Mugabe: 'There is no cholera in Zimbabwe'

http://www.timesonline.co.uk

December 11, 2008

Jenny Booth
President Robert Mugabe said today that "there is no cholera" in Zimbabwe
any more because the country's doctors had cured the outbreak.

His statement is in stark contradiction of the daily updates on the state of
Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic from the World Health Organisation, which said
today that at least 783 had died of the disease and 16,403 had been infected
as of yesterday.

Today South Africa declared its border with Zimbabwe a disaster zone because
of the surge of people trying to cross the border, either fleeing the
disease or seeking medical treatment, as Zimbabwe's economy and health care
system has largely collapsed.

"I am happy to say our doctors have been assisted by others and WHO (the
World Health Organization)... so now that there is no cholera," said Mr
Mugabe, in a speech screened on national television.

The veteran President, who has led Zimbabwe ever since independence from
British colonial rule 28 years ago, linked international concern at
Zimbabwe's plight to what he regarded as a plot to oust him from power.

He denounced calls by Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy of France and President
Bush for him to step down.

"Because of cholera, Mr Brown, Mr Sarkozy and Mr Bush want military
intervention. Now that there is no cholera, there is no need for war," he
said.

"The cholera cause doesn't exist any more.

"Shall we also say that (because) there is mad cow disease, there must be
war, Britain must be invaded? Mr Brown, your head must go for some medical
correction."

Meanwhile a spokesman for the Limpopo provincial government in northern
South Africa revealed today that the area had been accorded disaster status
at an emergency meeting this week.

"The whole of the Vhembe district has been declared a disaster," said Mogale
Nchabeleng. "Extraordinary measures are needed to deal with the situation."

Cholera has also been reported spreading into neighbouring Mozambique,
Zambia and Botswana.

The outbreak has prompted calls from Britain, France and the US for
international humanitarian assistance to be sent into Zimbabwe. Western
leaders and some African leaders have also called on Mr Mugabe to resign.

Zimbabwean government spokesmen have repeatedly accused the West of using
the cholera epidemic - the worst in Zimbabwe's history - to try to oust Mr
Mugabe. They also blame Western sanctions for ruining the once relatively
prosperous southern African country, where inflation is so high that prices
double every 1.3 days.

Mr Mugabe's critics say it is his policies which have wrecked the Zimbabwean
economy and led to the deaths of thousands of his people. Half the
population is dependent on foreign food aid in a country that until recently
exported food to its neighbours.

Mr Mugabe remains deadlocked with Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader,
over implementing a power-sharing deal.

Cholera Is Raging, Despite Denial by Zimbabwe President

Desmond Kwande/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe during the state funeral for a ruling party official on Thursday in Harare.

By CELIA W. DUGGER

Published: December 11, 2008

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Cholera swept through the five youngest children in the Chigudu family with cruel and bewildering haste. On a recent Saturday, they chased each other through streets flowing with raw sewage, and chattered happily as they bedded down for the night.

The onslaught of diarrhea and vomiting began around midnight. Relatives frantically prepared solutions of water, sugar and salt for the youngsters, aged 20 months to 12 years, to drink. But by morning, they were limp and hollow-eyed. The disease was draining their bodies of fluid.

“Then they started to die,” said their brother Lovegot, 18. “Prisca was first, second Sammy, then Shantel, Clopas and Aisha, the littlest one, last.”

A ferocious cholera epidemic, spread by water contaminated with human excrement, has stricken more than 16,000 people across Zimbabwe since August and killed more than 780. Health experts are warning that the number of cases could surpass 60,000, and that half the country’s population of 12 million is at risk.

The outbreak is yet more evidence that Zimbabwe’s most fundamental public services — from water and sanitation to public schools and hospitals — are shutting down, much like the organs of a severely dehydrated cholera victim.

Zimbabwe’s once promising economy, disastrously mismanaged by President Robert G. Mugabe’s government, has been spiraling downward for almost a decade, but residents here say the free fall has gained frightening velocity in recent weeks. Most of the nation’s schools, which were once the pride of Africa, producing a highly literate population, have virtually ceased to function as teachers, whose salaries no longer even cover the cost of the bus fare to work, quit showing up.

With millions enduring severe and worsening hunger and cholera spilling into neighboring countries, there are rising international calls for Mr. Mugabe to go after 28 years in power. But he only seems to be digging in and even declared Thursday that the nation’s cholera epidemic had ended, just a day after the World Health Organization warned that the outbreak was grave enough to pose “serious regional implications.”

Water cutoffs are common and prolonged here, but last week the taps went dry in virtually all of the capital’s densely packed suburbs where people most needed clean drinking water to wash their hands and food, essential steps to containing cholera. On rutted streets crowded with out-of-school children and jobless adults, piles of uncollected garbage mounted and thick brown sludge burbled up from burst sewer lines.

The capital’s two largest hospitals, sprawling facilities that once would have provided sophisticated care in just such a crisis, had largely shut down weeks earlier after doctors and nurses, their salaries rendered virtually worthless by the nation’s crippling hyperinflation, simply quit coming to work.

Inflation officially hit 231 million percent in July, but John Robertson, an independent economist in Zimbabwe, estimates that it has now surged to an astounding percent: 8 followed by 18 zeros.

The situation has deteriorated to such a degree that soldiers — Mr. Mugabe’s enduring muscle — rioted last week on the streets of the capital, breaking windows and looting stores, after waiting days on bank lines without being able to withdraw their meager salaries from cash-short tellers. A midlevel officer who participated in the mayhem, but declined to be named for fear of prosecution, said troops are enraged that they can no longer afford to buy food or send their children to school.

“As we talk, children of chefs are in private schools learning while ours are playing in dusty roads,” he said bitterly, using the local term for the people in power.

Rumors about this extraordinary unrest in the army’s ranks have circulated feverishly, with some speculating that the rioting was staged to justify imposing a state of emergency. Others hoped it finally signaled the beginning of the end for Mr. Mugabe.

Still, the Mugabe regime’s ability to clamp down on dissent seems intact. The police quelled the riot. Sixteen soldiers now face a court martial. Beyond that, some 20 opposition party activists and human rights workers have recently disappeared. Last week, armed men abducted a well-known human rights activist, Jestina Mukoko, at dawn while she was barefoot, still in her nightgown and bereft of her eyeglasses and as her teenaged son looked on helplessly.

Analysts have long predicted that Mr. Mugabe’s hold on power — which he has refused to loosen even since September when he signed a power-sharing deal with his nemesis, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai — would only be broken once the economy completely imploded and daily life became intolerable.

But as the endgame of the octogenarian Mr. Mugabe’s rule plays out, the human tragedies mount.

In a country that already lays claim to the terrible distinction of having the second highest proportion of orphans in the world — one in four children has lost one or both parents — the closure of schools and hospitals is hitting these most vulnerable children mercilessly.

Aisha Makombo, 15, has been raising her 11-year-old sister Khadija since their mother died of AIDS last year. An expressive girl with a soft, round face, Aisha is H.I.V. negative, but she has been struggling to get drug treatment for Khadija, who is now sick with AIDS.

She took her little sister, so stunted she appears half her actual age, to Parirenyatwa Hospital, the nation’s largest referral hospital, last year, but crucial test results needed to qualify Khadija for life-saving medications were inexplicably misplaced. On a later visit, Aisha was told the machine that performs the tests was broken. Now the hospital is virtually closed. Aisha said she was referred to private doctors who demand payment in South African rand or American dollars, but the girls have no money.

Aisha’s eyes filled with tears as she explained that she has been able to obtain only cotrimoxazole, an antibiotic used to treat opportunistic infections, for her little sister.

Aisha used to escape the sadness of her life by going to school, but two months ago the teachers at her high school stopped showing up.

“She didn’t bid us farewell, she just left,” Aisha said of her math teacher, the one she misses most of all. “At first, we thought she would come back, but then we gave up hope.”

Aisha now scrambles to barter her labor for food, while her little sister, too weak to work, attends a small school run by a nonprofit group. Last week, Aisha started a four day job, bent over in a field, readying it for planting. In exchange, she was to get two pounds of flour and a bottle of cooking oil, as well as a shirt and blouse for Khadija.

The girls pray together each night before they sleep in the tiny, grubby, windowless room they share. The small house belongs to their grandfather, but he admits it is Aisha who provides the food for him and her 45-year-old uncle who sometimes steals the cornmeal she earns, as well as the girls’ clothes to sell second hand.

Yet the girls say they cling to their dreams. Aisha’s is to be a doctor, Khadija’s a bank teller, each hungering for what the sisters don’t have — health and money for medicine and food.

Zimbabwe has one of the world’s highest rates of H.I.V. infection, and now a raging cholera crisis. But with the economic collapse decimating revenues needed to run the country’s collapsing public health systems, mortality rates among cholera victims here are five time higher than in other countries, public health experts said.

Mr. Mugabe’s government — in its pursuit of power and money — has also contributed to both catastrophes, analysts say.

