GENERAL COURT MARSHAL (GMC) - The People vs. SERVICE CHIEFS

03/24/2008

GENERAL COURT MARSHAL (GMC) - The People vs. SERVICE CHIEFS

Zimbabwe’s young democracy has been threatened by yesteryear’s freedom fighters that saturate the top ranks of our armed force’s general staff. The termination of these officers’s tenure through a swift, well calculated legal process, in the form of a general court-martial is now necessary. The short term and indeed the future long term survival of a democratic post-tyrannical government depends on the strict adherence to military law and discipline.

It has been noted that, “Without the values and traditions of the Zimbabwe Defence Force corps of regular officers, and without effective and unbending enforcement of military discipline, no reliable armed force can exist. The Constitution could ultimately have less worth than the paper on which it is printed.” Treason by persons subject to military law is triable by court-martial under the Zimbabwe Constitution.

Part of the Zimbabwe Constitutions reads:

Article96  Defence Forces command thereof.

(5)     An Act of Parliament shall make provision for the organisation, administration and discipline of the Defence Forces, including the appointment of persons to offices or ranks in the Defence Forces, their removal from office or reduction in rank, their punishment for breaches of discipline and the fixing of their conditions of service.

 

PART VI: JURISDICTION OF MILITARY COURTS AND CIVIL COURTS, PROCEDURE AND EVIDENCE

45 Jurisdiction of military courts

(1) Subject to this Act, a court martial may, inside or outside Zimbabwe, try—

(a) any member for an offence in terms of this Act;

(b) any person—

(i) within the period of three months after he ceases to be a member of the Regular Force, for an offence in terms of this Act committed while he was a member.

The Police Act and Defence Act are specific on issues of Military, Police, and Para-Military discipline, and are clear on the exclusion of military officers from political activity. As Zimbabwe forges ahead towards a robust democracy, seditious officers must be held accountable for their threats of a pre-emptive coup-de-tat and forced to abide to the canons of the law. When a soldier transgresses the general law of our country he commits a military offence.

PART VII: PUNISHMENT AND EXECUTION OF SENTENCE

70 Punishment of Officers

 (1) Subject to this Act, the punishments which may be imposed on an officer by

sentence of a court martial are —

(a) death;

(b) imprisonment, with or without labour and with or without solitary

confinement and spare diet;

(c) cashiering or the cancellation of his commission;

(d) forfeiture in the prescribed manner of seniority of rank in the Defence.

 Treason, mutiny, and sedition charges have to be preferred against certain Zimbabwe Defence Force and Police Officers for their part in issuing treasonous statements that incite rebellion, insubordination, and are at variance with the country’s constitution.

A court martial charge-sheet will begin with the following senior officers:

General Vitalis Zvinavashe, ex Commander, ZDF

General Constantine Chiwenga, Commander, ZDF

Air Marshal Perence Shiri, Commander, AFZ

Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, Commissioner, ZRP

Major-General Paradzayi Zimhondi, Commissioner, ZPS

Major-General Happytone Bonyongwe, Director General, CIO

Collectively and individually these officers have issued the following lethal statements: “We are prepared to use of the barrel of the gun should the worse come to the worst.”  “We will not salute a President who didn’t participate in the liberation war.” “The military will not support an opposition government after the elections because they are ‘sellouts’ and ‘agents of the west’.” “Western-backed opposition puppets would not be allowed to rule the country.” “We command all army personnel to support Robert Mugabe and not allow the enemy, (reference to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai) to take over.”

The above group of officers, the high command of tyranny, consists of some of post-colonial Africa’s most ruthless and brutal closet warlords. Their military careers were built on the vapour of the valor of true freedom fighters that perished while pursuing our political, socio-economic ideals, and aspirations.

Subject to the Defence Act:

8. (1) any member who —

(a) takes part in a mutiny —

(i) involving the use of violence or the threat of the use of violence; or

(b) incites any member to take part in such a mutiny, whether actual or

intended; shall be guilty of an offence and liable to suffer death.

PART VII: PUNISHMENT AND EXECUTION OF SENTENCE

75 Execution of death sentence

(1) Subject to subsection (2), where a sentence of death passed by a court martial is to be executed in Zimbabwe, that sentence shall be executed in the same manner as a sentence of death passed by the High Court.

(2) A sentence of death passed by a court martial—

(a) which is to be executed outside Zimbabwe;

 or

(b) if the President so directs, which is to be executed inside Zimbabwe;

                 shall be executed in private by a firing squad.

Zimbabwe only has one opportunity for a peaceful transition from a dictatorship to a participatory functioning democracy. The world community has a stark choice, assist us now and rout a few individuals, or wait until these enablers of tyranny unleash terror after elections. Democracy can only prevail when men who constantly wield machetes to the throats of the electorate are permanently eliminated. Let Zimbabwe be the example for the rest Africa.

I beg all Zimbabweans and my colleagues in the armed forces, army officers and men, who believe in the principles of the rule of law, freedom, and justice, to be prepared to become the first boots on the ground as we defend of our fragile democracy. The ballot paper will deliver the first salvo across the bow of tyranny.

Power only changes hands when both the popular vote and the armed forces speak with one voice.  The people  hereby request the Commanders of all Army, Airforce and Para-military units including One Commando Regiment, (Cranborne Barracks), One Parachute Regiment, (Inkomo Barracks),and the Special Air Service, (Kabrit Barracks),  to ensure that all officers and enlisted men remain in their cantonment areas on the day of voting, as a signal of their acceptance of the election results.

It is imperative that the African Union, European Union, and the United Nations assemble a standby rapid-reaction force with a mandate to intercede and enforce the will of the Zimbabwean people.
 

Asesabi Lutho – Chatinotya Hapana – We Fear Nothing