ZIMBABWE CRISIS

Zimbabwe’s demographics :
Population: 12,576,742 (July, 2003 est.), 11,342,521 (July 2000 est.) The last census, in 2002, showed the population to be 11,600,000.
Age structure estimates for 2007:
0-14 years: 37.2% (male 2,308,731/female 2,266,027); this has fallen from around 40% over the last 10 years;
15-64 years: 59.3% (male 3,663,108/female 3,641,519); this has risen despite higher death rates due to tuberculosis and other diseases associated with AIDS;
65 years and over: 3.5% (male 198,867/female 232,891); not rising due to the sharp fall in life expectancy over the period 1992 to 2007. The Median age of the population, 20.1, is rising steadily due to a combination of lower birth rates and high death rates.
Population growth rate: 0.59% (2007 est.), 0.83% (2003 est.), 0.26% (2000 est.)
Birth rate: 27.7 births/1,000 population (2007 est.), 30.34 births/1,000 population (2003 est.), 25 births/1,000 population (2000 est.)
Death rate: 22.7 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.), 25.02 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.), 22.43 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.)
Net migration rate: Unknown due to illegal border crossing but possibly as high 15-18/1,000 population annually over the period 1999-2007.
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female (2003, 2000 est.)
under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female (2003, 2000 est.)
15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female (2003, 2000 est.)
65 years and over: 1.02 male(s)/female (2003 est.), 1.03 male(s)/female (2000 est.)
total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2003, 2000 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
total: 66.47 deaths/1,000 live births (2003 est.), 62.25 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 est.)
female: 63.69 deaths/1,000 live births (2003 est.)
male: 69.17 deaths/1,000 live births (2003 est.)
Percentage of population malnourished: 45 percent
AIDS adult infection rate: 33.7% (2001 est.), 25% (1999 estimate).
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 2.3 million (2001 est.)
Deaths from AIDS: 200,000 (2001 est.), 160,000 annually (1999 estimate).
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 39.01 years (2003 est.), 37.78 years (2000 est.)
male: 40.09 years (2003 est.), 39.18 years (2000 est.)
female: 37.89 years (2003 est.), 36.34 years (2000 est.)
Total fertility rate: 3.08 children born/woman (2007 est.), 3.66 children born/woman (2003 est.), 3.34 children born/woman (2000 est.)
Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write English total population: 90.7% (2003 est.), 85% (2000 est.) male: 94.2% (2003 est.), 90% (2000 est.) female: 87.2% (2003 est.), 80% (1995 est.)

The above demographics shows a pitiful state of a nation – a largely malnourished population, low life expectancy (an average persons dies at 39 years old), wide propagation of AIDS – a country with a very low quality of life and a very dim future for the people within. Now picture this country also in a political turmoil with at least two political parties fighting tooth and nail to take over. There are endless accusations of election fraud and bringing of suits to court to compel the authorities of justice to declare the rightful winner. The effect is greater suffering on the people and further threat to their existence.
Zimbabwe Rhodesia regained its independence as Zimbabwe on April 18, 1980 Its first elections took place on March 27-29, 1980. In accordance with the Lancaster compromise, black Zimbabweans competed for 80 out of the 100 seats in the House of Assembly with 20 seats reserved for whites. Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) won a majority with 57 seats while Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) won 27 seats and Abel Muzorewa's United African National Council (UANC) won three. The Rhodesian Front won all 20 white seats.
In the meantime, ethnic divisions soon came back to the forefront of national politics. Tension between ZAPU and ZANU erupted with guerrilla activity starting again in Matabeleland in south-western Zimbabwe. Because of the unsettled security situation immediately after independence and the continuing anti government dissidence, the government kept in force a "state of emergency". This gave the government widespread powers under the "Law and Order Maintenance Act," including the right to detain persons without charge which it used quite widely. In 1983 to 1984 the government declared a curfew in areas of Matabeleland and sent in the army in an attempt to suppress dissidents. Credible reports surfaced of widespread violence and disregard for human rights by the security forces during these operations, and the level of political tension rose in the country as a result. The pacification campaign, known as the Gukuruhundi, or strong wind, resulted in at least 20,000 civilian deaths perpetrated by an elite, communist-trained brigade, known in Zimbabwe as the Gukurahundi. The situation evolved into a low level civil war.
ZANU-PF increased its majority in the 1985 elections, winning 67 of the 100 seats. The majority gave Mugabe the opportunity to start making changes to the constitution, including those with regard to land restoration. Fighting did not cease until Mugabe and Nkomo reached an agreement in December 1987 whereby ZAPU became part of ZANU-PF and the government changed the constitution to make Mugabe the country's first executive president and Nkomo one of two vice presidents.
