From The Guardian (UK), 27 October

Take me to court if you dare, Smith tells Mugabe

Former Rhodesian leader delivers defiant riposte to Zimbabwean president's threat to bring him to trial

Harare - Ian Smith, the former Rhodesian white minority leader, challenged President Robert Mugabe yesterday to carry out his threat to put him on trial. Mr Smith said he would love the opportunity to tell the world that Mr Mugabe was a "gangster" who had plunged Zimbabwe into anarchy. Reacting to Mr Mugabe's threat on Wednesday to take him to court, Mr Smith said during a visit to London: "I welcome it. I would love that. Let him try it. It would give me the chance to tell the world the truth about this gangster. Our country is in total anarchy. I will give him the date and time of arrival of my plane so he can meet me at the airport. I go back on Monday week. Mugabe is like a wounded animal in a corner. He is unpredictable and dangerous. He is in a state of panic."

Mr Mugabe told supporters of his party, Zanu-PF, on Wednesday that he would revoke Zimbabwe's national racial reconciliation policy, adopted at independence in 1980, because whites, backed by Britain and the US, were trying to destabilise the country. "Ian Smith and the whites who participated in the massacre and genocide of our people, those who fought against us, we shall try," he told a few hundred supporters in remarks broadcast on state television. But analysts said the threats against Mr Smith and other whites would not stand up in court because of amnesties granted to both sides after the 1979 political settlement which ended the seven year liberation war. The offensive against whites has not succeeded in taking the heat off Mr Mugabe, who is facing an investigation by a parliamentary impeachment committee. An opinion poll found yesterday that 74% of Zimbabweans want him to step down. Numerous black Zimbabweans rejected his latest move. "It's sheer madness and shows that Mugabe is trying to grasp at anything to prop up his dictatorial regime," said Wilfred Mhanda, a former liberation war fighter. "He tried using the land issue but that did not work, so now he is playing his last card - the racist card. But the people won't buy that." Mr Mhanda, a leader of the Zimbabwe Liberators' Platform, a group of war veterans who oppose Mr Mugabe's rule, and his supporters are distributing red cards proclaiming "Mugabe must GO now!” They are urging people to hold them up every day at 1pm. Tendai Biti, an MP for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said that if Mr Mugabe instituted some kind of war crimes tribunal, it could question the president's own past; "Such an inquiry is a double-edged sword. Mr Mugabe has himself been responsible for lots of atrocities, both during the war and since independence."

From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 27 October

Mugabe threat to whites shocks ex-guerrilla chief

Harare –President Robert Mugabe's threat to prosecute former members of the Rhodesian armed forces was condemned yesterday by his military deputy in the war against white rule. For the past 20 years, an amnesty has protected both sides of the conflict between Rhodesia's white regime, led by Ian Smith, and black guerrillas led by Mr Mugabe and the late Joshua Nkomo. Mr Mugabe has now said he will prosecute Mr Smith and all whites who served in the armed forces. "They will stand trial for their crimes," he said. Wilfred Mhanda, who became second-in-command of Mr Mugabe's Zanla guerrillas in 1975, said: "We have long forgotten and forgiven. The president's words leave me shocked. We were fighting for a cause, against a system, never against whites themselves." Mr Smith's government conscripted all men of military age from 1975 until the war ended in 1979. All but a handful of the white males over the age of 40 living in Zimbabwe served the Rhodesian forces in some capacity. If Mr Mugabe presses ahead with his threatened campaign, they could face genocide charges. But Mr Mhanda said both sides had committed atrocities and insisted that he had forgiven the perpetrators. He added: "War drives people to do many things. We should live and let live, and remember that we are one nation now."

Unless Mr Mugabe is prepared to repeal the amnesty, which would require parliamentary approval, he can bring no case against Mr Smith or any of his followers. Michael Quintana, who served in the Rhodesian Signals and Intelligence Corps, said: "It's difficult to take him seriously. Mugabe is famous for saying things he will never follow up on." Mr Mugabe once had uses for veterans of the Rhodesian forces. General Peter Walls, who led Mr Smith's army, served as the first commander of Zimbabwean forces immediately after independence in 1980. Helped by a British training team, the two black guerrilla factions and Rhodesian troops were merged into a single military machine. Even today, some of those who served Mr Smith still hold powerful positions in Mr Mugabe's forces. Air Vice Marshal Ian Harvey, for instance, flew helicopters for Mr Smith. Yet Mr Mugabe's words have stirred deep fears of a witch-hunt. Irvine Reid, a farmer who once served in the police anti-terrorism unit, said: "It's a bit unnerving." A former officer in the Rhodesian Light Infantry said: "When you see what Mugabe is doing on the farms, he can do almost anything."

