VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
16 April
2008
The United Nations Security Council in a summit
session with African Union
leaders took up the crisis in Zimbabwe on
Wednesday in New York, producing
some of the strongest statements to date on
the nation's post-election
crisis from the international community, though
the African leadership
mainly avoided the issue.
U.N. Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon placed the matter before the summit over
the objections
of South Africa, which maintained that the Zimbabwean
question should be
dealt with by the Southern African Development Community
regional
grouping.
"I am deeply concerned at the uncertainty created by the
prolonged
non-release of the election results in Zimbabwe," Ban told the
high-level
gathering. "Absent a transparent solution to this impasse, the
situation
could deteriorate further with serious implications for the people
of
Zimbabwe," he warned. The U.N. chief added ominously that "the
credibility
of the democratic process in Africa could be at
stake."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was more blunt. "No one
thinks, having
seen the results of polling stations, that President (Robert)
Mugabe has
won" the March 29 elections in Zimbabwe, Brown told the UN-AU
summit.
"A stolen election would not be a democratic election at all,"
Brown said.
"Let a single clear message go out from here in New York that we
... stand
solidly behind democracy and human rights for
Zimbabwe."
The remarks by Ban and Brown were in stark contrast with the
assessment
offered by South African President Thabo Mbeki on Saturday, when
he declared
during a visit to Harare on his way to an extraordinary SADC
summit that
"there is no crisis."
As of Wednesday 18 days had elapsed
since the ballots, but the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission had not announced
the results of the presidential
election. Results of the house election
showed the combined opposition
claiming a majority, in itself a major
setback for Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF,
which has ruled continuously since
1980.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said he was "gravely concerned
about the
escalating politically motivated violence perpetrated by security
forces and
ruling party militias" in rural areas where ZANU-PF held sway
until the
recent elections.
African leaders in New York avoided the
subject. Mbeki, chairing the
session, focused on general AU-Security Council
cooperation in peacekeeping,
Reuters reported.
The sole exception was
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who currently
holds the African Union
chair. He praised SADC for doing a "tremendous job
... to ensure that the
will of the people of Zimbabwe is respected," Reuters
reported.
Rejecting the strong statements in the Security Council,
Zimbabwean
Ambassador to the U.N. Boniface Chidyausiku told reporter
Blessing Zulu of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that there is no crisis in
Zimbabwe and
maintained that such depictions of the post-election situation
reflect a
Western desire to discredit Harare.
Political analyst Joy
Mabhenge, director of the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt
and Development said
the debate at the U.N. was an important development.
Minutes ahead of Mr.
Mbeki's opening of the session, a helicopter hovered
over the U.N.
headquarters with a banner urging Mbeki to take stronger
action.
The Scotsman
By ROSS LYDALL
POLITICAL
EDITOR
ROBERT Mugabe, the Zimbabwe dictator, must not be allowed to steal
his
country's presidential election and hang on to power illegally, Gordon
Brown
warned the world last night.
The Prime Minister, in his most
outspoken comments on the chaos enveloping
the African country, in effect
accused Mr Mugabe of being prepared to break
the law to stay in
office.
The warning came as police and militants loyal to Mr Mugabe
cracked down on
opponents yesterday , with police arresting 36 people and
doctors reporting
scores of cases of presumed assault and
torture.
Addressing the United Nations security council in New York, Mr
Brown said
no-one believed Mr Mugabe had triumphed in the election, which
remains
undeclared after almost three weeks.
He said: "No-one thinks,
having seen the result at the polling stations,
that President Mugabe has
won this election. A stolen election would not be
an election at all. The
credibility of the democratic process depends on
there being a legitimate
government."
Mr Brown made the plight of Zimbabwe the key part of a short
address to a
security council debate on the African Union.
Earlier
this week, Mr Mugabe, who has held power since 1980, dismissed Mr
Brown as a
"tiny dot in this world".
Police last night accused those arrested
yesterday of trying to enforce
violently a nationwide strike called by
Zimbabwe's opposition to demand the
results of presidential elections that
Mr Mugabe is widely believed to have
lost.
But Zimbabwe Doctors for
Human Rights said it treated 174 cases of injuries
consistent with assault
and torture since the vote, including 17 yesterday.
Most victims this week
suffered multiple fractures.
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for
Democratic Change believes its leader,
Morgan Tsvangirai, won the 29 March
election. This is disputed by Mr
Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.