Earlier this year, the government jeopardized $188 million in aid from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria by taking $7.3 million the organization had donated and spending it on other, unrelated expenses. Only at the eleventh hour, under threat the money would be withheld, did the government reimburse the Global Fund for the missing funds.

And two years ago, the government took control of Harare’s water and sewer systems from the opposition-controlled city council, depriving the local government of a crucial source of revenue to keep services functioning.

“The real motive was to dilute the influence of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and cripple them financially,” said Justice Mavezenge, an officer with the Combined Harare Residents Association, a civic group.

Last week, even Mr. Mugabe’s mouthpiece, the Herald newspaper, castigated the state-run water authority for running out of chemicals to purify Harare’s water supply — chemicals it said could have been trucked in from South Africa in less than 24 hours.

The United Nation’s Children’s Fund and international donors have stepped into the void. They have begun trucking 50 tankers of fresh water into the most densely settled suburbs and will be providing water treatment chemicals for the city over the next four months, said Unicef’s acting country director, Roeland Monasch.

But some aid officials fear the epidemic will be impossible to contain because of the failing water and sanitation systems in places like Budiriro, the Harare suburb where the Chigudu children died and where half the country’s cases have occurred.

“We’re not going to be able to control it,” said one aid agency advisor, speaking anonymously for fear of retribution. “The likely scenario is that people who get sick in places like Budiriro will go home for the festive season and you’ll get flashpoints all over the rural areas.”

Cholera stole the five Chigudu children in just two days, on Nov. 17 and 18, and the grandmother and aunt who helped care for them died just days later. Their father, who returned home just hours after the last of his children died, got his first inkling of unspeakable calamity when his youngest ones weren’t there to clamber all over him as he walked in the door.

“I will never get my children back,” he said.

The death toll mounts each day. Chipo and Tecla Murape rushed their orphaned 5-year old niece, Moisha, to the clinic in Chitungwiza, a city just south of Harare, last week. Nurses told the family the veins in the girl’s arms had collapsed because she had lost so much fluid. No doctor ever saw her, her relatives said, and the nurses never hit a vein. Moisha, a shy, but friendly girl, instead drank rehydration fluids.

Throughout the day, she complained of a terrible thirst and a painful stomach ache. On the advice of clinic workers, her aunts did not even hold her hand as she lay dying, fearing infection. After night fell, the nurses said there was nothing more they could do and suggested Moisha’s relatives take her to the city’s hospital, some two and a half miles away.

But there was no ambulance. Tecla Murape, 42, swaddled Moisha to her back and set off hurriedly for the hour-long walk, her heart pounding with worry. Under a dark, moonless sky, she took a shortcut through a maize field, leaping across yet another putrid sewage spill. By the time they arrived, Mrs. Murape’s clothes were soaked with Moisha’s watery diarrhea. Hours later, Moisha passed away.

Zimbabwe cholera epidemic 'worsening' says aid agency

11 Dec 2008 17:50:00
GMT
Source: Save the Children UK
Save the Children
Website: http://www.savethechildren.net

Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic is not under control, Save the Children said
today.

Speaking from the agency's HQ in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare today,
Save the Children's country director Rachel Pounds said: "If anything is
certain in the chaos of Zimbabwe today it is that the cholera outbreak is
not under control. According to the latest figures 775 people have died so
far. Save the Children knows this is an underestimate - not least because
the figures do not include areas in which we work and where we know there
have been many unrecorded deaths.

"Also, the percentage of people who are dying having contracted cholera in
the first place is way higher than normal for this disease, in some areas.
With even the most basic health care on hand, you would expect to see a
death rate of only one or two percent. In some areas of Zimbabwe a third of
those who have contracted the infection are dying."

Ms Pounds added that said that the crisis was almost certainly worsening.
"Reliable figures are hard to come by, but there is much evidence out there
that this crisis is growing, not diminishing, especially as we know there
are many people can't get to cholera centres. Given that this is a disease
spread by unclean water and exacerbated by hunger which weakens victims,
this problem has clearly not gone away. Water and health services have
collapsed and more than half the 10 million population needs emergency food
aid. This deadly disease will continue to spread unless we get more money
and more resources to halt the contamination and treat victims promptly."

Save the Children urged the international community to listen to aid
agencies working in Zimbabwe and to Zimbabweans themselves living with the
horror of hunger and cholera. "It is ordinary families who are bearing the
brunt of this crisis, and it is to them the world must listen," said Ms
Pounds. "They should listen to the mothers whose babies have died, and to
the children waiting outside health clinics to see if their mothers or
fathers will come out alive. That's the reality here."

Save the Children's 200-strong team in Zimbabwe is helping to provide drugs
to treat cholera and educating communities how to avoid infection, as well
as providing food so that safe cholera treatment camps can be set up to
prevent further contamination.

The aid organisation is feeding around 200,000 people and helping families
prepare for the future by distributing seed, small livestock and helping to
set up vegetable gardens. Save the Children has worked in Zimbabwe for
nearly 25 years.

France says Zimbabwe denies visas to aid workers

http://africa.reuters.com

Thu 11 Dec 2008, 13:27 GMT

[-] Text [+] PARIS, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe has denied visas to a French
team of specialists standing by to help stem a cholera outbreak in the
African country, the French foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, under pressure from Western leaders to
resign, said on Thursday his government had stopped the epidemic, which he
said Western governments were using as an excuse to try to invade the
country and oust him.

"Contrary to what Mr Mugabe says, the cholera epidemic is not under
control... France strongly regrets this decision and calls on Zimbabwe's
authorities to allow aid to reach the population," ministry spokesman
Frederic Desagneaux said.

The team of six includes three specialists from the French foreign
ministry's crisis centre, two epidemiologists, and a water treatment expert.

International health organisations say the epidemic, which has already
killed at least 800 people, is still not under control. The United Nations
says some 16,000 people are already infected, and warned that the water-born
disease could infect 60,000 if not treated properly. (Reporting by Brian
Rohan; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Analysis: absurd cholera declaration reveals Mugabe's fear

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/

December 11, 2008

Do not make the mistake of thinking the Zimbabwe president is unhinged - he
is simply trying to avert a war of his own making
Richard Beeston, Foreign Editor
To the uninitiated, President Mugabe's declaration today that he had stopped
the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe may seem like the remarks of a deluded old
tyrant living out his last day's in a parallel world.

As hundreds of his countrymen succumb to the deadly disease and thousands
more are infected - with no government effort to stop the outbreak - he has
simply declared the crisis over.

In a country where he controls all the media, persecutes the opposition and
bans foreign journalists, who is to challenge his absurd pronouncements?

But it would be a mistake to imagine that Mr Mugabe is unhinged or unaware
of what is happening in Zimbabwe. His remarks are based on a perceptive
assessment of the situation and reveal that he is more concerned than he
lets on.

Ever since Mr Mugabe decided to use violence and intimidation as a means to
stay in power, he has been very careful to apply force expertly. While the
lives of his fellow Zimbabweans have been ruined - and millions have fled
abroad - he has until now largely contained the problem within the country's
borders.
This has made it far more difficult for his opponents in London and
Washington to press for international intervention, which is usually
justified because a country poses a threat to the security of an entire
region.

Certainly the regional superpower South Africa has shown no appetite for
intervening in Zimbabwe. Moscow and Beijing, who can and have vetoed
resolutions on Zimbabwe, have similarly insisted that it is not the business
of the outside world to interfere in Zimbabwe's internal affairs.

The cholera epidemic changes all that. The disease has now spread into South
Africa and threatens other neighbours.

Unfortunately for Mr Mugabe, the easy ride he has enjoyed for the past
decade of violence, corruption and mismanagement could soon be over. A new
leadership in South Africa under Jacob Zuma, the head of the ruling African
National Congress, is unlikely to be as a patient as Thabo Mbeki. Privately
Mr Zuma has let it be known that he cannot stand Mr Mugabe.

There will soon be a new president in the White House. Unlike his
predecessors he is half African and, as The Times recently revealed, his own
grand-father took part in the liberation movement against British rule in
Kenya. Barack Obama will be much more difficult to dismiss as an agent of
Western imperialism.

Put this together and Mr Mugabe may fear that his enemies will use the
cholera epidemic to justify a humanitarian intervention in his country,
possibly backed by troops covered by UN mandate (as they were in Bosnia).

Mr Mugabe put his finger on the problem today when he said: "Now there is no
cholera there is no case for war."

We know his first premise is ridiculous. He must know that his conclusion is
also wrong.

Comments
The fact that he even mentioned war gives an interesting insight into his
mindset and I would agree with Richard. As a Zimbabwean of 34 years standing
with an active and vested interest in his pronouncements, I have never heard
him use the word war in connection with an invasion. He must be worried.

Guy Thompson, London,

the idea of military intervention in Zimbabwe originated from Mugabe's
spokesperson George Charamba. The West and some African leaders have simply
called for Mugabe to RESIGN. The media should always make this point clear.
Mugabe's resignation is not equal to a declaration of war....

