Zim Online
by Simplicious Chirinda Saturday 12 April
2008
HARARE – Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi
will lead Zimbabwe’s
delegation at a regional summit boycotted by President
Robert Mugabe, the
Harare administration said on Friday.
Southern
African Development Community (SADC) chairman, Zambian President
Levy
Mwanawasa, called the emergency summit to discuss an election stalemate
in
Zimbabwe that the opposition has said could lead to violence and
bloodshed.
"The President is not going to Lusaka, but that does not
mean that Zimbabwe
is not going to attend, it will be represented by the
Minister of Foreign
Affairs and he is just as good as the President at the
summit and will
represent the country," State Security Minister Didymus
Mutasa told
ZimOnline.
Zimbabwe, also grappling with an acute
economic recession and food
shortages, plunged deeper into political crisis
after the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) withheld results of the March
29 presidential ballot that
Mugabe is believed to have lost to Morgan
Tsvangirai, leader of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
party.
A court will rule next Monday on an MDC application demanding an
immediate
release of results of the presidential poll.
The opposition
party has called for a nationwide work stoppage next Tuesday
to protest
delays by the election commission to announce results, while
police
authorities on Friday banned all public political meetings in Harare,
clearly afraid that simmering tensions because of the election stalemate
could boil over.
SADC leaders were expected to use the summit to
exert pressure on Mugabe to
order the ZEC to release results and prevent
possible violent conflict in
Zimbabwe that could spew a refugee crisis
across the region.
Political analysts said by snubbing SADC leaders who
have long shielded him
from international pressure, Mugabe was digging his
own political grave.
"The rational of not going to the summit is probably
driven by the fact that
SADC invited Tsvangirai to be part of the summit so
that he and Mugabe can
give their sides of the story over the impasse in
Zimbabwe,” said Eldred
Masunungure, a University of Zimbabwe political
science lecturer.
But the move would only help heighten and regionalise
Zimbabwe’s crisis,
said Masungunre.
He said: “What is more tragic is
the fact that, more than ever before,
Zimbabwe is isolating itself from its
political and geographical friends.
It's a path to self destruction by
Mugabe.
“He will now have to fight on many fronts; if he continues
rebuffing SADC it
will do the same in turn; (also) the African Union
chairman (Tanzanian
President Jakaya Kikwete) is from SADC and what it means
is that Mugabe will
be facing two continental bodies."
However,
another human rights lawyer, Lovemore Madhuku, said by boycotting
the summit
Mugabe had ensured it would not achieve anything substantial and
said more
leaders might also not turn up for the Lusaka meeting if the
Zimbabwean
leader is not attending.
Madhuku said: “By not attending, he is trying to
reduce the summit into
nothing. Mugabe is making a statement that he is not
going to accept any
process that is designed to remove him from
power.”
Tsvangirai, whose MDC beat the ruling ZANU PF party in a
parliamentary poll
held together with elections for president, says he won
sufficient votes to
takeover the presidency from Mugabe.
However,
projections by the ruling ZANU PF party and independent observers
show that
the MDC leader won with less than 50 percent of the vote,
warranting a
second round run-off against Mugabe.
Although the MDC has said it will
not agree to a run-off, the opposition
party is expected to take part in the
second ballot if official results show
Tsvangirai winning but with less than
50 percent of the vote.
There are fears that an anticipated re-run of the
presidential election
between Mugabe and Tsvangirai could spark serious
violence between militant
supporters of the Zimbabwean leader on one side
and opposition supporters on
the other.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for
Tsvangirai was released from jail on ZW$500 million
bail pending trial on a
charge of allegedly insulting police and interfering
with their
work.
The lawyer, Innocent Chagonda, was arrested on Thursday after he
had asked
the police to release a helicopter they impounded last month.
Chagonda told
the police that he would sue them if they did not let go of
the chopper that
was being used by Tsvangirai to fly to political rallies in
the run-up to
the elections on March 29.
Police claim Chagonda
insulted and threatened, and interfered with their
work. – ZimOnline.
Zim Online
by Own Correspondent Saturday 12 April
2008
JOHANNESBURG – South African National Assembly speaker
Baleka Mbete on
Friday expressed concern at Zimbabwe’s election stalemate,
as pressure
continued pilling up on President Robert Mugabe to allow the
release of the
results of a presidential vote he is believed to have
lost.
"We are concerned that two weeks after elections there hasn't been
a formal
official announcement," Mbete told journalists in Cape
Town.
She however, said that Parliament would only make a formal
pronouncement on
the Zimbabwe polls after receiving a full report from
legislators who were
part of the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) election observer
mission.
Several key regional and
international figures have urged the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) to
release results, while SADC leaders meet in
Lusaka on Saturday for an
emergency summit to discuss the stalemate in
Zimbabwe that opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai has warned could erupt in
violence and
bloodshed.
However, Mugabe was not expected to attend the regional
summit, state-owned
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation reported on
Friday.
Harare officials had earlier indicated Mugabe would attend in
order to brief
fellow SADC leaders on the situation in his country, where
the opposition is
accusing him of staging a military coup to keep himself in
power.
But Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga quashed prospects
of Mugabe
attending saying the summit, where regional leaders were expected
to
pressure Mugabe to release poll results, was called without consulting
Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe, also grappling with an acute economic recession
and food
shortages, plunged deeper into political crisis after the ZEC
withheld
results of the presidential ballot.
A court will rule next
Monday on an application by Tsvangirai’s Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) party demanding an immediate release of results of
the presidential
poll.
Tsvangirai, whose MDC beat ZANU PF in a parliamentary poll held
together
with the elections for president, says he won sufficient votes to
takeover
the presidency from Mugabe.
However, projections by the
ruling ZANU PF party and independent observers
show that the MDC leader won
with less than 50 percent of the vote,
warranting a second round run-off
against Mugabe.
But the MDC, which had initially indicated it would
participate in a
run-off, said on Thursday it no longer wanted the run-off
because it
believed Tsvangirai won with more than 50 percent of the vote to
avoid a
second ballot.
The opposition party also says the run-off
will not be free and fair because
Mugabe has taken advantage of ZEC’s delay
to issue results to prepare a
campaign of violence to intimidate Zimbabweans
to grant him another five
years in office.
Meanwhile, police
authorities banned all public political meetings in Harare
clearly afraid
simmering tensions, because of the election stalemate, could
boil
over.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told journalists: "We have banned
political rallies. We see no reason for rallies since we have had
elections." ZimOnline
Yahoo News
LONDON (AFP) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday he was
"appalled" by
signs that President Robert Mugabe was using violence in the
wake of
elections in Zimbabwe.
"I am appalled by the signs that the
regime is once again resorting to
intimidation and violence," Brown said in
a statement, warning that the
patience of the international community "is
wearing thin."
Brown said he could not understand why the results of the
presidential
elections had still not been announced 13 days after the
vote.
"The Zimbabwean people have demonstrated their commitment to
democracy. We,
and the leaders of the region, strongly share this
commitment," he said.
"We will be vigilant. The international community
will remain careful to do
nothing to undermine efforts to secure an outcome
that reflects the
democratic will of the people of Zimbabwe.
"But the
international community's patience with the regime is wearing
thin".
Mugabe pulled out of a regional summit on Zimbabwe's
post-election crisis
Friday and tightened his hold on power, banning
political rallies and
sending riot police into the streets of the capital
Harare.
While Mugabe's ruling party says there will be a run-off vote,
the
opposition says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the election outright
and
will not take part.
The Times
April 12, 2008
Richard Beeston, Foreign
Editor and James Bone in New York
He has been accused of dithering over
foreign policy, labelled a “hermit
prime minister” by one critic and is
eclipsed on the world stage by more
forceful leaders. Yet Gordon Brown may
be in a position finally to redeem
himself by playing a pivotal role in
resolving one of the toughest crises to
face Africa in the past
decade.
The Prime Minister sets off on a four-day trip to America next
week, where
he will attend a meeting at the United Nations, visit President
Bush and
deliver a speech in Boston.
Unlike previous prime
ministerial missions to America the key event could be
the UN fixture rather
than his date at the White House. It is here, in the
company of President
Mbeki of South Africa, that senior British officials
hope progress may be
made to hasten the end of the rule of Robert Mugabe in
Zimbabwe and begin
the country’s long path to reconstruction.
Experts caution that
dislodging the 84-year-old dictator and orchestrating a
peaceful handover of
power is a huge challenge and one that notably eluded
Tony Blair and a
succession of British foreign secretaries.
But there is a real sense in
Whitehall that Mr Mugabe has at most weeks or
months left in office and that
Britain can play a decisive role behind the
scenes to ensure that the great
survivor of southern African politics does
not wriggle off the hook one last
time.
Much will depend on high-stakes diplomacy this weekend.
Lord
Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister responsible for Africa, is
paying
a discreet visit to Beijing where he will try to persuade China to
drop its
support for the Mugabe regime.
In the past the Chinese, who have a veto
on the UN Security Council, have
prevented Zimbabwe from being raised. They
have insisted that the crisis is
an internal matter and does not constitute
a “violation of international
peace and security”, the prerequisite for UN
Security Council action.
Already under growing international pressure over
Tibet, Darfur and Burma,
the calculation is that China is unlikely to take a
stand over the crumbling
regime of Mr Mugabe.
The next challenge is
to overcome the timid behaviour of Zimbabwe’s African
neighbours. This is
being made easier by the refusal by Mr Mugabe to attend
an emergency summit
on Zimbabwe being held in Zambia today by the 14-member
Southern African
Development Community.
The African leaders wanted an explanation about
the failure of the
Zimbabwean authorities to release the results of the
presidential election
held two weeks ago or to set a date for a run-off.
Without the presence of
Mr Mugabe a tougher position is likely to be
adopted. His nonappearance will
also reinforce the impression that he is no
longer in control of the
country, which some suspect may already have passed
into the hands of the
security elite around him.
The recent violence,
combined with the collapsing Zimbabwean economy, its
record inflation and
the flight of millions of its citizens to neighbouring
states, will give Mr
Brown the opportunity to argue that Zimbabwe requires
the attention of the
UN Security Council urgently.
Getting the issue before the council could
be a hugely significant first
step. The Security Council has the power to
enforce international law,
authorise the use of force and dispatch
peace-keeping troops.
Although Britain has succeeded before in pushing
Zimbabwe on to the agenda,
to discuss brutal episodes in the rule of Mr
Mugabe, no one will be under
any illusion that this time the council is
being brought in to help to
administer the death rites to his
regime.
But Mr Brown will need guile, persuasion and passion to carry the
day when
Zimbabwe is expected to be discussed in the margins of the Security
Council
summit on African Union-UN cooperation on Wednesday.
He will
be accompanying President Mbeki, whose country currently holds the
rotating
presidency of the Security Council. Although the head of a regional
superpower, Mr Mbeki has failed to confront Mr Mugabe over his destructive
policies. The “quiet diplomacy” of the South African leader has notably
failed to halt the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy.
After two
hours of talks in London last weekend Mr Mbeki did give Mr Brown a
commitment that he would support action in the UN if no progress had been
made to end the crisis.
Even with the support of South Africa other
Security Council members could
also block moves to draw up a tough statement
against Zimbabwe because the
wording of any text requires
unanimity.
Libya, formerly a close ally of the regime, which has pursued
eccentric
policies in Africa, could block any critical statement against
Harare. The
Libyans and others may also resent Zimbabwe’s former colonial
power taking
such a strong position in deciding its future.
Mr Brown
will have to persuade world leaders that the debate over Mr Mugabe
and his
failed reelection attempt is over. What matters now is the future
stability
of Zimbabwe and the commitment of the international community to
help the
peaceful transfer of power and the multibillion-pound effort needed
to
rebuild the shattered country.
VOA
By David Gollust
Washington
11 April 2008
The
United States Friday urged southern African countries to take a firm
stand
for democracy in Zimbabwe at a weekend summit meeting in Zambia. The
State
Department said there are credible reports of violence and
intimidation
against opposition supporters in Zimbabwe's political crisis.
VOA's David
Gollust reports from the State Department.
The Bush administration has
been openly critical of southern African states
for failing to use their
leverage with President Robert Mugabe in past
political crises in
Zimbabwe.
It is now urging the member countries of SADC - the Southern
African
Development Community - to take a firm stand for democracy when
leaders of
the regional grouping convene Saturday on Zimbabwe in the Zambian
capital,
Lusaka.
Briefing reporters,State Department Spokesman Sean
McCormack said it remains
to be seen what the summit will yield but said it
is in the interest of the
SADC countries and the region to act on behalf of
the Zimbabwean people.
"Each state and each group is going to have to,
according to their own views
and the views of their own leverage and
capabilities act. We believe that
the SADC does have leverage with Zimbabwe,
and that they can use that
leverage to positive effect on behalf of the
people of Zimbabwe, who sadly
have suffered from the way that President
Mugabe has decided to rule. The
economy is wrecked, and he has made a
shambles of democracy in Zimbabwe," he
said.
McCormack renewed the
U.S. call on Zimbabwe's electoral commission to
release results from the
country's presidential election, and not wait for a
court ruling in a
lawsuit filed by the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change to get the
official figures.
In the parliamentary vote March 29th, the MDC wrested
control from President
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party for the first
time.
In the presidential vote MDC candidate Morgan Tsvangerai maintains
he won an
outright majority, and is refusing to take part in a run-off with
Mr.
Mugabe.
The lack of presidential results has led to rising
political tensions in
Harare, where the government has banned rallies and
the opposition is
calling for a general strike.
Spokesman McCormack
said the U.S. embassy in Harare has seen credible
reports of violence and
intimidation being used against opposition
supporters, reminiscent of past
tactics by Mr. Mugabe's forces.
He called the reports quite disturbing
and said it is crucially important
that there be no further delay in the
election results.
SABC
April 11,
2008, 08:30
Zambian High Commissioner and ambassador to South Africa,
Leslie Mbula, says
tomorrow's Southern African Development Community (SADC)
emergency summit is
necessary because of the growing concern over the delay
in the release of
presidential election results in Zimbabwe. The
announcement of the talks by
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa marks the
first move by Zimbabwe's
neighbours to intervene since the elections were
held more than a week ago.