In his
speech, Mr Brown urged the international community to send a "single,
clear
message" that it wanted democracy in the southern African nation and
was
ready to help its people to build a better future.
He talked of the
international community's "shame" for failing to intervene
to halt the
bloodshed in Rwanda in the early 1990s and said there was still
a "gaping
hole" in its ability to address illegal uprisings in Africa.
Britain is
to train 12,000 African peacekeepers to boost the 28,000 troops
available
now.
Earlier, at the start of his three-day visit to the US, Mr Brown had
upgraded the "special relationship" between Britain and America to a "very
special relationship" and predicted it would get stronger whoever succeeded
George Bush.
Mr Brown will today meet Republican presidential nominee
John McCain, and
Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama.
He told Good Morning America: "The relationship between Britain
and America
is strong but it will be stronger. It is a very special
relationship."
Chancellor admits Labour must find way to sharpen up its
act
ALISTAIR Darling has admitted that the government needs to "sharpen
up" its
act if it is to regain its popularity.
The Chancellor has
become the most senior minister so far to admit that a
change in tactics is
needed to counter backbench unrest and a Conservative
revival in the
polls.
His remarks were seized upon by the Tories as an "unprecedented
attack on
the Prime Minister" – though Mr Darling made no mention of Gordon
Brown in
the interview, which he gave yesterday at the end of a three-day
trip to
China.
Mr Darling said the government would survive the
current period of
unpopularity "because the economy is fundamentally
strong".
He added: "But we have also got to make sure that in other areas
we sharpen
ourselves up, that we have a clear message of what we are
about."
Speaking to the financial news agency Bloomberg in Chongqing, Mr
Darling
implied that Labour had to return to its roots and remember why it
had
fought for power in the first place.
He said: "This is a time
where we should remember why we stand for
government, the purpose of being
in government, to build a fairer society
and to create opportunity for
people. We should never forget that.
"We have an awful lot more to do,
and we will get through this patch."
Earlier this week Hazel Blears, the
communities secretary, conceded that the
government faced "difficult
times".
Rhodri Morgan, the First Minister of Wales, and the former home
secretary
David Blunkett joined the chorus of disapproval over the removal
of the 10p
income tax band and concern mounted at proposals to extend the
amount of
time terror suspects can be held without charge from 28 to 42
days.
George Osborne, the Tory shadow chancellor, said: "What started as
anonymous
briefings from backbenchers has now burst into the open with a
public attack
on Gordon Brown from the second most important person in the
government. If
the government is fighting itself, how can it fight for
Britain?"
Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, said:
"Many people
will be staggered to hear that only now, six months into a
financial crisis,
the Chancellor is starting to admit there is a
problem."
The full article contains 862 words and appears in The
Scotsman newspaper.
Last Updated: 17 April 2008 12:49 AM
Independent, UK
by David Usborne and Colin Brown in New York
Thursday, 17
April 2008
Gordon Brown used the world's top diplomatic table to accuse
Robert Mugabe
of trying to steal the election in Zimbabwe, increasing
pressure on the
regime and embarrassing the President's chief political
protector, South
Africa's Thabo Mbeki.
World leaders, gathered at the
United Nations in New York yesterday, served
notice to President Mbeki that
they have lost patience with his repeated
assertions that there remains "no
crisis" in neighbouring Zimbabwe. Results
of elections held there almost
three weeks ago are still being withheld.
Britain and other Western
countries used a special session of the Security
Council, called by the
South African leader who holds the chairmanship of
the council, to call for
the release of results that could spell an end to
the 28-year rule of Mr
Mugabe. They stopped just short of berating Mr Mbeki
personally for his
refusal to intervene directly.
Mr Mbeki's attempts to keep the subject of
Zimbabwe off the agenda were
roundly thwarted. First Mr Brown and then the
UN secretary general, Ban
Ki-Moon, signalled that the international
community can no longer ignore the
situation.
Mr Brown, at the start
of a three-day visit to America, suggested that Mr
Mugabe was trying to
"steal" the 29 March election. "No one thinks, having
seen the results of
polling stations, that President Mugabe has won," he
told the session, which
was attended by presidents from several African
states, including Somalia,
Ivory Coast and Tanzania.
"A stolen election would not be a democratic
election at all," he went on.
"Let a single clear message go out from here
in New York that we... stand
solidly behind democracy and human rights for
Zimbabwe."
