Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House:

(1)

notes the grave and ongoing humanitarian and political crisis in Zimbabwe;

(2)

expresses its concern at the unacceptable delay in the release of official results from the 29 March 2008 presidential election in that country, and records its concern that this delay was part of a ploy by the incumbent Mugabe Government to fraudulently retain power;

(3)

asserts that the democratic choice of the people of Zimbabwe must be respected, and that the second, run-off presidential election, to be held by 31 July 2008, must be free, fair and without intimidation;

(4)

calls on the Zimbabwe Election Commission to invite international election observers to monitor the election including observers from the African Union and the United Nations;

(5)

confirms its commitment to the fundamental democratic requirement of a free and open media, and urges the Zimbabwe Government to allow international media full access to Zimbabwe to report on and properly scrutinise the run-off election;

(6)

condemns the use of violence and other kinds of intimidation or manipulation by election participants in Zimbabwe, including by associates of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front party, in attempts to pervert the democratic process;

(7)

expresses its hope that the election process can be resolved in order that a properly constituted government of Zimbabwe can turn its full attention to addressing the serious problems afflicting its people, including severe food shortages, a spiralling rate of HIV/AIDS infection, high level unemployment, raging inflation and the lack of basic health services;

(8)

welcomes the Australian Government’s humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe which provides humanitarian relief and human rights support for ordinary Zimbabweans; and

(9)

supports the Minister for Foreign Affairs in his efforts on Australia’s behalf in seeking to cooperate with the United Nations, other nations, and relevant non-government organisations to bring a rapid and peaceful resolution to the political impasse in Zimbabwe, and to address the humanitarian crisis in that country.

On 29 March this year, Zimbabweans turned out in their millions to cast their votes in their country’s parliamentary and presidential elections. The majority of Zimbabwean people bravely voted for change. This included its rural population, which has traditionally supported the ruling party. Even these people have experienced enough of the economic and social disaster that confronts them daily. The courage of the people and of the opposition—principally the Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, led by Morgan Tsvangirai—combined with such factors as the change to the Electoral Act requiring that votes be counted at the polling station with the results publicly posted there, meant that in the aftermath of the election it actually seemed possible that an end to the ruling tyranny might be delivered by democratic means.

Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that this would not happen. The Mugabe ZANU-PF regime—a political movement that was once instrumental in ending the oppressive and undemocratic white rule in Rhodesia and that clearly had not anticipated losing the March election, which was by no means free and fair—has responded to the loss of its parliamentary majority and to Mugabe finishing second in the presidential election by determining to thwart the will of the people. Since the 29 March election, the regime has launched a campaign of violence against the leaders and mid-level activists within the opposition and against ordinary people suspected to have voted for the opposition. It has engaged in intimidation and ‘re-education’ of the population ahead of the 27 June run-off presidential election.

Members would have heard of the detention of Morgan Tsvangirai for the fifth time in about 10 days this past weekend and the arrest of the MDC’s secretary-general, Tendai Biti, who has been charged in a Harare court with treason, an offence carrying the death penalty. Mugabe vowed over the weekend to fight to keep Tsvangirai from power and said he is prepared to go to war for it.

I draw members’ attention to a report released only last week by the respected human rights organisation Human Rights Watch. The report is chillingly titled ‘Bullets for Each of You’—state-sponsored violence since Zimbabwe’s March 29 elections. The report’s frontispiece includes a quote from a soldier addressing villagers in Karoi, Mashonaland West. The soldier is reported to have said:

If you vote for MDC in the presidential runoff election, you have seen the bullets, we have enough for each one of you, so beware.

The report cites information from numerous sources to support the contention that a program of anti-democratic violence and coercion has been underway since the March elections and is being guided by the Joint Operations Command in Zimbabwe, which comprises the heads of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, the police, the Central Intelligence Organisation and the prison services. The central role being played by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces within the JOC has led many experienced observers to conclude that the military in Zimbabwe is now effectively running the Mugabe regime. On this count, it is alarming to recall the statement made before the March election by General Constantine Chiwenga, commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. General Chiwenga was quoted in the Standard, a Zimbabwe newspaper, as saying that army would not ‘support or salute sell-outs and agents of the West before, during and after the presidential elections’.

Last month, after five American and two British diplomats were detained, US Ambassador James McGee observed:

We are dealing with a desperate regime here which will do anything to stay in power.