Calvin Gumede, Harare, Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe, chaos gives cholera a foothold

http://www.latimes.com

The lack of government services allows the easily treatable disease to
spread. The sick and their families must cope alone.
By Robyn Dixon
8:42 PM PST, December 10, 2008
Reporting from Budiriro, Zimbabwe -- A bony limb flops from the wheelbarrow
in limp resignation. A head lolls amid the pile of blankets. A woman is
trundling her elderly mother home from a clinic to die.

In Zimbabwe's cholera- ravaged townships, the dying make their final journey
home in wheelbarrows and pushcarts, sent away from clinics by nurses too
overworked and underpaid to care much about who survives.

One 71-year-old man, Tarcisius Nerutanga, had to carry his dying 27-year-old
son, Allan, home over the weekend on his back. When Nerutanga was summoned
to the clinic in Budiriro township, he found Allan dumped on a wooden bench
outside, racked by severe vomiting and diarrhea.

"They didn't say anything. They just said, 'Take him home,' " Nerutanga
said, as his wife, Loveness, sat on the concrete floor in their tiny room
weeping silently. "I knew he was in a terrible state. I didn't think he'd
survive."

Allan Nerutanga died Monday.

Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has killed at least 775 people and sickened more
than 16,000, the United Nations reported Wednesday.

Under normal circumstances, the waterborne disease is relatively easy to
treat. In Zimbabwe, it is spreading uncontrolled amid the country's economic
collapse and political turmoil as the 28-year-old regime of President Robert
Mugabe clings to power after disputed elections.

A tangle of problems makes the disease intractable: decaying water system
infrastructure; burst sewage pipes left unrepaired; government failure to
buy water treatment chemicals or collect garbage; a lack of nurses because
of low wages; a shortage of medicines; poverty and declining literacy
because of the education system's collapse.

The accumulation of woes leads many observers to fear that a defeatable
disease that normally ebbs and flows with the seasons may remain a serious
problem for a long time to come.

"It's down to the political situation. If they don't collect the refuse, if
they don't repair the sewage, if they don't provide water, it's going to get
worse. It's a mammoth task, repairing those things," said Douglas
Muzanenhamo of the Combined Harare Residents Assn., a rights advocacy group.

"Without doing that, people will go back to the same situation, back to
where this thing has come from," he said. "And they'll get sick again."

In one area of Budiriro, a township hard-hit by cholera, swallows swooped in
exhilarating arcs over the stinking green pools of sewage alongside the
streets. Children with soccer balls made from plastic bags played in the
streets, leaping across channels of raw waste.

There was a makeshift latrine nearby for the whole neighborhood, behind a
sagging plastic wall. In the same field people had dug shallow brackish
wells, where they fetch water on the frequent occasions when the taps don't
work. The water was cloudy; iridescent green flies buzzed around the edges.

In some areas of the township, said Muzanenhamo, there was no tap water from
August on. In others there has been no running water for two years.

Even in Harare, the nation's capital, the battle against cholera is plagued
by shortages, including a lack of medical personnel. In the only major
public hospital still functioning in the city, a senior physician said there
were six doctors of the required complement of 22 and 12 nurses of a
required 100. Four of the eight wards are open. Most medical staff have gone
to Australia, Britain and neighboring African countries in search of better
salaries.

The physician, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals by
government officials, is preparing to leave soon.

"The government won't be able to control it [cholera]. They've tried," he
said. "No one is keen to deliver services."

He said many patients died of cholera because there were too few nurses and
too few of the needed saline drips. A severely ill patient needs to receive
drips every 30 minutes to survive. "They just die from dehydration," he
said.

Patients are well aware of the need to "thank" medical personnel with
bribes, he said, to get services and medications, such as the antiretroviral
drugs used to treat AIDS.

"This is now a very corrupt country," the physician said. "Myself, I don't
ask for money. They actually know they have to give me money, not just a
verbal thank you."

In the Budiriro clinic, Rudolf Mheyamwa sought desperately for help. His
family has no tap in their single-room home, so they were forced to use well
water. His wife and three of his four children had contracted cholera.

Beauty Mheyamwa lay helpless in a clinic bed, tears pouring down her cheeks,
as her husband tried to save their oldest girl, 13-year-old Romana. The
girl's condition was growing worse after she had lain all night in a nearby
bed without a drip. When Rudolf Mheyamwa begged nurses to replenish it, they
bustled past.

"The nurses just said, 'We'll do it in the morning.' They were busy," said
Mheyamwa, 38, a fisherman. "There was no way you could convince them to do
anything because they'd respond rudely. They were just saying, 'We're not
working for one person, there are so many cases,' as they just rushed by.

"I blame the government," he said. "I feel angry, but there's nothing I can
do."

A clinic nurse said the pay was so low that most of the nursing staff were
working only out of dedication. She spoke on condition of anonymity, also
fearing reprisal.

The clinic's nurses staged a sit-in for 10 days ending last week to protest
their monthly salaries of 5 million Zimbabwean dollars each -- the
equivalent of 14 U.S. cents.

Although the sit-in was over, the nurse who was interviewed remained at
home, as did some of her colleagues. She said her feet were too sore to
work.

"We are overworked," she said. "At times you are very stressed. A patient
can come and vomit in your face and you can get infected."

When she arrives at work, she said, 15 to 20 worried relatives crowd around,
demanding treatment for their loved ones.

"They get angry. We tell them to cool off," she said.

The burden of caring for the dying thus often falls to the families.

In the last hours of his son's life, Tarcisius Nerutanga lifted Allan's
frail body onto his knee, hugged him and begged him to cling to life.
Loveness Nerutanga kept feeding and cleaning Allan, silently praying.
Nothing helped.

Allan Nerutanga died grieving that his life was over before he could rescue
his parents from their grinding poverty, his mother recalled.

"He just said, 'Mom, we're a laughingstock. We die a laughingstock.' "

Dixon is a Times staff writer.

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

Cholera: Treatment is simple, just not in Zimbabwe

http://www.latimes.com/

The breakdown of the country's healthcare infrastructure is behind the large
number of deaths.
By Thomas H. Maugh II
December 11, 2008
The cholera outbreak that has killed at least 775 people in Zimbabwe is part
of an epidemic that has been afflicting Africa for three decades, according
to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The disease is the result of a lack of adequate sanitation and water
treatment facilities; the high number of deaths results from the near-total
breakdown of the healthcare infrastructure in Zimbabwe.

Cholera is an acute diarrheal illness caused by infection by the bacterium
Vibrio cholerae.The organism spreads when infected feces enter the water
supply and the bacteria are not killed or removed by treatment. Cholera is
no longer a problem in industrialized countries, except for the occasional
case brought by returning travelers or caused by consumption of inadequately
cooked shellfish.

In most people, the infection is mild with few or no symptoms. But about one
in 20 victims is stricken with profuse, watery diarrhea, vomiting and leg
cramps. That can lead to severe dehydration, shock and death.

The profuse diarrhea contaminates water supplies if the feces enters
latrines or directly enters rivers and streams, causing the disease to
spread rapidly.

Treatment is simple: rehydration with an oral solution made from a
prepackaged mixture of sugar and salts. The most severe cases may require
intravenous fluid replacement. Treatment must be started within a couple of
hours after symptoms develop, however, and Zimbabwe's lack of health
infrastructure makes that difficult.

Antibiotics such as tetracycline can shorten the course of the illness but
generally are not necessary if rehydration is adequate.

A new oral vaccine called Dukoral, manufactured by the Swedish company SBL
Vaccin, is available in some countries. The CDC says it appears to provide
better protection and has fewer side effects than previous vaccines, but the
agency does not recommend it for travelers.

Maugh is a Times staff writer.

thomas.maugh@latimes.com

Zimbabwe government breaks silence on diamond field crackdown

http://www.earthtimes.org

Posted : Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:27:27 GMT
Author : DPA

Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government
Thursday broke its silence over details over its controversial Operation
Hakudzokwi, where security forces drove out thousands of illegal diamond
diggers in the east of the country. The state-controlled Herald newspaper
quoted senior assistant police commissioner Faustino Mazango as saying the
police had forced out 35,000 diamond diggers and dealers from Chiadza
diamond field about 60 kilometres south of the eastern city of Mutare.

Since the beginning of the year, the field has been inundated
with people searching for alluvial diamonds.

The government had said previously that it had mounted a major
crackdown involving the army, air force and police to "restore sanity" to
the diamond field but did not give details.

The operation was codenamed Operation Hakudzokwi, meaning "you
won't come back" in the Shona language.

Before the operation, the area was thronged with men, women and
children wildly digging pits with basic implements to get at diamonds lying
in the soil.

That some had enriched themselves became evident when low-paid
labourers, teachers and even policemen suddenly began driving smart new cars
and buying luxury houses.

The operation to end the diamond rush began two months ago,
almost totally under the control of the army, according to human rights
activists who asked not to be named.

The activists said witnesses reported a number of diamond
diggers had been killed and that air force helicopters had fired on them
from the air.

