The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.
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11/2/02
"Call from Triangle farmer to report that his workers are trying to get him to pay out all their pensions and money he owes them. Their fear stems from reports being spread that there will be an armed rebellion if Mugabe does not get back into power. Reports coming in from his staff who come from the Zaka communal areas say that there are many groups of uniformed youth running around in squads chanting, intimidating and singing. The groups are led by uniformed men suspected to be the war vet leaders of the farm invasions who have recently deserted their posts on the farms."
11/2/02
"Further to this mornings report from a Triangle farmer. A group about 30 old men have been confronting the owner about payment of loans and pensions which they say are owed by his deceased father. His father died (murdered) at the end of the war. he instructed them to make a complaint to the police as he was not prepared to give away his own cattle. Individual demands were for up to 15 head of cattle. The group has now been reported to have gone to lay a complaint at the Zaka land committee, to back their extortion claims."
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Daily News - Feature

Hand-picked MPs dancing to Mugabe’s tune

2/11/02 8:22:17 AM (GMT +2)


By Foster Dongozi Features Writer

THEY are jokingly referred to as the five Zanu PF musketeers and the party’s
movers and shakers over the last two years.

Curiously, there are many common denominators in their lives.

John Nkomo, Jonathan Moyo, Joseph Made, July Moyo and Joseph Msika are
unique in that while other Members of Parliament can proudly sit in the
House, safe in the knowledge that they represent thousands of voters, the
“five musketeers” owe their allegiance to President Mugabe who hand-picked
them for the august house.

Although there are many common factors linking them, in some cases, there is
a single exception.

Picture this: even when their first names all begin with the letter J, their
surnames begin with the letter M, except for John Nkomo.

Nkomo, the two Moyos and Made are heads of ministries while Msika is one of
the two vice-presidents.

Except for July Moyo, incredibly still, John Nkomo, Jonathan Moyo, Joseph
Msika and Joseph Made have biblical names.

Joseph Msika has hogged the limelight for occasionally spewing unprintable
obscene language, while the other four quickly rose to prominence for being
associated with laws that will have far-reaching implications for Zimbabwe
for a long time to come.

Small wonder David Coltart credited them with competing to bring to
Parliament the most infamous Bills Zimbabweans have ever witnessed since
Independence.

The two Moyos cobbled together the Labour Relations Amendment Bill and the
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill respectively, while
Nkomo brought along the draconian Public Order and Safety Act, whose
repressive provisions exceed the colonial Law and Order Maintenance Act,
which he spent half his life fighting to overturn.

Further analysis reveals the fact that the figure 2 features prominently in
the lives of the five.

Two of the ministers, Jonathan and July actually share the surname, Moyo.

The surnames of the two most senior officials, Msika and Nkomo, the only two
visible former PF Zapu leaders in the government, have five letters.

Those of the two Moyos and Made, original Zanu PF stalwarts are four-letter
words.

Except for the two most senior officials, Nkomo and Msika, the two Moyos and
Made ascended to high public offices in the year
2000.

If the MDC wins the March presidential election, the Moyos and Made’s term
of office could come to a screeching halt, almost two years later, in the
year 2002.

The behaviour of the “five musketeers” makes interesting reading in
comparison with their biblical namesakes.

While a large number of former PF Zapu officials have fallen out of favour
with the Zanu PF elite, John Nkomo has like his biblical namesake, John,
remained a close, loyal disciple of Mugabe.

When Joshua Nkomo and senior PF Zapu officials were ejected from the
government in the early 1980s on charges of caching arms, John did not
resign immediately in sympathy with his colleagues, but was dismissed by
Mugabe in 1984.

He has remained a faithful and trusted disciple, despite not having a sound
political base.

Jonathan from the Old Testament did not waver and remained sincere and true
to his friend David, whose life Jonathan’s father had tried to take.

The biblical Joseph was blessed by God with powers to interpret dreams.
When the king of Egypt had a dream, Joseph correctly interpreted that it
meant the country would go through seven years of good harvests and seven
lean years of drought.

Sadly for our own Joseph, the former chief executive of the Agricultural and
Rural Development Authority, he continued to maintain and insist that the
country had adequate food supplies despite warnings from experts that
Zimbabwe would need to import 700 000 tonnes of maize to avert food
shortages.

There have been shortfalls of maize-meal throughout the country for the past
two months and the government has frantically started to import the staple
to bridge a yawning food gap which could have been avoided.

Attempts have been made to blame the shortage on confectionery companies
which were said to be “hoarding” maize and flour.

This is besides the fact that maize-meal and flour are the key ingredients
in baking.

It would have been a fitting comparison if, say, there were two ministers
with the surname Nkomo (mombe) and five with the surname Mabhiza (horses).

Maybe the Zanu PF jingle for land flighted on our television screens
sonorously every day would have been something like: Mombe mbiri
nemabhizamashanu . . . sevenza nhamo ichauya.

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Daily News - Feature

50-strong Commonwealth observer team expected

2/11/02 8:23:19 AM (GMT +2)


Staff Reporter

A total of 33 observers and 15 support staff from the Commonwealth are
expected in Zimbabwe by 23 February for the 9-10 March presidential
election.

A four-man advance team from the secretariat was accredited in Harare on
Thursday.

The team is led by Jon Sheppard, the director of the Commonwealth
secretariat’s political division. The other members are Mwambu Wanendeya,
the spokesman, Martin Kasirye, and Victor Pungongau.

Sheppard said 10 more members of the observer group were expected over the
weekend.

He said: “We will observe all aspects of the election, not just on election
day.”

The observers will be divided into teams, stationed in all parts of the
country. “We will be travelling as much as we can and covering as many areas
as we can,” he said.

