Voters flee Zimbabwe’s state terror

The Sunday Times
April 20, 2008

Douglas Marle in Harare
ALL across Harare yesterday, men, women, and children separated from their
parents, including a boy of 12 with suspected malaria and a fragile
15-year-old girl, were hiding from a state-run terror campaign unleashed
against Zimbabwe’s opposition.

Beaten and driven from their homes in the countryside and crowded townships
in the reprisals that have followed President Robert Mugabe’s apparent
electoral defeat three weeks ago, they made their way to the city by any
means possible.

They came in their dozens, by bus, by train, by communal taxi. Such was one
frightened man’s determination to escape that he walked for many miles with
bare feet. Even those who did not need hospital care were still in pain days
after their arrival from beaten, swollen limbs.

The anonymity of the big city was protecting them. In the provinces, doctors
and nurses had been warned by militants not to treat “political cases”.
Those who fled were under no illusion.

Indeed, they had been warned by the tormentors who had burnt many of them
out of their homes that, if they returned, they would be killed. There was
at least one death during the week.
They were from every walk of life: carpenters, tractor drivers and teachers,
bottle store owners, gardeners and dozens and dozens of unemployed, a
reflection of the plight of people in a country suffering 80% unemployment
and 200,000% inflation.

“Is this the way we should be marking our 28th year of independence?” asked
Jonathan Chanakira, a trader, in hospital with fractured arms. “It makes me
weep.”

He was speaking as Mugabe marked Zimbabwe’s independence day on Friday with
a bitter speech accusing Britain of bank-rolling the opposition as a means
of dominating its former colony. “We are being bought like livestock,”
Mugabe said.

Chanakira was not listening to the 84-year-old president, who has ruled
since independence in 1980. “We are not free at all,” he said from his
hospital bed. “It is high time Zimbabwe was liberated from the liberators.”

Like the majority of those who fled to Harare, he had been punished for
supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). His
attackers were uniformed soldiers who dragged him from a shop, shoved him to
the ground and beat him almost senseless.

It was their reaction to the opposition’s call for a general strike last
Tuesday to force the release of the presidential election results. His
suburb had voted heavily for the MDC.

For 28 years Zimbabweans have voted in election after election for Mugabe
and his Zanu-PF party.

They were driven by a mixture of loyalty for the party’s role in the
independence struggle and fear of retribution if they voted otherwise.

Even as the wheels came off the economy in recent years, many continued
supporting Mugabe, especially in backward rural areas where they could be
easily persuaded.

However, on March 29 Zimbabweans, including many disenchanted rural
dwellers, found their courage and voted overwhelmingly for the MDC and
Morgan Tsvangirai, its leader.

Zanu-PF lost control of parliament and Tsvangirai claimed victory in the
presidential vote with more than 50%. The government has refused to release
the final results and a partial recount of both votes was scheduled
yesterday, a process the opposition believes is designed to keep Mugabe in
power.

It is a critical time. Some 100 MDC councillors, militants and party
officials, mostly in Harare, have been arrested. Much of the hierarchy has
been driven underground.

“What is happening is shattering,” said Iain Kay, the first white farmer to
be beaten up in Zimbabwe in 2000 when the farm seizures began, who has just
been elected an opposition MP in the constituency of Marondera Central, east
of the capital.

“It disempowers you and leaves you struggling for words. We have been taken
back to a dark place when we thought we had finally come out of it.” Another
said that so many officials were hiding or in jail that it had “emasculated”
the party.

Most of the violence is concentrated in former strongholds of Zanu-PF that
voted MDC. In one constituency in the province of Mashonaland East, the
campaign manager for an opposition MP became the first target. A tall man in
his forties, he was told by informants that Zanu-PF activists had called a
meeting to discuss his fate and some wanted to murder him.

They nearly succeeded. Last weekend, he said, more than 300 Zanu-PF youths
came to his house. He escaped by firing warning shots in the air from the
rifle he kept to protect his livestock from wild animals.

Later he returned to find his mother severely beaten and his house
ransacked. Half his pigs were slaughtered, his kitchen was destroyed, his
pickup truck burnt and his money stolen.

He was seized and locked in the house. The mob was preparing to set it
alight, but at the last moment one of them relented. “No,” he said. “Let’s
not kill him. Let’s take him away and show him what we can do.”

The campaign manager was held prisoner in a militants’ camp deep in the
bush. “I was interrogated about the MDC. They wanted to know where the
opposition party got its money from,” he said.

“One of them said, ‘Let’s attach some rocks to his genitals’, but the leader
said it was not a good idea.”

The questioning went on for three days until the police, alerted by his
sister, freed him. Perversely, he was immediately arrested for firing his
rifle, and was charged with committing an act of public violence.