From The Independent (UK), 27 October

Mugabe in 'in state of panic' as his rule is challenged

After 10 days in which he has faced moves for his impeachment, food riots sparked by the economic crisis and a damning opinion poll, President Robert Mugabe looks embattled as never before in his 20 years as Zimbabwe's leader. But after the MDC yesterday passed the first hurdle in moves to impeach the president – by winning the Speaker of parliament's approval for a parliamentary investigation into Mr Mugabe's conduct - the mood looked set to become uglier and more racially fuelled. In London yesterday Ian Smith, the former Rhodesian leader, said: "Mugabe is like a wounded animal in a corner." He was responding to a threat on Wednesday by Mr Mugabe that he and other whites who had resisted majority rule would be put on trial for genocide. Mr Smith who, with his own forces and black independence fighters was amnestied at the end of white rule in 1980, said: "He is unpredictable and dangerous. He is in a state of panic."

The MDC's launch on Wednesday of impeachment proceedings against Mr Mugabe - for allegedly breaching the constitution by encouraging violence that claimed 32 lives before the June general election, is symbolic but deeply humiliating. With 57 of the 150 parliamentary seats, the MDC, headed by the former trade union leader Morgan Tsvangirai, falls short of the two-thirds needed for impeachment. But the party hopes to broaden debate about Mr Mugabe's future and exploit divisions over his leadership in the ruling Zanu-PF. On Wednesday the MDC tactic appeared to have had an immediate effect on President Mugabe, whose age (76), culture and single-thought Marxist mindset precludes the notion that his authority might be questioned. Yesterday the fact alone of the Mugabe loyalist and Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa being forced by parliamentary procedure to announce an impeachment inquiry represented a huge embarrassment.

At the end of what must have been one of the most bruising 10 days of his career, Mr Mugabe went on the offensive. He allegedly told a party caucus: "We know there are those who support ... MDC. Those of our party members who think that MDC will rule - never, never, never, never. We ... are examining ourselves to see the true loyal supporters. If we find you might be pretending to be a Zanu-PF member, but after examination we hear you are with MDC, you are out," said Mr Mugabe, who is understood reluctantly to have agreed to a discussion on his succession at a party congress in December. His term expires in 18 months and while he - if pushed - is said to favour Mr Mnangagwa as his successor, there are rumours that the new Finance Minister, Simba Makoni, has his eyes on the leadership of Zanu-PF and the presidency and that he has the backing of younger, reformist forces in the party.

Mr Mugabe believes Zimbabwe's economic problems are the result of a conspiracy by whites in cahoots with Western forces. Until this week Mr Mugabe, a prominent figure in SADC, enjoyed the support of regional heads of state for the violent campaign which preceded February's referendum on the constitution and June's election and which has resulted in 1,500 commercial farms being occupied by Zanu-PF supporters. Then, on Thursday the South African President, Thabo Mbeki, broke ranks and condemned the violence north of the Limpopo river. "This conflict is wrong. This approach, this occupation of farms, the seizure of farms, the disregard for the law, these things are wrong, these things must be addressed," he said at a meeting with journalists in Pretoria. Even as the Zimbabwe government this week pledged to go ahead with its "fast-track'' resettlement programme to put thousands of poor blacks on to at least 2,000 white-owned properties by the end of the year, President Mugabe's popularity at home seemed to hit a record low. In a poll by Gallup, 56 per cent of respondents agreed that Mr Mugabe should be put on trial for election-related violence and 51 per cent wanted him to resign before his term expires.

Zimbabwe’s tighter belts, and shorter tempers
Oct 26th 2000 | HARARE
From The Economist print edition

How long can Robert Mugabe hold on?

RHODESIAN town planners were a wily bunch. They made sure that black slums were a long way from the centre of town. That way, if there was a protest against white rule, a few road-blocks could stop the protesters from coming near the seat of government. Robert Mugabe, the man who overthrew the old racist regime, must be grateful.