Human rights lawyers say the army also clamped down on diamond
dealers, confiscating their cars, hard currency and other property, and
detaining suspects illegally.

In Thursday's article Mazango warned diamond panners and dealers
"of the consequences of wandering into the area under any pretext whatsoever
as they will be dealt with ruthlessly and speedily."

Police had arrested 47 alleged dealers from Nigeria, Botswana
and Zambia, 18 of whom had been deported, he said. Police had also recovered
441 diamonds, as well as foreign currency, luxury vehicles and firearms, he
said.

The Chiadzwa diamond claim belonged to London-based Africa
Consolidated Resources, but in January last year, Mugabe's government seized
the property, drove off the owners and ignored court orders for its return.

Government looking for land for mass burial, after killing 78 miners

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Violet Gonda
11 December 2008

After issuing statements denying that scores of people were murdered in the
Chiadzwa diamond fields in Manicaland province, the truth finally came out
on Thursday when the District Administrator for Mutare appealed to the City
Council for land to bury 83 people.

The Deputy Mayor for Mutare, Admire Mukovera, confirmed receiving a phone
call from the DA Mr Mashava, requesting land for a mass burial. He was told
that 78 people had been killed in the volatile diamond minefield, while five
had died from cholera. The Deputy Mayor said bodies were piling up in
mortuaries at Mutare General and Sakubva District hospitals.

The DA claimed the mass burial was necessitated by the fact that the bodies
from Chiadzwa were mixed up with cholera victims, and they were trying to
stop the spread of the disease.

However, the predominantly MDC led Mutare City Council has refused, saying
it was a national issue and the government has to issue a public statement
first, which would also notify the relatives of the deceased.

The MDC spokesperson for Manicaland and Makoni South MP Pishai Muchauraya,
believes the Mugabe regime is trying to conceal its 'murderous actions' by
burying the people it slaughtered in the mining fields in a mass grave.

He said: "The council must not give them ground until the facts and figures
are made public and the circumstances surrounding the murder of those 83
people are known."

It is feared many more were killed during the campaign of terror unleashed
on illegal diamond miners by soldiers and the police, as warlords battle for
control.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has described the areas as "resembling a
war" and the miners say hundreds have died.  One report said a policewoman
working in Chiadzwa saw a pile of 50 bodies after one helicopter attack.
"There were a lot of bodies. They were piled up. I don't know what happened
to them. Some of the dead are just buried secretly," she said. "Miners are
killed every day. The orders to the police are to shoot them if they find
them digging but many of the police do not want to carry out those orders.
These are ordinary people like us."

'War' on illegal diamond miners

http://www.theage.com.au/

Chris McGreal, Mutare
December 12, 2008
THE young miner already recognised the sound of dogs as a terrifying
harbinger of death, but the dull thud of the helicopter blades was something
new.

Minutes later, a Zimbabwean air force helicopter swept over hundreds of
fleeing illegal diamond miners and mowed down dozens with machine-gun fire.
Police then arrived and unleashed the dogs that tore into the diggers,
killing some and mutilating others. The police fired tear gas to drive the
miners out of their shallow tunnels and shot them as they emerged.

Miners say scores of people died in the assault two weeks ago. "First we
heard the helicopter and we knew it wouldn't be good but I thought it would
just deliver soldiers," said the young miner, a former student who gave his
name only as Hopewell.

"Then it came over us and started shooting. There was a man next to me, he
had been digging near me, and the bullet went right through his head.
Everyone was in panic. People ran but they didn't want to leave their finds
behind so they were stopping to grab them and getting shot."

The police and military have for weeks been conducting a bloody campaign,
which Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has described as "resembling a war",
to drive thousands of illegal miners out of a recently discovered diamond
field that some in the industry believe might be the richest in years.

The miners say hundreds have died. The opposition Movement for Democratic
Change says it has the names of 140 people killed although there is common
agreement that many have been buried without a word.

The diamond fields around Chiadzwa, about 30 kilometres north-west of the
town of Mutare in Zimbabwe's eastern Manicaland province, are a collection
of shallow tunnels and open gullies dug out after the discovery of gems
close to the surface two years ago set off the rush.

Thousands of illegal diggers - estimates run between 10,000 and 30,000,
including foreigners from across southern Africa - moved in, spending days
or even weeks discovering tiny diamonds worth no more than $US200 ($A304).
But that is several months' pay for many Zimbabweans as their country
collapses under the weight of hyperinflation.

Many of the miners are professionals such as teachers and civil servants who
have abandoned jobs that do not pay enough to feed their families. Others
are students who have dropped out of university in the hope of making a
quick fortune and subsistence farmers whose land has not produced a crop in
years. And some have got very rich.

Mutare, on the border with Mozambique, has taken on the air of a frontier
town filled with brash young men touting US dollars and an air of menace.
The hotels are filled with miners and dealers. Luxury cars prowl the
streets. Shops have filled with imported goods sold for American dollars and
South African rand.

The governor of Zimbabwe's central bank, Gideon Gono, has estimated there
are more than 500 syndicates handling over $US1 billion a month in illegally
dug diamonds that are swiftly smuggled out of the country.

Now Zimbabwe's Government, or at least members of its discredited ruling
elite, are apparently trying to take control.

Legal and opposition political sources in Mutare say the prime mover behind
the military assault is the Zimbabwean air force chief, Perence Shiri.

He oversaw the bloody military campaign of beatings and killings in
Manicaland earlier this year that terrorised voters into supporting Robert
Mugabe in June's presidential election.

GUARDIAN

Blood and Diamonds

http://article.nationalreview.com/

Zimbabwe's kleptocrats are at war with their own people.

By Roger Bate

It seems incredible, given the disaster befalling Zimbabwe, that for
the ten thousand or so who hold positions of power and influence in
Zimbabwe, rich pickings are still on offer.

I had hoped to look into these odious actors from inside the country
last week. But I suddenly found that I finally had something in common with
Jimmy Carter - both of us of have been refused entry into Zimbabwe.

It is not exactly a badge of honor, since the incompetence of the
Zimbabwean regime means many are randomly refused entry. However, it may
indicate that - much as I had hoped that Zimbabwe's crisis was coming to a
close - those in power intend to hang on, and will do so until forced to
quit. In the meantime, they will do everything they can to stifle reporting
from Zimbabwe and to prevent discovery of the money they're making while
their country collapses.

African leaders have finally started to voice concerns, however
haltingly, about the regime. Britain and America have been more forthright.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Bush have consistently demanded
that Robert Mugabe honor the results of Zimbabawe's last election and quit
power.

Meanwhile, President-Elect Barack Obama and his expert foreign-policy
team - notably Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice - have said nothing about
Zimbabwe in over five months. Perhaps Obama has no idea how to bring change
to Zimbabwe. There is little hope that change will arrive on its own.

Robert Mugabe - the octogenarian despot who liberated Rhodesia from
white rule to form the new country of Zimbabwe - appears to believe that,
since he created the country, he can and will destroy it.

He has good reason to think the way he does. Jacob Zuma - the new head
of South Africa's largest party, the African National Congress - made noises
last week about an end to the Mugabe regime, but he is now backtracking,
telling reporters yesterday that quiet negotiation is still the way forward.
That opinion is echoed by the African Union. The only real vocal African
opposition to Mugabe is now coming from Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime
minister. Even President Kharma of Botswana has gone silent, despite the
fact that a quarter of his country's population are now Zimbabwean refugees
who are bringing cholera into Botswana.

Zimbabwe itself is dying. Prices double every day; disease is killing
off many who go without the means to buy food or treatment; death and
emigration have halved Zimbabwe's population of four years ago; and those
that remain have the lowest life expectancy in the world - roughly 34 for
men and 35 for women.

The politically favored elite in Zimbabwe have sucked the lifeblood
from many formerly productive areas of the economy. Until recently - when
they completely destroyed tobacco and other productive farming sectors by
mismanagement - they had made vast amounts from land redistribution.

With the aid of German printing presses, the Treasury inflated the
money supply to buy off workers, prevented ordinary people from exchanging
money at real rates, and pocketed all hard currency from their scam of
fixing unrealistic currency prices. Eventually the German printer was
embarrassed into stopping the presses this summer.

Mugabe's thugs allowed South African private industry to maintain
mines - until the thugs became even greedier. Many mining firms were ejected
a couple of years ago. Today, all the mining areas are massively
underperforming - but they are still doing well enough for the few at the
top.

One area which is still profitable for the elites is the lawless and
murderous diamond-mining region in the extreme east of the country. The
170-acre Chiadzwa diamond field on the border with Mozambique should provide
over $1 billion per month in revenue, says Gideon Gono, the chairman of the
Zimbabwean central bank. Outside experts don't disagree with that rough
estimate. Yet somehow the Zimbabwean government officially gets nothing from
this entire field. The mines were nationalized in 2006, after the former
owner - the British company, African Consolidate Resources (ACR) - was
banished. The place has been commandeered by some of the army elite, who pay
paltry sums to their "staff" - many of whom die due to violence and poor
conditions. Favored officers pocket a few millions in diamonds every month -
no one knows exactly how much.