Mr Ban said the credibility of democracy in Africa was at
stake. The
secretary general also ignored Mr Mbeki's attempts to keep
Zimbabwe off the
agenda. "The situation could deteriorate further with
serious implications
for the people of Zimbabwe," he said, adding: "The
Zimbabwean authorities
and the countries of the region have insisted that
these methods are for the
region to resolve. But the international community
continues to watch and
wait for decisive action. The credibility of the
democratic process in
Africa could be at stake here."
While little
more than diplomatic theatre – there was no attempt by Britain
or its allies
to draft a resolution to condemn the Mugabe regime for fear it
would almost
certainly fail – the session served to underline the increasing
isolation of
Mr Mbeki.
In recent days he has come under pressure even from his own
party to
acknowledge that Zimbabwe is in deep crisis.
After the
session, Mr Brown again spoke. "We don't have the presidential
results
published yet," he said. "What you have seen [at the UN] is the
determination of the international community saying the results have got to
be published. They've got to be transparent. Everything has got to be above
board."
Mr Mbeki came to New York fresh from being chastised by Jacob
Zuma, who won
the leadership of the ruling African National Congress party
last December.
Signalling discord with Mr Mbeki over Zimbabwe, Mr Zuma said
the region
"cannot afford a deepening crisis in Zimbabwe. The situation is
more
worrying now given the reported violence that has erupted." He added.
"The
delay in the verification process and release of results increases
anxiety
each day."
If speakers at the UN, including Mr Brown, held
back directly from
criticising Mr Mbeki at the public session, it was for
fear that he might
dig his heels in deeper and it would therefore be
counterproductive. "We are
worried that if we attack Mbeki, he will become
more stubborn than ever. He
did that over Aids in Africa and we don't want
that to happen on Zimbabwe,"
said one British source.
Mr Brown has
privately urged African leaders to put pressure on Mr Mbeki
behind the
scenes. The Prime Minister held private talks with Jakaya
Kikwete, President
of Tanzania and chairman of the African Union, to press
Mr Mbeki to take a
tougher stance. Mr Kikwete told the UN session that the
regional
organisation, the Southern African Development Community, wanted
"to ensure
the will of the people of Zimbabwe is respected". He said that
this would be
the spirit of meetings that would be held soon, and that the
organisation
needed to be supported.
Independent, UK
William M Gumede:
Thursday, 17 April
2008
South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki desperately did not want
Zimbabwe to be
debated by the United Nations, he prefers "African solutions
for Africa's
problems".
That is obviously an admirable and also the
right sentiment. The problem is
that, in the case of Zimbabwe, it has not
worked. It has failed
disastrously. That is what even his own party is now
telling him.
Mr Mbeki wanted more time but African National Congress
members – in no
uncertain terms – have told him time has run out after five
years of quiet
diplomacy in Zimbabwe. The big irony is Mr Mbeki has never
warmed to Mr
Mugabe, and Mr Mugabe loathes Mr Mbeki. In the first place, the
ANC never
allied to Zanu-PF during its liberation struggle. Even at
Zimbabwe's first
independence elections, the ANC supported Zapu, Zanu-PF's
rival.
And now, at the very end, while knowing that Mr Mugabe is the
problem, Mr
Mbeki still cannot countenance the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change
getting to power.
He would rather contemplate Simba
Makoni, the former Zanu-PF guerrilla and
finance minister, who was the third
candidate in the presidential election,
rather than Morgan Tsvangirai, the
former trade union leader, now head of
the MDC. Why? Mr Mbeki, like other
African liberation leaders of his age,
believe that only those who fought in
the liberation struggle can be trusted
to lead. Mr Tsvangirai was a trade
unionist during the Zimbabwean liberation
struggle.
They also believe
that those who break away from a liberation movement, as
Mr Tsvangirai did
in 1999, are akin to traitors. Mr Mbeki appears to think
that by giving Mr
Mugabe a soft landing he will protect the good ideals of
the anti-colonial
liberation struggle. By still wanting to accommodate Mr
Mugabe, after all
the misery the tyrant has unleashed against his own
people, in the name of
struggle solidarity, Mr Mbeki is in fact destroying
the grand idea of the
liberation struggle.
The wider ANC understands all of that.
All Mr
Mbeki needs to say publicly is that he opposes everything that Mr
Mugabe
stands for. That would be the nudge needed to finally push Mr Mugabe
out.
Just the fact that Mr Mbeki said the Zimbabwean crisis was "manageable"
firmed up Mr Mugabe's position when he was most vulnerable.
