Elizabeth Bainbridge
9-30-10
6:50 pm
In Zimbabwe a number of human rights violations have been recently reported as the public has engaged in helping to create a new constitution for the country. The president of Zimbabwe, Mr. Mugabe, and the Movement for Democratic Change entered into an agreement in 2008 that the country must have a new constitution before the elections this year. The supporters of the MDC have come under great persecution, however, as many of them have been threatened, abducted, and assaulted. In outreach meetings members of the MDC have even been arrested, and scores have been tampered with. One member was killed last week, putting a temporary stop to meetings in Harare. While the rate of violence has supposedly subsided since the unity Mugabe MDC government came to be, the recent talk of a new constitution has rekindled some negative sentiments. The main dispute seems to be over who will have more power- the ZANU-PFs routing for the president, while the MDC members want elected legislators to have more influence.
What is going on in Zimbabwe is definitely a cruel violation of human rights. Even in the heated passion on political change, human lives should be respected. The fact that a member of the MDC was killed is appalling. The article told about the injustices that the MDC members were facing, but didn’t mention any instances of abuse towards the ZANU-PFs. This made me wonder if the article was biased, or if the MDCs were the only victims in the situation. Either way, the article shed light on the horrible things that are going on as a result of this upcoming political change.
2 comments:
The injustice and overall tragedy taking place in Zimbabwe is apparent. I agree that due to the lack of information from both sides of the conflict, it makes since to speculate bias. Still, the article certainly served it's purpose of letting us know what is going on a world away. It's hard to imagine.
It's unfortunate that in the process of forging new government for Zimbabwe is resulting in such civil unrest and violence. However, violence is always a possible outcome during regime changes and drastic governmental reforms. I wonder: what was in the plan for the new constitution that resulted in such a violent response from these factions?
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