Zimbabwe-based political analyst, Brian
Kagoro, says this meeting is SADC’s
way of showing their commitment to
democratic governance but also to holding
its members accountable and
ensuring that SADC does not become another
'banana' region. Senior
Researcher at the Institute for Security Studies
(ISS), Chris Maroleng says
it is expected that SADC will change its strategy
and Zimbabwe
approach.
While Mugabe's ruling party says there must be a run-off, the
opposition
says it won outright. A ruling on a legal bid by the Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) to force the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to
declare the
result is expected on Monday at the earliest. President Thabo
Mbeki will
lead the South African delegation.
As credible reports come to light of
planned attacks on Zimbabwe’s rural communities by Zanu-PF aligned forces, the
Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) has made it clear that senior
Zimbabwean security officials can be held liable under international law for
orchestrating such acts of violence. The centre has also called on regional and international leaders to uphold their responsibility to protect doctrine by taking every necessary measure to stop such violence. Nicole Fritz, SALC director, said: ‘We’ve received information, some of it from sources inside Zimbabwe’s security establishment, indicating that youth militias, central intelligence operatives and war veterans are being deployed, under command of approximately 200 senior army officials, throughout the rural areas. The intention seems to be to use violence against and to intimidate voters prior to any run-off or rerun of the elections.’ SALC’s sources have also provided it with a detailed list of names of those officials tasked with orchestrating the attacks. ‘The level of detail in the information provided – names, dates, numbers,’ says Fritz, ‘speaks to a state-sponsored, pre-planned attack on Zimbabwe’s civilian population, indicating the commission of crimes against humanity.’ Full report on the Legalbrief Today site |
HARARE, 11 April 2008 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe’s
electorate is still anxiously
awaiting the official results of the two-week
old presidential polls, but
the sudden closure of the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission’s (ZEC) national
command centre has sparked "grave concern" over
tampering and
irregularities.
The centre had been operating out of a
hotel in the capital, Harare, where
the 29 March presidential, parliamentary
and council election results were
to be counted and announced. Having only
announced parliamentary and
senatorial election results, the ZEC secretly
cleared out and locked the
rooms it had been using.
"It is of grave
concern that the ZEC command centre can just be closed and
no communication
officially conveyed to observers, party agents and
candidates who have been
waiting impatiently for the Presidential results,"
the Zimbabwe Electoral
Support Network (ZESN), a non-governmental
organisation promoting democratic
elections, said in a statement on 9 April.
"Considering all the anxiety
and confusion that has been caused by the
delayed announcement of
Presidential results, ZESN expected the ZEC command
centre to be open and
accessible to accredited observers until the
Presidential election results
are announced," the statement said.
The ZESN said the closure of the
command centre closed the door of
communication "between the electoral
management body and interested
stakeholders" creating "an incorrect
assumption that, the election process
is over".
The opposition party,
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by
Morgan Tsvangirai won the
parliamentary vote, unseating the ruling ZANU-PF
party that has been in
power since independence from Britain in 1980. Within
days of polling the
MDC, has claimed its leader also won the presidential
vote by the required
50 percent plus one vote, that if accurate, would
negate the need for a
run-off presidential ballot against incumbent,
President Robert
Mugabe.
ZANU-PF has already announced that it is geared for another
round; the MDC
however says it will not participate in the run-off because
it has already
won.
Disappointed by the ZEC’s disappearance, Timothy
Meki, a college lecturer in
Harare, told IRIN: "The peace that prevailed
before and during the elections
gave us so much hope but what is happening
now causes one to think if
holding elections in this country is worth it at
all."
Meki said he feared the move would allow the ZEC "to doctor the
results -
the next thing we will hear is that ballots and forms that are
being used to
verify results are missing. How will the opposition manage to
argue its case
that it won in the absence of those documents? Why should ZEC
wait for a
court to tell to do what it set out to do in the first
place?"
The ZEC’s new location, and ballot papers and other records, was
still
unclear. In an interview with New ZIANA, a state-run news agency,
ZEC’s
deputy chief elections officer Utoile Silaigwana said the body had
only
scaled down operations and said there was no need to keep equipment at
the
national command centre because the presidential results issue had been
taken to court.
The MDC petitioned the High Court to compel ZEC to
immediately announce the
results but a judgement will only be made on 14
April. ZEC made a public
statement saying it would await the decision of the
court to release the
outcome.
[ENDS]
[This report does
not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
africasia
UNITED NATIONS, April 11 (AFP)
UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned Friday that the
crisis in Zimbabwe over the
disputed presidential election could deteriorate
unless the impasse was
resolved promptly.
"The secretary general is
concerned that the situation in Zimbabwe could
deteriorate if there is no
prompt action to resolve this impasse," his press
office said in a
statement.
Ban congratulated leaders of the Southern African Development
Community
(SADC) for "their timely initiative" to convene a summit of heads
of state
in Zambia on Sunday to discuss the situation in
Zimbabwe.
The 14-nation regional bloc called the summit in a bid to
mediate with the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai has confirmed he will be in Lusaka.
Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe, under pressure since the March 29 election
which
the opposition insists it won, will be represented at the Lusaka
summit by
four ministers, state radio reported.
Mugabe tightened his grip on power
Friday, banning all political rallies in
the capital.
The opposition,
whom police said had been organising a rally on Sunday,
called on
Zimbabweans to launch a general strike on Tuesday and to remain
off work
until the result of the presidential election was made public.
www.fidh.org
11/04/2008
Zimbabwe
The International Federation for Human
Rights (FIDH) and its member
organisation, Zimrights, express grave concern
at the continued flagrant
delay by the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) in
releasing the results of
the Presidential elections in Zimbabwe and request
African leaders to react
now to help for a democratic settlement of the
crisis in Zimbabwe.
The elections were held on 29 March 2008 up to
7pm when polling closed. The
counting of all votes was done at the polling
stations. The results were
then pinned outside each polling station while
they were also relayed to
Harare to the ZEC National Collation Centre for
the results to be verified
and finally collated before being announced. The
results of the presidential
elections should have been announced within 48
hours of the closure of the
polls. It has now been 14 days since Zimbabweans
voted for a new president.
The results have not yet been announced. There is
no coherent explanation
that is being offered by the ZEC for this
unacceptable failure.
The Movement for Democratic Change has expressed
public dismay at the delay
and approached the courts to force the ZEC to
release the results. It
further alleges that its members and supporters
especially in rural areas
are facing severe retribution and this is
confirmed by independent reports
from human rights defenders. The courts
have not been of assistance. For
some time now the judiciary in Zimbabwe has
failed to inspire public
confidence that it can be the protector and
guarantor of fundamental rights.
ZANU PF has launched a propaganda
campaign claiming that their candidate
Robert Mugabe was the victim of an
electoral fraud. The police have been
used to arbitrarily arrest and detain
the civilian members of the ZEC. These
civil and part time members of ZEC
have been charged with electoral fraud
prejudicing Robert Mugabe. They face
possible sentences upon conviction of
up to 35 years’ imprisonment, yet some
have been denied access to their
lawyers, whilst others are being barred
from seeing the evidence to be used
against them which would enable them to
form a proper defence. Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) have advised
that no less than 8 such non
military personnel of ZEC have been arrested
and detained in the last 3
days. The prosecutors dealing with these cases
have allegedly advised the
ZLHR lawyers that they are acting under severe
political pressure from
“above”. The inescapable perception is that ZEC is
being quickly converted
into a quasi-military institution and its
credibility, along with that of
the electoral process, is almost
irretrievably lost.
Reports from credible human rights organizations in
Zimbabwe are that senior
military personnel have been deployed to lead
paramilitary militias of war
veterans and the youth brigade to intimidate
the population mainly in rural
areas in view of the call that ZANU PF is
making for a Presidential election
run-off. Violence has already flared up
in various parts of the country from
the pro-ZANU PF militias. On the other
hand Zimbabweans have remained
remarkably calm under these very difficult
circumstances.
The country has a newly elected parliament in which for
the first time in 28
years ZANU PF has lost its majority. In the current
political stalemate, the
country has a president whose presence in office is
both politically and
legally challenged. The president has a constitutional
duty to convene
parliament according to Zimbabwe law. Parliament cannot
convene itself, yet
the current president Robert Mugabe is unlikely to
convene a potentially
hostile parliament. He may be compelled to use
disputed presidential powers
to extend his term in office or to pass laws to
contain public anger as the
constitution allows a president to do so in the
absence of parliament
sitting. Should he do so, he will sink the country
into potential anarchy.
There is a dangerous political and legal vacuum in
the country.
The experiences of post electoral violence and gross human
rights violations
triggered by contested electoral processes, such as
recently in Kenya, are
still too fresh for the African political leadership
to maintain a policy of
indifference. There is a huge burden on the
shoulders of African political
leadership to defend democracy and the
peoples will on the African
continent.
In the circumstances, FIDH and
Zimrights request the African Union, the
Southern African Development
Community (SADC) and the United Nations to take
immediate steps to:
a.. Cause ZEC to immediately announce the true results of the Presidential
election.
b.. Prevent Robert Mugabe and his military and security
personnel from
tampering with the election results and stop the continued
arbitrary arrests
and detentions of the non-military personnel of the
ZEC.
c.. In the event that the results show no winner of 50% plus one vote,
then SADC should set up a Heads of State team that will mediate between ZANU
PF and MDC in order to:
a.. Set an election run off time line.
b..
Establish a credible, independent and impartial election management
body to
replace ZEC whose credibility and reputation has been damaged beyond
repair
that will implement the election run-off without fear or favour and
constituted by people acceptable to both ZANU PF and the MDC.
c..
Ensure that the election run-off is internationally supported,
supervised
and observed and run under circumstances where Zimbabweans are
able to fully
and effectively participate in their national affairs in an
environment of
peace and tranquility, free from intimidation and political
violence and
retribution.
d.. Set modalities for the duly elected and constituted
parliament to be
immediately convened and be allowed to carry out their
constitutional duties
without executive interference.
e.. Ensure that
measures are in place to ensure that until the run-off is
held, Robert
Mugabe is not allowed to rule by decree supported by the
military.
SABC
April 11, 2008,
16:30
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader
Morgan
Tsvangirai says he is in Botswana because he fears there is a
military
campaign targeting him and his followers in
Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai says he fled to Botswana out of fear for his safety,
but also to
negotiate with Southern African Development Community (SADC)
leaders.
Tsvangirai has been visiting other southern African countries to
win
support.
He is hopeful that tomorrow's meeting of SADC leaders in
Lusaka will resolve
the political impasse in Zimbabwe.
"The situation
in Zimbabwe is dire. The … military has a rollout plan and is
already
embarking on intimidation, violence against the people. It becomes
essential
that I would become a prime target and therefore it’s important to
raise the
alarm around the happenings in Zimababwe," says Tsvangirai.
The Guardian
Mugabe was once ready to engage with
white Zimbabweans in a spirit of
cooperation. In the current climate, that
all seems very far away
Angela Neustatter
April 11, 2008 7:00
AM
In March 1995, Robert Mugabe came to Britain to attend the memorial
service
for Guy Clutton-Brock. At St Martin in the Fields in London, he
spoke
movingly of how my uncle Guy had been a vital part of the struggle for
black
independence in his country. Mugabe called Guy a national hero and his
actions bore that sentiment out. One of the main reasons for Mugabe's
journey was to carry the ashes of my uncle, who had made known his belief
that Mugabe would be "good for his country", back to Zimbabwe and scatter
them at Hero's Acre. Guy was the only white man ever to be honoured in this
way.
Mugabe had been one of the bright, passionate young Africans who
had come to
know the tall, crisply-spoken white man with his
double-barrelled name
through Cold Comfort Farm. This was an agricultural
training scheme, set up
by Guy, where unemployed young black people could
learn skills that would
enable them to farm their land effectively and
become partners, not slaves,
in a system where black and white people lived
and worked equally alongside
each other.
The journalist Trevor Grundy
who knew Rhodesia at this time remembers Cold
Comfort Farm as "a first class
agricultural training ground and a
psychological liberation centre that was
an early staging post on the long
march from colonial oppression in Rhodesia
to majority rule in Zimbabwe."
It was also a place where many of the
Africans, among them the young and
then principled Didymus Mutasa (now
Mugabe's savagely cruel right-hand man)
came to understand that "CB" was not
aligned with the white regimes and
colonialism, but was a genuine
egalitarian, would gather to talk and discuss
their intention one day to
have independence.
What a difference just over a decade makes. I have no
doubt that today's
Mugabe, fuelled by his towering hatred of white people,
his conviction that
every one of them is the embodiment of a colonialist
urge, would bundle Guy
in as part of the enemy. Yet when Guy helped write
the constitution for the
African National Congress in Rhodesia, Mugabe was
among those urging him to
be president - my uncle had demurred, laughing
that a white man couldn't
have that role.
Ironic, too, that it was
white rulers who imprisoned Guy periodically as a
"dangerous communist" and
Smith who passed the citizenship act which enabled
him to banish Guy from
the country in 1971.
So does it matter that Mugabe should turn against
the white people
(including many besides the Clutton-Brocks - Eileen and
Michael Haddon and
Terence Ranger are immediately familiar names) who
believed in majority rule
and wanted to be part of making it work?
I
believe it matters a great deal, symbolically as well as practically. It
matters because the price Zimbabweans are paying in poverty, fear and the
loss of any opportunities for their futures, is enormous. And all this under
their first black leader who had promised something so different. While it
is unarguably true that white people, when they have taken charge in
countries not their own, have inflicted equal distress in too many
instances - and certainly the Rhodesian white regimes have done so -
Zimbabwe appeared to have the opportunity to do something
different.
Once the bitter white population, the die-hard "Rhodies", had
left the new
Zimbabwe, Mugabe was left with a substantial core of white men
and women,
some as determined to help build the dream as Guy had been,
others who may
not have welcomed independence but who were prepared to play
their part in
helping Zimbabwe succeed. There were plenty who understood
that some kind of
managed land distribution was essential, and who were
prepared to train
Africans in the farming skills they would
need.
