The following is the speech given by Jean Keetch at the Rimbey AI group’s African evening. A large crowd attended the African meal prepared by the Rimbey AI group, the Rimbey United Church Women, and friends of those two groups.
The Rimbey AI group took on a long term project a few years ago. That project is WOZA or Women of Zimbabwe. Tonight is the fourth time we have put on a fundraiser of this type, where all the funds donated by those attending, have gone directly to WOZA. We had hoped that by this time we would have some progress to report on the situation in Zimbabwe, but it continues to be a repressive, difficult situation for its citizens.
(WOZA) was formed in 2003 as a non-violent women’s movement. It has four main goals:
• to provide women from all walks of life with a united voice to speak up about issues that affect them,
• to empower female leadership in pressing for solutions to the current crisis,
• to encourage women to stand up for their rights and freedoms and to lobby and advocate on the issues affecting women and their families.
The organization estimates its membership at 85,000, consisting of both female and male members from across Zimbabwe.
Since 2003, Amnesty International has documented many incidents of members of WOZA being severely beaten and denied access to food, lawyers and medical care while in police custody. These incidents occur after members take part in peaceful demonstrations to protest against the worsening social, economic and human rights conditions in the country.
In October of 2008, hundreds of WOZA members took to the streets of Bulawayo to demand that the government address the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe. Nine members were arrested, including WOZA leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu. They were released the morning of November 6th after administrative delays, and both women reported poor prison conditions including lice, infrequent access to food, and public humiliation.
The treatment of WOZA by the police illustrates the Zimbabwean government’s increasing intolerance of peaceful public demonstrations. Human rights defenders and members of the political opposition continue to be targeted for their activism.
Zimbabwe’s “unity government” is failing to carry out reforms that are vital for the country to hold credible, free, and fair elections in 2013. The unity government consists of Mugabe’s ruling party since 1980, and the two factions of the former opposition. The deeply fractured unity government has failed to reform key laws or the justice system, which remains extremely partisan. It has also failed to hold accountable those responsible for past human rights abuses, including those occurring during the 2008 electoral violence.
“To hold credible, free, and fair elections in 2013, Zimbabwe’s government needs to level the political playing field and create a rights-respecting environment now,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “This means amending repressive laws and replacing partisan police chiefs and election officials with impartial professionals.”
Many Zimbabweans are concerned that without the needed reforms elections expected in 2013 will result in widespread violence and human rights violations, as occurred in 2008. Police harassment and arrests of civil society activists has worsened as elections get closer. On February 13 and 14 of this year, police in Harare and Bulawayo forcibly disrupted the annual Valentine’s Day “love” protests by about 190 members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise. The police arrested, detained, and in some cases beat protestors with batons, including the WOZA national coordinator, Jenni Williams. The protesters were released without charge following the intervention of lawyers. The systematic police campaign against civil society organizations appears designed to disrupt civil society operations and stop them from the important work of monitoring the human rights environment ahead of the elections.
Our efforts are still needed in Zimbabwe to support these brave people.