The Telegraph
Peta
Thornycroft in Harare and Sebastien Berger
Last Updated: 8:33PM BST
09/06/2008
Robert Mugabe's regime has revealed plans that would allow it to
retake
parliament from the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change.
Robert Mugabe's regime yesterday revealed plans that would allow
it to
retake parliament from the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change.
Under new rules, anyone arrested for committing or inciting political
violence will be denied bail, a move that could be used to detain MPs from
the MDC for extended periods.
Deputy attorney-general Johannes Tomana
told the state Herald newspaper: "We
have made it a point that those
arrested are locked up right up to trial. It
does not matter who commits the
offence. We are doing this without fear or
favour. We will be tough with
them now."
In March, The MDC overturned the ruling Zanu-PF party's
stranglehold on
parliament, which it had held for 28 years.
However,
the regime's plan would ensure that the Mugabe regime could "roll
back" the
MDC's small majority.
Sydney Masamvu, a Pretoria-based analyst for the
International Crisis Group,
predicted that opposition politicians would be
"arrested on spurious grounds
of inciting violence" to shorten the
odds.
"They will pick up a number of MPs, lock them up and forget about
them," he
said. "It's a multi-pronged approach Zanu-PF is employing to rob
the MDC of
its parliamentary majority."
Meanwhile, Mr Mugabe's
militia has terrorised a pensioner's club in Harare,
claiming it to be a
"secret group of Rhodesian army officers" threatening
the overthrow the
regime.
The Men of Tin Hats club for veterans of world wars - many in
their 80s -
was raided by police and Mugabe regime thugs, who claim to be
"war veterans"
themselves.
The Herald newspaper quoted Inspector
James Sabau as saying that they were
investigating "secret meetings" linked
to alleged political violence by the
MDC
"The meetings, held under
the cover of darkness and secrecy, come in the
wake of several unsolved
violence cases that have bewildered security agents
in the country," the
Herald report said.
Members of the Moths club said the raiders stole the
club's food and
confiscated guns and other war memorabilia.
"Are we
such a dangerous lot?" said Lloyd Fulton, 83, who last saw action in
1945
with the South African Sixth Division in Italy.
Alan Armour, 80, another
member, said: "I read the Herald and smiled. This
is because of the election
at the end of the month."
More than 60 opposition members and supporters
have been killed in a
campaign of violence launched by Zanu-PF since the
poll, but the authorities
have repeatedly blamed the MDC for the
turmoil.
http://www.hararetribune.com
By Jan Raath | Times Staff | Monday, June 9,
2008 15:55
Zimbabwe, Harare - For a wad of worthless Zimbabwean
banknotes
President Mugabe's militias burnt six-year-old Nyasha Mashoko to
death.
The target of the Zanu (PF) thugs had been the boy's father,
Brian
Mamhova. They came for him on Friday night - three truckloads of them,
plus
a Mercedes Benz from which alighted three armed men in suits, Mr
Mamhova
said.
The militiamen had been promised Z$25 trillion
(£12,500) to kill him,
which seems a high price on the head of a district
councillor but which is
no problem for a Government that sees printing money
as the best way out of
a crisis.
Mr Mamhova was elected a
councillor for the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) in elections on
March 29 for the Harare South district council,
an area of farms and rundown
houses on the outskirts of the capital, close
to Harare
airport.
At 8pm on Friday Mr Mamhova was asleep. His wife, Pamela
Pasvani, 21,
his son, Nyasha, his younger brother and a nephew were in an
adjoining room.
"They [the militiamen] got in the room where I was
and they were
searching me against the wall," he said. He managed to break
free from the
men holding them and slipped past the others in the darkness.
He stopped
running when he was 100 metres away, and hid behind a bush. "They
were
running past me," he said, and he heard them muttering that they were
about
to lose their bounty.
"They locked the door where my
wife was. They smashed the windows and
threw petrol inside. Then they lit
it," he said. "Inside the house, my young
brother broke the door. I thank
God, otherwise they would be burnt, all of
them. He took my nephew out of
the room. Then he went back into the room and
he took my wife, but it was
late. She got 80 per cent burnt. My son was
burnt to pieces."
"Then they beat everybody there, my neighbours, everyone. Many of them
are
in Chitungwiza hospital [the nearest state hospital] now." His brother
and
his nephew escaped with minor burns. "I am in a hidden place now. They
are
hunting me. They are saying they want to kill me. It is terrible." The
perpetrators of such crimes act with impunity, he said.
"When
they did this, they were led by their local Zanu (PF) chairman.
He lives
close to our place. All of them are still there, now." Mr Mamhova
was left
with only the shorts he was wearing. "Everything was burnt. There
is nothing
left. The clothes, the blankets, the food, all burnt. Somebody
gave me some
clothes."
His wife died on Saturday in ward C6 of the burns unit of
Harare
hospital. "No one survives more than 50 per cent burns," a doctor
there
said. She was 18 weeks pregnant.
The terror tactic of
burning people alive has been little used by Zanu
(PF) in recent years but
seems to be being revived. Last Wednesday, in the
village of Jerera in Zaka
district in the southeast of the country, a group
of gunmen described as
being in riot police uniform broke into an MDC office
and fired on six
people. Then they poured petrol over them and set them
ablaze. Two died in
the fire.
A photograph of one of them, published in a local
independent
newspaper, was remarkably like the picture of one of the charred
victims of
the xenophobic violence in Johannesburg two weeks ago. Two others
are in
Harare hospital with 30 and 40 per cent burns respectively. The
remaining
two have disappeared.
In 1963, when the black
nationalist movement fighting against the
white minority Rhodesian
Government split, youths on either side of the
divide locked people in their
houses in urban townships and threw petrol
bombs inside.
The
leader of the youth wing of one faction - the newly formed
Zimbabwe African
National Union (Zanu), forerunner to Zanu (PF) - was a
young school teacher
named Robert Mugabe.