While in custody, he was told by an airforce commander, one of the senior
military officers dispatched to the provinces to oversee the violent
intimidation: “When you get out, I am going to strangle you and you will
never live here again.”

Freed after paying a fine and receiving a suspended prison sentence, he ran
away to Harare.

A woman aged 35 from a village near the town of Mutoko, a former Zanu-PF
stronghold 90 miles north of Harare, said militants had assembled the
villagers and harangued them for voting MDC. As frightened villagers looked
on, the woman, an MDC organiser, was dragged to the ground and a youth
kicked her until blood poured from her nose. Others stood on her neck and
buttocks.

Ignoring her cries, they beat her with sticks until after 15 minutes she was
unconscious.

However, despite the crack-down to intimidate MDC supporters and ensure that
Mugabe wins any presidential election run-off against Tsvangirai, evidence
began to emerge last week that some pillars of the regime are no longer
regarded by it as loyal.

Police in some townships have been withdrawn and replaced by soldiers or
militants in army uniforms, who have been giving the beatings. In the most
violent areas, the police seem to have been sidelined as Zanu-PF militants
and so-called war veterans take charge. When victims reported attacks to
police stations, officers were turning them away, saying there was nothing
they could do; it was “political”.

Disenchantment seems to have seeped even into the Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO). A man called Alfred volunteered over a drink in a Harare
bar last week that his wife worked for the CIO but she was “Mugabe’s worst
enemy”.

“We had to sell our car to send our son to university in South Africa,” he
said. “We both hate him [Mugabe]. Everyone in Harare hates him. They refer
to him as Mudhara [Old Man].”

Old man he may be, and such remarks may not be representative of an
organisation that is a mainstay of the regime, but Mugabe does not look like
a man under pressure.

“Mugabe’s generals have told him, ‘We will win the election for you,’ and he
has taken their advice,” said a Zanu-PF insider. “He is properly engaged and
will fight it out to the bitter end.”

The Z$50,000,000 question: How long will the world stand by and allow this tragedy to continue?

Independent, UK

At first glance, the country's cities do not seem to be in meltdown – but
only because the once-strong economy has fallen so far, so fast. With
inflation at 160,000%, Mugabe must surely be nearing the end. Just don't bet
on it. Raymond Whitaker in Harare reports

Sunday, 20 April 2008

To the casual visitor, which is what I was pretending to be in Zimbabwe, the
country does not immediately appear like an impoverished autocracy. It is
quite possible to drive around Harare and Bulawayo, the country's two main
cities, without encountering a roadblock or seeing unusual numbers of
policemen. There are potholes in the roads, sure, but unlike many parts of
Africa, a 4x4 vehicle is not essential in urban areas. And at traffic
lights, most of which still work, there are people selling newspapers that
condemn President Robert Mugabe in the roundest of terms.

But then you notice the price of one of these papers – the weekly Zimbabwe
Independent – and any semblance of normality is dispelled. The current issue
costs 85 million Zimbabwean dollars, up from Z$55m last week. This Friday
the vendors will probably want more than $100m.

While much of Zimbabwe's political life under Mugabe consists of pure
illusion – the President blames British colonialism for anything that goes
wrong, and acts as though the election defeat three weeks ago simply did not
happen – nobody can escape the reality of the world's worst inflation rate.
Even the Zimbabwean authorities admit it is in the region of 160,000 per
cent, but independent economists believe it could be more than twice that
level.

A bag of bananas costs Z$150m; a loaf Z$300m. At least, they did a couple of
days ago. One housewife said she was buying groceries recently for Z$100m
when there was a hitch with her cheque guarantee card. By the time she
returned from sorting it out at the supervisor's desk, her bill had gone up
to Z$250m. The widow of a man who worked all his life for the postal service
gets a pension of Z$1,295 a month: not enough for a box of matches –
possibly not even one match. A note smaller than Z$10m is small change, and
anything below one million is simply scrap paper.

In most basket-case economies, paper bills are sweat-stained and rubbed to
near-illegibility. Not in Zimbabwe, where the central bank's presses keep
churning out crisp new notes in ever-higher denominations. The Z$50m note is
a popular innovation – considerably more so than the $750,000 bill,
introduced a few thousand per cent ago, which made calculations difficult –
but many believe it is only government pride which is delaying the Z$100m
note. Even then, Zimbabweans will have to carry sharp-edged bricks of new
notes for all but the most trivial of transactions. The struggle to keep up
with soaring prices – those with bank accounts can withdraw only the
equivalent of a pound or two a day from the few cash machines, and often
have to queue for more than a hour to do so – has driven many half-way out
of the cash economy.

Above the high walls of Harare's smart northern suburbs, maize stalks often
wave. Few people can afford not to grow their own food, and lawns and
flowerbeds have been ploughed up for kitchen gardens. Joseph Massundah, 70,
a former senior civil servant, is part of the generation that came into its
own after independence in 1980. Government loans helped him buy a
three-bedroom bungalow in the city's Mount Pleasant area, and both his
daughters received the best education. But his pension has been drastically
eroded. How does he cope?

