IS
Report prepared for ZWNEWS
by an independent human rights consultant.
The identity of the author has been withheld to protect individuals and organisations
Background
Genocide is a
scary word. It is something that the mind shies away from, something that
people are afraid to contemplate even in the abstract, because it is so
horrific that we will not believe it. And it is perhaps for this reason that
the genocide of Jews in WWII was carried out for so long before it was fully
comprehended, and why the Interahamwe managed to kill 800 000 Tutsis in
When reports
of killings and mass human rights violations reach the international community,
the first response is always cautious. The first demand is for verification,
whilst the second is usually conservative under-reaction. The machinery for
dealing with mass human rights violations is inherently conservative, and this
inevitably produces a significant time lag in responding to such situations.
There seems to be a reluctance to accept that people can really be slaughtering
one another without provocation and that civilians are being subjected to a
steady and relentless elimination process.
But the sad
truth is that people are indeed capable of mass slaughter, and hence it is all
the more necessary to be ready to respond quickly where the indicators are
present in order to prevent excessive deaths. And
Genocide
The crime of
genocide is defined in international law in the Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of Genocide. The Genocide Convention was adopted by the United
Nations General Assembly on
There are two
salient articles in the Convention:
Article II: In the present Convention,
genocide means any of the following acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in
part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group, as such:
about its physical destruction in whole or
in part;
Article III: The following acts shall
be punishable:
The following
are acts of genocide when committed as part of a policy to destroy a group’s
existence:
the group through widespread torture,
rape, sexual violence, forced or coerced
use of drugs, and mutilation.
includes the deliberate deprivation of
resources needed for the group’s physical
survival, such as clean water, food, clothing,
shelter or medical services.
harvests, blockade of foodstuffs, detention in
camps, forcible relocation or
expulsion into deserts.
prohibition of marriage, and long-term separation
of men and women intended to
prevent procreation.
of violence, duress, detention,
psychological oppression or other methods of
coercion.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child defines children as persons
under the age of 14 years.
As can be seen,
acts of genocide need not kill or cause the death of members of a group:
torture, political rape, displacement, deprivation, and various other actions,
short of killing, also are included in the definition. Furthermore, it is a
crime to plan or incite genocide, even before killing starts, and to aid or
abet genocide. The criminal acts described in the Convention include
conspiracy, direct and public incitement, attempts to commit genocide, and
complicity in genocide.
Stages
in genocide
Genocide
clearly is not a spontaneous occurrence, and the killing of masses of people,
or the harming of large numbers, must take place over time and involve
planning. There are usually a series of stages in the development of a genocide
or politicide, and there is compelling evidence that many of these stages have
already taken place in contemporary
The following
is taken from the 8 stages in genocide identified by Genocide Watch, and then
applied to the
1.
Classification
Classification
is a normal human process, and all societies make classifications about their
composition. This is generally not problematic, but can become very dangerous
when a society is racially or ethnically divided, and is very serious when
these divisions have resulted in racial or ethnic clashes and conflict in the
past.
2.
Symbolization
Essentially,
here we are talking about stereotyping of people and groups of people, and the
processes aimed at dividing up societies that are always composed of diverse
groups into “in” and “out” groups. In
The key
organising issue has been the so-called land problem and its use in dealing
with the matter of maintaining political power in the hands of Zanu PF. The
land issue, despite the government having failed to produce any significant
land reform in nearly 20 years of power, is used by the Mugabe regime to
symbolically aim the problems of the nation at the whites, their international
allies, and those whom the whites support. The acceptance of white support by
any Zimbabwean group or political party becomes the basis for including them as
enemies, with the blunt references to the Liberation War of the 1970s. There is
a very simple metonymic process: problems of whatever kind are due to white,
colonial powers, oppressors, enemies, white sympathisers, etc. The contrasting
pole of this construct is inordinately simple: Zanu PF are
the liberators, good, etc, and you can know Zanu PF from the others simply by
which colour they are or which party card they carry. This stereotyping is extraordinarily
effective because it links the past to the present in a very straightforward
manner, and uses race as the organising device.
3.
Dehumanization
This can take
many forms and does not need to conform to the crude approach of the Nazis to
the Jews. It is essentially building upon the stereotyping process by attributing
the problems in the society to the “out” group, focusing hate and dislike
against this group, and encouraging actions against this group.
In
Here the power
of the press and media in escalating polarisation and dehumanisation is
crucial. The Mugabe regime has enormous control of the press and the media, and
especially the radio which is the primary source of information for most rural
Zimbabweans. The outpourings of invective, hate speech, and blunt
misinformation are very significant in developing the attitudes of Zimbabweans,
and here the vilification of the MDC is crucial.
An
additionally relevant fact for the development of dehumanisation has been the
partisan attitude of the Zimbabwe Republic Police. Since the beginning of the
farm invasions there has been a deplorable tendency for the police to refuse to
take action in many situations of violence and degradation on the grounds that
the matter was “political”. This has had the effect of removing protection from
many groups in
4.
