Focus on Zimbabwe
Ban on humanitarian operations lifted
Latest news: "Zimbabwe Rivals Sign Power-Sharing Agreement" (NYT, Sept 15)
A
crescendo of intimidation and violence in Zimbabwe has driven thousands
of refugees over the border to South Africa. After a nearly three-month
ban on all humanitarian aid group operations in Zimbabwe, the government has
lifted
the restrictions to allow the return of food aid and other basic assistance
to the most vulnerable.
The three-month suspension of humanitarian operations came on the heels of
a laundry list of arrests, detentions and office raids of community leaders,
election monitors, journalists, human rights lawyers and teachers, as well
as reports of killings and brutal beatings of supporters of the opposition
party, according to a June
6 article in The New York Times. Despite world condemnation of
the political violence in Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe won the one-candidate
election on June 27 and succeeded in extending his 28 years of power. Opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai dropped out of the presidential runoff election due
to violence against his supporters.
The intimidation campaign was reportedly sponsored by President Mugabe and
a tight circle of police, intelligence and military officials to squelch opposition
and win the runoff election. The suspension of humanitarian operations and
the detention of diplomats was indicative of the “governing party’s
strategy to clear the countryside of witnesses to its brutal efforts to decimate
the political opposition and drive its supporters out of the wards in which
they are eligible to vote,” according to the New York Times
article.
In another
NYT article, Human Rights Watch called the decision to bar aid agencies
from distributing food “another attempt to use food as a political tool
to intimidate voters ahead of an election.”
Without the aid of nongovernmental organizations in Zimbabwe, "several
million people without access to food aid, health services, education, clean
water, sanitation facilities were at risk," stated
CARE Africa.
Violence in Zimbabwe has been on
the rise since the March presidential elections when Tsvangirai came in
first, but did not win the majority needed to oust President Mugabe. As of
March, Zimbabwe had a large internally displaced population of 570,000,
now likely much higher. The economy is battered, unemployment has surpassed
80 percent and the inflation rate is the highest
in the world at a staggering 165,000 percent.
Follow coverage of the crisis in Zimbabwe at Reuters
AlertNet.
Read more: "Zimbabwe
youth militias accused of holding women as sex slaves." Los Angeles
Times.
Displaced people are at risk during the early days of an emergency
Refugees and people displaced within their own country are particularly vulnerable during the initial stages of an emergency. In addition to shelter, food and water, displaced people need access to health care, including reproductive health care. Neglecting reproductive health in emergencies has serious consequences: preventable maternal and infant deaths; unwanted pregnancies and subsequent unsafe abortions; and the spread of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
Read more about the Women's Commission's
recommendations for providing reproductive health services in an emergency.
Last updated 16-September-08