Mugabe saw this at first and welcomed the setting up of the British
Zimbabwe
Society in 1981 just after independence, which Terence Ranger
described as
"a society for people who love Zimbabwe and want humbly to be
part of its
struggles ... we believe in a new kind of relationship between
Britain and
Zimbabwe for a new era. One that would mark a break with the
colonialist
past" and purge the country of "the distortions of colonial
capitalism".
So here was a unique opportunity for Mugabe to manage a
society which had
independence but which could also embody reconciliation,
the possibility of
black and white people being united and bonded in
friendship, a friendship
Mugabe had known with Guy. If Mugabe had gone this
way not only would he
have fed and cared for his people better, but he would
have passed on an
immeasurably precious gift of humanity to new generations
of Zimbweans. He
could have enabled a much-needed breaking down of barriers
for a global era.
Instead he has gone the way of the megalomaniac
narcissist, determined to
show that he does not need the practical or
spiritual input of white people;
that even those who were so clear he should
be given the help he needed to
lead Zimbabwe, were ultimately his enemies.
And driven by paranoia and fear
Mugabe has gone on to project his feelings
about white people on to some
groups of black people. Because white farmers
have been seen to support the
MDC, so MDC supporters who are black have
become surrogate white people in
Mugabe's corrupted consciousness, outsiders
who will undermine his right as
a "true" Zimbabwean to be in
charge.
Perhaps, ultimately, we must accept it when even the most clearly
on-message
white people are reviled when countries gain their independence.
Colonial
rule has long and damaging roots in the countries where it has
existed. But
to me this will not do. Mugabe, Mutasa and others, too, who now
commit
whatever horrors they are commanded to in the name of Zanu-PF,
accepted and
benefited from the involvement and love for them and their
country of people
like my uncle. People whose skins may have been white, but
whose actions
demonstrated how far their souls were from what the white
people who wanted
to control Africa were after.
Mugabe has chosen to
rewrite his own history and erase the complications of
having learnt that
things are not so simple as all white people and all
westerners being the
enemy. But when we choose to deny the decency and
humanity that has been
shown to us, in its place comes a vicious cruelty. A
self-loathing that, as
we have seen with Mugabe, is manifested in a wild and
wilful way and against
his own people.
I find myself wondering if, these days, Mugabe goes and
stamps on the place
he scattered Guy's ashes. Maybe not in reality, but
certainly
metaphorically.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
He seems unlikely to make any concessions to the opposition if he wins
bitterly contested presidential poll.
By Sophie Haydock in London (AR
No. 166, 11-Apr-08)
If Robert Mugabe retains the presidency in a
predicted run-off election,
analysts say he will be more determined than
ever to cling on to power.
The 84-year-old leader of ZANU-PF won’t be in
any mood to offer any
concessions to the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change, MDC, despite
its majority in parliament, they say.
Indeed, if
Mugabe secures the presidency, many expect the MDC to be rendered
virtually
powerless - as the head of state controls the Senate, the upper
house of
parliament, which has the power to block the lower house and
overrule
legislation passed.
Some suggest Mugabe could even use his powers to
dissolve the lower chamber
in order to secure his own party’s control of the
assembly.
Results from the original March 29 presidential poll have not
yet been
published by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, ZEC. However,
observers
think it unlikely that either of the top two candidates will be
awarded over
50 per cent of the vote, introducing the need for a second
round.
MDC secretary general Tendai Biti announced on April 10 that his
party was
not prepared to take part in a second round, arguing that its
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai won the poll outright. Should they stick to this
position, Mugabe
could run uncontested.
The results of the
parliamentary poll issued by the ZEC show the MDC secured
a narrow majority
in the lower house. They won 99 seats, with ZANU-PF taking
97.
An
opposition-dominated lower house could make life difficult for Mugabe,
but
analysts believe he would use considerable means at his disposal to
enforce
his will.
Brian Raftopoulos, analyst and director of research at the
South
Africa-based NGO Solidarity Peace Trust, said that an MDC majority in
the
lower house will not significantly change the balance of power if the
incumbent president stays in power.
“If Mugabe were to win a run-off,
he would still have a great deal more
control than parliament. He [could
even] dissolve parliament,” he said.
“Mugabe will do everything possible to
retain power.
“Mugabe will try to whittle down the MDC majority and
diminish the
opposition’s influence. He’s already contesting 16
parliamentary seats,
which would give Mugabe’s ZANU-PF the
majority.”
Southern Africa correspondent for The Independent Basildon
Peta agreed that
an opposition-dominated lower house won’t have much
influence on the
president.
“Any MDC majority would be totally
meaningless if Robert Mugabe wins a
presidential run-off and remains in
power,” he said.
“I don’t see how a narrow MDC majority in parliament can
make life in any
way difficult for [him]. The MDC’s majority won’t be of
significance until
Tsvangirai also becomes president.
“I don’t think
Mugabe will make any concessions if he rigs the run-off. If
he cannot
persuade parliament to vote in favour of any new legislation via a
simple
majority, as required by the law, he will be more than happy to
ignore
parliament and rule under the current legislation that heavily
favours
him.
“Mugabe will be assured of a majority in the Senate, which can
override any
decision in parliament.”
The president revived the
Senate with an election in November 2005, having
abolished it by a
constitutional amendment in 1989. The decision to
re-establish it was
controversial. Tsvangirai called for a boycott of the
election, arguing that
the upper chamber is a meaningless body and the
ballot would be rigged
anyway.
Peta points out that the Senate provides Mugabe with a powerful
counter to
the MDC-dominated lower house.
“Even though the elected
Senate seats [contested in the latest elections]
were split at 30/30 between
the combined MDC and ZANU-PF, any incumbent
president is allowed to make
extra appointments to the Senate. The 18 chiefs
and governors who
automatically sit in the Senate will assure Mugabe of a
majority in that
chamber, as these are all people who have traditionally
supported him,” he
said.
Mugabe also enjoys sweeping emergency presidential powers which
enable him
to bypass parliament and effectively legislate in so-called
emergency cases.
Peta points out that Mugabe “recently used these powers to
amend the
electoral act to allow police officers in polling stations – to
help the
‘physically incapacitated’”.
Patrick Smith, editor of the
respected London-based newsletter Africa
Confidential, agrees that the MDC’s
dominant presence in the lower house is
unlikely to curb Mugabe’s
power.
“It seems Mugabe is determined to prevail and the Zimbabwe crisis
will
rumble on,” he said.
Marian Tupy, policy analyst at The Cato
Institute, believes the situation
may even worsen, “In the next four of five
years, we will see the economic
crisis deepen even further.”
Smith,
however, is more optimistic. “I do think a corner has been turned.
There
will have to be some sort of arrangement, some kind of power sharing
between
ZANU-PF and the MDC – some point of cooperation. Decisions are
overwhelmingly weighted in favour of the executive, but the two sides will
have to mould a compromise,” he said.
David Coltard of the MDC who
gained a Senate seat in these elections said
his fractious party would have
to unite if it was to pose any challenge to
Mugabe.
“It was, in fact,
the two factions of the MDC that won the majority of seats
in parliament.
It’s important that they form a coalition agreement to ensure
an effective,
functional majority,” he said.
The party split into two factions in 2005,
when Tsvangirai chose to boycott
the Senate elections. Tsvangirai heads the
bigger faction, with the other
led by Arthur Mutambara.
Some analysts
believe the MDC must work hard to bury its differences and
show the
electorate that it is capable of standing up to Mugabe, otherwise
it risks
alienating its supporters.
“The MDC must be very careful. If they are
seen by the people of Zimbabwe as
occupying a position of power, but are
also seen as not being able to change
anything because of the blocking
actions by Mugabe, then the people will
associate the MDC with failure,”
said Tupy.
Smith remains hopeful that the opposition has some power to
effect change.
“The MDC has a great deal of influence – they have the
support of the
people. That counts for something, even if they don’t control
the levers of
power.”
Raftopoulos agrees. “The MDC are the popular
choice. Tsvangirai should be
given the opportunity to show what he can do.
The voice of the Zimbabweans
should be heard – and should be
respected.”
Sophie Haydock is an IWPR contributor.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Top brass pledges to back Mugabe to the end, but lower ranks seem less
committed to defending a regime that cannot feed them.
By Yamikani
Mwando in Bulawayo (AR No. 166, 11-Apr-08)
As the impasse around
Zimbabwe’s presidential election continues, analysts
say much now depends on
which way the powerful security forces will jump if
they are asked to prop
up President Robert Mugabe.
For the moment, it seems defence and police
chiefs will maintain their
loyalty to the president and will do what it
takes to keep him in power. But
rank-and-file soldiers and police have
suffered from the country’s
precipitous economic decline, and appear less
willing to go on blindly
supporting Mugabe.
With United Nations
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon the latest high profile
figure to express
concern at the country’s post-election chaos, and the
Southern African
Development Community scheduling an emergency weekend
meeting on the crisis,
analysts are warning a “silent coup” is under way.
Over his 28 years in
power, Mugabe has relied on the security forces to
maintain grip on power,
and now he may be planning to use them to
effectively nullify the poll
results. In the March parliamentary election,
official results show that the
two factions of the Movement for Democratic
Change, MDC, have wrested
control of the lower chamber from Mugabe’s ZANU-PF
party, while the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission, ZEC, has stalled on
releasing the outcome of the
presidential vote held the same day.
MDC Morgan Tsvangirai, who insists
he has won the presidential election,
reportedly asked for a meeting with
security and army officials to discuss
the transitional arrangements for
Mugabe leaving office. Prior to the
election, defence chief Constantine
Chiwenga, police chief Augustine Chihuri
and penal service head Paradzayi
Zimondi declared they would “not salute” a
future president
Tsvangirai.
Mugabe himself has also had meetings with the security chiefs
who sit on the
Joint Operations Command, and with ZANU-PF’s ruling
politburo. Senior
politburo officials including Didymus Mutasa – in charge
of the country’s
intelligence services – are now said to have vowed to fight
on in a run-off
presidential election, despite the fact that no official
poll results have
been released.
As well as the regular forces,
Mugabe enjoys wide support among militant
veterans of the 1970s war of
liberation, who form a de facto paramilitary
reserve.
While security
chiefs have declared their loyalty to the beleaguered Mugabe,
rank-and-file
servicemen appear to have their own ideas. Like civilians,
they have lost
out from years of economic chaos and mismanagement. Many
soldiers now spend
their time scrounging to feed their families.
Military officers who spoke
to IWPR said they were not about to wield guns
and batons against unarmed
civilians. Such resistance to using force could
hamper Mugabe’s efforts to
deploy the armed forces to perpetuate his hold on
power.
This week, a
young professional soldier told IWPR that he was beaten up at a
Bulawayo
army base after being accused of supporting the MDC. The man, who
has fled
to South Africa and cannot be named for safety reasons, said the
assault
took place after he resigned from the army in early April and
returned to
barracks to hand in his uniform.
“I was locked up in a room, where I was
thrashed all over my body and
accused of attempting to abscond so that I
could join Morgan Tsvangirai’s
army,” he said, visibly shaken by what had
happened. “After the beatings I
was given a new uniform and told to return
to work. That was when I decided
I wasn’t staying any minute
longer.”
Military experts say it is rare for a soldier to formally
resign, but many
simply desert and leave the country.
Although the
army is supposed to have between 30,000 and 40,000 personnel,
numbers have
been falling as commissioned and non-commissioned officers
abscond. The
authorities have also scaled down recruitment, citing
inadequate
resources.
While the security forces might look monolithic from the
outside, the armed
forces contain more than one element - the Mugabe
loyalists from the
Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, ZANLU, the
armed wing of ZANU
during the liberation war, and those originally from the
Zimbabwe People’s
Revolutionary Army, ZIPRA, affiliated with the late Joshua
Nkomo’s ZAPU
movement.
There is some suggestion the division lives on
under the surface, making
parts of the military more open to talking to the
MDC than might be thought.
According to a former lecturer at the National
University of Science and
Technology, it is significant that former ZIPRA
officers have not joined
colleagues in speaking out robustly in support of
Mugabe.
"It has always been noted that there are divided loyalties within
the
Zimbabwean defence forces, if you look at the actual role being played
by
[ex-ZIPRA] men who fought alongside Joshua Nkomo. Their silence on issues
of
allegiance to the powers that be can mean a lot of things," said the
lecturer.
He noted that while former ZAPU politicians now in
government had aligned
themselves publicly with the regime, “we don’t get
the same from the ZIPRA
generals now serving under Mugabe. Why?"
The
political crisis appears to have compounded the morale problems facing
the
security forces.
Members of Police Internal Service Intelligence, PISI,
told IWPR that they
had been monitoring political activity both in the
police force and in other
security agencies, and morale had been low ever
since the elections.
“We all know about the situation,” said one officer,
who declined to be
named. “We are equally suffering, and it is known by many
within PISI that
sentiment across the security forces reflects
disgruntlement with the
system.”
Yamikani Mwando is the pseudonym of a
journalist in Zimbabwe.
Saturday Nation, Kenya
Story by
EMEKA-MAYAKA GEKARA
Publication Date: 4/12/2008 The Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission makes Kenyan
poll chief Samuel Kivuitu look like an angel. It has
not released results
two weeks after Zimbabweans went to the
poll.
Unofficial results by both President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF
party and
the Movement for Democratic Change show that the African strongman
lost the
election to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mugabe’s group says the commission is in the final stages of
“verifying” the
tallying to ensure it announces correct results.
Ironically, though
the results have not been released, Mugabe’s party
says Tsvangirai’s victory
fell short of the 50.3 per cent required for him
to be president and wants a
runoff.
Tsvangirai accuses Mugabe of plotting to use violence as “a
weapon to
reverse the people’s victory.”
This claim underlines
Mugabe’s determination to extend his 28-year-old
stay in power. That is the
first cause for concern. But even more disturbing
is the inaction — almost
surrender — of the usually noisy international
community at a critical time
in Zimbabwe’s history.
Many Zimbabweans expect the West to pressure
the tyrant out of power.