Mr Massundah's wife still works, and when he needed expensive heart
medication, their daughter living in Canada was able to help. Their other
daughter, who has a good private-sector job in Zimbabwe, gets subsidised
food from her employer, and passes some on to her parents. But Mr Massundah,
using the borehole on his large property, has turned market gardener. "I
used to sell just vegetables," he says, surveying the neat rows of runner
beans, onions and squash, "but then I realised there was money to be made
from selling seedlings. I can get Z$40m for 50 onion seedlings. This helps
to supplement my pension," he says. "I've been lucky – I know people who get
a pension that doesn't pay for the bus fare to go and collect it."

The white widow of the postal worker, who asked not to be named, was rescued
from near destitution by the Freemasons, who took her into their sheltered
housing complex in Harare because her son, now in England, is a member. "My
son invested money for me, but now they tell me the capital is nearly all
gone," said the 81-year-old. "He can't find a permanent job in England, so
he's not able to help yet."

In her neat little flat, outside which she grows gooseberries and tomatoes,
the widow contemplates her shrinking world. "The water bills are very high,
so they took the outside tap away, and I have to use bathwater on the
plants," she said. "In the flats we used to have pay-as-you-go electricity
meters, but now they can't service them and we will have to pay communally
in advance. The cook has left, and they can't afford to pay for security on
the front gate any more."

Many of the 30,000 whites remaining in Zimbabwe – a tenth of the number in
2000 – are frail pensioners. But they can at least rely on help from abroad,
as can a growing number of black Zimbabweans. It is estimated that at least
three million people have left the country in the past eight years, most for
South Africa.

The widow's living conditions would still seem unimaginably luxurious to
40-year-old Assalia, who is nursing a week-old baby, her seventh, in
desperately poor Hatcliffe Extension, on the outskirts of Harare. She and
her family used to live in a self-built breezeblock home, but in 2005 fell
victim to Mugabe's Murambatsvina (clear out the trash) campaign, in which
hundreds of thousands of urban poor, who tended to support the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, had their homes demolished in an attempt to
drive them back to even poorer rural areas.

"We lived in the open for a month in the middle of winter, then we were
forced to go to a holding camp for another month," said Assalia. "Then they
dumped us here." Her 55-year-old husband Pasca lost his job at the airport
because there was no transport to get to work, and he has had only odd jobs
since.

With the aid of church groups, they built a shack of corrugated iron with
adjoining "sitting room", which has a corrugated iron roof resting on poles,
with plastic sheeting for walls. Unlike some neighbours, they have concrete,
not beaten-earth, floors. Around the shack, pumpkins, tomatoes and even
sugar cane grow. Pigeons and guineafowl peck in the dust, while a coop holds
chickens and a pair of turkeys. The family has dug a well, and a car battery
powers a battered TV.

"Two of the older children are in South Africa, trying to find work," said
Assalia. "We do this and that to make ends meet. If someone buys a bag of
sugar, they sell it for Z$25m a cup. But if you put out tomatoes to sell
them, they can arrest you for illegal vending. I have been arrested and had
my goods seized I don't know how many times."

There is misery still worse than this, however. In drought-stricken rural
areas, allegiance to Zanu-PF is essential to avoid starvation. The party
controls distribution of aid-agency food and gives it only to those with a
membership card. Hunger, the collapse of rural health systems and one of the
worst rates of HIV/Aids infection has reduced life expectancy to the world's
lowest.

According to foreign experts, no economy has ever declined this fast without
going through a war, which helps to explain why the cities still look
relatively normal. The infrastructure has not had time to fall apart
completely, but the decay is plain if you know where to look. Near Assalia's
shack, for example, there is a well-equipped clinic, but it has no
medicines. In Bulawayo, a new hospital stands unused because technicians
sent from South Africa to install the equipment said it was too unsafe to
use.

For the first 20 years of Mugabe's rule, the economy performed well. Health
and education services were among Africa's best and the country was the
breadbasket of the region. All those achievements have been destroyed since
2000, when the President lost a referendum on extending his powers and
embarked on his present course: ruling by force, and seizing ever-greater
proportions of an ever-shrinking economy. The outcome has been rampant
corruption and black-marketeering. It is impossible to buy fuel without hard
currency, so anyone with access to subsidised government petrol can make a
hefty profit by selling some of it on. Harare residents envy the people of
Bulawayo, who can make shopping trips to neighbouring Botswana, and bring
back goods in demand at home. The situation has forced everyone to become a
trader.

