The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.
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Independent (UK)

Are We So Cowardly to Let State House Guards Club Mere Passersby?

The Daily News (Harare)

OPINION
February 20, 2002
Posted to the web February 20, 2002


On 17 January at 2pm along with many, many other drivers, I stopped by the
traffic lights at the corner of Josiah Tongogara and Chancellor avenues,
outside the perimeter wall of our President's residence.

There, in broad daylight, I witnessed one of the Presidential guards force a
young girl around 14 and a middle-aged man with her to lie down flat on
their faces in the dirt, while he stood gloating over them with his AK47
rifle in one hand and a huge stick in the other.

He then proceeded to beat the living hell out of them as hard as he possibly
could, over and over again, all over their bodies and heads, despite the
fact that they were screaming for mercy.

Three uniformed policemen who were passing by on the opposite side of the
street, just paused briefly, laughed and then walked on utterly unconcerned.

As I was boxed in among three lanes of other traffic, all I could think of
doing on the spur of the moment was to put my hand on my vehicle hooter and
hold it there.

Instantly, another of these overpaid thugs, who was standing near the
cowardly piece of rubbish in uniform doing the beating, pointed his AK47
straight at my face, with his finger very firmly on his trigger and shouted
some unknown obscenity at me.

I carried on hooting, while also trying to beckon those being beaten to run
and jump into my vehicle, but they were too scared to risk moving.

Unfortunately, the stream of traffic I was in then started to move ahead of
me and only then did I receive a melody of hooters from those behind me, not
joining me in solidarity with my lone protest, but to demand that I too now
move on!

And what a bunch of cowardly fools we, the people, have become!

When faced with a situation demanding assistance as the one on that day, and
in sufficient numbers to have utterly overpowered the few of these overpaid
thugs that were in the area at the time, we could have quite easily rescued
those two hapless victims from further abuse.

But, no, of course not, after all I and my personal safety have become our
overriding selfish consideration.

We are so quick to judge these armed guards who presently think they rule
us, never stopping for a moment to consider that we are, in turn, becoming
utterly morally corrupt ourselves, as was so amply demonstrated by those who
watched that terrible scene totally unconcerned on that day.

Come on, fellow Zimbabweans, if we are going to stop this "dragon", we have
got to band together when opportunities to help each other like these arise!

In closing, I have only a few things to say to these armed guards and to
their leader who claims to have "degrees in violence":

I have prayed that whatever pain, suffering, humiliation and fear was meted
out on those two innocent folk, our God of eternal justice will see to it
that both the perpetrator and his heartless master will suffer the same
fate - only a thousand times worse!

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Independent (UK)

Kaizer Nyatsumba: Why are Africa's leaders so silent about the crisis in
Zimbabwe?
'The real casualty of this reluctance of our leaders to criticise one of
their own will be Africa'
20 February 2002

In his previous life, when he was still head of international affairs of the
then-exiled African National Congress, Thabo Mbeki travelled around the
world with his leader, the late Oliver Tambo, calling for punitive economic
sanctions to be imposed against white-ruled, apartheid South Africa. Ably
assisted by internal leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the
Reverend Allan Boesak, Mr Mbeki and his comrades wanted South Africa
completely isolated from the international community as punishment for the
flagrant violation of human rights that was a feature of National Party
rule.

Mr Mbeki and Mr Tambo had a strong case. Blacks enjoyed no rights in the
land of their birth. The white government ruthlessly silenced any
opposition, just as the Zimbabwean government is doing today. Constrained by
the states of emergency declared in the mid-80s, the media were prevented
from reporting on the repression routinely visited upon the black majority
and anyone who dared to speak out. People like Mr Mbeki could not be quoted
in the country. The public broadcaster and various government-supporting
publications, just as in Zimbabwe today, routinely ignored those opposed to
the government, with the result that the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize
to Archbishop Tutu went unreported in most media in South Africa.

After much persuasion, the international community finally heeded our plea
and imposed sanctions on Pretoria. Following the passing of the landmark
Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act by the US, the South African national
carrier was denied landing rights in the US, and those among our white
compatriots who supported apartheid (the vast majority of them) were made to
feel like the pariahs whenever they travelled abroad. More importantly, many
US companies disinvested from apartheid South Africa.

Those who called for sanctions did so in the full knowledge that they would
also hurt the very blacks who were victims of apartheid, as well as the
neighbouring countries heavily dependent on South Africa. However, they
believed, quite correctly, that it was better for blacks to suffer in the
short term and win their freedom, rather than to suffer indefinitely. One of
those who subscribed to this view was Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe,
who mobilised the Southern African Development Community (SADC), then called
the frontline states, against Pretoria.

Many, including former president Nelson Mandela, have acknowledged the
important role played by the international community's ostracism of
apartheid in our struggle for freedom. Strangely, however, Mr Mbeki, the
second president of a democratic South Africa, has so completely changed his
views on sanctions that he believes even the limited measures imposed by the
European Union on President Mugabe and his cabinet should not have been
taken. Inexplicably, we have repeatedly been told by the SADC leadership,
which has vehemently opposed any form of sanctions against the Harare mafia,
without suggesting any alternative, that prospects for free and fair
elections still look good in that country.

Even more bizarrely, we have been assured, contrary to the situation which
has existed on the ground since the ruling Zanu-PF came perilously close to
defeat by the fledgling Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the 2000
general elections, that there have been no violations of human rights in
Zimbabwe. Even this week, Mr Mbeki's Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Aziz
Pahad, moaned that there was an international campaign to demonise Mr Mugabe
and Zanu-PF. Really, Mr Pahad? In what world do you and your government
colleagues live? Do you not know that Mr Mugabe has done so splendid a job
of demonising himself over the past two years that nobody could possibly
outdo him in that regard?

The EU should have acted sooner against Zimbabwe, and it should have imposed
comprehensive, punitive sanctions as opposed to the token "smart" sanctions,
which will have no real effect. Such tougher measures may well have
precipitated a split within the ranks of Zanu-PF, as it did within the
National Party when FW de Klerk and Pik Botha launched a palace revolt
against the irascible President PW Botha, with the more reasonable faction
of the party rising against Mr Mugabe. Equally importantly, they might have
persuaded more people to take to the streets of Zimbabwe, as South Africans
did repeatedly on the eve of apartheid's death, to protest against President
Mugabe and his thugs.

The 9-10 March presidential elections will not be free and fair. How can
they be when the MDC cannot organise and assemble freely, when MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai's election rallies are routinely broken up, when people
suspected of being MDC supporters or sympathisers are often assaulted, when
the state broadcaster and the government-owned media are part of President
Mugabe's election arsenal, and when Mr Tsvangirai is prevented by law from
criticising his election opponent?

Unfortunately, the real casualty of this short-sighted reluctance of African
leaders to criticise and even isolate one of their own will be Africa and
the ambitious programme to improve the continent's image, the New
Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad). Nepad commits African leaders
to democracy and a better management of their economies, among other things,
and enjoins the international community, but especially the West, to work in
partnership with African leaders to help them to realise their goal.

At the forefront of Nepad are Presidents Mbeki, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria
and Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal. With these men and their colleagues unwilling
to prove their seriousness by unequivocally condemning human rights
violations in Zimbabwe, why should anybody take them seriously? Why should
anybody believe that, this time around, African leaders really do mean what
they say?

The last point was raised, legitimately, at the World Economic Forum summit
in New York about a month ago, and neither Mr Mbeki nor Mr Wade dealt with
it satisfactorily. These men will do well to answer it now.

The writer is a former editor of the Durban 'Daily News'

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Independent (UK)

Opponents being tortured, claims human rights forum
By Angus Shaw, AP, in Harare
20 February 2002

Militant members of President Mugabe's party have set up at least 22 militia
bases across Zimbabwe to launch violent government-backed forays of torture
and oppression, human rights groups claimed yesterday.

The Human Rights Forum, an alliance of independent groups, said organised
political violence has continued without decline throughout the country,
leaving at least eight dead in the first few days of this month.

The forum said: "In most cases, victims are abducted to bases ... these
bases are springboards for the militia operating in the area and also serve
as torture centres."

Mr Mugabe's spokesman, Jonathan Moyo dismissed the claims, saying: "I really
don't think I even want to get into that kind of rubbish."

In the past, the government has brushed off allegations of violence. They
have called the opposition terrorists and have accused them of being
responsible for violence.

According to the HRF, the militia bases are on farms, in townships and at
rural trading posts. A statement said: "Victim statements have increasingly
indicated the youth militia involved in organised violence have received
formal training".

At one of the Zanu-PF party bases at the Mahusekwa Growth Point, abducted
victims were beaten and, in some cases, tortured sexually, the statement
said.

The forum said that, of the eight victims killed in the country so far this
month, four were supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change, two were from Mugabe's party and two others were not known.

In January, the forum reported 16 politically related killings, the highest
monthly toll since March 2000, when ruling party militants began occupying
white-owned farms. The occupations triggered much of the political violence
that surrounded parliamentary elections in June last year and has continued.

Human rights groups say 36 people died in political violence in Zimbabwe in
2000 and 89 last year. They say most were black opposition supporters.

