The
Canberra Times
Mugabe unshaken but stirred
Saturday,
1 February 2003
World Cup boss Ali Bacher has vowed to protect Australian
captain Ricky
Ponting and his cricket players from shaking the hand of
Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe.
All they have to do is avoid him
at the opening ceremony.
The defending champions arrived in Johannesburg
on Thursday to be greeted by
a hail storm in South Africa's biggest city, and
another round of moral and
political questions directed straight at
Australia's one-day skipper.
Both made him duck for cover.
Opening
batsman Matthew Hayden already had ruled out shaking Mugabe's hand
with an
emphatic "no" and vice-captain Adam Gilchrist, admitting he was
worried how
the gesture might be perceived, said it would be "awkward."
Players don't
want to be seen to be supporting Mugabe's rule by shaking
his
hand.
Photographs and television footage of the moment would
convey congeniality
and link the player with a man widely blamed for
Zimbabwe's chronic food
shortages, gross unemployment, debilitating economic
and political crises
and worse.
Asked about the dreaded hand-shake,
Ponting, said it was "a purely
hypothetical situation . . . we'll cross that
bridge when we come to it".
Earlier, Bacher had revealed a decision was
made three months ago that
"there will be no shaking of politicians' hands -
only at the opening
ceremony [on February 8]".
Meanwhile, Australia's
February 24 match at Bulawayo remains on the schedule
after yesterday's
International Cricket Council executive board
teleconference, which rejected
New Zealand's bid to have its game against
Kenya shifted back to South
Africa.
But New Zealand Cricket yesterday defied the ICC's ruling and
refused to
send its team to Nairobi for the February 21 match.
NZC
chief executive Martin Snedden said the security risk for the players
was too
great.
Australia, England and the Netherlands raised security concerns
about
Zimbabwe on behalf of their players during the 13-nation
hook-up.
They didn't formally request a relocation but it may still come
after the
ICC provides a briefing next week on all security arrangements in
Zimbabwe,
modelled on the Sydney Olympics.
"It is not the political
issue that concerns me," Ponting said.
"Player safety is the only issue
as far as I'm concerned.
"We have no reason not to trust the Australian
Cricket Board.
"They have served us well in the past . . . and nothing
has changed."
Team manager Steve Bernard said that while the match in
Zimbabwe was now on,
the issue would be discussed further.
More
trouble could be brewing though, after police in Harare were forced to
use
tear gas on Thursday to break up a meeting called by the
opposition
mayor.
Civic groups have warned of nation-wide protests
against Mugabe during the
Cup.
The National Constitutional Assembly -
a coalition of church and student
groups, rights organisations and political
parties - said it planned
nation-wide pro-democracy protests.
"The aim
is not to disrupt the cricket World Cup but with or without the
cricket games
the program will go on," NCA spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said.
"If the
games are disrupted as [a result] of our program, then that is
regrettable
but we are not going to suspend our program."
Zimbabwe's Consul-General
in South Africa, Godfrey Dzvairo, said they were
aware that there would be
efforts to disrupt the cricket matches.
"But, apart from those efforts
which have been mounted by various opposition
organisations, we believe we
have taken the necessary steps to protect the
general population, spectators,
fans and the cricketers themselves," he
said.
Six World Cup matches
are scheduled for Zimbabwe and two in Nairobi.
The remaining 46 games in
the tournament which will open in Cape Town on
February 9 will take place in
South Africa.AAP
Natal
Witness
Zim land reform 'has done irreparable
damage'
The land reform programme in Zimbabwe was used primarily
to secure political
patronage and has done irreparable damage to the
agricultural production
base, Agri SA claimed on Friday, when its leadership
returned from a tour of
the country.
"While we were alone with
[Agriculture and Land Affairs] Minister [Joseph]
Made, he bragged about the
fact that politicians received farms," Agri SA
president Japie Grobler told
reporters in Johannesburg after a three-day
visit to Zimbabwe.
Grobler
and other Agri SA and National African Farmers' Union
representatives
accompanied South African Agriculture and Land Affairs
Minister Thoko Didiza
for part of the visit.
Agri SA executive director Hans van der Merwe said
the beneficiaries of the
land reform programme did not gain sustainable
profitability.