"If you look back at the methods of Zanu (PF)
since it was formed, the
only one who was there from that time is the
President," Willas Madzimure, a
Harare MP, said. "Which means he knows
exactly how to do it." --Times/Harare
Tribune
Irish Examiner
10 June 2008
By Fanuel Jongwe
ZIMBABWE's opposition feared a new crackdown
yesterday as authorities vowed
to get tough on perpetrators of political
violence in the approach to this
month's run-off election.
As a
leading rights group warned mounting violence had extinguished chances
of a
free and fair ballot, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
said a
vow by authorities to deny bail to anyone suspected of committing or
inciting unrest would be used to further hamper their election
campaign.
Announcing the plan to systematically refuse bail to anyone
suspected of
political violence, deputy attorney general Johannes Tomana
told the
state-run Herald newspaper: "Zimbabweans are entitled to security
of their
lives and property.
"It does not matter who commits the
offence. We are doing this without fear
or favour. We will be tough with
them now."
However the MDC chief spokesman ridiculed the idea that the
new directive
would be applied even-handedly.
"The law is not applied
evenly and not even one ZANU-PF will be locked up,"
Nelson Chamisa told AFP
in reference to Mugabe's ruling party.
"It's clear that this measure is
meant to target key MDC members and
activists and keep them behind bars as a
way of hampering the MDC campaign."
Meanwhile an association of
Zimbabwean doctors said they had treated nearly
3,000 victims of political
violence since the first round of voting on March
29.
Many MDC
supporters who have been injured in the violence have taken shelter
at the
party's headquarters in Harare.
Speaking after meeting some of the
victims, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
said he was deeply shocked by their
plight.
"I can assure you that the people we have met across the country
in the past
few days are determined to end this suffering on the 27th of
June. Let us be
strong and finish it," he said Tsvangirai has himself been
beaten in the
past by members of the security services while trying to
protest against the
government.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
09 June
2008
More than 400 members of the youth militia closely
linked to Zimbabwe's
ruling ZANU-PF party on Monday invaded the village of
Kodzwa in Mazowe
Central constituency in Mashonaland Central and beat
suspected opposition
supporters, sources said.
The sources charged
that Deputy Youth Minister Savior Kasukuwere was behind
the attacks, as he
had promised on the weekend to crush the opposition in
the province.
Kasukuwere could not be reached on his mobile phone to respond
to the
charge.
In Guruve, Mashonaland Central, a source said seven opposition
activists
from the constituencies of Guruve North, Guruve South and Mbire
arrested
over the weekend on charges of assaulting ZANU-PF
supporters.
In Manicaland province, opposition provincial spokesman
Pishai Muchauraya
said the head of the Makoni Central party branch was
arrested Monday morning
after visiting the Nyazura police station to ask
about members arrested on
the weekend.
Muchauraya said soldiers and
police arrested 41 Movement for Democratic
Change activists on the weekend,
going door-to-door beating and arresting
people.
Newly-elected Mazowe
Central parliamentarian Shepherd Mushonga told reporter
Jonga Kandemiiri of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that MDC officials now fear
a repeat of an April
attack on Chiweshe, Mazowe North, that left 13
villagers dead.
FROM THE ZIMBABWE VIGIL
The former
Archbishop of Cape Town and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu has asked
for
forgiveness on behalf of South Africa for the recent xenophobic violence
against foreigners. He was speaking on Monday, 9th June, at St Martin in
the Fields, the famous London church on Trafalgar Square, where he blessed
three Zimbabwean sculptures which have been positioned near a room named in
his honour. Archbishop Tutu recalled that South Africans had taken refuge
in other African countries during the apartheid years and said the attacks
on foreigners were unacceptable. But on the positive side, South Africans
had been horrified and many had been wonderful in offering help to the
victims. Turning to Zimbabwe, Archbishop Tutu said it used to be a
showpiece in Africa: "It has now turned into the most horrendous nightmare".
He called for a peacekeeping force to be sent to Zimbabawe and advised
Mugabe: "How about stepping down? Oppression will not have the last word.
Freedom will come to Zimbabwe." Archbishop Tutu accepted a copy of a
petition from the Zimbabwe Vigil which has been protesting outside the
Zimbabwe Embassy every Saturday for the past 6 years. The petition calls on
President Mbeki of South Africa to stop supporting Mugabe and allow a change
of government in Zimbabwe so Zimbabwean exiles can return home. The petition
was presented by Chipo Chaya and Arnold Kuwewa of the Vigil management team.
The pettion proper is to be presented to the South African High Commission
at a demonstration by the Zimbabwe Vigil on Thursday 12th June from 12 noon
to 2 pm. The Archbishop was introduced to the crowded assembly by the
Reverend Nicholas Holtam who recalled the days when there was a vigil
outside South Africa House against the apartheid regime. Now, he said, it
had been replaced by the Vigil outside Zimbabwe House.
For photos of
the event check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/.
Vigil
co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London,
takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross
violations of
human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil
which started in
October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored,
free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
The Scotsman
Published Date: 10 June 2008
By Fred
Bridgland
THE executive director-elect of Zimbabwe's Human Rights Forum,
which records
violations and gives free legal assistance to victims of
government torture
and violence, has been arrested after a police raid on
the body's
headquarters.
Abel Chikomo, 32, was arrested on Saturday,
according to a civil society
group of organisations based at Johannesburg's
University of the
Witwatersrand who are collecting and disseminating
intelligence on the
deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe.
Mr Chikomo
and 13 other human rights activists attending a workshop were
picked up by
police at Binga, 250 miles west of Harare, the capital, and
little news has
been received of him since. The Johannesburg monitoring
group said it knew
only that Mr Chikomo and the others were being denied
access to lawyers in a
case the police have dubbed "political".
Mr Chikomo's arrest followed an
earlier raid by police on the organisation's
HQ in Harare. According to a
spokesman for the monitoring group, a police
officer warned Forum staff: "I
am just the messenger, but we're warning
you - you are sailing too close to
the wind."
The staff are understood to be terrified following the
dressing-down. More
than 65 opposition members have been killed by soldiers,
policemen and
militias loyal to the Zanu-PF government since the first round
of voting in
a presidential poll on 29 March.