The forum said there were 159 reported cases of torture in the first 16 days
of this month, compared to 142 in the whole of January.

Sexual torture, a technique also used in the run-up to the 2000 elections,
has resurfaced and includes forced rape by men on fellow captives.
"Ramifications such as contracting HIV/Aids can be life-threatening, the
forum said. Zimbabwe has one of the world's highest HIV infection rates.


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Who Will Sell Food to Mugabe Now?

The Nation (Nairobi)

OPINION
February 20, 2002
Posted to the web February 19, 2002

Chris Mburu


Who will explain to President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe that there is an
animal on the loose called globalisation and that it will sooner or later
eat him alive? Who will tell the former freedom fighter and his ilk that the
rules have changed and that, for him, the game is up?

The days of "one-man-shows" anywhere in the world are coming to an end.
Already, powerful globalisation forces have aligned themselves against one
of Africa's most illustrious sons.

The more Dr Mugabe gags the media, clobbers hungry people rioting over
sky-rocketing food prices or broadcasts his land reform policies, the more
Zimbabwe's economy will sink. Worse, starvation looms for more than four
million people in southern Zimbabwe.

Consider tobacco, one of its most important cash crops. Following invasions
of white-owned farms in 2000, the farmers panicked, fearing confiscation of
their freshly harvested crops.

Business talks with South African neighbours yielded one name - Warehousing
and distribution multinational Tibbet and Britten (TB). Since T&B (South
Africa) lacked experience in handling raw tobacco products, T&B Kenya was
called to the rescue.

Apparently, T&B Kenya is so closely integrated with BAT Kenya that they
operate in the same premises. After a couple of years in Kenya, this local
subsidiary has become a master of tobacco.

Within a few days, T&B Kenya was in Zimbabwe to do research on logistics.
Six weeks later, a joint T&B South Africa and Kenya team was in operation.
Some 30 superlink haulage lorries were engaged to haul tobacco from Zimbabwe
to South Africa. Who is losing on Value Added Tax, employment and export
revenue?

Zimbabwe relies heavily on cash crops, like tobacco, cotton and sugarcane,
on textiles and sugar processing factories, on gold mining.

During 1991-95, Zimbabwe scored an average 1.7 per cent GDP growth, 7.3 per
cent in 1996 and 3.5 per cent in 1997. Since 1997, it has been experiencing
an economic and social crisis. What went wrong?

Zimbabwe became independent in April, 1980, when a Lancaster House (London)
agreement with Britain brought to an end 15 years of a white supremacist
group rule Ian Smith following a Unilaterally Declaration of Independence.

The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has been in
power since then, changing the country's name from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe inherited an economy that, though dangerously racially lopsided,
was more industrialised than in most of Africa, with a diversified
productive base, a well-developed infrastructure and a relatively
sophisticated financial sector.

In 1991, Zimbabwe launched substantial and socially necessary - though too
belated, politically motivated and ultimately unsuccessful - economic
reforms. It has had to grapple with fiscal problems, racially inequitable
land distribution, poverty, unemployment, population pressures and
unfavourable rainfall patterns since the late 1990s.

Last year, economic deterioration was exacerbated by the invasions of
commercial farms and continued military involvement in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. Then entered HIV/Aids epidemic to aggravated matters.

Currently, most of the productive land is owned by a white minority on large
commercial farms, while the majority of Africans live on less productive
agricultural land. The most recent parliamentary election, in June, 2000,
returned Dr Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF to power with a narrow margin. The
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will again participate in
presidential elections on March 9.

The invasions were carried out by veterans of the independence war in the
run-up to the 2000 polls. Subsequently, the Government gazetted over 5,300
farms for compulsory acquisition and resettlement. Efforts continue by
several parties, including the donors, to find an orderly and satisfactory
approach to land reform.

White commercial farmers targeted in the farm seizures account for about 35
per cent of the annual maize output. The balance comes from communal farmers
who retain most of their crops for family consumption.

This week, reports from Harare indicates a food shortage disaster threatens
to snowball into a major African crisis.

However, Zimbabwe has lost so much credibility that white South African
farmers are hesitating to sell maize to its cash-strapped government. Who
will sell food to Dr Mugabe?

Recently, industrialists were reported as saying that it might need to
import up to 600,000 tonnes of maize to supplement the domestic output,
which fell sharply to 1.476 million tonnes in the 2000/01 season.

When the prices pushed food beyond the reach of many in 2000, Zimbabwe was
rocked by food riots. The government clamped down on the unrest with tough
police action.

In the current political and economic situation, a large number of donors
have scaled down their operations to activities in social sectors, including
the HIV/Aids, social protection and human rights/governance type of
programmes.

Commonwealth watchers say that division over the Mugabe crisis is
threatening to tear this "Club" apart. Unless President Mugabe reforms
himself now, southern Africa will be drawn into an increasingly bigger
political crisis.

Mr Mburu writes on business issues for the 'EastAfrican'


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BBC
 
Wednesday, 20 February, 2002, 18:12 GMT
Zimbabwe observers 'concerned'
head of the South African delegation, Sam Motsuenyane
Motsuenyane will urge Zimbabwe to lift the ban
test hello test

By Lewis Machipisa
BBC Harare correspondent
line

A day after European Union observers pulled out of Zimbabwe, the South African election observer mission has expressed concern over violence in the capital, Harare.

The mission is also alarmed by a recent decision to prevent some South African media organisations from covering the upcoming elections.

The head of the South African election observer delegation, Sam Motsuenyane, says he plans to raise the press ban with the Zimbabwean Government.

We are optimistic that the problem of accreditation will be resolved amicably and speedily

Sam Motsuenyane
South African observer mission

''Our experience in South Africa tells us that it is vital for the success of building democracy, to inform the public and the world at large without hindrance,'' Mr Motsuenyane said.

The Zimbabwean Government has refused accreditation to several foreign news organizations whose coverage has been unfavourable, including many from South Africa.

The government accuses the banned journalists of fabrication, exaggeration and bias.

"We will be taking up matters with the authorities on an on-going basis," Mr Motsuenyane said. "Critical at this stage is the accreditation of South Africa media in particular. We believe that the media should be given access to the electoral process in a free way.

''We are optimistic that the problem of accreditation will be resolved amicably and speedily with the Zimbabwean authorities."

Violence

Mr Motsuenyane described as "a matter of great concern" allegations that police stood idly by while opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) offices came under attack.

"We also received reports about the existence of 'No-Go Areas' for some parties and we are also taking up the matter," he said. "We have already deployed our observers to some of these areas."

He said the proposed 50-strong team would increase its presence to ensure that the election took place in an environment free of intimidation and violence.
Government supporters attacking opposition headquarters
Police were said to have stood by while opposition offices were attacked

Mr Motsuenyane described the mission in Zimbabwe as a daunting task that requires as many monitors as possible.

The withdrawal of EU observers was unfortunate and regrettable, he said but added that his group would not be deterred by the pull-out.

''Zimbabwe will need a stable political and economic environment after the elections irrespective of who wins,'' Mr Motsuenyane said.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said he believes it will be almost impossible to hold credible elections, in light of recent violence.

The MDC's Harare offices were attacked by a group of ruling party supporters who had been demonstrating against the British Government.

The protesters had accused Britain of meddling in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe and warned British Prime Minister Tony Blair to ''stay off''

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Los Angeles Times

Fear Clouds Zimbabwe Election
Los Angeles Times: 20 February 2002
 Africa: Violence and repressive laws have dashed hopes for a free vote next
month, as Mugabe faces his biggest challenge in 22 years.

By ANN M. SIMMONS, TIMES STAFF WRITER



JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Anxiety, fear and lawlessness characterize the
countdown to Zimbabwe's decisive presidential election next month,
government opponents, human rights activists and political analysts in
neighboring South Africa said Tuesday.

A series of repressive laws stifling civil liberties, a seemingly
state-sponsored campaign of violence and intimidation, and the failure of
international arbitration to ease the country's political crisis have dashed
hopes of a peaceful, free and fair vote.

President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for 22 years, since it won
independence from Britain, faces his most formidable challenge yet next
month from Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change. Mugabe's actions and rhetoric indicate a fierce
unwillingness to give up the country's top job, observers say, and the fight
for political power threatens to push Zimbabwe to the brink of anarchy.

"The more the ruling party sees it cannot get what it wants, the more
desperate it becomes," said Roy Bennett, an MDC lawmaker from the country's
southeast.

On Tuesday, the Zimbabwean government condemned the European Union's
decision to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on Mugabe and several
ministers after the southern African nation refused to let EU observers
freely monitor the vote. The team of observers was ordered home, two days
after Zimbabwe expelled the head of the monitoring mission.

"There is no amount of hostile action through sanctions or otherwise that
will make us move from our principle to defend our independence,"
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo told the state-run Herald newspaper. "We
will never allow a situation where our sovereign rights are hijacked under
the guise of elections observation."

The sanctions include cutting off $110 million in development aid, banning
travel to EU nations for Mugabe and 20 of his Cabinet ministers, and
freezing their assets in Europe.

