Safari spectacular opens World Cup
By Andrew Quinn
CAPE TOWN, (Reuters) - South Africa has opened
the 2003 cricket World Cup with a safari spectacular, sending African warriors,
township dancers and stampeding zebra on to the pitch as the drums of political
controversy continue to rumble.
The Olympic-style ceremony at Cape Town's
Newlands cricket ground was beamed to some 1.4 billion people around the globe
on Saturday, marking the biggest event of its kind ever staged in Africa and a
boost to South Africa's hopes of hosting the much larger soccer World Cup in
2010.
"All Africa thanks you that have thus come to
us as friends," South African President Thabo Mbeki told the 14 teams as he
declared the competition open.
"Thus you have given us a gift that is as
priceless as life itself."
Some 22,000 spectators gathered at Newlands
cheered as the ceremony got under way with party of San hunters -- descendents
of South Africa's earliest inhabitants -- pursuing performers dressed as
stampeding herds of zebra, giraffes and antelopes.
Organisers have seized on the World Cup to
promote South African tourism and modern infrastructure and Saturday's ceremony
provided glimpses of the "Rainbow Nation", from its spectacular physical beauty
to the vibrant culture of its black townships.
In six scenes, 4,500 volunteer performers
joined in a choreographed display of national pride, taking viewers from the
backcountry bush through a shebeen -- or pub -- crawl of modern township life to
a ballet paying homage to the ocean.
And in a huge tableau dubbed Unity, ranks of
performers of every colour joined to form a beaded African necklace -- a salute
to the ethnic mosaic that South Africa has celebrated since the end of
white-only rule in 1994.
Unlike the pyrotechnics of recent Olympic
parties, Saturday's World Cup show was deliberately low-tech and "people-based".
All the nearly 12,000 costumes and props in
the show were constructed out recycled materials and most were made by township
craftspeople as part of a plan to spread the benefits of hosting the cricket
championship.
Saturday's ceremony launched six weeks and 54
matches of the World Cup, with hosts South Africa taking on West Indies in the
first game at Newlands on Sunday.
POLITICAL TENSIONS
One thing not on the programme for Saturday's
opening bash was politics, although political tensions continued to crackle off
the cricket pitch.
This year's World Cup has been dogged by
controversy over plans to stage a number of matches in Zimbabwe and Kenya,
setting up a clash between the African hosts and cricket powerhouses England,
Australia and New Zealand.
Australia and Britain have led calls for
Commonwealth sanctions against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, accusing him
of rigging his re-election in 2002 and compounding Africa's food crisis by
seizing farms in a land reform programme.
Planned political protests around the Zimbabwe
matches have fuelled security fears, leading England to ask to move their
February 13 match in Harare to South Africa.
That request was denied, but team officials
said players could still vote to boycott the game with a final decision expected
on Sunday.
Champions Australia have also expressed
concerns about their match against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo later in the tournament.
New Zealand have said they will refuse to play Kenya in Nairobi, again over
security concerns.
While the dispute has been criticised by South
African leaders, who fear it could overwhelm their efforts to stage the largest
sporting event in African history, there was nothing but cheers on Saturday when
the teams entered Newlands.
As fusillades of fireworks exploded in the
skies next to Cape Town's famous Table Mountain, fans, players and officials
joined in a party most hope will put cricket -- and South Africa -- back at
centre stage.
"We hope the world will be proud of us,"
said Bernadette Karelse, a 12-year-old performer who joined the thousands of
other volunteers in putting on Saturday's show. "Maybe next time we will do the
Olympics. That would be even better."
MSNBC
Obasanjo visits Mugabe, discusses Zimbabwe crisis
By Cris
Chinaka
HARARE, Feb. 8 - Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo paid a
brief visit to
Harare on Saturday and held talks with President Robert Mugabe
on the crisis
in Zimbabwe, a month before a review of Zimbabwe's suspension
from the
Commonwealth.
Zimbabwean government officials said only
that Obasanjo discussed how
he could help to ease Zimbabwe's deepening
political and economic crisis,
and officials of both sides gave no further
details of the talks.
The Nigerian leader later left Harare for home
after a seven-hour
visit.
