http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona
Sibanda
16 August 2010
The SADC Troika on Defence, Security and
Politics on Sunday resolved that
all outstanding issues in the Global
Political Agreement (GPA) should be
fully implemented within a
month.
The Troika met on the eve of a SADC summit that began in the
Namibian
capital Windhoek on Monday. MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told us
from Harare
that the Troika also insisted that Zimbabwe should hold
elections next year,
to hopefully bring stability and peace in the
country.
It is believed SADC offered to provide guidance and material
support, to
ensure the country holds free and fair elections.
The
Sunday night meeting, held at the Safari Court Hotel Conference Centre
was
attended by the chairman of the Troika, President Armando Guebuza of
Mozambique, mediator President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, the principals to
the GPA, Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy
Arthur Mutambara, plus their lead negotiators.
Chamisa said the most
important thing to come out of the meeting was
probably SADC's roadmap for
fresh elections in Zimbabwe next year.
Full details of what was agreed
will be released at the end of the summit on
Tuesday. Tsvangirai and his
delegation reportedly left Windhoek for home on
Monday, happy with the
outcome of the meeting. Zimbabwe is being represented
at the summit by
Mugabe. Tsvangirai and Mutambara were in Windhoek to attend
the Troika
meeting on Zimbabwe, which finished on Sunday night.
SW Radio Africa was
told that the meeting was characterized by directness in
manner and speech,
especially from Zuma, who was reportedly 'blunt talking
and straight
shooting.'
'Zuma gave them some candid opinion of what he thought was
needed to be done
to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe, which was a forthright
approach to the
problem never seen before in many of the SADC meetings on
Zimbabwe,' a
source in Windhoek said.
Before the Troika meeting, the
principals to the GPA had still to agree on
the appointment of provincial
governors, the issues of the appointment of
the Attorney General, Reserve
Bank Governor and Roy Bennett, as the deputy
Agriculture minister. The
principals were given a month to deal with these
'toxic' issues.
Reports
on Friday said Mugabe had agreed to swear in new governors on the
24th
August. However Chamisa said the issue of the ten provincial governors
was
still in dispute. 'The governors' issue has yet to be resolved. There is
a
general agreement but Mugabe is refusing to implement it,' Chamisa told
The
Associated Press.
A source told us there was heavy lobbying at the SADC
summit behind the
scenes, with negotiations between some SADC leaders and
officials from the
United States government to put pressure on Mugabe,
Tsvangirai and Mutambara
to come to an agreement over outstanding
issues.
Two weeks ago, U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe, a member of the Senate's
Foreign
Relations Committee, introduced a bill to repeal sanctions imposed
on Mugabe
and his cronies.
The new bill called the Zimbabwe Sanctions
Repeal Act of 2010 seeks to lift
the sanctions imposed in 2001 to stop
alleged human rights violations by the
ZANU PF government.
'The issue
of repealing sanctions against Mugabe and his ZANU PF members is
largely
depended on SADC managing to bridge the differences between Mugabe
and
Tsvangirai,' a source said.
It is believed the South African facilitation
team might be involved in
ensuring that the Troika deliberations on Zimbabwe
will be followed and
executed by the principals.
Reports from
Windhoek said the SADC Council of Ministers also met and
discussed
Zimbabwe's refusal to recognise the ruling of the SADC Tribunal,
which ruled
that Zimbabwe must cease the land seizures.
Mugabe has on several
occasions ignored SADC rulings to stop the seizure of
dozens of white-owned
farms, which the regional body contends violates
international law and
should be halted immediately.
But Zimbabwe argues that the Tribunal
rulings are not above the laws of the
country.
The incoming
chairperson of the SADC Council of Ministers, Hage Geingob, who
is also
Namibia's Minister of Trade and Industry, said the controversial
issue was
discussed at the meeting.
'It's on the agenda of the ministers meeting,
especially about the SADC
Tribunal issues on property that has been seized,'
Geingob told journalists
in Windhoek.
The SADC Tribunal, based in the
Namibian capital, was established in 2003 by
a SADC treaty signed by
regional governments. It provides legal recourse to
issues from aggrieved
regional citizens who will not have got satisfactory
rulings in their own
countries.
A group of white farmers took their case to the tribunal in
2007 to seek
redress after they lost the farms under the land
reforms.
The regional court ruled in November 2008 that the land reforms
in Zimbabwe
were against the SADC treaty because they were discriminatory in
nature. It
has also ruled that the Zimbabwe government is in contempt of
court for
ignoring their rulings.
http://news.radiovop.com/
16/08/2010
16:22:00
Harare, August 17, 2010 - Zimbabwe is expected to hold
elections next year
using guidelines set up by the Southern African
Development Community (SADC)
to ensure that a legitimate government is
allowed to run the country.
