Statement on the recent attack on MP Trudy Stevenson

 

The text below is an editorial released on Voice of America Friday, July 7th discussing the attack on Trudy Stevenson, an MDC Member of Parliament, last week. We are releasing the text of this editorial today because the Zimbabwean Government’s jamming of Studio 7 has prevented many of its listeners from hearing the official position of the United States Government, yet another instance of the Zimbabwean government’s manipulation of news and information.  

The recent attack on Trudy Stevenson, an MDC member of parliament, is a reminder of the violence that has stalked Zimbabwean politics in recent years.  Initial reports suggested that the young thugs who attacked Stevenson might have belonged to the rival “anti-Senate” wing of MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai.  Fortunately, the leaders of this wing have publicly condemned the assault and have assembled a legal team to investigate the allegations.  The United States strongly endorses this move and calls as well for a thorough official investigation.  Without prejudging the results, wrongdoers must be brought to book and punished according to law regardless of their political affiliation.

In that regard, it is important to note, as the U.S. Human Rights reports on Zimbabwe of the last few years have done, that political standards of conduct in Zimbabwe have been eroded by years of organized assaults on opposition figures, the independent media, judges, and civil society.  The moral rot is deepest in ZANU-PF, which has been responsible for the vast majority of the offenses.  Few, if any, of the perpetrators of these acts were ever punished.  If it proves true that MDC supporters were behind the attack on Stevenson, it would be a sad testament of the extent to which the ruling party’s desperate tactics have institutionalized political violence in Zimbabwe.  That said, it is encouraging that MDC, the principal victim of political violence in Zimbabwe, has moved quickly to investigate the Stevenson incident. Democratic parties must not tolerate thuggery in their ranks and must not stoop to the tactics of their tormenters. 

As if to underscore the depths of political violence in Zimbabwe, a recent report by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Nongovernmental Forum says that there is widespread evidence of human rights abuses.  According to the Forum, since July 2001, more than fifteen thousand cases of organized violence and torture have been reported in Zimbabwe.

Most of the perpetrators, says the report, are the Zimbabwean police.  According to the report, "People in detention are generally at a much greater risk of abuse unless there are extremely strong safeguards in place governing the process of detaining people."  In its latest human rights report, the U.S. State Department says that in the past year the government of President Robert Mugabe "maintained a steady assault on human dignity and basic freedoms.”  U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Jeffrey Krilla, says that Zimbabwe "continues to move in the wrong direction":

"They continue to arrest and detain opposition leaders and their supporters.  And then last year they closed down an independent newspaper, showing just how unwilling they are even to accept criticism.  So the Zimbabwean government continues to be a real human rights offender on the continent."

President George W. Bush said Zimbabwe "has not been a good case study for democracy."  Mr. Bush said the U.S. "is concerned about a leadership that does not adhere to democratic principles, and obviously concerned about a country that was able to, for example, feed herself, now has to import food as an example of the consequences of not adhering to democratic principles."

The U.S. reiterates its call on the ruling party to negotiate with its domestic political opponents in good faith and to take the reforms needed to bring an end to the crises its misguided policies have wrought on a once prosperous and democratic nation. 

Released: July 11th, 2006