A run-off election
between incumbent president, Robert Mugabe, and Morgan
Tsvangirai, leader of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, is
scheduled for 27 June. In
the March election, marked by fraud and widespread
ballot rigging, Mr
Tsvangirai won by 47.9 per cent of the total vote to
Mugabe's 43.2 per cent,
falling short of the 50 per cent required for
absolute victory.
Mr
Chikomo has been an outspoken critic of Mugabe.
SW Radio
Africa (London)
9 June 2008
Posted to the web 9 June
2008
Tichaona Sibanda
A United Methodist Church Reverend lost
an eye when soldiers and militias
near Nyazura in Manicaland province
attacked him on Saturday.
The 42 year-old Reverand, Takura Bango, is in
an intensive care unit at a
hospital in Mutare. He is due to go for an
operation in the next 48 hours on
his right eye. The Reverend is from
Chitenderano in Makoni South
constituency. MDC MP elect for the area Pishai
Muchauraya said soldiers, led
by a Major Dangirwa, and militias were
responsible for the attack on
Reverand Bango.
'The attack was
brutal. They used logs and sticks to beat him up saying he
supported the
MDC. He lost his right eye in the attack and the beating only
stopped after
they realised what they had done to him,' Muchauraya said.
The MDC MP
added that dozens more were left injured on Saturday as soldiers
and
militias went on a rampage. The beatings were punishment for attending
an
MDC meeting on Friday. Muchauraya said Major Dangirwa made it clear the
MDC
was banned from holding any rallies in the province.
In another attack,
last week Monday, an outspoken and well known Mt Selinda
mission chaplain
was abducted, following his powerful sermon on the
injustice, corruption,
misgovernance and the illegitimacy of the Mugabe
regime from 1980 to
date.
War veterans later invaded the mission and abducted the Reverand,
who was
later released after intense interrogation.
'Soldiers have
taken over the role of police officers. Zanu-PF is fighting
an undeclared
war against innocent and unarmed victims. We need peacekeepers
to bring this
madness to an end,' Muchauraya said.
The MDC secretary for International
Affairs, Professor Elphas Mukonoweshuro,
said election monitors and
observers were expected to jet into the country
on Monday.
'They are
supposed to arrive today (Monday) so we are checking with our
officials to
find out who has arrived,' Mukonoweshuro said.
The issue of observers has
now become a major concern for the MDC after the
Southern African
Development Community promised to send an enlarged
contingent by early June
to monitor the elections. Anglican Archbishop Thabo
Makgoba of South Africa
said on Sunday the levels of intimidation showed the
importance of deploying
large numbers of election monitors.
Speaking in Johannesburg after a trip
to Zimbabwe the Archbishop said the
country was now a police
state.
'The levels of intimidation I witnessed on a visit to Zimbabwe
last week
underline the crucial importance of deploying large numbers of
both
international and local election monitors for the June 27 presidential
run-off,' he said.
SW Radio Africa
(London)
9 June 2008
Posted to the web 9 June 2008
Lance
Guma
With the presidential election run-off just 3 weeks away,
political violence
is reaching new levels of brutality.
On Saturday
morning the wife of Patson Chipiro, an MDC district chairman for
Mhondoro
Ngezi, was brutally murdered by a marauding gang of Zanu PF
militants who
attacked their village. Chipiro was not at home when the gang
arrived and
his children fled the scene on seeing the mob. This left Mrs
Chipiro on her
own and the thugs set about beating her. They then cut off
her hands and
legs and dragged her body into a kitchen hut, which they set
on fire. The
MDC said a sack containing her hands and legs was later
discovered.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa laid the blame for the
attack squarely on
Mhondoro Ngezi MP Bright Matonga, who is also the Deputy
Minister of
Information. He said the thugs are doing Matonga's bidding in
the area. Mrs
Chipiro is due to be buried on Tuesday. Meanwhile Zanu PF
thugs in Harare
South set on fire a house belonging to the councillor for
ward 1. The
councillor, his pregnant wife and their 6-year-old son were all
at home at
the time of the attack. The 6-year old died in the blaze, the
pregnant wife
died on her way to hospital, the councillor survived. Over the
weekend
police in Hatfield were said to be refusing to assist the family in
compiling a report, which was also needed to secure a burial order. Harare
South Zanu PF MP Hubert Nyanhongo was blamed for the attack.
The past
few days have seen a serious escalation of violence, targeting the
families
of MDC officials. The 78-year-old grandmother of Chamisa, along
with his
mother and young brother, were severely assaulted when armed
soldiers raided
their rural homestead in Gutu. The family of MDC MP elect
for Mbare in
Harare Piniel Denga, was attacked by a group of Zanu-PF
supporters at
Daybroke resettlement scheme in Chivhu. Several nephews and
nieces were
force-marched from the family homestead to a torture camp at a
place called
Chipisa.
Asked whether he thought the violence was meant to bully them
into a
government of national unity Chamisa said the MDC would not speak to
Zanu PF
about anything, as long as the violence persisted.
The
Kuwadzana East legislator also said the June 27 run off would decide the
next government in power and it was up to whoever won the election to form a
broad inclusive government. He remained upbeat that despite the violence
their supporters would turn out in large numbers to 'finish off' what they
started during the March 29 election.
Zimbabwe Gazette
By Lee Shungu, on June 09 2008
18:19
A newly-born Zimbabwean group of war
veterans is demanding for
twenty percent of the seats in Parliament, because
they fought for the
country's independence, The Zimbabwe Gazette can
reveal.
The ex-combatants group named Mwana Wevhu- The
Revolutionary
Council body is currently making noise in the state media,
vowing to stand
by its words as it is also strongly supporting president
Robert Mugabe
whilst it also endorsed Mugabe's spouse- Grace as its
patron.
Speaking in Harare on Thursday, the group chairman, Chris
Pasipamire said as war veterans, they should be respected and given a
'formal' platform to air their views, plights and
comments.
"Therefore, we urgently demand for 20 percent of
the seats in
Parliament. They should be given to us without
hesitation."
"We fought for this country's independence.