Organization
As Genocide
Watch points out, genocide is always organized, usually by the state. Special
army units or militias are often trained and armed, and plans are made for
genocidal killings. These plans may not aim primarily at killing, and, as was
seen from the definitions above, genocide can include campaigns of systematic
torture, displacement of groups, and deprivation of food and resources. There
is good evidence for all of these latter forms of genocide being perpetrated in
In the past
three years, there has been a proliferation of militia groups in
The next phase
in the use of the militia has revolved around “youth militia”, the so-called
“green bombers”. The initial intakes, as was openly admitted by the regime,
were composed of the young men who had been associated with the “war veteran”
militia. This was clearly a reward for loyalty, but, from the perspective of
preventing genocide, unfortunately involved further training of young men who
had already been involved in violence and human rights violations.
As the reports
of all human rights observer groups show, an alarmingly high proportion of the
human rights violations documented have been perpetrated by the youth militia,
whilst the pattern of torture seen clearly supports the notion that torture
techniques are being taught[6].
The youth militia, when deployed, followed a very clear pattern in the
development of tolerance to the presence of youth militia. They re-established
the bases seen in the Parliamentary Elections, went on a strong recruiting
drive – mostly using compulsion – of the local youth, and then employed an
in-service training programme with these youths. Much of this training again
resulted in the local youths becoming involved in violence and torture.
The last phase
to date has seen the increasing involvement of the Zimbabwe Republic Police in
torture and harassment of “out” groups. This has followed massive staff changes
in the police ranks, with all new appointments being based on a “loyalty”
basis. Subsequently, the reports of observers show a marked increase in the
number of cases in which the police, and especially the ordinary uniformed branch,
have perpetrated torture. This was dramatically seen in Buhera, where the
endless press reports and statements of the MDC arguing that a pogrom was
taking place, were amply supported by the cases seen by human rights groups[7].
Significantly,
the army is not frequently mentioned in human rights reports, but, given the
massively effective use of the militia in winning elections, they have not been
needed to date. Here it should not be forgotten that the bald statement of
political support for the Mugabe regime given by the defence chiefs in 2001 has
never been repudiated. However, it is important here to note that the Zimbabwe
National Army is mentioned in many other reports as benefiting from the favours
of the regime[8].
Finally, the
use by the regime of statutes of impunity adds to the problem in a very
significant manner, and this has drawn frequent comment from local and
international observers[9].
Impunity, both formal and practical, is additionally supported by the
subversion of the judical process[10].
5.
Polarization
Here the
process requires that groups are driven apart, and the press and media are
particularly important in forcing and maintaining the polarisation.
In
The wide
spread use of hate speech and racist commentary continues unabated. The
interesting aspect to the attempt to force polarisation is the pairing of
“white interest” with “MDC dupes”, and, whilst this might seem an improbable
pairing for use in building towards genocide, it is easily reinforced through
the current violence. Only loyalty to Zanu PF counts, and if a person is unable
to demonstrate active support for Zanu PF – a party card or attendance at
party-approved meetings- then the presumption is that he or she is MDC. Being
MDC implies being a dupe of the whites, and membership in the “out” group is
assured. This can be avoided, and the final defence is of course a conversion
to Zanu PF, which will obviously involve some form of loyalty test. This
loyalty test is now being applied to the distribution of drought relief, where
many independent reports show that those who are not able to demonstrate
allegiance to Zanu PF are excluded from food relief[11].
The
polarisation has made a slow and steady process over the past three years, and
it now permeates all aspects of Zimbabwean life. Most significantly it now
revolves around the access to food, but this is merely another aspect of the
process in which all people in
6.
Preparation
It is at this
point that
At
this stage, a Genocide Alert must be called. If the political
will of the
mobilized, armed international intervention
should be prepared,
or heavy assistance to the victim group
in preparing for its self-
defense. Otherwise, at least humanitarian
assistance should be
organized by the U.N. and private relief groups
for the
inevitable tide of refugees.
Whilst
there are no signs of concentration camps, there is quite obvious “sealing up”
of rural districts, quite transparently creating “no go” areas. This seems
likely to split the towns from the country, severing family ties, and ensuring
that rural districts will remain uniformly supporters of Zanu PF. Here it is
instructive to consider the Appendices, especially Appendices 2 and 3. The
information in these two reports shows different aspects of the preparations.
The two final
stages, Extermination(7) and Denia(8), do not need to be described in
any detail here, and in any event are stages when the international community
has no preventive options left.
The point of
studying genocide, and, more importantly, of actively
monitoring potential situations in which genocide may occur, is to prevent its
occurrence. It is for this reason that continuous reports of gross human rights
violations from a country attract the attention of organisations monitoring for
signs of potential genocide. Genocide Watch, for example, has three levels of
Alerts. A Genocide or Politicide Watch is declared when early warning signs
indicate the danger of genocide or political mass killing. A Genocide or
Politicide Warning is called when genocide or politicide is imminent, often
indicated by massacres. A Genocide Emergency is declared when genocide is
actually underway.
If we consider
the stages above,