He does not sound it: he has just declared that the old white leaders should be tried for genocide. But as Zimbabwe’s president, he lives in the grand old buildings that the settlers vacated two decades ago. Like his predecessors, he is widely hated. The townships, or “high-density suburbs”, around Harare are packed with angry people who would dearly love to oust him. Witness the bread riots that battered the capital last week. The police were able to keep the masses out of stone-throwing range of his mansions. But for how long?

The president may have bought himself some time by stealing the parliamentary election in June, but probably not much. Thanks to his mismanagement, the Zimbabwean economy is shedding jobs in the same profusion as the jacaranda trees in Harare shed their purple petals on to the streets. The Matabeleland Chamber of Industries recently predicted that half of its member-firms would close by Christmas.

Even those Zimbabweans who still have jobs find it hard to make ends meet. Real wages are shrinking fast. The prices of bread and fuel leapt by a third this month, setting off the riots in the townships. Mr Mugabe sent in his troops to punish the protesters. Teargas was sprayed on rioters and bystanders alike. Soldiers marched from door to door, dragging out anyone who looked young enough to be a rioter for a clubbing. Four foreign journalists were whipped and told to mind their own business. The rioting was quelled. But similar protests erupted in Mutare, an eastern city, on October 23rd.

As belts tighten, tempers shorten. Those who cannot afford bread currently eat sadza, a dull but filling maize paste. If maize grows too dear, Zimbabweans will go hungry. Alas, this is likely. The peasants who sold their maize surplus to the government in June have not been paid, so they have no cash to buy seeds or fertiliser. Shortages are expected early next year.

The mood in the cities is thunderous. If Mr Mugabe were foolish enough to walk around Mbare, a Harare slum that saw heavy rioting last week, he would hear views ranging from “Mugabe should step down” to “Mugabe should be prosecuted for murder”. Housewives, street-traders, nurses and sewing-machine operators all say that when the time comes they will rally against the president. It is harder to intimidate urban dissidents than peasants, because they live closer to large numbers of their friends, and their brick houses are harder to torch.

Nationwide, Mr Mugabe is as popular as a scorpion in a bathroom. A poll released on October 25th by the Helen Suzman Foundation, a South African think-tank, found that almost all Zimbabweans disapproved of the government’s handling of the economy, and that three-quarters wanted Mr Mugabe to resign. Even Zimbabwean businessmen are calling for a general strike.

But the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), is unsure what to do. The presidency is not up for election until 2002. MDC leaders talk of “mass action” but hesitate to organise big rallies, for two reasons. First, they fear that Mr Mugabe will declare a state of emergency and lock them all up. Second, they fear that he will gun down their supporters. Mr Mugabe did not flinch from murdering some 20,000 dissidents in Matabeleland in the 1980s, so this is no idle fear.

In an attempt to remove the president peacefully, the MDC started impeachment proceedings on October 25th. The case against Mr Mugabe is watertight, but there is little chance of success. Even before the motion reaches parliament, which is dominated by the ruling party, it can be easily killed by the speaker, who is one of Mr Mugabe’s closest allies.

The best the MDC can reasonably hope for is to embarrass the president with a parliamentary debate on his personal defects. These include the persistent flouting of court orders, the flamboyant corruption of his relatives, the use of presidential amnesties to free his hired thugs to terrorise the opposition anew, and the dispatch of 12,000 troops to a useless war in Congo without consulting the cabinet.

Mr Mugabe responded to the impeachment measures by threatening to prosecute white Zimbabweans who fought against him in the independence war. He named two senior MDC members, neither of whom did any actual fighting. He also declared that it was time to revoke the policy of reconciliation between black and white citizens.

There is a danger that, if the MDC fails to co-ordinate urban protests, these will erupt spontaneously, and turn violent. Some people within the MDC accuse their leaders of cowardice for not mobilising the township crowds. But caution is in order. Mr Mugabe is as cunning as he is ruthless.