Zimbabwe is a signatory to the Kimberley Process, established five
years ago to prevent trade in conflict diamonds - but what is happening in
Chiadzwa, and the social disaster the Mugabe regime is inflicting on
Zimbabwe, is as bad as anything the "blood diamond"-funded conflicts in
Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo ever wrought. Still, no
one expects any action against Zimbabwe about breaches of the Kimberley
Process.

Rumors abound as to what Mugabe plans for the Chiadzwa diamond field.
Since the army is incapable of managing the site - and ACR is too ethical to
be allowed back - sources tell me that the regime has turned to the Russian
Alrosa mining group. While Alrosa's representatives came to Zimbabwe last
month, even they are likely to balk at working with Mugabe. It is not that
their human-rights record is great, but the time and investment to make the
field profitable are significant - and would involve considerable financial
risk in light of the political instability there. Meanwhile, the misery the
Zimbabwean elite are enforcing on the population of Zimbabwe continues.

As the West gets more agitated about African inaction on Zimbabwe (the
EU brought new sanctions on ten middle-ranking Zimbabwean officials on
Tuesday, bringing the total sanctioned to 178) and the U.N. complains,
neighboring countries still watch and wait. The only way to pressure change
now is to make the region feel pain for its inertia. Yet there are too many
vested interests in western nations to prevent the cutting off of all aid to
the region - though that is probably what it would take for external
pressure to have any effect. Assuming aid is not withdrawn to the region,
any hope for Zimbabwe's rescue remains with Africa's leaders. Don't hold
your breath.

- Roger Bate is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise
Institute.

Police ignore court order over Mukoko abduction

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Violet Gonda
11 December 2008

The 22 abducted political and civic activists, including Zimbabwe Peace
Project director Jestina Mukoko, are still missing.

We were not able to contact Alec Muchadehama, the lawyer representing the
missing MDC activists, but lawyers representing Mukoko say the police are
completely ignoring a court order. The courts had ordered the police to
thoroughly investigate Mukoko's abduction, report at 10am at the High Court
every day with an update on their investigations, and put advertisements in
both the electronic and print media. But none of this has happened.

Rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said instead of implementing the court order
the police were more interested in going to the burial of Elliot Manyika,
the ZANU PF political commissar who died in a car crash at the weekend.  The
lawyer was told that they couldn't carry out the provisions of the court
order because they were busy with Manyika's burial.

She said she will be reporting to the High Court on Friday and every day,
until the police prioritise their search for the missing civic leader.

The lack of sincerity from the police in investigating this case also came
out in the fact that they turned down a march by ZimRights, who had planned
the protest in support of Mukoko. The  "Return Jestina Mukoko Now March" was
supposed to take place on Friday.

However calls for the release of the prominent human rights defender have
continued, with the latest call coming from the South African ruling African
National Congress party.

A statement by the party's national spokesperson Jessie Duarte said: "The
ANC urges the government of Zimbabwe, as a matter of urgency, to try
determine the whereabouts of Jestina Mukoko, Broderick Takawira and Pascal
Gonzo of the Zimbabwe Peace Project."

The party's women's  league also expressed concern about the disappearance
of women in Zimbabwe.

Sadly, Mukoko is not Mugabe's first, or last victim

http://www.newzimbabwe.com

By Nomalanga Moyo
Posted to the web: 11/12/2008 18:54:09
THE abduction of Jestina Mukoko, a journalist-cum-rights activist by
suspected state operatives last week adds another sad block to the already
tragic drama that is Zimbabwean politics.
Similarly disturbing is the mafia-style seizure of two more rights activists
attached to Mukoko's Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) rights group on Monday,
December 8 by as yet-to-be identified people said to have been travelling in
unmarked cars.

Those who, like me, hail from the Matabeleland and the Midlands regions,
will however, be less shocked by these dastardly acts of barbarism by ruling
party thugs, as they bear an uncanny resemblance to how the Gukurahundi
atrocities were carried out in the 1980s.

While I am painfully aware of the many who have suffered a similar fate at
the hands of Zanu PF in more recent times, for me Jestina's case comes at a
time when my 65-year-old father is grappling with memory lapses related to
head injuries he sustained from the constant beatings and violations meted
out by the Gukurahundi louts, then based at Jena Mines.

My father did lose his memory back then after one particularly bad beating,
and two months ago, more than 20 years on, I once again came face to face
with the grim realities of that dark decade when my brother relayed the news
to me.

As I join thousands of other Zimbabweans, and human rights activists as well
as Jestina's family in demanding her safe return, I am also aware of the
many families in the Midlands and Matabeleland who are still waiting to hear
what became of their loved ones who were taken by Zanu PF agents in similar
fashion, and not-so-different circumstances in the 1980s.

I recall the Baleni children, some of whom I attended school with at Loreto,
and their quest to at least learn which disused mine their father had been
thrown into. It is impossible to forget their agony.

Baleni, like Jestina, was abducted at night wearing only his pyjamas and
barefoot; never to be seen again. This is recent history repeating itself.

I remember vividly when my own father was abducted, together with others
from my village: it was in broad daylight. And while other families were
quick to locate their fathers, brothers, etc, at Loreto, it took my family
more than a month to locate my father, with the police denying any knowledge
of his whereabouts.

After weeks of agony and anxiety, we finally located him in a remote police
post in Gokwe, thanks to the regime's fear of Gwesela, a member of the
family, who threatened that all hell would break loose should the old man
not be availed to the family lawyer within a specified period.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had narrowly survived a Gwesela onslaught while on
his way to a rally in Crossroads, seemed to have quickly understood what
that meant and before long, my father, heavily battered and bruised,
returned home only to suffer countless more beatings until 1987.

Thus, Jestina's abduction touches a raw nerve with some of us who are
familiar with the historical repressive methods used by Zanu PF: rape,
torture, incarceration, maiming, killing, etc in its bid to silence
opponents and critics. But if such terror tactics never worked during the
colonial era, or indeed during the Gukurahundi period, why would they work
now? It is only cowards who steal upon their critics by night, more so an
unarmed woman whose sole crime has been to assist victims of
politically-motivated violence.

Solutions to Zimbabwe's problems do not lie in abducting those that seek to
expose acts of injustice or arresting the women of WOZA. Neither do they lie
in shutting down newspapers or annihilating opponents. Rather, they lie in
good and democratic governance, respect for human life and rights and a
genuine desire to serve, and not to lord it over citizens.

Instead of misusing national resources to hunt down perceived enemies and
hounding citizens out of the country, the Zimbabwean government should be
focusing on providing basic infrastructure in the country.

More than anything, what the majority wants is clean water, a functioning
health delivery system, basic education for our children, fairness, social
justice as well as an environment that will enable us to regain our capacity
to fend for our families as we used to.

I also hope that the current Home Affairs Ministry panto which has stalled
progress on the power-sharing arrangement is not all about the continued
abduction, annihilation and stripping citizens of their constitutional
rights.

Zimbabwe needs to break away from the current Zanu PF thuggery and move
towards a democratic and civilised way of conducting politics.

As the rest of the progressive world celebrates the 60th anniversary of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights this week, this is also an opportunity
for the Zimbabwe government to re-evaluate its position in relation to the
values and spirit of this historical document and the way it treats its
citizens.

It is also high time Africa stopped being lenient and watching as the
cannibalistic Robert Mugabe regime devours innocent citizens.

Nomalanga Moyo is a Zimbabwean journalist based in the UK

Hotline numbers to call with any information about abductees

A person is a person through others - especially in Zimbabwe

http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/2874#more-2874

I spent a great deal of time yesterday, on International Human Rights day,
thinking about Jestina Mukoko. I sat down and wrote a post paying tribute on
this special day to all our human rights defenders. Just before I was
finished late last night, I checked my email. Someone had forwarded me an
email they'd received from a Facebook group they had joined. This was the
exact text, sent widely to all the other Facebook members of that group:

  Subject: Latest on dumped body

  "I have talked to Fambai Ngirande of NANGO and the Lawyer Beatrice Mutetwa
and they have dispatched a team to go to the scene. We must pray for all
activists abducted and keep hope alive"

From that moment on I was compulsively checking and re-checking my email,
wondering if what I would be writing instead was the one thing we all dread.
It was not long before my friend forwarded me a second email:

  Subject: ITS NOT JESTINA

  "JM's lawyers say its not her, but another unidentified woman, we are
still concerned about the body count who ever it is. The body is still
there."

It took me a split second after the initial surge of relief to register that
someone else's loved one had died: who is it? Or was it a poor soul,
desperately sick from cholera, who died somewhere alone. I felt wiped out.
My head struggling to hold the contradictory, guilt-inducing feelings of
relief, confusion and trying to make sense of it all, and also find a way
forwards.

So the post I wrote last night went unposted.

What I was stuck thinking about instead was how my initial rush of relief
had given weight to a comment made by a friend on the weekend: "Lots of
other people have been abducted too", she said. "Why does Jestina matter
more than the rest?"