Human Rights Watch reports that victims of the violence in Zimbabwe have heard repeated reference to ‘Operation Where-Did-You-Put-Your-Vote?’ Under this operation, MDC supporters are pulled from their homes in the middle of the night and beaten with logs, whips and bicycle chains. The Human Rights Watch report documents cases of torture and murder, where the bodies of MDC activists have been found with their eyes gouged out and their tongues and lips cut off. Some have had their genitals mutilated. It is also reported that the government now requires people to surrender their identity cards before receiving food aid. ZANU-PF supporters have their cards returned. MDC supporters do not, and so will not be able to vote on 27 June.

As of 27 May, Human Rights Watch had confirmed at least 36 deaths—and I understand this figure has since risen to about 60—and around 2,000 victims of violence and torture. The overwhelming majority of these were MDC activists or supporters, and some have been observers from the independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network. Foreign journalists have been banned and there has been a crackdown on local journalists critical of the regime. This, of course, is not new behaviour for the regime. Members will recall that, following the release of footage of a badly beaten Tsvangirai in March 2007 which sparked international outrage, the cameraman who filmed those images, Edward Chikombo, was found dead a few days later.

In the last month, Care International has been ordered to stop operations on the trumped-up charge of interfering in the electoral process. This is a non-government organisation that provides aid to 500,000 people in Zimbabwe. On 2 May, UNICEF condemned ‘increases in violence against children’ and noted, on 21 May, that widespread violence was hindering its relief efforts in Zimbabwe.

As the Chairperson of the UNICEF Parliamentary Association and as someone who has spent most of the last decade working for the United Nations and alongside a range of significant non-government organisations, I am appalled by the way in which aid agencies are being prevented from doing their work in a country whose people so badly need that help. I am afraid that, in such an environment of violence, intimidation and manipulation of food aid, there cannot be a credible run-off election.

I would like to mention the role of South Africa at this point. It is deeply disappointing that South Africa’s President Mbeki has refused to condemn the state-sponsored violence and intimidation ravaging Zimbabwe, even claiming that it is a normal election process in Zimbabwe. However, a recent report by six retired South African generals documenting political violence in Zimbabwe is encouraging and may provide the impetus for a stronger line to be taken by Pretoria. We have also heard some forceful statements from Jacob Zuma, leader of the African National Congress. It is essential now that South Africa as well as other southern African nations play a key role in resolving this political and humanitarian crisis.

This is also the view of the International Crisis Group, which issued a report on 21 May entitled Negotiating Zimbabwe’s transition. In that report, the Crisis Group advocates an expanded Southern African Development Community mediation, including key SADC countries such as Angola, Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. This local mediation would be ‘backed by quiet but concerted wider international support’ and, the report says:

… should focus on two immediate alternative objectives: negotiating the establishment of a transitional government headed by Tsvangirai and involving substantial ZANU-PF participation that avoids the need for a run-off; and if that fails, negotiating the conditions for the holding of a free and fair run-off between Tsvangirai and Mugabe.

Time is running out for a negotiated settlement on a transitional government. We are now only 11 days away from the date set for the run-off election, 27 June.

Prime Minister Rudd has called on African nations, particularly the SADC and the African Union nations, to speak with one voice about the importance of democracy and the will of the people prevailing in Zimbabwe. Of course, Australia stands ready to provide human, technical and financial aid to the monitoring of both the electoral process and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, as well as a further $8 million in food aid.

In endorsing the doctrine of a ‘responsibility to protect’ at the 2005 World Summit, world leaders accepted that the concept of state sovereignty implies not only rights but also duties towards citizens of the state to protect them against, inter alia, crimes against humanity. Where the state is unwilling or unable to fulfil its duties, the ‘responsibility to protect’ falls to the international community. I submit that the situation in Zimbabwe may well be an appropriate case for the application of the principle of a ‘responsibility to protect’.

There is compelling evidence that the Mugabe regime has abandoned its responsibility for the people of Zimbabwe and is sacrificing the welfare of its citizens to achieve its own political survival. As the International Crisis Group has said:

If Mugabe wins the run-off through fraud and/or violence and intimidation, his government should be declared illegitimate … and appropriate regional and wider international actions should be taken to deal with what would clearly be a rogue regime.

This motion expresses the sincere hope that sanity will prevail despite all present indications to the contrary and that we will see in the near future a new and properly-constituted democratic government in Zimbabwe, a government that can turn its full attention to addressing the serious problems afflicting its people. Australia is ready to play a constructive role in supporting a southern African solution to this crisis and in helping to rebuild Zimbabwe’s ravaged economy and infrastructure, its long-term health, the dignity of its people and its future in a post-Mugabe world.

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