From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 27 October

Amnesty stands in way of prosecution

FEW people were surprised by the swift agreement on an amnesty at the end of the Rhodesian war of the Seventies. Both sides had committed atrocities. Ian Smith's forces styled themselves "defenders of Christian civilisation", yet butchered civilians. Guerrillas led by Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo declared that they were seizing "land for the people", yet massacred children and missionaries. Mr Mugabe went on to order a bloody campaign to quell unrest in Matabeleland in the Eighties. At least 5,000 civilians were killed. The first act of newly independent Zimbabwe's parliament in 1980 was to ratify the amnesty agreement of 1979. This freed Mr Smith and his followers of any charges arising from "any act done in good faith for the purpose of, or in connection with, resisting or combating any organisation". It gave the guerrillas immunity for "resisting or frustrating the administration purporting to be the government of Southern Rhodesia". As long as this amnesty remains in law, Mr Mugabe cannot bring a case. Repealing it would be a lengthy process, with the opposition holding 58 of the 150 parliamentary seats. Even if Mr Mugabe did succeed, action against whites would be vulnerable to a Supreme Court challenge. But Mr Mugabe has shown a persistent willingness to ignore the law when it suits him, as was shown by this year's farm invasions.

From The Star (SA), 26 October

Mbeki slams abuse of power in Zimbabwe

President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday delivered his strongest condemnation yet of the violence in neighbouring Zimbabwe, saying the occupation of white-owned farms was wrong. Speaking as news broke that President Robert Mugabe threatened to put on trial former white minority leader Ian Smith and other whites for liberation war atrocities, Mbeki said it was up to the people of Zimbabwe to decide whether their leader should remain in power. But he added that the violence that accompanied Zimbabwe's June parliamentary elections and the government's plan to seize thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks could not be condoned. In his first open-ended news conference since succeeding Nelson Mandela as president in June last year, Mbeki said his priority in dealing with the escalating conflict in Zimbabwe had been to protect his own country. Mbeki has been criticised at home and abroad for failing to clearly condemn the violent election campaign in Zimbabwe and Mugabe's programme to confiscate about half the white-owned commercial farms, which are the backbone of the country's economy. "We have been trying to avoid the collapse of Zimbabwe because that would have very negative consequences for ourselves," Mbeki said, adding that refugees from Zimbabwe would not head for Britain or other countries critical of his policy, but to South Africa.

From the BBC, 26 October

Lessons from Ivory Coast

The ousting of the Ivory Coast's military leader by a popular uprising has prompted comparisons with the dramatic events earlier this month on the streets of Belgrade. The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, said the message from both was that the people were asserting their rights. The Yugoslav example seems to be catching, reinforced by instant television pictures flashed around the world. Before the election in Ivory Coast, the opposition leader, Laurent Gbagbo, had threatened Belgrade-style popular protests if he was cheated of victory. There are some clear parallels: people believed the election had been rigged, and they convinced themselves that by acting together in huge numbers they could prevail.

One difference was that in Abidjan they had to face gunfire; in that respect the situation was more like the violent overthrow eleven years ago of the Romanian President, Nicolae Ceausescu. There is another way in which the parallel breaks down. In Belgrade, once Mr Milosevic had been forced to step down, there was no dispute about who should be president. But in the Ivory Coast, Mr Gbagbo was not the only one who thought the election had been unfair: other candidates had been barred from standing at all, and the supporters of one of them, Alassane Ouattara, took to the streets in their turn to demand a re-run. Clashes between the rival factions then took on an ethnic and religious tinge, with churches and mosques being ransacked. The lesson here is that once people become aware of their power, it cannot easily be contained. International reaction reflected the confusion on the ground. The former colonial power, France, argued that the priority was to hold parliamentary elections, while British officials said it was up to the Ivorian people whether they wanted a new presidential vote. But these complexities do not stop Africans seeing the Serbian example as relevant to them. As Mr Annan optimistically put it, the days of coup d'etat and the manipulation of elections are over.

The opposition in Zimbabwe has drawn quite specific lessons. The head of the MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai, described President Robert Mugabe as the Milosevic of Africa; others have been calling him Bobodan. A prominent newspaper editor in Harare said that eventually the police in Zimbabwe would change sides as they had done in Serbia, and people power would triumph. All the same, the moment has to be right, the circumstances have to be clear-cut. Hotly disputed elections have already taken place in Zimbabwe, and a presidential poll is not in principle due for another two years. People power probably sometimes needs, a minimum level of order or democratic process to assert itself. It is hard to imagine mass demonstrations making a decisive impact in the Congo civil war or the chaos of Sierra Leone. And in countries where a united army is the ultimate power behind the scenes , as in Algeria, for example, the grip and resolve of the military has to waver if not collapse. Looking beyond Africa to the intractable conflict of the Middle East, the lessons of Serbia seem hardly relevant at all. The Palestinians do not seriously believe they could seize East Jerusalem in the teeth of the Israeli army.