The inference my friend had drawn from the huge outcry was that because
Jestina is high-profile and well-known, her life counts in a way others
don't.

My response to my friend was, "But how did you KNOW that fifteen people
disappeared over a month ago?"

It was only then that it dawned on her that it was because of people just
like Jestina Mukoko, and the work they do for Zimbabweans, that the world
knows how horrifically many Zimbabweans have been treated. Jestina Mukoko
matters a great deal - all our human rights defenders matter a great deal -
because what they do is so critically important for all us.

It isn't so much that she matters more than the rest of us; rather, its
because of what she does that the rest of us matter at all.

I don't know who that woman was whose body was found, and I may never know.
But I am sure that there are people just like Jestina who will be trying
hard right now to give this person a name, to find her family, to carefully
record what happened if what happened to her was the product of evil cruelty
rather than natural causes. When that woman has a name, and her story is
told, she may have a chance of justice.

The work of our human rights defenders is a loud defiant yell that says "How
dare you!" over and over again, their commitment to truth and justice for
the rest of us is a firm: "Damn it! Zimbabweans matter".

We should hold our human rights defenders close, thank them, and protect
them in their hour of need with the same commitment, passion and dedication
that they would do for us.

I do not believe for a second that the people working in the front line of
defending our human rights would ever think that they were more significant
than the people they stand in defense of. I think they recognise that the
work they do is about all of us equally, about building a community and a
society and future we can believe in, feel safe in, and dare to dream in.
Human Rights is about equality.

You only need to think of the circumstances of Jestina's abduction to know
how grotesque and perverted the concept of justice has become in Zimbabwe.

The police have denied that they are holding her but apparently they didn't
even go to her home to find out what had happened - you would think the
police would turn out in full force to defend a civilian who was ripped from
her home, wearing just a nightdress and without her medication or her
glasses. Instead lawyers needed to go to court and first try persuade a
judge to even hear the case  (no one wanted to do so because the case was
too 'hot'). Then the judge had to issue a judgement ordering the police to
look for her, and the state media to flight adverts about her disappearance.

I can't imagine what would happen in any other country in the world if the
same abduction had happened to a civilian. How would the police and the
media in South Africa, or Australia, or the UK, etc, react if a single
mother was abducted at gunpoint from her home by fifteen men?

In Zimbabwe, fifteen men with guns can walk into a home and force a mother
to leave and it takes a court order to ask the police to do their job.

This is ignoring the fact that the outcry and condemnation after her
disappearance wasn't enough to make our rancid government-junta think twice
about going on to abduct three more people (I'm not going to bother with the
word 'allegedly' here - we all know the crowd of people behind this!)

It makes me wonder what their underlying motivation is behind all of this.
How desperate are they? What have they got planned next for the rest of us
that they need our 'defenders' to be disappeared? Or are they so confident
that SADC will turn a blind eye that they just do what they like, and get
away with it.

There is little certainty about anything in Zimbabwe these days, but I can
tell you one thing for sure: without the human rights defenders just like
Jestina, we can be one hundred percent certain that justice would never
happen at all, and that the truth would never be told.

To all our human rights defenders - I promise that I will do what I can to
'watch your backs'.

Ubuntu: "A person is a person through others". That has so much more meaning
when dealing with a country and a government that thinks humans don't matter
at all, and with human rights defenders who work at the coal-face of terror
and tyranny.

I also want to say thank you.

This entry was written by Hope on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

ANC says Mugabe fears prosecution if he steps down

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Tichaona Sibanda
11 December 2008

African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe, claimed on
Thursday that Robert Mugabe had 'real fears' of being hauled before the
International Criminal Court in the Hague, if he were to relinquish power.

Mantashe made the claim in the coastal city of Durban during a breakfast
meeting with journalists and editors. He revealed that the higher structures
of the ANC had discussed Mugabe's reasons for wanting to stay in power and
that he was afraid of being arrested and charged with war crimes like former
Liberian President Charles Taylor.

Taylor, who was Liberia's president from 1997 to 2003, was forced into exile
in Nigeria before being extradited. He is currently being detained at the
International Criminal Court detention facility in the Hague, awaiting trial
for gross human rights violations.

'The Hague has taken a number of African people. Mugabe can't be given any
guarantees for his safety in retirement,' Mantashe said.

Mantashe also played down growing calls for Mugabe's ouster, saying an
invasion of Zimbabwe, or tougher sanctions to dislodge the ZANU PF leader,
was not on the cards. The South African government preferred to deal with
Zimbabwe 'on a government-to-government level and on a party-to-party level'
and would rather 'persuade' Mugabe to retire than force him out of power.
Political analyst Isaac Dziya said the ANC could resolve the issue easily by
granting Mugabe asylum in South Africa.
'The Nigerians did it with Charles Taylor but he unfortunately decided to
flee from that country and was caught before he succeeded. So if they could
persuade him (Mugabe) to retire and offer him security guarantees for him
and his family the better for the whole region,' Dziya said.
Meanwhile a South African facilitation team, led by the former local
government minister Sydney Mufamadi, is currently in Zimbabwe in an attempt
to end the long-running political deadlock.
Discussions between Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party and the MDC on forming a
cabinet have been frozen for close to three months now, because of
disagreements over the sharing of cabinet portfolios.
On Wednesday the South Africans met with negotiators and the leader of the
MDC faction Arthur Mutambara, and are scheduled to meet with officials from
MDC-T and ZANU PF in the next 48 hours.
The facilitation team includes the director in the presidency, Frank
Chikane, and Thabo Mbeki's legal adviser Mojanku Gumbi. They are examining
ways of expediting the process to form a unity government. Negotiators from
all parties have so far agreed on the wording of constitutional amendment no
19. The draft now awaits the consent of the party principals before it is
gazetted and sent to Parliament.
The Bill gives legal effect to the political power-sharing pact and provides
for the appointment of Tsvangirai as prime minister and Mutambara deputy
prime minister in a government of national unity.
However the MDC-T, which holds the most seats in Parliament and
could very easily block passage of Amendment 19, has threatened not to vote
for the Bill if outstanding issues of the inclusive government agreement
were not resolved. Among the sticking issues are the allocations of
ministerial portfolios, the appointment of provincial governors and the
constitution, and the composition of the National Security Council, among
others.

Mugabe calls Tsvangirai a 'prostitute' - again

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Lance Guma
11 December 2008

Robert Mugabe might as well have gone to bury Zimbabwe's power sharing deal
at the Heroes Acre, instead of Elliot Manyika on Thursday, after he branded
main rival Morgan Tsvangirai a 'prostitute' during his speech. Manyika, the
notorious director of violence against the MDC, died in a car accident on
Saturday. He was declared a national hero by ZANU PF's politburo, despite
being a much reviled figure by ordinary Zimbabweans. Mugabe's remarks about
Tsvangirai however could be one of many nails going through the power
sharing coffin. The abduction of over 20 opposition and civil society
activists has ensured relations between ZANU PF and the MDC plummeted to an
all time low since September's signing ceremony.
Mugabe accused Tsvangirai of making too many foreign trips, 'today you are
in Senegal, tomorrow you are in that country. Ndochii ichocho? (What is
that?) Chihure ichocho! (It's prostitution!).' He also blamed the MDC leader
for the growing calls for military intervention, saying the West wanted to
use cholera as a pretext for invading the country. Mugabe traditionally uses
burial speeches at the Heroes Acres to launch his usual anti-west tirades
and he did not disappoint on this occasion. In a speech broadcast live on
state television Mugabe said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown needed to
have his head examined because it required, 'medical correction.'
Mugabe surprised everyone by claiming that cholera was now under control and
that, 'now that there is no cholera, there is no need for war. The cholera
cause doesn't exist any more.' His remarks have been taken to mean the call
for military action had sufficiently worried the regime to warrant their
full attention. Although the African Union on Wednesday seemed to pour cold
water over prospects for intervention, pressure continues to build and the
Zimbabwean issue will be the subject of discussion at the UN Security
Council next week.
Alex Vines, the Head of the Africa Programme at the Royal Institute of
African Affairs in the UK, said Mugabe has always used attacks on former
colonial power Britain to sustain his support from African leaders. But
Vines said that following the March election won by the MDC that approach no
longer, 'cut the mustard' with several African countries who have refused to
recognize Mugabe's legitimacy. He also agreed with the view that the threat
of military intervention has made Mugabe very insecure. Vines predicts that
nothing will change, until after elections in South Africa which could
produce a substantive government that might stamp its authority on the
crisis.
Observers say although the media has focused on cholera as the country's
predominant problem, it was the political crisis that was at the centre of
the collapse in the economy and the health service. They point to the crisis
as one of legitimacy, where a party and a leader who lost an election in
March are still clinging to power and holding the country hostage. Cholera
is an easily treated disease but because of the complete collapse in
infrastructure and basic services it has proved difficult to contain.