Sheppard said the observers would be meeting all political parties,
electoral authorities, civic groups, ordinary people and other interested
groups.

“We want to gather as much information as we can,” he said.

“We hope to start going out to the rural areas on Tuesday, if not before.”

He said the observers would be led by General Abdulsalam Abubakar, the
former Nigerian head of state who ended 15 years of military rule when he
stepped down in May 1999, after Olusegun Obasanjo was elected president.
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Daily News - Leader Page

As the body count rises, is this now a civil war?

2/11/02 8:56:15 AM (GMT +2)



THE body count of the presidential election campaign mounts with each day. A
legitimate question ought to be asked: is this just an election campaign or
a civil war?



As the carnage mounts, concerned, peace-loving citizens are speculating on
the fall-out of this murder and mayhem being committed by brother against
brother in the name of politics.

After all the dead have been buried and the new President installed,
Zimbabwe will have to reap the bitter harvest of the internecine bloodshed,
as it did after the election campaign in 2000.

Today, almost two years after more than 40 people were killed in the
parliamentary election campaign, there are people out for revenge, to settle
old scores, determined to finish what they started in 2000.

The killing fields will expand as violence in election campaigning will be
institutionalised. Pacifist citizens will leave the country for long
holidays abroad every time there is an election. Future generations will
remember every election campaign as The Season of Madness.

Once the MDC displayed its political popularity in the 2000 election, Zanu
PF was always going to pull out all the stops in the presidential election
campaign this year. They would throw everything at this party, including the
kitchen sink and every other weapon, lethal or otherwise, available in the
immediate vicinity.

They would use legislation of questionable morality to impede the
opposition. They would try to cripple the independent Press and leave the
media field entirely to their own puppets. They would hold municipal
elections in Harare and Chitungwiza simultaneously with the presidential
election in the hope of reversing the thorough drubbing the MDC inflicted on
them in the 2000 parliamentary vote in the urban centres.

A High Court judge had decided against this, but by a 4-1 majority the
Supreme Court, now presided over by a Chief Justice appointed by the
President after an unseemly public slanging match with his predecessor,
Anthony Gubbay, reversed that decision.

The dissenting judge, Justice Ahmed Ebrahim, longer on the Supreme Court
Bench than the other four, said the original decision by High Court judge,
Justice Moses Chinhengo, to have the municipal poll held on 11 February,
should have been upheld.

There was further speculation that both Ebrahim and Chinhengo might not be
in their jobs for long. The Supreme Court decision seemed to confirm the
speculation among many citizens that once Gubbay had been forced out, the
Bench would be transformed.

Zanu PF is clearly frightened that it will lose the Presidency in a free and
fair election. Its strategy is now to use every foul means to improve its
chances of victory. Murder and mayhem constitute only one element of this
strategy.

The other is to use the racism card against the MDC -including a disgraceful
advertisement referring to Blair toilets published in The Herald last
Friday. If that advert is a reflection of Zanu PF’s desperation, then we can
expect more outrage from this party as it struggles to win an election
through violence and subterfuge.

Fortunately, the mood of the people seems to confirm their determination to
make their own decisions on 9-10 March regardless of how severely they are
battered by Zanu PF thugs.

The fact that the party has continued its campaign of violence with
undiminished intensity for so long suggests this brutality is not having the
desired effect - cowing the people. What President Mugabe and the rest of
the leadership must surely understand is that someone has to account for all
this bloodshed.

However long it will take, the people will one day want to know why the
present leadership subjected them to such savage brutality. It might not be
before the same court at The Hague which is trying Slobodan Milosevic, the
former Yugoslav dictator. But people will want to know why an election
campaign almost degenerated into a civil war.

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Daily News - Leader Page

In Western eyes Africa is a problem child

2/11/02 8:57:34 AM (GMT +2)


By Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem

SOMETIME in 1996 I was a visiting lecturer at the University of Trier
unofficially, the students refer to it as Karl Marx University because the
great revolutionary philosopher, Karl Marx, was born there) in Germany. I
had occasion to travel to Bonn that was then in transition from being
abandoned as the capital of Germany, for the pre-war capital, Berlin.



There was then a lot of rumbling amongst the African diplomatic community
about the cost of shifting to Berlin. Any of them had the perennial problem
of not being paid on time, when paid at all. Some of them like the Zaire’s
embassy, now DRC, had outlived all good will and could not even buy a can of
water on credit.

The last ambassador’s residence in a posh area of Bonn had been bandoned to
squirrels, rats and wild grass, as a kind of Congo Reserve by default! In
the midst of all these cries by African diplomats, a “sympathetic” German
government announced that the embassies do not have to worry about shifting
to Berlin because the German equivalent of the Ministry responsible for
International Aid was still going to be in Bonn.

That for me represented the level to which the relationship between Africa
and many Western governments has been reduced. Africa is considered only in
the context of aid: the problem continent, hopeless at sorting out its
problems and needing the help of the West.

As a consequence of this donor-beggar axis, Western leaders do not really
have to concern themselves much about Africa. Their ministers responsible
for aid or some junior ministers responsible for Africa in foreign affairs
are delegated the responsibility. But most of our presidents judge their
international acceptability by the number of times they could go to Paris,
London, Berlin, Brussels, Washington or New York and their poor cousins in
Lisbon or Madrid, even if only to see some lowly placed bureaucrats and a
group of hustling business people.

If they are lucky, they might get a photo call with the prime minister or
president, but in some cases even foreign ministers may be too busy to see
them during these numerous “working visits”! On the other hand, any Western
minion visiting Africa has all the red carpets rolled out and grandiose
reception arranged.

