HUNGRY VILLAGERS . . . Zimbabwe has faced food shortages since 2000 (File picture)

HARARE – Hundreds of hungry Zimbabwean villagers are being denied food handouts and forced to denounce their own parties in return for assistance as marauding ZANU PF militants continue to wage war of attrition against perceived political enemies, a leading human rights group has said.

The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) said in its latest report on rights violations in the country that of the 1 335 incidents of political violations recorded during the month of July, about 493 cases or 37 percent were of people who were harassed, intimidated or physically assaulted while trying to access food assistance.

“Incidents of harassment, discrimination, and violence continue to haunt the distribution of humanitarian and food assistance,” read part of the ZPP report.

About 44 percent of the cases involved discriminations in areas relating to food relief, government subsidised food, tillage support, input distribution and medical treatment while 42 percent were harassments involving incidents in which people were forced to chant slogans, denounce their parties, attend political meetings and produce party cards.

Another 14 percent of the cases involved the use of violence in the form of physical attacks, malicious damage to property and sexual abuse.

The worst affected provinces were Mashonaland West and Midlands where 135 incidents were recorded apiece, followed by Mashonaland East with 96 cases and Manicaland with 64 incidents.

Harassments and denials to food and humanitarian assistance sourced from non-governmental organisations were prevalent in the Midlands.

The harassments involved cases in which people were forced to denounce their own parties and forced to produce party cards or attend political meetings.

In Mashonaland West, humanitarian and food relief interventions were generally viewed with suspicion and closely monitored by war veterans and ZANU PF officials.

ZPP said a cumulative total of 10 328 political violations were recorded between January and July 2009, of which 5 308 were harassments, 2 323 assaults, 500 displacements and 225 malicious damage to property.

“Harassment and discrimination remain disturbingly on the high side, a pointer to low tolerance to people expressing their views on national issues such as the constitution making process, the national healing process, outstanding issues and the inclusive government in general,” the organisation said.

It urged the three parties to Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government to act urgently to “sell the zero-tolerance to human rights abuses message to their structures at both the macro and micro levels of society”.

ZPP said the three peace days declared by President Robert Mugabe in July to promote national healing should herald the unfolding of national programmes encompassing truth, forgiveness, justice and compensation that are more robust.

“For justice to be seen working, ZPP recommends that those who committed murder should be arrested while those who had their property and livestock should be compensated,” it said.

ZPP called on the local leadership and the church to be actively involved in the enforcement of the healing process, noting that “simply asking people to forgive is merely postponing problems as they are poised to resurface”. – ZimOnline