By not
dealing decisively with Mr Mugabe, Mr Mbeki's much vaunted African
solutions
for Africa's problems have been dealt a devastating blow. It is
now to those
outside Africa, to solve this deep African problem.
WM Gumede is author
of 'Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC'
Financial Times
By Alec Russell
in Johannesburg,
Published: April 16 2008 23:06 | Last updated: April 16
2008 23:06
South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki’s policy of ”quiet
diplomacy” towards
his counterpart in Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe is under fire
at home as never
before with many in his own party openly calling for a more
confrontational
approach.
Jacob Zuma, his political foe, who ousted
him as head of the African
National Congress last December, gave the
clearest signal yet on Wednesday
that he disagrees with Mr Mbeki’s response
to the failure by the Zimbabwean
authorities to release last month’s
election results.
In a speech to businesspeople Mr Zuma said: ”The
region cannot afford a
deepening crisis in Zimbabwe. The situation is more
worrying now given the
reported violence that has erupted in the
country.”
His use of the word ”crisis” was widely seen as a dig at Mr Mbeki
who was
ridiculed in South African media and by Zimbabwe’s opposition at the
weekend
after he emerged from a meeting with Mr Mugabe, hand-in-hand, to say
there
was no crisis over the results.
Since the president championed
”quiet diplomacy” in 2000 when Mr Mugabe
authorised the controversial
expropriation of several thousand commercial
farms, South Africa’s main
opposition party, the Democratic Alliance and
many in the media have accused
him of being an apologist for Harare.
He has previously shrugged off such
criticism suggesting it is infused with
Eurocentric values and lacks an
understanding of Zimbabwe’s complexities.
But now the new leaders of the ANC
are publicly arguing it is time to change
policy.
Mr Zuma’s comments
came in the wake of a blistering critique of the region’s
record on
Zimbabwe, by Matthews Phosa, the ANC’s treasurer-general, one of
the party’s
new leaders who swept into senior positions last December. He
said last
weekend’s summit of southern African leaders, who ended up calling
for a
speedy release of results but stopping short of applying any concerted
pressure on Mr Mugabe, was woefully inadequate. ”We should put more pressure
on the government of Zimbabwe” and with ”the utmost urgency” he
said.
In a briefing in Pretoria, Mr Mbeki’s senior aide on Zimbabwe,
Sydney
Mufamadi, defended his record, called for the Zimbabwean authorities
to be
allowed more time, and said South Africa’s role as a mediator still
had a
long way to run.
”The public of Zimbabwe has a right to be
assisted through a process which
is likely to yield results, rather than one
which is only likely to provide
us with exciting sound bites,” he
said.
In an editorial, Business Day, the Financial Times’ sister paper,
said
history would judge Mr Mbeki ”terribly harshly” for his handling of the
Zimbabwe crisis: ”On the strength of his handling of the Zimbabwe situation
alone, the sooner his term as president and SA’s diplomat-in-chief ends, the
better for all concerned.”
The Zimbabwean
Wednesday, 16 April 2008 16:15
BY NTANDO NCUBE
JOHANNESBURG
South Africa's opposition African Christian Democratic
Party (ACDP)
has expressed disappointment at African leaders over the
Zimbabwe crisis
after they failed to come up with a solution over Zimbabwe's
election saga.
Speaking at a press conference in Johannesburg, ACDP
President Kenneth
Meshoe said: "SADC leaders, including our President Mbeki,
have failed
Africa and particularly the people of Zimbabwe, yet again. The
ACDP finds it
bizarre that they can call an emergency summit on Zimbabwe's
post-election
crisis - yet conclude there is no crisis!"
He added:
"Why are the SADC leaders also talking about a possible
presidential run-off
vote when the results have not even been announced?
This shows their support
of Robert Mugabe's position regardless of the true
voting numbers and the
legality of it. They know the pitiful condition of
the people and the
nation's economy; they know that results would have been
declared
immediately had Robert Mugabe won the election.
"The actions of the
SADC leaders increase the perception that there is
either a brotherhood that
has committed itself to standing by each other
regardless of the plight of
the masses - or there is some kind of spell at
work here."
Worldwide petition calls for pressure on Mugabe
People around the world
are signing an online petition to urge South
African President Thabo Mbeki
to put pressure on Robert Mugabe.
"Zimbabwe is on a knife's edge
between democracy and chaos," says
online movement for democracy Avaaz.org.
"Mugabe is unlikely to listen to
the world's outcry, but he might listen to
his old friend and powerful
neighbour Thabo Mbeki.
