Mugabe says army will "pull trigger" on opponents

Reuters

Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:29am ET

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe warned critics on Tuesday that
Zimbabwe's army stood ready to "pull the trigger" against anyone seeking to
topple him as a mounting political and economic crisis raises fears of
unrest.

Opposition leaders this year called for street protests to end Mugabe's long
rule, which they say has reduced a country once seen one of the most
promising in Africa to an economic basket-case.

But the protests have yet to begin -- leaving political observers wondering
if Zimbabweans are simply too cowed to take their grievances to the street.

Mugabe, speaking at a rally to mark the annual Defense Forces day, indicated
those fears might be justified.
"We want to remind those who might harbor any plans of turning against the
government: be warned, we have armed men and women who can pull the
trigger," the 82-year-old leader said, departing from his prepared text to
deliver his warning in the local Shona language.

Zimbabwe suffers from the world's highest inflation rate of around 1,000
percent, unemployment above 70 percent and shortages of fuel, food and
foreign exchange -- leaving most ordinary Zimbabweans reeling and the
economy in freefall.

But the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has come
closest to unseating Mugabe, has been weakened by internal squabbles and a
split last October over participation in Senate elections.

Mugabe has sent police and security troops to crush previous mass protests,
most recently in 2003.

On Tuesday he hinted the military may have some new tricks up its sleeve
thanks to his "Look East" policy which encourages friendly relations with
Asian nations such as China.

"The defense forces have benefited from government's Look East policy
through which they have not only acquired new equipment but also learned new
military strategies," Mugabe said in his prepared speech.

Zimbabwe has received military equipment including trainer jets and trucks
from China, and Mugabe said planners were coming up with other ways to get
around the country's increasingly precarious economic and political
situation.

"In an effort to limit the reliance on the foreign market where some Western
suppliers have adopted the British-led illegal sanctions against us, the
defense forces embarked on a program to substitute some of the
foreign-sourced spare parts with locally manufactured ones," he said.

Mugabe, Zimbabwe's only leader since independence from Britain in 1980,
denies mismanaging the economy and blames Zimbabwe's woes on local and
foreign foes opposed to his policy of seizing white-owned farms to give to
landless blacks.
His intolerance of criticism has resulted in laws which bar ordinary
citizens from disparaging the president.

In the latest case of these laws being invoked, a Zimbabwe businessman was
arrested over the weekend for "abusing" Mugabe in public. He is expected to
appear in court on Wednesday where a conviction could bring up to two years
in jail, although in most cases sentences are suspended.

Divisions rock Zimbabwe church leaders

Zim Online

Wed 16 August 2006

      BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe's divided church leaders say they are working on
two parallel processes both aimed at finding a solution to the country's
long running economic and political crisis.

      One group comprising mostly older generation leaders of the Zimbabwe
Council of Churches, Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe
Catholic Bishop's Conference that met President Robert Mugabe two months ago
to discuss Zimbabwe's crisis say they are cobbling up a National Vision
document detailing the views of all stakeholders on how to end the country's
problems.

      The group which subsequently met leaders of the two factions of the
main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, appears to
envisage a central role for Mugabe in resolving Zimbabwe's crisis and say
they will take their document - charting the way forward for the country -
to the veteran President.

      But other more radical elderly and younger generation church leaders
grouped under the Christian Alliance have dissociated themselves from their
colleagues' National Vision document and say they are in fact working on a
separate document Democracy and Social Charter they say will also chart the
way out of Zimbabwe's crisis.

      The Christian Alliance - some of whose leaders were briefly detained
by the police last week after convening a strategic planning meeting of
civic groups and opposition political parties in Harare - appears to see
Mugabe more as part of the problem and not the solution to Zimbabwe's crisis
and has not said it will submit its document to the President.

      The documents by the two religious camps are expected to be publicised
by the end of this month.

      Christian Alliance spokesman Pastor Lucky Moyo attempted to play down
divisions in the church community over Zimbabwe's crisis, telling ZimOnline
on Tuesday that although the clergymen will produce two separate documents
purporting to provide solutions to the same problem, they were still not
rivals.

      He said: "The Christian Alliance is not against the National Vision
document because we do not know what it contains. It is unfair that we are
now perceived as rivals, we respect their document but we know nothing about
it and it is a separate document from the Social and Democracy Charter we
are coming up with."