About 350 000 farm workers are refugees in their own
country, and seven to
eight million people are facing starvation due to a
lack of food, he said.
According to Van der Merwe, the land reform
programme "is a tool to gain and
secure control in Zimbabwe. "We can't
believe we've seen a turning-point
where things will start improving," he
said.
Publish Date: 1 February 2003
Source:
SAPA
The
Scotsman
Blair and Mbeki make new bid to get back on track over
Zimbabwe
FRED BRIDGLAND IN JOHANNESBURG
TONY Blair
and Thabo Mbeki will meet today at Chequers like weary, long-term
lovers
whose growing differences are removing the gloss from the affair
and
threatening estrangement.
True, they are in some ways a well
matched couple. Both came to power on
waves of popularity. And both are now
regarded with scepticism verging on
hostility by their
electorates.
But there the similarity largely ends. The summit will be a
largely
one-sided affair. The truth is that South Africa needs Britain's
goodwill
more than London needs Pretoria's - on Zimbabwe, corporate
investment in
South Africa, and aid for Mr Mbeki's dream of regeneration for
Africa.
Britain would like Mr Mbeki's support on Zimbabwe, but diplomats
sigh that
the best that can be said about his policy towards his
neighbouring
president, Robert Mugabe, is that it has been enigmatic and
opaque.
Nevertheless, Zimbabwe will be the most important item at
Chequers. The
talks will immediately be at cross-purposes if Mr Mbeki
suggests - as has
been widely suggested here - that the UK accept Mr Mugabe's
land reforms as
a fait accompli and, as the responsible former colonial
power, put up money
to establish them more rationally.
Mr Mbeki will
be told firmly that for Britain the key issues are the fact
that the
Zimbabwean presidential election was rigged, despite Mr Mbeki's
observers'
positive verdict of it; that the rule of law and the economy have
been
gratuitously wrecked by Mr Mugabe; that human rights are being
flagrantly
abused; that both black and white Zimbabweans are suffering, and
dying,
unnecessarily; and that there can be no question of money in
these
circumstances and while Mr Mugabe remains in power.
That will
leave Mr Mbeki little room for manoeuvre in his desire to reignite
Mr Blair's
enthusiasm for helping Africa and supporting Mr Mbeki's grand
vision for his
continent.
Mr Mbeki cannot afford to be too inscrutable and
uncompromising. "This may
be the last opportunity for some time for these two
global leaders to forge
a constructive programme to lift Zimbabwe out of its
malaise," said Greg
Mills, executive director of the South African Institute
of International
Affairs. "The Zimbabwean economy and, in turn, its citizens,
have perhaps
six months left before the onset of an unprecedented
humanitarian disaster."
If there is to be any breakthrough and the
creation of a British-South
African strategy, Mr Mbeki will need to explain
what his policy of quiet
diplomacy and constructive engagement with Mr
Mugabe, and his shunning of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change,
aims to achieve.
Failure to forge a common policy will have acutely
damaging implications for
both men, not to mention the people of Zimbabwe,
the region and its
partners, Mr Mills said.
Mr Mbeki was an
heir-apparent to the leadership of the South African
Communist Party when it
was the dominant faction within the African National
Congress in its exile
years. The party dictated ANC ideology; interrogated,
tortured and
occasionally executed "dissidents"; and secured arms supplies
from the Soviet
bloc.
And yet at some point Mr Mbeki quietly slid away from the party, to
the
distress of old comrades. One theory is that he enjoyed his studies at
the
University of Sussex, warm beer, whisky and cool blondes more than
his
experiences at Moscow's Lumumba University.
Also, Mr Mbeki knows
intimately how important Britain's role was in helping
achieve the transition
from white minority rule to full multi-racial
democracy in his country.
During the government of Margaret Thatcher, who
denounced Mr Mbeki and the
ANC as terrorists, he held highly secret talks
from 1987 to 1990 in an
English stately home, Mells Castle near Bath, with
members of the Afrikaner
ruling elite.
Under the auspices of the Thatcher government, they
discussed conditions for
Nelson Mandela's release from life imprisonment and
constitutional talks
between the ANC and the white National Party.
But
the real work began over South African brandy around the fireside in
the
evenings and rarely finished until the early hours. Some 20 top
Afrikaners
met Mr Mbeki under the close eye of British
intelligence.
