UK, US implore ED to bring abusive security forces to book

The British and the United States of American Embassies in Harare have called on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration to probe the security forces who killed civilians in 2019.

The two diplomatic missions said it is now long over due for the current administration to bring finality to the matter by bringing those who killed civilians to book.

The US Embassy said: “Two years. When will Zimbabwe investigate, prosecute, and convict government security forces accused of rape, torture, and killing civilians in Jan 2019? Two years is too long to seek justice/ answers/ accountability.”

The British Embassy also chipped in the call.

“A crackdown by security forces against protests in Jan 2019 resulted in the deaths of 17 Zimbabweans.

“Two years on we continue to call for accountability and on the government to enact political and economic reforms that will benefit all Zimbabweans.

Apparently, Zimbabwe is constitutionally a republic and holds elections periodically, with the most recent being the 2018 polls, however the administration’s delays in carrying out reforms has been a cited as a minus.

Meanwhile, despite incremental improvements from past elections, domestic and international observers noted serious concerns and called for further reforms necessary to meet regional and international standards for democratic elections.

Numerous factors contributed to a flawed overall election process, including: the Zimbabwe Election Commission’s (ZEC) lack of independence; heavily biased state media favoring the ruling party; voter intimidation; unconstitutional influence of tribal leaders; disenfranchisement of alien and diaspora voters; failure to provide a preliminary voters roll in electronic format; politicization of food aid; security services’ excessive use of force; and lack of precision and transparency around the release of election results.

-Zwnews