      Bishop Trevor Manhanga, who met Mugabe with the other church leaders,
would not be drawn to discuss the apparent rift among the clergy, only
saying he and his colleagues would issue a "comprehensive statement" once
they have finished compiling the National Vision document.

      Zimbabwe's church leaders have taken long to speak out strongly
against alleged human rights abuses by Mugabe or his controversial policies.

      While individual church leaders such as Bulawayo Catholic Archbishop
Pius Ncube have spoken out against the government, on the whole, the
church's voice has been at best muffled.

      Analysts say bickering among the clergy over how to deal with Mugabe's
government would - just like the MDC's split last year - only benefit the
veteran leader who will certainly rejoice that such a key moral authority is
unable to speak with one voice.

      Zimbabwe is grappling its worst ever economic and social crisis,
dramatised by the world's highest inflation of 993.6 percent, shortages of
fuel, electricity, essential medicines, hard cash and just about every basic
survival commodity.

      The MDC and Western governments blame the crisis on repression and
wrong policies by Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's 1980 independence from
Britain,

      Mugabe denies mismanaging the country and says its problems are
because of economic sabotage by Western governments opposed to his seizure
of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks. - ZimOnline

Zimbabwe police officers not allowed to go home

Zim Online

Wed 16 August 2006

      HARARE - Zimbabwe police commanders have banned their officers from
going home after work as they desperately try to stop the poorly paid police
officers from looting cash during an ongoing campaign by the government to
seize money from black-market traders, illegal foreign currency dealers and
speculators.

      The police are leading an onslaught by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to
seize cash from individuals holding more than Z$100 million or firms found
with more than $5 billion of old cash after the central bank two weeks ago
changed Zimbabwe's currency in drastic monetary reforms aimed at shoring up
the near worthless local dollar.

      But the police have been accused of randomly seizing money from people
and later stealing the cash which they hide at their homes or at the homes
of friends and relatives.

      Sources on Tuesday told ZimOnline that Assistant Commissioner
Munyaradzi Musariri told officers assigned to the cash search and seizure
operation that they were no longer being allowed to go home after knocking
off.

      Munyaradzi, who was addressing police at Harare Central police
station, said the officers would be accommodated in tents and would be under
strict orders not to leave in order to prevent those who would have stolen
cash from transporting it home.

      Use of cell phones would also be severely restricted. Those found
breaching the rules would be detained for three weeks and would also have
their allowances forfeited as punishment.

      "We were told that to avoid corruption, no one would be allowed to go
home until further notice. They said this is to deter any attempts to
transport cash obtained through corrupt means to our homes and friends,"
said a junior officer, who refused to be named because he is not authorised
to disclose such details to the Press.

      Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena would not confirm or deny that
police had been ordered not to go home to prevent them taking away stolen
money. He said the matter concerned internal strategies of the law
enforcement agency which he could not discuss with the Press.

       "We do not want to publicise our strategies. Just know that we are
firm on the ground and are doing our duties as usual and as per
instructions," said Bvudzijena.

      According to our sources, the order not to go home will affect about 6
000 police officers involved in the operation to search and seize illegal
cash.

      The officers, who work on a two week shift, will live in tents mostly
put up at government schools and other public institutions near police
stations for the duration of their shift and will only go back home when a
new team takes over duty.

      Last week, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono protested in
a strongly worded letter to Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri that the
police officers were taking advantage of the chaos at the borders to
illegally seize cash from individuals. - ZimOnline

12 million children in sub-Saharan Africa have lost parents to AIDS: report

Zim Online

Wed 16 August 2006

      JOHANNESBURG - At least 12 million children in sub-Saharan Africa have
lost one or both parents to AIDS, according to a report released on Monday
at the International AIDS Conference currently underway in Toronto, Canada.

      Sub-Saharan Africa is considered to be the epicentre of the AIDS
pandemic.

      "When it comes to children the world has failed dismally. Despite a
massive international response to HIV/AIDS, and the many successes helping
adults with the disease, there remains a missing face to the agenda," said
Michael Sidibe, a director with the United Nations Joint Programme on
HIV/AIDS.

      The report said an estimated 380 000 children under the age of 15 had
died of AIDS-related diseases in the region last year alone with 16 percent
of orphans being under the age of five.

      At least 3 000 people are said to be dying of AIDS in Zimbabwe alone
every week.

