DECEMBER 2007
While widely hailed across Africa as a liberation war hero, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe spent the greater part of the war for independence in jail, and never fired a shot. He has a long history of angry words and of ordering violent actions, targeted primarily at fellow Zimbabweans.
The following documents just a few examples of his most extreme language, and his actions and policies which accompanied them.
1983
From 1982-4, the government launched the Gukurahundi. A Shona word meaning “the rains that clears out the chaff,” the chaff in this case was “dissidents,” residents of Matabeleland and the Midlands whom Mugabe suspected of supporting a small number of guerrillas.
As many as 20,000 unarmed civilians were killed in this campaign of violence, and many more were tortured, assaulted, or had their homes burnt or their property destroyed.
In April 1983, during the height of Gukurahundi, Mugabe addresses a gathering near Nkayi in Matabeleland North, saying of alleged support by Ndebele people for the so-called “dissidents,”:
“We have to deal with this problem quite ruthlessly. Don’t cry if your relatives get killed in the process . . . Where men and women provide food for the dissidents, when we get there we eradicate them. We don’t differentiate when we fight, because we can’t tell who is a dissident and who is not.”
Source: The Times 27 April 1983
1985
In a speech following parliamentary elections in 1985, Mugabe urged residents of Harare to “go out and weed your gardens.” Crowds supporting Zanu PF went after those suspected of supporting the opposition Zapu party, attacking them violently and burning their properties. Twenty civilians, including a pregnant woman, were beaten to death.
1995
Mugabe has regularly been outspoken against homosexuality, saying “homosexuals have no rights whatsoever,” and referring to homosexuals as “lower than pigs and dogs.” These comments preceded a violent attack on members of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) who were displaying their literature at Harare’s Book Fair.
2000
At the Zanu PF congress in December 2000, following the first year of violent farm invasions and land seizures, Mugabe told his supporters
“Our party must continue to strike fear into the heart of the white man, they must tremble. . . .The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans.”
Source: The Daily News 15 December 2000
Farm invasions and brutal attacks on white commercial farmers trying to remain productive on their land continued.
2002
Speaking at the burial of Cain Nkala, Mugabe blamed the MDC for the killing and urged Zanu PF supporters to take revenge on the MDC. A series of violent mob attacks on the MDC followed, their offices were burnt and hundreds of MDC supporters were assaulted or abducted in advance of the 2002 presidential elections.
2005
Mugabe told the youths at a rally celebrating Zanu PF’s victory in the disputed March parliamentary election:
“There is no way I can take it that some of the Zanu PF youths can be beaten by those from the opposition . . . You have to fight back. Why are you so lazy” (to fight)?
Source: Their words condemn them May 2007
Operation Murambatsvina, (a Shona expression meaning “Drive out the trash”) which saw 700,000 urban residents lose their homes or their source of livelihoods, and which indirectly affected millions of others, soon followed. Many have explained Murambatsvina as an attempt to punish urban residents, who typically vote for the opposition MDC, and to destabilize and intimidate them into not mobilizing in protest of the government’s stolen election.
2006
As the MDC was contemplating a “winter of discontent,” a series of non-violent collective actions to protest declining economic standards and the persistent political crisis in Zimbabwe, Mugabe warned:
“We hear others say we want to go into the streets to demonstrate, to unseat a legitimately elected government. It will never happen and we will never allow it. If a person wants to invite his own death, let him go ahead.”
Source: Zimonline 1 April 2006
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions held a national labour protest on 13 September 2006, in protest of high prices and low wages.Demonstrators were beaten by police as they loaded them into police vehicles to take them to jail, and protesters were further tortured by the police once in custody. Of these attacks, Mugabe said:
“Protestors will be beaten up, there is no apology for that. Others are crying that we were beaten up, yes you would be beaten up.”
Source: Herald 25 September 2006
2007
On 11 March, police violently prevented the MDC and civil society organisations from conducting a prayer rally in Highfields, Harare. Using tear gas and baton sticks to block demonstrators’ passage to the venue, police arrested scores of people, and severely beat many, including MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai and NCA Chairman Lovemore Madhuku.
In subsequent statements, Mugabe defended the brutal policing surrounding this event, and warned the opposition that more violence would come their way.
If they protest again, we will bash them.”
Source: Zimonline 19 March 2007
“Our arms of government, the police will act very vigorously and severely on those who go on a defiance campaign. We hope they have learned a lesson. If they have not, then they will get similar treatment.”
Source: The Herald 24 March 2007
“Yes, I told [SADC Heads of State] [Morgan Tsvangirai] was beaten, but he asked for it. We got full backing. Not even one leader criticized our actions. I told the police – beat him a lot.”
Source: Sunday Herald (UK) 31 March 2007
“These things happen. If you challenge the police, don’t think they are going to be merciful with you. If the opposition dares to challenge the police, they will get more Tsvangirai’s beaten up.”
Source: Yahoo News 27 April 2007
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