Zim Online
Tuesday 17 April 2007
By Edith
Kaseke
HARARE - Politically motivated human rights abuses against
President Robert
Mugabe's opponents will escalate as the country gears
towards elections next
year, rights activists and analysts said, noting a
growing trend of brutal
attacks on opposition members by state
agents.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai last week accused Mugabe of personally leading a
violent campaign
to cripple his party ahead of the
elections.
Tsvangirai, who was a victim of state brutality last month,
says more than
600 MDC supporters and officials have been abducted and
tortured by security
agents in the past three months alone.
The
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) yesterday said there was no
sign
that human rights abuses in the country were abetting.
"We are not of the
view that human rights abuses will end. Actually they
will increase as we go
to the elections," Mabwe Chimbwa, a ZLHR lawyer said
yesterday.
"There is a coincidence in that as we are going towards
elections next year,
the violence is also growing and in this case it is
targeted against
opposition officials if you can call them that," Chimbwa
said.
Mugabe has come under pressure over his government's violent
response to
opponents, with the United States and Britain considering
tougher action
against the veteran leader, Zimbabwe's sole ruler since
independence in
1980.
But Mugabe, who has remained defiant in the
face of international
condemnation of his controversial policies, says the
MDC has launched a
terror campaign to dislodge him from power and that these
efforts will be
met with brute force.
Police have seized several
opposition activists accusing them of keeping
weapons of war and targeting
government and police details in countrywide
petrol bombing
incidents.
The MDC says this is the work of security agents meant to
discredit the
opposition and an excuse for a violent
crackdown.
Chimbwa said the ZLHR was struggling to cope with the number
of people
seeking redress for state sponsored human rights abuses and that
if these
were to increase, this would strain the organisation's capacity to
handle
the cases.
The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human
Rights (ZADHR) meanwhile said
on Monday that it was deeply concerned at the
level of force being used in
the arrest of opposition and civic rights
activists since the start of a
crackdown on March 11.
Six people had
received gunshot wounds, including activist Gift Tandare who
was shot dead
by police on March 11, it said.
"We have witnessed an increase in the
number of persons presenting with
injuries reportedly sustained from assault
and torture inflicted during the
course of arrest, during raids on the
victims' homes and while in police
custody," said the
ZADHR.
Forty-nine people had required hospital attention for injuries
sustained at
the hands of the police over the past month, while 175 others
had been taken
to hospital and discharged, the group said, adding that more
than 180 of the
victims had received moderate to severe soft tissue
injuries.
"We are already outstretched and I am talking about the cases
(of human
rights abuses) we are dealing with in Harare only. So if this
spreads to
other areas we will not be able to cope," Chimbwa
said.
Some innocent Zimbabweans who have been brutalised by the police
and
security agents have sought help from the ZLHR to sue the
police.
Political analysts said Mugabe had a history of sanctioning
violence when
under threat, adding that the upsurge in violence would
continue until after
the 2008 elections.
"Mugabe's tactic has been to
resort to violence when he feels threatened and
this has been perfected over
a long time," said John Makumbe, a political
science lecturer at the
University of Zimbabwe.
"So as we approach 2008 I am certain there will
be more victims of political
violence and subsequently this will worsen this
government's already
notorious human rights record," Makumbe, a known Mugabe
critic said.
Zimbabwe is grappling with a severe economic crisis that has
seen the once
prosperous country impoverished by Mugabe's controversial
polices, such as
seizing land from productive white-owned farmers to give to
blacks, which is
partly blamed for the plunge in the key agriculture
sector.
Mugabe denies responsibility for the crisis, instead he charges
that his
Western opponents are funding the MDC to topple him from
power.
The 83-year-old leader, who has in the past boasted that he has
degrees in
violence, last month openly admitted that the police had savaged
Tsvangirai
and other political and civic leaders, saying Tsvangirai would be
bashed
again if he continued to challenge his authority.
"State
brutality has become a measure of knowing whether we are close to an
election or not. There is an unofficial declaration of violence and I have
no doubt it will escalate as we get to the elections, this is the ZANU PF
way," Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the Tsvangirai-led MDC said. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 17 April 2007
By
Brian Ncube
BULAWAYO - Three more Zimbabwean opposition activists were
arrested over the
weekend as police intensify a crackdown that has seen main
opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai brutally assaulted and more than 600
activists of his
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party thrown into
jail.
