"Zimbabwe is a nightmare scenario…. Add the HIV pandemic … to the food shortages, lack of drugs, decrease in hygiene standards and you are looking at a massive, massive human catastrophe. It has the potential of being on a much bigger scale than East Africa and Ethiopia in the mid-eighties."

John English, Emergencies Officer for the British Red Cross - 18 July 2002

ZIMBABWE - THE DESTRUCTION OF A NATION

In order to rescue Zimbabwe from the crisis that has brought an entire nation to economic ruin and a famine of unprecedented proportions, it is important for the international community to understand:

1. That the leaders of ZANU PF, the ruling party in Zimbabwe from the 22 years since Independence in 1980, are deliberately ruining the country in a scheme to retain power at all costs.

2. They have enriched themselves by bleeding the country through 22 years of unbridled corruption, which have seen them become enormously rich.

3. The resilient and efficient economy they inherited from the internationally shunned but economically disciplined white post-colonial government has gradually crumpled around them because of their manipulative misrule.

4. In their ruthless pursuit of power they have murdered tens of thousands of innocent Zimbabweans, largely but not solely during the Gukurahundi (5th Brigade) massacres of opposition ZAPU supporters in Matabeleland and the Midlands in the mid-1980s.

5. They have subverted the once highly respected Courts, the Police force and the Army in an attempt to make them subservient tools for the oppression of the people.

6. They are afraid to face an honest election that would see them lose power, as they might have to account to the law and to the people for their actions while in power.

7. All of them would then suffer an immediate loss of authority and access to the corruption that is their main source of wealth.

8. They fear, with good cause, that they might have the wealth they have accumulated stripped from them in a huge series of Court actions.

9. Many or most of them would face long jail sentences, and some the death penalty if law and order were restored to the country.

10. They would find it very difficult to live in a Zimbabwe under a normal law-abiding government, as they would inevitably be targeted for vigilante justice by their victims or the relatives of those they have abused or murdered. Though many are believed to have accumulated great wealth abroad, few countries would be prepared to shelter them. They would be stateless fugitives.

11. They might be targeted as being guilty of crimes against humanity and tried in an international Court such as that currently in session at The Hague, or like those dealing with the Rwandan massacres.

12. It is not an acceptable option for them, in view of the above, to contest and lose a free election and to politely hand over control of their fate to an honest government. Critics may rant and rave about their brutality and their dishonesty but, as they see it, they have no choice. They have to hold on to power by whatever means are at their disposal. Survival is their main or only motivation. The alternative is too awful to be contemplated, never mind accepted. It is poverty and, possibly, death at the hands of the Courts or the mob.

13. Having accepted that they would have to "fight dirty" to retain control of the country at all costs - whether the people liked it or not, the moguls of ZANU PF set about selecting their weapons. They chose a mix that had worked well for them in the past: intimidation, bribery, racism, propaganda, cheating, and abuse of power.

14. Intimidation: ZANU PF used bands of tens of thousands of hired thugs, many claiming to be "veterans" of Zimbabwe's independence struggle though they were decades too young for that role, and others recruited as a "Youth Brigade", ostensibly for training in patriotism and discipline. They were paid, fed and transported by the state. Both were used to harass, assault and, often, to rape and murder opponents of the ruling party in a massive campaign of intimidation. They disrupted many or most of the legal rallies the MDC attempted to hold during the election. They enforced the total ban on campaigning by the MDC proudly announced by some ZANU PF heavyweights in a large proportion of the rural areas. The Police generally took no action against these militias and often sided with them in their illegal and violent activities.

15. Bribery: ZANU PF, 20 years after taking control of the country, and suddenly finding itself too unpopular with the electorate to win a fair election, took advantage of the high level of poverty and unemployment its disastrous mishandling of the economy had created. In the guise of facilitating equitable land redistribution it offered them ownership of the land if they supported ZANU PF. Only ZANU PF supporters were allowed to benefit from this theft.

16. Racism: ZANU PF has whipped up racist anti-white feelings in the populace. On the understanding that the people tend to rally behind a government in times of war, It has claimed, falsely, that "racist" western powers such as Britain and the USA, in collusion with white "settlers" in Zimbabwe, are attempting to re-colonise the country. In a strategy reminiscent of that used by the Nazis in Germany with the Jews, it has attempted to portray whites as enemies of the black people of the country. It attempts to create the illusion of a conflict between the 50 000 or so whites left in the country and the 12 million blacks. It likes these odds. Blacks who oppose the ruling party are portrayed as being traitors or "sell-outs" to the whites. In some areas it has worked, in others it has served to further unify a beleaguered people.

17. Propaganda: ZANU PF has maintained a rigid monopoly of broadcasting in Zimbabwe. It uses the state-controlled radio and TV as a party campaign tool. The opposition party is banned from advertising or getting fair and reasonable coverage in the state-controlled media, electronic or printed. Such privately owned newspapers as exist are subject to regular harassment by the Police and other state security agencies. On occasion their offices and printing presses have been bombed.

18. Cheating: ZANU PF blatantly and shamelessly rigged the parliamentary elections in February 2000 and the presidential elections of March 2002. Detailed reports on these activities have been compiled by the MDC, official observers and by human rights organisations.

19. Abuse of power: ZANU PF controls the security forces and, to an ever-increasing degree, the Courts. Where the law and Court orders do not suit them, they ignore them. Senior officials of the party have boasted about this publicly.

20. The commercial farming sector, occupying 28% of the land of the country - not more as is regularly alleged - was the only sector of the Zimbabwean economy to function efficiently by international standards. Most of it is now in ruins because of the widespread disruption of farming activities caused by the invasions and the chaotic resettlement process. Under normal conditions commercial farms were about five times as productive as those in communal areas - 42% of the land. Conditions on the resettled and invaded farms are not normal. People who know nothing of farming occupy most of the farms, either ruling party thugs on small plots or party "chefs" who, true to form, have helped themselves to huge properties in the name of sharing Zimbabwe's resources fairly. Much of the land lies fallow, even on farms which, until their owners were dispossessed, were irrigated. There is plenty water for irrigation in most dams most dams, as rains in late 2001 were very heavy. The main "agricultural" activity is the indiscriminate cutting of trees which, even under efficient management, the land will take decades or even, in some cases, a century to recover from.

21 It is hard to believe that, at the Harare Agreement of 1998, ZANU PF agreed with the commercial farmers and international donors on a legal and systematic reallocation of land. This would have been carried out in such a way that commercial farmers would have been compensated for land taken from them. Productivity would have been maintained, poverty alleviated and donors from abroad would have financed the project, thus injecting invaluable foreign currency into the country. This was not quick enough, dramatic enough or vote-catching enough for ZANU PF. It unilaterally ditched the plan and opted for a haphazard, nightmarish reallocation by force.

22 Zimbabwe can no longer feed herself. The problem has been accentuated by the erratic rains of the 2001-2 rainy season but, under normal conditions, and with substantial irrigation projects operational, the country would have produced or been able to finance the importation of enough food for its people.

23 Again true to form, ZANU PF has attempted to use the famine for its own benefit. It is attempting to seize control of food aid and to make sure that its supporters are given preferential access to it. There have been reports of ZANU PF members hoarding and selling donated food relief maize at inflated prices. No one is surprised at this - so well are they known.

24 Under ZANU PF's misrule industrial and mining exports have diminished drastically, so there is not enough foreign currency available to import food now that we can no longer grow it. A country well known as the breadbasket of Central Africa faces a famine of Biafran or Ethiopian proportions. Two thirds of our population of around 12 million face starvation. This is the measure of the failure of ZANU PF.