Radio VOP has it on good authority that the
SADC troika on defence and
politics which met in Windhoek on Sunday resolved
that for Zimbabwe to
progress there has to be one leader elected through a
free and fair election
which produces credible results.
The meeting
was chaired by Mozambican president Armando Guebuza and also in
attendance
was mediator President Jacob Zuma of South Africa and the three
principals
to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) - President Robert
Mugabe, Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy Arthur Mutambara.
Negotiators
to the deal from the three warring parties in the inclusive
government also
attended the meeting where Zuma presented a report on
Zimbabwe in which he
outlined that the country was making steady progress
although a few
outstanding issues remain unresolved.
The principals were also given a
month to ensure that they implement to the
full the GPA.
"It was a
great meeting and the summary of it all is that SADC want
elections to be
held next year. The region actually wanted to supervise the
elections to
ensure that there is no violence, intimidation and vote rigging
but Mugabe
begged to have the elections run by a local body.
"It would obviously be
embarrassing to have foreigners running an election
but some in SADC feel
that it is the only way to ensure transparency given
the mistrust among the
political leaders in Zimbabwe. SADC wants stability
in Zimbabwe and they are
really turning the screw on Mugabe.
"Mutambara was obviously opposing
elections because he knows he will be
completely obliterated. Mugabe is also
reluctant to go for free and fair
elections as he is certain to
lose.
"But SADC has been patient enough and they are insisting on
elections next
year. But first there has to be a referendum on the on-going
constitutional
process then we move to elections," said a source who is in
Namibia
attending the SADC summit.
The move by SADC comes as it
emerges that Zanu (PF) and the MDC has finally
agreed that provincial
governors should be sworn in shortly while there
seems to be agreement that
a new attorney general should be appointed to
replace Johannes
Tomana.
Zuma's report on Zimbabwe is reported to have touched on various
issues
including the successes and failures of the implementation of the GPA
so
far.
MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa welcomed the news of the
elections and said
the MDC wanted free and fair elections so that the people
are able to chose
a leader of their choice.
"If SADC said they want
elections in Zimbabwe next year then it is most
welcome because that is what
the people of Zimbabwe have been waiting for
all this time," said
Chamisa.
The issue of elections and the remaining outstanding issues are
expected to
be announced in a communiqué to be issued at the end of the SADC
summit of
heads of state.
Tsvangirai, Mutambara and their delegations
left Namibia on Sunday as Monday
was reserved for the heads of state
summit.
http://news.radiovop.com/
16/08/2010
13:33:00
Windhoek, August 16 2010 - Zimbabwean civic society
organisations gathered
here have asked the regional Southern African
Development Community body to
come up with a clear roadmap that will guide
the holding of any future
elections in Zimbabwe.
This is to avoid the
electoral violence that left about 500 people dead in
2008.
The
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CZC) petitioned SADC leaders meeting from
Monday in the Namibian capital Windhoek to put in place mechanisms to
prevent the recurrence of state sponsored violence.
"African leaders
must draw concrete plans to prevent state-sponsored
violence in Zimbabwe's
elections planned for 2011," said CZC in a petition
to be presented to the
heads of state and government.
The petition was also published in major
Namibian newspapers on Monday.
The coalition also wants SADC, who are the
guarantors of the Global
Political Agreement (GPA) that brought President
Robert Mugabe and his long
time foe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai into a
government of national
unity after the disputed 2008 polls, to address
several other issues in
Zimbabwe before an election can be
held.
Among some of the things that the coalition wanted was the
adherence to SADC
Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections,
impartiality of
electoral institutions and state security
sectors.
Further more the groups want Zimbabweans in the diaspora to be
allowed to
vote, technical support for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and
suspension
of Zimbabwe's right to take up a position on the SADC Organ on
Politics,
Defense and Security until it demonstrates commitment to upholding
democratic values.
Meanwhile an MDC-T legislator has backed calls by
Deputy Prime Minister,
Arthur Mutambara, that elections in Zimbabwe should
not be held next year as
the right conditions for free and fair elections
did not exist in the
country.
MDC-T legislator for Mbizo constituency
in Kwekwe urban, Settlement
Chikwinya, on Saturday told journalists and
local councillors at a meeting
organised by media advocacy organisation,
the Media Institute of Southern
Africa (MISA-Zimbabwe), called to discuss
the consitution and national
healing that elections should not be held next
year but should be held in
2013, once a new consitution is in
place.
"I totally agree with Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara that there
should be
no elections in this country until the consitution is in place and
conducive
conditions have been put in place. The other two parties in the
inclusive
government are calling for elections in their political campaings
but it
would not be in the best interests of everyone to have elections next
year,"Chikwinya said.
Mutambara has in the past come out openly and
has declared that Zimbabwe
will not hold elections next year but has said
that elections will be held
once the term of the inclusive government has
expired in 2013.
