Ditshwanelo Human Rights Film Festival

The Ditshwanelo Centre for Human Rights in Gaborone has been advocating on behalf of Batswana and others in the region for more than 15 years. It is directed by Alice Mogwe, a gender and human rights activist. For the past several years they have organized an annual human rights film festival. Last night Sethunya and I attended a Zimbabwe themed evening of films at the festival. The first, 'Shame of Musina,' exposed the disgraceful conditions at the Musina refugee camp in South Africa, just over the border from Zimbabwe. The South Africans, determined not to 'encourage' Zimbabweans to enter their country, refused to erect tents of any kind and barely provided water or sanitation facilities to the thousands in the camps. The conditions were unspeakable and in early March this year they shut down the camp - leaving the occupants stranded. The second and third films: 'Democray - Missing - Presumed Dead' and 'Death of a Nation' documented the beatings and killings of men, women and children in Zimbabwe, the burning of whole villages that had supported the MDC in the election, often times led by ZANU PF Members of Parliament, and the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy, infrastructure, living standards. People in the rural areas forced to eat berries and hacha, no clean water or medical supplies available and hence a cholera epidemic for a disease that can normally be prevented and treated. The last was a film version of a play that was staged in Gaborone last year: 'The People's Voice,' which addressed the plight of Zimbabweans in Botswana. The play pokes fun at the Botswana response to the influx of Zimbabweans with many more serious barbs. Here Zimbabweans have not been confined to camps but are dispersed throughout the country, with large concentrations in Francistown and Gaborone. They certainly face discrimination and fear being picked up and deported by the police.

One of the big points of the play was: Where is SADC? Where are Zimbabwe's neighbors to speak out on behalf of the battered people of Zimbabwe? This lack of response too has been maddening. Ian Khama has actually been more forthright on this issue than any other leader in the region. Remarkably, within 12 hours of the installation of Andry Rajoelina in Madagascar this week, SADC issued a statement condemning the action and threatening sanctions against the country. And yet the same leaders have not been able to respond to a much more urgent situation in a country that has seen the worst human rights abuses in years in the region.

One of the recent campaigns organized by Ditshwanelo was the Fight Cholera Campaign at Xmas time. At bus and train stations in Botswana, where Zimbabweans would be boarding to head home for the Xmas holiday, they made available 10 sachets per person containing tablets for cleaning water. One sachet cost 50 thebe (about five cents) and would purify 10 litres of water with the hope being that those returning home (and later back to Botswana) would have clean water available to them while there.