ZIMBABWE: The opposition in the Zimbabwe elections were being subjected to "a lot of fear and intimidation", the human rights organisation Amnesty International warned yesterday. In addition, there was "fear of reprisal" after the elections on March 31st against those who voted for the main anti-government party, the Movement for Democratic Change.
Amnesty official Audrey Gaughran said in Dublin that she was a regular visitor to Zimbabwe and had spent 10 days there in early February, accompanied by Amnesty chairman in South Africa Samkelo Mokhine.
Ms Gaughran said that, based on its assessment of the human rights situation at the moment, Amnesty "doesn't believe people in Zimbabwe can participate freely and without fear in the election process. There is a lot of fear and intimidation, much of this directed at supporters of the political opposition."
Media access was a major problem: "There is very little independent media left and access to state media is, as far as we have been able to ascertain, limited. For example, I spoke to an MDC candidate last week whose advert was refused by the state media. Recently also, an attempt by human rights organisations to place a full-page advert in the state media was turned down."I don't believe access to radio or television is any better."
Freedom of assembly was also restricted: "It's generally constrained in any case in Zimbabwe, not just in relation to elections. There is a law that means you have to notify the police four days in advance of a public meeting.
"The law says 'notify', the police usually interpret that as 'you need permission' and this permission is often denied to political opposition and civil society groups."
Amnesty had documented a number of instances, "where even private meetings organised by opposition candidates . . . have been raided by the police, or the police have arrived and said that the meeting is illegal and people have been arrested".
The harassment had been intense: "We documented, in one six-week period, eight MDC candidates detained or arrested in the context of election campaigning, from the end of January to the beginning of March." Mostly this was for holding meetings that were deemed illegal, but also for such activities as putting up posters. No candidates for the ruling ZANU-PF party were detained in the same period.
A Zimbabwean journalist now living in Ireland, Lloyd Mudiwa, who worked for the independent Daily News before it was banned by the Mugabe government, said there were "no-go" areas where opposition candidates could not canvass. "If you are seen in those areas carrying campaign material like posters or wearing an MDC tee-shirt, you are beaten up."