That a minister from Europe or America is visiting an African country is
like God sending angels to one’s house. Therefore, when a Western prime
minister, chancellor or president is bored with intractable domestic
politics and needing to grandstand other Western leaders or internal
opponents, an African safari is always a good divergence.

The British Prime Minister’s visit to West Africa last week has elements of
all the cynicism expressed above. That it took Tony Blair half a decade in
power and his second term in office to discover Africa is in keeping with
the tradition of most Western countries in their relations with Africa. Even
the much-loved “Teflon king”, Bill Clinton, probably the most popular
Western leader among Africans, did not make his safari until his second
term.

Blair’s visit has been mired in controversy in Britain. Supporters say this
is his fulfilment of the pledge made during the elections and reinforced at
his “mountain top” speech at the October Labour Party conference.

His critics claim this is yet another utopian adventure by a Prime Minister
given to Messianic delusions, propelled to pretensions of global leadership
by the recent “shoulder-to-shoulder” victory in “the war against terrorism”.

They accused him of not looking after British internal affairs of collapsing
trains, the crisis-ridden National Health Service, etc.
Blair himself says he is committed to putting Africa on the international
agenda, describing the grinding poverty, debt burden and collapsing standard
of living of the majority of Africans as “a scar on the conscience of the
world” that can and must be healed.

The moaning meanies, to borrow a phrase from the Thatcherite era, of little
England mentality are wrong in throwing jibes at Blair for trying to be
internationalist. That he has chosen to begin to educate himself about
Africa by actually visiting it officially is welcome. The visit has more
symbolic than any other benefit.

My main concern about Blair’s visit as with Clinton’s highly successful
Africa tour is that it may not produce any significant improvement in the
relations between Africa and the West and of no relevance to the lives of
the majority of Africa’s poor and impoverished masses.

He is going to be talking poverty with governments whose policies have been
impoverishing their own people. He would be talking up market reforms, free
enterprise, liberalisation, and privatisation despite British experience in
rail privatisation.

If he cares to look beyond the marbled halls he would be received in he
would see the consequences of privatisation without human face in Ghana. As
he talks loftily about democratisation, his intelligence briefs should have
warned him that the dividend of democracy is still eluding the Nigerians and
Senegalese.

In Sierra Leone, while he is celebrating the British contribution to
regional stability, I hope he would be told that the silence of the guns is
not the end of the war. Blair is welcome to Africa. It is an opportunity to
introduce himself as the Prime Minister of Britain.

Many are beginning to think Ms Clare Short, the International Development
Minister, is the First Minister of the Queen because she is the only one
they have seen. In the recent months that Blair has been ubiquitous in the
global media, it has been more or less as a United States foreign minister
or decoder of President George W Bush’s mind to the rest of us.

So he has opportunity to let Africans see him in the job he was voted to do
rather than the Atlanticist Consultancy he had taken up.

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Daily News

Perpetrators of violence to face wrath of law: Tsvangirai

2/11/02 8:46:19 AM (GMT +2)


Staff Reporter

Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition MDC president, on Friday said that people
committing crimes in the name of politics would be brought to justice if his
party won the 9 and 10 March presidential election.

He was addressing hundreds of enthusiastic supporters who attended the party
’s three campaign rallies in Msasa, Mount Pleasant and Borrowdale suburbs.

Tsvangirai warned that an MDC government would not tolerate lawlessness from
any quarter. He said: “There are some who say, ŒPresident, when we win the
election just give us two days to take revenge’. There will be nothing like
that. We will be the country’s government and anyone who breaks the law will
be arrested.”

Tsvangirai said the country needed stability, which would be brought about
by a firm government that respected the rule of law.

He said: “For the country to progress, it needs a strong government. A
strong government is not one that kills people and sets children against
their parents.”

He described the members of the National Youth Service, who have unleashed a
reign of terror countrywide as “bandits” and called on Mugabe to immediately
disband them.

Tsvangirai said Mugabe had messed up the country in the 21 years of his rule
and wanted another six years to completely destroy it.

“There are only 30 days to go to the election. Let us remove Robert Mugabe
and his government, who have impoverished us.”

The MDC leader dismissed as cheap propaganda by Zanu PF and the
government-controlled media the notion that the MDC wanted to return the
country to the whites.

The MDC did not have a racist agenda. “We are motivated by the Zimbabwean
agenda,” he said.

He challenged Mugabe to a public debate on the land issue.
Urging people to cast their votes in their millions, Tsvangirai said: “We
must defeat Mugabe resoundingly by millions of votes.”

He said most people in the rural areas were calling for change despite
intimidation by Zanu PF supporters and threats of war if Mugabe lost the
election.

Tsvangirai said: “An old man keeps threatening war. Whose children is he
going to send to war?”
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Daily News


AG’s Office grants leave of absence to Harare prosecutor

2/11/02 8:45:45 AM (GMT +2)


Court Reporter

KENNEDY Mpomba, a prosecutor at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts has gone on
leave following threats on his life by suspected war veterans.

His colleagues at the courts yesterday said Mpomba was granted leave of
absence by the Attorney-General’s office after some stalkers who had been
trailing him since October last year, threatened him for his alleged zeal to
prosecute Zanu PF officials and ex-combatants.

Contacted for comment, Mpomba referred all questions to the Attorney-General
’s Office.

Joseph Musakwa, the acting director of public prosecutions said: “We will
not say anything concerning the matter until the outcome of
police investigations.”

Mpomba, in a memorandum he wrote, said a white Nissan Hardbody pulled up
behind him as he was opening the gate to his home on 23 January. He said
there were eight men in the vehicle and one of them allegedly threatened him
for “embarrassing our leaders” before they veered off.