Those in favour with Zanu-PF can become extremely rich. Special rates for
buying hard currency help to purchase ornate mansions and luxury cars and a
country property seized from a white farmer for weekends away. Philip
Chiyangwa, a former Zanu-PF MP, owns a Hummer, and boasted in the state
media recently that he has a computerised, colour-coded wardrobe to match
his hundreds of suits, shoes and accessories at his 30-room home in
Borrowdale, Harare's smartest suburb. But the government is living on
borrowed time and borrowed money. It is taking more and more from the few
businesses left that earn foreign currency, mainly in agribusiness and
natural resources. "It is impossible to plan, or to comply with the law,"
said a small businessman.

Mugabe is adept, however, at maintaining illusions, economically as well as
politically. The Zimbabwe Independent, for example, can attack him all it
likes, because he knows only a small urban elite can afford it.
Government-owned papers such as The Herald in Harare or The Chronicle in
Bulawayo cost only Z$20m, and the authorities have a monopoly over
broadcasting. The situation cannot last, say his opponents – but then they
have been saying that since 2000.

Defence force gave military intelligence to Mugabe

Sunday Times, SA

Bobby Jordan
Published:Apr 20, 2008

Top-secret military intelligence reports about Robert Mugabe’s political
rivals are among a stash of documents handed over to his regime by the South
African National Defence Force — shortly before the signing of a military
pact between the two countries.

A detailed index of the documents — of which the Sunday Times has a copy —
is contained in papers before the Pretoria High Court, where a prominent
human rights organisation is fighting for access to them.

The classified documents were handed back to Zimbabwe in December 2004
shortly after a Johannesburg academic applied to view them.

The transfer was authorised by the then head of the armed forces, General
Siphiwe Nyanda, on the grounds that the documents had been illegally
obtained — and were therefore not South African property. No copies were
made, according to an affidavit submitted to court.

The transferred documents — entitled Afdeling Militêre Inligting Group 4
(‘the Group 4 records’) — include files on informants who worked against
Mugabe’s liberation movement, the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu), as
well as a file entitled “Zanu Propaganda”.

There are also dozens of files on the Zimbabwean African People’s Union
(Zapu), which was Mugabe’s main rival in the south of Zimbabwe before
independence.

Other files cover operational matters ranging from interrogation to military
manoeuvres. They originate from Rhodesian Military Intelligence records and
cover a period from the early 1960s to the late 1970s.

Piers Pigou, director of the South African History Archive, who lodged the
High Court application, said some of the files were “potentially deadly” if
named informants were still alive. He said it was unclear where the files
had ended up because there was no sign of them at the Zimbabwean national
archives. He also asked why no copies had been made when similar documents
returned to Namibia had been copied and stored on microfilm.

“We believe the politics of this is more about an attempt to curry favour
with the Zimbabwe security and intelligence establishment,” Pigou said.

In its affidavit, his organisation says the Defence Department subverted
“constitutional and legislative obligations” by transferring the documents —
in part because they form part of South Africa’s archival heritage: “These
records are valuable tools in researching and understanding the history of
destabilisation in the region.”

The Department of Defence declined to comment this week, saying the matter
was sub judice.

However, a court affidavit authorised by Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota
claims the documents were handed over to avoid diplomatic “embarrassment” to
South Africa and “in keeping with the archival principle that official
government records remain the property of the originating country and its
people”.

“The records … had been obtained unofficially by the military intelligence
division of the South African Defence Force in 1980. These records were
transferred to the department’s archives in 1993 along with a large number
of military intelligence files for safekeeping,” the affidavit said.

The files were handed over to officials at the Zimbabwean embassy in
Pretoria.

University of Cape Town historian Professor Chris Saunders said the files
should never have been sent back without a copy being made.

“While most are about Zimbabwe’s history . .. there are also files relating
to South Africa and Namibia. Among the latter are files on Swapo and the
Caprivi,” Saunders said.

Bob’s Mad Scramble For Weapons

Sunday Times, SA

Rowan Philp, Paddy Harper and Monica
Laganparsad Published:Apr 20, 2008

The sinister truth behind this arms ship from ChinaAfter Zimbabwe polls,
officers begged for new guns and bullets

Robert Mugabe has been scrambling to secure weapons for Zimbabwe’s brutal
military in the aftermath of his March 29 election defeat.

Amid an international outcry over an attempt by Zimbabwe to obtain 77 tons
of Chinese-made arms via Durban this week, it has been revealed that:

a.. Just days after the elections, officers from the police, the armed
forces, the Central Intelligence Organisation and the president’s bodyguard
were queueing for weapons at defence companies;

a.. A lack of foreign currency has led to a series of botched arms
purchases; and

a.. The country is being forced to buy weapons because its own arms company
has collapsed to the point of making coffins rather than weapons.
Mugabe’s attempts to rearm coincide with a brutal crackdown. Yesterday Human
Rights Watch accused Zimbabwe of embarking on a campaign of torture against
opponents.