On Friday, Obasanjo told journalists
during a visit to South Africa
that he opposed ''antagonistic'' policies
towards Zimbabwe but promised some
straight talking with Zimbabwean leaders
behind closed doors.
Obasanjo is one of three leaders of the
Commonwealth, grouping mainly
former British colonies, who will meet in March
to review the suspension
imposed on Zimbabwe last year after Mugabe's
re-election in a poll which his
main rival and many Western nations say was
rigged.
The Commonwealth ''troika,'' comprising Obasanjo and the
leaders of
South Africa and Australia, must decide whether to maintain or
lift the
suspension or to impose stiffer sanctions.
Nigerian
sources said beforehand that Obasanjo was also due to meet
Zimbabwean
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, whose Movement for
Democratic Change
accuses Obasanjo and other African leaders of failing to
take a tough stand
against Mugabe. It was not clear if the two did meet on
Saturday.
''We must help Zimbabwe out of its predicament and problem and we
cannot do
that if we become unduly and unnecessarily critical and
antagonistic,''
Obasanjo said on Friday after talks with South African
President Thabo Mbeki,
who is also accused of taking a soft line with
Mugabe.
A private
Zimbabwean newspaper said the MDC had left a petition for
Obasanjo at the
high commission (embassy) urging him to persuade Mugabe to
quit office in the
next three months and for new elections to be held within
six
months.
The MDC said two opposition members of parliament and several
party
supporters were arrested in Harare on Saturday for allegedly trying to
hold
a rally without police permission.
Another MDC legislator said
he was detained for more than eight hours
with four other party activists at
a workshop for rural councillors in
northwestern Zimbabwe.
''What
happened today is what is happening almost daily. Our
officials and
supporters are suffering harassment, violence and unjustified
arrest,'' the
party said in a statement.
Zimbabwe has plunged deeper into crisis
since Mugabe's controversial
re-election a year ago, and the economy is
melting down because of alleged
government mismanagement and sanctions by key
Western donors.
Western powers have isolated Mugabe because of the
March elections
and his controversial policies, including the seizure of many
white-owned
farms for redistribution to landless blacks.
Half the
southern African country's 14 million people are facing
starvation because of
drought and reduced farm output, and Tsvangirai is on
trial for allegedly
plotting to assassinate Mugabe.
SABC
Mbeki attacks NZ and Britain over Zimbabwe
stance
February 08, 2003, 17:15
Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, has attacked England
and New
Zealand for seeking to move their cricket World Cup matches from
Zimbabwe and
Kenya on political or security grounds.
"These governments
have raised questions about security
questions...To the best of our
knowledge, these governments have provided no
information to the ICC
indicating that the security of the players is
threatened," Mbeki said in a
weekly letter to members of his ruling African
National Congress
(ANC).
New Zealand have refused to play in Kenya, citing
security.
England, after months of wrangling between players, officials
and
politicians, lost an appeal yesterday to have their match against
Zimbabwe
moved to main tournament hosts South Africa because of the political
and
social unrest in Zimbabwe. They will decide tomorrow whether to play
the
February 13 fixture in Harare.
Mbeki particularly
rounded on Britain and Australia, which he
said had recently issued "travel
alerts" to their citizens, warning of
imminent terrorist attacks in South
Africa. "We found it difficult to
explain these goings-on because they
indicated hostility or a negative
attitude towards our country, for which we
could not find any basis," he
said.
"Given what has now
happened with regard to Zimbabwe and Kenya,
it may very well be that the
false 'travel alerts' about South Africa were
intended to convey a global
message of general African insecurity, to
prepare for the campaign against
Zimbabwe and Kenya, and therefore the
African-hosted Cricket World
Cup."
Neither British nor Australian government officials
were
immediately available for comment.
No
queries
Mbeki noted that India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which
have had
military conflict in their countries and will be playing in Kenya
or
Zimbabwe, had not raised security issues. "With regard to
Zimbabwe,
political questions have also been raised. These are an integral
part of an
international political campaign being waged by the same
governments against
the government of Zimbabwe," Mbeki
added.