      But the southern African country, which is battling a severe six-year
old economic crisis, is among the only two countries in sub-Saharan Africa
that have succeeded in halting new infections following extensive awareness
programmes carried out by the government some few years ago.

      The other country that has succeeded in bringing down HIV infection
rates is Uganda. - ZimOnline

Regional leaders to open new border post

Zim Online

Wed 16 August 2006

JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his South African and
Mozambican counterparts will on Wednesday officially open a new border post
to link a giant trans-national game park.

South Africa's foreign affairs ministry said yesterday that Mugabe,
President Thabo Mbeki and President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique will
officially open the border post to be known as Giriyondo.

The border post is part of the 40 000 square kilometer Great Limpopo
Transfrontier Park comprising Mozambique's Limpopo National Park, South
Africa's Kruger National Park and Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou National Park.

The new transfrontier national park is expected to boost tourism in the
three southern African countries. - ZimOnline

Zim thriving thanks to Asia, says Mugabe

IOL

          August 15 2006 at 03:12PM

      Harare - Zimbabwe's defence systems were thriving on strengthened ties
with Asia and Eastern Europe, President Robert Mugabe said on Tuesday.

      Zimbabwe has developed a robust hybrid defence system out of its Look
East policy with Asian countries including China, from which it receives
equipment and training, the 82-year-old leader said in a speech to mark
Zimbabwean defence forces day.

      The country was also side-stepping Western arms and spares embargoes
by manufacturing its own spares and finding alternative suppliers in eastern
Europe, Mugabe added.

      The defence forces have benefited from government's Look East policy
through which they have not only acquired new equipment, but also learned
new military strategies, he said.

      Britain and the EU have slapped an arms and military equipment embargo
on Zimbabwe as a result of charges that Harare has trampled on human rights
and abused democratic processes.

      In an effort to limit reliance on the foreign market, where some
Western suppliers have adopted the British-led illegal sanctions against us
the defence forces embarked on a programme to substitute some of the
foreign-sourced spare parts with locally-manufactured ones, he said.

      Last year Zimbabwe bought six K-8 jet fighters from China. Three MA-60
passenger planes were also acquired, but at least two of them have
experienced serious technical problems.

      Earlier on Tuesday Mugabe, who is also commander-in-chief of the armed
forces, inspected troops on parade in a packed soccer stadium in the
capital.

      Decked in medals and a green and gold sash, Mugabe conducted the
inspection while being driven on the back of an open military vehicle. -
Sapa-dpa

Police ban visits to ailing MDC activist

New Zimbabwe

By Staff Reporter
Last updated: 08/15/2006 22:30:11
POLICE in Zimbabwe's second largest city of Bulawayo arrested an opposition
legislator Sunday, and four others, on charges of holding an "illegal
meeting".

A spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said
Monday that Mpopoma/Pelandaba MP Milford Gwetu and four party activists,
including a 75-year-old woman, were detained in Nkulumane, before being
transferred to Bulawayo Central Police Station.

The party's lawyers were trying to secure their release.

Also arrested with the MP was the party's vice chairperson for Bulawayo
province, Litshe Keswa, the councilor for ward 24 (Nketa) Ndaniso Mpande,
75-year-old Alitia Moyo and Andreas Nkomo, councilor for ward 6 (Nketa).

They were arrested while meeting at Moyo's house, the party said in a
statement.

The statement added: "The five were arrested under (POSA) for allegedly
holding an illegal meeting. Incidentally, Hon Gwetu and the other three
officials had visited Moyo who has not been well.

"The five were arrested outside her house as they were leaving. They were
accused by the police of having been holding an illegal meeting."

Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, the MDC's deputy secretary general said:
"The MDC condemns such flagrant violation of the rights of citizens to
associate. It is shocking and disgusting that the police shamelessly dragged
a 75-year-old ailing woman to the cells on the flimsy allegation that she
hosted an unauthorised meeting in her home.

"For the record, Moyo had received colleagues in her home, who had come to
console her during the ill state of her health.

She added: "When people tell the world that Zimbabweans are being denied
freedom of association and that Zimbabwe is a nation under siege as a result
of state promoted draconian legislation such as POSA and AIPPA, this is
exactly what they mean. No society is expected to enjoy peace and
tranquility under legislations such as POSA and AIPPA."