However President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai have
indicated that their parties are ready for elections
next year.
Chikwinya said while a constitution was being crafted it would
be best to
have the national healing process take place at the same
time.
"National healing is a process that will go along with the
constitution
making process, you can not avoid marrying the constitution
making process
with national healing,"he said.
Chikwinya who was
among a team of three panellists that included
MISAZimbabwe national
director, Nhlanhla Ngwenya, and a local church pastor
however said one
common factor between Zanu (PF) and the two MDC parties was
that they were
all agreed that the current constitution was not the best
document to run
the country.
"The three parties are all agreed that the Lancaster
consitution is not the
best document. For Zanu (PF) it is the best doument
to retain power but they
argue that it is not a Zimbabwean grown document
since it was crafted at the
Lancaster conference.
"The two formations
of the MDC have clearly stated that the current
constitution is not the best
document for the country,"Chikwinya said.
Turning to the process of
national healing Chikwinya said the party
representatives in the National
Healing organ were not the best people to
lead the process at the
moment.
"When the three were appointed by their parties last year they
were the best
people but as things stand at the moment the three are not the
best people
to be leading that organ. John Nkomo is now a Deputy President
while Sekai
Holland is only a minister and Gibson Sibanda has no
constituency.He is not
a senator, he is not a House of Assembly member and
he is not a government
minister and under the circumstances the person who
has more power in that
organ is Nkomo and his decision will prevail because
he is a deputy
president,"Chikwinya said.
He said there was a need
for the parties in the inclusive government to
second people who are in the
same level if the organ is to do any meaningful
work.
http://news.radiovop.com
16/08/2010
08:10:00
Windhoek, August 16, 2010 - The Zimbabwean government's
disregard of
Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal rulings
on Sunday ame
under discussion at the grouping's Council of Ministers in
Windhoek Namibia.
The meeting, attended by Foreign Affairs or Regional
Integration ministers
is held days ahead of the SADC summit heads of State
and governments which
opens Monday here.
The incoming chairperson of
the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) Council of ministers Hage
Geingob who is also Namibia's Minister of
Trade and Industry told Radio VOP
that the issue was to be discussed at the
meeting.
"It's on the
agenda but it's already controversial. It's on the agenda of
the ministers
meeting especially about the SADC Tribunal issues on property
that has been
seized," said Geingob.
"When the ruling was made from here about the
farmers, people were saying
the Windhoek ruling as if Windhoek owns the SADC
Tribunal. The court is your
court that is based here. People say Namibians
are
against Zimbabweans or President Mugabe but we signed the SADC treaty,
Zimbabwe signed and if you sign there are obligations that coming with
signing and we will say this to Zimbabwe but diplomatically
off
course."
The SADC Tribunal based in the Namibian capital was
established in 2003 by a
SADC treaty signed by regional governments. Its
duty is to provide legal
recourse to issues from aggrieved regional citizens
who
will not have got satisfactory rulings in their own countries.
A
group of white farmers took their case to the tribunal in 2007 to seek
redress after they lost the farms under Mugabe's controversial and often
chaotic land reform programme of 2000.
The regional court delivered a
landmark ruling in November 2008 in favour of
the farms saying the land
reforms in Zimbabwe were against the SADC treaty
because they were
discriminatory in nature.
The Zimbabwe government defied the ruling
calling it a "day dream" and
declared that it was no longer going to be
bound by any ruling of the
tribunal.
The case was referred by the
court to the full summit of the heads of state
and government but has so far
not been part of the agenda.
http://af.reuters.com
Mon Aug 16, 2010 3:47pm
GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - A leading diamond trading network has
barred its members
from dealing in stones from Zimbabwe's Marange fields,
saying their
certification by global regulators did not guarantee they were
free from
human rights abuses.
The Kimberley Process (KP)
certification scheme, set up to keep "blood
diamonds" -- stones from
conflict zones -- out of global gem trade, last
week endorsed the sale of
900,000 carats fron Zimbabwe's controversial
Marange fields.
Human
rights activists have called for a ban on diamonds from Marange, where
Zimbabwe's army is accused of widespread atrocities when it moved in to
guard the poorly secured fields after a diamond rush drew up to 30,000
illegal diggers.
The United States-based Rapaport Diamond Trading
Network said although the
Marange diamonds had received KP endorsement, it
will not allow its members
to trade in them.
"Members found to have
knowingly offered Marange diamonds for sale on RapNet
will be expelled and
their names will be publicly communicated," it said in
a
statement.
Zimbabwe, which denies rights abuses at the Marange fields,
says it has
stockpiled nearly 4 million carats of diamonds since the start
of the year,
estimated by state media to be worth $1.7 billion.
