POLITICS: Zimbabwe Blasted for Condoning “Sexual Terror”

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 10 2009 (IPS) – Zimbabwe s ruling political party has been accused of launching a widespread and systematic campaign of rape and sexual terror aimed at intimidating opponents and voters in the troubled African nation, according to a new report released here.
The exceptionally violent rapes, as described by women from every province of Zimbabwe, were often nearly fatal, says the study released by AIDS-Free World, an international advocacy organisation that promotes effective global responses to HIV/AIDS.

The heavily documented 65-page report, titled Electing to Rape: Sexual Terror in Mugabe s Zimbabwe, blasts the country s beleaguered president, Robert Mugabe, for turning a blind eye to the sexual atrocities perpetrated under his political watch.

Robert Mugabe is among the world s diabolical masterminds of sexual terror, the study declares. He understands gender; he understands rape. He understands impunity. It is time he understood justice.

Asked why the international community has failed to hold Mugabe accountable for the alleged atrocities, Stephen Lewis, co-director of AIDS- Free World, told IPS it is due in large measure to the failure of the15-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) or the 52-nation African Union (AU) to hold the Zimbabwe president accountable.

The United Nations, writ large, is reluctant to take any action against a member of a regional group, if the region itself is passive or stalemated, he said.
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If, for example, [South African President Jacob] Zuma were to lead a regional or sub-regional condemnation of Mugabe, everything would turn around internationally, said Lewis, a former Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations. That s why we direct our attention so strongly to sub- regional solutions, and emphasise the need and the possibility for South Africa to act.

Lewis said the evidence for crimes against humanity, rooted in rape, are atrocities that cannot go unanswered.

Our report simply adds to the momentum to increase the pressure on Mugabe. But the report is just the first step, said Lewis, also a former deputy executive director of the U.N. children s agency UNICEF.

In collaboration with activist groups on the ground, lawyers and others, we intend to exhaust every possible avenue to get the perpetrators before the courts and end the culture of impunity, he added.

In the weeks immediately after the June 2008 presidential elections, AIDS- Free World says it received an urgent call from a Harare-based organisation which was overwhelmed with reports from women associated with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) who had been raped by members of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).

Responding to the call, AIDS-Free World undertook a series of investigative trips to the regions with teams of lawyers to interview survivors of the violence.

What emerged from the testimony was a brutal, orchestrated campaign of rape and torture perpetrated by Mugabe s ZANU-PF youth militia, agents of Zimbabwe s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), and people who identify themselves as veterans of the liberation war [affiliated with the ruling party].

Survivors terror was prolonged by fears that their attackers were among the 15 percent of adults infected with HIV in Zimbabwe, the report added.

The study also points out that the next elections in Zimbabwe are just around the corner, and ZANU-PF is already gearing up for its next campaign of sexual terror.

Urging Mugabe and his henchmen be brought to justice, the report says that continued impunity will be a green light for the next rape campaign, and the women of Zimbabwe, and the southern African region, will pay the price.

Since 1998, the international community has agreed that rape, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, can be prosecuted as a crime against humanity.

But that charge has rarely been made, the report adds, primarily because most leaders and societies have not taken the time to understand rape. And so, they erroneously placed it along a continuum that begins with normal sexual arousal.

The report says that few recognise rape as a separate, violent act of terror and control, as unrelated to consensual sex as force-feeding poison is to sharing a meal.

At the United Nations, China and Russia, two veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, have thrown a protective arm around Zimbabwe, primarily for political, economic and military reasons.

The other three members with vetoes are: the United States, France and Britain together comprising the permanent five (P5).

A July 2008 Security Council resolution, inspired by Western nations and aimed at imposing sanctions against Mugabe, suffered a rare double veto: from China and Russia.

The resolution, which generated support from nine out of 15 countries in the Council, also called for an arms embargo on Zimbabwe, a travel ban, and a financial freeze against Mugabe.

Although the resolution had a majority of votes in favour, it failed to pass muster because of the two vetoes.

Asked about the impotency of the United Nations, Lewis told IPS that the situation with the U.N., and particularly with the P5, is admittedly difficult.

But the U.N. is boxing itself into a corner, he added, pointing out that one cannot continue to pass resolution after resolution condemning sexual violence against women in the strongest terms and allow Zimbabwe to happen without so much as a peep.

It is the surest way to cause much of the world to lose confidence in the United Nations, he complained. And then on top of it, said Lewis, additional U.N. special envoys are appointed to deal with sexual violence.

So how is Zimbabwe suddenly exempt from censure or sanctions? And as if that weren t enough, Secretary General [Ban Ki-moon] makes sonorous speech after sonorous speech about sexual violence, all the while observing the inactivity and paralysis all around him.

At some point, the secretary-general has to put himself on the line: how do you continue presiding over the United Nations when a fundamental tenet of its charter lies in tatters? Lewis asked. And that tenet involves 52 percent of the world s population.

The time has come for the Secretary General to read the riot act to China and Russia, and stop the pretence of a serious response where none exists, Lewis added.

We must bring an end to the madness of rape, he stressed. It should be the topmost rung on the ladder of U.N. priorities.