JOHANNESBURG – Human rights abuses are going unpunished and the food crisis is worsening in Zimbabwe while President Robert Mugabe and the opposition MDC bicker over forming a government, Amnesty International said on Friday.

New findings by the London-based rights group on Friday painted a grim picture of Zimbabwe, as Robert Mugabe, the country’s president, and Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, fight over forming a unity government.

Zimbabweans are struggling to survive amid chronic shortages of meat, milk and other basic commodities as a result of the collapse of the agricultural sector. The country is dependent on food handouts and malnutrition is on the rise.

“We are disappointed that the parties have continued bickering over who controls what ministries and not looked at finding a long-lasting solution to the human rights crisis in Zimbabwe,” Simeon Mawanza, the rights group’s Zimbabwe expert, said at a news conference in Johannesburg.

“Human rights was never at the center of those talks.”

London-based Amnesty said no one had been held accountable for the beatings, torture and other rights violations that occurred before the June presidential election even though it said most victims it interviewed could identify their attackers.

Amnesty said the election-related violence had worsened the food crisis and that many Zimbabweans were on the verge of hunger, in some cases surviving on wild fruit and rotten food suitable only for animals.

“The bulk of the people targeted in rural areas were subsistence farmers,” Mawanza said. “They had their arms broken, their legs broken. They will require food aid.”

The situation in Zimbabwe makes me so sad and angry. People have no food and other basic necessities, within a month I have lost three relatives because of lack of medical care. The health delivery system has collapsed all because of Zanu PF’s destructive policies. Even though they lived in Harare, they ended up dying at Howard Hospital in Chiweshe were they hoped to get better medical attention, but unfortunately it was too late.

Zimbabwe politicians need to know that they are responsible for the suffering of the citizens of Zimbabwe, and all those who have died because of this crisis in the country.

Enough is enough! God help us!

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