A
power-sharing government formed by President Robert Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last year in a bid to end a decade-long political
and economic crisis has said it hopes diamond revenues can help fix the
struggling economy.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Aug 16, 2010, 16:22
GMT
Harare - Zimbabwe on Monday shrugged off a ban by a major diamond
trading
network on gems from its controversial Marange diamond fields,
saying it was
sure to find buyers in Russia and Asia.
The US-based
Rapaport Diamond Trading Network, or RapNet as it is known,
warned in a
statement on its website that it would publicly denounce and
expel any of
its members who dealt in Marange diamonds.
The network links thousands of
diamond suppliers and buyers across the
world.
RapNet founder Martin
Rapaport said that although the global diamond
watchdog called the Kimberley
Process (KP) had authorized Zimbabwe last week
to sell nearly 900,000 carats
of Marange diamonds, RapNet still viewed the
gems as tainted.
'RapNet
members that knowingly offer Marange (the region where the alluvial
diamonds
are found) diamonds for sale on RapNet will be expelled from RapNet
and
their names will be publicly communicated,' he warned.
Zimbabwe Mining
Minister Obert Mpofu told the German Press Agency dpa he was
'not surprised
at all.'
'You might be aware that America, the European Union and the
United Kingdom
have made every effort to make Zimbabwe fail,' he
said.
'In any case, these countries do not constitute the entire market
of
diamonds. We will sell our stones to countries where they are welcome. We
have countries like Russia, China, India and other Asian countries where we
can market our diamonds.'
The Harare government auctioned off 893,000
carats of diamonds from the
Marange region, where the army is accused of
gross human rights violations
against illegal miners and villagers since
2008.
Buyers from the United States, Lebanon, India, Israel and Russia
attended
the auction, which the government said boosted government coffers
by around
71 million dollars.
Last year, the KP ordered Zimbabwe to
suspend its diamond exports while it
investigated conditions in Chiadzwa.
After several visits to the area, and a
partial withdrawal of the army, the
KP has cleared the cash-strapped
government to export gems that have been
mined under KP supervision.
Rapaport, however, noted that the KP green
light did not automatically put
Zimbabwe's diamonds in the clear.
The
KP was set up to clamp down on trade in 'blood diamonds' - diamonds used
to
fund conflicts. Zimbabwe, which denies allegations that the army killed
scores of illegal diamond diggers in 2008, has said the label cannot apply
to its diamonds because there is no war in the country.
However, the
KP 'does not have a mandate to deny its certification for
diamonds involved
in human rights violations and therefore there is no
assurance that diamonds
with KP certification are free of human rights
violations,' Rapaport
said.
'We strongly urge members to contact their suppliers and obtain
written
assurances that they are not being supplied Marange diamonds,'
Rapaport
cautioned.
http://news.scotsman.com
Published Date: 16 August
2010
By Jane Fields
Restless Zimbabweans are clamouring for a share of
the diamond pie after the
first legal sale of 900,000 carats worth from the
contested Chiadzwa fields
last week - but officials from the former
opposition party warn they will be
disappointed.
Finance Minister Tendai
Biti of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has
revealed that
Zimbabwe's starved coffers "would have done well" to get just
£9.6 million
from Wednesday's high-profile sale of Kimberley
Process-certified
conflict-free gems in Harare.
On Friday, Mr Biti contradicted expansive
estimates of proceeds from
President Robert Mugabe's side of the
government.
The inaugural sale raised a total of £29 million, not the
£46m announced by
Mines Minister Obert Mpofu, said the finance minister.
Before the sale, Mr
Mpofu claimed it would rake in more than £1
billion.
That kind of downward revision isn't what Zanu-PF wants
Zimbabweans to hear.
The president's side of the regime is deliberately
overstating the potential
benefits to the public of the diamond sales,
dangling the promise of a
massive wealth-share before the noses of thousands
of state workers.
But with revelations that the government is in line for
little more than a
royalty of up to 10 per cent on gross sales, plus a
dividend from the
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, the state's
mining investment
vehicle, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has urged locals
to be "realistic"
about what they stand to gain.
Few, it seems, are
listening. Whetting appetites, piles of diamonds from
Chiadzwa were shown on
state TV for the first time last week. The
authorities have been secretive
about the gems until now, with Mugabe
himself complaining in March that he
"hadn't seen a single diamond from
Chiadzwa".
Mr Biti has already
laid out his plans for the 18-month-old coalition
government to get more
benefits from the gems. The finance minister told
parliament in July that
there had to be a new "Diamond Act" to ensure all
income from alluvial
diamonds was transferred into state coffers.
The Treasury has no record
of £19m worth of diamonds sold by the ZMDC
earlier this year, Mr Biti said -
a revelation Mr Mpofu dismissed as "hot
air."
Mr Mpofu's personal
assistant and the president's wife, Grace, sit on the
board of one of two
South African firms selected by Mr Mpofu to exploit the
Chiadwa/Marange
claim.