The African Union, Britain, the United
States, the European Union and
the United Nations have been calling for the
release of the results, but
they have gone no further.
“We are
concerned by the deafening silence in the region in the AU and
in the
Southern African Development Community,” said Tendai Biti,
secretary-general
of Tsvangirai’s MDC.
"I say to our brothers and sisters across the
continent: Don’t wait
for dead bodies in the streets of
Harare.”
Has the West given up on Harare?
A Zimbabwean
friend says the international community has abandoned
Zimbabwe at the hour
of need and seems more keen on the Kenyan crisis.
Diplomats and
analysts say not much can be done to put any pressure on
the autocratic
ruler.
Others say the West is avoiding broad sanctions that could
hurt
already economically distressed Zimbabweans, and there is no sentiment
in
Africa or elsewhere to use military power.
“We have worked
closely with many in the international community to
try to bring pressure on
the government in Zimbabwe to change its ways,”
says State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack.
“That has not had much
effect.”
World leaders seem to have entrusted South African
President Thabo
Mbeki with the task , but his administration says Zimbabwe
is not a province
of South Africa and, therefore, he cannot ask Mugabe to
step down.
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa who, as SADC chairman,
has convened a
summit today to discuss the Harare crisis, but Zanu-PF
considers the talks
“unnecessary since there is no crisis in
Zimbabwe.”
This is appalling, but it is not lost on the world that
the bloc has
been cheering on Mugabe and projecting him as a freedom icon as
he continues
to tyrannise his people.
If history is anything to
go by, the group is likely to continue with
its usual monologue instead of
laying a dark carpet for the plunderer’s
exit.
All democratic
forces should not sit on the fence as Mugabe plots
daylight election robbery
in Zimbabwe.
South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance has
urged Mbeki to
consider asking the African Union to send troops to
Zimbabwe.
In 1998, Nelson Mandela as South Afrcan president, sent
troops into
Lesotho to end protests over rigged elections and to prevent a
coup.
ANC leader Jacob Zuma has called for the release of the
results, while
former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has asked Mugabe to do
the “right
thing.”
The world should do everything within its
powers to rescue the
disillusioned Zimbabweans and bar Mugabe from
mutilating democratic
principles.
The Kikwetes, the Millibands
and the Condoleezzas of this world should
troop to Harare.
OhMyNews
Supporters demand publication of election results
Nelson G.
Katsande
Published 2008-04-12 06:52 (KST)
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has been branded a coward by his
former
loyalists, the majority of whom are the rural folk. In the past,
Mugabe has
relied heavily on the support of the rural people. But 28 years
later, the
people who once adored him now scorn him.
Mugabe is believed to
have lost the March 29 presidential election to
Movement for Democratic
Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai by a wide margin. A
source within the high
echelons of ZANU-PF told OhmyNews," ZANU-PF has
lionized Mugabe. No one
dares to tell him to go."
"True, Morgan Tsvangirai outvoted him,"
he added.
Mugabe's home area, Zvimba, has become an MDC stronghold.
And the
majority of elderly people who once worshipped him say even Ian
Smith was
better than Mugabe. "If Ian Smith was alive today I would have
voted for
him," said Mrs. Maruza.
In Mutoko, election campaign
posters of Mugabe were either defaced or
burnt by angry supporters who felt
the beleaguered leader had betrayed them.
People have vowed to boycott his
future rallies and have called for his
resignation.
Then there
are those who had always been skeptical of Tsvangirai's
leadership skills.
His party, the MDC has been rocked by divisions. But
after the March 29
elections, they have renewed their support for
Tsvangirai.
Strangely, another losing presidential candidate, Simba Makoni, is now
trying to play "mediator." He appeared in a recent British media newscast
talking about "a unity government" between the opposition and the incumbent
ruling ZANU-PF. Most urban dwellers doubt his intentions. Scores of people
who spoke to OhmyNews prior to the election still believed Makoni allegiance
was to ZANU-PF.
But it is the non-release of presidential
election results that has
angered the people. Sensing overwhelming defeat
from Tsvangirai, Mugabe has
called for an election runoff. "It is cowardice
to call for an election
runoff before announcing the results," said
Munodawafa, a ZANU-PF youth
leader in Mashonaland province.
It
is feared the results will never be announced and remain a guarded
secret
within Mugabe's ruling elite. It is believed there are a number of
people
within the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission who are prepared to blow the
whistle on the election outcome if assured sanctuary in neighboring
counties.
The Zimbabwe police have banned all political rallies
and vowed to
employ all means necessary to ensure Mugabe hangs on to power.
Bright
Matonga, Mugabe's junior minister, has now swallowed his words. He
has
previously been quoted as saying Mugabe will respect the wishes of the
people and the outcome of the election results.
But almost two
weeks after the presidential poll, Matonga just like
Mugabe, now dodges the
limelight. What everyone hopes for now is that Mugabe
will finally come to
his senses and respect the wishes of the people.
Mail and Guardian
11 April 2008 06:00
Don't be
fooled by the language of democracy being prostituted in our
region.
The current impasse in Zimbabwe is not about flawed counting
or a delayed
election outcome. Neither is it about an election run-off, a
photo finish or
an election rerun. These are legitimate electoral terms in
better
democracies. None applies here.
The story of Zimbabwe this
week is nothing less than that of a stolen
election. The people of Zimbabwe
have been cheated -- in front of all our
eyes.
On March 29 they went
out and voted in their millions. And they voted to
change a government and
so to alter their lives, which have sunk from among
the best in the
developing world to the lowest among nations.
By a sizeable majority they
voted in the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change and chose its leader,
Morgan Tsvangirai, to run a new and hopeful
government.
And -- 21
days later -- after giving a decent period for counting and
negotiating, it
is fair to make the assessment that Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe has
degenerated into a thief.
His handpicked Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
has moved the recount of the
votes to a secret venue closed to the scrutiny
of all parties but the one
that liberated the country and will now not set
it free for a second
Chimurenga.
This weekend -- at an emergency
session -- members of the Southern African
Development Community will
probably hear a lot of mumbo-jumbo from Mugabe,
who is likely to declare
that colonial powers (who else?) in the United
States and Britain bought off
ZEC vote-counters and that both he and the
independent Simba Makoni were
robbed.
It is patent codswallop, the work of a gangster, the term Mugabe
often
unleashes to insult those who disagree with him.
If the new
ways of peer review on our continent have any substance, if
democracy has
any future in Zimbabwe, then there must be only one message to
Mugabe and to
Zanu-PF from Zambia this weekend: it is time to GO! The people
shall govern!
Dispatch, SA
Apr 11 2008 8:20AM
ZIMBABWE is at risk of losing food worth
millions of rands
because of the latest round of farm invasions, says Deputy
Foreign Affairs
Minister Aziz Pahad.
Pahad said
most of the affected farmers were about to
harvest their crops when their
farms were invaded by so-called war veterans.
SA
diplomats in Harare met Zimbabwean Commercial Farmers’
Union president
Trevor Gifford last week and subsequently forwarded a
diplomatic note to the
Zimbabwean Ministry of Foreign Affairs after two
South Africans were told to
leave their property. “(The note was) to plead
for the protection of our
farmers in Zimbabwe,” Pahad said.
Militia loyal to
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe have
evicted around 60 farmers, including
one black farmer, says Gifford. And the
number of families could number “in
the hundreds” by the weekend.
Around 300 white farmers
were still on the land, down from
around 4500 eight years ago, when Mugabe
kickstarted the country’s
disastrous land reform programme. —
Sapa
Business Day
11 April 2008
Edward
West
SOUTH
African business has caught the scent of change in Zimbabwe.
Re-searchers
have been commissioned, dusty project plans for that country
have been taken
off the shelves and new opportunities are being scrutinised.
Long
aware of the negative effect Zimbabwe has had on investment confidence,
businesspeople are understandably cautious about committing publicly to new
investment there until the political situation changes, but they give the
unmistakable impression that, with the right government in place, they’d be
ready to run with new opportunities in Zimbabwe soon.
Zimbabwe is
hardly a great investment destination, even if an
investment-friendly
government were in place. Decades of government
mismanagement have crippled
the economy, taking it from one of the most
powerful in Africa to one of the
poorest, with inflation well above 100000%,
unemployment at 85%, a high rate
of HIV/AIDS infection and an inability to
feed its people.
It may
be decades before the Zimbabwean economy recovers, but the Brenthurst
Foundation notes that postconflict countries in Africa have been able to
bounce back quite quickly once violence and impasse have ended. For example,
economic growth averaged 7,2% a year for the two- to 10-year postconflict
periods in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Uganda.
The service sectors
in these economies bounced back fastest, led by
construction, hotels and
restaurants. The agricultural sectors recovered
more slowly, while the
manufacturing sectors were the slowest to rebound,
but nevertheless
generated the fastest growth over the medium term.
A benefit of
reconstructing the Zimbabwean economy, as opposed to, for
example, Sudan’s,
is that Zimbabwe’s economy is diversified and there are
opportunities in all
these sectors.
The country will require extensive assistance to get
its industries and
infrastructure back into operation, while a reversal of
the emigration of
skilled people is unlikely in the short term, even with a
normalisation of
government policies, the foundation
says.
Nonetheless, some businesses continue to make money in
Zimbabwe. For
example, Impala Platinum’s (Implats) 86,9%-held platinum
mining subsidiary,
Zimplats, broke its production records last year and a
two-year expansion
project, including conversion from open-cast to
underground mining, is under
way. This will eventually create 1200 full-time
jobs.
Implats’ annual report says that Zimplats’ gross profit jumped
to R854,6m in
the 2007 financial year, from R317,6m a year previously.
Hyperinflation is
tackled by paying employees every two weeks and adjusting
their salaries
regularly, and paying for power and imported supplies in US
dollars. The
socioeconomic climate affects Zimplats’ staff turnover, but the
expansion
has improved morale.
Asked about mining opportunities,
Deutsche Bank mining analyst Tim Clark
says these are “fairly big, really
good”.
He says many mining groups, local and international, including
SA’s African
Rainbow Minerals, have recently been “sniffing around” Zimbabwe
for new
assets.
Mining is a significant part of the Zimbabwean
economy and there are
substantial nickel and platinum group metal deposits
along the Great Dyke
complex running almost through the centre of Zimbabwe.
There are also coal,
gold, chrome, copper, zinc and diamond deposits. In
addition, there may also
be opportunities from shareholdings in existing
operations, says Clark.
Many other South African companies continue
to maintain businesses in
Zimbabwe, often unbundling their operations to
reduce risk to the parent
group.
Old Mutual Zimbabwe, owned by
its London-listed parent, but which operates
as a separate legal entity,
says its Zimbabwean operation has been
successful in preserving its
financial capability and will grow if the
economy turns. “We remain one of
the few financial institutions providing
value for money to our customers
under pretty challenging circumstances,”
the group says.
The
Brenthurst Foundation says that reconstruction of the commercial
agricultural sector, traditionally the key driver of the economy, is
essential for an economic turnaround.
Rehabilitation of this sector
will depend on getting commercial farms to
produce again, which in turn will
hinge on policies to attract private
sector investment. The reinstatement of
market forces will require allowing
market-related foreign currency exchange
rates, interest rates, wages and
retail prices, and transparently reviewing
and invigorating property rights.
Asked if there will be investment
opportunities in Zimbabwe’s agricultural
sector if there is a change of
government there, Absa agricultural analyst
Ernst Janovski says: “People are
waiting for the change to take place. The
opportunity is massive.”
He
says some specific opportunities include the revitalisation of the
country’s
maize, tobacco and sugar production.
SA is Zimbabwe’s biggest trading
partner but the nature of the trade is
sporadic and depends on Zimbabwe’s
ability to repay. For example, the value
of SA’s motor parts and vehicle
exports to that country varies every year,
from R697,8m in 2006 to R1,22bn
in 2002 and R485,9m in 2003.
South African Institute of Foreign Affairs
governance and resources head Tim
Hughes says high commodity prices and,
more broadly, a global food crisis,
will help to stimulate interest in
Zimbabwe’s mineral and agricultural
potential once normalised economic
policies are in place.
In the early stages of a change of government,
the opportunity to acquire
assets in these sectors at “bargain basement”
prices would also stimulate
interest, with South African and Asian investors
likely to lead the pack.
“There is a real possibility of a relatively
quick, sharp, positive bounce
of the Zimbabwean economy, but the
sustainability may depend on how soon the
pledged economic aid and
reconstruction packages diminish.” Hughes says the
experience worldwide is
that there is a big difference between pledged aid
and investment, and that
which is actually delivered.
antiwar.com
April 11, 2008
by Justin Raimondo
Two years ago, when I was in Kuala Lumpur as
a guest of the Perdana Peace
Forum, I had the singularly unpleasant
experience of meeting Robert Mugabe.
Well, "meeting" him is hardly the word:
rather, I espied him, sitting
directly across from me, at the opening
banquet of the conference. Turning
to the person next to me, I asked: "Isn't
that guy sitting over there Robert
Mugabe?" My friend squinted, and replied:
"Sure looks like it."
The table was loaded down with lots of really good
food: Malaysian fare,
with all its wonderful color and variety. But I seemed
to have lost my
appetite rather suddenly.
"You mean I have to eat at
the same table with that murdering despot?" As is
my wont, I was speaking
rather loudly. Mugabe looked up, and straight at me.
I felt like giving him
the finger, but, instead, I got up and exited the
room. Better not to make a
scene quite yet.
I was upset. I had no idea Mugabe would be attending –
he showed up
uninvited – and if I had I would never have agreed to come. Yet
there I was,
8,000 miles from home, already committed to speak to the
conference, and,
although Mugabe was nowhere listed as a speaker or official
guest, word of
his presence would soon get out. What to do?
As
exhausted as I was from the 15-hour flight, I was quite prepared to get
on a
plane, and head home – and that's exactly what I determined to do if
the
conference organizers could not be dissuaded from allowing Mugabe's
participation. As it was, Mugabe was seated right next to the prime mover of
the conference, ex-Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, and Mugabe was
constantly whispering in his ear, much to the former's apparent annoyance.