Technically Mr Mbeki's "terrorist" ANC and the "ostracised"
Afrikaners were
at war. But in the English West Country they were planning
the peace.
Mr Blair will no doubt be hoping that Mr Mbeki's love of
secret conspiracies
will somehow help conjure a solution to the Zimbabwe
tragedy.
News24
AgriSA: Farms for pals
31/01/2003
22:17 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The land reform programme in
Zimbabwe was used primarily to
secure political patronage and has done
irreparable damage to the
agricultural production base, AgriSA claimed on
Friday, when its leadership
returned from a tour of the
country.
"While we were alone with (Agriculture and Land Affairs)
minister (Joseph)
Made, he bragged about the fact that politicians had
received farms," AgriSA
president Japie Grobler told reporters in
Johannesburg after a three-day
visit to Zimbabwe.
Grobler and other
AgriSA and National African Farmers' Union representatives
accompanied South
African Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza
for part of the
visit.
Made had told them that all the officials around the table had
received
farms, adding that they were not working on Mondays or Fridays now,
because
they were on their farms.
"At least they are being
productive," Made had said, according to Grobler.
AgriSA executive
director Hans van der Merwe said the beneficiaries of the
land reform
programme did not gain sustainable profitability.
About 350 000 farm
workers were refugees in their own country, and seven to
eight million people
were facing starvation due to a lack of food, he said.
The land reform
programme was not driven by a wish to enhance the economic
growth of Zimbabwe
or to ensure equality or food security, said Van der
Merwe.
"It is a
tool to gain and secure control in Zimbabwe.
"We can't believe we've seen
a turning-point in Zimbabwe where things will
start
improving."
ABC
News
Rights Group Issues Report on Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Still Mired in Violence and Corruption, Human Rights Group Says
The
Associated Press
HARARE, Zimbabwe Feb. 1
-
Zimbabwe continues to be gripped by
violence, corruption and shortages
of food and fuel, a human rights group
said Friday in a report issued as the
nation prepares for a high-profile role
in the world cricket championship.
The
Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum described a nation beset by unchecked
violence
committed by ruling party militants and state agents who have
little fear of
retribution from biased police and ineffective
prosecutors.
"Organized violence and
torture is taking place on an unremitting
basis," the report
said.
Zimbabwe is to host six World Cup
cricket matches next month, but
Britain and Australia have asked their
players to boycott those matches,
saying they legitimize the dictatorial rule
of President Robert Mugabe.
Some cricket
players have expressed fears for their safety in
Zimbabwe, though the
International Cricket Council has said it is satisfied
the country is
safe.
The forum, a coalition of 12
independent human rights and church
groups, said police commanders have
openly declared support for Mugabe's
ruling party and have shown "tolerance"
to crimes committed by
government
supporters.
The government
also uses stringent new security and media laws to
silence criticism of its
"abandonment of the rule of law," the forum
said.
Zimbabwe has promised World Cup
organizers there will be only
"low-profile policing" of planned
demonstrations at the matches. But police
commissioner Augustine Chihuri
later said demonstrators would be dealt with
firmly and prevented from
approaching sports venues.
Earlier this
week, police fired live ammunition and tear gas to
disperse a meeting called
by the opposition mayor of Harare, fueling fears
the 450 police patrolling
the cricket grounds in Harare and Bulawayo might
crack down on
demonstrators.
Police were also accused of
torturing four opposition lawmakers and
their supporters when they were
arrested this month.
The human rights
forum said officers had illegally arrested people and
later released them
without charge.
"Arrest and detention were
almost always accompanied by torture," it
said. Some victims also were forced
to sing ruling party slogans or kiss,
salute or lie down before Mugabe's
portrait, the forum said.
The forum also
reported 86 murders surrounding presidential elections
last year that Mugabe
narrowly won. Most victims were tortured and killed by
ruling party militants
because of "a real or perceived association" with the
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, it said.
Brian Kagoro
of Crisis in Zimbabwe, a reform group, said there was no
end in sight to food
shortages threatening more than half the nation's 12.5
million people despite
emergency imports by the government and the World
Food
Program.
Hard currency and gasoline
shortages also have worsened, he said.
Inflation is officially estimated at 199 percent, but unofficial
estimates
place it much higher.