Mugabe’s seemingly dictatorship government continued into the years. Elections in March 1990 resulted in another overwhelming victory for him and his party, which won 117 of the 120 election seats. Election observers estimated voter turnout at only 54% and found the campaign neither free nor fair though balloting met international standards. Unsatisfied with a de facto one-party state, Mugabe called on the ZANU-PF Central Committee to support the creation of a de jure one-party state in September 1990 and lost. The government began further amending the constitution. The judiciary and human rights advocates fiercely criticised the first amendments enacted in April 1991 because they restored corporal and capital punishment and denied recourse to the courts in cases of compulsory purchase of land by the government. The general health of the civilian population also began to significantly flounder and by 1997, 25% of the population of Zimbabwe had been infected by HIV, the AIDS virus. Students, trade unionists, and workers often demonstrated to express their discontent with the government. Students protested in 1990 against proposals for an increase in government control of universities and again in 1991 and 1992 when they clashed with police.
Zimbabwe began experiencing a period of considerable political and economic upheaval in 1999. 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.[14] The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was established in September 1999 as an opposition party founded by trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai.
The MDC's first opportunity to test opposition to the Mugabe government came in February 2000, when a referendum was held on a draft constitution proposed by the government. Among its elements, the new constitution would have permitted President Mugabe to seek two additional terms in office, granted government officials immunity from prosecution, and authorised government seizure of white-owned land. The referendum was handily defeated. Shortly thereafter, the government, through a loosely organised group of war veterans, sanctioned an aggressive land redistribution program often characterised by forced expulsion of white farmers and violence against both farmers and farm employees
Parliamentary elections held in June 2000 were marred by localised violence, and claims of electoral irregularities and government intimidation of opposition supporters. Nonetheless, the MDC succeeded in capturing 57 of 120 seats in the National Assembly.
In the years afterwards, Zimbabwe’s conditioned worsened. The political tension continued leading to economic deterioration manifested by a inflation in August 2006 that caused the government to replace its existing currency. The sufferings of the Zimbabweans continued on. The educational system in Zimbabwe which was once regarded as among the best in Africa, has gone into crisis because of the country’s economic meltdown.
Zimbabwe held a presidential election along with a parliamentary election on March 29, 2008. The three major candidates were Robert Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and Simba Makoni, an independent. The election was expected, because of Zimbabwe's dire economic situation, to provide President Mugabe with his toughest electoral challenge to date. On 2 April 2008, The Zimbabwe election commission confirmed that Mugabe and his party, ZANU-PF, lost control of Parliament. According to unofficial polling, ZANU-PF took 94 seats, and the main opposition party MDC took 96 seats. On 3 April 2008 Zimbabwean government forces began cracking down on the main opposition party and arrested at least two foreign journalists covering the disputed presidential election, including a correspondent for The New York Times.
The economic meltdown and repressive political measures in Zimbabwe has led to a flood of refugees into neighboring countries. An estimated 3.4 million Zimbabweans, a quarter of the population, had fled abroad by mid 2007. Some 3 million of these have gone to South Africa. Aside from those who fled into the neighbouring countries, an estimated 570,000 people are displaced within the borders of the country, many of whom remain in transit camps and have limited access to assistance. Most of the displaced have been victims of the Operation Murambatsvina in 2005 and continuing evictions and violent farm seizures. Their plight is virtually impossible to assess, as there has been no national survey of people displaced since 2005.
Again, the family has stepped into the situation as various human rights have been violated and as millions of people are forced out of their homes to escape the unbearableness of the situation. The United Nations Security Council has officially met on the issue on several occasions.
Then, following an off-the-record meeting, the Council issued a statement condemning "the campaign of violence against the political opposition" and expressing "its concern over the impact of the situation in Zimbabwe on the wider region.
After the election, an attempt supported by the United States and European countries, to have the Security Council declare the election illegitimate was blocked by South Africa, which argued that the Council was not in the business of certifying elections The Zimbabwean mission to the UN said in a letter on July 10 that a proposed resolution drafted by the US would likely leave Zimbabwe in a lawless state like Somalia and cause a civil war if it was passed. According to the letter, Zimbabwe was not a threat to other countries and consequently there was no basis for the proposed resolution; the letter also alleged that the proposed resolution was actually intended as punishment for Zimbabwe's land reform, and it said that the US and the UK were "ignor[ing] real, entrenched, fundamental and enduring issues that lie at the heart of Zimbabwe's internal politics". Additionally, the letter blamed the violence on the MDC.
Is the displacement of numerous members of a state a compelling reason to interfere in its affairs? Would a change in leadership or the stabilization of political power in a state result in better lives of individuals. Is Zimbabwe’s condition a result of the political struggle it underwent or is such present plight inevitable, a result of its unpreparedness or even unworthiness of independence? If you were part of the UN Security Council would you have supported a degree of interference in the Zimbabwe crisis?