Police on Saturday seized the three MDC activists, Nqobile Mguni,
27, Pius
Mpofu, 23 and Thubelihle Siwela 31 in the city of Bulawayo's
Sizinda suburb.
They were transferred on Monday morning to the police's
law and order
department in Harare that is notorious for torturing
opposition supporters
and other perceived government
opponents.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed the arrests of the
three
opposition activists but refused to say why they had been arrested or
when
the police would bring them to court.
"Our officers arrested
them for various crimes that they committed, which I
cannot reveal now,"
said Bvudzijena. He added: "It is our duty to arrest
suspects and take them
wherever we feel our investigations demand and nobody
is being tortured
while in police custody."
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi also
insisted the police were targeting
only people suspected of committing crime
and did not arrest anyone because
of their political affiliation.
"I
must stress that anyone who commits crime will be arrested regardless of
their political affiliation. We do not have any sacred cows here," said
Mohadi.
But spokesman of the Tsvangirai-led MDC Nelson Chamisa said
the arrests were
meant to dampen the spirit of the opposition party and to
eliminate some of
its activists ahead of crucial presidential and
parliamentary elections next
year.
Chamisa said: "This seems to be
ZANU PF's (President Robert Mugabe's ruling
party) strategy meant not only
to dampen our spirits but also to try and
eliminate some of us in the run-up
to the elections. Remember, there have
been attempted murder on some of us
while death threatening telephone calls
also continue coming."
The
MDC spokesman, who himself was three weeks ago brutally assaulted by
suspected state secret agents while trying to board a plane at Harare
International airport, said about 622 party activists had been arrested and
assaulted or tortured while in police custody in the past weeks.
The
bulk had been released in many cases without charge but 74 remained in
police cells he said.
"So far there are about 74 of our supporters
that are still detained by the
police here in Harare and it has been
difficult for us and our lawyers to
see them. We are being denied access by
the security agents holding them,"
said Chamisa.
Zimbabwe holds
presidential and parliamentary elections in 2008 which some
analysts have
said the government could lose citing the worsening economic
hardships that
many in Zimbabwe including some ZANU PF members blame on
government
mismanagement. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 17 April
2007
By Hendricks Chizhanje
HARARE - Zimbabwe's Central Statistical Office (CSO) on Monday said it
was
unable to release key inflation data for the month of March after a
virus
infected its computers.
The CSO, which earlier this year pledged to
release inflation figures
by the 10th of each month, failed to do so last
week without spelling out
the reasons for the delay in the crucial economic
data, which economists
project will shoot beyond 2 000 percent and set a new
world record.
Zimbabwe, grappling with its worst ever economic and
political crisis,
has the world's highest inflation which in February was
pegged at 1 728
percent.
CSO acting director Moffat Nyoni told
ZimOnline: "We encountered some
problems with our computer programmes
especially on data pertaining to rural
and urban consumer price index.
Unfortunately it involves writing new
computer programmes."
Nyoni was noncommittal when pressed further on when exactly the CSO
expected
to finish fixing its computers and have new inflation figures for
March
ready. "It is becoming an embarrassing question. We are still working
on
that (release of figures). It is taking longer than we thought," was all
Nyoni would say.
Economic and business experts say rapid money
supply growth and a
fresh wave of price increases across the board will push
inflation to new
heights.
"We are getting a lot of movement on
the parallel market and a lot of
people are parallel market pricing and
there is also explosion on money
supply growth. So I wouldn't be surprised
with a figure above 2 000
percent," said Tony Hawkins who teaches economics
at the University of
Zimbabwe's Graduate School of Management.
Inflation - which President Robert Mugabe has labelled Zimbabwe's
number one
enemy - is only one on a long list of troubles Zimbabweans have
to endure
since an economic meltdown that began in earnest in 1999.
Zimbabweans also have to grapple with rising poverty, unemployment of
more
than 80 percent, shortages of essential medicines, food, electricity,
hard
cash and just about every basic survival commodity.