But human rights activists, opposition politicians and church leaders say
the sanctions have come too late to counter the violence, intimidation and
draconian laws that have already done much to help the ruling party
manipulate the election.

According to the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, a coalition of local
rights groups, eight people have been killed in politically motivated
attacks in Zimbabwe this month, bringing the number of dead since the start
of the year to 25. Four of the recent victims were identified as opposition
supporters, two as backers of the ruling party and two of no determined
political affiliation. Cases of torture, rape and kidnappings have also
surged, the forum said.

In recent months, new laws have curbed political gatherings, free speech and
the right to strike. Criticizing Mugabe is punishable by a hefty jail
sentence.

Last week, Garfield Todd, a former prime minister of Southern Rhodesia--the
forerunner to Zimbabwe--was stripped of his Zimbabwean citizenship. A
celebrated champion of black majority rule who helped Mugabe come to power,
the 93-year-old Todd had become one of the president's strongest critics.

On Thursday, Todd, who was born in New Zealand, was informed that he had
ceased to be a citizen of Zimbabwe, was not permitted to travel and had lost
his right to vote. Like most white Zimbabweans born elsewhere, he had been
carrying dual citizenship and had failed to comply with the government's
demand last year to renounce one of them.

Todd, who lives in the southwestern city of Bulawayo, has vowed to vote
anyway.

Todd is just one of thousands of Zimbabweans facing the prospect of
disenfranchisement.

Last year, Zimbabwe's parliament took away the right to vote from hundreds
of thousands of its citizens living abroad by scrapping absentee balloting
and making it a prerequisite for voters to have lived for more than a year
in their constituencies. The regulation excludes military forces serving in
Congo and staff members at diplomatic missions abroad.

Hundreds of citizens are being disenfranchised through the use of other
underhanded tactics, human rights officials say. In rural areas, gangs of
thugs, under the banner of youth brigades, have reportedly been confiscating
the identity cards of suspected opposition supporters.

"If you don't have your ID, you cannot vote," said David Jamali, programs
coordinator at ZimRights, a rights group based in Harare, the Zimbabwean
capital. "So there is some silent rigging going on."

Jamali said his organization had also received reports that residents in
high-density areas were being forced to attend ruling party meetings or risk
having their identification documents seized.

"ZANU-PF does not have much support in the urban areas," opposition lawmaker
Edwin Mushoriwa said, referring to Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front. "So this is a desperation tactic to try to instill
fear into residents."

Violence is proving to be an effective weapon in rural Zimbabwe, which has
spiraled into chaos since ruling party militants began occupying white-owned
farms two years ago, demanding that they be handed over to landless blacks.

Whites own about 70% of Zimbabwe's best farmland. The government has
targeted about 5,000 white-owned farms, on land it says was stolen by
British settlers, in a plan to redistribute it to blacks.

Nine white farmers have been killed in the violence, and thousands of black
laborers are jobless after militants forced them from farms.

Opposition officials accuse Mugabe of using land seizures as a preelection
ploy to garner support.

The president argues that he is correcting a great injustice, and he has
vowed to continue with the land reform program to ensure that whites are
removed and most landless black families are resettled.

"The time has now come to address the land imbalance and crush the head of
the snake once and for all," Mugabe told supporters at a rally last week.

Viewed by his supporters as the father of the liberation struggle, Mugabe
commands deep respect, particularly in rural Zimbabwe.

"Before independence, there was only one university, but we are now happy
that our children now have opportunities to be educated," Solomon Tawengwa,
a ZANU-PF deputy secretary for finance, recently told a pro-Mugabe rally.
Mugabe often urges his supporters not to forget the revolution that brought
the country to independence and has warned Zimbabweans against selling out
and becoming puppets of the country's former "white oppressors."

"They are trying to convince young people that if the ruling party doesn't
win, the country will return to another pre-independence war," said Bennett,
the opposition lawmaker.
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ZIMBABWE: IRIN Chronology of EU sanctions

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]


JOHANNESBURG, 20 February (IRIN) - The following is a chronology of events over the last two months that have culminated in the European Union (EU) withdrawing its election monitors and imposing sanctions on leading members of the Zimbabwean government.

20 February - Amnesty International expresses concern that the pull-out of European Union (EU) observers will result in an escalation of human rights violations in Zimbabwe.

20 February - Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says Commonwealth leaders meeting in Australia next month are not expected to take any action against Zimbabwe until after the presidential election on 9-10 March.

20 February - A Zimbabwean human rights group alleges that opponents of the Zimbabwean government are being abducted to "torture centres" across the country that serve as bases for ruling party militia.

19 February - Zimbabwe's Deputy High Commissioner to Pretoria rejects allegations, contained in a report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), that opposition supporters are denied healthcare at state institutions.

19 February - Two leading regional analysts tell IRIN that predictions for Zimbabwe's short term economic future are dire, no matter who wins next month's elections. Reports from Washington say the United States is to impose sanctions in line with the EU.

18 February - It's too late for free and fair presidential elections in Zimbabwe, but the deployment of international observers in remote areas could help stop politically motivated violence and torture, the human rights group Amani Trust tells IRIN. However, the expulsion of EU head observer Pierre Schori leads the EU to impose sanctions on President Robert Mugabe and 19 of his political associates, the remaining members of the EU observer team are withdrawn. Sanctions include a travel ban and the freezing of assets in Europe.

16 February - Schori is ordered to leave Zimbabwe immediately.

15 February - Zimbabwe revokes Schori's tourist visa.

14 February - The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) denies that its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, had ever discussed an assassination attempt on Mugabe. This follows a film broadcast by an Australian television station purportedly showing Tsvangirai discussing Mugabe's "elimination".

14 February - The UN Development Programme says Zimbabwe's controversial "fast-track" land reform programme is the cause of much of the economic, political and social instability in the country.

11 February - Zimbabwe says it will not accredit Schori, who arrives in Harare despite a ban on observers from Sweden and five other European countries, from overseeing the March elections.

7 February - Zimbabwe faces a critical shortage of maize with preliminary production figures looking gloomy, the Grain Producers Association (ZGPA) tells IRIN. A report by Zimbabwean human rights NGO's says 16 people died in political violence in January.

4 February - An EU representative in Harare tells IRIN that Brussels is going ahead with preparations to monitor the March elections, despite the lack of a formal invitation from Mugabe.

1 February - The EU joins international condemnation of Zimbabwe's new media laws, calling them a nail in the coffin of democracy.

31 January - Zimbabwe's parliament approves a law limiting the freedoms of the independent and foreign press ahead of presidential elections in March.

28 January - EU foreign ministers agree in principal to impose targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe if Harare fails to allow an EU election observer mission into the country by 3 February, and lift a ban on foreign journalists.

24 January - The first delivery of UN emergency relief supplies arrives in Zimbabwe as food shortages bite, the World Food Programme says.

23 January - Southern African bishops call on Mugabe to step down, saying it would benefit Africa.

22 January - A leading human rights activist tells IRIN that there are signs that the Zimbabwean government is trying to honour commitments it made to its neighbours at a recent Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Malawi.
ZimRights director Bidi Munyaradzi adds that in spite of violence reported at an opposition rally in Bulawayo at the weekend, it seems as though the government is moving to clamp down on violence and keep some of its promises.

21 January - South African President Thabo Mbeki calls on southern African leaders to do all they can to help the people of Zimbabwe to ensure the presidential election is free and fair.
 
21 January - Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo visits Harare and says that a Commonwealth-drafted plan to force Mugabe to end the political turmoil in Zimbabwe was "moving at a slow pace".

18 January - Mbeki says Zimbabweans face "their greatest hour of need" in the run-up to presidential elections and promises not to abandon them as their economic hardships mount.

16 January - Zimbabwe's Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, tells parliament the government may invite some EU countries to observe the elections.

14 January - British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Mbeki talk on the telephone about the situation in Zimbabwe, and both agree that its crisis is deepening.

12 January - Mugabe calls Blair a liar and shrugs off mounting international criticism, vowing to continue his land redistribution programme as: "God is on our side". Veteran anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu says Mugabe has gone "bonkers in a big way" for disregarding the rule of law and assuming greater powers.

12 January - The EU gives Zimbabwe one week to declare, in writing, that it will accept international observers and news media during the elections. "At this stage, the EU is not satisfied that its concerns will be met," says a statement issued by the 15-nation bloc after a day of consultations with Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge.

11 January - Foreign ministers from South Africa and Botswana echo international concerns about human rights in neighbouring Zimbabwe but warn that EU sanctions could affect the entire region. 

11 January - The South African government condemns as "unacceptable" a warning by Zimbabwe's army that it would not accept an opposition victory. Australia's foreign minister says he will push for Zimbabwe to be suspended from the Commonwealth at the Heads of Government meeting in early March.

10 January - Zimbabwe's ruling party fails to push through a series of repressive bills after a 14-hour, all-night session of parliament, but vows to finish its work. The parliament spends 12 hours in non-stop debate on the Public Order and Security Bill (POSB), which imposes tough curbs on freedoms of assembly.

9 January - Zimbabwe's security chiefs imply in a statement that they will refuse to recognise victory by anyone other than Mugabe.

8 January - Zimbabwe's justice minister says he aims to push through parliament the Access to Information Bill that restricts press freedom making it an offence to report from Zimbabwe unless registered by a state-appointed commission. The media bill, critics say, is aimed at muzzling the independent press ahead of the elections. Chinamasa also tells journalists that the government will pass labour and security bills, which analysts say are intended to boost Mugabe's re-election bid by clamping down on opponents of his ruling ZANU-PF party.

8 January - The British government says it will press for Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth if it does not tackle political violence and human rights violations related to Mugabe's land redistribution programme.

3 January - Malawian Foreign Minister Lilian Patel says Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state will not dictate to Zimbabwe how best to resolve the land crisis.

Sources: IRIN, Sapa-AP/AFP, Reuters

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MSNBC

South African observers probe Zimbabwe violence



HARARE, Feb. 20 — The South African mission in Zimbabwe to observe next
month's elections said on Wednesday it was investigating reports of
political violence and complaints that police were banning opposition
rallies.

       Head of the mission Samuel Motsuenyane also said he regretted the
withdrawal of European Union observers to help with the ''daunting task'' of
ensuring free and fair elections in the southern African state where
President Robert Mugabe faces the toughest political fight of his 22-year
rule.
       Thousands of Mugabe's supporters hurled stones at the headquarters of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Harare on Monday,
smashing windows and forcing pedestrians to flee, witnesses said.
       ''We were...very disturbed about the reported clashes and violence
in...the city, that took place a few days ago,'' Motsuenyane, a former
diplomat, said.
       ''It is also alleged that the police were present and did not prevent
the incidents. This is a matter of great concern. We will look into the
matter with the relevant authorities.''
       Tensions have risen in Zimbabwe ahead of the March 9-10 presidential
poll and Mugabe's supporters have been criticised for cracking down on his
strongest ever opposition challenge.
       The MDC says over 100 of its supporters have been killed in political
violence triggered by the invasion of white-owned farms in February 2000 by
militants loyal to Mugabe.
       Motsuenyane said his team would focus its attention on so-called
''no-go areas'' -- mostly in rural areas -- where some parties were barred
from campaigning and from where it had received reports of violence and
intimidation.
       The South African observers were also probing reports that police had
barred several MDC rallies in recent weeks.
       ''In order to have free and fair elections in Zimbabwe we need to
have a level playing field. All parties should be allowed to hold rallies,''
Motsuenyane said.
       South Africa itself has been criticised for taking a ''soft''
approach towards the unfolding crisis in its once prosperous neighbour,
whose woes contributed to a sharp in the value of the rand last year.
       Analysts say the withdrawal of the EU observers puts an extra burden
on the regional powerhouse to ensure free and fair elections.
       The EU decided on Monday to freeze assets held in the 15-nation Union
by Zimbabwe's ruling elite including Mugabe after the head of the EU
election observer mission was expelled from Zimbabwe at the weekend. Its
26-strong observer team was pulled out on Tuesday.
       Zimbabwe's private-owned Daily News said on Wednesday the EU
withdrawal would leave Zimbabweans vulnerable to what it said was a campaign
of violence sponsored by Mugabe's party.


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World Bank

ZIMBABWE'S ECONOMIC CRISIS SEEN TO WORSEN.

Predictions for Zimbabwe's short term economic future are dire, no matter
who wins presidential elections in March, according to two leading regional
analysts, IRIN/AllAfrica.com reports.

Zimbabwe's decline has been as spectacular as it has been tragic. The
economic gains of the 1980s have been wiped out and Zimbabweans are now 7
percent poorer than they were in 1970. Government figures show that health
spending per head has fallen from US $23.60 in 1991 to US $14 today. An
estimated 300,000 out of 1.3 million industrial and farm workers have lost
their jobs over the past two years. Some economists are predicting a GDP
growth rate of minus nine percent for 2001.

"Zimbabwe's economic meltdown cannot be prevented - it is already occurring.
Key businesses, especially in manufacturing and mining, are finding it
impossible to continue to operate within the current forex [foreign
exchange] regime and political climate. Lasting, if not permanent, damage
has been inflicted on the commercial farming sector, the country's engine of
growth as a result of the fast-track land resettlement program," Greg Mills,
director of the South African Institute of International Affairs said in a
recent paper.

Tony Hawkins, director of the Graduate School of Management at the
University of Zimbabwe, envisages three post-election scenarios for
Zimbabwe. The first would be a victory for President Robert Mugabe, the
second a medium term slide into instability, and the third a win for
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. A Mugabe victory would mean "more of
the same", Hawkins told IRIN. His re-election manifesto has been
"incompatible with economic stabilization and recovery", promising a return
to a command economy and the rejection of IMF/World Bank policies.

Zimbabwe's isolation, underlined by the imposition of European Union
sanctions this week, would mean minimal foreign capital inflows, the outflow
of skills, and "accelerating economic decline". Zimbabwe would be dependent
on humanitarian assistance, "as it's not going to get any proper aid",
Hawkins said.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times says the targeted personal sanctions imposed
by the EU on Monday will have little impact on Zimbabwe's presidential
election next month, but the associated withdrawal of the EU observer team
could help President Robert Mugabe. This is the consensus view of political
and business analysts in Harare, for whom personal sanctions targeting just
20 members of the Mugabe administration and excluding some key players, such
as Simba Makoni, finance minister, are "too little, too late".  BACK TO TOP

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G8 UNFOLDS ACTION PLAN ON AFRICA.

The G8 group of the largest industrialized countries have said African
governments must adhere to democratic principles and ensure the restoration
of peace and security to benefit from their action plan aimed at pulling the
continent out of its severe poverty and widespread underdevelopment, This
Day (Nigeria) reports.

This assertion was made at a meeting of the G8 Action Plan Group with the
Steering Committee of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD),
held at the weekend in Cape Town, South Africa.

According to a statement issued in Lagos Tuesday and signed by Sola
Akinbade, a member of the Nigerian NEPAD delegation, "Both sides agreed to
co-operate so that the 21st century will become the century for Africa."

The G8 action plan group is made up of personal representatives of the
presidents of the industrialized countries and included Michael Camdessus,
former head of the IMF and Baroness V. Amos, an under secretary of state of
the UK government. Nigeria, a member of NEPAD's steering committee, was
represented at the meeting by Ambassador Isaac Aluko-Olokun, who also heads
the NEPAD team, and Dr. Tunji Olagunju, Nigeria's High Commissioner to South
Africa.

The Cape Town meeting was the third in a series of discussions expected to
produce a program of support to be endorsed by the G8 leaders at their next
summit scheduled for Kananaskis in Canada, from June 26 to 28, 2002.

According to Ambassador Aluko-Olokun, "The G8 Action group re-iterated their
countries' support for Africa through NEPAD. They, however, urged the
African governments to adhere to democratic principles and ensure
restoration of peace and security in the continent."

NEPAD is a vision of African leaders for the continent, which among other
objectives aims at eradicating severe poverty, promote accelerated growth
and sustainable development and halt the marginalization of Africa in the
globalization process.

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ELECTION SUPPORT NETWORK STAFF ATTACKED

Two members of the Election Support Network were attacked and severely
assaulted by ZANU PF supporters on Tuesday morning (19/2/2002).

According to a coordinator with the Students' Christian Movement, a member
of their association, Percy Chipati and a driver, one Mr Mangwiro were out
distributing voter education material, in the Cranborne area when they were
approached by a mob. The mob produced Zanu PF membership cards and demanded
that the two produce their membership cards as well. They failed to do so
and that resulted in their assault by the group. The Students' Christian
Movement is a civic body that is affiliated to ZESN.

The attack took place near an army base and it was only the intervention of
members of the army from the base that the beating stopped. Members of the
army took the two to Cranborne Police station where a report was made. No
arrests have been made so far.

The victims were taken to the Avenues clinic for medical attention and have
since been discharged. The driver sustained a broken rib and his companion
was bruised all over the body.

ZESN is a grouping of several civic organisations that is involved in voter
education throughout the country. Their spokesman strongly condemned the
attack and has called for tolerance.


SUPERVISOR HELD

A plantation supervisor was briefly held hostage by war vets and Zanu PF
supporters earlier today.

Cavison Chimhepo was forcibly taken away from the plantation by a group of
war veterans led by Catherine Munda. They accused him of distributing MDC
literature in the area. The war veterans demanded that a manager at the
plantation, drive them together with Chimhepo to Glendale. They threatened
to call in other veterans and shut down the plantations if their demands
were not met.

He complied but went to file a report with police in the area after he had
dropped the party at a house in Glendale. Police in Glendale secured
Chimhepo's release a couple of hours later.


MDC ACTIVIST'S HOUSE IS BURNT IN MARONDERA

A group of about ten unidentified youths burnt the house belonging to MDC
Activist, Didymus Munenzva in Marondera last night.

The youths broke into the house at about 2030 hrs.  They looted the
following items: TV, Video Recorder, Radio, two video cameras, bicycles and
a computer and then petrol bombed the house.  Munenzva, who was away at the
time, says his nephew Simbarashe (God's power), hid under the bed as the
assailants were looting.  He only managed to escape from the house through
one of the windows as he gasped for air.

The Fire brigade, called soon after the incident, were not able to attend
because "there was no driver at their offices".

This is the third time in as many weeks that Munenzva has had problems.  Two
weeks ago, his vehicle was shot at and later burnt.  Last week his other
vehicle's windows were smashed with iron bars and he just managed to get
away before any further damage was done to both the vehicle and him.

It is believed that the attack was politically motivated.


MDC MP'S FARM SEARCHED

More than 15 uniformed and 10 plain-clothes policemen searched MDC's
Chimanimani MP, Roy Bennet's farm outside Harare, for weapons of war, today.

The Police arrived at the farm, with a search warrant that permitted them to
search the farm for weapons of war.  The search, which was on going by the
time this report was filed, early this evening, was conducted in the
presence of South African observers.


Regards,

The Newsroom
mamba@zol.co.zw
091-258-525
023-405-267
091-337-694
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Business Day

Investors see for Mugabe defeat

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By Tony Hawkins
Zimbabwe's directionless markets - equities, currencies and money - have the
appearance of a lull before the storm.

Opinion polls, anecdotal evidence and now the stock market are all pointing
in the same direction: defeat for President Robert Mugabe at the
presidential elections on March 9 and 10.

But against a background of uncertainty, few investors are willing to take
aggressive positions.

If investors were anticipating a Mugabe victory, share prices would have
fallen instead of moving sideways in recent months.

Furthermore, dual-register stocks - those listed on foreign markets as well
as the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange - have weakened.

Similarly, financial stocks have lost their appeal.

Buyers have been moving cautiously into domestic-economy stocks, seemingly
because they see victory for the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, as
the more probable outcome of next month's poll.

Following last January's imposition of the government's easy-money policy,
industrial share prices trebled in seven months, pushing the index to a
record high of 56,858 in mid-August.

But in the last quarter of 2001, the asset price bubble began to deflate,
with equity prices sliding 20% to close the year at 45,350.

Since then, the market has fluctuated narrowly as investors have tried to
assess what victory by one or other of the candidates would mean for the
economy.

A win for Tsvangirai would probably mean a return to economic orthodoxy.

Interest rates are now massively negative. The yield on treasury bills is
31%, some 86 percentage points below January's inflation rate of 117%.

The official exchange rate has been Z$55 to the US dollar since October
2000.

During that time, consumer prices have increased 130% and the Zimbabwe
dollar will have to be devalued to about Z$200, economists say. The budget
deficit for 2002 is optimistically projected at 15% of GDP.

Fiscal policy will have to be tightened even if there is no change of
government.

The combination of measures on these three fronts would take much of the
steam out of the consumption and real estate booms that the Mugabe
government has engineered to boost its election chances.

Financial Times
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Business Report

Godsell to monitor Zimbabwe poll
Andrew Davidson
February 19 2002 at 09:23AM

Johannesburg - Bobby Godsell would represent local big business as part of
the South African team monitoring next month's presidential election in
Zimbabwe, the chairman and chief executive of AngloGold, the country's
biggest gold producer, confirmed yesterday.

Godsell said he would be accompanied by Andre Lamprecht, a director of
Barloworld. He said: "These guys [the Zimbabweans] are our neighbours. I
wish only the best for them.

"I remember very clearly back in 1994 when many [of our] citizens were
stocking up with cans of baked beans because they feared our first
democratic election would dump the country into chaos. And indeed it could
have.

"Who knows what the outcome would have been were we not able to broker that
agreement with the Inkatha Freedom Party?"

"I can understand the anxiety [in Zimbabwe] but I know that good things can
come out of very bad circumstances.

"My job as a monitor, as part of the multisectoral South African team, is
simply to do anything we can to facilitate an election in which the will of
the Zimbabwean people will prevail; that Zimbabweans will be able to go to
the poll, make their choice in secret and elect the president of their
choice.

"That will be very good for Zimbabwe and very good for the sub-region."

Godsell said he regarded his participation "as a form of national service;
it's certainly not how I would choose to spend 10 or 11 days of my time.

"But when your neighbours are going through difficult times, you have to
help them."

Godsell was not going to make any political comments. "I am very keen not to
raise my risk profile," he quipped.

A total of 50 South African observers are expected to monitor the Zimbabwean
election.

A team of 30, led by Samuel Motseunyane, is already in Zimbabwe.


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Comment from The Washington Times, 19 February


Zimbabwe forgotten


Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is having the time of his life. As the
international community fusses over the dirty tricks he is playing ahead of
next month's elections, he is enjoying watching them squirm. But European
Union foreign ministers finally voted Monday to impose sanctions on
Zimbabwe, and to pull their election observers out of the country. The
sanctions against Mr. Mugabe and 19 members of his administration prevent
them from travelling to EU countries, freeze any assets they have in the 15
countries of the European Union and cut off $110 million in development aid.
What took them so long? And why are we not doing the same?


Then there is the problem of Zimbabweans being denied the right to vote. The
rejection letters have been streaming in, informing significant numbers of
Zimbabweans such as the former prime minister of Southern Rhodesia (now
Zimbabwe), Garfield Todd, who was appointed senator by Mr. Mugabe in 1980,
that they have renounced their citizenship and thus won't be allowed to
vote. The government passed a law last year that those who had the right to
a foreign passport were required to give up that right or lose their
citizenship. If they didn't act, the government acted for them. Not to be
forgotten are the clerics who were arrested Saturday for holding an
"illegal" prayer vigil, the bombings last week of the offices of Zimbabwe's
biggest newspaper, the Daily News, and the printing house which produced
election materials for the opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change,
whose offices were also burned down last month. In this context, it is not
surprising that Mr. Mugabe's main opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, is being
accused of trying to kill the president, a charge which he denies. But the
accusation could lead to Mr. Tsvangirai being tucked away in a jail cell
until after election time.


"Part of the reason why Mugabe doesn't care is because the international
community does nothing," Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, a professor from the
University of Zimbabwe, said in a meeting with editors and reporters at The
Washington Times. Most disappointing, he said, was South Africa's refusal to
use its special status with the European Union and in the international
community to try to stop the human rights abuses. "Smart sanctions won't
work as long as South Africa is not involved," he said. "The United States
needs to send a message to South African President Thabo Mbeki that this is
destabilizing the region," he said. The sooner it does that the better. It
is commendable that the European Union has finally agreed to place sanctions
on Mr. Mugabe and friends, and the United States should do the same.



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MSNBC

Zimbabwe condemns EU sanctions as 'hostile action' to influence elections

ASSOCIATED PRESS

HARARE, Zimbabwe, Feb. 18 — The government on Tuesday condemned European
Union economic and diplomatic sanctions, accusing Europe of orchestrating
''hostile action'' to influence March elections.
       ''There is no price that is going to be high in defending our
independence,'' said Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.

       ''They said they were going to do it and they have done it. We said
as Africans who fought for our liberation against some of these European
countries, we would defend our independence and sovereignty and that's what
we are going to do,'' Moyo told the state Herald newspaper.
       The European Union, angered by Zimbabwe's refusal to let its
observers freely monitor March 9-10 presidential elections, imposed
sanctions Monday against President Robert Mugabe's government and ordered
its observer team home.
       EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels imposed ''targeted
sanctions'' with immediate effect, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, the
meeting's chairman said.
       Moyo described the decision as ''an orchestrated and self-fulfilling
process,'' The Herald said.
       ''There is no amount of hostile action through sanctions or otherwise
that will make us move from our principle to defend our independence,'' he
said. ''We will never allow a situation where our sovereign rights are
hijacked under the guise of elections observation.''
       About 10,000 protesters marched Monday to the offices of Britain's
diplomatic mission and accused the former colonial power of supporting the
opposition to give control of Zimbabwe back to ''white oppressors.''
       Militants then stoned the building housing the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change, smashing the building's glass doors and the windows
of adjacent shops. No injuries were reported.
       EU ministers said the 15-nation bloc was seriously concerned about
political violence, human rights abuses and restrictions on the media which
called into question the prospects for a free and fair election.
       The sanctions include cutting off $110 million in development aid for
the 2002-2007 period, a ban on travel to the EU for Mugabe and 20 of his
Cabinet ministers and freezing their assets in Europe.
       The EU said it will also pull out 30 European elections observers
already in Zimbabwe.
       Zimbabwe has been wracked by political violence for the past two
years that opposition supporters, human rights activists and many
international officials blame on Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party.
       Mugabe, 77, who has ruled Zimbabwe since it won independence from
Britain, is fighting to maintain his 22-year grip in power. As his
popularity has waned, he has imposed curbs on journalists and opposition
parties and many of his critics have been attacked or threatened with
prosecution.
       The state media, a platform for official policy, carried no reaction
to the EU decision from Mugabe early Tuesday.
       In a defiant statement on state television Sunday, a visibly angry
Mugabe said Zimbabwe was capable of running its own elections without
interference from Western countries.
       Mugabe earlier this month banned election observers from Britain, the
former colonial ruler, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden and The
Netherlands, accusing them of bias in favor of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change.
       Moyo said the government welcomed ''open-minded observers.''
       ''We are happy the world is larger than Europe and that we in Africa
would like to be judged by Africans who share the same values with us,'' he
said.
       The European sanctions came two days after Zimbabwe expelled Pierre
Schori, head of a 30-member EU election monitoring team.
       Schori, Sweden's ambassador to the United Nations, attended the EU
foreign ministers meeting. He recommended against sanctions but said he
agreed the observers had to withdraw to spare them physical abuse and
insult.
       (Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


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Daily News - Leader Page

The cardinal sin that Lumumba committed

2/19/02 7:47:57 AM (GMT +2)


By Lucy Komisar

NEW YORK - Most people would be thrilled to be a real-life character in a
movie.

