Tsvangirai calls for peacekeeping force to monitor elections

Tichaona Sibanda
8 March 2010

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said he will call on the African Union and SADC to deploy a peacekeeping force to protect voters in elections that are expected to be held in Zimbabwe next year.

Tsvangirai told party supporters at a rally in Chitungwiza on Sunday that he would stand as candidate, adding that Zimbabwe should invite international observers and a peacekeeping force to ensure that the next national election is free and fair.

‘I am ready to stand for elections but we want a peacekeeping force to protect people during the election period,’ Tsvangirai said, amid reports of fresh violence against MDC activists allegedly by ZANU PF supporters, mostly in rural areas.

A peacekeeping force can contribute to the the supervision of elections but can only be deployed at the request of a government or parties to the conflict, raising fears that Robert Mugabe will likely block such a move.

No election date has been set yet, but there is a sense that the country is already counting down to presidential, parliamentary and council elections. There are fears ZANU PF are still capable of engaging in a systematic campaign of intimidation and violence, aimed at crushing their political opponents.

On March 29th 2008 Zimbabweans went to the polls and changed history. For the first time since Independence in 1980, the Zanu PF party lost its majority in parliament and Mugabe lost the presidential vote. The regime immediately embarked on a campaign of violence and reprisal attacks against the civilian population.

The election re-run was marred by massive violence against the MDC. The party claimed that hundreds of its supporters were killed, tens of thousands were tortured and at least 500,000 people were uprooted from their homes in the orgy of violence waged by war veterans, aided by soldiers and ZANU PF youths. These events eventually led to the withdrawal of Tsvangirai from the poll, leaving Mugabe as the ‘winner’ of, effectively, a one-candidate election.

Analysts told us it that in the next election it will be crucial that the inclusive government invite all willing election monitors, whether domestic or international, to observe the election process both on the voting days and in the crucial run-up period which has traditionally seen the vast majority of violence and intimidation.

Human rights lawyer Gabriel Shumba, a victim of torture by Mugabe’s CIO, said the AU and SADC will send in observers and monitors, rather than a peacekeeping force.

‘I don’t think Mugabe will ever agree to a peacekeeping force being deployed to Zimbabwe because he will argue that there is no conflict. Mugabe doesn’t like anything that that will block his usual tactics of rigging an election through vote manipulation and violence,’ Shumba said.

Three years ago, SADC launched its own peacekeeping force, comprising the military, the police and civilian components of all the 14 regional states. Known as the SADC Brigade (SADCBRIG), it was constituted under the AU protocol on peace and security requiring all regional economic communities to have standby peace keeping forces.

The purpose of the SADCBRIG is to participate in missions, including performing
observations and monitoring, peace support, interventions for peace and security
restoration in grave circumstances at the request of a member state.