From The Times (UK), 14 February

Zimbabwe exclusion must not be lifted says Kenya

By Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor

Kenya broke ranks with other leading African members of the Commonwealth yesterday when it insisted that Zimbabwe should remain suspended from the organisation for the rest of this year. In a pointed criticism of the failure of African states to conduct free and fair elections, Kalonzo Musyoka, the Kenyan Foreign Minister, urged fellow Africans to follow his own country’s "velvet revolution". Speaking in London, where he met Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, he said that Kenya had peacefully changed government in December’s election without "a single bullet" being fired. "We do not want to issue moral edicts against any of our African brothers but, quite frankly, Kenya can speak with a little bit of authority on the crucial matter of democratisation in the continent," he said. "We would want our African friends to emulate our example in terms of democratic practice. That is what we would be able to tell our brothers in Zimbabwe."

Kenya’s elections, widely hailed as free and fair, are in stark contrast to Zimbabwe’s polls earlier last year, which were condemned by international monitors for political violence and intimidation by the ruling Zanu PF party against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Because of the abuses, Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth in March. President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, who are part of a Commonwealth troika reviewing the suspension, now believe that Zimbabwe’s human rights record has improved sufficiently for President Robert Mugabe’s regime to be reinstated. John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister and head of the troika, is strongly opposed. Mr Musyoka sided with the Australian position, backed by Britain, that Zimbabwe’s fate should be decided in December when Commonwealth heads of government meet in Abuja, Nigeria.

From News24 (SA), 13 February

Protesters burn Nigerian flag

Harare - Demonstrators burnt the Nigerian flag in a brief protest in Harare on Thursday against Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo's support for the end of Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth. The group of about 80 people outside the Nigerian high commission in central Harare held posters reading "Obasanjo is an imperialist" and "enough is enough - we have no transport, we have no food, we have no future - he (President Robert Mugabe) must go!" The youths from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) set the flag alight, and the crowd dispersed before riot police could arrive. Authorities have banned all public demonstrations by any non-ruling Zanu PF party organisations for nearly three years and "illegal" demonstrators are routinely baton-charged, tear-gassed and arrested.

In a letter this week to Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Obasanjo argued against the renewal of the Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth, saying the "progress" by Mugabe's government toward resolving the country's crisis made it "auspicious" for the lifting of the Commonwealth action. Obasanjo, Howard and South African President Thabo Mbeki are members of the Commonwealth "troika" set up in March 2002 to decide on action against Zimbabwe after Mugabe's victory in presidential elections resulted from fraud and violent intimidation. Critics say that the lawlessness, violent repression and illegal seizures of white-owned farms begun three years ago have continued unabated. MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai was quoted in the independent Financial Gazette on Thursday as saying that the action was "contrary to the peaceful resolution of the crisis in Zimbabwe, and may trigger a rebound against the on-going repression."

Also on Thursday, reports said that Gabriel Shumba, a human rights lawyer who with leading MDC member Job Sikhala, was tortured by secret police for eight hours last month, had fled the country a week ago. Other unnamed legal sources said Shumba had contacted them from South Africa. The Financial Gazette quoted him as saying that he had received death threats from secret police after a court had thrown out state charges against him. He and Sikhala were arrested on January 14 for possession of an allegedly "subversive document" with plans to overthrow Mugabe's government. Shumba said that after their acquittal, state agents told him they were going to "silence me forever." Sikhala is among several MPs and journalists to have been arrested by state security agents recently. They have all either been released without charge or had charges against them dismissed due to lack of evidence.

From ZWNEWS, 14 February

London Service for the Todds - who saw ideals turn to tyranny

Some 600 people on Thursday packed a Thanksgiving Service in London for former Southern Rhodesia Prime Minister Sir Garfield Todd and his wife, Grace, who, in the words of a bishop, witnessed "the ideals of Zimbabwe’s independence become a nightmare of corrupted power and tyranny." "It was difficult to delude them, difficult to get them to compromise about anything important and absolutely impossible to get them to collaborate with evil," said the couple’s daughter Judith during the service in the historic St. Martin-in-the-Fields church, a few blocks from the Zimbabwe High Commission. "That was why they suffered in both Rhodesia and Zimbabwe." Sir Garfield, a missionary, was ousted as prime minister in 1958 largely because he was seen as too sympathetic toward the black majority. He was detained in 1965 and imprisoned in 1972 by Ian Smith’s white-minority regime. Sir Garfield was equally critical of Robert Mugabe’s increasingly repressive regime which last year stripped him of the citizenship he had held for 67 years, and of his right to vote. Sir Garfield died in Bulawayo a few months later, aged 94. His wife died in December 2001.