Not Frank Carlucci.

Lawyers for the former United States Secretary of Defence have pressured
Home Box Office (HBO) to effectively remove his character from a scene in
the film Lumumba, which will be shown several times on the cable network
this month. Carlucci doesn’t appreciate the attention. Maybe that’s
understandable.

In 1960, he was the second secretary in the US Embassy in Kinshasa, the
Congo.

That was the time when, according to declassified US State Department cables
and testimony to the Senate’s Church committee on assassinations, the US
plotted with the incipient dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and the Belgians to
bring down Patrice Lumumba, the popular nationalist leader who’d been chosen
prime minister by a Brussels “round table” of Congo leaders.

Lumumba’s sin was that, when neither the Americans nor the United Nations
would help him against Belgian-organised plots to destabilise his
government, he turned to the Russians.

After an extensive parliamentary investigation, the Belgian prime minister
earlier this month apologised to the Lumumba family for his country’s role
in the killing, an apology accepted by Lumumba’s son.

Carlucci, however, appears to have no regrets.

The scene he doesn’t like shows US Ambassador Clare Timberlake and an
American that the uncensored film identifies as Carlucci in a meeting
plotting Lumumba’s murder.

The Carlucci character is an oily fellow who makes a clearly disingenuous
comment about how the US doesn’t “meddle” in other countries’ affairs.

Carlucci claims he wasn’t at that meeting. “The scene in which they
portrayed me was totally inaccurate,” he said. Neither, he said, was
Timberlake accurately portrayed. “I was quite close to Timberlake and served
as his interpreter in most of his meetings.” (Timberlake didn’t speak French
.)

“He had no role in it,” Carlucci says, repeating that the US had “no role
whatsoever” in plotting Lumumba’s death.

He also said he’d had “no knowledge of the Belgian” role.

“There’s no substantiation to that charge in any of the reviews done on
Lumumba’s death by the United Nations or the recent Belgian book or Maddie
Kalb’s book,” Carlucci said. “If you go through the Kalb book, you’ll find
no references to me.” The Congo Cable, by Madeline Kalb, was based on
declassified US documents.

Timberlake is dead. Film-maker Raoul Peck says he had reason to believe that
what he portrayed in the film was accurate.

A Haitian, Peck spent 25 years in the Congo/Zaire after his father fled
there as an exile from Haitian dictator Francois Duvalier. His film has won
prizes at festivals in Los Angeles, Santo Domingo, Milan and Acapulco and
was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

So let’s take Carlucci’s advice and look at “The Congo Cables”. Kalb wrote
about the efforts by the US Embassy and the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) to topple Lumumba: “Whenever Timberlake, accompanied by his
French-speaking second secretary, Frank Carlucci, went to see Kasavubu . . .
to try to persuade him that Lumumba was an extremely dangerous man, Kasavubu
. . . would say nothing.

“As Timberlake noted in a gloomy cable to Washington, ŒI confess I have not
yet learned the secret of spurring Kasavubu to action.’”

Of course, you won’t find a document from Timberlake saying: “We are
pressing some Congolese to kill Lumumba.”

Ambassadors don’t write such documents. You will find documents by
Timberlake and CIA chief Lawrence Devlin talking about their desires and
efforts to stop Lumumba, and even Devlin’s unhappiness at one leader’s
refusal to commit murder.

The State Department’s official “Analytical Chronology of the Congo Crisis”
talks about a plan “to bring about the overthrow of Lumumba and install a
pro-Western government . . . Operations under this plan were gradually put
into effect by the CIA.”

According to Kalb, Timberlake informed Washington on 24 August 1960: “If
Lumumba and his wired-in communist advisers are not stopped by a policy of
strength, we think this country is headed toward another China by way of
technicians instead of bayonets.”

On 24 August the CIA chief Devlin reported “discouraging news: anti-Lumumba
leaders had approached Kasavubu with a plan to assassinate Lumumba, but
Kasavubu had refused, explaining that he was reluctant to resort to violence
and that there was no other leader of sufficient stature (to) replace
Lumumba”.

Ludo De Witte, author of the Belgian book - The Assassination of Lumumba
wrote Peck that “from mid-August (when US President Dwight Eisenhower
reportedly gave a green light for the assassination of Lumumba) till
mid-October, there was a de facto collaboration and exchange of information
between all important personnel in the US Embassy (that is Timberlake,
Carlucci and Devlin included), including on efforts to get rid of Lumumba”.

The Eisenhower green light is in testimony by US National Security Council
staff member Robert Johnson to the Church committee hearings of 1975-1976.

Johnson said he was astonished to hear that Eisenhower had given an order
for the assassination of Lumumba.

The Church committee concluded that testimony permitted a reasonable
inference that the plot to assassinate Lumumba was authorised by the
president.

De Witte wrote Peck: “There is another thing: we know that Devlin and other
US personnel in the capital were informed about the transfer of Lumumba to
the Kasai or Katanga (testimony by Colonel Louis Marlière, active in the
entourage of Mobutu).

Everybody knew that they were waiting for some subcontractors to do the
dirty job, and, given the rank and the involvement of Carlucci in
Lumumba-related activities from the US Embassy, we may assume (although it’s
not proven) that Carlucci knew of what equalled a death sentence for
Lumumba.”
(c) COPYRIGHT PNS

Daily News

Zimbabweans feared dead in London fire

2/19/02 8:14:45 AM (GMT +2)


From Daily News Reporter Mduduzi Mathuthu in London

THERE are fears that some Zimbabweans could be among the 25 asylum seekers
who perished in a fire that blazed through a refugee detention centre in
London on Friday morning.

Campaigners for the rights of asylum seekers were in a panic as it emerged
that in the absence of records, destroyed in the fire, some of the missing
would never be identified.

“We are working with the British Home Office to ascertain if there are any
Zimbabweans among the missing,” said Themba Mliswa the chairman of the
United Kingdom-based Zim-Alliance.

“Zimbabweans almost form the bulk of asylum seekers in the UK and we are all
praying that this is not our tragedy. These people are subjected to inhumane
conditions at the holding centres and any death will spark wild protests.”

British officials said the police were working on the assumption that some
of the missing could have died in the blaze that gutted the £100 million
(Z$8 billion) Yarl’s Wood Centre in Bedford.

“We were treated like animals in there,” said Godsen Chapfika in a
widely-publicised interview with British SkyTV. Chapfika survived the
inferno.

At least 385 failed asylum seekers were held at the camp when the fire broke
out, in what witnesses said was a suspected arson attack.

The fire, they say, was ignited as a protest against the handcuffing of a
female asylum seeker by security guards.

Former detainees have described conditions at the centre as comparable to
those in a jail, although the British Home Secretary, David Bunkett, has
hailed the centre as a key strategy for his asylum policy.

“We have been receiving calls from people’s wives demanding to know where
their husbands are and they are not being told anything,” said Emma Ginn of
the Campaign Against Arbitrary Detention at the site.

British authorities, shrugging off severe criticism from asylum campaigners
said if four investigations instituted after the blaze proved there had been
a security breach, they would consider prison accommodation for failed
asylum seekers.

Britain was planning to deport at least 30 000 failed asylum seekers this
year, among them thousands of Zimbabweans who failed to satisfy Britain’s
tough immigration laws.

Officials at Heathrow and Gatwick Airports told The Daily News that on
average 15 people were deported daily. Many Zimbabweans were now flying to
London through Johannesburg, South Africa to escape scrutiny.


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Daily News - Leader Page

Does Zanu PF have something to hide?

2/19/02 7:46:51 AM (GMT +2)



Since the day the Zanu PF leader, Robert Mugabe, returned home from exile in
Mozambique, to a tumultuous welcome by a record crowd that thronged
Highfield’s Zimbabwe Grounds, every election has repeatedly demonstrated one
thing: the unassailability of the ruling party.

Indeed, such has been the ease with which the party has won, overwhelmingly
at that, each and every election, that staging elections has often been
seriously viewed in some quarters as a waste of both the people’s time and
the country’s resources.

Suggestions have even been made to scrap elections altogether as results
were all too predictable.

However, mindful of the need to ensure it always has the people’s mandate to
govern, the government has, to its eternal credit, consistently refused to
listen to such suggestions.

Instead, it has elected to remain faithful to the letter and spirit of the
Constitution which stipulates that, Zimbabwe being a multi-party democracy,
its elections shall be held regularly at specified intervals.

Against this background of persistently reassuring popular support by the
electorate, we find Zanu PF’s approach to the forthcoming presidential
election genuinely puzzling.

