Zimbabwe: Where Cops are Robbers

The demise of the all-but-worthless Zimbabwe dollar and its replacement with foreign currency is being mirrored by a rise in violent crime, perpetrated particularly by police officers.

Rampant inflation, unofficially estimated at trillions of percent annually, saw the local currency withdrawn from circulation in April 2009 and officially replaced by foreign currencies, such as the South African rand, Botswana pula and US dollar.

A serving Zimbabwe National Army officer reported (anonymously) that junior soldiers and police officers were being driven to crime by desperation, as they suffered the same economic hardships as most of the population. However, unlike non-uniformed Zimbabweans - 94 percent of whom are thought to be unemployed - soldiers and police, like all public servants, benefit from a US$100 monthly wage.

"They have observed how senior security officers drive luxury cars, get free fuel for their multiple farms, and other benefits. Soldiers and police officers have no other skills which they can use to raise extra money - all they can do is to use guns, but when they get used to that lifestyle, they can easily become warlords," the army officer said.

"From a security point of view, what this means is there are underground armies, which can even be a danger to national security because nobody knows how many there are, and how many weapons are in their hands," he commented.

In late 2008, at the height of hyperinflation, soldiers embarked on a looting spree in the capital, Harare, over poor pay and non-payment. They were being paid in local currency, but maximum daily bank withdrawals were pegged at Z$500,000 (US$0.25). Soldiers also attacked Roadport, a regional bus station in Harare used by money changers, and robbed them of local and foreign currency.

Expensive goods

Political journalist Dumisani Muleya says that since the beginning of 2009, local newspapers have been awash with headlines like: "Four detectives face robbery charges", and "Bank Heist: Two cops in court", which illustrated the trend among security force personnel to resort to crime.

The dollarized economy has made goods and services more freely available, but at high prices, which was "causing some rogue elements within the security ... [forces] to use armed robbery as a way of raising extra income ... and that creates a climate of insecurity and instability," he said.

The numerous wars fought in the region, such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Mozambique, have made it easier for criminals to access weapons, as have the policies instituted by President Robert Mugabe's government prior to the power-sharing deal that led to the formation of the unity government in February 2009.

Giles Mutsekwa of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who heads the home affairs ministry with a counterpart from ZANU-PF as part of the deal, claims that rogue elements are using government-issue guns to commit armed robberies, but the government was "getting on top of the situation, and there is no need for the population or visitors to get worried".

Handing out guns

During the violent 2008 presidential election period, guns were issued to government security personnel to intimidate people into voting for the ruling ZANU-PF.

"We have started a process to ensure that all guns that were issued are brought

back, and that a complete inventory of the guns in the country is carried out. We believe that when all the guns are surrendered, then we will be able to manage and control the upsurge of armed robberies involving serving and ex-servicemen and -women.

Mutsekwa said there were also concerns about National Youth Service graduates, a pro-ZANU-PF youth militia who received "national values" education and military training, which was believed to include firearms instruction.

"We long identified the potential danger posed by former members of the youth service to communities if they continue to be unemployed while living in abject poverty, and those are areas that we are also looking into as a security ministry."

/PC

Source: IRIN

Beyond cholera - catastrophe looms in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is to the forefront of our concerns today. It is my third post on the crisis in a week. Yesterday, both the International Red Cross and the World Health Organization issued new updated reports. The prognosis is deadly. The WHO is now estimating a worst case scenario of some 110'00 cholera infected people in Zimbabwe in the coming weeks. This is revised upwards from 60'000. Almost 3'800 people have died to date.

In early December the figure was around 500 and hopes were high that it would not pass one thousand fatalities. Those hopes were based on an assumption that the international community would reach into its pockets and come up with the relatively insignificant sum of U$10m to arrest cholera in its tracks.

Despite our best efforts our operation is only 45% funded and as the report starkly states: This operation remains dangerously underfunded, and is at risk of being significantly scaled back at a time when it is clear that humanitarian operations in Zimbabwe need to be on the increase.

Despite the worrying rise in cholera cases we know we are having an impact in certain communities where infection rates are falling by some 5%. But cholera has taken root in rural areas making it difficult to contain. In fact, more than 60% of fatalities are in rural areas - it is our opinion that many of these deaths occur simply because people do not have the fuel or transport to reach the health centers that can cure them (the photo in this post for example shows a woman suffering from cholera being taken in a wheelbarrow to a clinic in Harare).

We are now working on a new and even gloomier scenario and aim to publish our findings by next weekend. WHO's expert prognosis states that more than one hundred thousand people will now be infected. However, this does not take into account compounding factors such as floods, HIV AIDs and a widespread lack of food. Our report will take these additional factors into account and will not make cheerful reading. The situation is spiraling out of control despite the fact that it should be relatively straight forward to contain - if sufficiently funded.

This is an all too common dilemma faced by humanitarian workers - can we really speak about 'scaling down' because there are no funds? Can we really abandon our hard-working colleagues in the Zimbabwean Red Cross? Can we simply turn our backs on the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe because of paltry funds? Can we really do this at a time when we are starting to roll back cholera? Do we retreat now when we have precise information at our fingertips that clearly indicates the situation could edge towards a catastrophe that goes beyond Cholera - that goes even beyond the borders of Zimbabwe? Do we really live in a society that bails out billionaire bankers with tax payers money and turns a blind eye to the humanitarian imperative to prevent more unnecessary deaths in Zimbabwe?

By way of conclusion I should acknowledge the sterling efforts of many Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies around the globe who are demonstrating true solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe during these dreadful times and doing their utmost to rally support and raise awareness. Our report lists all the donors to date. I was particularly delighted to see my own national society, the Irish Red Cross, announce yesterday that it is doubling its funds towards curbing the cholera crisis in Zimbabwe.

/PC