On Thursday, the New York-based Rapaport Diamond Trading Network
warned its
members not to trade in Kimberley-certified Marange diamonds
because of
persistent blood diamond fears.
Zanu-PF will no doubt use
this ban as evidence of more "evil" sanctions from
the West - while ensuring
Mr Tsvangirai and the MDC as junior coalition
partners bear the brunt of
public disappointment at the diamonds' failure to
bring real
change.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
by Irene Madongo
16 August
2010
Fearful villagers in Chipinge and Nyanga have devised a whistle
strategy to
combat increasing attacks from ZANU PF thugs and war vets, as
the police
standby, refusing to come to their aid.
Douglas Mwonzora,
the national co-chairperson of the Constitutional
Parliamentary Committee in
Zimbabwe (COPAC), said on Monday that locals were
fed up of being harassed
at outreach meetings and have resorted to citizen
action.
"Local
people have now devised this strategy of whistling, so that they
mobilize
each other in the event of an unlawful attack. This is because the
attacks
are being done by very few people who do not have the local support.
There
is strength in numbers," he said.
According to Mwonzora the plan is that:
"Once a person is attacked or an
attack is imminent, they whistle, those who
hear the whistle also whistle
while advancing towards the location of the
first whistle, so there will be
a lot of whistling. Firstly it puts off the
attacker and confuses the
attacker. It then mobilizes people towards the
person being attacked," he
explained.
On arrival at the scene of
violence locals hold down the attackers and also
take note of who they are.
Then they are taken to a police station and the
hope is that the police will
actually do something.
Over the past weeks, war vets and ZANU PF militia
were reported to be
terrorising locals in Chipinge and Masvingo province,
beating up MDC members
and those believed to be opposed to Robert Mugabe.
War vet leader Jabalunai
Sibanda was reportedly a key figure in targeting
people who wanted to speak
freely during the ongoing constitutional
outreach.
The police are supporting the ZANU PF attackers by refusing to
arrest them
for unlawful acts and violence, and it is not surprising that
locals have
now resorted to devising their own scheme to arrest the
political thugs.
This citizen justice was put into practice over the
weekend when locals held
down Mugabe supporters who became violent,
according to Munzora. "Over the
weekend I was having a rally in Nyanga
North. Before I arrived, a group of
seven ZANU PF people wielding axes went
to the gathering and ordered
everyone to disperse. They started attacking
people with axes. The people
then retaliated and subdued them. They were
then handed over to the police,"
he said.
The scheme will be
important for people in Chipinge, where the violence
continues. A
constitutional outreach meeting in the area had to be aborted
on Saturday
after two MDC members were assaulted by ZANU PF thugs and then
arrested by
police, according to reports.
MDC-T Provincial spokesperson and Makoni
South MP Pishayi Muchauraya said:
"We had a meeting at the Checheche
business centre which was aborted after
some ZANU PF militia attacked two
MDC members of that ward, Mr Charles Alone
Chiunke and Charles
Chovhi."
"The attacked people are now in Mutare where they are being
attended by
doctors. Charles Alone is still bleeding from the ear at the
hospital. What
is surprising is that when we were attending to these people
who were
injured, some police officers from Checheche actually had to arrest
these
injured people and then fined them $20 each as an admission of guilt
fine
and which crimes they commit we don't know. Just being beaten, it
becomes a
crime."
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Staff
Writer
16 August 2010
The MDC Chitungwiza province on Sunday held
peaceful elections for a new
provincial team.
The elections, held in
the 2,000 seat auditorium at the party headquarters
at Harvest House, saw
Zengeza East MP Alexio Musundire being elected
chairperson, while Norton MP
Edward Musumbu was elected deputy chairperson.
Musundire won the
chairmanship after polling 1 200 while Senator James
Makore, a veteran trade
unionist, polled 1 100 votes. Other members are;
Chari Parirenyatwa, Kaniso
Makarumu, and Llyod Damba. Emily Chipungu was
elected deputy secretary while
Patson Chipiro was unopposed for the position
of deputy organising
secretary. Chipiro's wife, Dadirai was murdered in 2008
by soldiers and ZANU
PF thugs.
The MDC said that over 2000 people from all corners of
Chitungwiza province
converged at the party headquarters. The MDC won six of
the 12
constituencies in the province. The party said the new executive will
work
towards "galvanizing" party structures. The delegates came from all the
12
districts of Chitungwiza province namely Norton, Goromonzi North,
Goromonzi
West, Goromonzi South, Seke Rural, Mhondoro-Ngezi,
Mhondoro-Mubaira, St Mary's,
Zengeza East, Zengeza West, Chitungwiza South
and Chitungwiza North.