In another memorandum, Mpomba said he was approached by a man wielding a
pistol as he was driving along Harare Drive.

The man allegedly fled and joined his colleagues in a white Nissan Hardbody
before speeding off.

In the latest incident, the suspects pointed a firearm at Mpomba along
Harare Drive in Marlborough, Harare.

The men fled when Mpomba produced his own firearm.

Mpomba has handled an incest case involving war veterans leader, Andrew
Ndlovu, a Zanu PF librarian for threatening Geoffrey Nyarota, the
Editor-in-Chief of The Daily News, and war veterans from Marondera accused
of kidnapping.

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Daily News

Vendor accused of delivering anthrax-laced paper to Msika

2/11/02 8:14:06 AM (GMT +2)


Staff Reporter

POLICE officers guarding Vice-President Joseph Msika’s Mandara home in
Harare on Friday arrested Vincent Chinembiri, a Daily News vendor from
Chitungwiza, accusing him of delivering a newspaper with anthrax spores to
Msika’s home.

Kennedy Midzi, The Daily News sales and distribution manager, said
Chinembiri was arrested around 8am and taken to a Fire Brigade station in
Highlands, Harare. He was later interrogated at the Law and Order Section at
Harare Central Police Station.

By late yesterday, he was still in a cell at Harare Central while the police
went through the statutes for an appropriate charge to press against him.

Midzi said Chinembiri was delivering newspapers to subscribers in the
Mandara area.

Policemen from the Protection Unit pounced on him alleging they had
discovered anthrax spores while perusing one of two newspapers Chinembiri
had left at Msika’s gate on Wednesday last week.

The police had earlier questioned a gardener sent by Chinembiri to deliver
the newspapers on Thursday after his bicycle had broken down.

Efforts by The Daily News lawyer, Lawrence Chibwe, to secure Chinembiri’s
release failed yesterday as senior police officers insisted Chinembiri had
engaged in “an act of banditry”.

Chibwe said: “They have charged him under a section of the Miscellaneous
Offences Act which is not clear.

“They said they first want to establish whether the powder they claim they
found on the papers was anthrax powder. Thereafter, they might charge him
under the Public Order and Security Act.

“As of now, there is no charge. The police have arrested him in order to
investigate. The detention is irregular.”

Midzi said: “The papers are not marked and are not arranged in any
particular order. To say the vendor delivered anthrax to the Vice-President’
s home is ridiculous.

“I have never seen the vendors wearing gloves and the policemen obviously
did not have protective clothing and if indeed there were anthrax spores in
the newspapers, the vendor and policemen would have been affected by now.”
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Daily News

Zanu PF supporters fire teachers as terror spreads

2/11/02 8:42:08 AM (GMT +2)


Staff Reporter

WAR veterans and Zanu PF youths have set up a base at Chindunduma Two High
School in Shamva, where they have already “fired” four teachers for
allegedly supporting the MDC.

The group, comprising about 30 Zanu PF youths, has invaded the students’
dormitories and receives free rations of food from the school kitchen.

Sources said the school head, Ella Pawandiwa, allows the rowdy group to use
the school’s Nissan truck in their terror campaigns in and around the Shamva
area.

The gang is allegedly led by one Comrade Makwasha.

“The head teacher is afraid of the group. Everyone is afraid and no action
has been taken despite a report to the police,” said one of the teachers.

“Some of the students sleep on the floor as this group has even invaded the
school dormitories.”

On 13 January, the supporters allegedly beat up and ordered the transfer of
four teachers on allegations they were MDC supporters.

The four teachers, who have since been transferred to other schools in
Harare, are the deputy headmaster, Collin Kamarizeni, Florence Usayi, the
senior woman and Kennedy Mapondera, the senior master and a temporary
teacher, whose name could not be obtained.

On Friday, Lakayana Dube, the Mashonaland Regional Director for Education,
professed ignorance on the forced eviction of the teachers and the invasion
of the school by Zanu PF militants.

“I am not aware (of it). I would have to investigate,” he said.
But the sources said Dube had facilitated the transfer of the teachers after
they were evicted from Chindunduma.

There have been several reported deaths and intense political violence in
Shamva, whose MP is Nicholas Goche, the Minister of State Security.

Zanu PF youths have spread terror, setting up illegal roadblocks and
demanding Zanu PF cards.

At Chindunduma, the Zanu PF gang is conducting “re-education lessons” in the
school hall. The supporters are allegedly receiving food and material
support from Christine Dhewa, the school matron, who is also the Zanu PF
district chairperson in the women’s league.

Chindunduma was a rehabilitation school for demobilised war veterans in the
early 1980s.

The rowdy gang is reported to have told the school authorities that
Chindunduma was their “old home”.

In Masvingo, 30 schools have been closed in recent weeks because of
political violence.

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Daily News

UK dismisses Sunday Mail story as rubbish

2/11/02 8:13:29 AM (GMT +2)


Staff Reporter

THE British High Commission yesterday dismissed as “complete rubbish,” a
story in yesterday’s State-controlled Sunday Mail that Britain wants the MDC
to appoint David Coltart as vice-president if the party wins next month’s
presidential election.

Coltart is the MP for Bulawayo South and the MDC’s shadow minister of
justice.

Quoting unnamed sources in the MDC, The Sunday Mail political editor
Munyaradzi Huni, wrote in the paper’s lead story that MDC president Morgan
Tsvangirai gave assurances of Coltart’s appointment as vice-president after
Britain demanded that the party should appoint a white man as Tsvangirai’s
deputy.

