{UAH} Zimbabwe remains under military control weeks after Mugabe’s era ended: ‘This is a military government’
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Zimbabwe remains under military control weeks after Mugabe's era ended: 'This is a military government'
The presence of the army, which has been used in the past to tilt elections in the governing party's favour, is still felt across the country. Soldiers remain deployed at checkpoints on — often performing duties that they are not legally allowed to assume in peace time, critics say.
"We call for the unconditional lifting of the political and economic sanctions, which have crippled our national development," said the new President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who led the annual congress of the governing party, ZANU-PF, this week.
Mugabe long whipped up domestic support by blaming sanctions imposed by Western governments for Zimbabwe's economic collapse, though most economists point instead to mismanagement of the resource-rich economy.
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Mnangagwa, 75, who is serving the remainder of Mugabe's term — which was scheduled to end next August — promised "credible, free and fair" elections. Western officials have indicated that Zimbabwe would be considered for loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other creditors only after holding free elections as well as showing
Opposition parties and human rights groups say that despite Mnangagwa's promises of a new Zimbabwe, he has hewed to his predecessor's strategies.
His new Cabinet is composed of loyalists, many of whom served Mugabe. He plucked two from the armed forces, including his foreign minister, Sibusiso Moyo, the general who announced the military takeover of Mugabe's government.
The presence of the army, which has been used in the past to tilt elections in the governing party's favour, is still felt across the country. Soldiers remain deployed at checkpoints on roads and in towns and the countryside — often performing duties that they are not legally allowed to assume in peace time, critics say.
"This is a military government," said Elias Mudzuri, a vice president of the Movement for Democratic Change, the main opposition party. "And when you have a military government and it wants to stay in power, it could do anything."
Two human rights organizations, Heal Zimbabwe Trust and Zimbabwe Peace Project, released statements this week describing growing cases of abuses committed by soldiers, ranging from beatings to the firing of live ammunition.
The army placed Mugabe under house arrest Nov. 15 and eased the way for Mnangagwa to assume power.
"Why has Mnangagwa not quickly returned the soldiers back to the barracks?" asked Okay Machisa, vice chairman of the Peace Project. "If people are being beaten by soldiers and the head of state does not say a word, you start to wonder why. We want a country that is not militarized."
The continued military presence is particularly worrisome because of the upcoming elections, which are likely to be held in August. In the past, Mnangagwa, who was Mugabe's right-hand man for decades, is believed to have orchestrated the rigging of elections. Soldiers played a key role in coercing voters to support the governing party, especially in rural areas.
The intimidating presence of soldiers in rural areas, where voter registration is taking place, was an inauspicious start to the election season, said Andrew Makoni, chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network.
Makoni said the new government should appoint an independent leader for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, and invite credible international election monitors. "All of this depends on the political will of the new establishment," he said.
At ZANU-PF's congress, Mnangagwa's staunchest allies showed little willingness to accommodate outsiders. Last year, Mugabe's wife, Grace, dominated the congress, which was split between her supporters and those of Mnangagwa. While Grace Mugabe and some of her top allies have been purged from the party, other former rivals have now united behind Mnangagwa.
"ZANU-PF is stronger than before," the Rev. Morris Brown Gwedegwe, a party member who founded a church in 2014, said, adding that opposition parties were "a necessary evil."
Party leaders strongly supported Mnangagwa's call for the "unconditional lifting" of sanctions. In the past two decades, the U.S. and European governments have imposed sanctions after the Zimbabwean government's violation of human rights, including the violent seizure of white-owned farms. Zimbabwe, which became ineligible for multilateral loans after defaulting in the late 1990s, must clear $1.8 billion it owes to the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank before it can be considered for fresh loans.
At a U.S. Senate hearing on Zimbabwe this week, a State Department official on African affairs, Stephanie Sullivan, said the United States expected "economic and political reform" in Zimbabwe — a call that immediately caused an angry backlash among Mnangagwa's allies.
"I hate the idea that USA wants to be a prefect of all nations," said Victor Matemadanda, a war veterans leaders and ZANU-PF's political commissar. "Let them fix all the wrong things with Trump and get to us later."
Harry Thomas Jr., the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, said he welcomed Mnangagwa's pledge to hold free, fair and nonviolent elections. Thomas said he hoped international observers, including from the United States, would be allowed to monitor next year's polls.
"We've been promised that the days of name-calling and blaming are over," Thomas said in an interview. "We hope that's true because that won't help people."
Kembo Mohadi, the defence minister, repeated the president's statement that sanctions must be removed without conditions.
"What have we done wrong as a new government?" Mohadi said.
Asked why soldiers had yet to return to their barracks, he said the army was still carrying out its mission of righting the governing party, which had been led astray by a cabal led by Grace Mugabe. The military has called its ousting of the old government under Robert Mugabe as "Operation Restore Legacy."
"Until that legacy is restored," the defence minister said, "our presence will be seen."
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