There was something distinctly reptilian about the African tyrant's visage
and general demeanor: at any moment, I fully expected him to flick a
foot-long tongue at a passing fly.
After the banquet, and during it,
I made my opinion of Mugabe unmistakably
clear, and lobbied the other
speakers to appeal to the conference
organizers, and threaten a walk-out if
necessary. Most agreed with me on the
general subject of Mugabe: only George
Galloway disdained to join the rest
of us in opposing the presence of a man
whose name has become a synonym for
African despot. Galloway, asked his
opinion on the matter, scowled and
declared that it wasn't our place to
criticize Mugabe – only George W. Bush
and the "imperialists" were fair
game. However, everyone else – former
Australian prime minister Bob Hawke,
former UN assistant secretary-general
Denis Halliday, former UN assistant
secretary-general Hans von Sponeck,
Daniel Ellsberg, and anti-nuclear-arms
activist and writer Helen
Caldicott. – were quite disturbed by Mugabe's
presence, and made this very
clear to the Perdana organization. The result
was that an event at which
Mugabe was supposed to speak was canceled, and –
a day before the Zimbabwean
President fled the scene in a huff – I had a
run-in with his "bodyguards,"
who thought they could intimidate me. Boy,
were they mistaken!
It was actually kind of funny, albeit a bit on the
scary side, when three or
four of these thugs – big, ugly-looking brutes to
a man – suddenly sat down
at my table at a luncheon and tried to push their
weight around. Those poor
guys soon found themselves an unwilling audience
for a lecture on the basic
principles of libertarianism, and why their
country is an economic basket
case. Since they couldn't just start clubbing
me to death right there in
plain sight – although I don't think they would
have hesitated had they
found me on the streets of Kuala Lumpur – they faced
the choice of either
retreating or allowing themselves to be bored to death.
They wisely chose
the former course.
At any rate, the whole subject
of Mugabe comes up now because he's in
trouble on his own turf, with his
ruling ZANU-PF party apparently defeated
in the recent election, in spite of
the widespread violence and intimidation
engaged in by Mugabe's militants –
or, perhaps, because of it. Although a
165,000 percent inflation rate may
also have something to do with it.
Yet Mugabe clings to power, while his
thugs have taken possession of ballot
boxes and his government refuses to
release the official results, although
everyone knows he and his party were
trounced. The campaign of violence
embarked on by ZANU-PF has intensified,
and the opposition has accused
Mugabe of pulling off a de facto
coup.
In his long and bloody career as first and only President of
Zimbabwe, the
84-year-old Mugabe has engaged in a systematic campaign of
murder, racist
demagoguery, and wholesale looting to maintain himself and
his cronies in
power. Not since Idi Amin has such a bloody-minded sociopath
and mass
murderer arisen out of the dark heart of Africa. The United States,
which
doesn't mind supporting the continent's worst dictators, from Hosni
Mubarak
in Egypt to Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia, won't touch Mugabe with a
ten-foot
pole. Indeed, listening to the Voice of America in Mugabe-land can
get you
in trouble with the secret police. The US, the EU, the UN, leaders
of
neighboring countries – all have expressed varying levels of disapproval
as
Mugabe's international stock has plummeted to new lows.
Yet he has
always managed to retain at least one ally, through thick and
thin, one that
remains loyal even now, and that is the government of Israel.
They have been
a steady supplier of military equipment, including riot
control tanks and
water cannon, which has been used to suppress the
democratic opposition and
keep the country under his iron grip. Links
between Mugabe and Mossad,
Israeli's intelligence agency, go back years.
In 2002, one Ari Ben
Menashe – employed by Israeli military intelligence
from 1977 to at least
1987, in spite of the Israeli government's denials of
any connection – shot
what was purported to be covertly filmed videotape of
opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai supposedly discussing a plot to
assassinate Mugabe. This
was triumphantly broadcast on Zimbabwe state
television on the eve of
elections, followed by a fresh wave of repression
aimed at pro-democracy
activists. The tape turned out to have been doctored,
but the broadcast
accomplished its task: providing a momentary rationale for
Mugabe's reign of
terror, which continues to this day.
So well-known is Israel's unstinting
support for Mugabe that the democratic
opposition has accused the government
of bringing in computer "consultants"
from the Mossad to manipulate voter
rolls. (Which certainly surprised at
least one Israeli software
producer.)
What in the name of all that's holy is Israel, a democratic
state founded by
socialist idealists, doing supporting one of the most
reviled despots on
earth – one who, furthermore, is no friend of Israel, at
least officially.
The answer may be found in certain Israeli-based economic
interests, which,
in turn, could have an inordinate influence on that
nation's Africa policy –
specifically in the case of Zimbabwe and the
"Democratic Republic of the
Congo."
Unfortunately, Israel's policy in
regard to Zimbabwe is not the exception
that proves the rule: it is business
as usual.
The moral depravity of Israel's African policies are
highlighted by the
close cooperation that existed between Tel Aviv and the
apartheid regime of
South Africa. Israel provided the expertise, experience,
and technology, as
well as other covert military aid, which enabled white
Pretoria to hold off
the African National Congress for as long as it did.
And, as Jimmy Carter
and others have pointed out, Israel has replicated its
former ally's policy
toward black South Africans in the occupied
territories.
In reviewing the facts, it is hard to come up with a single
despotic
government that hasn't received some sort of aid or assistance from
the
Israelis: Colombia, where "former" Mossad agents train government
anti-terrorist units and right-wing paramilitaries – El Salvador, where arms
and expertise provided to successive right-wing juntas helped stabilize
these US-supported regimes – Guatemala, where "former" Israeli military and
intelligence officers provided security for the notoriously repressive
Guatemalan military dictatorship – and the pattern is repeated throughout
South and Central America.
The list goes on: Iran, under the rule of
the Shah Reza Pahlavi, was the
scene of the notorious SAVAK's worst crimes:
the Iranian secret police
reportedly were schooled in techniques of torture
by the Mossad.
What is it with the Israelis? Why do they have a
predilection for murderous
tyrants? What seems, at first, like a pattern of
sheer moral perversity may
be broken down, in specific cases, into discrete
economic, strategic, and
diplomatic objectives. Yet one has to be astonished
– and more than a little
horrified – at the complete amorality that guides
the Israeli government's
actions around the world.
This record of
Israeli support for dictators and despots worldwide is,
perhaps, part of the
reason for that country's growing unpopularity on a
global scale: however,
in the US, where the Israel lobby wields inordinate
power in government and
the media, it's quite a different story. Here,
support for Israel is in the
70 percent range – a testament to the
supposedly nonexistent power of the
Lobby, and the relative ignorance of and
indifference to world affairs
exhibited by most Americans.
~ Justin Raimondo
http://transcripts.businessday.co.za
Presenter: David Williams Guest: Tim Hughes
Summit TV speaks
to Tim Hughes from the SA Institute of International
Affairs about the
developing crisis in Zimbabwe
DAVID WILLIAMS: Welcome to Face
to Face. I’m talking to Tim Hughes
from the SA Institute of International
Affairs an expert on Southern African
politics. Zimbabwe is in the news at
the moment - that’s what we are going
to talk about. Tim, can I put it to
you that the Zimbabwe election - there
was hope that maybe this would make a
difference, but a false dawn?
TIM HUGHES: Possibly. We expected a
lot once we had the parliamentary
results and the local elections as well -
and the senatorial results were
quite encouraging too. Of course the real
crux of power is the presidential
results - and those have been blocked as
you know by the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) and more particularly by
Zanu-PF. Right now it’s up in the
air and it’s before the courts - so this
is the real test I think for the
constitution and constitutionality. Whether
or not we’ve made a significant
breakthrough in Zimbabwe - this is going to
be the test.
DAVID WILLIAMS: The jargon is “free and fair” and
we’ve experienced
this in South Africa and the processes that you need to
put in place. But an
election isn’t just the vote - it’s the campaigning,
it’s the communication,
it’s the media, it goes right through to the count
and the announcement -
the sense is that regardless of the paraphernalia of
elections that Zanu-PF
is trying to steal this election?
TIM
HUGHES: It could never be free and fair given the structural
conditions.
Even the conditions set out by the SADC norms and standards -
the guidelines
that were agreed to in August 2005 and signed by Zimbabwe -
were not met
despite the negotiations that went on from the Tanzanian
mandate given to
President Mbeki. You have no free press - as you know there’s
no real
freedom of association and freedom of movement - plus you have
perhaps three
or four million people outside the country effectively who are
effectively
disenfranchised. You had the crack-down on the opposition last
March as well
- therefore the conditions for a free and fair election were
not met. We
have to say, however, it was a lot freer and fairer, a lot less
violent, and
somewhat more transparent than we’ve seen since 2000
particularly given the
results being posted on the outside of the polling
booths.
DAVID WILLIAMS: This is maybe where President Mbeki - who has had a
really
rough press generally about Zimbabwe - it’s said that one of the
things he
tried to get in place that’s happened was the posting honestly of
the result
in a particular constituency, which then can be added up to give
you a
national picture. Is that what’s happened?
TIM HUGHES: Absolutely.
There were some significant negotiated
concessions made by Zanu-PF over the
past year. We’ve had the example in
other countries where elections have
been posted immediately. Ghana in 2000
is a very good case in point - you
remember the transition from Jerry
Rawlins to John Kufuor - that was
facilitated by exactly that point, those
results being posted on polling
booths and cellphone technology sending
those results through to a central
counting station and those results being
broadcast on FM radio. So the
result was out there - you could actually
agglomerate it. So we’ve had this
sort of demonstration effect. This is what’s
happened in Zimbabwe. The
problem is we didn’t have this sort of effect with
the presidential
elections - these are now being recounted as you know.
There seem to be
postal votes they’re trying to find. We’ve had the arrest
of electoral
officers - five or seven of them. Clearly it looks like
President Mugabe is
looking to either try and reduce Morgan Tsvangirai to
below 50% - or boost
himself to ensure there would be a “legitimate” run-off
in the eyes of
Zanu-PF.
DAVID WILLIAMS: Also the delay - the longer the delay the
more you
think: “What are they doing with these papers that they have in
their
hands?” Surely the essence of a free election is that the result must
be
announced as soon as it’s counted?
TIM HUGHES: It’s almost a
case of justice delayed is justice denied -
and this is certainly the case
in the election too. I know people in
Zimbabwe that knew their particular
electoral results - senators - on the
Sunday. They knew it the next day.
Even though the election results were
only posted something like a week
later they knew the results down to one
ballot paper. What we have now is a
crisis within Zanu-PF. We know the
politburo met on Thursday - there’s a
crisis within the ZEC - and it’s
emerging into a potentially very severe
crisis for Zimbabwe particularly if
it turns violent. This is where I think
we need to see South Africa, we need
to see SADC and the AU coming to the
party actually in the way that Jacob
Zuma did when he met Morgan Tsvangirai
and said: “We have to move quickly to
declare the results - we have to move
to legality. The process is
all-important.” That was very
encouraging.
DAVID WILLIAMS: What we have maybe is a reasonably
fair election - in
the sense that it’s produced a result. It’s the refusal
of the incumbent
authority to accept it…
TIM HUGHES: Precisely.
I think they either miscalculated as a party -
or perhaps even more
significantly were unable to manipulate the result the
way they’ve done
since 2000. It’s just the case that perhaps they don’t have
the resources to
manipulate the result as effectively as they have done. In
terms of the
security forces - the distribution of largesse - I think there’s
a sentiment
within elements of Zanu-PF, the security forces and the
intelligence
services that they don’t want this to continue. People are
arguing that in
fact Mugabe asked people to remain loyal to him - but many
senior people
within Zanu-PF are disaffected by Mugabe and in fact left him
politically
some time ago.
DAVID WILLIAMS: What’s most likely to happen? Are we
going to have
civil war?
TIM HUGHES: One certainly hopes not.
That’s the least likely scenario
in many respects. I think at that point you
would have to see the
intervention of SADC and other leaders.
DAVID WILLIAMS: By civil war I mean where Zanu-PF is actually
split?
TIM HUGHES: I think that’s most likely. I think what’s
happening now
is really about the future of Zanu-PF - it’s about a
transition for Robert
Mugabe, it’s about the terms and conditions of that
transition, it’s about
securing Zanu-PF. I’d venture to suggest that
Zimbabwe would look a lot
better with a unity government. I do not
personally favour an MDC government
alone. We need elements of Zanu-PF in a
unity government. We also need
checks and balances on an MDC
government.
DAVID WILLIAMS: It sounds a bit like the US coming to
Iraq and saying
“all the previous government has to go” but that’s not
practical because
they’re running things…
TIM HUGHES: It’s not
practical. It’s not desirable as well. You don’t
want those security
elements - thugs in many respects - you don’t want those
with the
intelligence, those that have the knowledge about corruption, about
the
parallel financial systems, etcetera. You want to build a cabinet that
brings in both factions of the MDC - there’s massive talent in the Mutambara
faction of the MDC. You do need some talented people in Zanu-PF to actually
galvanise that country in a way that it hasn’t been united since
1980.
www.summit.co.za
Institute for a Democratic Alternative for Zimbabwe
BRIEFING FOR MEDIA AND DIPLOMATIC CORPS
ZIMBABWE:
ARE WE TOWARDS A NEW BEGINNING OR
IS IT A BLOCKED
TRANSITION?
14 April 2008, Sheraton Hotel, Pretoria, 11
am
Zimbabweans went to the polls on 29 March. From that moment
onwards, Mugabe’s ZANU-PF has been denying the people of Zimbabwe a future by
avoiding to publicise results of the Presidential Election. It is apparent that
the major objective of Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF is to orchestrate mechanisms to
stay in power rather than respecting the will of the people.
Current
news from people on the ground is unsettling. The lack of transparency has
opened up potential for election fraud on the part of the government. The use of
violence by police and army and other government controlled paramilitary
elements is increasingly likely. The regime is set to use every conceivable
means to stay in power.
What are the issues?
· What is
the public mood toward the election results? Will the regime additionally
manipulate the election process and results? Will there be a run-off or is it
necessary to have it?
· How likely is a Government of National Unity
or transitional government?