The provincial polls also saw new leaders being
elected in all wings of the
province. The new chairperson of the Women's
Assembly is Goromonzi ward 4
councillor, Martha Nhamburo, while the
chairperson for the Youth Assembly is
Albert Mashoko.
The MDC said
that the election of the new province comes on the back of a
massive party
programme to "consolidate and galvanise all party structures
across the
country ahead of the national polls scheduled for anytime next
year."
As part of consolidating its ruling party status, the MDC will
this week
launch a new membership card. The new card will be unveiled on
Saturday when
party leader Morgan Tsvangirai will be officially handed over
card number
001 in ward seven in Harare.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Written by ZZZICOMP
Monday, 16
August 2010 14:08
ZESN/ZPP/ZLHR INDEPENDENT CONSTITUTION MONITORING
PROJECT (ZZZICOMP) Alert 7
VILLAGERS' ASSAULT CAUSES ABANDONMENT OF
COPAC MEETING
Harare - A Constitution Select Committee (COPAC) outreach
meeting was on
Saturday 14 August, 2010 abandoned in Chipinge, Manicaland
Province after
some ZANU PF youths assaulted two villagers prior to
commencement of the
meeting.
The COPAC meeting was scheduled to be held
at Checheche Primary School The
villagers Charles Chovi and Charles Chunje
were assaulted by some ZANU PF
youths at Checheche Primary School, who were
led by Tonderai Ngwendu and
Gilbert Kombo, who used benches, boots and
clenched fists.
The two villagers were accused of sitting on some benches
which had been set
up before the arrival of the COPAC team members for a
meeting to solicit
people's input into a proposed draft
constitution.
ZZZICOMP monitors who witnessed the incident reported that
Chovi and Chunje
sustained some injuries on their bodies and on the ear and
sought medical
attention at St Peters Hospital.
The COPAC meeting was
called off after some villagers protested that the
meeting could not proceed
as some of them had been assaulted and intimidated
before the arrival of the
COPAC team members.
Ngwendu and Kombo were fined by the police at Chisumbanje
Police Station,
who also asked Chovi and Chunje to pay an admission of
guilty fine for
engaging in public fighting.
Honourable David Chimhini
confirmed the assault and the abandonment of the
meeting. He said it was
evident that some villagers had been intimidated
before the arrival of the
COPAC team and his team had to postpone the
meeting to a date to be advised
as tension was high at the meeting.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
16 August
2010
Press freedom in Zimbabwe is still ranked as the lowest in the
Southern
African region, in a strong indictment of the lack of progress
under the
unity government.
According to the 2010 Press Freedom
rankings by the international watchdog,
Freedom House, Zimbabwe has made
slight improvements over the past year.
This has seen the country jump five
places up the official ranking, which
rates countries from "free" to "partly
free" to "not free." Overall Zimbabwe
sits at joint 181st out of 196
countries, only just making it out of the
bottom ten "worst of the worst"
countries for press freedom.
This means that although Zimbabwe has more
press freedom than North Korea,
it shares 181st position with war torn
Somalia and is ranked worse than
Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan. Freedom House
said: "Despite constitutional
provisions for freedom of expression,
officials display an openly hostile
attitude towards media freedom, and a
draconian legislative framework
continues to effectively inhibit the
activities of journalists and media
outlets."
The official ranking is
a clear sign of the lack of progress made in
Zimbabwe since the formation of
the unity government more than a year ago.
The coalition vowed to improve
the conditions under which the media operate,
but only a token effort has
been made. Journalists are being accredited, but
many face outrageous fees.
Some independent newspapers now have licences,
but the broadcast space
remains closed to independent radio.
Loughty Dube, the chairman of the
Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute
for Southern Africa (MISA), said
that the same repressive laws that have
governed and restricted the media in
the past are still in place. He said
until the Public Order and Security Act
(POSA) and the Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA)
are fully repealed, there will be no
free media in Zimbabwe.
The
press freedom survey meanwhile paints a grim picture in the entire
Southern
African region, whose leaders are currently meeting in Namibia at
the heads
of state Summit. The survey found surprising changes in South
Africa and
Namibia, which both dropped from being "free" to only "partly
free" in terms
of the media. Freedom House said this leaves "no free
countries in southern
Africa for the first time since 1990."
http://news.radiovop.com/
16/08/2010 16:12:00
Windhoek,
August 16, 2010 - An exhibition hosted by the Zimbabwe Human
Rights
Association (ZIMRIGHTS) and a documentary highlighting the problems
that are
being faced by farm workers in Zimbabwe after the start of the land
reform
programme of 2000 left many civic society leaders attending meetings
on the
sidelines of the SADC summit here with tears.
Emotions ran high as many
civic representatives from the Southern African
Development Community (SADC)
gathered hear watched the gory acts of violence
meted out to ordinary
Zimbabweans during the 2008 elections through the
pictures and video
presentations.
