Maravi

Post-election violence in Zim worries UN country team

Post-election violence in Zim worries UN country team
By George Chellah and Kingsley Kaswende in Harare, Zimbabwe
Wednesday May 14, 2008 [04:01]

THE United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in Zimbabwe yesterday described the ongoing post-election violence as unacceptable and warned of a humanitarian crisis if it is left unresolved. And the UNCT stated that reports and requests for humanitarian assistance from the victims of violence purportedly instituted by security forces and war veterans were on the increase.

Addressing journalists in Harare, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator Dr Agostinho Zacarias said there was a legal duty to act in the event of human rights abuses and violations. He urged the government to continue to comply with all the tenets and principles of the rule of law in response to the violence that has engulfed some parts of Zimbabwe.

Dr Zacarias called upon government to set up a central cleaning house that would be safe and secure where victims could report cases of violence without fear of retribution.

"The UNCT urges all political leaders across the political divide to unequivocally renounce politically motivated violence to restrain their supporters from engaging in such activities and also encourages all law enforcement agencies to discharge their constitutional mandate in a non-partisan and professional manner," Dr Zacarias said. "The UNCT would like to reiterate its commitment to work with all concerned to address the issues affecting the country so as avoid a humanitarian crisis that would emerge if the situation of violence is left unattended and unresolved.

"The UNCT therefore calls upon all stakeholders to actively take steps to bring to an end the ongoing violence and human rights violations and requests the government to facilitate access to the people requiring assistance."
Dr Zacarias confirmed that the UNCT had been receiving numerous reports of violence countrywide.

"The UNCT wishes to advise that it has been receiving an increasing number of reports and requests for humanitarian assistance to people that have been affected by violence purportedly instituted by some elements of the security forces, youth militia, war veterans and gangs of supporters of both the ZANU-PF and the MDC that have been deployed around the country in recent weeks," Dr Zacarias said. "These reports indicate that some people have died, several hundred others have been hospitalized while many more have been displaced from their homes and some have lost property that includes livestock, their homes and belongings. These incidences of violence are occurring in the communal, farming and urban areas and there are indications that the level of violence is escalating in all these areas and could reach crisis levels. The UNCT has been presented with some evidence in support of these reports."

He said the UN humanitarian agencies and their partners in the Non-governmental organisation (NGO) community were experiencing limited access to the affected people due to heightened tension and localized outbreaks of violence and that this had resulted in their scaling down on humanitarian programmes.

However, the UN agencies, the International Red Cross and other humanitarian NGOs could be more effective after having undertaken their own assessment of the situation on the ground," he said.

Dr Zacarias said the state of affairs in Zimbabwe was unacceptable to the UN country team.

Meanwhile, the United Nations children's fund (UNICEF) said it is failing to reach the 184,000 children under its care in the rural areas because of the escalating political violence.

UNICEF representative Dr Festo Kavishe said he was concerned that children had directly and indirectly been caught up in the post-election violence.
"We are concerned about the involvement of children. Some children have been involved directly in the violence and others have been affected indirectly by being denied access to school because their teachers have been targeted," Dr Kavishe said.

He said UNICEF was addressing the needs of the 184,000 children in the country and was concerned that it could not reach the children as well as victims of the violence.
On Sunday, Zimbabwean doctors said the number of victims of politically motivated violence and torture had reached 900 with 22 confirmed deaths since the March 29 election.

The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) said the statistics of violence perpetrated by state agents ahead of a presidential run-off election were grossly underestimated, as the violence was now on such a scale that it was impossible to properly document all cases.

There doctors association had confirmed 22 deaths but said at least double that number had been reported but was yet to be confirmed.

Labels: ELECTIONS, UNCT, ZIMBABWE

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