2003 in Zimbabwe

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. 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.

The Youth brigade assaulted residents of Ruwa and Mabvuku on 2 January 2002 sealing off the towns of Bindura, Chinhoyi and Karoi on 8 January as part of a recruiting drive and to weed out members of the Movement for Democratic Change before the upcoming elections. Militants petrol bombed the offices of The Daily News, Zimbabwe's main independent daily newspaper, on 11 February. Kenneth Walker reported on National Public Radio on 15 February that the Zimbabwean government had sent troops into Matabeleland. The legislature passed a law in May, giving 2,900 farmers 45 days to wind up operations and another 45 days to leave their land and make way for black settlers. In July the High Court under Judge Feargus Blackie sentenced Patrick Chinamasa, the Justice Minister, to three months in jail on contempt of court charges after the minister repeatedly ignored a court summons. Chinamasa ignored the ruling and police refused to arrest him. 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. Some farmers vacated their land in connection with the expropriation law originally passed in May, but police arrested more than 300 white farmers who refused to vacate their land on 16 August. A bomb exploded at the Voice of the People, an independent radio station in Harare, on 29 August. Police arrested twelve sugar cane farmers from the Chiredzi area in September for refusing to leave their farms. Police arrest Feargus Blackie, a former High Court Judge, is arrested on 13 September. Police find Learnmore Jongwe, a Movement for Democratic Change MP, dead in his prison cell on 22 October. Police had originally arrested Jongwe for allegedly murdering his wife.

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Wikipedia