The MDC has dismissed the allegations as “devoid of substance.”

Sophie Honey, the British High Commission spokesperson in Harare said
yesterday: “It’s nothing to do with us, whom either party should choose to
appoint to the Cabinet if they win the election.

“It’s also a misunderstanding of the British culture, society and government
to suggest we will be of the view that this or that person should be
appointed to this or that position.

“Britain is a multi-cultural society and we are proud of it. Our government
is opposed to racism of any form so, of course, we would not take such a
view and it’s nothing to do with us who the next President of Zimbabwe
chooses to appoint to his Cabinet.”

The newspaper alleged that in the MDC’s “new structure,” the party would
appoint its current vice-president Gibson Sibanda minister of home affairs
while Welshman Ncube, the party’s secretary-general would be appointed
minister of justice.

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MSNBC

Australia draws up possible sanctions for Zimbabwe

CANBERRA, Feb. 11 — Australia said on Monday it had drawn up a list of
possible sanctions to be levied against Zimbabwe if campaigning for next
month's presidential election was not conducted fairly.

        Australia is the only country threatening measures against Zimbabwe
after the European Union last week backed away from plans to impose
sanctions when President Robert Mugabe promised to allow international
election observers into the country.
       Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said sanctions could include
cutting defence ties, reducing non-economic foreign aid and freezing any
financial assets held in Australia by Mugabe and his senior ministers.
       ''Any decision on sanctions will depend on the progression of the
election campaign,'' Downer told reporters.
       ''(This means) if the Zimbabwean government doesn't go through an
appropriate electoral process that we would regard as a free, fair and
democratic process.''
       Australia expressed disappointment last month that a high-level
Commonwealth advisory group did not suspend Zimbabwe from the organisation
before the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Queensland from March
2 to 5.
       The eight-nation Commonwealth foreign ministers' group instead opted
to try to ensure free and fair elections next month. But the Zimbabwe issue
is likely to dominate the Queensland meeting.
       Mugabe, facing the biggest challenge to his 22 years in power at the
March 9-10 election, has allowed European Union officials to monitor the
poll but objected to representatives from six EU states, including Sweden
and former colonial ruler Britain.
       The EU planned to send up to 150 observers and the Commonwealth group
of 54 nations a further 45 observers.
       Downer said Australia's electoral commissioner had got a visa and
gone to Zimbabwe as an observer and federal MP Julie Bishop had also been
accepted and would travel to Harare next week to join the international
observers on the ground.
       ''One of our objectives...of getting observers on the ground is
moving ahead but it's not to say we are proclaiming the electoral process a
great success,'' Downer said.

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Daily News

MDC youth leader murdered

2/11/02 8:12:58 AM (GMT +2)


From Our Correspondent in Masvingo

A 22-year-old MDC activist, Henry Moyo was brutally murdered on Thursday
last week by suspected Zanu PF supporters as the party’s terror campaign
reached critical levels in Masvingo, ahead of the presidential election.

This brings to six the number of people who have been killed so far in
politically-motivated incidents in Masvingo province, since President Mugabe
announced the election dates.

Moyo was the MDC youth vice-chairman for Ward 1. His body was found floating
in Mucheke River after he had been missing for three days.

His death came two days before Mugabe addressed a rally at Chivi growth
point, at which he called for a peaceful campaign.

The MDC Masvingo youth provincial chairman, Kenia Chauke, yesterday said
Moyo was abducted last Sunday by six men, believed to be Zanu PF supporters.

Chauke said: “Since then he had not been found until his body was recovered
by the police in Mucheke River.

“We know he was killed for his involvement in politics. He suffered broken
ribs and had injuries all over his body, which is a clear indication that he
was murdered.”

Witnesses said Moyo was severely tortured by Zanu PF supporters before he
was killed.

“They beat him up with an electric cord all over his body, others used
sticks and knobkerries to assault him until he collapsed,” said one witness.

“We all came out of our homes when we heard him crying and pleading with the
assailants to stop what they were doing, but they would not stop.”

The police in Masvingo said they suspected foul play since the body had
injuries suggesting that he was murdered before his body was dumped in the
river. However, by yesterday no one had been arrested in connection with the
murder.

Moyo becomes the latest victim of politically-motivated violence in
Masvingo, where five people have already lost their lives.

Richard Maphosa, Richard Chatunga, Atinos Mapingure Isaac Muunikwa, all MDC
members, and Zanu PF’s Gibson Masarira, were killed in Bikita and Zaka last
month, as violence mounted in the run-up to next month’s presidential
election.
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Daily News

EU defies Mugabe

2/11/02 8:02:15 AM (GMT +2)


Staff Reporter

A DIPLOMATIC row is simmering between Zimbabwe and the European Union (EU),
with the 15-member grouping determined to defy President Mugabe’s ban on
observers from Sweden, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, Finland and
Denmark, to the presidential election.

In stark defiance of the ban ahead of the 9 and 10 March election, Pierre
Schori, a Swedish diplomat, whose country was barred from deploying
observers to Harare, is still expected to head the EU election observer
team.

Schori arrived in Harare yesterday ahead of other observers from the EU next
week, in a phased programme.

Earlier checks by The Daily News confirmed that the Swedish diplomat had
reserved his accommodation with a five-star hotel in the capital, where he
was expected to stay for 22 nights.

All 150 observers are scheduled to be in Zimbabwe by the end of this month.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times of South Africa yesterday reported that the EU
would this week impose sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circle as early as
Wednesday, if its observer team was interfered with or if other human rights
violations occurred in the country.

The sanctions would be in the form of travel bans and the freezing of assets
belonging to Mugabe and other senior government officials.