Western
governments and the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change party
blame the economic crisis on repression and bad policies by
Mugabe, a charge
the veteran leader denies. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 17 April 2007
By Chenai
Maramba
CHINHOYI - The government's cash-strapped Grain Marketing Board
(GMB) could
be forced to fork out more than US$300 000 in compensation to
private
transport firms after a deal for the transporters to ferry maize
imported
from Zambia collapsed.
The Zambian government which last
year agreed to sell surplus maize to
Zimbabwe last month reneged on the
agreement resulting in transport
companies dispatched by the GMB to collect
maize from Lusaka returning home
empty.
The transport companies, who
say it was not their fault that the maize deal
fell through, are now
claiming US$330 000 to cover the costs of sending
several trucks to and from
Zambia as well as for lost potential earnings
after the cancellation of the
deal.
A senior official at a Harare-based haulage firm on Monday told
ZimOnline
that trucks hired from several transport firms in the country had
returned
empty from Lusaka after the Zambians indicated that they were no
longer in a
position to export maize to Zimbabwe.
"We were in Zambia
for almost three weeks but never got any maize supplies.
We were later told
by our seniors to come back home while the GMB sorts out
the mess," said the
official, who spoke on condition he was not named.
However, GMB chief
executive Retired Colonel Samuel Muvuti denied that hired
trucks came back
from Zambia empty.
"We have received 50 000 tonnes of maize of late and
it's not at depots but
we are sending it straight to millers in Bulawayo and
Masvingo. We are in a
crisis as we are facing food shortage," said
Muvuti.
But sources at GMB insisted that Zimbabwe's sole grain
distributor was still
to receive maize supplies from Zambia.
The
Zimbabwean government says it will need to import about 400 000 metric
tonnes of maize to feed its 12 million people after poor harvests this
year.
Zimbabwe has battled severe food shortages over the past seven
years after
President Robert Mugabe's government violently seized white
farms for
redistribution to landless blacks.
Zambian President Levy
Mwanawasa last month broke with tradition to openly
criticise Mugabe's
failed economic policies, likening Zimbabwe to "a
sinking Titanic". -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 17 April 2007
By Nigel
Hangarume
HARARE - Zimbabwe has accused the West of exerting pressure on
the
international football body FIFA to make sure the country does not
benefit
from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
South Africa has
asked FIFA to bend its rules and allow teams participating
in the World Cup
to be based in neighbouring countries during the tournament
to ease
accommodation pressure on the hosts.
There is speculation Zimbabwe could
be excluded from the proposed
arrangement - provided FIFA agrees - after
South Africa expressed fears the
political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe
could mess up the World Cup.
South Africa warned the volatile situation
in Zimbabwe had to be dealt with
urgently if the World Cup - the first on
the continent - is to be a success.
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief
executive Karikoga Kaseke has, however,
accused Western countries of trying
to influence Fifa and South Africa.
"South Africa has not said anything
about Zimbabwe not benefiting from the
World Cup, which is why we have been
invited to a 2010 workshop in
Johannesburg," Kaseke said at the
weekend.
"What we know is that our usual enemies, the Western nations led
by Britain,
have been trying by all means possible to influence Fifa and
South Africa to
exclude Zimbabwe from being part of the World
Cup."
South Africa will not be able to accommodate about 450 000 visitors
expected
for the World Cup, opening up an opportunity for neigbouring
countries to
benefit economically.
Zimbabwe has been busy trying to
spruce up tourist destinations, hotels and
stadia to lure World Cup teams
and visitors.
Kaseke, who is leading Zimbabwe's delegation at the 2010
World Cup workshop
in Johannesburg which started yesterday and ends today,
said the situation
in the country had been blown out of proportion by the
opposition and the
media.
"There have been disturbances in Zimbabwe
but the opposition and the media
have been blowing the situation out of
proportion," he said.
"However, we are glad Fifa and the South Africans
have not been entertaining
our political differences with the West. If
there's anything serious, we'll
know by the end of the workshop as we'll
hear from the hosts themselves."