"Mbeki said last
Monday that ‘it's time to wait' on Zimbabwe. But the
more time passes, the
greater the danger grows that the will of Zimbabwe's
people will be
ignored."
Avaaz launched the petition last week to its African members.
Now, the
organisation wants people around the world to add their voices in
solidarity
and take the pressure to the next level.
Avaaz says they
will do all they can to deliver the petition to Mbeki
through diplomatic
channels, over the radio, and in a public event when
Mbeki travels to New
York for a United Nations meeting this week.
The petition is at
www.avaaz.org/en/democracy_for_zimbabwe/7.php?cl=72387981
"In a crisis like this, a petition is just a small step, but it's
something
all of us can do, to raise our voices and call for what's right.
And, as
history shows, international solidarity can be a powerful thing,"
says
Avaaz.
Reuters
Wed 16 Apr 2008,
22:46 GMT
By Louis Charbonneau and Patrick Worsnip
UNITED NATIONS,
April 16 (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki on
Wednesday
dismissed suggestions that he is blind to the gravity of the
situation in
Zimbabwe and insisted that talking with all parties was the
only
solution.
"We need to talk at all times with both the ruling party and
the
opposition," Mbeki told a news conference after chairing a summit of the
U.N. Security Council and African Union. "You've got to sit and discuss with
them."
No results have been announced from the March 29 presidential
election in
Zimbabwe, a former British colony. The opposition accuses
President Robert
Mugabe of trying to steal the election and say he is
preparing a violent
crackdown.
Like all but two of some two dozen
African speakers, Mbeki did not mention
Zimbabwe during the summit itself,
which he chaired.
But after the meeting, reporters bombarded him with
questions about
Zimbabwe, pressing a defensive Mbeki to explain repeatedly
why he was
pursuing "quiet diplomacy."
"I don't know whatever is
meant by quiet diplomacy," he said. "What is loud
diplomacy?"
One
reporter replied that "loud diplomacy" was the speech by British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown, who told the summit: "No one thinks ... that
President Mugabe has won."
Mbeki said: "Well it's not diplomacy in
that case, it can't be."
Asked whether he was taking a soft approach to
Zimbabwe because he was
blinded by the 84-year-old Mugabe's reputation as a
hero in the fight
against white minority rule in southern Africa, Mbeki
dismissed the
suggestion.
"I am saying the very fact that we have a
mediation process like this on the
political side is because we say there
are things that have gone wrong,"
Mbeki said. "There are many wrong things
with the politics of Zimbabwe."
He declined to comment on U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's proposal that
international monitors be sent
to Zimbabwe if a new round of presidential
elections were
held.
"That's a matter that would have to be put to the government of
Zimbabwe,"
Mbeki said, adding that any new round would have to free of
violence.
Mbeki, who has been heavily criticized at home for his stance
on Zimbabwe,
said he and the Southern Africa Development Community would
insist that
Zimbabwe's opposition have the opportunity to participate in
verifying the
election results.
He also denied press reports that he
had refused to call Zimbabwe's problem
a "crisis."
"I never said any
such thing," he said, though he declined to say whether or
not he thought
the word "crisis" applied. (Writing by Louis Charbonneau;
Editing by Chris
Wilson)
The Telegraph
By Peta
Thornycroft in Harare and Sebastien Berger in Johannesburg
Last Updated:
11:24pm BST 16/04/2008
More than half of Zimbabwe's
remaining white farmers have seen their
land invaded by mobs loyal to
President Robert Mugabe since the bitterly
disputed election, it emerged
yesterday.
Of the roughly 200 white commercial farmers who still
survive in
Zimbabwe, about 120 have had their land occupied, either in whole
or in
part. About 28 have been evicted, while the rest are either clinging
on
inside their homesteads or coming and going as the situation
allows.
After spending days helping victims of the occupations,
Trevor
Gifford, the president of the Commercial Farmers' Union, has been
singled
out himself. Supporters of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party have invaded
his sheep
and cattle farm near Chipinge, 220 miles south-east of the
capital, Harare.
"My four top workers at the farm have been
brutally beaten," he said.
"I can't get on to the farm myself but they sent
me messages. It is wild out
there. They have been taking my animals and
killing them and I have asked
the police to attend."
Stock
theft carries a possible 20-year prison sentence, but the police
response
had been mixed, he said, and Zimbabwe's abysmal phone networks were
slowing
the flow of information to the CFU.
