Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum: Report on Organised Violence and Torture in 1999 attempt by any Government officials to argue the issue of legality, and a long period elapsed before this matter was even debated in Parliament. The funding of this military action in a distant African country was obviously of great concern to ordinary Zimbabweans because at home they were suffering from adverse economic conditions. Different Government Ministers made contradictory statements relating to how the military action was being funded. One Minister said it was being funded entirely out of the defence budget, whereas others informed us that it was being funded entirely by a number of Governments such as the DRC and Angola. Finally in a letter to the IMF in July 1999 the Minister of Finance admitted that the war had cost Zimbabwe US$ 1.3 million per month in 1998 or 0.4 per cent of the Gross National Product. When additional troops were sent to the Congo in 1999 the cost to Zimbabwe was US$ 3 million or 0.6 per cent of the Gross National Product. At the beginning of June 1999 an internal memorandum came to light in the Ministry of Finance which seemed to indicate that the expenditure on the Congo war between January and June this year was US $ 166, nearly ten times the official figure. Although the government tried to explain away this memorandum as being a request for funding from the Ministry of Defence, the IMF has accused the Zimbabwean government of lying about what was being spent on the war and has put further funding support on hold. Right from the start, there has been widespread opposition to the use of our troops in the Congo. Even some high-ranking Government officials voiced their reservations about this military action. A Gallup poll amongst urban Zimbabweans suggested that a large majority of urban Zimbabweans were opposed to the deployment of Zimbabwean troops in the Congo for a variety of reasons. 6 People were concerned about the financial burden this war would impose upon a Zimbabwean economy that was already very weak. They were also very worried about the grave risks to which our soldiers would be subjected. Despite the apparent unpopularity of this military action the Government remains determined to press ahead, and has continued to justify the involvement as necessary for regional peacekeeping. The issue became much more complicated in 1999 by the attempts to create a cease-fire and negotiate a peaceful transition to democratic existence. At the end of 1999 the Zimbabwe National Army remains in the DRC, expenditure continues at an unknown level and there is little sign that there will be a quick transition either to civilian rule or a United Nations supervised peace. 2.4 Constitutional Reform The objective of a genuine constitutional reform process will be to produce a constitutional framework based on enduring values and on the feelings and aspirations of the people as a whole. A process which produces a constitution which simply reflects what the political party holding power wants is clearly not a genuine reform process7. Few issues in 1999 epitomised the deep divides in Zimbabwean society and the lack of trust in the government than the Constitutional (Review) Commission. As Professor Feltoe points out above, the singular problem was the perception by most of civil society that the government was attempting to co-opt the popular process of the National Constitutional Assembly, and also attempting to impose a constitution derived from within ZANUPF. The Constitutional (Review) Commission was chaired by Justice Chidyausiku and the 385 members included all MPs. A nation wide process of taking the views of the populace was undertaken by the Commission which were then collated into Provincial Reports. The final draft presented to the full Commission was widely criticised for not reflecting the views contained in the Provincial Reports and led 6See 7 again Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (1998), A Gallup Poll on Zimbabwe’s involvement in the DRC War. See Feltoe, G (1999), Discussion Paper on the Constitutional Commission’s Draft Constitution for Zimbabwe [draft paper]. -5-