[Black Chinese Communist Terorrist, Robert Mugabe, is at it again… doing what he knows best… sowing terror among his own people. Now they’re starving, and their economy has collapsed due to his theft of White land… he needs to run around sowing terror in order to stay “democratically” in power – rest assured, the S.African Government will swear on a stack of Bibles next year that Yes, there was a “democratic” election in Zimbabwe! Jan]

Harare – A government crackdown against dissent is deepening Zimbabwe’s climate of fear ahead of parlimentary elections due in March.

Security forces shut down bars and businesses perceived as hotbeds of opposition. Police punish a careless remark about the nation’s autocratic leader with a stint in jail. Undercover cops eavesdrop on conversations in cafes and buses.

“What we are seeing is undeclared martial law,” said Alouis Chaumba, director of the Roman Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. “It is tearing whole communities apart.”

Ever since he took power in this southern African country in 1980, President Robert Mugabe has tolerated little dissent. But with the looming elections, the government has been tightening its control apparatus, and opposition politicians say they are being hounded out of existence.

200 have died in political violence

At least 45 opposition party rallies and civic group meetings were banned last year, human rights groups say. Government critics are now routinely jailed, and the only independent daily newspaper was recently shut down.

At least 200 people have died in political violence and tens of thousands have been chased from their homes since Mugabe’s government began seizing white-owned farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans – many of them presidential cronies – in 2000. The often-violent campaign helped plunge the country into its worst political and economic crisis.

Security forces order bars and sidewalk markets to close early, claiming the opposition Movement for Democratic Change supporters who patronize them are fomenting resistance.

Cars and buses are searched at checkpoints for any sign of support for the party. Those found with fliers or T-shirts are dragged out of their vehicles – and even their homes.

Witnesses recounted how two men were forced to do push-ups at the side of the road while they were thrashed with sticks last week. Their offence was not clear to the witnesses, who gave the scene a wide berth, fearing they too could be targeted.

One woman said she ran home and locked herself inside until morning. “I was frightened,” she said, refusing to give her name.

At least three people have been arrested for insulting Mugabe. Two of them were overheard by secret police agents while travelling on public buses.

The Human Rights Forum, a coalition of 17 human rights and advocacy groups, has documented 7 591 cases in which they say government opponents were tortured last year. At least 12 people died in political violence, and thousands more were threatened or assaulted, the forum said in its annual report.

Now even this group is under threat. Parliament has approved a new law that bans human rights groups and other non-governmental organisations from receiving foreign funding or engaging in “issues of governance.”

Source: News24.Com
URL: http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/…/p>