· Is a peaceful transition of power
possible? What role should SADC play in this deadlock?
· What are
the sentiments simmering from the grassroots? Are the security forces with the
people or not?
· Is there a possibility of upped violence by the
regime?
· Is Mugabe living dangerously or is the pro-democratic
movement in real danger of being smashed?
Speakers: A panel
of speakers from Zimbabwean civil society as follows:
Lovemore
Madhuku, National Constitutional Assembly
Wellington Chibebe,
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (to confirm)
Bishop Levee Kadenge,
Christian Alliance
Elinor Sisulu,Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition
Irene Petras,Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR)
Gordon Moyo, Bulawayo Agenda
Abel
Chikomo, Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
(MMPZ)
Gibbs Dube,
Journalist
Venue: Sheraton Hotel
643 corner of Church and Wessels Street,
Arcadia,
Pretoria
(Secure parking is available underground,
vouchers obtained from reception)
Time:
11h00 Arrival, Speakers will be available for
interviews
11h30 Panellists discussion)
12h00 Questions and answer session
13h00 Briefing adjourned, Speakers
will be available for interviews
RSVP: Colleta
Ngwenya tel: 011 312 1183, 076 613 1655, email:
admin@idazim.org
For more info:Davie Malungisa tel: 011 312
1183 073 964 9585, email: dmalungisa@idazim.org
Nixon Nyikadzino
tel: 011 838 9642 073 849 6205, email: press@crisiszimbabwe.org
ABC Radio April 10
FRAN KELLY: Well, let’s talk about Zimbabwe now and this
notion of helping to shape a stronger, rules based order for the modern world
takes us straight there. We spoke to Sekai Holland yesterday, she won a Senate
seat in these elections for the MDC and she was pleading for the international
community to help, asking why Zimbabwe isn’t being discussed in the UN Security
Council.
Has the world response been too weak?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, I
think the international community hasn’t been paying enough attention to
Zimbabwe. I think there is a good development this morning and that is that of
the development from the South African development community with the Zambian
President calling an extraordinary summit of the Development Community on the
weekend.
The key states in the South African development community so far as
Zimbabwe is concerned are South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania. I’ve become very
quite pessimistic in the last couple of days about what’s accuring in
Zimbabwe.
I think now its quite clear that Mugabe ZANU-PF, his forces, his
regime are getting right back to their old tricks, they’re either going to try
and steal the election in a second round run-off, or they’re going to try and
rort the poll and not even bother with a second round run-off.
It’s
absolutely essential in the first instance that the African Unions states and
the South African Development Community states start putting the pressure right
on Mugabe to get the election result out there. And then if there is a second
round run-off to make sure that we’ve got an effective team of international
observers starting with the African states, but we stand ready, able and willing
to assist and the United Kingdom have made that same point.
FRAN KELLY: And
then our determination to be a more active—what is it—middle power, are you
actively making calls on this, internationally trying to agitate?
STEPHEN
SMITH: I’ve spoken to my South African colleague, I’ve spoken to my Tanzanian
colleague, the Prime Minister spoke to President Mbeki in London when they were
there for the Progressive Leaders meeting with Gordon Brown, and when I’ve made
those calls I’ve made the point, that one of the reasons that I’m making the
calls is because Australia has a renewed interest in Africa.
I think Africa
is an area which we have sadly neglected in the recent period. There is, having
said that, a long standing interest in the Australian community in firstly
Rhodesia and Zimbabwe. There are actually two expatriate communities in
Australia. You’ve got a Rhodesian community and a Zimbabwean community: people
who came to Australia when Ian Smith was still the Prime Minister, and you’ve
had people who have come to Australia following majority rules. So there is a
keen interest, but its effectively not in our patch it’s a bit further away than
the Asia-Pacific, but there are long standing contacts between South Africa and
Zimbabwe. We have a responsibility in my view to make our voice known and we
have been doing that strongly and robustly both publicly and with the relevant
nation states.
April 6, ABC TV Insiders
STEPHEN SMITH, FOREIGN
MINISTER: Good morning, Barrie.
BARRIE CASSIDY: Can you bring us right up to
date, what's the very latest that you're hearing out of Zimbabwe?
STEPHEN
SMITH: Well, I spoke to our Ambassador in Zimbabwe in the last hour. On the
streets, things remain pretty calm, people going about their business, but there
is a tension when people start to contemplate what now might happen.
I think
people are now coming to the conclusion that Mr Mugabe and Zanu PF are making it
clear they're proposing to contest the second round. We're still of course
waiting for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to public the presidential
results. But it looks as though where we're heading is for a second round, and I
have to say I'm becoming increasingly concerned that it looks as though some of
the old approaches may well be emerging that we're now worried about if there is
a second round, intimidation and there not being a full, free and fair election
with complete participation from the Zimbabwean people on a free basis.
So I
am now starting to worry about the dangers of intimidation, when it comes to a
second round, if that's what unfolds in the next few days.
BARRIE CASSIDY:
Could it be that the crackdown has already started?
STEPHEN SMITH: There have
been some worrying incidents, and it looks like potentially some untoward
conduct developing.
I think the international community is trying to make it
clear, and we've seen overnight the conversations from the Progressive Leaders
meeting in London that if there is to be a second round on the basis of an
objective assessment of the result, then that has to be full, free and fair.
I've made the point previously that that should be the subject of
international observers. And last night in Perth, I spoke to my South African
counterpart, the South African Foreign Minister, Foreign Minister Dr
Dlamini-Zuma, and while there is a limit to what I can indicate from that
conversation, I think it's clear to say that South Africa is very focused on
these issues. They're of course the most important member of the African Union
or South African Development Community when it comes to Zimbabwe.
President
Mbeki did some good work in improving the arrangements for the election, and I
made the point to my South African counterpart that we need to make sure if it
goes to a second round that it's full, free, and fair and we do have a very
healthy complement of observers on the ground.
The South African Development
Community observers are still there, pending the announced result of the
presidential election. I think the international community has to look very,
very closely at beefing up those observers if we do go to a second round,
because as I say, I'm becoming increasingly worried with some untoward
developments that Mr Mugabe may be trying to steal the election through
intimidation, if it goes to a second round.
BARRIE CASSIDY: You mentioned
still no presidential results. Were the South Africans able to shed any light on
that? When can we expect those results to start flowing?
STEPHEN SMITH: The
South African Foreign Minister, like us, was waiting patiently but I made the
point, as I have publicly and as I did earlier in the week, to my Tanzanian
colleague, that we think, Australia thinks, it's very important that those
results are out as quickly as possible.
I notice overnight Mr Tsvangirai
himself holding a press conference in Harare, making the point that those
results have to be out there but also making the point that he thinks more
African Union and potentially even United Nations people have to be on the
ground to ensure freedom and fair participation in any second round. So I think
we've really got to put the weights on here as best we can to make sure that Mr
Mugabe doesn't get away with resorting to his very bad brutal habits of
old.
BARRIE CASSIDY: And if Mr Mugabe was to lose that run off, would it be
appropriate for the new government to offer him a quiet retirement in return for
a peaceful transition?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, the last thing we want in
Zimbabwe is an outbreak of violence or military enforcement or actions. Now,
what occurs to Mr Mugabe if he ultimately loses a presidential election or if
there's a transition to a new government, in the first instance is a matter for
the Zimbabwean people, and the Zimbabwean government and the Zimbabwean
Parliament. That's in the first instance a matter for them.
In our case,
we're looking more broadly, and we've made the point as the United Kingdom
government has made the point, that if we do get a Zimbabwean government that
respects the will of the people, that does want to do good works for its people,
then obviously, we're in the marketplace for development assistance and trying
to reconstruct or rebuild Zimbabwe. The British in particular have made it clear
that in the right circumstances, they'll put on the table a substantial offer,
because what we have to do here is on the basis that we get a government that
reflects and respects the will of the people. We've now got an international
responsibility to seek to rebuild the Zimbabwe economy, and rebuild the
Zimbabwean nation with very many of its people now living effectively in abject
poverty, let alone the taking away of any of their freedoms or human
rights.
2 April 2008
Radio Interview with Alexandra Kirk, World Today
ABC
Subjects: Zimbabwe, PM visit to Japan, Fiji
ALEXANDRA KIRK: Mr Smith,
good afternoon.
STEPHEN SMITH: Afternoon Alex.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: Do you
believe that the Opposition has won both the parliamentary and the presidential
polls in Zimbabwe?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, they have certainly done very well.
Obviously I am not in a position to verify their victory but certainly Mr
Tsvangirai and the Opposition are very, very confident that they've done very
well. The individual polling results that have been published by the Democratic
Zimbabwe movement certainly are very, very encouraging and supportive, which is
why we've been saying that the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission should publish
the results. Publish them as a matter of urgency. The last result I saw for the
parliamentary election was effectively 85/85. That shows the opposition doing
very well but we haven't yet seen a result for the presidential
election.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: You've said that the military isn't motivated, you
don't think, to rescue President Mugabe this time round. So in your judgement,
is Mr Mugabe likely to mount a coup to hang on to power?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well,
I was very careful in what I said and I'll repeat it which is we have to take
this step by step. Currently the various reports and commentary seems to be that
the military is not motivated to move in. But we've seen Mr Mugabe use both
electoral rorts and military force before. So in the first instance, certainly
whatever outcome occurs, we want it to be a peaceful, peaceable outcome. We
don't want there to be violence or the use of military force.
Secondly, we
are obviously very concerned, as we have been for the last few days, about Mr
Mugabe seeking to steal the result. Not by use of force but by rorting the
counting of the vote and the announcement of it. Which is why we keep saying the
weights have to remain on the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission to publish those
results as quickly as possible.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: But you have no power to do
that?
STEPHEN SMITH: Which is why I've been either speaking to David
Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, making that same point with which the
British are in screaming agreement and wanting to speak to some of the Southern
African Development Community nation states like South Africa, Zambia and we are
making arrangements to speak to those foreign ministers in the course of the
day.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: There were reports that foreign diplomats had been asked
to attend a conference with the Government today. Has Australia's ambassador in
Harare, John Courtney been invited?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, I spoke to our
ambassador late last night. That wasn't part of his report to me. He made the
point, as others have, that it is very difficult to get a clear picture of what
is effectively occurring behind the scenes. It is very much, I think, a bit of
moving feast. The international community needs to keep the weights on, as I put
it. It is now the early hours of the morning in Zimbabwe so there are lots, lots
of rumours, lots of speculation.
What do we know with certainty? We know the
Opposition has done very well. We know that Mr Mugabe is not the retiring type.
This is not a bloke who is going to volunteer to retire overnight. So the
weights have to be put on him to respect the will of the Zimbabwean people to
not rort it so that we can see in Zimbabwe a government which respects the will
of the people but in some respects, more importantly, wants to do good works and
good deeds for its people - starting with its economy.
2 April
2008
Television Interview with Tony Jones, Lateline ABC
Subjects:
Zimbabwe
TONY JONES: As we said, the Australian foreign minister, Stephen
Smith, has tonight been on the phone to his counterparts in three neighbouring
countries of Zimbabwe, as well as the Australian embassy in Harare. He joins us
now from our Parliament House studio.
Stephen Smith, thanks for being there.
And can you start by giving us the latest you're hearing from Australian
diplomats in Harare.
STEPHEN SMITH: Well this evening, or late tonight, in
the last hour, I've spoken to our ambassador in Zimbabwe. I've spoken to our
mission in South Africa, and earlier tonight I spoke to my counterpart, the
foreign minister in Tanzania. And we've got calls out for South Africa and
Zambia, but just some logistical arrangements have made that a bit
difficult.
Starting with the information we're getting in terms of what's
occurring on the ground, it's mid morning to late morning in Harare and Zimbabwe
as we speak. I'm told that things are calm and people are going about their
usual business. So it's a bit improved from earlier reports. But when people are
asked about the outcome or what might occur, there is some tension or
nervousness.
There's not necessarily a great deal more to report than what I
advised the media earlier today. We're expecting that in the next hour or so,
the Opposition party, the MDC will release their own assessment of the booth by
booth, or the polling station by polling station results. This is obviously
geared to put pressure on the Zimbabwe election commission to more quickly
release it's own results.
The most recent results published by the Zimbabwe
electoral commission effectively had Mr Tsvangirai’s Opposition party on about
90 seats, Zanu-PF slightly behind, and other parties, a half a dozen or so. So
if you compare that with the most reliable and authoritative NGO, the Zimbabwe
Democracy Now, they've got in the parliamentary sense, 99 for Mr Tsvangirai, 96
for Zanu-PF, and a dozen for other parties. So there's a rough equivalence
there.
What it does tell us is that Mr Tsvangirai has done very, very well.
But we're yet to see any results so far as the presidential election is
concerned. Which is why we continue to seek to put the pressure that we can,
from afar, on the electoral commission to release those results and make sure
that the results are an accurate reflection of the will of the Zimbabwe
people.
TONY JONES: Are you disturbed at all to hear that the State run
newspaper in Harare, the Herald, is actually saying that it has the presidential
results and that neither of the candidates has got more than 50 per cent,
therefore there will have to be a run-off election in three weeks
time.
STEPHEN SMITH: Well I suppose given the history of Zimbabwe under the
brutal Mugabe regime, the State run newspaper having access to that information
wouldn't necessarily surprise. But as I've said, we've got to take this step by
step. It's quite clear the Opposition have done well.
Now whether an accurate
reflection of the poll, of the count, is an absolute majority for Mr Tsvangirai,
or a run-off for a second round, and we'll have to leave that judgement for a
bit further down the track. That is a significant dent to Mr Mugabe's authority.
There's no doubt about that.
And David Coltart made that point, and I
thought, made it well. That there has been seen now to be a significant denting
of that authority, and we just hope the response to that is a peaceful and
peaceable one. One which accepts the outcome, and where we don't see violence or
the use of rigging or more seriously, military or other force to try and steal
the election or thwart the will of the people.
TONY JONES: Okay. As we said
earlier, you're attempting to speak to the three SADC foreign ministers, you've
spoken I think to the foreign minister of Tanzania, I think that's what you
said...
STEPHEN SMITH: Yes.
