election year) at least 500 people are said to have disappeared. However, this figure is very conservative. In 1989 a survey conducted by a Zimbabwean NGO revealed that 1 in 4 persons interviewed had someone in the family who was disappeared. Many of these would not be victim of enforced disappearance, but missing under other circumstances. There is no data available on enforced disappearances in the current political climate. However, enforced disappearances are used as an instrument of terror by the current regime. Human rights groups have noted an increase of the policy of enforced disappearances just before, during and since the last elections in 2008. |
| Context |
| Enforced disappearances have happened in different phases of Zimbabwe's history. Enforced disappearances continue to happen at present.
In the colonial past many people went missing, because they would go into training to fight the colonial regime and never came back. Many of these people have probably been killed in action. The Rhodesian army would, in general, not be discrete about taking people and murdering them. In fact they had a habit of picking up people, killing them and exposing their bodies as publicly as possible to discourage any resistance. However, there were enforced disappearances in that period as well. It is in the post-independence era that most enforced disappearances took place, and that enforced disappearances gradually became a policy of Government. Human rights violations, including events leading up to enforced disappearances have been most famously documented in a publication entitled: "Breaking the Silence: a report on disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands", written by the Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice in Zimbabwe and published jointly with the Legal Resources Foundation (see list of publications in rights hand column). After independence in 1983 violence led to many massacres, mainly of men. Many of the resulting mass graves have been documented by human rights organisations. It is in 1984 that disappearances started becoming an instrument of terror systematically used by the Government (in particular through the so-called Fifth Brigade). In 1984 between 500 and 1000 people disappeared. These disappearances happened among endemic violence at the time. In 1985, the year of elections, the Fifith Brigade was redeployed in Matabeleland and the Midlands with the sole purpose of making people disappear. Conservative estimates put the number of disappearances at 500. The pattern was sadly 'classic': troops would knock on someone's door, ask whoever was in the house to show the way, then that person was led out of the house onto an army truck, never to be seen again. While the exact scale of enforced disappearances in that first decade of independence is not known a survey conducted by a local human rights organisation in 1989 suggested 1 in 4 people had family who disappeared. Many of these will have gone missing in action, however a number of these will be people who were disappeared by Government. All these periods of violence were followed by amnesties given to the perpetrators. The latest of these amnesties were given to perpetrators of violence against the MDC in violence concurring with the 2000 elections. Although information on human rights violations in that period are sketchy, enforced disappearances did take place at the time. At that time the Zimbabwean Government used war veterans and youth militias to commit gross human rights violations. In recent years enforced disappearances have happened in an attempt to root out opposition against the ruling ZANU-PF. One of the patterns is that someone gets arrested, brought to a police station and then moved from place to place by others. The family is denied any contact, the lawyer is denied access and the police denies holding this person. In that time the person detained is tortured and released days afterwards. While this is not a 'classic' disappearance, because the person resurfaces after a limited number of days, this pattern falls within the international definition of an enforced disappearance (it is called disappearance clarified ab initio). A few cases of enforced disappearances have happened where the whereabout of the victim continue to be unknown. Again for many human rights violations in Zimbabwe (including enforced disappearances) the Government uses youth militias and war veterans. Most recently the violence before, during and after the 2008 elections (both rounds), has included a number of enforced disappearances. This includes an increase in persons disappeared who remain disappeared. However, exact data is not available yet. |
| Federations and Organisations | |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe |
| Website | |
| Contact | National office: 2nd Floor Africa Synod House 29-31 Selous Avenue (cnr 4th Street) PO Box CY 284 Causeway Harare Telephone (04) 791053/792380 Fax (04) 724971 email: ccjpz@mango.zw There are also offices in Bulawayo, Mutare and Binga |
| Focus | Awareness raising on human rights; Investigation of injustices and taking of appropriate action; Keep in contact with other organisations with similar aims. |
| Organisation | Solidarity Peace Trust |
| Website | http://www.solidaritypeacetrust.org/ |
| Contact | E-mail : selvanc@venturenet.co.za Tel : +27 (39) 682 5869 F ax : +27 (39) 682 5869 Postal Address/Posadres : Suite 4, 3rd Floor, MB Centre, 49 Aiken Street, Port Shepstone 4240 Kwazulu-Natal South Coast Physical Address : Suite 4, 3rd Floor, MB Centre, 49 Aiken Street, Port Shepstone 4240 Kwazulu-Natal South Coast |
| Focus | To assist individuals, organisations, churches and affiliated organisations in southern Africa, to build solidarity in the pursuit of justice, peace and social equality and equity in Zimbabwe. To assist victims of human rights abuses. |
| Organisation | Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum |
| Website | www.hrforumzim.com |
| Contact | Human Rights Forum Blue Bridge 8th Floor, Eastgate P O Box 9077 Harare, Zimbabwe Tel (+263) 04-250 511 www.hrforumzim.com admin@hrforum.co.zw |
| Focus | Human rights in Zimbabwe |
| Organisation | Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights |
| Website | Website is currently suspended. |
| Contact | |
| Focus | The aim of ZLHR is to foster a culture of human rights in Zimbabwe and to encourage the growth and strengthening of human rights at all levels of Zimbabwean society. Collects information on enforced disappearances in Zimbabwe. |