Why is Zanu PF engaging in all kinds of unwholesome activities that have the
inevitable effect of not only unnecessarily tarnishing its image by
suggesting it is a party with something terrible to hide, but which also
paint an image of it as a Goliath that appears to be mortified by an
inexplicable fear of the David that the MDC is supposed to be?

While most Zimbabweans are probably of the opinion that, with its proud
record as the party with grassroots appeal as evidenced by one election
result after another, the formidable 39-year-old Zanu PF should have no
reason to fear an upstart such as the MDC, which is only a little more than
two years old, the party itself apparently takes a very different view.

It certainly appears to be scared to death to get into a fair fight with the
infant party.

And a number of its actions seem to buttress that view, illogical though it
may seem at face value.

For instance, it is a matter of record that each time we have been faced
with an election since the run-up to the June 2000 general election, Zanu PF
has had to mobilise renegade war veterans and its youth wing to intimidate
people into renouncing their support for the MDC and virtually forcing them
to vote for Zanu PF in those elections and all subsequent by-elections and
council elections.

But, as some realists in the party have observed, it is the most
self-damaging, fear-driven campaign tactic the party has ever employed.

The government’s use of all manner of underhand actions, including
disobeying and countermanding court orders in order to postpone, for as long
as possible, the holding of mayoral and municipal elections in both Bulawayo
and Harare were apparently also dictated by fear of the MDC.

Then there was the enactment of the Public Order and Security Act which has
given the police sweeping powers to bar the holding of demonstrations or
meetings which they think could result in a breach of peace.

The victims of that nauseatingly obnoxious law have mostly been those civic
and professional groups opposed to bad governance.

But the most affected has been the MDC which has practically been banned
from holding campaign rallies in all rural areas, showing there is something
the mighty Zanu PF fears about the MDC going into what it perceives to be
its support base.

Also to be taken as clear manifestation of Zanu PF’s apparently irrational
fear of the truth and the MDC getting exposure in the rural areas and abroad
is the ban, unofficial though it is, of The Daily News in most areas outside
the main urban centres as well as government’s ban on certain election
observers.

Now we also hear the MDC has been banned from holding rallies in any stadium
in Bulawayo.

The question needs to be asked: Why is Zanu PF so afraid of the MDC - and
the truth?



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Daily News

Drought warnings fell on deaf ears, says CFU

2/19/02 8:26:45 AM (GMT +2)


From Chris Gande in Bulawayo

THE Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) says warnings sent to the Ministry of
Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement as early as September 2001,
regarding looming maize shortages, fell on deaf ears.



Doug Taylor-Freeme the CFU vice-president (commodities), lamented his
“careless disregard” for national food security on the part of the Minister
of Land, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Joseph Made in a statement on
Friday.

Taylor-Freeme said: “If our advice, given with the nation’s best interest at
heart had been acted upon, maize could have been imported at a better price
last year”.

He said that the CFU was extremely concerned about the on-going seizure of
grain lawfully held for farm labour and stockfeed use.

“We understand that grain is now out of stock and in our opinion, imports
will not arrive in sufficient quantities quickly enough to avert this
 crisis”, he said. He said farmers had budgeted their grain consumption,
including that for on-farm use.

At the minister’s assurance to Zimbabweans that the country had adequate
reserves to take the nation through to the next harvest farmers found they
were now seriously prejudiced, he said.
“The minister, when all is said and done, must be held accountable for the
current chaos in the agricultural sector and the pending mass food
 shortages”, he said.

There is growing fear that Zimbabwe, which is facing severe maize shortages
because of last year’s poor maize harvest, may have to continue importing
grain until next year.

“Furthermore”, said Taylor-Freeme “we warned the minister that far from his
target of 4,8 million tonnes of maize to be produced mostly by the Œnew’
farmers, we estimate that national production this year, under the current
dry conditions, may not reach one million tonnes.
“Be prepared, therefore, to import a lot of grain between now and harvest in
2003 if the country is to avoid widespread starvation”.

The CFU said the government was trying to gain political mileage by citing
the case of Clive Thomas of Mhangura, who is reported to have “burnt his
maize crop,” to sabotage the government, currently struggling to feed the
nation.

Thomas is a registered seed maize grower who grew seed in the 2000/2001
season. He was unable to plant the seed this current season due to the
designation of his farm and disturbances to his programme by settlers.

“The burnt maize shown in the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation news film
clip was that gleaned from the land following the burning of the stover to
make way for the early planted tobacco crop a practice common in commercial
agriculture.

“For the minister to infer that any farmer would destroy 6 000 tonnes of
maize, worth $90 million, to spite government is highly irresponsible and
should be treated with the derision it deserves”, said the CFU.

Only 4 280 tonnes of maize had since arrived in the country from South
Africa. However, approximately 150 000 tonnes are needed in one month
nationwide.

Meanwhile the arrival of maize into the country is not expected to ease the
shortages soon because of the chaotic distribution of maize at the Grain
Marketing Board (GMB) depot in Bulawayo.

Riot police are now a permanent feature at the depot and are controlling
millers and hungry individuals, rushing to buy maize.

By yesterday the situation in shops in Bulawayo had still not improved, as
the shelves were still empty of the staple commodity.

Loading of maize onto trucks for millers at the Bulawayo depot is slow, with
one truck taking more than three hours to be loaded.

GMB officials refused to comment on the delays in loading the maize onto
trucks. Zimbabwe Grain Millers’ Association vice -president, James
Mangwana-Tshuma asked: “How can we have maize-meal in the shops when there
is such confusion at GMB? “The chaotic distribution method is crippling the
flow of maize-meal into the shops.”


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Daily News

Three million exiles, refugees denied the vote

2/19/02 7:32:40 AM (GMT +2)


Tagwirei W. Bango

WAY back in 1979, if Bishop Abel Muzorewa’s Zimbabwe-Rhodesia parliament had
decided to fast-track the same laws President Mugabe managed to introduce in
the last 30 days, the world would have cried foul.

Specifically, if the Muzorewa parliament insisted that Zimbabwean voters in
neighbouring countries were to be denied a vote as this government is saying
today, talks at Lancaster House, aimed at bringing about Zimbabwe’s
independence, could have been suspended.

Today, an estimated three million eligible voters, are being turned away. In
a nation with a voter population of slightly more than five million, denying
a right to nearly two-thirds of the voters distorts the outcome of any
election.

Zimbabweans are being forced out of the country by insecurity, poverty and
unemployment created by the Mugabe government in the past 22 years.

Last-minute changes to the Electoral Act stipulate that voters must show
evidence that they stayed in a particular constituency continuously for 12
months before they can be accepted for registration.

To limit access to postal votes to diplomats and soldiers in the DRC makes a
mockery of the entire voting process.

Those in the diaspora have argued that leaving home out of fear of
persecution for political beliefs is the same as seeking economic refuge
elsewhere, that is, fear of starvation.

The idea is to stay alive.

Whether Zanu PF loses this election or not, it must be stated categorically
and for the record that the vote was not free and fair.

Debates, centred on the basic meaning of the term “free and fair election”,
have tended to rely on comparisons with the 1980 election, South Africa’s
1994 election and similar events in the Sadc region.

In the first two cases, analysts tried to explain flawed processes and
qualified the meaning of a free and fair election, using phrases like, “well
. . . under the circumstances; end of an era; the nation has to move forward
. . . “

There is no justification for such qualifiers in any post-independence
election if nations seriously aspire to be totally free. The circumstances
have to be right. Zimbabwe has five presidential candidates registered for
the contest: Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai, Paul Siwela, Shakespeare Maya
and Wilson Kumbula.

In the first place, Mugabe wears three hats: election manager, candidate,
and Executive President. That is an anomaly.

It makes him a special player with an enormous advantage to outfox others
who have to run around a bumpy pitch while he waits at an unencumbered
penalty spot. His rivals can only hope that Mugabe misses the spot kick.

In normal societies, no such elections are recognised as a valid expression
of the people’s wishes. Here, once in you can’t get out. Muzorewa and the
late Ndabaningi Sithole tried to pull out of the race in 1996 and failed.

Mugabe appoints the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC), a body that is
supposed to make a free and fair election possible. Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, the
chairman, is an ex-combatant and a former senior army officer.

The chief elections officer is Douglas Nyikayaramba, another ex-combatant
and also from the army. The director of information is
Thomas Bvuma, an ex-combatant, Mugabe’s former Press officer, a fired deputy
editor of The Herald and a former diplomat.

Down the line, Gula-Ndebele’s team comprises thousands of high-ranking army
officers, ordinary soldiers, Central Intelligence Organisation officers and
other civil servants. Who is being supervised here, and by whom?

Gula-Ndebele says nothing about the total inability of the opposition to
campaign in 45 rural constituencies, let alone their failure to assure the
safety of their election agents from the opposition. He has refused to take
note that police have banned nearly 100 opposition political rallies. Not a
single Zanu PF meeting has been disrupted or stopped.

While Mugabe does not need a campaign poster pasted on tree trunks, surely
Kumbula needs one. The new law restricts the use of campaign posters. Has
anybody seen Kumbula’s face in Kariba, Dete or Epworth?
Siwela’s posters in Nyamapanda?

