1 post tagged “murder”
General C. Chiwenga, CDF
Commander, Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF),
C/O The Defence Attaché
Lt. Col. George Chinoingira
Embassy of Zimbabwe
1608 New Hampshire Ave
Washington DC 20009
10 July 2008
chinoingira@zimbabwe-embassy.us
RE: Use of Agro
Chemicals as Bio-Chemical Warfare Agents in Zimbabwe.
General Chiwenga,
Zimbabweans steadfastly demand that you order the
cantonment of all ZDF personnel currently deployed in the rural and urban areas
and an immediate cessation of all universally prohibited bio-chemical attacks
on Zimbabwean citizens. Furthermore, the
systematic use of rape as a weapon of war by your military auxiliaries and
militias on women political activists in your numerous re-education torture
camps must end forthwith. This sadistic premeditated use of sexual violence
against women and girls is inhuman and defies our strong African cultural
values.
Unashamed partisan members of the ZDF under your direct
command and control are engaged in illegal, horrific and repugnant acts of
bio-terrorism against unarmed defenceless civilians in Zimbabwe. These unprovoked attacks carried
out by your officers and men as part of a pre-planned opposition voter
annihilation exercise, are prohibited under international law and lack human
decency.
General Chiwenga your propensity for wicked acts of
brutality is infamous. However, you have outdone yourself with this latest
spate of despicable criminal acts of viciousness, which are not only cowardly but
also repulsive and totally unforgivable.
Traumatised women, who are gang raped, children and the
elderly subjected to torture and horrendous beatings, have their ghastly open
wounds sprayed with toxic pesticides and herbicides. The Joint Operations Command
(JOC) of which you chair supplies these agricultural chemicals, logistical
support, the victims list and is responsible for drafting the operational plans
in defence of a despotic junta.
Why on God’s earth do you do this?
Zimbabwe is a member of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and a signatory to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and the Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare.
Article I, GENERAL OBLIGATIONS of the Convention: 1. Section (B) states that, each State Party to this Convention undertakes never under any circumstances: (b): To use chemical weapons.
The Convention thus reinforces a basic principle of law relating to the conduct of hostilities whereby the right of the parties to an armed conflict to choose methods or means of warfare is not unlimited. Punishment of the crime of developing, producing, acquiring, stockpiling, retaining, transferring or using biological or chemical weapons is based upon the precedents set by other international treaties on crimes such as torture, piracy, slavery and hijacking. The 1925 Geneva Protocol forbids the use of chemical and bacteriological agents in war.
General
Chiwenga, you are in gross violation of all known rules of war and the laws of
armed conflict. You flagrantly employ brutal military tactics against unarmed
peaceful civilians, which are prehistoric, barbaric, banned by universal law and
have no place in modern civilised society.
You and
your subordinates are now wanted war criminals to be punished for crimes of war
under the International Criminal Court and other international statutes that
cover the use of poison weapons, crimes of war and crimes against humanity.
Under Zimbabwean law, you are subject to a military court marshal for these and
other acts of blatant cruelty for which the penalty under the Defence Act is
death by firing squad.
The ZDF and ZANU(PF) youth militia under your unlawful military
command is using Paraquat (1,1'-dimethyl-4,4'-bipyridinium), trade name
Gramoxone, a lethal herbicide and Dimethoate (Dimethoxyphosphinothioylthio–N-methylacetamide) trade name Rogor,
a noxious pesticide, in its low intensity conflict against the innocent rural
citizens of Zimbabwe who voted against Robert Mugabe.
The long-term effects on the victims of your chemical warfare
include respiratory ailments, liver malfunction, involuntary defecation, psychosis,
rapid heart rate, kidney
failure, lung sores, and liver injury, coma and cardiac arrest.
International
arrest warrants will soon be issued. Prepare to answer for your scorched earth
policies and heinous acts alone in a court of law.
Phil Matibe
Anti-Tyranny Taskforce Commander
