It’s always about dodging accountability
Basic hospital requirements are available only erratically now in Zimbabwe. People are dying because of the lack of drips, particularly with the upsurge in water borne diseases, diarrhoea. Re-read this blog I posted last week describing one hospital experience that made the blood in my veins turn cold. We’re hearing reports now that the elite Zanu PF are putting themselves first in the queue for ARV supplies. In Bulawayo, ARVs are not being distributed at all. Countrywide no new HIV patients are being accepted into the treatment system.
In the course of talking about this nightmarish healthcare situation with a medical friend of mine he told me that recently the Zimbabwe Medical Association had met to elect a new president. This had apparently resulted in more political interference from the Zanu PF government. Apparently they flew in a large contingency of army and police doctors to swing the vote to have one of their own elected as president. Their objective, my friend said, wasn’t necessarily about control of the ZMA, and more about being in a position to silence Doctors for Human Rights.
In light of what he said, I subsequently read that last week the 58th General Assembly of the World Medical Association (WMA) adopted a hardline resolution against Zimbabwean government which included calling on all its affiliated medical organisations to “Engage with the Zimbabwean Medical Association (ZiMA) to ensure the autonomy of the medical profession in Zimbabwe“. It also noted:
“Information and reports of systematic and repeated violations of human rights, interference with the right to health in Zimbabwe, failure to provide resources essential for provision of basic health care, declining health status of Zimbabweans, dual loyalties and threats to health care workers striving to maintain clinical independence, denial of access to health care for persons deemed to be associated with opposition political parties and escalating state torture”.
The WMA called on medical associations to publicly denounce all human rights abuses and violations of the right to health in Zimbabwe. And “It also noted the need to actively protect physicians who are threatened or intimidated for actions which are part of their ethical and professional obligations” (via health-e.org).
We’re dying, and the government focuses on hiding and covering up human rights abuses. It’s incredible.