The paper also quoted a spokesman for the Swedish Embassy in London saying:
“Our observers will go to Zimbabwe and we will see what happens.”

While Sweden is among the countries singled out by Mugabe under his ban, it
is one of Zimbabwe’s largest aid donors. Zimbabwe, however, considers
Sweden, along with Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark,
as agitating against the government ahead of the presidential poll.

Mugabe faces his stiffest challenge from Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader,
in the election.

Dr Stan Mudenge, the Foreign Affairs Minister, in a letter to the EU last
Monday, said nationals of Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland
and Denmark should not be part of the team of 150 EU observers who will be
sent to examine the presidential election.

However, EU spokesperson, Emma Udwin, was quoted as saying: “We are saying
it’s up to us to determine who comes in our team. We are going to carry on
as planned with our team and will not be removing anyone from the six
countries from our team.”

The EU said it had completed comprehensive preparations to impose smart
sanctions against Zimbabwe immediately, if the country’s leaders were deemed
to be veering out of line.

The decision to implement the sanctions would be taken on Wednesday when the
Brussels-based permanent representatives of the EU’s member states hold
their weekly meeting.

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Zimbabwean Ruling Party Kicks off Campaign in Harare

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xinhuanet 2002-02-10 01:51:03

   HARARE, February 10 (Xinhuanet) -- The ruling Zimbabwe African
National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) kicked off its campaign
in Harare Province on Sunday for the presidential and mayoral
elections set for March 9 and 10,  calling on supporters to vote
for incumbent President Robert Mugabe.
   During the campaign, Solomon Tawengwa, the party's deputy
secretary for finance, urged supporters to vote Mugabe back into
office.
   Mugabe gave land back to the Zimbabwean people, which reversed
the historical imbalances brought about by colonialism, said
Tawengwa, former mayor for Harare.
   The party held six campaign rallies at the weekend in the
province to brighten its chances in both the mayoral and
presidential election.  Enditem
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BBC
 
Monday, 11 February, 2002, 00:27 GMT
EU observers in Zimbabwe for poll
 By the BBC's Janet Barrie in Brussels

The head of a team of European Union election monitors has arrived in Zimbabwe despite warnings from the government there that he could be barred from observing next month's vote.

Pierre Schori, a former Swedish Government minister, flew into Harare after Zimbabwe's announcement last week that it would not accept observers from six EU countries, including Sweden.

The EU has threatened sanctions against Zimbabwe if its monitors are not granted full access to the elections.

Zimbabweans leave
Many Zimbabweans are leaving the country ahead of the election
Mr Schori arrived saying he expected to carry out his work despite the objections from President Robert Mugabe's government.

His first task will be to seek accreditation from the authorities.

If he is denied that, or if he or his team are barred access to parts of the country or parts of the campaign, the EU has said it will impose sanctions.

Travel ban

The European Commission in Brussels says it is monitoring the situation constantly, and EU foreign ministers are ready to decide on sanctions in the next few days.

These include a travel ban for President Mugabe and his inner circle, a freeze on any assets they hold in the EU and a stop on longer term development aid.

They have also said they will impose those sanctions if they believe that the voting has not been free and fair, or if media coverage of it is restricted.

Just last week Zimbabwe said it would allow in EU election monitors but only from nine of the 15 EU states; Sweden and Britain were amongst those excluded.

The EU officials have said it is not up to the Zimbabwean Government to decide the make-up of an EU election monitoring team.


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Financial Times


Zimbabwe pays the price of political uncertainty
By James Lamont
Published: February 10 2002 18:15 | Last Updated: February 10 2002 18:17



President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is fond of Shakespeare's plays.

As he danced his way through the crowd of journalists at the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) heads of state meeting in Blantyre last
month, Mr Mugabe mused "All's well that ends well. Hey, hey."

Mr Mugabe was alluding to his skilful outmanoeuvring of regional leaders. He
was expected to receive some admonishment for causing upheaval in southern
Africa with his bid to win presidential elections in early March. But Mr
Mugabe placated his regional counterparts at the meeting with a wishlist of
electoral good behaviour and drew sympathy with claims that Britain was
undermining his legitimate rule.

Mr Mugabe, a stirring orator, has an eye for drama. Unwilling to surrender
power to an heir, he rages upon the regional stage. But he cuts a whimsical
King Lear-like figure. The once-revered 77-year-old national liberation hero
is a shadow of a democratic ruler.

To bolster his stature, he has fallen back on the levers of autocratic rule.
Oblivious to international pressure, he has introduced draconian legislation
over the past month to curb the media and give sweeping powers to his
security apparatus.

Regional leaders pay lip-service to Mr Mugabe out of respect for the support
he afforded their own struggles against colonialism and apartheid. While
they are frustrated with his authoritarian eccentricities, they have fumbled
to find an appropriate response. Led by President Thabo Mbeki of South
Africa, they prefer to cajole rather than provoke their neighbour as
international investment sentiment to the region wanes.

"SADC leaders feel sorry for him. They are worrying about what is going on
in his mind," says a senior Malawian government official. "The road to
regional recovery can be hampered by what is happening in Zimbabwe."

In his mind, Mr Mugabe is fighting old unresolved battles against Zimbabwe's
former colonial power and newer battles with modernisers in the opposition
and his own Zanu-PF party. He spurs his supporters on for a Third Chimurenga
(anti-colonial liberation war) in his public speeches with verbal attacks
against Britain and Prime Minister Tony Blair's "gay cabinet".

When his bitterness is not concentrated on homosexuals, it finds vent on
unkept promises of British funding for land redistribution from white
farmers to landless black people.