The ESC says nothing about public broadcaster’s selective ban on political
messages. Mugabe can freely describe any candidate as a tea-boy, using
ZBC-TV. If his rivals reply with similar scorn, they risk being charged
under the Public Order and Security Act, which forbids attacks on the person
and office of the President.

The ESC has not heard anything about the battery of changes to the electoral
laws, all designed to bar suspected anti-government supporters from the
process or censured the Registrar-General for fighting to remove thousands
of voters from the roll.

Gula-Ndebele has remained unruffled by the state of the voters’ roll itself,
a perennial source of conflict in Zimbabwean politics.

Nothing was said about a statement from the service chiefs intimidating the
voters to vote for Mugabe; or about the orders to chiefs, headmen and
village heads to round up their subjects and make sure they queue behind
them to vote for Zanu PF on election day. Gula-Ndebele has an enormous
responsibility. He may be unaware of it. This election is a serious matter.

Because of his team’s background, the ESC report in March 2002, if prepared
with extreme care and honesty, may save Zimbabwe from further
disintegration.

The ESC should have already deployed sentries countrywide: taking corrective
action, dismantling illegal roadblocks, making alternative arrangements for
displaced villagers to vote, monitoring Zanu PF’s abuses of government
buildings, cars, civil servants and other facilities and ordering the police
to provide the safety and order necessary for voters to exercise their
rights. Of late, Gula-Ndebele has proposed the introduction of a code of
conduct in the campaign.

This is a late suggestion, serving no purpose. The candidates are already
concluding their campaigns, a bloody trail that has left 16 dead.

When a code is put in place, thousands of elected multi-party committees are
assigned to monitor its implementation. These committees resolve
differences, attend to violations and monitor the behaviour of party
supporters.

They can even censure, discipline and cause the arrest of wayward hooligans,
to create an atmosphere that is totally free of bias in an election.

Does anybody believe Gula-Ndebele and his ESC legion are able to put
together such structures in the next 18 days before election?

For an election to be declared free and fair, candidates, voters,
supervisors and managers must feel it from the first day of campaigning to
the time the results are announced.


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Daily News

Mayhem as Zanu PF members run amok in Harare city centre

2/19/02 8:11:17 AM (GMT +2)


By Columbus Mavhunga

THERE was mayhem in the central business district of Harare yesterday after
about 5 000 Zanu PF supporters bussed from outside Harare, ran amok, beating
up and injuring innocent people and tearing newspapers.

The protesters, who disrupted traffic, attacked Harvest House, the
headquarters of the MDC, and shattered the building’s front office and a
boutique next door.

They moved around the streets singing and also descended on MDC supporters
who were at Town House where the nomination court for the Harare municipal
elections was taking place. Four MDC supporters were seriously injured and
were taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital in a council vehicle and two ambulances.
Town House was temporarily closed. Shops and banks closed early for the day
as they feared that the rampaging Zanu PF supporters, mostly barefoot women,
some of them of advanced age, might destroy their outlets.

What started as a unique approach to this year’s presidential election
campaign, that of seeking the spiritual intervention of Mbuya Nehanda to
fight Britain’s intervention in the political affairs of the country through
the opposition MDC, culminated in the thorough assault of people in central
Harare.

The demonstrators, some ferried into the city in armoured vehicles from as
far away as Kachuta, Muzarabani, Mushumbi and Mahuwe in Mashonaland Central,
started streaming into the city around mid-morning, after they had been
dropped off on the outskirts of the capital.

They later gathered at Africa Unity Square, from where they peacefully
marched to the corner of Josiah Tongogara Avenue and Second Street, where
the First Chimurenga leaders, Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi, are said to
have been hanged in 1897 by the white colonialists. Nehanda and Kaguvi were
executed at the tree, now known as The Hanging Tree, near President Mugabe’s
official residence, State House. At the sacred tree, the Zanu PF supporters
removed their shoes and ordered every passer-by to do the same.

They were addressed by Shuvai Mahofa, a senior member of the Zanu PF women’s
league and Deputy Minister of Youth Development, Gender and Employment
Creation. From there, the procession advanced to Corner House which houses
the British High Commission, where they presented a petition.

The protesters then moved along Samora Machel, briefly stopped at the
offices of The Daily News and denounced the paper for being anti-Zanu PF.

Daily News

MDC implicates soldiers in terror

2/19/02 8:18:54 AM (GMT +2)


Own Correspondent in Mutare

POLITICAL violence continued in Manicaland unabated last week, amid
allegations that some soldiers and members of the police were actively
involved in attacks against MDC activists in the province.

There was no immediate comment from the police or the Zimbabwe National Army
(ZNA).

But Charles Pemhenayi, the Zanu PF provincial spokesman, said: “We cannot be
commenting on the same thing every day. MDC supporters are killing our
people but we are quiet about that.”

The MDC has alleged that six ZNA members abducted and assaulted Lovemore
Mbiri, 34, a security guard at the MDC offices in Chimanimani.

Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC provincial spokesman, alleged that Mbiri was
dragged from the MDC offices last Saturday to a nearby durawall where he was
reportedly assaulted. He was accused of wearing an MDC T-shirt and guarding
the opposition party’s offices.

Muchauraya said one of the soldiers told Mbiri that “being an MDC supporter
is punishable by death”.

Muchauraya alleged that Mbiri was left unconscious.
He also said the police in Chimanimani declined to record Mbiri’s report.

The MDC spokesman alleged that a ZRP member went to the MDC district offices
in the company of a prominent war veteran and chased away a second guard
from the premises.

He said Judith Chikavanga, the MDC secretary for Chimanimani, had received
death threats from a senior member of the State security services.

Last Tuesday, more than 30 Zanu PF supporters accompanied by two policemen
allegedly attacked Lazarus Manhanga, 47, an MDC youth chairman for Guhune
Ward in Nhedziwa, Muchauraya alleged.



Daily News

Spirit medium murdered

2/19/02 8:10:33 AM (GMT +2)


By Pedzisai Ruhanya

TAKATUKWA Mamhova Mupawaenda, a spirit medium in Chitomborwizi in Zvimba
South, was murdered in cold blood by alleged Zanu PF supporters on Saturday.

He was accused of mobilising chiefs, headmen and other traditional leaders
against President Mugabe in next month’s presidential poll. Mupawaenda, 70,
was attacked by more than 30 Zanu PF supporters in his home at Farm No 219
in Chitomborwizi, 30km west of Chinhoyi town. The police at Murombedzi
police station yesterday confirmed the killing, but could not reveal the
identity of Mupawaenda’s murderers.

“That murder case was referred to the CID homicide section in Chinhoyi,”
said an officer at the station. “Investigations into the matter are going
on. Mupawaenda’s body was taken to Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital on Saturday
where a post-mortem is to be carried out.”

Phillip Chiyangwa, the Zanu PF chairman for Mashonaland West province, said
yesterday: “I am not aware of that incident. Go and ask the police in
Chitomborwizi about it.”

The murder took place on the same day that Mugabe addressed a rally at
Murombedzi growth point, about 20km from his rural home near Kutama Mission
in Zvimba.

A Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital official yesterday said the post-mortem was
to be carried out yesterday. The police could not say whether any arrests
had been made. The murder of spiritual leaders is not new in Zimbabwe’s
political history. In the early days of colonial resistance, the white
settlers hanged Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi, among other influential
traditional leaders, for taking a principled stand against colonial
injustices.

A family spokesman said more than 30 alleged Zanu PF supporters approached
Mupawaenda’s home early on Saturday morning.

Some of them dragged him out of his bedroom, while others told other family
members not to come out or they would be killed.

“They accused him of mobilising chiefs, headmen and other traditional
leaders to persuade their people to vote for Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC
president, in next month’s election,” he said. “They used sticks and sharp
instruments to kill him.”

After killing him, they dragged his body to a maize field about two
kilometres away from his home and dumped it there.

The body was collected by the police later that day.

The family spokesman said last Monday, four people in a blue Land-Rover
vehicle visited the medium and told him his life was in danger because of
his allegiance to the MDC.

“In January he was ordered to surrender his MDC membership card and all
materials of that party, but he could not locate the card and the Zanu PF
supporters said he was playing games with them,” he said.

The spokesman said in December, Mupawaenda called a few close family members
and warned them misfortune would befall the family. “As a family we are not
surprised because he predicted his own death way back. However, since his
death, some of us are living in the bush, fearing for our lives. We need
police protection,” the spokesman said.

Mupawaenda gave guerrillas spiritual guidance during the liberation war.

“In 1979, a helicopter from the United Nations landed at his homestead with
people who asked him to persuade the freedom fighters to go to assembly
points and they complied,” the spokesman said.
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CAN ANYONE GIVE ME ANY FEEDBACK ON THIS ITEM RECEIVED RECENTLY ? ~ Karen
"We have been hearing increasing reports from  zimbabweans of plane loads of
Gadafi Troops
drafted in by Mr Mugabe to reinforce his tyranny.  Sources so far have been
very reliable.  Am wondering why we are not hearing any of this in
International news and news papers."
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