A bicycle pump, for
example, sells for 22,000 Zimbabwe dollars $400 in
U.S. currency at the fixed
official exchange rate, but only about $15 at the
black market rate. Three
years ago, a whole bicycle cost only 6,000
Zimbabwe
dollars.
Copyright 2003
The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Reuters
At Least 40 Killed as
Zimbabwe Trains Collide
Sat February 1, 2003 11:27 AM ET
By
Stella Mapenzauswa
HARARE (Reuters) - At least 40 people were
killed and 60 injured when a
passenger train collided with a goods train,
derailed and caught fire in
Zimbabwe early on Saturday.
Rescue teams
were still battling to douse flames more than 14 hours after
the
accident.
Police spokesman Andrew Phiri said the collision happened at
around 3:15 am
(0115 GMT) near Dete, about 90 southeast of Victoria Falls, a
popular
tourist destination in northwestern Zimbabwe.
"The death toll
has risen to 40, and the latest information is that about 11
coaches in the
passenger train are still on fire. The rescue operation is
still going on,
including digging up some bodies that were buried as the
train derailed and
plowed its way through the ground," Phiri told Reuters.
Several bodies
were burned beyond recognition, and at least 60 injured
people were taken to
hospital in the nearby coal-mining town of Hwange.
Indications were that
between 1,000 and 1,100 people were on the passenger
train, Phiri
added.
He said the goods train had been carrying a flammable liquid, but
said
police had not yet established what the substance was. It was not
clear
whether both trains were moving when they collided.
The
state-owned National Railways of Zimbabwe has in the past blamed most
train
accidents on rampant theft and vandalism of its signals and
communications
equipment.
State radio reported on Saturday that Transport Minister
Witness Mangwende
and his senior aides were traveling to the crash site to
investigate the
cause.
There have been several major road and rail
accidents in Zimbabwe over the
past year.
Earlier this month five
people were killed and more than 100 injured when a
goods train and a bus
collided at a rail crossing in Harare.
In November 16 people died in a
collision between a bus and a truck in the
central city of Kwekwe. And in
October, at least 22 were injured when a
passenger train derailed after
hitting an elephant while on its way to
Victoria Falls.
In June, 11
traders returning from South Africa died when a commuter bus
overturned in
the southern province of Masvingo, two days after another bus
accident killed
37 people, mostly student teachers, in the same area.
Last year the
government introduced commuter passenger trains in the two
main cities of
Harare and Bulawayo to help ease a critical shortage of
public transport
caused by a fuel crunch.
The trains are cheaper for cash-strapped
commuters than buses and are
usually crammed well beyond their regulated
capacity.
Ananova
Zimbabwe rail crash
blamed on signalling error
A signalling error is being blamed
for a train crash in Zimbabwe which left
40 people dead and another 60
injured.
A crowded passenger train and a freight train collided head-on,
and burst
into flames in the incident in northwestern
Zimbabwe.
Transport Minister, Witness Mangwende, blamed the crash on
human error -
saying a mistake with the signals sent both trains along the
same piece of
track.
The southbound freight train, which was carrying
flammable liquid, and the
passenger train, which was headed to the
northwestern resort town of
Victoria Falls, crashed near the coal mining
centre of Hwange.
Television reports said some passengers were believed
to have been carrying
cans of fuel. Acute fuel shortages have led to black
marketeering and
hoarding.
Many of the train cars were mangled. One
lay on its side with the ends of
two twisted cars perched on
it.
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation reported 40 people were killed and
about
60 others were injured, though the extent of their injuries was
unknown.
Story filed: 19:27 Saturday 1st February
2003
The Weekend Australian
Wicket fears
in Zimbabwe
By Robert Craddock in Potchefstroom
February 02,
2003
ZIMBABWE cricket officials have posted an
around-the-clock guard on the
wicket square in Bulawayo following threats it
will be dug up to ruin World
Cup matches.
An anti-government group
called Zimactivisim has threatened to make the
pitch unplayable for
Zimbabwe's three World Cup fixtures.
A delegation of Zimbabwe officials
yesterday visited the Bulawayo oval,
airport and team hotels to formulate a
security plan.
Senior Assistant Police Commissioner Fortune Zengeni was
confident his force
could handle the security.