The ZIMRIGHTS exhibition of pictures chronicling the
violence that took
place during the June 2008 election which was banned in
Harare in May, left
many delegates shocked.
Some even argued that the
pictures were not from Zimbabwe but somewhere in
Africa in places such as
DRC or Sudan which are synonymous with war and
strife.
So powerful
was the exhibition that it dominated discussions at the meetings
being held
here.
ZIMRIGHTS decided to stage the exhibition here after failing to
showcase it
in Harare due to police threats.
The exhibition held at
the Catholic Cathedral in central Windhoek featured a
host of pictures
showing gory acts of violence that was meted out especially
to Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) supporters about 500 of whom died
during the
violence.
The exhibition showed chilling pictures of how eyes were gorged
out,
buttocks and feet burnt among many other horror acts.
"ZIMRIGHTS
path of preaching truth telling and advocacy around national
healing using
the pictures in our country was thwarted by state security
agents. This left
us with no option but to use such platforms like the SAPSN
gathering here in
Windhoek," said ZIMRIGHTS director Okay Machisa.
He was speaking at the
Southern African People's Network (SAPSN) meeting
held in Namibia.
A
documentary of the plight of farm workers also left delegates in
tears.
One of the delegates immediately called for the arrest and
subsequent trial
of President Robert Mugabe at the Hague for the disregard
of human rights in
Zimbabwe.
"He is no different from Saddam Hussein
or Omar Al Bashir, he must be at the
Hague because that's where he belongs,"
said the delegate from Lesotho.
The documentary was done by the Research
and Advocacy Unit.
Gertrude Hambira, Secretary General of the General
Agricultural and
Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), who produced
the documentary
and plays a trailblazing role in protecting the rights of
farm workers fled
the country early this year after the production of the
documentary.
Click here to read LM Edition 58 from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
PEACE WATCH 8/2010
[13th August 2010]
Preventing Violence – Lessons from the Kenyan Constitution Referendum
Background The constitution making process was started over eight years ago in
Kenya, at the time of transition from a virtually one party state to a
multiparty democracy. A proposed draft was put to a referendum in 2005. As
many of the reform provisions of the draft had been watered down by politicians,
it was rejected following widespread opposition and civil unrest. To end the
crisis caused by political polarisation after the controversial results of the
2007 elections and the horrific violence which ensued, leaving well over a
thousand dead and hundreds of thousands displaced as internal refugees, a
Government of National Unity was set up in 2008. Part of the plan hammered out
by Kofi Annan’s mediation team was a new constitution which would rally all
Kenyans in the interest of national unity. A draft was drawn up, after wide
consultation, by a committee of experts. It was adopted by Parliament on April
1st this year, gazetted on May 6th and put to voters in a referendum on August
4th.
Fears of Renewed Violence during the Kenyan Constitution Referendum
After its gazetting, those supporting the draft constitution – “the
greens” – and those against it – “the reds” – waged nation-wide campaigns to
mobilise supporters. As the date for the referendum drew closer there seemed
good reason to fear that the violence after the 2007 elections might be
repeated. In mid-June there was a bomb-blast at a rally held by opponents of
the new constitution and the ensuing stampede left six dead and dozens wounded.
There were also reports of hate-speech and threats. Various political leaders
with followings from different ethnic groups were taking different positions.
As early as March leaflets in some areas warned ethnic/political “outsiders” to
leave the area before the referendum. In Tenderet, southern Kenya, leaflets
dated July 5th warned the communities to prepare for war should the 'Yes' team
win. Local vigilante groups, 'Home Boys', some of who were believed to have
carried out the atrocities in the post-election violence in Nandi East and
Tinderet, were thought to be operating again. Similar threats were issued to
'outsiders' in other areas. The chairman of Kenya’s National Cohesion and
Integration Commission expressed concern that growing tension in some parts of
the country would undermine the upcoming referendum and that there was
documentary evidence of a threat of violence as campaigns continued. “We are
seeing some very hot spots, particularly in the Rift Valley, and we are
concerned about it.”
The potential for serious outbreaks of violence was real. It was
obvious that action was necessary to prevent that potential turning into ugly
reality.
Launch of Uwiano Peace Platform:
The Uwiano Platform for Peace was launched in Nairobi on 14th July as
a partnership of:
·
the National Cohesion and Integration Commission [NCIC] [set up by
the Government of National Unity to create harmony, tolerance and
appreciation of Kenya’s ethnic diversity]
·
the National Steering Committee on Peace Building and Conflict
Prevention [NSC] [set up by the Office of the President and comprising
representatives from government, civil society, UNDP]
·
PeaceNet [a broad-based coalition of peace workers, largely
at the grassroots level, who strive to foster peace in their local communities
and in the nation at large].
