2000s in Zimbabwe
Opposition to President Mugabe and the ZANU-PF government grew considerably after the mid-1990s in part due to worsening economic and human rights conditions.
[1] The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was established in September 1999 as an opposition party founded by trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai.
Parliamentary elections held in June 2000 were marred by localised violence, and claims of electoral irregularities and government intimidation of opposition supporters.
The High Court ruled against the state on 8 August in the confiscation of Andrew Kockett's farm because it had not informed the National Merchant Bank, the mortgage holder.
In the months leading up to the poll, ZANU-PF, with the support of the army, security services and especially the so-called 'war veterans' – very few of whom actually fought in the Second Chimurenga against the Smith regime in the 1970s – set about wholesale intimidation and suppression of the MDC-led opposition.
The government's behaviour drew strong criticism from the EU and the US, which imposed limited sanctions against the leading members of the Mugabe regime.
[4] In February, and then once more in December, opinion polls showed that the United Kingdom remained the "most positively viewed foreign country" in Zimbabwe, despite President Mugabe's very public feud with the British government.
President Robert Mugabe issued a decree on 7 December, announcing that Zimbabwe was permanently withdrawing from the Commonwealth to protest the organisation's criticism of ZANU-PF and the government's policies.
Zimbabwean parliamentary election, 2005 were held in March 2005 in which ZANU-PF won a two-thirds majority, were again criticised by international observers as being flawed.
Mugabe's political operatives were thus able to weaken the opposition internally and the security apparatus of the state was able to destabilise it externally by using violence in anti-Mugabe strongholds to prevent citizens from voting.
[15] Human Rights Watch said the evictions had disrupted treatment for people with HIV/Aids in a country where 3,000 die from the disease each week and about 1.3 million children have been orphaned.
As of September 2006, housing construction fell far short of demand, and there were reports that beneficiaries were mostly civil servants and ruling party loyalists, not those displaced.
[17] The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's governor Gideon Gono issued his fourth quarter monetary policy review statement on 24 January 2006.
In December 2006, ZANU-PF proposed the "harmonisation" of the parliamentary and presidential election schedules in 2010; the move was seen by the opposition as an excuse to extend Mugabe's term as president until 2010.
Police arrested Morgan Tsvangirai, politician and leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, on 11 March 2007, seriously beating him in a prison in Harare.
Representatives for the MDC and ZANU-PF met in South Africa in September and agreed to constitutional changes that would allow presidential and parliamentary elections to be held simultaneously in 2008.
[citation needed] Morgan Tsvangirai was badly beaten on 12 March 2007 after being arrested and held at Machipisa Police Station in the Highfield suburb of Harare.
[24][25] The settlement of the Second Congo War brought back Zimbabwe's substantial military commitment, although some troops remain to secure the mining assets under their control.
With all this and the forced and violent removal of white farmers in a brutal land redistribution program, Mugabe has earned himself widespread scorn from the international arena.
It features mansions, manicured lawns, full shops with fully stocked shelves containing an abundance of fruit and vegetables, big cars and a golf club give is the home to President Mugabe's out-of-town retreat.
[27] Zimbabwe's bakeries shut down in October 2007 and supermarkets warned that they would have no bread for the foreseeable future due to collapse in wheat production after the seizure of white-owned farms.
The ministry of agriculture has also blamed power shortages for the wheat shortfall, saying that electricity cuts have affected irrigation and halved crop yields per acre.
[28] On 4 December 2007, The United States imposed travel sanctions against 38 people with ties to President Mugabe because they "played a central role in the regime's escalated human rights abuses.
While German PM Angela Merkel criticised Mugabe with her public comments, the leaders of other African countries offered him statements of support.
Robert Mugabe has made himself unpopular by governing a country where inflation runs at 100,000% – the world's highest – and where people have to scrabble round for food and fuel.
Makoni, who served 10 years in Mugabe's government including a stint as finance minister, announced his defection from the party on 5 February to enable him to stand as an independent against his former boss and mentor.
If the results are disputed, the fear is of violence in Zimbabwe's more volatile areas in what could be a repeat of the violent aftermath of the Kenyan elections December.
If the election leads to further confrontation, analysts say the African Union (AU) should be ready to quickly offer mediation for a power-sharing agreement and a transitional government.
Andebrhan Giorgis, of the International Crisis Group thinktank, has warned: "If the region's leaders were again to recognise an illegitimate government, Zimbabwe's dramatic economic disintegration would continue, and the inevitable next round of the struggle over Mugabe's succession could easily provoke bloodshed."
One foreign reporter witnessed hundreds of children at Hatcliffe Extension Primary School in Epworth, 12 miles (19 km) west of Harare, writing in the dust on the floor because they had no exercise books or pencils.