Zimbabwe's freedom
did not come on a silver platter. Neither did it come by
pencil. Blood was
shed. We sacrificed our lives for the happiness now being
enjoyed by many,"
he said.
The launch of this ex-combatants
body comes ahead of the dubbed
'historic' presidential election run-off
between veteran leader- Mugabe and
the country's main opposition president,
Morgan Tsvangirai to take place on
June 27 2008.
In
the first round of the election, Mugabe lost to Tsvangirai in
a disputed
election, as the MDC claimed their president won by more than 50
percent of
the vote thereby evading a run-off.
The Revolutionary
Council- which constantly appears on the
country's sole broadcaster- ZBC TV
is also reported to be calling for the
cancellation of the election run-off
saying Mugabe must remain in office
until a new constitution is crafted and
'sanctions by the West' lifted.
"We certainly need our members to
be MPs and Senators. I
certainly see no reason why we cannot do that," said
Pasipamire.
On Thursday, there were also reports of US and UK
diplomats who
were briefly detained in Bindura.
Armed war
veterans are reported to have attempted to beat-up the
diplomats who locked
themselves up in their vehicles as the crowd charged.
The war veterans
managed to assault a Zimbabwean driver, with one of the
embassies. The
diplomats fled in vehicles and were chased by the police who
caught up with
them.
Pasipamire said his body also demands for a percentage
stake in
farms.
"We are currently looking forward to
working with the Land
Committee to see this
happening."
"We fought for this country," he
emphasised.
The group of war veterans also joins other
ex-combatant
associations in promising to take up arms and defend "the
revolution, land,
and its resources" if Mugabe loses the run-off to MDC's
Morgan Tsvangirai.
It says Tsvangirai and his western friends
have caused a lot of
suffering in the country, especially through sanctions
in which t is against
this background that Mugabe lost in the March 29
presidential election.
According to SW Radio, the attempted
beating of diplomats is to
be raised at the United Nations Council. US
ambassador to Zimbabwe, James
McGee said Zimbabwe has become lawlessness
whereby its own people take the
law into their own
hands.
Recently, Mugabe threatened to kick McGee out
of the country for
defying police orders not to enter into rural areas
including a hospital
where victims of ZANU PF violence where
admitted.
The Revolutionary Council concluded by
clearing Mugabe's name
indicating it is some government officials who are
corrupt, in which the
body is going to fight corruption in the country,
especially in the ruling
ZANU PF government.
SW
Radio Africa (London)
9 June 2008
Posted to the web 9 June
2008
Tererai Karimakwenda
The 14 members of Women of Zimbabwe
Arise (WOZA) who were arrested 2 weeks
ago, appeared in court again on
Friday and were further remanded until
Tuesday. All the main WOZA officials
are part of the arrested group,
including coordinators Jenni Williams and
Magodonga Mahlangu.
They are being charged with conducting activities
that are likely to cause
public disorder and with distributing false
information through their
fliers. The WOZA representative in the UK, Lois
Davis, said if they are
brought to trial they would challenge the
legislation under which they are
being charged, because it breaches sections
of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
The WOZA members first appeared in
court on May 30 and were granted bail,
but the state appealed the decision.
Now it is feared that they will be held
much longer after government this
weekend announced that they were getting
tougher on activists. Deputy
Attorney General Johannes Tomana told the
state-run Herald newspaper that
bail would be denied to 'anyone suspected of
committing or inciting unrest'
and it does not matter who commits the
offence. "We are doing this without
fear or favour. We will be tough with
them now." he is quoted as
saying.
Davis said 13 of the WOZA activists are being held at Chikurubi
Prison for
women and 1 male is at Harare Remand Prison. Their spirits are
high and they
have been receiving visitors and food. The human rights group
Amnesty
International had expressed concern that the government had been
planning to
torture the WOZA leaders because they had never before in the
history of
their street activism been denied bail, but fortunately this did
not happen.
The case is now to be heard Tuesday, which falls into the
government's usual
pattern of delaying and then dropping charges. The time
already served
becomes the sentence by default.
The charges relate to
a demonstration that WOZA held in Bulawayo on April
9th, the first protest
on the streets after the delay in announcing the
results of the March 29th
elections. On that occasion a police vehicle drove
into the crowd of
protestors, causing some serious injuries. A total of 59
members received
medical treatment for injuries caused by the vehicle and
from police
assaults.
Davis appealed to Zimbabweans to continue to help their cause
by sending
short text messages to the Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa,
saying WOZA
members are peaceful human rights defenders who should be
released
immediately from custody. Chinamasa's mobile number in Zimbabwe is
011605523.
Another action that people can take is to phone the office
of the acting
Attorney General Bharat Patel, also urging him to release the
WOZA members
immediately as they have committed no crime. The number at the
Attorney
General's office is Harare 774587. Faxes can be sent to the
Ministry Of Home
Affairs at Harare 707231.
Zim Online
by Cuthbert Nzou Tuesday 10 June
2008
HARARE - United Nations (UN) agencies in Zimbabwe on
Monday said a
government ban on humanitarian aid violated fundamental human
rights
principles and had "created life threatening conditions" for more
than two
million vulnerable people who survived on donor support.
The
UN Country Team (UNCT) said worsening political violence that has
destroyed
homes, property and livelihoods of victims made the move to stop
relief
agencies from working in Zimbabwe all the more devastating for the
thousands
of children and women affected by hunger and displaced by
violence.
"The decision by government to suspend all private
voluntary organisations
(PVO/NGO) field operations further exacerbates this
vulnerability, thus
creating avoidable life threatening conditions for
many," the UNCT said in a
scathing attack on President Robert Mugabe's
government.
The government on Thursday suspended all work by aid agencies
in the
country, accusing them of using aid distribution to campaign for the
opposition ahead of a second round run-off election later this month between
Mugabe and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party leader
Morgan Tsvangirai.
Relief agencies deny interfering in Zimbabwe's
political affairs while the
European Union, the United States, local church
and human rights groups have
critcised the ban and called for it to be
lifted.
The UN team said the aid ban had in one swoop cut off support to
"tens of
thousands of orphans and vulnerable children" who received life
sustaining
support from aid agencies on daily basis.
The ban also
disrupted donor-backed community programmes to combat the
spread of
HIV/AIDS, while thousands of people who received basic support
such as clean
water, sanitation and education support services were left
without
help.
The country team urged the government to rescind the ban in order
to enable
NGOs to expand access of basic humanitarian assistance to
vulnerable
populations throughout the country.
The UN team also
called on Mugabe's government, all political parties and
other stakeholders
to act to end political violence that the team said had
exacerbated the
humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.
The MDC accuses Mugabe of unleashing
state security forces and ZANU PF
militias to wage violence against its
supporters in an attempt to regain the
upper hand in the second ballot after
the veteran leader lost the first
round poll in March to
Tsvangirai.
The opposition party claims that at least 63 of its members
have been killed
while more than 25 000 others have been displaced by
political violence and
were in need of urgent humanitarian
support.
The government however denies committing violence and instead
blames the MDC
of carrying out violence in a bid to tarnish Mugabe's
name.
Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, has grappled with severe
food
shortages since 2000 when Mugabe launched his haphazard fast-track land
reform exercise that displaced established white commercial farmers and
replaced them with either incompetent or inadequately funded black
farmers.
An economic recession marked by the world's highest inflation
rate of more
than 165 000 percent has exacerbated the food crisis, with the
government
out of cash to import food, while many families that would
normally be able
to buy their own food supplies are unable to do so because
of an
increasingly worthless currency.
Most households - especially
the poor in rural areas - now depend on
handouts from foreign governments
and relief agencies to survive. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Wayne Mafaro Tuesday 10 June
2008
HARARE - Lawyers for jailed opposition
politician Eric Matinenga said
on Monday that they would file contempt of
court charges against the police
for failing to release the politician
despite an order to do so.
The High Court on Sunday ordered the
police to release Matinenga, who
is a prominent human rights lawyer as well
as the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party Member of
Parliament-elect for Buhera West
Constituency.
But the police
had by end of day on Monday not released Matinenga and
had instead appealed
to the Supreme Court for a review of the High Court
order.
Matinenga's lawyer, Lewis Uriri, said: "The police are in contempt of
court
because an application for review of a judgment does not stay a
judgment and
therefore they should have released him on the basis of the
earlier High
Court order."
Uriri said in addition to filing contempt of court
charges against the
police at the High Court, the defence team was also
going to file a counter
application to the Supreme Court against the
police.
The police accuse Matinenga of inciting public violence in
Buhera West
although a magistrate's court cleared him of the charge last
week and
ordered his release from jail.
The police initially
complied with the order to release Matinenga but
only to re-arrest him on
last Saturday exactly the same charges. - ZimOnline
africasia
UNITED NATIONS, June 9 (AFP)
The UN Security Council is to meet Thursday to weigh the
humanitarian
situation in volatile Zimbabwe, where a presidential run-off is
scheduled
late this month, diplomats said Monday.
The decision
followed closed-door consultations on Zimbabwe earlier Monday
at which the
United States and its European allies pushed for a wider
briefing by the UN
secretariat, including on the political situation.
Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe lost the first round presidential vote on
March 29 to
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The pair are to contest a
run-off on
June 27.
But at the insistence of Russia and South Africa, the council
decided that
Thursday's briefing would focus exclusively on Zimbabwe's dire
humanitarian
situation, according to diplomats.
One Western diplomat,
speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia and
South Africa expressed
concern that a wider briefing might undermine a
planned visit to Zimbabwe by
UN Assistant Secretary General for Political
Affairs Haile
Menkerios.
UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe told AFP that Zimbabwean
authorities have
welcomed Menkerios' upcoming visit and said the dates of
the visit were
being finalized.
She said the purpose of the trip
would be for Menkerios to have "discussions
with the government and all
concerned parties about the upcoming elections
and see what can be done to
help."
Meanwhile the European Union and the United States are to call on
UN chief
Ban Ki-moon to send a team to Zimbabwe to monitor human rights as
presidential elections approach.
"We urge the UN Secretary General to
send a team immediately to monitor
human rights and to deter further
abuses," said a draft statement prepared
for an EU-US summit in Slovenia
between US President George W. Bush and EU
leaders.
The statement,
obtained by AFP, also called for a "free and fair
presidential run-off" in
Zimbabwe on June 27.
Tsvangirai was twice detained by police last
week.
Authorities have also banned a series of rallies by his opposition
Movement
for Democratic Change.
Mail and Guardian
Jason
Moyo
09 June 2008 11:59
As
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe rolls out his strategy to
hang on to
power, attacks on his opponents are getting bloodier by the
day.
Restrictions on his political opponents' activities are
also
getting tighter and now even humanitarian interventions by key aid
groups
are being curtailed.
On Wednesday activists said
three opposition supporters were
burned alive at the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) offices in Bikita,
southern Zimbabwe.
As
their bodies were carried to Harare, MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai was
detained at a police station in Lupane. He was released eight
hours
later.
In the past two weeks Mugabe's regime has arrested
four
opposition MPs and a leading opposition politician and banned the MDC
from
holding rallies.
On Sunday police surrounded the
home of Arthur Mutambara, leader
of a faction of the MDC, and arrested him
for writing a newspaper article
critical of Mugabe.
Mutambara was released on Tuesday, saying the arrest was part of
a
deliberate campaign by Zanu-PF to intimidate opposition leaders into
suspending their campaigns.
On Wednesday police accused
Tsvangirai of violating a ban on
rallies, but MDC officials denied that
their leader held rallies in the
rural areas he visited, saying he was on a
"meet-the-people campaign" in the
region.
Officials
travelling with Tsvangirai said he was separated from
his group and taken to
an isolated detention facility at a police station in
the
town.
"We are still with the police. They accuse him of
addressing a
rally at St Paul's in Lupane without authorisation," Job
Sibanda, a lawyer
for Tsvangirai, told the Mail & Guardian from Lupane
late on Wednesday.
Sibanda said Tsvangirai was not
harmed.
Lawyers such as Sibanda are also at increased risk.
This week
Andrew Makoni, one of a team of lawyers that represented hundreds
of
tortured opposition campaigners in the past few weeks, said that at least
10
Zimbabwean human rights lawyers from Zimbabwe plan to flee the country
because ruling party supporters are targeting them.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said: "Of concern is the
apparent abuse of
the law against these groups of people, especially when
one looks at the
noticeable trends of wanton arrest, prolonged detentions
and the lodging of
unnecessary appeals to frustrate orders of court.
"Groups and
individuals continue to face legislative and
administrative impediments as
they seek to exercise their human, fundamental
and constitutional rights,
and this must be brought to an end."
The detention of the
opposition leaders has added a new front to
a violent campaign already being
waged by militants loyal to Mugabe. Rights
groups report that at least 50
activists have been killed since March, while
25 000 people have fled
political violence.
International aid groups have not been
spared either. CARE
International, one of the most active groups
distributing food aid in
Zimbabwe, was forced to stop operations, while the
work of Save the Children
UK, which says it has been feeding 60 000 children
in northern Zimbabwe, was
also halted.
The government
wants to have sole control of all food aid
distribution, to gain an
advantage in the run-off election.
Aid workers warned that
the interruption of food aid will
aggravate already harsh living conditions
and could have devastating
consequences on the
population.
"If this continues, we face a serious
humanitarian disaster,"
Cephas Zinhumwe, head of a coalition of NGOs, told
the M&G on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the media also continue
to take a beating. This week
a magistrate said that to prove that Zimbabwe
was "not a banana republic",
he would jail three South African journalists
for six months for working
without official government
accreditation.
The journalists had been found in possession
of equipment
belonging to Sky TV, one of several foreign media organisations
that were
banned from reporting from Zimbabwe.
The Times, SA
Werner Swart
Published:Jun 10,
2008
Human
rights watchdog tears into President Mbeki for failing to take action
when
Zim mediation failed
Gruesome accounts of the violence inflicted on those who
voted against
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe are contained in a new
report by Human
Rights Watch.
Entitled "Bullets
for Each of You: State sponsored violence since Zimbabwe's
March 29
elections", the report takes its name from an incident in which
soldiers
told villagers in Mashonaland West: "If you vote for MDC in the
presidential
runoff election . you have seen the bullets; we have enough for
each one of
you, so beware."
a.. Speaking to The Times from London, Tiseke Kasambala,
the author of the
report, said: "I returned from Zimbabwe three weeks ago.
People don't know
how bad it is. It's an experience that will haunt me for
the rest of my
life."
The report claims Zimbabwe is being run by a
military junta that came into
being shortly after Mugabe realised he had
suffered defeat at the hands of
the MDC.
According to the rights
watchdog, the violence is being orchestrated by a
joint operations command
headed by senior Zanu-PF officials.
It includes the heads of the
Zimbabwean Defence Force, the police and the
prisons.
"The army is
playing a major role in supporting the violence. It has
provided known 'war
veterans' and Zanu-PF supporters with guns, transport
and bases from which
serious human rights violations are carried out," the
report
states.
It warns the African Union and the Southern African Development
Community
that it has only days in which to reduce the violence and ensure a
free and
fair vote.
"This is an opportunity for clear political
leadership in support of human
rights and the stability of Zimbabwe, which,
as recent xenophobic violence
in South Africa has demonstrated, is
increasingly impacting the domestic
situation of its neighbours."
The
report concludes: "Now is the time for failed mediation strategies to be
abandoned, and for a clear message to be given to the authorities that they
face becoming regional pariahs should no action be taken."
Kasambala
said: "It is a sad indictment of South African President Thabo
Mbeki's
policy on Zimbabwe over the past eight years. He is aware of what is
happening bu t has failed to take action."
Mbeki's office and the
department of foreign affairs said they had not seen
the report and could
therefore not comment on it.
http://www.hararetribune.com/
By Eddie Cross | Opinion | Harare Tribune | Monday, June 9, 2008
15:57
Zimbabwe, Harare - While we often discuss the human costs of
the
Mugabe regime, we neglect the costs in material terms. For this country
the
price of his tyranny has been huge. Our GDP is now hovering about US4
billion, exports around US$1,5 billion and our national debt has soared to
over US$8 billion. Despite our pariah state the international community
still pours in over US$600 million a year in aid - all of it in grant
form.
If we add up the total losses to Zimbabwe over the past 10
years they
would exceed US$100 billion - a big price to pay for the ego of
one man and
his gang of thieves. On the issue of the corrupt diversion of
state
resources, the magnitude of the costs we have borne are equally
enormous.
People in the west have little idea of the sums that are
stolen from
countries like Zimbabwe and the extent of the wealth being
accumulated by
the privileged few in power. In many countries control of the
Reserve Bank
and the State simply signals an opportunity to plunder both for
the benefit
of a tiny minority. So Mabuto accumulated wealth equal at one
time to the
total debt of the Congo. The corrupt Marxist regime in Angola is
known to be
taking a cut on virtually all business transactions and a large
slice of all
oil revenues - now running at several billion dollars a
month.
The various military and civilian leaders of Nigeria in the
past have
stolen up to a billion US dollars a month from their countries.
You cannot
spend such sums and stories of Nigerians arriving in foreign
cities with
suitcases of money abound. When these crime magnates die, the
secrets of
their wealth dies with them and much of the illicit gains go into
the hidden
balance sheets of global business. A Swedish businessman told me
once that
he loved doing business with the 'socialists' of Africa - nowhere
else could
you make the margins that were available in those countries. He
was
complaining at the time about the private sector driven economy here in
the
80's.
Just to drive this point home in recent weeks and
months, this regime
has been plundering the resources that are left here -
especially those that
can be moved abroad. When we finally get into the
vaults at the Reserve Bank
we will find them empty.
As far as
the region is concerned the cost of tyranny in Zimbabwe is
more difficult to
estimate. Some time ago Tony Blair visited South Africa
and at UNISA he made
a speech in which he estimated that the contagion
effects of the Zimbabwe
crisis was costing South Africa 2 per cent of its
GDP per annum. It may in
fact be more.
If we just take tourism - we are turning away about 2
million visitors
each year from regional tourism centers. That is worth
several billion
dollars a year in foreign earnings to the region and at
least 250 000 jobs.
The total cost of the crisis at, say. 2 per cent of
regional GDP is now at
least US$8 billion a year - twice the actual GDP of
Zimbabwe.
But there is another cost - shown vividly on television
in the past
few days, as South Africa has seen xenophobic violence break out
in the
townships of Gauteng. Mobs of axe and panga wielding people are
attacking
foreigners whom they perceive (probably correctly) as robbing them
of jobs
and other opportunities in South Africa. This was a further crisis
that was
just waiting to happen.
With over 3 million
Zimbabweans in South Africa already, the flood
tide of refugees from
Zimbabwe in the past year has been a step too far. The
South African
government is worried and astonished at the extent and degree
of violence.
Dire threats and allegations that someone sinister must be
behind the
outbreaks are being made.
But in fact the truth is that their
social systems can only take so
much pressure before they break down and we
may well be seeing such an event
right now. Not good news for Mbeki who was
meeting with the international
business council in Durban yesterday. He
faced the key investors in South
Africa with images of the violence and
mayhem on the Rand fresh in everyone'
s minds, with his own problems at home
and abroad and the threat of a messy
transition in 2009 to a new leadership,
it was not an easy gathering.
I have argued for years that the
greatest threat of the crisis in
Zimbabwe was not here, but in South Africa
where despite the disparity in
size, we are capable of destabilizing that
country very effectively. Both
for Africa and the world community, that is a
much bigger problem and one
that merits close attention and speedy action.
Mbeki is responsible for the
failure in both respects and now reaps the
whirlwind.
We launched our run off campaign yesterday in Bulawayo
with 20 000
people in the White City Stadium. Although it was cold and windy
and we had
only got one day to organise, the turnout was massive and very
pleasing. We
eventually got a High Court Judge to rule on Friday at 15.30
hrs, that we
could go ahead and in fact it turned out to be the right
decision. The
police had cited three reasons for not granting us permission
- personnel,
the sensitive situation and the threat of violence. In all
three respects
the police were wrong - we had 5 policemen outside the
stadium at a
roadblock, there was no violence and the mood was
festive.
Chamisa mocked the threat that Zanu would 'go back to war'
if they
lost - he asked just whom would they fight? Who was the enemy? He
drew lots
of laughs from the crowd and explained that Morgan could not be
present for
of a number of reasons. The acting President, Ms. Khupe spoke at
length
about the run off and said that this was the burial service for Zanu
PF. She
said Zanu had died on the 29th March and all that was left was to
bury them
in a deep hole with a concrete slab over the top to ensure they
did not
resurrect.
The MDC then fed all 20 000 people with
lunch and afterwards they
departed for their homes. Quite an achievement in
a country that is starving
and a testimony to the organisations capacity.
The next six weeks are going
to be busy as we campaign and then vote yet
again. But this is our kind of
fight and on this territory we have the
advantage and the right weapons.
A group from the intelligence and
police raided my sons Church
yesterday. They searched for 'weapons of war'.
He gave them each a Bible and
said - 'this is our only weapon and it brings
life, not death'. On the 27th
June we in southern Africa are going to
discover the same truth about our
votes - used wisely and protected, they
will bring new life to Zimbabwe and
the entire region.
The Herald, Scotland
June 10 2008
I agree completely with Ian Bell's lament (Saturday Essay, June 7)
about the
shocking state of affairs in Zimbabwe and the culpability of
Robert Mugabe.
However, having identified the problem, he fails to suggest
any way of
tackling it.
The British Government, the EU and the US
have done what they can to
persuade Mr Mugabe to relax his vicious rule and
allow humanitarian aid to
reach the Zimbabwean people. Mr Bell is right: the
South African president
Thabo Mbeki has done little more than make "glib,
positive noises for more
than a decade". And the Chinese government has
happily done deals with Mr
Mugabe; last time I was in Harare, all the other
occupants of the hotel were
Chinese businessmen.
The only
organisation with the power to actually change things in Zimbabwe
is the
United Nations. Time and again, when faced with crises affecting
millions,
the UN has shown itself to be an ineffective, grandiose talking
shop. It's
time it changed. The UN could have called an emergency session
while Mr
Mugabe was in Rome; it could have ordered his arrest for crimes
against
humanity, because that is what he's guilty of. Instead, it allowed
him to
grandstand at its conference, even allowing him to speak for twice
his
allotted time.
advertisement
When you look at the humanitarian
disasters in Zimbabwe, Burma and Darfur,
you realise that the UN has to find
a better way of working. Time isn't on
its side.
There are powerful
figures in John McCain's camp who are arguing for a
league of democracies,
an alternative to the UN that would grant membership
only to those the US
deems to be "good guys".
Barack Obama is a great candidate and I
fervently hope he will be the next
American president; but if I was a
betting man my money would be on John
McCain, and I fear his foreign policy
will be worse than the current
incumbent's.
Under pressure from,
among others, the UK and Europe, the UN is slowly
changing, recognising the
new realities of world power and limiting
opportunities for vetoes to
sterilise action. The UN has to find a way to
cut through its bureaucracy
and internal politics so it can act quickly,
vigorously and, where
necessary, with force.
Fourteen years ago in Rwanda, the weapon of mass
destruction was the
machete. As yet, no mechanism exists for ensuring the
same doesn't happen
again, just as there's apparently nothing the world can
do to stop millions
of people from being slowly starved to death in
Zimbabwe. That is an
outrage.
Doug Maughan, 52 Menteith View,
Dunblane.
Episcopal Life
By Lisa B. Hamilton, June 09,
2008
[Episcopal News Service] The Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE, bishop of
the
Diocese of Massachusetts says it was "a privilege" to spend a week with
Anglican Zimbabweans in the Diocese of Harare, which encompasses the
nation's capital and outlying areas. "Zimbabweans are a gentle people of
tremendous resilience," Shaw reports, and he contends that those who are
being oppressed for being Anglicans have much to teach us.
