Unions Call for Action to Stop Killings, Torture in Zimbabwe

by James Parks, Jun 14, 2008

Wellington Chibebe

The global trade union movement is demanding that the world take action to stop the escalating rampage of terror and murder in Zimbabwe as President Robert Mugabe tries to cling to power.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) reports that Edward Dzeka, an official of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe, was kidnapped by militia and is believed to have been taken to a torture base near the town of Chegutu. Dzeka is also the local chairman of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), the equivalent of a local central body president in the United States.

Dzeka’s abduction comes just 10 days after Sheperd Chegwu, a member of the Zimbabwe teachers union, PTUZ, was abducted from his home and murdered. Chegwu had previously been interrogated by militia about a protest by union members at his school against the government’s actions in the lead-up to the June 27 runoff for president.  The police apparently are not investigating either case, according to the ITUC.

The AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, along with the international labor movement, is supporting Stand Up for Zimbabwe, a global campaign to end violence in Zimbabwe and show solidarity with its people. The campaign was launched at a series of national events in Africa and elsewhere on May 25, Africa Day.

Says ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder:

These continuing attacks on trade unionists are clearly part of the general campaign intended to terrorize anyone standing in the way of Robert Mugabe and his cronies holding on to power. Governments, especially those in southern Africa, need to stand up for the rights of the people of Zimbabwe, rather than accommodating a brutal and thuggish regime, as some of them are still doing.

Trade union delegates to the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Labor Conference in Geneva from several African countries lodged a formal complaint to ILO, which could lead to an inquiry by the United Nations-affiliated group.

Last week, the Zimbabwean government released on bail Wellington Chibebe and Lovemore Motombo, the secretary general and president, respectively, of the ZCTU. They are charged with “inciting the public to rise against the government and communicating falsehoods.”

The two labor leaders were detained for questioning after Chibebe, 2003 winner of the AFL-CIO’s George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award, told a May Day rally in Harare that post-election violence was increasing. As a condition of their bail, says the judge, they are not allowed to “address any political gathering until this matter is finalized.” They have also been ordered to what amounts to house arrest, although they were allowed to attend the ILO conference, which runs through tomorrow. They will appear before a magistrate June 23. 

At a meeting of the Commonwealth Trade Union Group (CTUG) in Geneva on June 8, trade unions from throughout English-speaking Africa and other Commonwealth countries pledged to intensify pressure on the Mugabe government in light of the continued anti-union repression.  

In April, unions throughout southern Africa blocked an arms shipment intended for Zimbabwe from being unloaded at ports, and pressure on governments in the region from trade unions and others in civil society to take a stronger stand against Mugabe’s regime is intensifying. 

To suppress his opposition to Mugabe, military officers, police and war veterans hijacked  a U.S. aid truck last week loaded with food for hungry children in  Zimbabwe’s eastern Mutare district. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the local governor instructed the war veterans to distribute the food, including sacks of grain, beans, and cooking oil, to participants in a rally of supporters of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party.

 The Bush administration accused authorities in the African nation of “unconscionable behavior” and contributing to the deaths and starvation of its own people. The administration also condemned the police for twice detaining Mugabe’s challenger, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, and the jailing of the second in command  in his Movement for Democratic Change party, Tendai Biti, to face treason charges.

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