This week Zimbabwe’s Lawyers for Human Rights documented 150 attacks on
opposition supporters since the election three weeks ago following the
launch of Operation Mavhoterapapi (Operation How Did You Vote).

Mugabe also accused the opposition Movement for Democratic Change of
plotting a coup this week.

The failure of a national strike called by the MDC for Tuesday was blamed on
police intimidation.

Teacher John Chiweshe said: “Police and soldiers were forcing everyone to go
to work.”

Nelson Chamisa, an MDC spokesman, said Zimbabweans were being terrorised.
“Our people are being arrested on trumped-up charges of violence.”

The Sunday Times has established that this week’s Chinese shipment of arms
turned away from Durban harbour on Friday was just one of several botched
attempts by the embattled Mugabe regime to buy arms this year.

One well-placed Zimbabwean defence industry official told the Sunday Times:
“In the first three working days after the election, there were queues of
people outside (arms procurement) offices — police, the presidential
bodyguard unit, army, the CIO.

“I saw 20 to 30 officers in a single waiting room, all begging for new
weapons and ammunition. (But) most of the orders could not be filled,
because the Reserve Bank doesn’t have the forex.”

And on March 20, military intelligence chiefs sent a full detachment of the
presidential bodyguard to escort a small shipment of 70000 rifle bullets
after it was mistakenly believed to have gone missing when the driver “went
drinking”, causing panic among Mugabe’s military intelligence chiefs, who
believed the MDC had seized the shipment.

Another police order for 25 shotguns and ammunition had to be amended to
exclude the shotgun cartridges for lack of hard currency, while a US4.1-
million tender for anti-riot equipment was abandoned when the Zimbabwe
Reserve Bank failed to raise the forex. A revised tender of US2.2-million
was abandoned for the same reason. Finally, a US200000 purchase of Chinese
equipment was made after personal intervention by Mugabe.

This week’s batch of 3 million AK-47 bullets, 1500 rockets and 3500 mortar
shells on the cargo ship An Yue Jiang was bought from Poly Technologies — a
Chinese state company under indictment in the US for weapons smuggling. The
order for the cargo was placed on April 1, three days after the elections .

The ship sailed from Durban harbour on Friday with its six container-loads
of arms still on board, after the Durban High Court ordered the seizure of
the weapons.

Earlier on Friday, the German state bank, which lent the Zimbabwean
state-owned Iron and Steel Company € 40-million in 2000, was granted a
separate order in the Durban High Court to attach the cargo as a portion of
the unpaid loan.

Yesterday, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa said the ship had
reportedly taken off with its transponder switched off so that it could not
be traced.

“Furthermore, in light of reports of a heavy security presence throughout
Zimbabwe, and of an increase in reported detentions of activists and
organisers, the events that are taking place at the moment are reminiscent
of those that led up to the tragedy in Rwanda in 1994,” said Open Society
spokesman Sisonke Msimang.

She said that urgent intervention by the United Nations, the African Union
and the Southern African Development Community was needed to stop the
weapons being delivered. It is suspected the ship may be heading for an
alternative port in Mozambique.

But Mozambique said yesterday that there had been no application by the ship’s
owners or the Zimbabwean government for it to be unloaded at Beira or
Maputo.

Zimbabwe has bought R1.6- billion worth of arms from China in the past four
years, including 12 fighter aircraft.

Yesterday the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission began a recount of 23 of the
country’s 210 constituencies, despite opposition efforts to block it. The
recount could overturn the majority the MDC gained in the parliamentary
vote. Zanu-PF lost 16 of the 23 constituencies and needs nine more seats for
a majority in parliament.

The lethal effects of a poisonous legacy

The Telegraph

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 20/04/2008

Robert Mugabe appears determined to cling on to power by stealing
Zimbabwe's election.

The delay in releasing the tally of votes has only one cause: the need
to fix the count so that Mugabe can claim to have "won" an election he has
clearly lost. The dismal decision by Zimbabwe's courts to uphold the
government's failure to provide any count of votes at all, three weeks after
the country went to the polls, demonstrates Mugabe's continuing ability to
intimidate officials who, in theory, ought to be independent of his power.

Britain, which, as the former colonial power, has special
responsibility for Zimbabwe, can do very little to improve the situation.
Perfectly reasonable criticisms of the Mugabe regime's tyranny are used by
Mugabe to buttress his claim that everything wrong with Zimbabwe is the
fault, not of his incompetence, greed and bullying dictatorship, but of a
conspiracy organised by racist whites in London.

South Africa, the country best placed to put pressure on Mugabe, is
unfortunately reluctant to do so. Thabo Mbeki is no Nelson Mandela, willing
to stand up for democracy: the South African president appears content to
let Mugabe remain in power.