Uwiano [Kiswahili for cohesion] aimed to take proactive steps to
prevent violence over the referendum. Speaker after speaker at the launch
called on all people to be ambassadors for peace, wherever they were, and as
responsible citizens to do their part in preventing violence in their neighbourhoods.
As a joint initiative, Uwiano enjoyed the support
of government, local civil society and churches as well as foreign donors, etc.
Its basic strategy was to try and maintain peace by organising a system to get
up-to-date information on tensions, hate speech, incitement, threats and
violence throughout the country and to relay this information to organisations
in the best position to undertake a rapid response.
Uwiano Built on Existing Peace Campaigns and
Interventions Because of a long history of sporadic violence in Kenya – over land
settlement, between agriculturists and pastoralists, regional conflict based on
unfair distribution of resources, political conflicts exacerbated by and in turn
exacerbating ethnic and regional tensions – a number of organisations had set up
peace building initiatives in Kenya. After the outbreak of violence following
the 2007 elections there was a more concerted effort to respond to both the
effects and causes of the violence and to prevent it happening again. As
polarisation, tensions and threats of violence increased towards the referendum,
it was decided to coordinate these activities.
Early Warning System
Uwiano engaged all Kenyan peace building structures to monitor
potential violence and share early warning information so as to facilitate early
intervention. Media clips – voice and video recordings, photographs, including
of hate leaflets – and in particular SMS's were the main sources of
information. Through close working ties with civil society organizations and
district and community peace committees, UWIANO came up with focal point persons
in every locality who would verify early warning alerts. The peace committees,
civil society and members of provincial administrations lined up a series of
meetings in specific “hot spots”.
Use of Cell Phones to Report Problems
A system was set up enabling individuals to use their mobile phones
to relay text messages free of charge on all available networks to the Uwiano
secretariat. Any Kenyan citizen was free to send text messages about the peace
situation in any part of the country in order to guard the peace in their own
neighbourhoods – what was happening, where it was happening, why it was
happening, who was involved, and how serious the happenings were. For example
– an SMS came in 3 days before the referendum day. It read as follows:
“Good afternoon, we just received a message from Nyeri about a looming attack by
the Mungiki [a politico-religious group banned as a violent criminal
organization] on a vigilante group after they killed one of
them yesterday. We have verified but have no mandate to call the police. Kindly
follow up.” On receipt of this message, information was relayed to one of
the UWIANO Platform for Peace principals for quick intervention. Within a matter
of 25 minutes, details had been communicated to the District Commissioner in
Nyeri Central and action was taken by the police, including
arrests.
Mapping and Responding to Alerts
A team of data analysts at PeaceNet Kenya managed and responded to
the information coming in through an SMS nerve centre. It verified to ensure
that the information released was authentic, and analyzed information into
peace, tension or violence categories. Reports were sent to all the networks
and the media and relayed to the rapid response mechanisms – the District Peace
Committees [DPC’s], police, media, CSO’s, the NCIC and the NSC.
Media and Publicity Campaigns
To enable as many Kenyans as possible to report incidents of violence
or tension build-up, a media campaign with messages on national cohesion, how to
report incidents, and best practices was rolled out in the print and electronic
media. The watchwords ‘Chagua Kenya, Chagua Amani’ [Choose Kenya, Choose
Peace] were broadcast and printed on T-shirts and on Electoral Commission
materials.
District Peace Committees Some of these existed through the peace building efforts of the last
few years. In the build-up to voting day, more committees were set up in
districts which had been identified as potential flashpoints through the Early
Warning System. The peace committees were ready to serve as mediators to defuse
conflict situations before they erupted into violence. They maintained close
liaison with police and local government structures. The DPC’s played a key
role in documenting peace building information around the referendum
period.
Peace Vigil
UWIANO Platform for Peace held a Peace Vigil at Kenya International
Conference Centre from 4.00 pm to 7.00 pm. on Tuesday August 3rd, the eve of the
constitution referendum day, as a culmination of the peace campaigns and
interventions they had been running across the country. The vigil theme was a
peaceful referendum. It brought together District Peace Committees from the 9
districts of Nairobi, civil society organizations, community based organizations
and government agencies involved in promoting peace. The vigil was preceded by
a march from Uhuru Park led by a band from the Office of the President. At 6.59
pm a moment of peace was observed and televised on national television,
and all Kenyans were encouraged to switch off the lights, light a candle and
observe silence for one minute. Musician Achieng Abura led the entire country
in singing the national anthem. The crowd that had gathered then joined in a
rendition of the Bob Marley song “One People”.
Results
The referendum passed off peacefully despite the threats of violence.
The Interim Independent Electoral Commission announced the final referendum
tally as 66.9% “Yes” votes against 30.1% “No” votes. Voter turnout stood at
72.1 %. Election observers declared it free and fair. Despite the bruising
referendum campaigns the leaders of the “No” campaign accepted defeat
gracefully.
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