Land of Despair

Youth Opposition Readies for Post-Election Campaign in Zimbabwe

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Last month, Morgan Tsvangirai dealt a blow to Zimbabwe’s brave opposition movement when he withdrew from the country’s much anticipated run-off election.

Following an intense campaign against President Robert Mugabe, who suppressed political opponents with violent intimidation tactics, Tsvangirai said he could not ask supporters to further endure the violence in what was becoming an “impossible” election.

Zimbabwe remains in a political crisis following an uncontested general election that was largely regarded as a sham by the international community. To foster a peace settlement in the country, international governments, led by the U.S. and Great Britain, have proposed international arms embargoes and economic sanctions against Mugabe’s government.

Zimbabwe’s youth opposition, who offered rare political dissent against Mugabe during the spring election, are considering shifting from the movement’s non-violent approach as the groups plan post-election strategies. With plans for a youth outreach conference and underground rallies, the groups hope to mount the first creditable challenge in Zimbabwe to Mugabe’s sixth term.

“Now that Mugabe is once again declared the winner we have no option except an armed struggle which is the only language that Mugabe and Zanu-pf [Party] can understand,” says Simon Mudekwa, President of the Revolutionary Youth Movement of Zimbabwe. “He must be reminded that the new generation is not afraid of them.

dramatic change in course for the youth groups highlights the desperate times for some opposition groups, who just a few months ago launched a strong challenge to Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s leader for almost 30 years.

Zimbabwe has been politically uneasy since March when Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader, beat the 84 year-old Mugabe in the country’s general election by 48% to 43%. While the Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change party claimed they won the election outright, Zimbabwe law requires that candidates win with at least 50% of the vote.

After a self-imposed exile to neighboring South Africa, Tsvangirai returned to surging levels of violence in Zimbabwe, including routine beatings for MDC supporters by Mugabe’s militants for such minor political activities as attending a rally.

Ultimately, the violence leading up to the June 27 run-off election became too much to bear for opposition leaders. And after several weeks of attacks that resulted in some opposition supporters being killed, hospitalized or displaced, it became evident to the MDC and political observers that a fair election in Zimbabwe would be impossible.

“We in the MDC cannot ask them to cast their vote on the 27th when that vote would cost them their lives,” Tsvangirai said.

Youth Groups Form for Change

The Revolutionary Youth Movement of Zimbabwe has been a leading voice and one of the first credible movements against Mugabe, political analysts say. Launched last year by Zimbabweans in South Africa, RYMZ mobilizes its membership through protests, rallies and conferences aimed at promoting democracy in Zimbabwe.

RYMZ’s success in raising international awareness about Mugabe’s political weaknesses is one of group’s top accomplishments, Mudekwa says.

“This has forced the international world to intervene and realize that there is a crisis in Zimbabwe,” he says. “Even those countries like China, Russia and South Africa, who used to support Mugabe, have bowed down to pressure and also want to see action taken against Mugabe.”

Some Zimbabweans compare Mudekwa, known for his walrus dreadlocks and charisma, to French farmer/activist Jose Bove, whose non-violent protests against corporations, government and world organizations earned him global acclamation. Under Mudekwa’s leadership, RYMZ has quickly organized to become one of the leading opposition groups in Zimbabwe.

RYMZ’s rallies and events are tailored-made for the Zimbabwe youth diaspora. With harsh portrayals of Mugabe and the Zanu-pf, RYMZ meetings and forums help paint the picture for recruits.

Despite its short history, RYMZ has had a rough and colorful rise to become one of Zimbabwe’s most powerful opposition groups.

Last year, the group held a demonstration at the Wits University, where RYMZ leaders presented the school’s vice chancellor with a petition demanding that children of Zanu-pf party members be expelled. The petition suggested that money used to support the Zanu-pf children was garnished from poor taxpayers.

RYMZ issued several petitions last year, including a document calling for the closing of a Zimbabwe Embassy in South Africa, which the group said supported illicit diamond dealings. Another RYMZ-sponsored petition called for Zanu-pf members to stop using a more expensive Milkpark Hospital at the expense of the country’s poor.

This spring, the group joined the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum at the Chinese Embassy in South Africa to protest the shipping of tons of weapons and ammunition by China into Zimbabwe.

The youth organizations had hoped to give the Chinese Embassy in Pretoria a petition that called for China to halt the supply of surveillance equipment to Zimbabwe, stop issuing loans to the financially-strapped Mugabe regime and to recall the cargo of arms sent to Zimbabwe.

The petition was delivered to the Chinese ambassador, who did not accept document. South African police eventually swarmed on the protesters, who were later transported to a police detention center. The protesters were arrested for operating without a permit, organizers say.

To the RYMZ, the arrests showed Mugabe’s determination to remain in power. The incident also prompted the RYMZ and other youth groups to review its non-violent approach to mobilizing, organizers say.

“We have been trying to remove the dictator through non-violent means which have proved to be not effective at all,” Mudekwa said. “I now suggest a change of approach because we are dealing with murderers. There is need for us to defend ourselves and the people of Zimbabwe the same way he is defending himself. We can not continue watching helplessly our people being killed by a junta government and we continue pursuing democratic ways in trying to remove the dictator.”

However, Mudekwa says the RYMZ is concerned about the potential damage an armed struggle would cause the country’s poor. Such concerns were also a factor behind RYMZ’s initial non-violent strategy, he says.

RYMZ recently intensified its opposition efforts following a successful youth register to vote drive during the March elections. The group also lobbied the MDC, which was initially hesitant to participate following several previously flawed elections, to enter the 2008 race.

Other youth groups say they’ll continue to rally against Mugabe’s presidency as well.

“Youths in Zimbabwe want tangible change that is translated in leadership changes,” says Michael Mabwe, coordinator of Zimbabwe Poets for Human Rights. “That is the only way Zimbabwe can come out the crisis.”

To navigate around the state-sponsored political violence, Mabwe suggested that ZPHR might move its campaign efforts underground. “If it means our resistance strategies have to be underground we are going to do that to achieve our objective of a democratic Zimbabwe,” Mabewe says.

This summer, RYMZ had planned hold a conference in South Africa to unite Zimbabwe’s youth diaspora. At the conference, youth leaders would develop new strategies for “elevating the political suffering among Zimbabweans.”

“I believe this is the time youths need to be united and push for a common goal,” Mudekwa said