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Western diplomats had gone too far by offering food and 
water to jailed opposition activists; 
Whereas victims of physical assault by the Government of 
Zimbabwe have been denied emergency medical transfer 
to hospitals in neighboring South Africa, where their 
wounds can be properly treated; 
Whereas those incarcerated by the Government of Zimbabwe 
were denied access to legal representatives and lawyers 
appearing at the jails to meet with detained clients were 
themselves threatened and intimidated; 
Whereas at the time of Zimbabwe’s independence, President 
Robert Mugabe was hailed as a liberator and Zimbabwe 
showed bright prospects for democracy, economic develop-
ment, domestic reconciliation, and prosperity; 
Whereas President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU–PF gov-
ernment continue to turn away from the promises of lib-
eration and use state power to deny the people of 
Zimbabwe the freedom and prosperity they fought for 
and deserve; 
Whereas the staggering suffering brought about by the mis-
rule of Zimbabwe has created a large-scale humanitarian 
crisis in which 3,500 people die each week from a com-
bination of disease, hunger, neglect, and despair; 
Whereas the Chairman of the African Union, President Alpha 
Oumar 
Konare, 
expressed 
‘‘great 
concern’’ 
about 
Zimbabwe’s crisis and called for the need for the scru-
pulous respect for human rights and democratic prin-
ciples in Zimbabwe; 
Whereas the Southern African Development Community 
(SADC) Council of Non-governmental Organizations stat-
ed that ‘‘We believe that the crisis has reached a point
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where Zimbabweans need to be strongly persuaded and 
directly assisted to find an urgent solution to the crisis 
that affects the entire region.’’; 
Whereas Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has likened 
Zimbabwe to a ‘‘sinking Titanic’’ and has urged southern 
Africa to take a new approach to Zimbabwe, stating that 
‘‘quiet diplomacy has failed to help solve the political 
chaos and economic meltdown in Zimbabwe’’; 
Whereas European Union and African, Caribbean, and Pa-
cific lawmakers strongly condemned the latest attack on 
an opposition official in Zimbabwe and urged the govern-
ment in Harare to cooperate with the political opposition 
to restore the rule of law; and 
Whereas United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Chris-
topher Dell, warned that opposition to President Robert 
Mugabe had reached a tipping point because the people 
no longer feared the regime and believed they had noth-
ing left to lose: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That—
(1) it is the sense of Congress that—
(A) the state-sponsored violence taking 
place in Zimbabwe represents a serious viola-
tion of fundamental human rights and the rule 
of law and should be condemned by all respon-
sible governments, civic organizations, religious 
leaders, and international bodies; and 
(B) the Government of Zimbabwe has not 
lived up to its commitments as a signatory to
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the Constitutive Act of the African Union and 
African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights 
which enshrine commitment to human rights 
and good governance as foundational principles 
of African states; and 
(2) Congress—
(A) 
condemns 
the 
Government 
of 
Zimbabwe’s violent suppression of political and 
human rights through its police force, security 
forces, and youth militia that deliberately inflict 
gross physical harm, intimidation, and abuse on 
those legitimately protesting the failing policies 
of the government; 
(B) holds those individual police, security 
force members, and militia involved in abuse 
and torture responsible for the acts that they 
have committed; 
(C) condemns government harassment and 
intimidation of lawyers attempting to carry out 
their professional obligations to their clients 
and repeated failure by police to comply 
promptly with court decisions; 
(D) condemns the harassment of foreign 
officials, journalists, human rights workers, and 
others, including threatening their expulsion