Marching for peace in Zimbabwe

Bev Clark

On Saturday 1 April 2000, the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) organised a Peace March through the streets of central Harare. The NCA mobilised Zimbabweans for a variety of reasons, including Zimbabwe's involvement inthe war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the controversial landinvasion policy spearheaded by President Robert Mugabe.
Added to this, in the February Constitutional referendum the people of Zimbabwerejected attempts by the Zimbabwe Government to revise the Constitution to allowMugabe sweeping presidential powers and endorse the seizure of commercialfarms without compensation.
Prior to the Constitutional Referendum,many farms had been invaded by groups of people claiming to be war veterans' but theGovernment's defeat in the referendum caused a massive acceleration in land inva-sions. The already fragile economy immediately felt the negative effects of this policyand despondency settled heavily in the hearts of people throughout the country.

Influencing the election

There was little doubt that the Zimbabwean government was using these landinvasions as an integral and strategic part of their election campaign ahead of theApril Parliamentary Elections. The socalled war veterans were being transportedto selected farms in government vehicles and paid a daily stipend for disruptingfarming operations and assaulting farm workers. The specific intent behind theseactions was to terrorise rural Zimbabweans into not voting for the opposition party,the Movement for Democratic Change. As long as large tracts of farmland wereoccupied by Mugabe's thugs, the ruling party felt that they had a chance of winningthe rural vote. The Constitutional Referendum illustrated how drastically Mugabe'surban popularity had declined. With this defeat fresh in their minds ZANU PFdecided to pull out all the stops and unleash a reign of rural terror.
Zimbabweans realised that there was aserious need to march for peace to show the ruling party how unpopular their ter-ror tactics were. I decided to go on the NCA peace march because I felt angeredand ashamed by the actions of my government. My group of marchers included mypartner Brenda, my South African sister Debbie and my two nephews aged eightand 11. Even before we had left the house we were telephoned and warned that therewere numerous roadblocks stopping movement into the city. This informationonly strengthened our resolve and we set off to find that a massive roadblock wasset up on one of the main roads into the city. All cars were being searched. Carsfilled with NCA or MDC supporters were turned back. Black Zimbabweans withoutidentity papers were told to go home. We met up with a friend, Patricia atthe starting point of the march. There were only a few people there, in fact therewere more riot police than marchers. The police were doing their best to convinceeveryone that the gathering was an unlawful one. Apparently a few marcherswho had arrived earlier had already been arrested for not "dispersing wheninstructed to do so". Mike Auret, the head of the Catholic Commission for Jus-tice and Peace asked everyone to sit on the road and led us in prayer asking forGod's guidance in the face of such hostility.

United we stand for peace

The organisers of the march assured us that the gathering was legal and that acourt order was on its way to prohibit the police from interfering in the peace march.True to their word the court order was produced and we heard that other NCApeace marchers were about to arrive after having been held up by police roadblocks.Suddenly there was tremendous cheering and behind the row of riot police blockingour way, came a huge group of fellow marchers to help us get going. We surgedforward, the riot police having no option but to stand aside. People proudly carriedposters with slogans like Cry Our Beloved Country, United We Stand and Peace forZimbabwe. A Greek woman was so overcome by the occasion, she sobbed andshook. Others danced and whistled. Marchers greeted Saturday morning shop-pers with the MDC open hand salute. At one point an elderly white man in a wheel-chair, struggled onto his crutches and made a few faltering steps forward. There weretwo white women pushing his wheelchair until a young black schoolboy took over togive them a break.
All through the city, onlookers encour-aged the marchers greeting them with their hands open and raised symbolisingthe huge support for peace and a change of leadership in Zimbabwe. At a downtownconstruction site, hundreds of construction workers in bright blue overalls voicedtheir united approval as we marched by. The relationship between the marchersand onlookers (pedestrians, motorists, shopkeepers) was friendly and complete respect was shown for peoples' property.
Marching with children was a specialand unique experience for me. At the beginning when the children were faced bya row of arrogant and aggressive riot police with batons in hand and tear gas on theirhip, they were visibly scared. "I want to go home" was tearfully suggested a numberof times. But once we were on our way they settled down and I could feel thewonder in them. How amazing, at eight years of age, under an oppressive government, to take over the centre of Harare. I continually emphasised to them that ifsomething was wrong, how could we not join together and try to change things?

Ambushed!

Unfortunately about two hours into the peace march, a group of young, violentstate-sponsored thugs ambushed us. The police stood by and watched whilst theydisrupted the march beating people with sticks and kicking them. Instead of pro-tecting the marchers the police fired teargas at the fleeing NCA peace supporters.
Patricia and my family made a desperate attempt to avoid the tear gas and thestampede of people trying to escape from the police (how ironic) and the thugs. In away I think we were lucky that we had two young boys with us because we wereso focused on their safety that we made sure to get out of the firing line as quicklyas possible. Patricia wasn't so lucky. She had noticed a blind busker sitting in hisusual downtown spot playing his guitar. She ran past him but returned to helphim get out of the way of the mob. After moving him some distance up the road,she huddled with him and two black women in a doorway. A thug spotted themand laid into Patricia with a stick, splitting her head open and kicking her in thestomach, accusing her of being an MDC supporter. The two women tried to shieldher from the blows.
When we emerged from the buildingthat we had taken refuge in there were torn placards laying strewn in the streets.An ambulance was attending to injured marchers. A white man walked by withsjambok cuts on his back, as if he had been whipped. A newspaper reporter wasbleeding from the face. He had a rock thrown at him. Another friend, who hadstopped to help an injured person was head butted.

Breaking the nation

Perhaps one of the most poignant symbols of the morning was the blind busker's guitar laying on the pavement, broken and useless. Just what Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF are trying to do to the Zimbabwean nation's spirit. Brenda picked up the remains of the guitar and luckily found the busker unharmed.
My family and I started walking back to where the march had started and on the way we met up with a reassembled group of marchers. They were bloodied but their spirits weren't broken. We joined them and continued clapping and singing. When we rounded the corner we were faced with rows and rows of riot police. They were waiting for us. My family and I skirted the police and looked back to see the NCA supporters sit down in the road and chant PEACE, PEACE. In reply the police fired several tear gas canisters into the seated and completely unarmed group.
As we made our way to where our car was parked, the riot police followed, waving their batons threateningly and chasing people away. Meanwhile military helicopters circled above. My nephews looked at me questioningly. Their innocence was shattered that day. The police and the government turned out to be the bad guys.

A catalyst for action

The NCA peace march has been a catalyst in getting Zimbabweans to become more vocal and active in their criticism of President Mugabe and ZANU PF's oppressivepolicies. Many months have passed since that day in April and injustice still haunts our people on a daily basis. Both black and white Zimbabweans have either been a victim of or witnessed our government's brutality. Many lives have been irrevocably altered. My little nephews and their mother returned home to South Africa, after living with me for many years. Lliam started school in Johannesburg last month and one of his first assignments was to write about his life. Here is an extract:
"I went to Zimbabwe when I was six. I was happy to have my seventh birthday there. I went to Grade 5. That year all bad happened in Zimbabwe. We went on a peace march. We were all fine until ZANU PF came and stopped the march. We were in Zim for four years and five months. Then we had to leave. It was dangerous to stay. It was in the year 2000 that we left Zim to come to South Africa and I did the story in my new place."

Bev Clark was born in Bulawayo in 1964. She is a human rights activist and is one of the founders of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), the national gay and lesbian organisation. She lives in Harare with Brenda, her partner of 20 years. (email bnb@harare.iafrica.com)