"There will be round
the clock security and escorts for everyone," he said.
However,
Australia's cricketers are becoming increasingly agitated about
touring
Zimbabwe.
The players, many of whom disclosed misgivings about safety and
the ethics
of travelling to a country ruled by tyrant Robert Mugabe, will
voice their
concerns at a special meeting this week.
They will have
their union boss from the Australian Cricketers Association,
Tim May, and
Australian Cricket Board chief executive James Sutherland on
hand.
May
and Sutherland fly to South Africa this week to discuss player security
in
Bulawayo.
Reports yesterday detailed a clash outside the Town Hall
between police and
Harare residents attending a meeting called to discuss the
city's water
crisis.
Zimbabwe's Daily News said police stormed the
meeting, fired three warning
shots, hurled teargas canisters and randomly
beat people.
The papers said thousands of residents fled from the
swinging batons and
choking gas. Reports claim that police had given the
green light for the
meeting.
Harare has only 14 months of water supply
left and is expected to introduce
water rationing next month.
A
jeering crowd hurled missiles and insults at the police, some of whom were
in
a Defender vehicle.
The Australians already are aware of extraordinary
dramas in Zimbabwe, which
include:
Nearly all of Zimbabwe's 4500 white
commercial farmers have had their land
seized under legislation from
President Mugabe. Some have been killed.
Zimbabwe has a 70 per cent
unemployment rate.
Nearly half of Zimbabwe's population of 13 million is
starving. There were
food riots in Harare and Bulawayo in
December.
Players so far have maintained their silence, under
instructions from the
Australian Cricket Board. However, developments
involving other nations
concerned about safety issues is likely to make for
more volatile
objections.
Already New Zealand has withdrawn from its
match against Kenya in Nairobi on
February 21.
The Black Caps cited
safety concerns and are prepared to forfeit points. New
Zealand also could
face a $2 million penalty.
However, the International Cricket Council is
working to reschedule New
Zealand's World Cup game after NZ Cricket announced
it was considering
taking its dispute to the Court of Arbitration for Sport
in Switzerland.
NZC chief executive Martin Snedden said his board
believed the decision made
by the ICC executive to reject New Zealand's
safety concerns was
unreasonable and that it would seek to have the match
rescheduled outside
Kenya.
A panel of six has been elected to decide
whether countries can refuse to
fulfil commitments at the World Cup because
of security fears.
The ICC says New Zealand can seek a review of the
ICC's decision.
ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said he recognised New
Zealand's concerns
and that he would be working to "see if there was any
prospect of the match
proceeding or being rescheduled".
"The issue of
safety and security is clearly the main concern of both the
ICC and New
Zealand Cricket and, at present, NZC is not satisfied that it is
safe to play
in Kenya," Speed said.
Al-Qaida stands accused of engineering two
terrorist attacks in Kenya, last
year and in 1998.
It has been
revealed Zimbabwe was home to an active al-Qaida cell planning
attacks on
Westerners.
A US Government report detailed a plan by Tablik Ja'maat, an
al-Qaida-linked
group of militant extremists, to attack US targets in
Zimbabwe if war is
declared on Iraq.
SA clerics try to heal Zim, Blair rift
JIMMY
SEEPE
SOUTH African church leaders led by Cape Town Archbishop
Njongonkulu
Ndungane, in an unprecedent move reminiscent of the church's role
during the
apartheid era, have agreed to act as mediators to resolve the
political
impasse between Zimbabwe and Britain in an effort to avert the
neighbouring
country from sliding further into anarchy.
Ndungane
together with the South African Council of Churches
general-secretary Dr
Molefe Tsele disclosed on Friday they had held a
two-and-half hour meeting
with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe regarding
the deteriorating situation
in his country where Mugabe invited the church
leaders to act as
mediators.
Speaking after their arrival from Zimbabwe at the Johannesburg
International
Airport, Ndungane said as far as Mugabe was concerned, the root
of the
current Zimbabwe impasse lies in the unfinished business and
implementation
of the agreement that Zanu-PF reached with the British during
the Lancaster
House talks.
Mugabe had told them that in his view, the
root cause of the current
problems was the fact that British Prime Minister
Tony Blair had reneged on
certain agreements regarding compensation for land
used for reform that his
predecessors, Margaret Thatcher and John Major, had
made.