Zanu PF killing the dialogue - MDC

http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/2871#more-2871

Today, it is exactly 90 days since the principals of the three major
political parties signed a Global Political Agreement on 11 September 2008.

Since then, Zanu PF commissions and omissions have become the biggest threat
to the SADC-brokered dialogue through a litany of shameful acts of gross
insincerity, parochial pursuit of party interests, arbitrary arrests,
brutality and abductions of civic society and MDC members and leaders.

While hope and confidence gripped the people on the dawn of a new era of
peace in the country, Zanu PF delivered its first blow to dialogue at the
conception stage when it shamelessly altered the Global Political Agreement
during the 96 hours-break between 11 September and the 15th September 2008
public signing ceremony. With neither shame nor compunction, Zanu PF tabled
a fraudulent document in front of SADC and African Union Heads of State on
Monday, 15 September 2008.

As if that was not enough, Mr Robert Mugabe unilaterally gazetted all key
ministries to himself on Saturday, 11 October 2008 even though the
principals had agreed the previous day to refer the deadlock on ministerial
allocations to the facilitator. Mugabe's midnight magic and his audacity to
grab power further dented any prospect of a genuine power- sharing
arrangement.

Another perforation of the negotiation process happened when Zanu PF failed
to give the Prime Minister designate, President Morgan Tsvangirai, a mere
passport to enable him to travel for the troika meeting in Swaziland. It was
an act of insincerity for Mugabe to leave the Prime Minister designate
behind while he flew alone on taxpayers' money to Mbabane. As President
Tsvangirai later said, it was impossible to imagine that Mugabe could work
together with the MDC and trust the Prime Minister when he could not trust
him with his own passport in his pocket.

Zanu PF has continuously flip-flopped and deliberately lied to the people of
Zimbabwe on the nature of the sticking points during the tortuous dialogue
process. Initially, Zimbabweans were told that the only sticking point was
the Ministry of Finance before they later sang a new tune to say it was only
the Ministry of Home Affairs that was holding down the negotiations.

The truth of the matter is that the allocation of all ministries remains a
bone of contention. We are arguing that the allocation of ministerial
portfolios should be based on equity and not power grab. The other sticking
points relate to the issue of governors, Constitutional Amendment 19, the
appointment of senior government officials and the composition and powers of
the National Security Council.

Zanu PF went a notch up and dealt a further blow to dialogue when it claimed
that the MDC was training bandits and sponsoring terrorism. This was
illogical in that the MDC could not have trained bandits to oust a
non-existent government. The truth is that there is no legitimate government
in Zimbabwe and in any case, it is only those who lose elections who are
likely to engage in civil conflict. The MDC won the election of 29 March, we
have the majority Parliamentary and local government seats and we have no
reason to resort to barbaric methods of ousting a regime that lost an
election.

The appointment of senior police officers, the renewal of the term of office
of the Reserve Bank governor, the continued hate speech in the public media
all point to the fact that Zanu PF is the greatest enemy to the peaceful
resolution of the Zimbabwean crisis. Zanu PF is not ready for a peaceful
transition that will address the immediate concerns of the people which
include the cholera outbreak, lack of clean water and the visible signs of
collapse in critical sectors such as agriculture, health and education.

The cholera outbreak, which has so far claimed over 800 lives, showcases the
lack of capacity of the caretaker government of Zanu PF. But the biggest
sucker punch to dialogue relates to the abductions of civic society and MDC
leaders and activists, including two-year old children. Twenty-two people
have been abducted so far and their whereabouts remain unknown. These
include Concilia Chinanzvavana, the chairperson of the MDC Mashonaland West
Women's Assembly, Zimbabwe Peace Project director Jestina Mukoko and Gandhi
Mudzingwa, the former personal assistant to President Morgan Tsvangirai. If
these people committed any crime, they must be brought before the courts and
be charged. There cannot be any genuine and profitable dialogue in a climate
bereft of sincerity, genuineness and respect of the Zimbabwean people's
rights, wishes and aspirations.

Either Zanu PF is killing dialogue or has already killed it. We refuse to be
cowed by wanton acts of terror into succumbing to a warped political
settlement that is not in the best interest of the people of Zimbabwe. After
all, we won the election and made a big but ignored concession that Mugabe
should be President-designate and should lead a caretaker government until
the agreement has been consummated in full.

Now those in borrowed robes have sought to deny the people of Zimbabwe their
deserved opportunity for national renewal and rebirth.

We remain on the side of the people while Zanu PF remains on the side of
terror. We remain on the side of the downtrodden while Zanu PF is firmly
etched in the dark corner of an avaricious, parasitic elite. While terror
and abductions continue to visit the innocent people of Zimbabwe, we remain
firmly focussed on a future of democracy, freedom and economic prosperity.
History will vindicate us.

Nelson Chamisa, MP
Secretary for Information and Publicity

Via Press Release

This entry was written by Sokwanele on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at
12:22 pm

Mugabe the "21st century Hitler": South African bishop

http://www.monstersandcritics.com

Africa News
Dec 11, 2008, 14:56 GMT

Johannesburg - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is the '21st Century
Hitler,' an Anglican bishop in neighbouring South Africa said Thursday.

In a statement calling for churches to pray for Mugabe's forced removal, the
Anglican Bishop of Pretoria Joe Seoka said: 'Mugabe must be viewed as the
21st Century Hitler, a person seemingly without conscience or remorse, and a
murderer.'

Seoka blamed Zimbabwe's neighbours for protecting their 'comrade in
dictatorship.'

'I believe it is now an opportune moment for all the church leaders to
follow the retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Archbishop of
York, Dr John Sentamu, to call on God to cause the removal of Mugabe from
the office of the President of Zimbabwe,' he said.

'The church in South Africa has done this before with the apartheid regime
and there is no doubt that God will hear our prayers even today.'

Zimbabwe becoming 'failed state'

http://www.skynews.com.au

Updated: 06:29, Friday December 12, 2008
The US ambassador to Harare, James McGee, says Zimbabwe is rapidly turning
into a failed state as President Robert Mugabe and aides hold the country
hostage.

The US government has announced it'll offer Zimbabwe another 9.1 million
dollars in aid to fight a cholera outbreak that it says is spreading
quickly, despite Mugabe's claims it has ended.

McGee says the situation is grim and Mugabe and his cronies are holding the
country hostage which is rapidly deteriorating into failed state status.

He's echoed calls from international leaders including President George W
Bush for Mugabe to step down.

Mugabe says the cholera epidemic has ended even as the United Nations said
more people have died and South Africa declared a disaster on its border
because of the disease.

Zimbabwean 'spies' in Botswana deported

http://en.afrik.com/news12467.html

Botswana has deported a considerable number of Zimba bwean Central
Intelligence Organization (CIO) spies, according to the Botswana G a zette,
dated 11 December 2008. It said that more than three Zimbabwean CIO officers
operating in Botswana are deported every week. Quoting reliable sources, the
Botswana Gazette said that some of the CIO officer s came to Botswana
claiming to be refugees. When questioned, the spies claimed that they left
Zimbabwe in search of greener pastures. When arrested by the security
forces, they claim that they had quit the CIO. According to the Gazette,
some of them are police officers while others are army officers who claim to
have retired. The deportation of the CIO spies comes in the wake of
allegations by the Zimbabwean government that Botswana was providing
military training for the Movement fo r Democratic Change (MDC) militiamen.
When contacted for comment, the Director General of the Directorate of
Intelligence and Security Services (DISS) in Botswana, Mr. Isaac Kgosi,
declined to comment on the issue and said "We cannot divulge the operations
of DISS to the media as that is against the law." (Thursday 11 December -
15:59)

African churches to pray for end of 'illegitimate' Zimbabwe rule

http://www.eni.ch

Maputo (ENI). Africa largest Christian grouping, the All Africa Conference
of Churches, has pledged to "pray for an end to illegitimate rule in
Zimbabwe" after debating and toning down a statement about the country on
the doorstep of Mozambique, where they have been meeting. Zimbabwe's Robert
Mugabe "is using power-sharing negotiations as a strategy for wasting time
and exercising continued control" over the southern African nation, the
conference of churches said in a resolution issued on 11 December.

UN to discuss Zimbabwe problem

UK Press Association

The United Nations Security Council will meet next week to discuss further
action against Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe, Prime Minister Gordon
Brown has indicated.

In a speech on human rights he said that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
had told him in a phone call that a meeting could be held as early as Monday
to discuss the deteriorating situation there.

Mr Brown said: "My conversation with Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday night led us to
believe that we can have a meeting of the Security Council next week on
Monday to discuss what further measures the international community can
take. This is where we can make a difference in defending and advancing
human rights in difficult circumstances."

The Prime Minister said that Zimbabwe, which has been hit with a outbreak of
cholera, faced a "humanitarian emergency of colossal proportions".

Mr Brown said: "In Zimbabwe we are witnessing a humanitarian emergency of
colossal proportions. They need help urgently and our disagreement with
Mugabe will not stand in our way. So we are increasing our humanitarian aid
and calling on others to do the same.

