GUNS
&ROSES
MAY 2021
2.1.1 The Guns: A bit of some history
To add a little more perspective to how the politics of the gun have contributed to
Zimbabwe’s tattered human rights record, here is a brief chronology of key events.
• In an attempt to annihilate political opposition from Matabeleland in the 1980s,
the Zanu PF government, led by the then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, with
current President Mnangagwa as the State Security minister, is suspected to have
killed an estimated 20,000 civilians in Matabeleland in what has now become
known as Gukurahundi.
• In 1998, as the Zimbabwean economy was shrinking and the cost of living going
up, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions organized protests, which were to
culminate into food riots.
Dozens of people were shot killed by the police and the army, which was
later called in to quell the protests. The army was involved in the post
protest investigations, and went on to violate more human rights.
• In 2000, following the formation of the MDC and the start of a chaotic, violent and
militia-led land reform exercise, elections were played out against the backdrop of
renewed national liberation demands and Zanu PF stoking the fires of nationalism.
Zanu PF’s campaign was explicitly backed up by an army of war veterans and,
implicitly at least, by the police and armed forces. Opposition political parties and
human rights organisations at the time claimed that over 35 people were killed,
and many more - about 5 000 - were reportedly harassed, beaten and forced to
engage in partisan activities. Despite all this, the police did not make arrests and
the army was also heavily involved in human rights violations.
• In 2002 presidential elections, the police, the army and intelligence department
were among the major perpetrators of politically motivated violence. During the
pre-election period, Zimbabweans were systematically deprived of many
democratic rights, and were subject to a campaign of political violence instigated
by the government through its state security arms, and the militia, and this
resulted in more than 100 deaths, thousands of assaults, threats and widespread
property destruction.
• Following a first-round election defeat by the opposition MDC-T leader Morgan
Trvangirai in 2008, Zanu PF unleashed a wave of politically motivated violence
across the country ahead of the second round presidential run-off election. During
this period, senior army officials were deployed into rural areas and an estimated
200 people were killed while thousands of others were left with lifetime injuries.
• In 2017, the gun once again led the politics when the military – in collusion with a
faction in the ruling Zanu PF, led a coup to oust long-time ruler Robert Mugabe
and replace him with president Mnangagwa both as a leader of the party and
Head of State. Ever since, the role of the gun in Zimbabwean politics has become
much more pronounced and incidents that have happened prove that.
• On August 1, 2018, protests against the perceived delay in the release of the
presidential election results ended with six people dead and several others injured
when soldiers were deployed into the streets of Harare and used disproportionate
force.
• In January 2019, 17 people died when the army was unleashed into the streets to
quell a shutdown protest organized by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
All of 2020, soldiers were deployed to co-enforce the
COVID-19 lockdown regulations and together with the
police, they were responsible for the majority of the
human rights violations that occurred.
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