Kaseke is in Johannesburg together with
Zimbabwe Football Association
chairman Karikoga Kaseke and chief executive
Henrietta Rushwaya. -
ZimOnline.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: April 16,
2007
LONDON: Britain's minister for Africa said Monday that
pressure to end
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's regime was now
"potentially
unstoppable."
Neighboring African states, such as South
Africa, are now confronting Mugabe
and have shifted from using quiet
diplomacy, Lord Triesman said.
"Quiet diplomacy has been urged on me. I
believe it has mostly been silent
rather than quiet," Triesman told a public
forum. "But I think it is now
audible. And I believe that change is now
potentially unstoppable."
South Africa issued its strongest criticism to
date of the Zimbabwe
government's brutal clampdown against opposition
leaders last month, but
stopped short of outright
condemnation.
Zimbabwe's neighbors are under increasing pressure to do
something about its
chaos - in part because it is spilling over in the form
of migrants fleeing
economic collapse and political clampdown. Zimbabwe's
economic and political
collapse also has hampered closer regional
integration and left a blot on
the region's human rights record.
"We
will play our part in turning round this grievous disaster," Triesman
said.
FROM THE ZIMBABWE VIGIL
Press Notice - 16th April
2007
Opponents
of Zimbabwe's President Mugabe are to demonstrate outside
Parliament in
London on Wednesday, 18th April, to mark the 27th anniversary
of Zimbabwean
Independence. They will present a petition to Kate Hoey,
Chair of the
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Zimbabwe. The demonstrators
will move to
Parliament after staging demonstrations outside the Zimbabwe
Embassy and the
South African High Commission.
The petition asks the British government
to increase pressure on African
leaders and to use its influence with its
international partners to resolve
the Zimbabwe crisis.
In particular,
demonstrators want the Security Council - currently led by
the UK - to
discuss the ongoing assault on any dissident opinion in
Zimbabwe. It has
seen hundreds of people tortured by the security forces. A
number have
died.
The demonstration has been called by the UK wing of the Zimbabwean
opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, whose leader Morgan
Tsvangirai was beaten up by the police a few weeks ago, suffering a
fractured skull.
The MDC has branches all over the UK and
demonstrators are expected from far
and wide. They have called on the Vigil
for support and will be joined by
many from the Vigil. Lucia Matibenga,
Women's Chair of the MDC in Zimbabwe
and Vice-President of the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trades Union will be at the
demonstration. Lucia knows at first
hand about the brutality of the Mugabe
regime. She was viciously assaulted
in September 2006 when the ZCTU tried
to hold a peaceful protest.
The
MDC UK Chair, Ephraim Tapa, said "Independence Day is no cause for
celebration by Zimbabweans. So many people are suffering. Our country is
dying and we urge the world to act to bring about a peaceful resolution to
the Zimbabwe crisis."
Schedule:
10 am - meet at the Zimbabwe
Embassy
11 am - move to the South African High Commission
12 pm - move to
10 Downing Street
12.45 pm - arrive at Parliament
1 pm - meet Kate Hoey
outside Parliament
2.15 pm - back at the Zimbabwe Embassy
Contacts
for Interviews and Information
Ephraim Tapa, Chair, MDC UK - 07940 793
090
Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa, Secretary, MDC UK - 07984 254 830
Jaison
Matewu, Organising Secretary, MDC UK - 07816 619 788
Vigil
co-ordinator
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London,
takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross
violations of
human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil
which started in
October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored,
free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
The Canberra Times
17 April 2007
Toni Hassan
IT'S ENOUGH to
make you weep. Zimbabwe's once thriving economy is on
the brink of collapse.
Robert Mugabe's post-independence paradise, the
erstwhile breadbasket of
Southern Africa, is now so dependent on
international aid millions would go
hungry without it. And still many do.
Even with significant aid,
Zimbabwe's life expectancy about 34 years
is among the lowest in the world.
Recent elections have been a farce and
people are being brutalised every day
by a regime led by an ageing despot
determined to cling to
power.
It has been that way for years but it took the senseless
bashing of
opposition members by ZANU-PF thugs to make us really sit up and
wrestle
with the question: "What can and must be done?"
Australia's John Howard attacked Zimbabwe's leader, calling him a
disaster
presiding over a "heap of misery".