Abysmal government of Mugabe's kind is all too common across Africa.
The various prime ministers and presidents are reluctant to voice criticism
of other African tyrants, perhaps on the principle that those in glass
houses shouldn't throw stones: if they highlight the deficiencies of other
tyrants, they fear themselves will be next to be overthrown.

The contempt of government officials for the people they are meant to
serve, and their conviction that the point of office is self-enrichment, are
together perhaps the most lasting, and certainly the most poisonous, legacy
of the colonial administrations of the 19th and 20th centuries.

If Africa's people can only find a way to free themselves of their
governments, their future is bright. But until they do, they will continue
to suffer the hideous tyranny of brutes such as Mugabe.

Tsvangirai fears capture if he returns to Zimbabwe before poll

Independent, UK

By Raymond Whitaker in Bulawayo
Sunday, 20 April 2008

Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, the presumed front-runner
in the presidential election held three weeks ago, has said he intends to
remain out of the country for the time being for fear of being attacked or
imprisoned.

"It is no use going back to Zimbabwe and become captive," the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) leader, who left Zimbabwe 10 days after the poll,
told Canada's The Globe and Mail. "Then you are not effective. What can you
do? Do you want a dead hero?"

Mr Tsvangirai, who has spent most time recently in South Africa, said he
would return, but first wanted to mobilise international support against
President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF government. The ruling party lost
its majority in the 29 March election, and independent monitoring groups
calculate that the MDC leader fell just short of a first-round victory in
the presidential poll, securing between 49 per cent and 50 per cent of the
vote.

After an initial period of turmoil, Mr Mugabe and his associates have
embarked on a clear strategy of seeking to reverse the result of both polls.
The result of the presidential election has been withheld, and MDC officials
and supporters in Zanu-PF's former strongholds have been attacked. Some
officials of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) have been arrested,
along with members of the country's largest voluntary poll monitoring group.

Yesterday, the nominally independent ZEC began recounts in 23 seats, 16 of
which it had previously declared in favour of the opposition. Zanu-PF would
regain its majority if the results in nine seats were reversed in its
favour, but lawyers have said the exercise, which is expected to last three
days, violates electoral procedures, and the MDC has said it will ignore the
outcome. "We reject the outcome of this flawed process," said MDC spokesman
Nelson Chamisa. "As far as the MDC is concerned, the first results stand.
Anything else will be an illegitimate process." He said it was "clear" that
the ballot boxes had been tampered with in the three weeks since polling.

The recounts were being observed by a South-African led team from the
Southern African Development Community, but the opposition has been
disillusioned by the feeble stance of the organisation and its designated
mediator, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa. Yesterday former UN
secretary-general Kofi Annan said the situation in the country was
"dangerous" and pointedly urged Africa's leaders to do more. "The recounts
remove any doubts about the ZEC being a partisan organisation," said David
Coltart, an opposition senator and constitutional expert. "If they start
announcing that someone else has won a seat, it will be illegal. Only a
court can decide that a result should be overturned."

It was clear, Mr Coltart added, that Zanu-PF had known the presidential
result since 2 April, when the government-owned Herald newspaper reported
that there would be a run-off. The delay since then had removed any claim to
legitimacy that the poll could have given Mr Mugabe. "All this amounts to is
a rather clumsy coup disguised as an election."

The US government and the New York-based group Human Rights Watch is among
those that have accused the Mugabe government of violent retaliation since
the election. Zanu-PF, it said, was setting up "torture camps to
systematically target, beat, and torture people suspected of having voted
for the (opposition) MDC in last month's elections".

According to dissident policemen who have been briefed on the ruling party's
strategy, about 50 constituencies have been targeted for intimidation. The
aim was to have mixed groups of police, army officers, Zanu-PF militants and
"war veterans" in place for the snap announcement of a presidential election
run-off.

The police said they had been ordered to stand by and watch when party youth
militia and "war veterans" attacked opposition supporters, to emphasise to
the victims that they would receive no protection. The aim was to displace
MDC supporters and officials, so that they would not be able to vote when
the second round was called. They had also been told that less strict
scrutiny would make it easier to stuff ballot boxes.

Meanwhile, a Chinese ship carrying arms to Zimbabwe which was turned away
from South Africa is heading to Angola in hopes of docking there. The ship
left South African waters on Friday. It is believed to be carrying three
million rounds of AK-47 ammunition, 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades, and an
unknown number of mortar rounds. Mozambique's transport and communications
minister told Reuters that Mozambique has been monitoring the ship's
movements since it left South Africa.

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe 'plans to step down within 18 months'

The Telegraph

By special correspondent in Harare and Gethin Chamberlain
Last Updated: 12:08am BST 20/04/2008

Robert Mugabe is planning to step down from power within 18 months if
he is eventually declared the winner of Zimbabwe's bitterly contested
presidential election, say senior figures in his party.