Mr Gifford said: "I know that
farm workers of some of the farmers who
have been chased off are refusing to
go back to work. The mobs have told
them not to work for white men, which is
quite serious for those harvesting
crops."
The first area to be
targeted was Centenary, and Mr Gifford said local
farmers were "scared out
of their wits".
A farmer in Masvingo province, who declined to be
identified for fear
of reprisals, said his plight had worsened dramatically
since the early
invasions - which he described as "the good old
days".
"We have had a neighbour abducted," he said. "Yesterday I
had 20
Zanu-PF youths chasing my staff and trying to kill them. They are
digging
the farm and harassing the staff - unfortunately those poor chaps
are in the
front line of this."
He had been left with nowhere
to graze his animals, which were being
stolen. "They are throwing the
livestock off my farm," he said.
He compared his experience with
the farm invasions that followed Mr
Mugabe's defeat in a referendum on a new
constitution in Feb 2000. Those
events also marked the start of President
Thabo Mbeki of South Africa's
diplomatic campaign to restore calm in
Zimbabwe. The farmer described that
as a "bloody waste of
time".
Mr Mbeki faced further criticism yesterday from the man who
defeated
him for the leadership of the ruling African National Congress.
Jacob Zuma,
who became ANC president in December, explicitly contradicted Mr
Mbeki's
statement at the weekend that there was "no crisis" in
Zimbabwe.
Addressing a business audience near Johannesburg, Mr Zuma
said: "The
region cannot afford a deepening crisis in Zimbabwe. The
situation is more
worrying now given the reported violence that has erupted
in the country.
Ladies and gentlemen, we once again register our
apprehension about the
situation in Zimbabwe."
Around 50
supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change,
including a
newly elected MP, were arrested yesterday.
Zim Online
by Edith Kaseke Thursday 17 April
2008
HARARE – Zimbabweans will tomorrow commemorate
Independence Day uncertain of
their political future and gripped by fear
that a three-week election
stalemate could spiral into open violence, as
President Robert Mugabe looks
determined to hang on to power despite losing
last month’s vote.
The 84-year-old Mugabe was handed his first election
defeat in the March 29
polls when his ruling ZANU PF party lost its
parliamentary majority to the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change,
(MDC) for the first time since
independence in 1980.
But electoral
officials are yet to issue much the awaited results of a
parallel
presidential vote, which ZANU PF acknowledges Mugabe lost to MDC
leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, although they say a second round of voting is
required to
settle the contest.
The MDC says it won outright and wants Mugabe to hand
over power
immediately.
“People are afraid, they are uncertain and
you will see that there will not
be much in terms of celebrations we have
seen in the past,” said John
Makumbe, a senior political science lecturer at
the University of Zimbabwe.
“People are not talking about independence
but about the results. But even
from the government side, there is nothing
much pointing towards
independence celebrations. It is time for reflection
and the mood in that
camp shows you all is not well,” said
Makumbe.
Mugabe will make his first public appearance on Friday when he
leads the
nation in the celebrations and is widely expected to set the tone
for his
campaign during the expected run-off period, which Tsvangirai says
will only
participate in if international observers are present.
But
events on the ground already point to a campaign of violence and
intimidation in rural areas, where thousands of supporters rallied behind
Tsvangirai.
The involvement in the campaign of the military and,
especially the hawkish
Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander Constantine
Chiwenga and Police
Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri, has raised fears
of bloodshed ahead
of the run-off.
“I am really scared with all those
stories we are hearing from the rural
areas, especially in Mashonaland
East,” Tariro Kamocha, a Harare-based
trainee accountant said, echoing fears
among many Zimbabweans.
Mashonaland East province, a ZANU PF stronghold
where the MDC made
significant inroads, is bearing the brunt of the ruling
party’s violent
retribution campaign that has blighted the festive mood that
normally
accompanies independence celebrations.
That and an economy
with the world’s highest inflation rate above 164 000
percent, unemployment
above 80 percent and shortages of foreign currency,
food and water have
combined to douse the independence euphoria seen in past
years.
As
political temperatures hot up inside Zimbabwe, the world is grappling
with
how to avoid bloodletting such as seen in Kenya in the aftermath of
that
country’s disputed December elections, which left more than a 1 000
people
dead.
The United Nations Security Council was on Wednesday expected to
discuss the
Zimbabwe situation although South African President Thabo Mbeki,
who was to
chair the meeting, and other African countries, were expected to
block a
resolution.
