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HARARE, Zimbabwe -An alliance of Zimbabwean human rights groups said Wednesday that 2007 is on course to be the worst year for rights violations since the country's economic downfall started seven years ago. Legal and medical experts documented that cases of state-orchestrated torture on individuals rose to about four per day in the early part of the year, the Human Rights Forum said.Cases of gross violations-including abductions, arrests, unlawful detentions and abuses of political rights and basic freedoms-doubled in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2006, the alliance said in a report released Wednesday."The general trend shows increasing violations since 2005, and if the current trend continues, 2007 will be the worst year yet by a considerable margin," the report said.Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena rejected the report, saying it was inaccurate and the Human Rights Forum had distorted the truth. He said there were no "political crimes" in the country and that all "common crimes" were investigated."The law is very clear about what should happen to someone who should commit an offense," he said.Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, is in its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980. Official inflation is officially 4,500 percent, the highest in the world, but independent estimates put it closer to 9,000 percent. The crisis is largely blamed on the seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms that began in 2000, disrupting the agriculture-based economy.A government order slashing prices of all goods and services by about half in June has led to acute shortages of bread, meat, gasoline and other basic commodities in the country.The human rights report said this year marked the first time police had launched a propaganda offensive on the government's official Web site, blaming the opposition for political violence.The alliance said police branded opposition gatherings and meetings "criminal activities," adding that 80 percent of politically related arrests followed campaigning allowed under the law and considered normal in democratic societies.Bvudzijena accused non-governmental organizations of "exaggerating and not telling the truth about Zimbabwe" so they could continue getting foreign donor funds.As in the days of Noah....