Colleagues say he is tired and had wanted to hand over the leadership
before the election, but decided to fight on to rally support for his
Zanu-PF party.

He is said to have chosen a long-time ally, Emmerson Mnangagwa, as his
eventual successor.

Three weeks after Zimbabweans went to the polls, Mr Mugabe appears
increasingly determined to cling to power until a time of his own choosing,
refusing to concede defeat either in the presidential vote or in the
parliamentary elections which his party lost to its main rival, the Movement
for Democratic Change.

Election officials have begun recounting votes in 23 out of 210
constituencies, amid fears that Mr Mugabe's party was attempting to overturn
the result.

The recount was staged as violence against opposition supporters
continued, with unconfirmed reports of 10 murders over the past week and
allegations from a human rights group that a network of "torture camps" had
been set up across the country.

Human Rights Watch claimed that supporters of Mr Mugabe's party set up
the camps "to systematically target, beat, and torture people" suspected of
voting for the opposition in last month's elections.

The Foreign Office cautioned Britons not to travel to Zimbabwe unless
absolutely essential, "due to the continuing tension surrounding the
election and the deployment of uniformed forces (police and military) and
war veterans across the country".

It also warned British residents: "The current situation is
unpredictable, volatile and could deteriorate quickly, without warning."

Influential members of Zanu-PF said that a deal to agree the hand-over
of power from Mr Mugabe to Mr Mnangagwa, the minister for rural housing and
social amenities, was hatched during talks in Harare last month.

"Mugabe will hand over power to Mnangagwa within 1½ years," one said.

"In one meeting, Mugabe declared he was tired and wanted to step down
and rest. But his fear was that if he stepped down before the elections,
[MDC leader Morgan] Tsvangirai would trounce a Zanu-PF presidential
candidate because there were divisions in the party. Mnangagwa has been
picked as the successor. He has been going through a grooming programme in
the past three months."

Mr Mnangagwa was head of Zimbabwe's feared intelligence service in
1981, during the civil war which followed independence and at a time when
about 20,000 of the minority Ndebele population were slaughtered.

Mr Mugabe chose him to head Zimbabwe's delegation at talks in Lusaka
last week on the crisis. "Mnangagwa is running the party," said a Zanu-PF
source.

U.N. chief to discuss Zimbabwe with African leaders

Reuters

Sat 19 Apr 2008, 21:53 GMT

ACCRA, April 19 (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
said on Saturday he would discuss the post-election deadlock in Zimbabwe
with African leaders during a U.N. trade and development conference in Ghana
which starts on Sunday.

"In the next few days I will be discussing with President (John) Kufuor (of
Ghana) and other African leaders who will be in Accra ... the issue about
Zimbabwe and how to get developments there back to normal," Ban told
reporters on arrival in Ghana. (Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Writing by Nick
Tattersall)

Zimbabwe recount is fixed, says opposition

Zanu-PF accused of torture as Mugabe clings on

Chris McGreal in Harare
The Observer,
Sunday April 20 2008

Zimbabwe's opposition alleged widespread irregularities as the partial
recount begun yesterday of votes cast in the presidential and parliamentary
elections held three weeks ago, including ballot boxes with seals broken
before they were delivered for the count or with no seals at all.

The Movement for Democratic Change said some boxes had been stuffed with
votes for President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF in an effort to overturn
the opposition's capture of a parliamentary majority for the first time
since independence 28 years ago.

'This is a discount of the people's will in the guise of a recount,' said
the MDC's spokesman, Nelson Chamisa. 'We have found ballot boxes already
open or with no seals. We believe other boxes they opened and forged new
seals. This is not an isolated problem."

The recount, which state radio said could take three days, came as the
opposition presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, said he fears for his
life if he returns to Zimbabwe. Yesterday, Human Rights Watch accused
Zanu-PF of establishing a network of torture camps in a campaign against
Tsvangirai's supporters. The recounts are taking place in 23 constituencies,
all but one lost by Zanu-PF to the MDC. Mugabe's party will regain control
if the MDC's victories are reversed in nine or more seats.

If Mugabe retains power it would be important to him to also control
parliament, in part because if he retires before the next election his
successor as president for the remainder of the six-year term will be chosen
by MPs.

The recount will also affect the outcome of the presidential race, which
Tsvangirai claims to have won with a little more than 50 percent of the vote
based on the MDC's own tally of polling station returns.

But if the official results do not deliver an outright victory to either
Mugabe or Tsvangirai the law requires a run-off within three weeks.

Tsvangirai has vacillated over whether to participate in a second round,
saying that a fair election is not possible amid surging violence in rural
areas. The MDC leader, who has been touring southern Africa to drum up
support, has also expressed fears for his own safety and said he will remain
abroad for now.