Few dispute the need for land reform. But while 4,600 white-owned commercial
farms have been designated for resettlement, self-styled war veterans have
illegally occupied 2,000 of them.

But as Mr Mugabe redraws the map of his kingdom, political violence has
drained energy out of the country's once-healthy economy. The ill-effects of
the government's overspending are worsened by the destabilisation of the
agricultural sector and the flouting of property rights. Gross domestic
product shrank by 7 per cent in 2000 and is estimated to have fallen 10 per
cent last year. Official estimates put inflation at 112 per cent, reflecting
spiralling price rises of fuel and food.

"There is now growing danger that President Mugabe's grinding political war
of attrition will inflict long-term damage on the economy," says
BusinessMap, a South African investment strategy company, in a survey of
southern African investment opportunities.

"There will be no new investment on the scale required by Zimbabwe's
depleted productive sector until the political question is conclusively
settled, and some semblance of order and predictability returns to the realm
of governance."

According to BusinessMap's Regional Investor Survey, Zimbabwe's foreign
currency earning sectors of the economy are some of the hardest hit. Since
January 2000, 14 gold mines have closed or been put on care and maintenance.
Gold output has fallen below 1995 levels to 22.1 tonnes.

Over the same period, 400 small and medium sized enterprises have shut their
doors at a cost of about 126,000 jobs.

Foreign direct investment fell 80 per cent last year. Investment appetite
was confined to South African companies, mainly in the mining sector. Impala
Platinum bought the Selous Complex and Ngezi mine for $50m (£35m) and Mimosa
mining for $30m.

Barloworld, a South African industrial corporation, bought cement producer
Portland for $54m in a defensive move to protect its market in northern
South Africa.

Little progress has been made with the privatisation of the Posts and
Telecommunications Corporation, the electricity utility and the national
railways. Revenues have fallen well short of the $400m budgeted this year.

Meanwhile, the government has found a ready revenue stream in the
exploitation of the Democratic Republic of Congo's mineral resources as part
of a deal for military assistance.

Political violence has discouraged tourists to the Victoria Falls and
Zimbabwe's game parks. Tourism revenues dropped 37.4 per cent to $22.4m in
the first half of last year. The Zimbabwe Council of Tourism has warned that
more than 100 tour operators face collapse this year as arrivals and hotel
occupancies slump.

"Medium term prospects are in decline. They are noticeably worse than six
months ago," says Richard Saunders, a Harare-based research consultant.

Whether Mr Mugabe or opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai wins the
presidential elections in early March breathing life back into the economy
will be one of their toughest challenges. As in King Lear's kingdom.
"Nothing will come of nothing" in Zimbabwe.

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From The Sunday Times (SA), 10 February

What did I do to deserve this?

Zimbabwe war veteran has to flee in the face of threats to his life

A stalwart of Zimbabwe's liberation war has fled the country after he allegedly received a tip-off that war veterans and government security agencies were planning to kill him. Makhathini Guduza, a former Zapu central committee member, secretly sneaked out of Matabeleland last Sunday for a brief stay in South Africa en route to London. Guduza fled as President Robert Mugabe intensified his crackdown on dissent. Troops were deployed in the outlying eastern and northern districts of Mount Darwin, Murewa, Mutoko and Shamva in Mashonaland province early this week. Last year Mugabe similarly deployed troops in Matabeleland in what was interpreted as a bid to shore up support ahead of the crucial presidential poll next month, pitting him against the Movement for Democratic Change's Morgan Tsvangirai.

Guduza claims Mugabe's feared Central Intelligence Organisation operatives and war veterans wanted to silence him after he refused to allow his kraal to be used for planning of attacks against MDC activists in Matabeleland. He says he was threatened with the same fate as Patrick Nabanyama, an MDC activist who was abducted before the 2000 parliamentary elections and has not been seen since. "I did not do anything to deserve such treatment from the government I fought for during the struggle," said Guduza. "Even now I am still prepared to share a platform with the president to understand what exactly went wrong in our country." Guduza is reputed to have been a right-hand man of former vice-president Joshua Nkomo, and is said to have single-handedly hatched the plan to spirit Nkomo out of the country during the Matabeleland reprisals of the 1980s by the Central Intelligence Organisation and Mugabe's North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade.

This week Guduza spoke of bitterness at the way in which the Mugabe administration had treated him and his refusal to co-operate with marauding thugs in Matabeleland. "I do not understand Mugabe's intentions. There simply is no respect for human life and values under his administration. Something is terribly wrong with our country." He said his problems became serious two weeks ago when he protested about a meeting that was supposed to be between farmers and government officials in Tsholotsho district near Bulawayo. He said he became angry when the meeting ended up being part of the Zanu PF election campaign. "I thought they had no right to deceive the people like that," Guduza said. When he questioned the use of state resources for party activities, he claims he was labelled a traitor by the local Zanu PF leadership and war veterans, and told that his days in Tsholotsho were numbered. Since then his house had been put under surveillance and his movements had been monitored.

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Telegraph

Zimbabwe is the key
(Filed: 11/02/2002)


IT is easy to be cynical about the Prime Minister's ambition to rescue
Africa. That vast, beautiful, pitiless continent has swallowed up the
endeavours of greater men than Tony Blair. Generations of teachers,
administrators, missionaries and aid workers have poured their energies
vainly into its soil.

It would be wrong, though, not to acknowledge the idealism which animates Mr
Blair on this subject. All second-term leaders like to escape their domestic
problems by playing the world statesman. Mr Blair would be less than human
if he did not address his speeches, at least in part, to the growing number
of British voters who see the state of the Third World as a decisive issue.