In the Commons, Foreign Secretary David Miliband came under cross party
pressure to take tougher action against Zimbabwe's ruling regime, including
possible military force.

Tory former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind led the call, suggesting
the humanitarian disaster caused by the cholera epidemic could warrant an
oil and electricity embargo - or even military intervention.

But Mr Miliband said Robert Mugabe and his cronies would be the last to
suffer from a fuel embargo and warned that precedents for military action
were not "auspicious".

www.un.org(United Nations)

Tsvangirai says he will go home when he gets passport

http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com`

11th Dec 2008 02:38 GMT

By a Correspondent

ZIMBABWE'S main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai last night said he would
return to Zimbabwe only if he is given a PASSPORT.

Speaking from Botswana where he is a guest of President Ian Khama,
Tsvangirai appeared not ready to return to Zimbabwe where a cholera outbreak
has killed over 746 people and the economy is imploding.

Tsvangirai said: "I am working towards getting my passport. When I get it, I
will go home. Is it Murehwa (going to Zimbabwe) where you just board a bus
and you go? When I get a passport, I will go home."

Speaking to the Voice of America's Studio 7, the MDC leader said he was "not
just relaxing" in Botswana, insisting he was doing a lot of political work
aimed at "moving things forward".

He has not returned to Zimbabwe since travelling to South Africa for a
November 9 regional summit which recommended that he joins President Robert
Mugabe in a unity government.

Tsvangirai, who travelled on an Emergency Travel Document (ETD) only valid
for the return journey, rejected the recommendation, insisting that the
allocation of cabinet portfolios between his party and Mugabe's ruling Zanu
PF party was not equitable.

Tsvangirai tried to leave South Africa for Morocco two weeks ago but was
barred at the airport by authorities who said his travel documents were not
in order. His officials said they believed the move was a political
statement by a South African government increasingly running out of patience
with the Zimbabwe leaders.

Despite the setback, Tsvangirai somehow managed to leave, it is said by
road, for Botswana where President Khama has said he is welcome. He has
since been to Morocco, Senegal, France and Germany - apparently using the
same ETD under an arrangement with those countries.

African leaders have urged Mugabe and Tsvangirai to find a compromise and
share power amid growing calls by western countries for a tougher line on
Mugabe.

With a fresh crackdown on opposition activists underway, the MDC faction led
by Arthur Mutambara said Wednesday that only power sharing would end the
suffering.

"It's going to get worse," said Welshman Ncube, the party's secretary
general. "As long as there is a political stalemate Zanu PF will move into
default mode and use the only weapon it has left which is violence and
coercion.

"It is in their nature. Killings, abductions and arrests are how they
conduct political struggle." - newzimbabwe

Britain's Africa minister in South Africa for talks on Zimbabwe

http://www.earthtimes.org/

      Posted : Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:15:07 GMT
      Author : DPA

Johannesburg - The British government minister responsible for Africa,
Mark Malloch Brown, was due to hold talks with South Africa's Foreign
Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma Thursday about the situation in neighbouring
Zimbabwe, where a cholera outbreak has killed close to 800 people. South
Africa's foreign ministry spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa confirmed that Malloch
Brown would be visiting Dlamini-Zuma before later meeting Zimbabwean
refugees at a church in downtown Johannesburg.

Malloch Brown's visit comes after South Africa this week ruled out
taking part in any military intervention in Zimbabwe to depose President
Robert Mugabe.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last weekend called for
"international" action to remove Mugabe as the southern Africa country
crumbles under an unprecedented economic and health crisis.

The British premier said "enough is enough." The United States,
France, Germany and the European Union have also called for Mugabe to go.

But South Africa, which is currently chairing the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) regional political grouping, says a proposed
unity government, in which Mugabe would remain president and opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai becomes prime minister, is still the best solution
to Zimbabwe's troubles.

The African Union also still backs the formation of a power-sharing
government. Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed up to share power in September but
their parties disagree on how positions of power should be allocated.

Meanwhile, the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe is spilling over into
neighbouring countries, where Zimbabweans travel regularly in search of
basic foodstuffs no longer available in empty supermarkets at home.

South Africa has declared the cholera-hit Vhembe region in Limpopo
province bordering Zimbabwe a disaster area in an attempt to stem the
epidemic's spread there.

Eight people have died of cholera in the area so far and 664 are
infected, an official report said. The World Health Organization on
Wednesday listed nine dead in the region.

A further four people have died in Mozambique in a border area near
Zimbabwe, that country's Noticias paper reported on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe's state-controlled Herald newspaper said Thursday that Zambia
and Tanzania were also affected.

Mugabe will be persuaded to retire: ANC

http://www.africasia.com

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 11 (AFP)

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will be persuaded to retire, a senior
official in South Africa's ruling ANC party said Thursday.

Gwede Mantashe, secretary general of the African National Congress (ANC),
brushed off suggestions that Mugabe could only be forced out through a
military invasion.

"I don't think invading Zimbabwe or sanctions would work," he said.

"What will we do to make Mugabe retire? We will persuade him," Mantashe
said, according to SAPA news agency.

Mantashe said that South Africa would prefer to deal with Zimbabwe "on a
government-to-government level and on a party-to-party level."

He said the ANC leadership had discussed Mugabe's reasons for wanting to
stay in power, saying the 84-year-old was afraid of being arrested and
charged with war crimes like former Liberian president Charles Taylor.

Taylor, who was Liberia's president from 1997 to 2003, was forced into exile
in Nigeria before being extradited to the Hague.

"The Hague has taken a number of African people. Mugabe can't be given any
guarantees for his safety in retirement," SAPA quoted Mantashe as saying.

Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, when he
was hailed as a liberation hero. Now the opposition accuses his party of
orchestrating deadly political attacks while the country crumbles.

Several mainly Western countries have called on him to step down.

'No tougher Zimbabwe sanctions'

http://www.thetimes.co.za/

Sapa Published:Dec 11, 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An invasion of Zimbabwe or tougher sanctions to dislodge president Robert
Mugabe are not on the cards, African National Congress secretary general
Gwede Mantashe said in Durban today.

a.. "I don't think invading Zimbabwe or sanctions would work," he told
journalists and editors at a breakfast in Durban.

He did not believe that the ANC "will subscribe" to an invasion and
preferred to deal with Zimbabwe "on a government-to-government level and on
a party-to-party level".

"What will we do to make Mugabe retire? We will persuade him."

He said the higher structures of the ANC had discussed Mugabe's reasons for
wanting to stay in power.

The arrest of former Liberian president Charles Taylor was affecting any
decision Mugabe may make to retire.

Taylor, who was Liberia's president from 1997 to 2003, was forced into exile
in Nigeria before being extradited. He was currently being detained at the
International Criminal Court detention facility in The Hague and was on
trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

"The Hague has taken a number of African people. Mugabe can't be given any
guarantees for his safety in retirement," said Mantashe, who claimed Mugabe's
fears were real.

He said the party's national executive committee had discussed the fears
that Mugabe might be facing if he were to relinquish power. He said no
Western leader had been detained or had stood trial in The Hague.

Comment from a correspondent

Re: Mugabe: 'There is no cholera in Zimbabwe'

ROHRZIM South Africa Chapter – protest against the continued human rights violations and in demand of democracy in Zimbabwe

FROM THE ZIMBABWE VIGIL

Report from our partner ROHR’s South African Chapter

++++++++++++

On 10th December, Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe (ROHR) SA Chapter was joined by comrades from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to mark the World Human Rights Day as they protested against the rising spate of abductions, torture, arbitrary arrests and abuse of civic leaders, members of the opposition and innocent ordinary Zimbabweans. They also protested against the SADC resolutions on both Zimbabwe and the DRC, arguing that the regional leaders had chosen to stand in solidarity with dictatorships against peace-loving and defenseless citizens.

About 700 activists rocked the Union Building gardens to hand over their petition to SADC chairman and SA President Kgalema Motlanthe. Addressing the gathering, Tineyi Munetsi, a ROHR activist said "The political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe has forced Zimbabweans into neighboring countries. He pointed out that it was unacceptable that 4.1million Zimbabweans were in South Africa with an estimated million people seeking asylum when Zimbabwe was not at war. “As if that was not enough, Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa continue to suffer human rights abuses; many are homeless, unemployed, without food and with no legal status at all. Without any papers, women get raped and men resort to bribing the authorities to avoid detention; this is unacceptable!”
 
ROHR activists expressed revulsion at the abductions of Jestina Mukoko, Gandhi Mudzingwa, and other activists and demanded their immediate release. They also lamented that whilst friends and relatives were dying of cholera in Zimbabwe, the leadership was enjoying unparalleled comfort made possible by their reckless plunder of national treasures.

ROHR Zimbabwe will continue to campaign for an immediate return to democracy as we believe this to be the only viable way out of the current political impasse. We remain committed to the restoration of human rights to all Zimbabweans and the need to have civic and political rights guaranteed through a people driven constitution.

Vigil co-ordinators

The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk