• Commonwealth won't give up on Zimbabwe
• Pressure grows for Zimbabwe talks
• Zimbabwe urged to release food stockpile
• Americans urged to consider leaving Zimbabwe
• Zimbabwe govt moves to gag Daily News
• Zimbabwe situation 'bleak', warns Straw
• England delay Zimbabwe decision
• "Green Bombers" deserting poor conditions in camps
• Police Arrest Senior Agribank Officials
• Zifa Delegation to Gobble $356 Million
• Anguish, Anxiety Struck ANZ Staff
• JAG Open Letter Forum No 226
• Education in Zimbabwe
• Update on Kay Conolly - 23 Jan 04 -
• Zimbabwe Animals Rescued After Farmers Flee
• Surplus Conditions Short-Lived: Experts

      "I believe that when they get to talking together formally it should
not be too difficult for them to arrive at some agreement," Mr Obasanjo said
in London.

      Human rights

      Don McKinnon, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth said the
organisation required "substantive talks" between the MDC and Mr Mugabe's
government before Zimbabwe could be readmitted.

      Zimbabwe pulled out of the grouping of former British colonies last
December after the Commonwealth extended its suspension due to human rights
concerns.

      Mr Mbeki and Mr Obasanjo have been leading attempts to solve
Zimbabwe's political deadlock

      But Zanu-PF external affairs secretary Didymus Mutasa on Thursday told
BBC News Online: "The only contact we have had is at parliament, where we
shout at each other."

      MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube said they had not dropped their
legal challenge. About the prospect of talks, he said: "If it is true, we
would welcome it."

Friday January 23, 2004 15:14 - (SA)

The U.N. food agency has urged President Robert Mugabe's government to
release 240,000 tons of maize it has reportedly stockpiled to help feed
millions of hungry Zimbabweans.

"There is currently a big shortage of food," said Kevin Farrell, the World
Food Programme's country director in Zimbabwe.

WFP is feeding about 3.5 million of the most vulnerable in the
drought-stricken country, which is also in the throws of political and
economic turmoil.

But the agency expects the number of people requiring food aid to climb to
more than 5.5 million as the country enters its traditional "lean season",
in which rural granaries become depleted ahead of March and April harvests.

While the agency has secured commitments from donors for 85 percent of the
450,000 tons of commodities it asked for in April, it still fears more than
1 million hungry Zimbabweans could go without assistance, WFP spokesman Mike
Huggins said in Johannesburg.

The state-run Herald newspaper reported Dec. 30 that the government's Grain
Marketing Board, which has a monopoly over local sales of most staple foods,
has collected 240,000 tons of maize this season.

The United Nations has written to the government in the past week to ask
that it release this food into the marketplace to help alleviate acute
shortages, Farrell said in Johannesburg.

While most food items are available on the black market, prices are
increasing even faster than the nearly 600 percent official inflation rate,
putting many basics out of the reach of many Zimbabweans, he said.

Zimbabwe officials have not yet responded to the WFP request and could not
immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

Zimbabwe is facing its worst political and economic crisis since
independence from Britain in 1980, with record unemployment, rampant
inflation and acute shortages of food, gasoline and other essentials.

The often violent seizure of thousands of white owned farms for
redistribution to blacks, coupled with erratic rains, have crippled the
agriculture of a nation that was once a regional bread basket.

Foreign loans, development aid and investment have dried up in protest
against human rights and civil liberties abuses.

WFP was forced to cut its maize meal rations by half at the end of last year
because of insufficient donations.

While those rations are back to size, the agency has now run out of oil and
pulses for Zimbabwe.

AFP

Friday January 23, 2004 11:56 - (SA)

WASHINGTON - The United States has urged Americans to consider leaving
Zimbabwe, warning that the ongoing political, economic and humanitarian
crises could have a serious impact on security there.

"Zimbabwe is in the midst of political, economic, and humanitarian crises
with serious implications for the security situation in the country," the
State Department said in a statement.

"All US citizens in Zimbabwe are urged to take those measures they deem
appropriate to ensure their wellbeing, including consideration of departure
from the country," it added.

Crime has surged because of the nation's economic collapse, with extremely
high rates of unemployment and inflation, while about half the country's
population faces food shortages and possibly famine, the statement said.

"The humanitarian crisis is expected to worsen in coming months and may lead
to unrest and possible large-scale migration of Zimbabweans to urban or
border areas, with further disruption and an increase in crime and
instability," it said.

Fuel shortages have hindered travel within the country, and the State
Department said commercial farms should be avoided entirely because of the
threat of violence by settlers or self-styled war veterans, "who are
typically young government supporters acting with impunity outside the law".

AFP

Zimbabwe's popular independent Daily News -- a fierce critic of President
Robert Mugabe's government -- hit the stands on Thursday four months after
it was shut down by authorities but the government moved swiftly to close it
again.

The Daily News paper published 100 000 copies of a thin eight-page edition
that was quickly snapped up by curious and excited readers.

Some, unsure of the consequences of being seen reading a paper that has
attracted the wrath of the government, were seen reading the issue hidden
inside the bigger state-run Herald newspaper.

"The majority of people are happy. (The paper) was bought like fresh meat
versus rotten meat," said a woman who gave her name only as Zvaitwa, not
wanting to be identified.

"I saw police and army (military) officers, many of them, buying the paper,
folding it and quickly hiding it in their stockings because they dare not be
seen reading that paper," she said.

But the government on Thursday filed urgent applications in the High Court
seeking to stop the paper from continuing to publish, according to the
paper's legal advisor.

Gugulethu Moyo said the media commission, which is responsible for licensing
journalists and their papers, filed "an urgent interdict ... to stop our
operations".

In addition, she said the minister of information, Jonathan Moyo, had filed
a separate application in the High Court to have the Daily News and its
sister Sunday paper declared illegal.

"The main basis of his argument is that the ANZ (parent company Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe) is using unaccredited journalists," she told AFP.

The paper, which had been operating since early 1999, was forcibly closed by
the authorities last September because it had failed to register with a
state-appointed media commission set up by Mugabe after he was re-elected in
controversial polls in March 2002.

The paper had battled since September to get permission to resume
publishing. Five court rulings have been issued in favour of the paper since
then.

The orders were largely ignored with the police vacating the premises
briefly before returning.

The latest uninterrupted occupation of the paper's printing works by the
police started on December 19 until Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the High Court in Harare again ordered police out of the
paper's printing works, the third such order issued in just over a month.

That time, the police complied with the order, leaving the way open for the
newspaper's presses to start rolling.

Observers had earlier Thursday expressed scepticism at the resumption of the
operations and how long they could last.

Law lecturer and rights activist Lovemore Madhuku said it would be a
"welcome surprise" if the authorities allowed it to continue operating.

"My own suspicions are that something will happen. I think they are still
planning, and I don't think they will let go just like that," said Madhuku.

"It would be uncharacteristic of the regime."

Thursday's issue was only the second of the Daily News to appear since
September 12, when police raided the paper's premises and shut it down.

The previous issue was published on October 24 after the country's
administrative court ordered that the media commission allow the paper to
register and resume publishing.

None of the state-run media mentioned the Daily News's return to newsstands
on Thursday.

On whether the paper planned to publish on Friday in the light of the
pending litigation, the legal advisor said: "They (government) don't have
any orders yet", suggesting they would proceed to publish.

The applications are set to be heard Friday.

The tabloid was Zimbabwe's best-selling daily with a readership of 900 000
prior to its forced closure.

The government has accused the paper of being a mouthpiece of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Its journalists were frequently
arrested over their stories, and its printing press was bombed in 2001. -
Sapa-AFP

HARARE, 23 Jan 2004 (IRIN) - Some volunteers to the Zimbabwe government's
controversial youth service programme are deserting because of the poor
conditions and allegations of brutality, according to former recruits and
human rights NGOs.

Twenty-year old Brighton Mukunga says he is a bitter man. He finished his
A-Level studies two years ago and although he passed well, he could not
obtain a place in college to do journalism, the career he had always wanted
to pursue.

Six months ago he met an old schoolmate, now attending college, who said he
had only managed to secure a place after undergoing a national youth service
programme.

"Even though I had heard about the youth training centres, I never wanted to
join them because I had been told so many negative things about them.
However, because I was desperate to get into college, I joined one of the
training camps, since it had become difficult to get a place without a
certificate from the youth service programme," Mukunga told IRIN.

But he had ran away after only two weeks of training. "The situation at that
camp was terrible - so much so that I resolved I would rather roam the
streets than be in that hell."

Despite the youth brigade training centres experiencing a host of problems,
the government has indicated its intention to establish more camps, while
analysts say the centres are not sustainable because they were not properly
planned for.

The first centre, the Border Gezi training camp in Mount Darwin, about 90 km
north of Harare, was set up in 2001 and was quickly followed by four more in
Matebeleland North, Mutare in Manicaland, Kamativi in Mashonaland West and
Zvishavane in the Midlands province.

The youth brigade camps have churned out several thousand graduates, who
have come to be popularly known as "Green Bombers", because of the colour of
their uniform. Many youths join because some colleges apparently give
preference to those who have undergone training. The civil service also
prefers graduates.

But the centres have reportedly been plagued by desertions, acute food
shortages and squalid living conditions.

The government has argued that the training programme, for those aged
between 10 and 30 years, is meant to instill national pride, while equipping
the youth with vocational skills.

Instead, according to testimonies from graduates and human rights groups,
the training courses emphasise military drill and the doctrines of the
ruling ZANU-PF party.

David Chimhini, a human rights proponent and chairman of the Zimbabwe Civic
Education Trust (Zimcet), charges that the "quasi-military camps ... were
set up, not to promote patriotism as the government claims, but to ensure
the survival of ZANU-PF. In the frenzy to churn out militias, whose main
purpose is to terrorise perceived enemies and members of the political
opposition, the government forgot to set up proper structures to ensure
permanence and durability of the programme."

Graduates from the training centres have often been accused of mounting
terror campaigns against opponents of the ruling party.

POOR LIVING CONDITIONS

Mukunga described the conditions he experienced at Mushagashe training
centre in Zvishavane.

"One night, I silently packed my bag, threw it over a fence and fled from
the training centre. I knew that if I got caught, I would be in trouble with
the instructors, but I could not take any more of it. We had gone for a
whole week surviving on porridge, which was extremely rationed. When I
arrived, senior trainees told me that they used to receive two meals a day,
but supplies had run out because there was no money to buy more supplies,"
he said.

"I was told that the ministry (of youth, gender and employment creation) had
exhausted its budget and it was proving difficult to get an additional vote
because the government did not have the money. It had become a daily thing
to see recruits fainting on parade due to hunger."

Three days before he decided to run away, he was rushed to a local clinic,
suffering from dizziness and general exhaustion. He said several trainees
had to be sent home after falling seriously ill because the camp did not
have drugs or money to cover the medical expenses of those affected by
disease.

Mukunga said the shortage of food at Kamativi training centre was made worse
by the grueling military routines the trainees were made to undergo. "The
instructors would make us run for more than 10 km on empty stomachs, saying
that was to test our endurance. When we finished the road runs, we could
hardly lift our feet. I thought it was inhuman, considering that military
exercises [made up] most of the curriculum."

The pro-government newspaper, the Daily Mirror, recently reported that
hunger at Mushagashe was forcing recruits to steal and slaughter cattle from
neighbouring farms. The paper quoted an unnamed police officer confirming
that they had opened several dockets against some of the youths for
reportedly stealing foodstuffs from the farms, or raiding nearby shops and
coercing the owners to give them food.

The barracks they were living in were rundown. "When it rained, the roofs
leaked and we were forced to huddle in a corner," said Mukunga.

But a senior instructor at Mushagashe, who identified himself as Comrade
Sam, said the situation at his training camp was normal. "It is only those
who would have proved to be too weak who spread lies about our training
programme," he said. "We test the recruits for endurance, and anyone who
thinks he is coming here for a picnic should forget it."

He denied that trainees were being taught terror tactics.

Chimhini said Zimcet was obtaining testimony from a significant number of
former trainees, including girls who had faced systematic sexual abuse in
the camps.

"I have received harrowing accounts from girls who were forced to have
sexual relations with officials at the centres. The girls say they are
promised food, and preferential treatment and jobs after finishing
training," he told IRIN.

In September last year the Solidarity Peace Trust observed that girls who
had joined the training camps were being victimised.

"Female youth militia have reported rape on a systematic basis in some
camps, involving girls as young as 11 years of age. Youth militia
pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, have been
reported as resulting from youth militia training experiences. Camp
instructors are commonly implicated as among the rapists. Some youth militia
show signs of severe depression and guilt as a result of what they have seen
and done," the NGO said in a statement.

Chimhini said some graduates who approached Zimcet were also concerned they
were also not being readily accepted by their communities, because of the
Green Bombers' reputation for brutality in the service of ZANU-PF.

ZANU-PF has also acknowledged that trainees face social reintegration
problems. At the party's annual conference in the city of Masvingo in
December last year, the ZANU-PF central committee admitted that some
graduates faced ridicule.

"In view of the [challenges they face] it is requested that the party and
government double their efforts to assist this category of graduates," said
a central committee report presented at the conference.

The committee reported that it was sponsoring student representative
councils at universities and colleges, so as to counter the party's
"detractors".

[ENDS]

The Herald (Harare)

January 23, 2004
Posted to the web January 23, 2004

Harare

POLICE in Chinhoyi have arrested two senior Agricultural Development Bank of
Zimbabwe (Agribank) employees on allegations of stealing over $200 million
from a Government loan scheme meant to cushion farmers.

One of the employees whose name was supplied is believed to be an operations
manager and his deputy based at the Nelson Mandela branch was nabbed in
Chinhoyi on Monday.

Police also arrested a Chinhoyi teller of the same bank accused of tampering
with clients' accounts and fraudulently withdrawing money from individual
account holders.

At least six account holders were known to have made reports to the police.

They complained about "mysterious disappearance" of money from their
accounts.

It is however, believed the three bank employees were abusing the soft loan
facility the Government extended through the bank.

They are understood to have faked application letters, processed and
approved the same and disbursed cash.

Police yesterday said they suspected more senior employees at Head Office
could be implicated in the scam -- the first involving money used to boost
the land reforms.

The bank's executives are expected to inspect the forms before loans are
approved. It is suspected they could have connived to defraud the bank and
the scheme.

The acting chief executive officer, Mr Levy Sithole yesterday denied there
were any fraud cases happening at his bank.

"The manager at that particular bank is on normal leave, but since you
mentioned there are such allegations, we will have to investigate the
cases," Mr Sithole said.

Police spokesman Inspector Andrew Phiri, however, said the three employees
are facing fraud charges and are expected in court soon.

"We are appealing to account holders to go and check their money at the
banks and report at their nearest police stations if they notice anything
amiss," Insp Phiri said.

It is believed on Monday, a police officer went to one Agribank branch
intending to withdraw his money amounting to $6 million.

All hell broke lose when the officer discovered there was no money in his
account.

After the bank officials failed to explain what could have happened, the
officer reported the case to the police.

Five other account holders this month made similar reports after they found
their accounts empty.

Investigations carried out by the police serious fraud department have
revealed the money was stolen bet-ween September 2003 and January this year.

The Herald (Harare)

January 23, 2004
Posted to the web January 23, 2004

Fanuel Viriri
BULAWAYO

A HIGH-POWERED delegation of 35 Zifa councillors, including some ghost
councillors who are being paid back for their loyalty, is set to chew $356
million in hotel and airfare bills at the African Cup of Nations finals in
Tunisia.

Reports yesterday indicated that eight councillors believed to have been
sympathetic to ousted chairman Vincent Pamire had been sidelined and a
number of ghost councillors brought in for the trip.

Women's football boss Susan Chibizhe, Aaron Munautsi, Nerius Chete, Ephraim
Hungwe, Benedict Moyo, Nelson Matongorere, Gladmore Muzambi and Tendai
Bwanya were sidelined.

Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters Association vice-president Eddie
Nyatanga will have to pay for his seat on the plane while the leader of the
other faction Simeon Jamanda is going for free in a shadowy role as
co-ordinator of the Nations Cup.

Jamanda has been one of the fiercest supporters of the new Zifa leadership.

Harare lawyer Misheck Hogwe, one of the most loyal supporters of the
Warriors who travelled to Mali, Malawi and Mauritania during the qualifying
campaign, has also been sidelined.

Women's football official Pauline Matute has been included on the list as a
Zifa councillor although she did not vote in the Council elections that
ushered Khan into power.

The sidelined councillors yesterday raised their complaint with the
Warriors' Trust who promised to investigate the matter.

The Zimbabwe delegation is scheduled to leave tonight.

If the delegation opts to stay in the cheapest hotels in the resort towns of
Sousse and Monastir they will gobble $155 million in hotel accommodation and
airfares, minus the cost of the meals.

Investigations have revealed that the football association will spend $87,5
million in airfares on economy class for the councillors.

The economy class to Tunisia is pegged at $2,5 million while the executive
class will cost $3 million and the business class is pegged at $4 million,
according to the new rates.

The councillors will be booked in hotels for a period of nine days - 26
January - 3 February, covering all the Warriors campaign matches.

The hotel rates in Sousse are pegged between US$50 ($192 000) to US$200 and
the Zifa delegation will be booked for five days in the town gobbling $134
million exclusive of the meals at the rate of US$200 ($768 000) per night.

The cheapest rooms cost $33,6 million for the same number of days.

There are five, four-star hotels in the resort town of Sousse - Coralia Club
Sousse, Occidental Allegro Abou Sofiane, Coralia Palm Beach and Chams El
Hana.

The delegation will then travel to Monastir where they will stay for five
days before watching the Warriors match against Algeria on 3 February and
the rates for the hotels are the same as in Sousse and the councillors will
chew over $134,4 million.

If they opt for the cheapest hotels they will fork out $33,6 million in
hotel accommodation alone for five days.

There are five hotels in Monastir, Hotel les Palmiers, Coralia Club
Monastir, Hostel Houda Golf Beach Club, Skane Gardens and Iberodstar Shahara
Beach Hotel.

The Warriors are pencilled to lock horns with the Pharaohs of Egypt on
Sunday before engaging the defending champions Cameroon on 29 January and
wind up their campaign against the Desert Foxes of Algeria on 3 February in
Monastir.

Lazarus Mhurushomana, the acting Zifa chief executive, confirmed yesterday
that the football association would foot the expenses of the 35 councillors
to Tunisia.

Airfares have been subsidised by the Warriors Trust and they could have
forked out more money for the trip.

"I can confirm that 35 councillors are going to the Nations Cup. They are
leaving tomorrow (today) on a chartered flight," said Mhurushomana.

Mhurushomana quashed reports that some councillors who were sympathetic to
acting former chairman, Vincent Pamire were being sidelined for the trip.
The former Premiership chairman, Khan pipped Pamire 16-14 in the hotly
contested elections that split the councillors into two warring parties.

"I am not aware of those reports. I have not heard anything about some
councillors being discriminated.

"All the councillors are going according to the list that I have here," said
Mhurushomana.

He could not comment on reports that the 35 councillors would receive some
daily allowances during their stay for the Nations Cup.

The chairman, Khan, his deputy Wyatt Mpofu, the Zifa chief executive
officer, Edgar Rogers, are travelling to the Nations Cup on a Confederation
of African Football ticket.

The Daily News (Harare)

ANALYSIS
January 23, 2004
Posted to the web January 23, 2004

Foster Dongozi

THE last four months at the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ),
publishers of the Daily News and its sister paper the Daily News on Sunday,
have been characterised by anguish and despair.

But a glimmer of hope still remained despite the government's initial
defiance of the Administrative Court and High Court rulings that the
country's most popular newspaper should resume publication.

Some time in November, I visited the Midlands capital of Gweru and met a
newspaper vendor who is living positively with HIV.

He poured out his heart to me, lamenting that his sole source of income was
selling copies of the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday.

"When is our newspaper coming back, my brother? I am HIV-positive and I have
a family to support. Do you think our own government wants us to suffer the
way we are doing?"

I could only shudder and told him that the courts had effectively given us
permission to publish and that we could only pray that the powers-that-be
would allow us to resume publishing.

"The Daily News has been sustaining many vulnerable families including
widows, widowers and orphans. But I know that God will not allow evil to
prevail," the income-less vendor said as he walked away.

Although staff of the ANZ remained on full salary during the four-month
closure of the nation's most popular newspaper, frustrations had begun to
creep in.

Exactly a month after the newspaper was shut down, I was judged News
Reporter of the Year and was rewarded with a return ticket to any of Air
Zimbabwe's international destinations.

I was also voted the Best Writer on Children and People with Disadvantages,
an award sponsored by the Premier Service Medical Aid Society.

I could only watch from the sidelines as other publications congratulated
their staffers who had won awards in other categories but did not mention my
winning.

Even when I attended an African Union of Journalists training programme for
journalists from the continent in Cairo, Egypt, I could only watch in envy
as other journalists excitedly filed stories to their newspapers following
the capture of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein.

Daily News Editor Nqobile Nyathi said although she received a lot of support
from family and friends, being idle frustrated her.

"Just sitting around and doing nothing was very frustrating. You could surf
the Internet but after doing that for a while, reality would hit you that we
were not being allowed to publish."

Her sentiments were echoed by Deputy Editor John Gambanga, who said other
than the January 2001 bombing of the Daily News printing press, the
four-month closure was one of the saddest moments for Press freedom in
Zimbabwe.

"I naturally felt restless and dejected during this period and even more so
by the fact that we were being denied the right to publish although the
courts had ruled in our favour. High Court rulings cannot be ignored unless
this is to confirm that we live in a lawless society.

"The independent press is very crucial for the government because it points
out areas in which the government is lacking while the government media will
continue to sing praises even if things are not well," he said.

Gambanga said the Daily News was an integral part of the Zimbabwean economy
and was employing hundreds of people at a time when unemployment figures in
the country stood at 70 percent.

Gambanga travelled to Paris, France, in December to receive the Reporters
Sans Frontiers (Reporters Without Borders) prize for 2003 which was won by
this newspaper.

"I was so touched and overwhelmed by the sympathy for our newspaper," he
said.

Conway Tutani, the Chief Reader at the Daily News, described the period of
forced closure as most depressing.

"The four months of forced inactivity were a most testing and gloomy time,
but at the back of my mind I knew that one day we would be back," Tutani
said.

Precious Shumba, a senior reporter, said the last four months were "pure
hell".

"The last few months were most painful and embarrassing as many
sympathisers, friends and family could not understand why the newspaper had
been closed.

"But at the back of my mind, I had a strong belief that good was going to
triumph over evil," said Shumba.

Bester Ndoro, a photographer at the newspaper, said he simply put his
tribulations before God.

"I was praying to God to intervene on our behalf so that we could earn an
honest living. I believe that God is the most powerful force and that He has
prevailed over evil.

Stanley Gama, the Sports Editor of the Daily News on Sunday, said history
had always recorded that the innocent would prevail over evil.

"I was getting a lot of pressure from friends who were advising me to seek
employment elsewhere, but I told them I would stand by my principles," said
Gama.

Godwin Mangudya, a senior reporter with the Daily News on Sunday, said his
biggest crisis was explaining to his friends and relatives what exactly was
going on.

"People were confused. They did not know if I was working or not. At the
same time they were too uncomfortable to approach me directly to get the
full details."

But for Munyaradzi Mutebuka, a librarian at the newspaper, the publication
could not have been closed at a worse time.

"The Daily News was closed at about the same time that my first son was
born. I did not know what the future held for him. I worried that I had
brought an innocent soul so that he could be condemned to suffering. I only
thank God that with the resilience of staff at ANZ, the people's newspaper
is back."

Luke Tamborinyoka, the Chief News Editor of the Daily News, said the
resumption of the newspaper's right to publish was a slap in the face of
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, who had openly shown hostility and
disdain at having the newspaper on the streets.

"It is gratifying that, once again, the minister has been shown to be a
major predator of Press freedom. We only hope that nothing is brewing in the
background to stop the people of Zimbabwe from enjoying their right to read
newspapers of their choice," he said.

SOKWANELE

Enough is Enough

Zimbabwe 

PROMOTING NON-VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE DEMOCRACY

We have a fundamental right to freedom of expression!

Sokwanele reporter

22 January 2004

Zimbabwe Animals Rescued After Farmers Flee

by Patricia Collier

Posted on January 23, 2004
During the past three years in Zimbabwe, many animals found themselves
plunged into peril when they were left behind in the chaos that ensued when
the white-owned farms they lived on were seized by the Zimbabwe government
on the orders of President Robert Mugabe.

As the ruling party's militants swept through the areas, many of the animals
living on the land were reportedly abused, tortured or even slaughtered.

Volunteers have since been working feverishly to evacuate over 3,000 animals
from the area, including dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits, geese, swans, horses
and cows.

British Airways has been flying the rescued animals to South Africa at no
charge. Many of the animals were slaughtered during farm seizures, before
help could get to them, but workers said more than half the rescued animals
have now been reunited with their owners. The rest have found new homes in
South Africa.

"Many of the farmers and their families have lost everything, so it means a
lot to be reunited with their pets,' said Fiona Manuel, a volunteer at
Wetnose Animal Rescue in Pretoria, one of the South African shelters that
has been providing vaccinations and spaying and neutering services for the
abandoned animals.

According to Manuel, the number of animals arriving at the rescue is now
declining since most of the white farmers have now fled the country.

                  Reproduce this Article on a Web Site or in Print

Rescuers are shocked at the abuse heaped on the abandoned animals by those
who seized the land. One rescued dog had acid poured over his coat by
militants. In another case, a Labrador mix puppy named Batty was left behind
when militants chased his family away. After Batty's family had gone, the
militants turned on the puppy and gouged out his eyes, leaving him to wander
helplessly in the bush for several days before volunteers found him and
airlifted him to safety in South Africa.

Batty never found his family, but was adopted by Pippa Nairn of Cape Town,
who says the blind pup has become inseparably attached to Fudge, her
two-year-old Alsation mix, but, nine months after his ordeal, is still wary
of strangers and agitated by noise.

"I don't understand how there can be this cruelty," Manuel said. "Perhaps it
is to spite the owners, knowing how much they love their animals."

"Cruelty to animals shows a person has no heart, no soul," she said.

The Herald (Harare)

January 23, 2004
Posted to the web January 23, 2004

Harare

SURPLUS conditions prevailing on the money market are temporary and interest
rates will firm once the surplus liquidity has been wiped out, economic
analysts have predicted.

Liquidity positions have suddenly changed on the market, which had been
virtually crippled by the liquidity crisis with the market recording daily
surpluses of over $700 billion last week.

"This is based on the Reserve Bank's undertaking to limit financial
institutions' recourse for more funding.

"It is believed that the recent move by the Reserve Bank was a temporary
measure aimed at assisting troubled banks which are then expected to manage
their liquidity more effectively.

"Interest rates are, however, expected continue to fluctuate depending on
money market conditions throughout the year but the magnitude of the
fluctuations should be reduced as financial institutions manage their
liquidity more efficiently," said an investment analyst with a commercial
bank.

Investment rates on the money market, which had reached unsustainable levels
of as high as 1 000 percent for interbank overnight accommodation, 700
percent for call rates, have recently taken a major knock to levels of as
low as three percent and 15 percent respectively as of Wednesday.

This was attributed to the injection of funds to the productive sector as
well as the release of temporary liquidity support to troubled financial
institutions by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Civil servants' January salaries also enhanced liquidity.

The improved liquidity conditions provided relief to banks that had been
suffering from significant shortages in the past weeks and were, thus,
offering higher deposit rates in a bid to attract funds from the market.

Meanwhile, the market continued to be in surplus this week with 90-day
negotiable certificates of deposits (NCD) rates indicated in the 30 to 60
percent range.

Call rates were in the 15 to 50 percent range and interbank overnight rates
were between three and 20 percent on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the central bank held a Treasury bill auction for 181 days and
$50 billion was on offer.

The full amount was allotted at an average rate of 63,5 percent (yield 92,69
percent).

On Wednesday, another Treasury bill auction was held for 364 days where $75
billion was on offer and all bids were rejected.