"Since Lancaster House, there were other agreements in terms of a
process
for land reform and these processes were in place until the time of
John
Major. But when Blair took over he reneged on those agreements. That is
when
the problems started," said the Cape Town church leader.
Ndungane
said Mugabe felt the external and internal problems in the country
are a
result of the non-implementation of the Lancaster House agreements.
As a
result of Mugabe's pronouncements, Ndungane said the next step would be
to
contact his British counterpart, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to convey
the
president's views to him.
S entiments expressed by Mugabe to the church
leaders appear consistent to
what President Thabo Mbeki and the ANC
leadership have been putting forward
during the last few months towards
understanding the problems in Zimbabwe.
Mbeki has consistently pushed the
same line during his discussions with the
British government and other
members of the Commonwealth and the Non-Aligned
Movement. But although Mbeki
had been seen to be supportive of Mugabe,
political observers were caught by
surprise last year when he voted along
with other members of the Commonwealth
to bar Zimbabwe from further
participation.
"We will seek a meeting
with President Thabo Mbeki to brief him about the
meeting with Mugabe as head
of the country as well as a member of the
Commonwealth troika, of the
Non-Aligned Movement and head of the African
Union," said
Ndungane.
Ndungane defended their decision to meet with only Mugabe
during their
visit.
"Our role is to assess the situation from the
president's side before
engaging churches, political parties and
farmers."
IOL
England players' unions want to see
report
February 01 2003 at
06:40PM
London - England's cricketers' association is to press
again for sight of
the Kroll Report which the International Cricket Council
used as the basis
of Thursday's decision to go ahead with six World Cup
matches in Zimbabwe.
The Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA) said
after a teleconference
on Saturday they had been told that the report would
not be made available
to players' representatives.
However, a meeting
could be arranged between representatives and the
report's authors in Cape
Town at the end of next week.
A PCA statement said: "This is an
unacceptable position. The PCA have been
contacted by a member of the media
who has had access to the Kroll Report
which has led to serious
concerns.
"Without doubt there is an element of risk as the Kroll Report
confirmed
'extensive disruptions of the matches are planned by elements in
the
opposition MDC party.'"
The statement also said "vital" legal
issues had been raised at Saturday's
meeting. In addition, a letter had been
requested to verify there were no
problems over players'
insurance.
ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said on Thursday the Kroll
Report had been
"categorical in its ultimate assessment that it is safe and
secure for all
six matches in Zimbabwe to proceed as planned".
Last
Monday, the England team said they wanted their February 13 match
with
Zimbabwe moved to South Africa because of growing concern about
the
political situation in Zimbabwe.
The World Cup starts on February
9 with a game in Cape Town between South
Africa and West
Indies.
From News24 (SA), 31 January
EU
still deadlocked on Zim
Brussels - The European Union failed
again on Thursday to agree an extension
of sanctions against Zimbabwe amid a
row sparked by a French invitation to
President Robert Mugabe. But a senior
diplomat said the bloc still hopes to
reach an accord before the current
sanctions regime runs out on February 18,
just before the Zimbabwe leader's
planned Paris trip. "The discussion has
been put off until next week," said a
source close to the EU's Greek
presidency," adding, "there is a climate
favourable to reaching a solution."
Ambassadors have been tasked with seeking
a compromise after EU foreign
ministers failed to resolve the issue earlier
this week. Paris upset Britain
and other EU members strongly critical of
Zimbabwe by inviting the
controversial leader to a summit. The 15-member EU
imposed a visa ban
against the Zimbabwean leadership last February, as
violence flared in the
run-up to a presidential poll widely condemned as
rigged. In theory the ban
should be renewed on February 18.
A
British diplomat played down the significance of Thursday's failure to
reach
an agreement. "I'm sure the discussion will continue and we have
until
February 18 to resolve this. It's important to get it resolved by
then," he
said. The talks remained blocked on extending sanctions but at the
same time
allowing waivers, so Mugabe or other Zimbabwean officials can
travel to the
Franco-African summit next month and an EU-Africa summit in
Lisbon in April.