But Howard, like Tony Blair and
George W. Bush, insists South Africa
can do more and should pressure Mugabe
to go.
"We pussyfoot around far too much using diplomatic
language," he said,
in the strongest sign yet that Australia thinks South
Africa's "quiet
diplomacy" has failed.
Zimbabwe's respected
neighbour is deeply affected by the crisis. More
than two million
Zimbabweans facing starvation have poured over its border,
most illegally.
So why has South Africa said so little?
Its President, Thabo Mbeki,
doubtless believes that everyone would be
best served if Mugabe departed the
political stage. He has brokered
countless deals with him over the years
many aimed at encouraging him to
exit politics with dignity but Mugabe has
always broken the arrangements. .
Despite this, Mbeki has said
little against Mugabe in public and is
reported to have merely told him
privately that some people are a little
annoyed with him.
The
reasons are complex and historical. Mbeki is politically torn
between his
party's left wing and parliamentary caucus that want action, and
others in
his party, described as Africanists, who are sympathetic to Mugabe
and view
Mbeki as a newcomer who should defer to Mugabe as an elder
statesman.
Zimbabwe's ties with South Africa run deep. Their
guerrilla armies
co-operated in their battles for independence.
When members of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement For Democratic Change
(MDC)
first sought support from South Africa, Mbeki was cautious, opting
instead
to consult with other African leaders through forums like the
African
Union.
Turning elsewhere, the MDC approached the South African
opposition
Democratic Alliance, a predominantly white party. Its leader Tony
Leon
embraced the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangarai as his "Man in
Zim".
But this only served to undermine Tsvangarai's credibility
with South
Africa's ruling African National Congress (it also offered Mugabe
a new
excuse to label Tsvangarai a political lackey of the
West).
Mbeki has, meanwhile, tried to persuade Tsvangarai that
talks for a
negotiated settlement and power-sharing arrangement within
Zimbabwe should
include a blanket amnesty for Mugabe and his cronies, but
the MDC leader is
adamant they should return the millions reportedly looted
from the state.
As a strong opponent of the US-led war in Iraq,
South Africa is also
deeply sceptical of the whole idea of "regime
change".
Some within Mugabe's ruling party are convinced Zimbabwe
is next in
line for a US-led invasion. As an unapologetic proponent of
African
solutions for African problems and a staunch anti-imperialist, Mbeki
does
not want Western nations involved.
As well, Mbeki is
reluctant to go it alone and oppose a belligerent
African despot because the
one and only time he did act against one, back in
1995, his fingers were
badly burnt.
The despot was Nigeria's General Sani Abachi, who was
planning to
execute the activist and playwright Ken Saro Wiwa. South
Africa's president
at the time, Nelson Mandela, sent his then deputy Thabo
Mbeki to persuade
Abachi to spare Saro Wiwa's life.
But when
Mbeki met Abachi, the general made it clear he was not
impressed with newly
democratic South Africa cosying up to the West and had
Saro Wiwa cruelly
executed.
Political observers say Mbeki agonised over the details
of his meeting
with Abachi, the ANC's first public foray into African
politics, and
concluded that Saro Wiwa was dead not because quiet diplomacy
had failed but
because South Africa had been the sole voice of African
criticism against
Abachi.
So, even when Robert Mugabe was
inciting his so-called war veterans to
force white farmers and black workers
from their properties, Mbeki did not
speak out, merely stating his
preference for land ownership to be resolved
in accordance with the rule of
law. Even when Mugabe was bulldozing the
homes of his own citizens, forcing
more than 250,000 onto the streets,
Mbeki, again, was muted in his
reaction.
If Mbeki wanted to bring about change in Zimbabwe he
easily could. For
one thing, most of Zimbabwe's fuel passes through South
Africa.
Quiet diplomacy has failed to stop the destruction in
Zimbabwe. One
can only hope Mbeki admits defeat and changes
course.
Toni Hassan was born in South Africa and is a former ABC
journalist.
She coordinates public affairs for Anglicare in
Canberra.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
16 April
2007
A spokesman for the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, an umbrella
for opposition
religious, civic and political organizations, said Monday the
group was it
held a prayer meeting on Saturday in Bulawayo without any
violence or
clashes with the police.
Police initially banned the
meeting but later agreed to let it go ahead on
condition that no political
leaders address the gathering. But opposition
Movement for Democratic Change
faction leader Arthur Mutambara ultimately
spoke to the gathering, though
restricting his comments to nonpolitical
aspects of the national
crisis.
A prayer meeting called on March 11 by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign
in the
Harare suburb of Highfield led to a confrontation in which an
activist was
shot dead.
Reverend Morris Nduri of Malawi also
addressed the meeting, urging
Zimbabweans to cast away their fears and stand
up against President Robert
Mugabe.
Pastor Ray Motsi of the Christian
Alliance told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
in future his group will try not to mix
religion and politics - while
leaving the door open to speakers who offer
solutions to the country's
long-running political and increasingly severe
economic crisis.
VOA
By Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
Washington
16
April 2007
Zimbabweans involved in fighting HIV/AIDS say they
would welcome a policy
shift by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan For AIDS
Relief, or PEPFAR, so
as to permit the shifting of funds to pragmatic means
of infection
prevention and drug treatment from programs promoting
abstinence, to which a
third of funds are now dedicated.
PEPFAR has
been an important source of funding for developing countries
struggling to
contain the HIV/AIDS pandemic and help those infected with HIV
or ill with
AIDS. But the program has come under fire for its emphasis on
abstinence and
being faithful in marriage and relationships, an approach
critics have
described as impractical.
Zimbabwe is not one of 15 PEPFAR focus
countries, but it does receive a
substantial amount of funding from the
program and has been subject to
PEPFAR restrictions.
A recent report
from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research
Council found that
congressional or administration restrictions on the use
of funds were
hampering efforts to limit the spread of the HIV/AIDS
pandemic. U.S. law
requires countries that receive PEPFAR funds to spend a
third on
abstinence-until-marriage programs.
Critics say PEPFAR has put too much
emphasis on the first two components of
the so-called "ABC" strategy
advocating abstinence, being faithful and using
condoms.
Reporter
Ndimyake Mwakalyele of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe discussed the
ABC debate
with two Zimbabean experts: researcher Noah Taruberekera of
Population
Services International, and Dr. Frank Guni, a Washington-based
independent
consultant on HIV/AIDS and other public health issues.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
16 April
2007
Members of Zimbabwe's parliament said Monday that they
regretted a decision
by the Harare government to pull the plug on an
eight-year-old program under
which the U.S. Agency for International
Development was supporting
parliamentary committees.
The Harare
government charged that the USAID program was part of a U.S.
effort to
discredit the government of President Robert Mugabe and to induce
regime
change. Government officials cited language in a recent U.S. State
Department report on human rights activities in Zimbabwe, among many other
countries.
That report that U.S. rights programs sought to maintain
pressure on the
Zimbabwean government , but did not say that regime change
was the
objective.
The report, entitled "Supporting Human Rights and
Democracy," said that,
"The U.S. strategy for fostering human rights and
democracy in [Zimbabwe] is
three-fold: to maintain pressure on the Mugabe
regime; to strengthen
democratic forces, and to provide humanitarian aid for
those left vulnerable
by poor governance."
Regarding the USAID
program, it stated that "a U.S.-sponsored program to
strengthen
parliamentary committees resulted in increased debate in
parliament - both
from opposition and reform-minded ZANU-PF
parliamentarians - and encouraged
greater transparency through public
hearings on
legislation."
Official sources told VOA that the decision caused tension
in the
government. Justice They said Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa,
Clerk of
Parliament Austin Zvoma and ZANU-PF Chief Whip Joram Gumbo resisted
the
move, but were overruled by cabinet ministers backed by Cabinet
Secretary
Misheck Sibanda and George Charamba, a government spokesman and
Information
Ministry permanent secretary.
The government recently
took umbrage at another passage in the same document
saying that "the U.S.
Government continued to support the efforts of the
political opposition, the
media and civil society to create and defend
democratic space and to support
persons who criticized the government."
The parliamentary program,
implemented by the State University of New York,
was intended to strengthen
committees, promote debate by opposition and
reform-minded ruling party
legislators, and increase transparency, the U.S.
report
said.
Analysts said Harare in terminating the program sought to divert
attention
from the country's crisis and justify an ongoing crackdown on the
opposition.
Harare has repeatedly accused Washington of working with
the opposition to
topple President Mugabe, a charge both the opposition and
Washington have
denied.
ZANU-PF Chief Whip Gumbo told Blessing Zulu
of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
that he and others were not pleased with
statements from Washington which
Harare took as evidence that USAID's
assistance was aimed at bringing regime
change.
Parliamentary Public
Accounts Chairwoman Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga of
the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change faction led by Arthur
Mutambara said that
USAID and the State University of New York had been very
helpful.
Chief Whip Innocent Gonese of the MDC faction headed by by
Morgan Tsvangirai
said Harare is making propaganda at the expense of
parliament's good work.
The Economist
Apr 16th 2007
From
Economist.com
Big-game hunting for small-minded people
IF YOU
want to shoot a lion without any risk to yourself, you had better
hurry.
From June 1st it will be illegal in South Africa to shoot a lion
while it is
caught in a cage or a bear-trap. Farms will no longer be allowed
to trot out
tame or drugged game to be mown down by wealthy but inept
hunters. "Canned
hunting", the government proudly insists, has been banned.
Animal-rights
activists are not so sure. They point out that the law still
allows hunters
to lure lions, leopards and hyena with bait, and to dazzle
leopards and
hyenas with a bright light, before blasting away at them.
Although hunters
can no longer use crossbows to kill the biggest and most
endangered species,
many others, including buffaloes, hippos and wildebeest,
will still be fair
game.
Presumably the South African authorities do not want to crack down
too
severely, for fear of denting revenues from trophy hunting, which is the
fastest-growing form of "agriculture" in the country. In less diversified
African economies, trophy-hunting looms even larger. One study found that it
accounted for 8% of Zimbabwe's GDP in 2000-quite an incentive to keep the
hunters happy.
Canned hunting is not only an African pastime. The
Humane Society of the
United States reckons that roughly 1000 firms offer
canned hunts for
different species of mammal in America. Some of those
outfits import big
game from Africa. Most offer more mundane quarry such as
deer and pigs. Dick
Cheney, America's vice president, copped some flak for
killing 70 game birds
in a canned hunt four years ago-although less than he
received when he
accidentally shot a fellow hunter last year. The Humane
Society described
the first incident, in which 417 birds were gunned down in
a few hours, as
an "open-air abattoir".
Firms offering canned hunting
do not describe it so very differently. Many
offer "no kill, no bill"
packages. The sales pitch goes something like this:
why bother to stalk an
animal that might elude you, or worse, hurt you,
through prickly undergrowth
and inclement weather, when, for a modest fee,
you can bag an impressive
trophy, hassle-free, at a pre-ordained place and
time? The neighbours need
never know.
Needless to say, animal-rights activists despise the idea.
Public-health
experts worry that it is helping to spread chronic wasting
disease, a
variant of "mad-cow" disease afflicting deer and elk. Frank
Lautenberg, a
senator from New Jersey, has tabled a bill to ban canned
hunting in America,
although it is making little progress. Even some hunters
object. The Boone
and Crockett Club, a hunting and conservation club founded
by Teddy
Roosevelt, condemns canned hunting because it gives hunters "an
unfair
advantage".
But guns themselves, to which the Boone and
Crockett Club does not object,
also give hunters an edge over their prey. If
canned hunting seems
particularly tasteless and self-indulgent, it does not
necessarily cause its
victims more pain than the free-range hunting.
Bullfights and fox hunts are
certainly more bloodthirsty. Hunting for sport
is not a terribly humane
pursuit to begin with.
Or, at least, it
hasn't been until recently. But now a gentler variant of
hunting, called
dart hunting, is gaining in popularity. The hunter stalks
his prey with
tranquilliser darts instead of bullets. All being well, he
gets a photo of
himself standing over a prone beast; and the animal gets to
walk away later,
albeit slightly groggily. The hunter still needs to be a
decent marksman, of
course-at least until some enterprising soul comes up
with the first canned
dart-hunting operation.