Mbeki said as principal hosts, South Africa had
resisted the
temptation to join the wrangle. He said it was provoked by the
three
countries, whose aim, he believed, was to focus on the legitimacy of
Robert
Mugabe, the Zimbabwean President, and his government. He said it
was
unfortunate the World Cup was being politicised, and suggested that
Britain,
New Zealand and Australia applied double standards in dealing with
critical
political questions such as Zimbabwe.
"No sports
sanctions have been imposed on Zimbabwe by anybody.
Only last year, the
Commonwealth Games were held in Manchester, in the
United Kingdom. Zimbabwe
athletes participated in these games," he said.
"The UK,
Australia and New Zealand, whose athletes competed in
these games, did not
call for the exclusion of Zimbabwe. And yet, now that
we have a tournament
held in Africa, an attempt is made to impose a sports
boycott against
Zimbabwe," he said.
The government of Tony Blair, the British
Prime Minister, which
is at loggerheads with Mugabe over his controversial
land redistribution of
white-owned farms to blacks and a 2002 election the
West believes Mugabe
stole, had urged its players not to go to Zimbabwe. -
Reuters
SABC
External factors fuel Zimbabwe crisis, says
Obasanjo
February 08, 2003,
16:45
Nigerian President, Olusegun
Obasanjo
Olusegun Obasanjo, the Nigerian President, says
external factors
are aggravating the Zimbabwean crisis. He is on a two-day
state visit to
South Africa and will travel to Harare later today for talks
with Robert
Mugabe, the Zimbabwean President. Obasanjo referred to Britain's
alleged
failure to honour the 1979 Lancaster House
agreement.
Obasanjo also urged South Africa's business
community to tap
into the vast Nigerian market - with a population of over
120 million
people. He also briefed the African Heads of Mission on the New
Partnership
for Africa's Development (Nepad) and the state of the
continent.
Obasanjo called on the diplomats to help solve
Africa's
problems, rather than to allow outsiders to dictate the terms - as
is the
case in Zimbabwe.
"The polarised internal situation
in Zimbabwe is not unconnected
with the external situation. I believe that
the two go hand in hand."
He also raised the concern that
although Africa belonged to
organisations such as the United Nations, the
continent - as he put it -
still had no voice. Obasanjo's visit was aimed at
cementing trade relations
between the two countries and to review the
progress made since the
Bi-National Commission was established four years
ago.
SABC
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zimbabwe
to clamp down on World Cup protests
February 08, 2003,
18:15
Zimbabwe police has warned that no political
protests would be
allowed at World Cup games in the southern African country,
saying security
would "be very tight" during the tournament. Albert Mandizha,
a senior
assistant commissioner, said at a security briefing that no
political
slogans and songs, placards and dress or "artefacts associated
with
political parties" would be allowed at match venues.
"We would not expect cricket players to take their bats and to
sing cricket
songs at a political rally, likewise we don't expect people to
bring their
politics to the cricket games," said Mandizha. "Security will be
very tight
and we will apply the law to ensure that people enjoy their
cricket in
peace."
England and Australia have both expressed concerns
about playing
their Group A matches in Zimbabwe, and England's players will
only decide
tomorrow whether to boycott their February 13 game in Harare.
Champions
Australia continue to watch the situation intently, although they
are still
preparing to play their February 24 match against Zimbabwe in
Bulawayo.
Zimbabwe laws would also apply
Mandizha said Zimbabwe's tough laws, which require police
permission for any
demonstration to be staged, would be enforced. The
opposition argues,
however, that the law is used selectively against
President Robert Mugabe's
critics.
"Cricket or no cricket, the laws apply," Mandizha
said at the
Harare Sports Club, the country's main cricket ground, as dozens
of
heavily-armed police went through their drills. "The laws of Zimbabwe
have
not been suspended."
Mandizha added that spectators
would be searched by police for
weapons and alcohol as they arrive at the
match venues, while other ICC
security measures would also be adopted.
"Failure is not an option, the
Zimbabwe Republic Police is geared for this
task," he said.
Justice Ahmed Ebrahim, Zimbabwe Cricket Union
vice-president,
who was also at the briefing, said the security measures
being taken were
standard provisions enforced at many sports tournaments
around the world.
"There is nothing sinister," he said.
Half of Zimbabwe's 14 million people face food shortages while
main
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is currently on trial facing a
possible
death sentence on a charge of trying to kill Mugabe.
Planned
opposition protests around matches scheduled to be held
in Zimbabwe have
fuelled fears for players' and fans' safety. The World Cup
still has to deal
with one other boycott threat, with New Zealand refusing
to travel to play
Kenya in Nairobi on February 21, again over security
worries. - Reuters
Regional Contagion
"Finally, above all, it is not possible to ring-fence
radical policies,
particularly unsuccessful ones. Few doubt that President
Mugabe has brought
contagion to southern Africa and possibly to sub-Saharan
Africa as well."
(Professor Tony Hawkins in a recent press
article.)
When a team from the MDC met with the UNDP delegation that was
visiting
Zimbabwe recently, I was struck by the emphasis given to the issue
of
HIV/Aids by the people on the UN side of the table. Repeatedly they asked
us
if we understood the threat of HIV/Aids to our society and "what were
we,
(the MDC) doing about it".
I responded to these questions with two
considerations. First I said that no
African was unaware of Aids and the
threat to our society, we lived with the
problem and had to deal with the
fallout every day. In my own business, I
have seen three young professionals
die from Aids in the past six months. We
estimate that 3 000 people a week
are dying from the disease in Zimbabwe.
Secondly, I said that everything we
did as a country was simply like the
drawings of a child on the sand at the
sea - its efforts were washed away
when the next wave of bad government
policy or actions washed over the
beach. We wanted to talk about governance
and the impact on our society in
terms of hunger, disease, and the loss of
human dignity and increasing
poverty and deprivation. They wanted to talk
about the mechanics of getting
enough food to starving people and Aids. They
were reluctant to talk about
anything else. It was
instructive.
Zimbabwe is like a volcano that is covering all its
neighbors with a deadly
layer of ash and rocks. Lets look at what Tony called
"contagion" within the
southern African sphere.
We in Zimbabwe have
the distinction of being a country with a very high rate
of infection by HIV
and Aids. It is estimated that 35 per cent of our adult
population is HIV
positive, that over 60 per cent of all women having
children are positive and
that infection rates in children over 12 years of
age rise dramatically into
their teens. This points to very high rates of
new infections amongst the
young. We are an HIV/Aids volcano destroying all
that gets in its way and
infecting the countries all around us and abroad.
Everything that Mugabe
has done in the past decade, has made the situation
worse - education
opportunities for girls have declined from 85 per cent in
the late 90's to
less than a third today. One third of the workforce has
lost their jobs in
the economic collapse of the past 4 years. Inflation and
negative economic
growth has reduced living standards dramatically. People
can no longer afford
decent diets or adequate nutrition. The food system has
been destroyed and
all types of foods are in short supply or too expensive
to be afforded. The
health system, created with such pride in the 80's, is
in a shambles. There
are no drugs to administer to the people suffering from
the common HIV
related diseases - malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhea, pulmonary
infections. All
of these diseases are out of control. On top of this the
government has
systematically undermined the rule of law, subverted the
justice system,
destroyed any confidence in the country and broken all the
basic rules of
governance. Corruption is endemic and widespread and now
infects all aspects
of state activity.
What do people do when this happens? They flee to
neighboring countries or
try to go further afield. The queue outside the
passport office is
kilometers long every day. The demand for visa's so great
that every target
country Embassy is swamped with applications. We simply do
not know any
longer how many people from Zimbabwe now live in South Africa -
but it runs
into millions. The great majority, are there illegally. The
estimate by the
Botswana Police that up to 125 000 Zimbabweans cross over the
border
illegally every month gives us some idea of the scale of human flight.
In
their country of destination they slide into the shantytowns - taking
over
the shacks recently vacated by others moving on into new townships. They
joi
n criminal gangs and will kill for a cell phone, which they will then
hock
to a fence so as to send money home in Zimbabwe.
They locate a
relative in Boston, Montreal or London. Scrape together the
money for a visa
and an air ticket and then just disappear into those
societies. Perhaps 10
per cent get caught and sent back, it's not enough of
a ratio to dissuade the
others. They say there are parts of London now where
you can speak Shona in
the pubs and be understood. But lets not forget -
many of these unhappy
migrants are already HIV positive when they leave -
their lifestyle in their
new countries is a perfect breeding ground for HIV
transmission and I have
got no doubt that we are accelerating the growth of
the problem in all
neighboring countries. We sit astride the largest network
of long distance
road services in Africa - Zimbabwe has a larger fleet of
heavy-duty trucks
than South Africa and our trucker's range across the whole
of sub Sahara
Africa - right up to Kenya and Uganda. Almost every truck
driver is a mobile
source of HIV infection.
If we do not tackle to source of this epidemic
and start to get transmission
under control and soon, it has the capacity to
totally destroy our
countries. This is especially true of Botswana and South
Africa where they
have the money and the health system that is needed to
treat HIV and its
opportunistic related infections. But if all the efforts of
the governments
of those countries are subsequently negated by an ongoing
flood of HIV
infected people fleeing from Mugabe's Zimbabwe, then their
efforts will not
be able to curb the spread of the disease.
Look at
the other great failure of Africa in the past decade. The failure
to
participate in the greatest spurt of economic growth and wealth in
the
history of the world. In fact whilst all other continents saw the
absolute
numbers of the poor and destitute decline and the average wealth of
their
societies grow, Africa experienced only more suffering and stagnation.
It is
estimated that in 2001, the whole of Africa received less than US$10
billion
in foreign direct investment - and that includes investment in the
oil
industry. The only large investment that is not included in this figure
was
a once off investment in SA by a foreign firm.
In a continent
where hunger and hopelessness is common, where homelessness
is more frequent
than not, where incomes have fallen for the past 40 years,
Zimbabwe now
stands out as a stark reminder that no country is immune to the
fall out from
a bad government. Mugabe, with his numerous degrees and
acclaimed mind has
destroyed what was once regarded as a role model for
other African States. I
do not know what went wrong with this man who came
in from the bush war and
became our first President after independence, but
whatever it was it was
pretty thorough.
What worries me is that so few African leaders seem to
appreciate that what
Mugabe has done here is directly impacting on their own
societies. When
Mugabe attacks private property rights in Zimbabwe, denies
the owners of
those rights any legal recourse or protection and allows his
cronies to
loot, kill and maim at random, then every African on the continent
suffers.
This is a small world, a tiny blue ball in a vast universe -
its
communications are now better than ever. What happens in Zimbabwe is
world
news in seconds. The telephone and the Internet ensure that there are
no
"protected corners" left. We live in a global goldfish bowl. What
African
leaders do in their own countries is important to all Africans - not
just
the victims in the rogue governments' backyard.
So when investor
rights are trampled on in Zimbabwe and billions of dollars
of private assets
are stolen and looted by political cronies, the rest of
the world watches
very carefully and the reaction of those leaders in the
vicinity are
scrutinized minutely. When Mbeki and Obasanjo fail to stand up
to Mugabe and
to argue that what he is doing is wrong, this is interpreted
(probably
correctly) as being tacit acceptance of what he is doing. This
then colors
their own view of the investment prospects in their countries as
well as
Zimbabwe. So South Africa sees only minimal investment from abroad,
at the
same time it sees capital flight every month in the form of
successful South
African firms investing abroad. Its no mystery that
Rothmans are bigger
outside South Africa than in its homeland, or Anglo, or
De Beers, or Barlows
or South African Breweries. This flight is accompanied
by a flight of human
capital as the brightest and the best in these
countries move to places where
they think their families or their own
careers will prosper and find
security.
No continent can create wealth for its own children in these
circumstances
and that is why what Mugabe is doing here must be of concern to
leaders
throughout the continent. They must find the political will to do
something
about the rogue States and leaders in Africa. Not just for the sake
of the
suffering millions in those countries, but for their own people as
well. No
country is an island and can behave the way Mugabe has in the past 4
years
without damaging the interests of all those in the vicinity. That is
why
good governance is something that we all need in order to
prosper.
Eddie Cross Bulawayo, 8th February 2003.
As a civic and human rights activist I've been interested to
read the various emails and letters about the world cup cricket taking place in
Zimbabwe.
We have a wealth of social and political commentators in this
country which means that there is always intelligent and lively debate on a wide
variety of issues.
A few submissions stand out because, one way or another, they
have presented compelling arguments either for or against a cricket
boycott.
For example, a person from Chiredzi entitled his/her letter to
the Zimbabwe Independent, Pain Stopped Play and suggests that
if Nasser Hussein leads his men in a boycott of Zimbabwe, he will go down as a
hero in sporting history.
Cathy Buckle remains a consistent voice in offering clear and
uncompromising criticism of the illegitimate Mugabe regime and in her most
recent email she discusses the fact that Edison Mukwasi died recently from
complications that arose from his torture in police custody when he was arrested
at a Pakistan cricket match. His crime: distributing leaflets.
Albert Gumbo came through with an evocative piece called
What A Wonderful World. He stated clearly that things aren't wonderful
in Zimbabwe and, specifically in regard to the cricket boycott, he
questioned whether Zimbabweans had any back bone at all?
Dave Young came through with a rather naive article. He
suggests that a boycott of the world cup cricket won't make any difference. That
this sort of action is too small and rather than wreck the livelihoods of our
crickers we should play the game and support our lads.
Both Dave Young and David Coltart have suggested that
Zimbabweans should go to the cricket but in protest wear a black arm band. The
mind boggles at this one. Stands full of Zimbabweans shouting "catch it" and
downing beers. All with a black armband on. How about around the head
instead?
Col Henderson of Bulawayo has been like a dog with a ball
(yes, not a bone) and has been invaluable in disseminating a wide variety of
information on the cricket boycott. Her stance has been very clear: stay away,
and don't play.
As we approach the first day's match, Zimbabwe versus Namibia,
I've been wondering what the mood is of the few thousand cricket supporters in
Zimbabwe.
Few people believe me when I say that I'm an avid cricket fan.
Having said that I'm not sure if there's some sort of generic profile of a
cricket fan! What I do know is if Zimbabwe, which is currently governed (if you
can call it that) by the illegitimate dictator, Robert Mugabe, successfully
hosts world cup cricket matches, Zanu PF will have scored a diplomatic
triumph.
And I'm not too sure why people are so confused by this
argument. Afterall, being chosen to host a major world sporting event
acknowledges that your country is robust, safe and popular enough to do so. And
we know, without a doubt that except for the privileged few, Zimbabwe is not
safe, and indeed, violence and hunger stalk the majority of our brothers and
sisters.
If Zimbabweans had any doubt as to whether Zanu PF would use
this as a propaganda coup, then the smiling faces of white cricket lovers
adorning Moyo's tabloid, The Herald a couple of weeks ago, must have dispelled
any confusion. If I had been on The Herald's front page in anything but
handcuffs I would have been ashamed.
So where do Zimbabweans with a shred of conscience stand on
the brink of the world cup cricket. We have several choices as citizens of this
country.
- First, we can choose to go to the cricket, with our black arm
bands on and support our cricket team in their quest for sporting glory.
- Or we can go to the cricket, as comrades in arms, determined to
stage more robust protests. We can link arms, invade the pitch and sit down. We
can smuggle in banners and placards. We can sing songs of protest. And chant
slogans. We can take a candle and pin a photograph of one of the many activists
who have died in the quest for your freedom on it. Its time to
personalise this struggle.
- We can boycott the matches entirely. We can make sure that our
seat is empty. That the world's cameras register empty stands. That Zimbabweans
have decided to stay away in support of the millions of people currently facing
death by starvation at the hands of the patron of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union.
- Or we can join the protests that will take place outside the
grounds.
One thing is clear: the majority of us want positive change in
Zimbabwe. Yet the majority of us believe that it is someone elses job to either
lead it or do it.
And this has attitude has to stop.
If you decide to go to the cricket, I believe that it's your
duty to make sure that your presence at that game is a truly defiant one.
- power concedes nothing without a demand, it
never has, and it never will
Bev Clark
Harare
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2003 3:57 PM
Subject: Pain stopped play
Press Statement
Issued by Organised Resistance
8th February 2003
Pain stopped play
Organised Resistance acknowledges the difficult position that the England
cricket team finds itself in on the eve of the Cricket World Cup. Thousands of
Zimbabweans have been truly impressed and encouraged by the seriousness with
which Nasser Hussein and the rest of the England team have treated their
scheduled match in Harare.
Nasser Hussein is correct in saying that their Zimbabwean match has become
much more than just a game of cricket. Indeed the world cup has become much more
than just a sports tournament to Zimbabweans.
It is with this in mind that Organised Resistance calls on the England
cricket team to stop vacillating. In solidarity with millions of starving
Zimbabweans, please do the right thing - do not come to Zimbabwe.
Indeed we ask you not to deny Zimbabwean activists and protest groups the
opportunity to use this opportunity and the intense media coverage that it will
provoke, to clearly illustrate the brutality of the Mugabe regime.
During the past 6 weeks Zimbabwean activists have suffered a significant
increase in assault, intimidation and harassment metered out by Mugabe’s
henchmen. In the last few days a farmer was chased into a dam on his farm.
Mugabe militia looked on while he drowned. In another incident, a mentally
retarded young man was stoned to death for "trespassing" on land recently
appropriated by land invaders.
Organised Resistance also calls upon the England cricket team not to shorten
their visit to Zimbabwe, and to use some of their time to appraise themselves of
the desperate humanitarian disaster that has engulfed Zimbabwe.
As Nasser Hussein has so eloquently articulated, this is not only about
safety and security. It is also about what is just, and what is right.
Its not a game anymore.
Organised Resistance
Zimbabwe
The arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
- Martin
Luther
King
Yahoo News
England stall over Zimbabwe boycott
Sat Feb 8, 7:07
AM ET
By N.Ananthanarayanan
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - England's
players will take another day to decide
whether to boycott their World Cup
match in Zimbabwe, a team spokesman said
on Saturday.
That
will mean the decision being announced just hours before the
tournament's
opening game between South Africa and West Indies at
Newlands.
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) spokesman Andrew
Walpole told
reporters a final decision on Thursday's match in Harare was
expected to be
announced at 0830 GMT on Sunday, adding: "There will be no
further comment
today."
England, after months of wrangling between
players, officials and
politician, lost an appeal on Friday to have the game
moved to main
tournament hosts South Africa because of the political and
social unrest in
Zimbabwe.
South African judge Albie Sachs said he
was not convinced by England's case,
adding that a switch would damage
Zimbabwean cricket, but he also
acknowledged the validity of concerns over
security and said the whole
cricket world would be looking on
intently.
Media rumours circulating around the England camp were
suggesting the team
could be set to do a u-turn and play after
all.
Champions Australia are also watching the situation intently,
having
expressed concerns about their match against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo
later in
the tournament.
England players and officials held six
hours of meetings late on Friday,
which also involved International Cricket
Council (ICC) security experts.
Walpole said the talking went past
midnight. A further team meeting was held
on Saturday morning, with more
discussion scheduled for later in the day
with ECB chairman David Morgan and
chief executive Tim Lamb.
"It's a delicate matter," Lamb said. "We
are still discussing it."
The England camp's concerns range from
personal security issues -- the ICC
has consistently assured them of
comprehensive protection -- to the ethical
dilemma of playing in a country
facing major upheaval.
Australian and Britain have led calls for
Commonwealth sanctions against
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, accusing
him of rigging his re-election
in 2002 and compounding Africa's food crisis
by seizing white-owned farms to
give to blacks.
SHORT
VISIT
If England decide against a boycott, they seem set to take up
an ICC offer
to cut the visit as short as possible.
Walpole
confirmed the team had cancelled their planned flight to Zimbabwe on
Sunday,
adding: "If England do go to Zimbabwe, they will likely go for a
shorter
period than envisaged."
Half of Zimbabwe's 14 million people face
food shortages while main
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is currently on
trial facing a possible
death sentence on a charge of trying to kill
Mugabe.
Planned opposition protests around matches have fuelled fears
for players'
and fans' safety.
The World Cup still has to deal
with one other boycott threat, with New
Zealand refusing to travel to play
Kenya in Nairobi, again over security
worries.
News24
More MDC lawmakers arrested
08/02/2003 21:36 -
(SA)
Harare - Three leading lawmakers from Zimbabwe's main opposition
Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) were arrested on Saturday, the party
said.
MDC members of parliament Tendai Biti and Paul Madzore were
arrested in a
low income suburb of Mabvuku in the capital as they were about
to address a
rally.
Another deputy, Gabriel Chaibva, who is also the
party's shadow minister of
local government, was arrested in the northwestern
coal mining town of
Hwange where he was a attending a seminar with the
party's municipal
councillors.
Seven MDC legislators have now been
arrested so far this year, with Madzore
being arrested twice.
"We are
not surprised at all by these routine and systematic arrests. They
are meant
to harass and frustrate our members," said MDC spokesperson Paul
Temba
Nyathi.
He said the arrest of people and their subsequent release without
charge "at
the whims and according to the mood of the ... illegitimate
government" has
become a familiar phenomenon.
The Zimbabwe government
has vowed to crack down on anyone it suspects to be
involved in or planning
to disrupt the 2003 World Cup Cricket matches due to
be held here from
Monday. - Sapa-AFP
Dear Family and Friends,
The world cup cricket is coming to Zimbabwe after
all and I couldn't help but laugh at the half page advertisement in the state
owned Herald newspaper today. Along with telling us which roads will be closed
there is a monstrous lists of "Ground Rules" for prospective spectators.
Included are the following things which will not be allowed into the
grounds:
* No cold drinks of any type, regardless of the
container it is in.
*No banners or flags which are supported on a
stick.
*No trumpets, drums or musical
instruments
*No deck chairs, umbrellas or gazebos.
"Banners and flags may only include wording which
is: tasteful, non-offensive, non vulgar. non political, non racial, non
discriminatory and non sexual."
Whilst this may strike anyone living outside
Zimbabwe as utterly ludicrous - a sort of Charlie Chaplin 'Great Dictator' skit
- for those of us who live here it has, like everything else these days, a
tragic undercurrent. The world will watch cricket being played in Zimbabwe while
some of us will be remembering the life of a very brave young man who has just
died..
Edison Mukwasi aged
29 died in an Harare hospital this week. Edison was an ordinary man working on a
construction site in Harare before he joined the opposition and the last two
years of his life have been utter hell. He was the MDC's youth chairman for
Harare and his nightmare began in January 2001 during the Bikita West
by-election. At that time Edison and 12 others were picked up by police,
tortured for four days whilst in detention and then dumped in the Gonarezhou
National Park. According to Edison's mother, Edison's lungs and liver were
perforated during the torture. In November 2002 Edison and others were arrested
by police at a cricket match in Harare and allegedly tortured again whilst in
police custody. He was supposedly to be charged with suspected public disorder
but was released without being charged. Edison is survived by his wife Gladys
and their two week old daughter Nyasha.
Zimbabwe mourns the death of Edison Mukwasi and
also of at least 50 others who died when two trains collided last weekend in
Dete. The scenes of the mangled, melted carriages were utterly horrific. We were
shocked when later on that same day President Mugabe walked down the red carpet
at Harare airport. He was not on his way to the crash site but to a conference
in Ethiopia. Even more horrific was the female reporter on ZBC television who
reported that bodies were burnt beyond recognition and that "body parts were
going to be pulled out in order for the corpses to be identified". The gross
lack of human compassion did not end with that statement. A couple of days after
the accident the government announced what the relations of the deceased were
going to be given as compensation. Each family would get one coffin, 5 bags of
maize and fifteen thousand dollars. Frankly this is an insult, the money will
not even last a fortnight and the maize just a couple of months.
Casualties in Zimbabwe in both human and economic
terms are growing by the day. This week Circle cement, the biggest producer in
the country announced that they have ceased their operations and are closing
down. The government continues to seize the remaining handful of productive
farms left in the country and on Friday listed another 31 properties to be
seized, some as small as 60 hectares. We all know that with a war in Iraq
looking more and more likely, the chances of any news coverage for Zimbabwe are
going to be almost nil in the months to come. Perhaps the coverage we get during
the World Cup Cricket will be our last chance for international attention to our
plight. I intend to keep writing this letter for as long as you want to read it.
Last weekend there were some serious threats to my website so for a while I will
not give it's address but if you would like details please contact me and if you
no longer wish to receive this letter please tell me. I know only too well how
annoying unwelcome mail can be. Until next week, with love, cathy.