'It is no use going back to Zimbabwe and becoming captive. Then you are not
effective. What can you do?' he told a Canadian newspaper. 'Do you want a
dead hero?'.

The campaign of violence, called Operation Makavhoterapapi ['Where did you
put your cross?'] by Zanu-PF officials, has spread across regions where
opposition support surged in the election.

HRW said it had collected evidence from victims and witnesses of illegal
detention centres in Mutoko, Mudzi and Bikita 'to round up and instil fear
in suspected political opponents'.

Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said: 'Zanu-PF
members are setting up torture camps to systematically target, beat and
torture people suspected of having voted for the MDC. Several individuals
told HRW they had been held in these camps for up to three days and
interrogated about MDC leaders, MDC funding, and the location of other MDC
supporters.'

In a further sign that support for Mugabe is eroding among regional leaders,
Botswana's foreign minister, Phandu Skelemani, took the unusual step of
publicly contradicting South Africa's President, Thabo Mbeki, who has said
there is 'no crisis' in Zimbabwe. Skelemani said Mbeki was alone in that
view at a regional summit last weekend.

Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan yesterday urged African
leaders to intervene urgently. 'The question that has been posed is where
are the Africans? Where are the leaders of the countries in the region, what
are they doing, how can they help the situation?' he said in Nairobi. 'It is
a serious crisis with impact beyond Zimbabwe.'

There were conflicting reports yesterday as to the destination of a Chinese
ship turned away from South Africa after dockers in Durban refused to unload
a cargo of weapons destined for Zimbabwe and a legal rights group won a
court order blocking the delivery.

The An Yue Jiang was at first reported by a human rights group to be headed
for Mozambique but was later said to be heading south, possibly destined for
a friendlier port in Namibia or Angola.

Opposition Accuses High Court Of Working For Government

VOA

By Akwei Thompson
Washington, DC
19 April 2008

On Friday Zimbabwe marked its 28th independence  anniversary. President
Robert Mugabe seized the occasion to denounce the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and former colonial power Britain, and also to
accuse the opposition of treason. The country’s high court on the same day
turned down the opposition’s appeal to have a recount of the March 29th
election stopped.

On Thursday the leader of the opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai, asked the South
African Development Community (SADC) to relieve President Thabo Mbeki of his
duties as mediator and replace him with a special envoy for talks between
SADC and President Mugabe.

Nelson Chamisa is spokesman for the MDC. Nightline’s Akwei Thompson first
asked him for his reaction to the high court’s decision to allow the recount
of the vote. A spokesman for the ZANU-PF declined to be interviewed.

Chamisa said the decision was quite disappointing considering the fact that
their case "was very compelling, legally." He said the decision did not come
as a surprise and that the MDC had actually “anticipated this kind of
behaviour”. “What we get from this court and this judgment is that the
courts are working according to the whims and caprices of this dictatorship
of Mugabe regime and as such it’s very difficult for us to get any kind of
recourse or relief from Mugabe’s institutions…,” he added.

Save Zimbabwe, Raila tells Africa

Sunday Nation, Kenya

Story by KENNETH OGOSIA
Publication Date: 4/20/2008 Prime Minister Raila Odinga has asked leaders of
African countries to act with speed to save Zimbabwe from collapse.

The PM said the age of dictators was long gone and that President
Robert Mugabe of the Southern Africa country should not be allowed to hold
his country to ransom by interfering with the release of  election results
three weeks down the line.

Mr Odinga said President Mugabe should emulate President Kibaki’s
statesmanship and put the interests of the nation above his own.

The PM said Africa had witnessed a series of uprisings including
millitary takeovers due to lack of genuine and sincere leaders while citing
the case of Zimbabwe, which he labelled pathetic. Mr Odinga  pledged to use
all means necessary to make President Mugabe retire honourably.

“I sympathise with the people of Zimbabwe and I will play a key role
in letting him unite  his people. African Heads of States should use force
if necessary to remove people like Mugabe from power, especially those who
do not want to respect the people’s decision through the ballot,” he said.

Mr Odinga said democracy in Kenya was made able by the citizens who
resisted bad governance and monolithic regimes.

He said Africa, and more so Zimbabwe, needed leaders like Ghanian
President John Kufuor who saved Kenya from the pain of political mischief.
“He came to Kenya when the country was on fire, carried a bucket of water
which he poured onto the fire when some people claimed he came for a cup of
tea,” Mr Odinga said.

The Prime Minister explained that by inviting Mr Kofi Annan to broker
a political agreement, President Kufuor achieved special status for acting
differently from some African leaders who are shy to “remove the log in
their cohorts’ eyes”.

Mr Odinga was speaking during a dinner hosted in his honour following
his appointment.

Zimbabwe: ANC Steps In