The theme of the couple’s courage, kindness and unflagging principles ran through the service of traditional Christian hymns and readings that culminated with the African anthem, "Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika." There were tributes and anecdotes by a bishop, by a former pupil of the Todds’ Dadaya mission, by Commonwealth diplomats, and by old friends. Distinguished Zimbabwean journalist and writer Lawrence Vambe described seeing Todd, as prime minister in 1956, standing forlornly in a black township looking at the debris from rioting during a bus boycott called by the then fledging nationalist movement. "White Rhodesians simply did not enter into black ghettoes, but Todd saw it differently," said Vambe. "He was my kind of freedom fighter because he fought with a clean hand and an open heart." Vambe added that his fellow Shona speakers dubbed Todd "Muda Vanhu" – he who loves and respects the African people. Anglican Bishop Jim Thompson, another longtime friend, predicted that the achievements of the Todds’ lives "will be a cornerstone of the new Zimbabwe that will emerge – these horrors will be seen as the death throes of Mugabe’s tyranny." Judith Todd recalled her father’s reaction to losing his vote. "He did not say, 'This is an African problem for which there must be an African solution' … Although nearing 94 and rather shaky, he went down to the polls to vote. He got just as close to the ballot box as he physically could before he was turned away."

UK Campaigner organising warrant for Mugabe's arrest

A British human rights campaigner has announced plans to take out a French warrant for the arrest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe who is due in Paris next week.

Peter Tatchell says he will seek the warrant from a Paris magistrates court in time for Mr Mugabe's expected arrival for the Franco-African summit that starts on Wednesday.

Mr Tatchell says the legal basis for his bid is the United Nations Convention Against Torture which he argues France has signed, ratified and incorporated into its own national law.

 

'We felt like we had been betrayed'

Ronnie Irani
Saturday February 15, 2003

We were sitting in a conference room of the Cullinan Hotel, with each member of the England team speaking in turn on whether we should fulfil our World Cup tie in Harare, when a lawyer from the England and Wales Cricket Board burst into the room to warn us that the death threats against us had to be taken seriously.

From the moment that South African Interpol confirmed to the ECB that the Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe existed and had to be taken seriously, the decision whether we would play in Harare was in the hands of the administrators.

Our first reaction to the letter from the Sons and Daughters was that it was probably written by a crank. It was a case of "yeah, right, mate". But when we discovered otherwise it was final proof that what had begun as a simple cricket match in Harare had grown into something beyond our comprehension.

We have spent day upon day boxed up in a meeting room, with emotions running high and the air-con running higher, trying to make sense of conflicting safety advice and legal risks. We have felt - a group of young English cricketers - that we were being forced to make a decision that others did not want to make. And, as far as the International Cricket Council is concerned, we have suspected that its one obsession has always been to make sure that the World Cup went ahead as normal.

When all this started, Mal Speed, the ICC's chief executive, addressed the England team about safety. To my eyes, he deflected every question, and said they were a matter for security. Fair play, I suppose, for at least turning up. But we haven't seen a glimpse of him lately. It's time to follow up your first meeting, mate, because we deserve to have this fixture rearranged.

There have been sugges tions that England players cried while the crisis was at its height. Some have suggested that makes us a soft touch. Well, I don't mind admitting that I cried. Not sobbing into a full box of Kleenex perhaps. But I was emotional at the way we felt we had been betrayed.

The pressure the players were under to make this decision was almost intolerable. We talked between ourselves about boycott, but we never came to that decision. To break our contracts would have had massive ramifications - and don't doubt that everybody involved in this affair is scared stiff of being sued. By the end, Richard Bevan, from the Professional Cricketers' Association, and David Morgan, the ECB chairman, were fighting our corner together. We were always determined to stick together as a team, but individuals were entitled to their say and it is perfectly natural that strong views were expressed on all sides.

I had a private chat to Nasser in the team room and I went to see Duncan Fletcher in his room. As someone born in Zimbabwe, the coach has generally suffered in silence. I was angry because I had committed so much of my life towards the chance to play in a World Cup, and the biggest moment in my life was being torn from me because as I see it the ICC were not big enough to rearrange a fixture that clearly carried an unacceptable risk.

The players are all aware of the moral argument against playing in Zimbabwe. We know the British government and a large majority of the public don't want us to go. And there is not one of us who does not agree with their condemnation of what is happening there.

But the last month has touched us more personally. It became about not just whether we were putting ourselves at risk, but whether our wives, families and girlfriends would be safe. It was about whether, by playing in Harare, we would spark a demonstration that could lead to a violent response from Mugabe's security guards. Who would be blamed for those deaths?

We still believe we are justified in asking for the match to be rearranged.