But this has not unfazed Mbeki’s ruling ANC
party, whose leader Jacob Zuma
yesterday said events in Zimbabwe were
causing apprehension and could
destabilise the southern African region if
not properly handled.
That fear is deeply ingrained among Zimbabweans
themselves as they reflect
on 28 years of independence, which has lately
given birth to worsening
poverty, political polarisation and a brutal
crackdown on Mugabe’s opponents
by security forces, war veterans, youth
militias and hired thugs.
“The feeling among Zimbabweans at this
particular moment is that there is
very little to celebrate on Independence
Day,” Eldred Masunungure, a leading
political analyst said.
“I think
what is occupying the minds of many people is when this election
deadlock
will be resolved and if there is a re-run whether it will be free
of
violence. But there is no doubt that the overwhelming majority would want
to
celebrate a form of a fresh start,” he said.
But Mugabe, who faces his
biggest ever political crisis and has not made a
single public comment since
election day, is trying to reverse that new
beginning, which appeared to
have arrived with an MDC opposition victory.
“We fought for one man one
vote and that whoever wins should govern. The MDC
won and it should be
allowed to govern. This is what I understand to be the
meaning of
independence,” an MDC supporter who refused to be named told
ZimOnline. –
ZimOnline.
Zim Online
by Wayne Mafaro and Nqobizitha Khumalo Thursday 17
April 2008
BULAWAYO – A Zimbabwe court on Wednesday sentenced
a British journalist to
six months in jail with an option for a fine, as
police held for the second
day a local journalist they suspect of
freelancing for foreign media.
But two more journalists, an American and
a British, were cleared of charges
of covering Zimbabwe's March 29 elections
without official accreditation.
Zimbabwean authorities barred most
foreign media from covering the elections
and in recent weeks have arrested
several foreign journalists they accused
of sneaking into the country to
report on the polls illegally.
Briton Jonathan Michael Clayton, held in
jail since his arrest last week,
was found guilty by a magistrate’s court of
contravening Zimbabwe’s
immigration laws when falsely declared on arrival at
an airport in Bulawayo
city that he was a tourist.
He was sentenced
to six months jail or a fine of ZW$20 billion, equivalent
to nearly US$670
000 at the official exchange rate of one American dollar to
ZW$30 000. The
figure comes down to a paltry US$250 at the widely used
parallel market rate
of one greenback to ZW$80 000 000.
In a sign that authorities were not
about to ease the crackdown against
reporters, police kept freelance
journalist Frank Chikowore but were
expected to bring him to court on
Thursday.
Chikowore was arrested on Tuesday morning at his home in
Harare’s Warren
Park suburb.
The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ)
condemned Chikowore’s arrest as
baseless and intended to intimidate
journalists from exposing any flaws they
may detect in an anticipated second
round run-off election between President
Robert Mugabe and opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai.
Union president Mathew Takaona said in a statement:
“The arrest is baseless
and illegal and we believe it is intended to harass
and intimidate
journalists out to cover the presidential election
re-run."
Takaona said ZUJ believed the run-off election will most likely
turn out
into an unfair, violent and flawed election if the media,
particularly
foreign and local independent journalists, were prevented from
covering the
poll.
Earlier on Wednesday a Harare magistrate acquitted
New York Times
correspondent Barry Bearak and British freelance reporter
Stephen Bevan on
charges of reporting Zimbabwe’s election without official
accreditation.
"They have been acquitted. The state failed to prove that
they had committed
a crime," said Beatrice Mtetwa, a lawyer for the
journalists.
Both local and foreign journalists must be accredited with
the government’s
Media and Information Commission in order to practice their
profession in
Zimbabwe, with those failing to do so facing arrest and
imprisonment.
Zimbabwe is widely regarded as one of the most difficult
countries in the
world for journalists to work in.
In addition to
laws requiring journalists to seek accreditation in order to
work in the
country, newspapers are also required to register with the state
media
commission, with those failing to do so facing closure and seizure of
their
property by the police.
Another law, the Public Order and Security Act,
imposes up to two years in
jail on journalists convicted of publishing
falsehoods that may cause public
alarm and despondency, while the Criminal
Codification Act imposes up to
20-year jail terms on journalists convicted
of denigrating President Robert
Mugabe in their articles.
Repression
against the independent media usually peaks during elections.
Meanwhile,
police have released on bail a 60-year old Bulawayo-based blogger
who was
arrested last week on Monday on allegations of practising journalism
without
accreditation.