Shaw
returned to the United States June 4, after a week-long visit during
which
he met with 49 priests, 40-50 laypersons, human rights attorneys and
U.S.
Embassy staff. He describes a grim situation: "One million percent
inflation, 80-90% unemployment, empty shelves at the grocery stores, long
lines for fuel, short lifespan, high HIV-AIDS rates, and oppression of those
who are not aligned with President Mugabe, including Anglicans."
Shaw
noted that "amidst all this suffering, it was when their lives were
upended
that they [Zimbabwe Anglicans] stood up and said, 'Nobody's going to
touch
my relationship with God or my community of faith."
Shaw visited Zimbabwe
on behalf of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts
Schori and at the
invitation of Bishop Sebastian Bakare of Harare to witness
the ongoing
religious and political violence among the people of Zimbabwe.
"It's not
just food people don't have access to, it's not just political
brutality
they face, it's an assault on their faith -- and that can be very
lonely,"
says Shaw. "The short answer to why I made the trip is that the
presiding
bishop asked me; the longer answer is that since a program between
our
dioceses years ago, I've been friends with Bishop Bakare and his wife
for a
long time and I wanted to offer solidarity and return to tell the
story of
Anglicans in Zimbabwe."
Shaw -- who first visited Zimbabwe in 1995, when
"it was considered the
bread basket of Africa and a relatively free and open
society" -- explains
that Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's land
confiscation benefited
political cronies and not indigenous Zimbabweans as
promised, which led to
food shortages, unemployment and political
corruption.
As previously reported by Episcopal News Service, Mugabe has
been censured
by the international community for Zimbabwe's humanitarian
crisis, failing
economy, and for manipulating the country's recent electoral
process.
The former bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga, an ardent
supporter of Mugabe
and his ZANU-PF party, was excommunicated on May 12.
According to Shaw,
Kunonga "was closely aligned with Mugabe, even saying he
was ordained by God
to be president. He also wanted to take the diocese out
of the Province of
Central Africa."
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan
Williams terms Bakare, who was appointed to
replace Kunonga last November,
"a deeply respected and courageous elder
statesman of the Zimbabwean
Church." Bakare, who recently issued a statement
condemning the continued
persecution of Anglicans, hosted Shaw.
Shaw says believes that the
effects of the June 27 run-off presidential
election on life for Anglicans
as well as for Zimbabweans as a whole are
"unpredictable, because it's such
a volatile situation." Thus far, Anglicans
are singled out for religious
persecution in this vastly Christian, fiercely
church-going nation, where
the major denominations are Roman Catholic,
Anglican and
Methodist.
Shaw tells many stories of government persecution of
Anglicans. During one
incident, which occurred about four weeks ago, "Riot
police -- 80 or 90 of
them -- told Anglicans they couldn't hold services in
a church," he said.
"They started by beating on the pews with their batons
and ended up beating
people, including a nine-year-old boy and a widow with
five children. Yet
the worshippers sang hymns and prayed throughout the
ordeal."
Elsewhere, says Shaw, "A priest was jailed along with 20 or so
of his
parishioners."
Furthermore, he reports that "recently, there's
been a rash of clergy
vehicles being stolen or confiscated by the police.
Without their cars,
which are owned by the churches, the clergy have no
access to their
far-flung parishes. The Diocese of Harare stretches several
hundred
kilometers outside the city, so no car can mean the end of ministry.
Of the
49 priests I interviewed, 11 or 12 had had vehicles stolen or
confiscated,
and another 10 or 11 had vehicles in hiding."
"They
asked only for prayer, and they expressed only gratitude," Shaw says,
his
voice softening. "At one meeting to discuss the diocese's future, they
took
up a collection for a parish in our diocese. Here they are, with
inflation
one million percent, mostly unemployed, but they took up a
collection and
had it translated into American dollars so I could bring it
back to a parish
in our diocese. They have the generosity of God."
Shaw says the biggest
lesson he learned came from the diocese's clergy, "who
said that it is
laypeople who are leading the resistance. So they teach
those of us who are
clergy to let laypeople lead the way. All we have to do
is nurture
them."
This insight is one of the gifts Shaw believes he'll take from
Zimbabwe to
the Lambeth Conference of bishops, scheduled for July 16-August
3 in
Canterbury, England. "So much deeper than our differences are our
connections that span continents and oceans and theological differences.
That's what I can now bring to Lambeth: an openness to relationship and a
better ability to listen to what life is like as a bishop elsewhere and to
tell my story of being a bishop in the northeastern United
States."
Asked what he thinks he'll remember longest about his trip to
Zimbabwe, Shaw
doesn't hesitate. "The first image that comes to mind is a
worship service
for 400 people the Sunday I was there. They were risking
their lives just by
gathering, and yet there were women between the ages of
20 and 75 dancing,
the drums were in full swing, and there was incredible
joy. I felt like was
in back in the early church because there was all this,
this life despite
persecution."
-- The Rev. Lisa B. Hamilton is
correspondent for Provinces I and IV. She
is based in Sandisfield,
Massachusetts and Venice, Florida.
Christian Science Monitor
from the June 10, 2008 edition
Staff writer Scott Baldauf says that when he first got to
South Africa,
people used to illustrate how bad Zimbabwe's inflation rate
had become by
stating this remarkable fact: "a brick today costs what you
would have spent
to buy an entire house, just 10 years ago."
But Scott says that
comparison is "so 2006." At the time, inflation was
"only" about 1,500
percent.
Today, Zimbabwe's annual rate of inflation runs about 600,000
percent. And
bread, not bricks, is the barometer .
"On my first trip
to Zimbabwe, this past March, a loaf cost an unbelievable
10 million
Zimbabwean dollars - if you could find one in the stores," he
says.
"On my second trip, in April, the price had gone up to Z$50
million. Today,
I called a reporter friend in Harare. The price of a loaf
had gone up to 1
billion Zimbabwean dollars, which is roughly US$5 on the
black market. I
asked my friend if he was sure. "I just bought bread today,"
he laughed.
"And it took me a long time to find it."