TONY JONES: What are you trying to achieve
with those phone calls? Do you want some form of intervention from those three
countries to put pressure on Mugabe?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well what I wanted to do
was to firstly, as I did with the United Kingdom foreign secretary last night,
just register Australia's significant interest and concern in Zimbabwe. We have
a long standing interest in Zimbabwe from unilateral declaration of
independence, Rhodesia days and from majority rule, post-Lancaster house. And
there is a small but significant Rhodesian and Zimbabwean expatriate community
in Australia. And it's in the Commonwealth, it's part of our patch. And we
should...
TONY JONES: Well it was in the Commonwealth - it's not right
now.
STEPHEN SMITH: Well it was in the Commonwealth, with Pakistan it's out.
But part of our public policy aspiration is to get it back in. Which of course
means a full and free election and respecting the result. But what I wanted to
do was to register our interest. But also to get a feel for what the South
African Development Community States and the African Union States were
thinking.
Tanzania, who I spoke to, my colleague Foreign Minister Membe.
Tanzania of course chairs the African Union, but Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa,
generally regarded as the three significant Southern African Development
Community States, and African Union States, who are best placed to put pressure
on or influence events in Zimbabwe. And we know that President Mbeki, for
example, was very influential in an improved conduct of the election.
TONY
JONES: Alright, what did Mr Membe tell you tonight?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well of
course it's for South Africa, and Zambia, and Tanzania to let their own views be
known. But without saying anything inappropriate, I think it's accurate to say
that firstly the concerns that are shared by the international community which
we've seen expressed. We've seen them expressed by Australia, the United Kingdom
and others, that we want, that there is a desire to see an accurate reflection
of the will of the Zimbabwe people reflected by the election results. That it's
desirable for those results to be published sooner rather than later. But most
importantly, it's desirable for those results to accurately reflect the actual
votes cast.
And I think it's also true to say there is considerable concern
and worry that if we're not careful, that if the outcome isn't effectively,
properly counted and respected, that we could very quickly see Zimbabwe descend
into unrest, disorder and violence. Which of course the last thing we want to
see.
TONY JONES: Indeed, and on that score, Desmond Tutu tonight is actually
calling for a Southern African peace keeping force to be sent in to Zimbabwe
now. To make sure there isn't any post-election violence, or electoral violence
as a result of the tensions that are developing there.Do you think that's a good
idea?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well can I make this point. I think in the first
instance, there is the immediate responsibility of the African neighbours to be
doing what they can to ensure that there's a quick outcome and a respecting of
the election result. If, for example, there is on the basis of the objective
evidence, a requirement or a need or an electoral outcome which sees a second
round, then that should certainly be the subject of very intense international
scrutiny in terms of election observers. And yes, I think the African States
should contemplate a show of support to ensure that that second round is fully
participated in, is free and is fair.
TONY JONES: Are you talking about
peacekeeping? Do you think a peacekeeping force on the ground in Zimbabwe would
be a good idea during this election to make sure things stay under
control?
STEPHEN SMITH: I'm not going to get too far ahead of myself, Tony.
As I say, firstly we're seeing at the moment on the basis of the latest reports,
yes there is a military or a police presence in, for example, Harare, but at
this stage the disposition seems to be to stand off rather than to be taking an
active or partisan approach or role. Now that could very quickly change. We
certainly don't want it to change.
The most desirable outcome is a respecting
of the election result in a peaceful and peaceable way. And if that takes a
second round, if the objective evidence requires a second round in accordance
with the electoral process, that should be full, free and fair participation.
That should certainly require international observers and in the first instance
if there is a need to contemplate, if you like, a greater show of strength, then
I think the primary responsibility for contemplating that rests with the African
States. And I think that would be the most appropriate starting point. But we're
a fair way from that I think Tony.
TONY JONES: Quick final question. You may
have heard in the piece earlier Mugabe's Deputy Minister for Information, Bright
Matonga, welcoming what he calls a change in attitude from the new Australian
Government? Has someone told him there's been a change in the Australian
Government's position on Zimbabwe?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, half tongue in cheek,
Tony, people obviously haven't been showing him my transcripts which have been
pretty rugged on my view of a brutal regime.
TONY JONES: Does this make you
wonder what our diplomats are actually telling him on the ground, our
Ambassador? Are we telling them the concern that there is in Australia and that,
in fact, you are deeply worried about the past rigging of elections?
STEPHEN
SMITH: Tony, you can be in absolutely no doubt what our people in Zimbabwe and
as well what our people in South Africa are saying in terms of our attitude and
our view. We're dealing here with a brutal regime of long standing which hasn't
respected democracy, which hasn't respected human rights, which has essentially
presided over a massive falling away of the economy and living standards of the
Zimbabwean people.
We stand ready, willing and able to work with any
government which will reflect the will of the people. But most importantly, work
towards improving the livelihood of the Zimbabwean people. And I regret to
advise the information minister Tony, that is not the Mugabe regime.
TONY
JONES: We'll see if he reports that tomorrow. Stephen Smith, we thank you very
much for taking the time to talk to us tonight.
STEPHEN SMITH: Thanks very
much Tony, thank you.
Ends
Media Inquiries: Foreign Minister's office
(02) 6277 7500
2 April 2008
Media conference
Subjects:
Zimbabwe
STEPHEN SMITH: Thanks for turning up. I just want to make some
remarks about Zimbabwe, then I'm happy to answer your questions on that and any
other issues.
Firstly, earlier this morning I spoke to our High Commissioner
in Zimbabwe to get an assessment from the Australian perspective, of the things
on the ground in Zimbabwe. I'm told that things are calm, tense, but calm. No
indications at this stage of any violence which is very welcoming.
I think
it's true to say that it is difficult to get a clear assessment of events as
they are unfolding. Certainly you would experienced that, given the media access
restrictions that we find in Zimbabwe. I think it's also the case that, not just
our mission, but other missions, United States, United Kingdom, are also having
difficulty getting a clear picture of events as they emerge. So I think it's
important to monitor events as they unfold and to not get too far ahead of
ourselves.
There are some things though that we can say I think with
certainty. Firstly, it's quite clear that the Opposition has done very well.
It's quite clear that Mr Tsvangirai, despite all the difficult circumstances of
the election, has done very well. In the last count that I saw published by the
Zimbabwean Electoral Commission, had 85 seats to the Opposition, 85 seats to Mr
Mugabe's Zanu PF and half a dozen to others. I haven't yet seen, nor do I
believe has anyone else, any published results by the Commission so far as the
presidential ballot is concerned.
So we know that the Opposition Leader Mr
Tsvangirai has done very well, and just on those figures the two-thirds majority
that would enable, for example, Mr Mugabe to change the constitution, is no
longer available.
The second thing we know is that everyone remains very
concerned - very, very concerned that Mr Mugabe, by fair means or foul, may well
try and steal this election and that's why we've been urging, in the last couple
of days as I again do today, urging the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission to
publish the results as quickly as possible. That will be of great assistance.
Firstly, there will be a formal result published by the Commission, but
secondly, it will enable people to make comparisons between the already publicly
available and published results, polling station by polling station, which have
been published by the Opposition Parties and also by non-government
organisations in Zimbabwe.
Can I say that yesterday I took steps to put
myself in the position of being able to speak to some of my colleague Foreign
Ministers. Firstly, the South African Foreign Minister, the Zambian Foreign
Minister and the Tanzanian Foreign Minister and also the Foreign Secretary of
the United Kingdom, Mr Miliband. Late last night, Canberra time, I spoke to Mr
Miliband. In the early hours of this morning I attempted to speak to the Foreign
Minister for South Africa Dlamini Zuma, who was travelling in Sudan, but the
communications problems made it difficult and we've arranged for that to occur
later this evening. And I'll be speaking to the Tanzanian and Zambian Foreign
Ministers later this evening as well.
I had a very good conversation with Mr
Miliband and I advised him of a number of things. Firstly, there is a
longstanding interest in Zimbabwe so far as Australia is concerned, and
unfolding events in Zimbabwe are a matter of acute concern to the Australian
Government and the Australian people.
Secondly, we want to see an orderly and
peaceful outcome to the election. Thirdly, we want the election results to be
verified and the will of the people respected. And fourthly, if there is a
transition, if there is a transition to a new government, then the Australian
Government will work closely and carefully with any new government which seeks
to respect the will of the Zimbabwean people, but also wants to uplift the lives
of Zimbabwean people. This is not something that can be said of the brutal
Mugabe regime over the last couple of decades. And Mr Miliband and I had a very
productive conversation. You'd of course be aware that Prime Minister Brown
spoke to the South African Leader Mr Mbeki in the last couple of days.
The
reason, of course, for making the phone calls was to again record Australia's
interest, particularly to indicate to the African - my African colleagues,
members of the South African Development Community that Australia has a keen
interest in events unfolding in Zimbabwe and to make the point to them that we
believe it's important that the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission publish the
results as a matter of urgency and the will of the Zimbabwean people be
respected.
Obviously, given that it's the early hours of the morning in
Zimbabwe, more information coming to hand will take the course of the day, but I
hope to be in a position to provide reasonably regular updates as events do
unfold in the next couple of days.
I'm happy to respond to your questions on
that.
See also Questions and answers
Ends
2 April 2008
Media
conference - Questions and Answers
Subjects: Zimbabwe, UN Security Council
position, Japan
QUESTION: Mr Smith what do you know about what's happening
inside Mr Mugabe's office?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well I think like everyone else,
I'm not in the position to give any certain information about that. There is a
lot of speculation and it needs to be, I think treated as speculation.
There
have been suggestions, for example, that a deal has been brokered between Mr
Tsvangirai and Mr Mugabe. That's been strongly denied by Mr Tsvangirai in a
press conference in the late hours of last night Zimbabwe time.
There have
also been suggestions that - that Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai have spoken by
telephone. I'm not in the position to verify that one way or the other.
But
obviously what is occurring here is, on the part of the Opposition, an attempt
to ensure that the democratic will of the Zimbabwean people is respected and to
seek to effect an orderly transition to a new government. And obviously it's
clear that Mr Mugabe, for some time, has been wanting to resist that.
One
thing which I think does appear to be emerging is that his attempt to steal the
election has largely been through a delay in the election outcome, rather than
through military force, or military means. All the advice we've received is that
the military are effectively on stand-by, but do not appear to be taking an
active role, or an active interest in matters. And I certainly hope that remains
the case. The last thing we want here is violence to break out.
QUESTION: Mr
Smith, in your conversations with your foreign counterparts, did you discuss the
potential for rigging the elections and if evidence does emerge, of rigging, the
response from Australia and the international community?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well,
I've had one conversation with Mr Miliband, an attempt at an organised
conversation with the Foreign Minister of South Africa which, because of
communications problems - she was in Sudan - that's been put off till today. But
I made the point to Mr Miliband, as I will to my African colleagues, one, we
want the will of the people respected. Two, if Mr Mugabe tries to steal the
election then certainly there should be a very, very strong view expressed by
the international community that it doesn't respect any such stolen
election.
And I think what - what we now need to do is to make the point
crystal clear that we want the will of the Zimbabwean people to be respected. We
want the election result published as quickly as possible. And we want all
pressure placed on Mr Mugabe to prevent him from seeking to steal the
election.
There was one over here, sorry.
QUESTION: Mr Smith would an
Australian serving on the Security Council assist, or as the federal Opposition
maintains hinder efforts to democratise countries like Zimbabwe?
STEPHEN
SMITH: Well, Australia has a very strong view about human rights and the
Australian Government has put that view very strongly about Zimbabwe and also in
recent times about Tibet. Taking those values and those virtues to the Security
Council can but enhance.
Can I just make some general comments. I've seen
those suggestions from the Opposition. I'm not sure what the Liberal Party and
the National Party stand for on the Security Council.
When the Prime Minister
announced that we would be putting our name forward as a candidate in 2012 for
the 2013-14 Security Council position, the initial reaction of the leader of the
Opposition was to say that this was a legitimate thing to do, the Shadow Foreign
Minister effectively welcomed it and now I'm not quite sure what they're saying.
I don't think the Opposition knows what it stands for in this matter, or what to
stand for.
The Government knows very clearly what it stands for. The
Government wants to take a much more active role in international affairs both
generally and through the United Nations. We haven't been on the Security
Council for over 20 years. Mr Downer himself has publicly recently expressed
regret that the Government that he was a member of decided not to pursue an
earlier claim.
We think it's important and we think that Australia, as one of
the top 20 economies – 15th or 16th of the world economies – with a robust
parliamentary democracy, as a well-developed, prosperous nation, we want to be a
good international citizen, we want to take those values and virtues to the rest
of the world. We could and we should.
I've often seen this expression, you
know, Australia punching above its weight. It's an expression I hate. I don't
think we do punch above our weight. I think we punch below our weight. We need
to do more and this Government wants us to do more and we will ensure that we do
more, whether it's about Zimbabwe, whether it's about the United Nations,
whether it's about Tibet.
31 March 2008
Perth Press
Conference
Subjects: Zimbabwe Elections, UN Security Council and other
matters
STEPHEN SMITH: Well I'll just make some remarks about a number of
matters and I'm happy to answer your questions.
Firstly, Zimbabwe and the
parliamentary and the presidential elections. I've just got off the phone from
speaking to our High Commissioner in Zimbabwe. It's very early in the morning in
Zimbabwe, but later this morning, later this afternoon Canberra time we expect
the announcement of the results of the parliamentary and the presidential
elections.
Can I say that in the past, Australia has been very critical of
the Mugabe regime. In recent days I've been very critical of the Mugabe regime
and that criticism continues. We, of course, are very concerned that there
hasn't been the opportunity for a full and free election, with full
participation, conducted fairly. And there are also very grave concerns that the
counting of the election will not necessarily reflect the actual casting of the
votes; and we remain very concerned that Mr Mugabe will seek to claim election
victory irrespective of the actual votes cast.
Whatever is claimed in the
hours ahead, we certainly hope that there is no violence. And I note that the
Opposition Leader Mr Tsvangirai has indicated that irrespective of the call of
the election, he and his supporters will not engage in violent activity and we
certainly hope that that is the response of Mr Mugabe and his supporters.
But
we remain very gravely concerned that Mr Mugabe will seek to steal this
election, irrespective of the actual votes cast, but we will of course monitor
this in the hours and days ahead. And I've indicated to our High Commissioner
that I'll be in regular contact with him in the course of the day and this
week.
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National Post Published: Friday, April 11,
2008
Re: African Summit To Discuss Zimbabwe Election Crisis, April
10.
Given the estimable records of John Diefenbaker -- who had South Africa
forced out of the Commonwealth -- and Brian Mulroney -- who supported the
imprisoned Nelson Mandela as the true voice of his people-- may I suggest
that our current prime minister should play a similar leading role in
bringing peace and a measure of prosperity to Zimbabwe when Robert Mugabe
departs the scene.
Stephen Harper should launch a Canadian-sponsored
Marshall Plan to
reconstruct this beautiful country. Given that stable
Botswana and
economically powerful South Africa are its southern neighbours,
helping
Zimbabwe achieve justice and liberty would create an even more
powerful
democratic bloc in the southern third of the continent, which could
spread
to rest of Africa.
Then we might not cry for this beloved
country as we do today, but rejoice
with its people, who manage to laugh and
sing in the face of tyranny and
hate.
Raymond Heard, Toronto.
IOL
April 11
2008 at 09:37AM
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
Harare -
Zimbabwe's opposition accused President Robert Mugabe on
Thursday of
carrying out a de facto coup to stay in power and said
pro-democracy
activists were in danger of their lives.
Movement for Democratic
Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Mugabe,
who has held power since
independence in 1980, would be ousted with the help
of other African
nations.
"We'll manage to get Mugabe out. Mugabe is being deserted.
No one
wants to touch Mugabe in the region now. Eventually, we will ease him
out,"
Tsvangirai told Time Magazine.
He spoke ahead of an
emergency southern African summit called for
Lusaka at the weekend to
discuss growing fears the post election deadlock
could lead to bloodshed in
Zimbabwe, already suffering economic collapse.
Tsvangirai's MDC
accuses Mugabe, 84, of prolonging a long delay in
issuing the results of a
March 29 presidential election while he organises a
violent response to his
biggest defeat since taking power after independence
from
Britain.
Mugabe's Zanu-PF party lost
control of parliament for the first time
in the election but no results of
the parallel presidential vote have been
issued.
"This is, in a
sense, a de facto military coup. They have rolled out
military forces across
the whole country, to prepare for a run-off and try
to cow the population.
It's an attempt to try to create conditions for
Mugabe to win," Tsvangirai
said.
MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti told a news conference in
Johannesburg: "Quite clearly the situation at home is volatile. The lives of
all pro-democracy actors are not safe".
Biti denied reports
that Tsvangirai, who has visited regional
powerhouse South Africa to discuss
the crisis, was seeking asylum abroad. He
said he would advise him against
returning home because of the dangers "but
he is his own man".
Human Rights Watch said the Lusaka summit was the region's "last real
chance" to resolve Zimbabwe's crisis and accused the ruling Zanu-PF party of
increasing assaults on opposition activists and polling agents since the
election.
The US based organisation said it had "received
credible information
of dozens of ... attacks by Zanu-PF
supporters."
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the ruling
party was preparing
for a runoff after its tallies showed neither Tsvangirai
nor Mugabe won the
required absolute majority.
The MDC has
rejected both a runoff and Zanu-PF attempts to have at
least 14 seats
recounted in the parliamentary vote. It says Tsvangirai has
won and should
immediately end Mugabe's 28-year rule.
A South African government
spokesman said that President Thabo Mbeki
will attend Saturday's summit,
which was called by Zambian President Levy
Mwanawasa, chair of SADC
(Southern African Development Community).
Tsvangirai said he would
try to persuade SADC leaders to ask Mugabe to
step down.
SADC
has been criticised in the past for failing to pressure Mugabe
despite the
economic collapse in Zimbabwe, now suffering the world's highest
inflation,
chronic shortages of food and fuel and a near worthless currency.
Mwanawasa's summit call came after Jacob Zuma, leader of South
Africa's
ruling African National Congress, said the poll results must be
released,
signalling a more robust reaction to the crisis than Mbeki who has
insisted
on "quiet diplomacy" rather than overt pressure.
"We urge all
parties to respect the will of the people, regardless of
the outcome, and to
proceed within the requirements of the law," South
Africa's SAPA news agency
quoted Zuma as saying on Thursday.
The long delay in issuing
results has dashed hopes of quick action to
turn round a ruined economy that
has sent millions of refugees fleeing to
neighbouring SADC
countries.
The official inflation rate is 100 580 percent but
analysts believe
the real level is much higher. An independent Zimbabwean
newspaper said last
week that official figures for February showed inflation
at 164 900 percent.
Investors fear that if the Zimbabwean political
impasse continues, it
could impact on other countries in the region -
especially South Africa,
whose rand currency has proven vulnerable to
political events in its
northern neighbour.
Although the rand
benefited last week because of optimism that the
Mugabe era might be ending,
traders said Zimbabwe was not having any effect
now, with all eyes on the
South African Reserve Bank which raised its key
report rate to 11,5 percent
on Thursday because of a surge in inflation.
Traders said negative
developments in Zimbabwe were generally
discounted by the market but
positive news could give the rand some support,
although it was not a key
driver so far.
(Additional reporting by Cris Chinaka, Stella
Mapenzauswa, Nelson
Banya and Muchena Zigomo; writing by Barry
Moody)
CRISIS-HIT Zimbabwe is hurtling towards disaster.
Photographer Darren Fletcher and I defied brutal dictator Robert Mugabe’s ban on outside journalists to sneak into the once-wealthy African country.
Inflation there has soared to a staggering 165,000 PER CENT as Mugabe clings to power.
City in despair ...
Virginia
Wheeler visits Harare
And a simple restaurant meal cost us TWO BILLION dollars.
Indeed, financial transaction in Zimbabwe now involve so many zeros it is customary to leave out the final three.
Mugabe, 84, refuses to release the result of last month’s presidential election – which opposition party Movement for Democratic Change says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won – and is campaigning for a run-off.
Ruthless armed riot police patrol every street corner in the capital Harare as locals form queues of 800-plus to withdraw worthless money from the bank.
We witnessed fights breaking out in the city cemeteries as people die faster than they can be buried, while locals are forced to carry armfuls of cash to buy a scrap of food.
ViolenceDesperate Zimbabweans told us how inflation is now so bad that a bus journey into the city will cost 20million dollars in the morning, only to rise to 25million dollars two hours later.
Tyrant ... Mugabe on posters
And locals whispered that police violence has “rocketed” since the election, with many who are accused of voting for Tsvangirai being beaten and stabbed.
With the prospect of new polls to be held before April 19, aid groups say Mugabe has sent thousands of militias – dubbed the “Talibob” due to their Taliban-like brutality and loyalty to “Bob” Mugabe – into the countryside to torture supporters of the MDC into voting for him.
Youth worker Philomone Munengura showed us the stab wounds on his neck where he was knifed by Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF officials for voting for the MDC.
The 24-year-old said: “I do not care for politics. I just want to stop the children I teach from starving. Women are getting raped and men tortured.”
Under Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party laws, outside journalists were banned from covering the election and even taking photos in the street is outlawed.
An MDC party source, who met us in secret said: “A British paper like The Sun would never officially be allowed into Zimbabwe under Mugabe – he is too scared of what you may witness.
“But as you see, this country is a disaster. Mugabe is a maniac. He refuses to give up power even though he has lost – so he is resorting to terror.
“Farms are being burned to the ground, people tortured and British settlers driven out.
“Life expectancy in the 1980s was 60. Now it is 34 for women, 37 for men – and set to fall.”
Our source also claimed Mugabe’s thugs tried to kill Mr Tsvangirai on Monday by switching off all the runway lights at Harare Airport as his plane was about to land.
Passengers flying with the MDC leader on the packed 100-seat South African Airways flight claimed the pilot had to suddenly pull up and circle the airport, due to the “power-cut”.
The source said: “Yes, this was true, even though the airline refuses to accept it happened Imagine if Gordon Brown tried to crash your David Cameron’s plane. There would be uproar.”
Stripped ... shop has nothing for sale but ketchup
As we entered the city of Harare, election posters for Mugabe stared down from every tree and post while police road-blocks search every vehicle.
Starving men and women left jobless – unemployment is 80 per cent – lie weakly in the roads.
Supermarkets in a country that was once so rich in agriculture it was dubbed “Africa’s breadbasket” are boarded up and empty.
In one Harare grocery store shelves were stripped completely bare except for hundreds of bottles of long-life Heinz Tomato Ketchup.
Yet hungry locals outside pooled their cash to buy a sip.
With £1 now equivalent to 110 million Zimbabwean dollars, we paid 50 million (around 40p) for two loaves of bread and 200 million dollars for three cans of lemonade.
The simple restaurant meal for two we bought – a soup starter followed by pork cutlet and pasta plus a bottle of house red – cost us more than two billion Zimbabwean dollars, or around £21.
Inflation – brought on by disastrous agricultural policy and lack of food to buy – is now so bad that the government this month introduced a 50million dollar note.
But with inflation expected to rocket to 500,000 per cent soon, these all bear a “best before” date of only next month.
GravesIn Harare’s cemeteries, relatives of those who died from Aids and starvation struggle to dig graves fast enough.
British tourists once flocked to the African country in their thousands to go on safari.
Now they stay away and the hotels have nearly all closed.
British-born Simon Everington-Cox, 56 – one of 300 remaining white farm-owners left in Zimbabwe – told us he was packing up after 30 years and returning to London next week.
He said: “I have watched while my friends have been driven out and wives attacked and raped.
“I have held on for long enough but now this country is a dust-bowl and there is no beauty left.
“Zimbabwe is the embarrassment of Africa.”
The Sowetan
11
April 2008
Bill Saidi
Zimbabweans are known for their
indefatigable capacity to laugh, not only at
themselves but at
others.
For many years they believed Robert Mugabe was
God’s gift to the nation,
until they discovered it wasn’t Zimbabwe he had in
mind.
In the aftermath of the events of March 29 there was what one wag
described
as a “comic opera”, mostly of Zanu-PF launching frantic attempts
to deny the
reality of their rout.
There were guffaws at the
spectacle of Zanu-PF going to court to accuse
election officers of doctoring
the votes in favour of the opposition.
Suddenly Zanu-PF had
discovered, to their horror, they held the monopoly on
political
skulduggery. Their loyal operatives had betrayed them.
But the juiciest
was yet to come: in the offing was the mother of all
treason trials, more
sensational than Morgan Tsvangirai’s, featuring Ari Ben
Menashe, former
Mossad agent and friend of Zanu-PF.
“Guess who is the chief accused in
this one? Gushungo [Mugabe]. For
betraying the party to the
MDC.”
Laughter eases the pain of loneliness. Many Zimbabweans feel
abandoned by
the rest of the world.
I was reminded of a documentary
on the origins of the Muslim Brotherhood of
Egypt.
Gamal Abdel
Nasser, then president, was convinced they had plotted to kill
him and take
over the country. He went after them, hammer and tongs, driving
them
underground.
Today they still pose a challenge to the ruling National
Democratic Party,
now headed by Hosni Mubarak, successor to Anwar Sadat,
whom I met in Cairo
in 1978 before his assassination in 1981,
The
Muslim Brotherhood was blamed for that bloodbath.
Elections are due soon
and the Brotherhood is being watched with an eagle’s
eye by Mubarak. Don’t
be surprised if the Brotherhood springs a surprise.
Wherever a government
goes after a popular opposition as if they represented
the devil – as
Zanu-PF seems to believe about the MDC does – the
consequences can be
catastrophic.
Mugabe’s contempt for the MDC, and particularly for its
leader, is
mystifying. What does Tsvangirai represent, in Mugabe’s psyche,
bred in the
Marxist-Leninist revolutionary cauldron of the “dictatorship of
the
proletariat”?
A Western Trojan horse? The equivalent of the
antiChrist to his John the
Baptist?
Doesn’t Mugabe believe Tsvangirai
loves his country as much as – or even
more – than he does? Does he believe
what motivates Tsvangirai is only a
poodle-like desire to serve “masters”
Britain and the US, to say slavishly
to Gordon Brown and George W Bush “Yes,
Mambo!”, as they pat him on the
head?
Therein lies the tragedy of
Zimbabwe and Mugabe. I once argued with him that
if a Zimbabwean received
money from the Germans to run an independent radio
station in this country,
there would be nothing wrong as long as they told
the truth. “But the
Germans would control it, of course,” he told me.
Jacob Zuma, the ANC
president, spoke positively on the Zimbabwe crisis this
week: the delay in
announcing the presidential results “did not augur well”.
If he wasn’t
trying to upstage the man he humiliated in the ANC leadership
stakes last
year, then we must applaud him heartily.
“Quiet diplomacy” brought us to
this crisis, if you want to be serious.
Monsters and Critics
Apr 11, 2008, 11:50 GMT
Johannesburg - The
election standoff in neighbouring Zimbabwe got the
creative juices flowing
this week at a cafe in South Africa patronized by
foreign
media.
Diners at The Chef in Johannesburg, situated near the offices of
the BBC,
Sky News and other international media outlets, were given a choice
between
an MDC (mushroom, diced ham and cheese) omelette and Bob's
Election-Winning
Chicken for lunch on Thursday.
Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe (Bob to The Chef) can take comfort in the
knowledge that,
despite his Zanu-PF party's rout in parliamentary elections,
his chicken (a
nod to the party's rooster symbol) was the hands-down
favourite.
When
it came to choosing a governing party the offering was more
constrained.
Patrons were asked to decide between Zanu-PF and the MDC on a
mock ballot
slip. The only problem was, the Zanu-PF box came pre-ticked.
As for the
Zanu-PF Breakfast, The Chef regretted to inform: 'Sorry, no
stock.'
And, because no joke about Zimbabwe would be complete without
a mention of
inflation, the prices were listed in Zimbabwe dollars, with a
zero added
every hour.