The woman, Margaret Kriel, spent eight days in prison
before her release on
bail on Tuesday this week.
Kriel runs an online
social forum, Morning Mirror, where Bulawayo residents
post death and birth
notices and any other issues pertaining to the city. –
ZimOnline.
Zim Online
by Wayne Mafaro Thursday 17 April 2008
HARARE – A Zimbabwean
judge on Wednesday further delayed to Thursday hearing
an opposition
application to block a recount of votes in 23 constituencies.
Justice
Antonia Guvava was initially scheduled to hear the matter earlier
this week
on Tuesday but postponed it saying she first wanted to study an
earlier
ruling by another judge which allowed election authorities to carry
out
recounts.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) lawyer Selby
Hwacha told
ZimOnline that the judge would now hear the matter on
Thursday.
"The hearing will resume tomorrow (Thursday) at 1600hrs," said
Hwacha.
The MDC wants the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) stopped
from
recounting votes until it has released the result for the presidential
election held more than two weeks ago.
No official results have been
released for Zimbabwe’s March 29 presidential
election that MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai claims he won with more than 50
percent of the vote,
enough to avoid a second round run-off against
President Robert
Mugabe.
However, ruling ZANU PF party and independent election observers
say
Tsvangirai won with less than 50 percent of the vote, warranting a rerun
of
the ballot.
The MDC, which on Monday lost a court bid to force
electoral authorities to
release results of the presidential poll, has
accused the ZEC of withholding
results in a bid to fix the vote and force a
re-run of the poll that it says
Mugabe is preparing to use violence and
terror to win.
The MDC, whose attempt to call a general strike to force
release of poll
results flopped on Tuesday, says that ZANU PF militants have
intensified
violence against its supporters. – ZimOnline.
Zim Online
by
Own Correspondent Thursday 17 April 2008
Durban – An
uncleared Chinese cargo ship, believed to be carrying arms
destined for
crisis-torn Zimbabwe, has docked in Durban, South Africa’s
National Ports
authority said on Wednesday.
National Ports spokesman Ricky Bhikraj
confirmed that the vessel called “An
Yue Jiang” entered the port on April 14
without clearance.
The vessel is believed to be carrying arms rumoured to
be destined for
Zimbabwe.
"We can confirm that there is an uncleared
vessel (not cleared to enter
port) by that name currently at the outer
anchorage. The allegations are
being handled by the various national
security authorities," he said.
Bhikraj, however, said the vessel had to
follow procedures and if it was not
cleared, it would not be allowed to
enter a South African port.
"There is a normal process for all ISPS
(International Ship and Ports
Security) vessels to be cleared to enter the
port.”
He said this vessel would now have to go through that process and
that it
could take quite some time before it is cleared.
The National
Ports Authority however refused to comment on whether there had
been arms on
the ship.
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
President Robert Mugabe is believed to have lost to Morgan
Tsvangirai,
leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
party.
Since last month’s election politically motivated violence has
resurfaced in
parts of Zimbabwe. War veterans and ZANU PF militia have also
stepped up
farm invasions, with at least 60 white farmers said to have been
evicted
from the properties over the past few weeks.
Analysts see new
farm invasions and resurgent political violence as part of
a
well-orchestrated plan by Mugabe to regain the upper hand in rural and
farming areas, where ZANU PF surprisingly lost several seats to the
MDC.
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.
Authoritative military sources say the
commander of the Zimbabwe Defence
Forces (ZDF) Constantine Chiwenga has
taken personal charge of President
Robert Mugabe’s re-election
bid.
They said provincial joint committees manned by senior military,
police and
intelligence officers loyal to Mugabe will spearhead the campaign
that they
said will see unprecedented violence unleashed on Tsvangirai’s
supporters. –
ZimOnline
|
20:57 GMT, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 21:57
UK
Zimbabwe doctors condemn violence, tortureABC Australia Hundreds flee Zanu (PF) rampageThe Zimbabwean SA to oversee new talks between Zanu and MDCThe Zimbabwean Extortionate fees are trick to incite revolt, says ZINASUThe Zimbabwean Campaign buses disappear after electionsThe Zimbabwean War veterans forum stands with MDCThe Zimbabwean Mugabe to Rule by 'Hook or Crook'OHMyNews |
These people had been transported to Harare to get treatment, some of
them from communities about 200km from Harare. 
I think playing around with people's consciences will plunge the
country into unprecedented chaos 