It may even be that his route was worked out with half an eye on the
demographic changes in London, which has become home to a large number of
Ghanaian and Nigerian nationals. But none of this detracts from the basic
sincerity of Mr Blair's desire to make Africa a happier place. Few subjects
appear to mean so much to him.

At the G8 summit in Genoa, and again at his party conference in September,
he called for a massive Western commitment to Africa, rivalling Marshall aid
in its scope.

Optimism in a prime minister is laudable; but not when it becomes so Utopian
as to distort public policy. Listening, for example, to Mr Blair's upbeat
address to the National Assembly in Abuja, one would never have guessed that
Nigeria is sliding into something very like a civil war.

Troops have been called following communal violence between Yoruba and Hausa
inhabitants of Lagos; the police are striking, prompting a military response
and calls for martial law; and, just days before Mr Blair's arrival, more
than 1,000 people died when an army ammunition dump was blown up.

The point about such discontents is that they are not especially unusual.
Nigeria, like much of West Africa, has been locked into a cycle of
corruption and violence more or less since independence. Yesterday, Mr Blair
spoke of the civil war in Sierra Leone as "an aberration". In fact, since
decolonisation, almost every African state has been touched at some stage by
dictatorship, civil unrest or outright war.

Short of recolonisation, for which no Western state has the stomach, there
is a limit to how much can be done. Aid and debt relief may play a part; yet
foreign subventions do not appear to have lifted even those states where
they account for a substantial chunk of overall GDP. Free trade, of which Mr
Blair is an eloquent advocate, is a more hopeful route.

But, in the end, Africa must provide its own solutions. It would be a useful
start if the continent's politicians turned on Robert Mugabe's regime.
Unless and until Africa evolves a more mature political class, no amount of
foreign intervention will help. Yet Mr Blair does not seem any keener to act
on Zimbabwe than his various hosts - an odd omission for a man who says he
wants a new beginning for Africa.
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From The Star (SA), 10 February

Thug tactics and arson derail MDC rally

Harare, Zimbabwe - Opposition activists on Sunday accused ruling-party supporters of attacking them to prevent an election rally west of Harare. After the violence on Saturday night in Gokwe, 320 km from Harare, police ordered the cancellation of the rally without heeding opposition pleas to investigate the attack, said Learnmore Jongwe, a spokesperson for the Movement for Democratic Change. Nine opposition members had arrived in Gokwe on Saturday night to prepare for the rally, when they were attacked by a mob of supporters of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF Party, Jongwe alleged. A truck belonging to the opposition was set ablaze by the ruling-party supporters, he said. There was no comment from the police.

Violence has intensified ahead of elections scheduled for March 9-10, when Mugabe faces a stiff challenge from opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, a former trade unionist. Opinion polls indicate Mugabe, 78, is in danger of losing power and the opposition and human rights groups say the chances of a free and fair election are remote. "To date we have had 67 rallies cancelled either by the police or by Zanu PF violence since the (laws were) passed three weeks ago," said Jongwe. "We will contest this election under the most severe circumstances but we have been stretched to the limit." Meanwhile, welfare organisations appealed on Sunday for children to be spared from violence in the political turmoil. The nine independent groups noted that militants had forced schools to close and teachers to flee, and condemned the continued detention of juveniles, often in the same cells as adults. The groups did not attribute responsibility for the violence.

In the western city of Bulawayo, 17 church leaders denounced repeated attacks in the state media on Mugabe's critics and new regulations requiring police permission for religious gatherings to be held off church premises. "We abhor the fact that we now have to seek permission to hold prayer meetings in public," the church leaders said vowing to defy the law and accept the consequences. An advance group of European Union election observers were due to arrive in Zimbabwe later on Sunday night. The EU has warned of targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe unless the elections are free and fair, and observers and international journalists are allowed to work unhindered.
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Daily News

CIO, police block MDC campaign rally

2/11/02 8:02:49 AM (GMT +2)


Staff Reporters

POLICE and members of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) blocked an
MDC campaign rally at Gokwe Growth Point yesterday, describing it as
illegal.

This was despite an earlier clearance granted by Michael Majongosi, the
officer-in-charge at Gokwe Police Station, on 4 February.

Yesterday, Majongosi and a senior CIO official, only identified as Dube,
threatened to descend on the MDC leaders if the order was not complied with.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s entourage retreated to Kwekwe after a Mazda
T3500 truck with an advance team of MDC supporters was set on fire by
suspected Zanu PF youths soon after arriving at the growth point around 6am.

Learnmore Jongwe, the party’s spokesperson, said in a statement: “It is now
clear that to the police, Zanu PF rallies take precedence over
MDC rallies. This development is extremely unfortunate.”

On Saturday, Tsvangirai attacked the police for protecting “Zanu PF thugs”,
and applying the law selectively. Addressing nearly 18 000 supporters at
Mkoba Stadium in Gweru, he warned that on winning the presidential election
next month, he would immediately establish a truth and justice commission
where the perpetrators of violence would be answerable for their crimes.

Tsvangirai said: “The police are helping rogue elements to get away with
murder under the banner of Zanu PF and they should be made to answer for it,
once we come into power.”

Tsvangirai reiterated his call for an audit of Zanu PF’s land programme to
ensure equitable redistribution of land to the needy.

“Don’t be fooled, Zimbabwe will never be Rhodesia again. The MDC is not
white-controlled. The party is committed to land reform and to improve the
general welfare of the people of Zimbabwe,” Tsvangirai said.

“Actually, it is Zanu PF ministers who are selling out and sending their
children to schools in Britain and stashing away our wealth in their foreign
accounts. On corruption, we are drawing the line so that anyone who crosses
it will be jailed straight away.”
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