Zimbabwe: A country in peril

Human rights activists and government officials today are outraged by the election of Zimbabwe to the UN Human Rights Commission. Zimbabwe was one of 15 countries chosen by members of the UN's Economic and Social Council in New York. All but one were chosen by consensus. Zimbabwe would sit on the Commission for the next three year.

In recent years Zimbabwe has been criticized for its grotesque human rights violations. This only further tarnishes the ever declining credibility of the United Nations, although Secretary General Kofi Annan has recommended that the country be replaced.

That also comes as a shock because Annan just a couple weeks ago was applauded by human rights organizations for establishing serious restructuring of the Commission, composed of member states with a solid record of commitment to the highest human rights standards.

When one looks at Zimbabwe's record, they would a record that doesn't remotely resemble high human rights standards.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his party, ZANU-PF, have been accused of supressing press freedom, supporting racist tactics to rid the country of the white minority population and using fear mongering against black citizens that don't support his regime.

One example of this is Zimbabwe's national youth training program, which the government claims was created to bring "sense of responsible citizenship among the youth". Zimbabweans between the ages of 14 and 30 are prepared for "the world and for work in their country."

However, critics believe that this program is simply a scam by ZANU-PF to brainwash trainees and recruit them into a militia to terrorize the opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

According to a recent article on Global Info, a survey concluded by the Solidarity Peace Trust chronicling atrocities allegedly perpetrated by the national service trainees in the run-up to presidential elections in March 2002 was taken, and concluded that trainees were used as instruments to maintain ZANU-PF's hold on power by whatever means necessary - including torture, rape, murder and arson.

Before the 2002 poll, adds the trust, "militia had been deployed to 146 camps around the country, in close proximity to, or in some cases even sharing, venues for voting". The election was subsequently won by President Robert Mugabe.

Many citizens that join the program do it only because of the lack of employment opportunities in the country. Seventy percent of Zimbabweans are unemployed. Others who were interviewed says they join because they don't want to be accused of not being "black enough" or being compliant to whites.

It was also announced today by the Zimbabwean government that the country is making efforts to eradicate its food shortage problems after MDC accused the government of not dealing with the national crisis head on. MDC spokesman Renson Gasela said that the country has all but run out of maize, the staple crop. At first President Mugabe said this was only an exaggeration by the oppositon and rejected offers of international aid. But now there seems to be a change of heart.

Critics blame food shortages on the land reform programme which has seen thousands of white farmers forced to leave their land in the past five years. There is also a foreign exchange crisis created by the decline of cash crops production like tobbacco as a result of the seizure of white-owned farms.

The government says the shortage is caused by economic sanctions ordered by Western nations and drought.

When asked about the country's legitimacy to be on the Commission, Zimbabwe's UN ambassador, Boniface Chidyausiku, said that no country was beyond reproach when it comes to human rights.

This might be true, but where do you draw the line?