The new Greek proposal would allow an automatic waiver of
the travel ban in
the case of meetings in the EU organised by the UN or other
international
organizations whose headquarters are in the Union. Another type
of waiver
would be allowed with the backing of a qualified majority vote of
EU member
states, for meetings such as the Paris or Lisbon meetings,
diplomats said.
"Everyone agrees that we must urgently solve the three
questions," said the
Greek presidency source. "The ambassadors considered
that more time was
needed to discuss the issue."
Diplomats said
that agreement had notably been blocked by Portugal. Keen for
the Lisbon
meeting to go ahead, Portugal proposed a further easing of the
rules for
granting waivers Thursday, but the proposal was rejected, the
diplomats said.
The Portuguese ambassador was due to consult his government
before a new
meeting on the issue next Wednesday, a diplomat said, although
adding that he
was eventually confident of a solution. Portuguese Foreign
Minister Antonio
Martins da Cruz said on Tuesday he favoured postponing the
Lisbon meeting if
the Mugabe issue was not resolved, saying it was clear
that several EU
leaders would stay away if the Zimbabwe leader turned up.
The Greek source
added that the problem was also "more general... We also
have to see how we
use the tool of sanctions as part of the EU's global
foreign policy."
Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden have so far
opposed French
President Jacques Chirac's invitation to Mugabe to attend the
Franco-African
summit in Paris on February 20-21. Amid the diplomatic
horse-trading, Mugabe
may yet be allowed to travel to Paris, diplomats say,
although Sweden in
particular remains reluctant. British Prime Minister Tony
Blair said on
Wednesday that Mugabe's government is a threat to everyone in
Zimbabwe and
Britain is doing everything possible to ostracise its
former
colony.
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 31
January
Herald fabricated comments says
envoy
Staff Writer
Hardly a week after World Food
Programme executive director James Morris
accused the Herald of lying about
his comments during his visit to Zimbabwe,
the Japanese ambassador has raised
concerns over being misquoted by the same
newspaper. In a letter to Herald
editor Pikirai Deketeke, also copied to all
diplomatic missions and
international organisations accredited to Zimbabwe,
Japanese envoy
Tsuneshinge Iiyama said the government-controlled daily
fabricated remarks
attributed to him in an article it published on Monday
headlined "Japan slams
Tsvangirai's stance". He said he was shocked by the
Herald's fictitious
report. "I was stunned," Iiyama said. "Parts of the
article are totally
fabricated, and other parts do not reflect my statements
accurately at all.
"In fact, I never uttered a single word about Mr
Tsvangirai during my talk
with Professor Moyo, nor did I mention Mr
Tsvangirai to the mass media
following this meeting," he said. Iiyama said
he told the Herald that "we
need to have some positive development on the
ground. No country can live in
isolation." He said he never told the Herald:
"We don't think there is any
reason for the international community to focus
its attention on
Zimbabwe".
From Africa Confidential, 24
January
Coming out of the closet
The
first plan may have failed, but finding an exit route for Comrade Mugabe
is
now political centre-stage
The architects of the soft-landing plan
for President Robert Gabriel Mugabe
are frustrated. Their efforts have
produced the opposite effect to that
intended: Mugabe is now less inclined to
negotiate a retirement than he was
six months ago. Not only have Colonel
Lionel Dyck and opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai exposed the scheme, the
public naming of parliamentary
Speaker Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and the
Commander of the Zimbabwe
Defence Forces, General Vitalis Gava Zvinavashe (AC
Vol 43 No 23), as its
authors has made them targets of Mugabe's considerable
wrath. Enraged that
he wasn't informed about the advanced state of the
negotiations several
meetings with South African President Thabo Mbeki
and intermediaries in
Britain Mugabe has interpreted Mnangagwa's and
Zvinavashe's scheme as
tantamount to treason. Mugabe's attack-dog,
Information Minister Jonathan
Moyo, told the state-owned daily The Herald
that the Mnangagwa plan amounted
to a coup d'état.
Mnangagwa and
Zvinavashe are both Karanga, the most numerous of Zimbabwe's
ethnic groups
as is the Movement for Democratic Change leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai. Now
Mugabe is said to regard the soft-landing plan as a Karanga
plot to oust him.
He implicates Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge and High
Commissioner to London
Samuel Mbengegwi, both Karanga and both, in Mugabe's
view, having kept him
out of the loop. In particular, Mugabe regards
Mbengegwi as soft on his
arch-enemies, Britain and its Prime Minister, Tony
Blair. One element of the
plan was that Mnangagwa and his business backers
would persuade Britain and
the European Union to drop sanctions against
Zimbabwe if Mugabe retired and
fresh elections were held.
Comment The
Star (SA), 31 January
SA is implicitly standing surety for
Zimbabwe
By Peter Fabricius
South Africa is
assuming huge responsibilities in Africa. We are managing
very complex peace
negotiations in the DRC and Burundi. With 700 troops
already in Burundi, and
several in the DRC, it seems we will be sending many
more to Burundi next
week. They have a dangerous mission: to police a very
fragile ceasefire. But
perhaps the biggest responsibility we are assuming is
in Zimbabwe, where we
are becoming, it seems, the guarantor of Mugabe's
ultimate good behaviour. SA
is in effect standing surety for Zimbabwe by
leading an African effort to
block the extension of both Commonwealth and
European Union sanctions against
that country when they come up for renewal.
By rallying Africa to stand
four-square with Zimbabwe, SA is effectively
forcing the EU and the
Commonwealth to make a hard choice between punishing
Zimbabwe and estranging
Africa.
In Brussels this week, we saw the EU baulk at that decision.
EU foreign
ministers failed to reach a decision whether to renew the
sanctions against
Zimbabwe. France wants Mugabe to attend a Franco-African
summit in Paris the
day after the ban against him travelling to Europe falls
away under current
sanctions. But Britain and some other EU countries want to
extend the
sanctions. A compromise was devised whereby France would have
agreed to
extend the sanctions if it were allowed to waive them just once to
allow
Mugabe to attend the Paris summit. However Portugal reportedly opposed
the
compromise because if the travel ban is extended, Mugabe will not be able
to
attend a Europe-Africa summit which it is hosting in Lisbon. And if
Mugabe
can't come, then the other African leaders will boycott. It is
extraordinary
how supposedly mature European countries allow their little
summits, which
are mostly hot air, to override a principled stance against
Zimbabwe, which
might just produce results if it is maintained consistently
and for some
time.
Zimbabwe and SA will both, no doubt, have
derived much comfort from dividing
Europe in this way. But SA should be
cautious. Its opposition to punishing
Mugabe imposes upon it a burden to
effect change in Zimbabwe by non-coercive
means. SA has assumed that burden
by trying to mediate a reconciliation
between the ruling Zanu PF party and
the opposition MDC. This has borne no
fruit yet, although there have been
recent signs of some possible movement.
But, according to some reports, the
SA government believes the way to break
the impasse is through Britain first
assuming its "colonial
responsibilities" in Zimbabwe. These reports suggest
that when President
Mbeki meets British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London
tomorrow, he will
try to persuade him to put up British money to finance
Mugabe's land reform
programme - in exchange for some deal whereby Mugabe
steps down and the MDC
gets some sort of role in government. Whether such a
plan exists is by no
means clear.
But official sources suggest
Blair is unlikely to be amenable to lifting
sanctions - let alone funding
chaotic land reform - when Mugabe has done
nothing since sanctions were
imposed to deserve such relief. The SA approach
to Zimbabwe seems to be
informed by an underlying determinist philosophy
best expressed by the ANC's
general secretary Kgalema Motlanthe. He said
Mugabe's fault was not that he
had cared too little for his country but that
he had cared too much. Mugabe
spent too much on social benefits like health
and education for his people in
the '80s. That drove the country into debt,
which forced the government to
adopt an IMF structural adjustment plan in
exchange for financial support.
That undermined the economy, which provoked
an uprising of opposition forces,
which threatened Mugabe's hold on power,
which "forced" him to crack down on
the opposition, etc. This is the
tortured logic of denial - denial of any
responsibility by the Mugabes of
this world for their own behaviour. Until
our Zimbabwe policy - and our
Africa policy - accepts that leaders are
primarily responsible for their
country's predicaments, it cannot succeed.
Confounding Europe is a
short-term benefit. In the long term, as the ones
implicitly standing surety
for Mugabe and Zanu PF, we lose if they don't come
right. That is something
we should be thinking about as we watch Europe
squirm.