Zim Online
by
Nokuthula Sibanda Monday 16 June 2008
HARARE - United Nations
assistant secretary general for political affairs
Haile Menkerios is
expected in Zimbabwe on Monday as international outrage
grew over the
southern African country's deepening humanitarian crisis and a
government
crackdown against the opposition.
Menkerios is expected to discuss the
humanitarian situation with President
Robert Mugabe, two weeks after the
veteran leader suspended all work by
relief agencies he accused of using aid
distribution to campaign for
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai ahead a
run-off presidential election
later this month - a charge aid groups
deny.
Officials in Harare said they expected Menkerios to also meet
Tsvangirai who
they said would brief the UN envoy on the political violence
that has killed
at least 66 members of his opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
party and displaced more than 25 000 others and who
were in desperate need
of humanitarian assistance.
"He is expected to
arrive Monday and he will go back on Friday," said a
government official,
who did not want to be named. "If all goes well, he
would meet with
President Mugabe and probably Morgan Tsvangirai."
Zimbabwe's foreign
affairs minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi was not
immediately available for
comment on the matter.
Menkerios' planned visit to Harare follows a
meeting between Mugabe and the
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on the
sidelines of the Food and
Agricultural Organisation (FAO) summit in Rome
about two weeks ago.
However, a UN official, Michelle Montas, told the
press last week that
Menkerios was not coming to Harare as a special envoy
but in his capacity
"as the person in charge of African issues in the
Department of Political
Affairs (to discuss the humanitarian situation in
Zimbabwe)."
The European Union and the United States have criticised the
ban on aid
groups that they say has cut off support to more than two million
Zimbabweans who received life sustaining support from aid agencies on daily
basis.
Human rights groups say worsening political violence in the
southern African
country that has destroyed homes, property and livelihoods
of victims made
the move to stop humanitarian operations even more
devastating for the
thousands of children and women affected by hunger and
displaced by
political violence.
British foreign secretary David
Miliband on Sunday stepped up pressure on
Mugabe likening the veteran
leader's rule to "sadism" and called on South
Africa to do more to exert
pressure on its northern neighbour to end
political violence and
repression.
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 Jameson Mombe Monday 16 June
2008
HARARE - Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
party secretary
general Tendai Biti is expected to appear in the High Court
today to face
treason charges as President Robert Mugabe tightens the screws
on the
opposition ahead of a presidential run-off election later this
month.
Biti, arrested last Wednesday as he landed at Harare International
airport,
faces the death penalty if convicted of treason but the MDC at the
weekend
dismissed the charges against its secretary general as false and
based on a
"fake" document written by the government's spy Central
Intelligence
Organisation (CIO).
"He has not been formally charged
but the police have said they want to
charge him with treason arising out of
what is obviously a fake document,
headlined "Transitional Mechanism" which
was concocted by the CIO," MDC
spokesman Nelson Chamisa said in a
statement.
The police allege that the "Transitional Mechanism" document
was authored by
Biti and that it outlined a plan to seize power
unconstitutionally.
Biti - who was brought to court on Saturday in leg
irons and amid high
security - publicly distanced himself from the document
when it first
surfaced two months ago.
The police also say that want
to charge Biti with "communicating statements
prejudicial to the state" for
allegedly announcing that the MDC and party
leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won
the March presidential and parliamentary
elections instead of waiting for
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to
announce official
results.
The ZEC later confirmed the results announced by Biti although
the
commission said Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe but failed to secure the
margin
required to take power warranting a second round ballot on June
27.
Meanwhile, in a rare reprimand, Botswana last week summoned
Zimbabwe's
ambassador to that country to protest about Biti's arrest and the
repeated
detention of Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai has been detained on no
less than five occasions in slightly over
the past two weeks while on the
campaign trail, in what the opposition
leader is an attempt by the
government to derail his drive to end Mugabe's
decades-old rule. -
ZimOnline
Zimbabwe Today
Zanu-PF plots with a
South African outlaw group to bring more terror to the
country.
Four
members of the military junta now ruling Zimbabwe in Mugabe's name are
holding secret meetings with representatives of PAGAD, the notorious Islamic
terrorist organisation based in Cape Town, South Africa.
The first
meeting was held last week in a Government safe house in Kumalo,
Bulawayo,
when seven members of PAGAD met with General Constantine Chiwenga,
Police
Chief Augustine Chihuri, prison boss General Paradzai Zimondi, and
Air
Marshall Perence Shiri.
The meeting was designed to establish a flow of
arms into Zimbabwe via PAGAD
now the Chinese source has dried up. The South
Africans also advised the
Zimbabwe strong men on various terror tactics. A
further meeting was
scheduled for June 20.
PAGAD stands, ironically,
for People Against Gangsterism and Drugs, and was
first established in 1996
as an off-shoot of the Islamic Qibla movement.
Initially it acted as a
vigilante group, but its later activities, including
the bombings of
synagogues, gay night clubs, and similar targets led to it
being designated
a terrorist organisation by the South African government.
Aos seen as
ironic is the fact that Mugabe, far from being an Islam
sympathiser, is a
loudly-proclaimed Roman Catholic.
According to a Zanu-PF source, the
terrorism advice given by PAGAD to the
junta members last week included the
deliberate murder on one's own
supporters, then blaming the crime on the
opposition and taking suitably
repressive measures. Some observers believe
this has already been tried out
with the recent murder of two Zanu-PD
members in Shamva.
The South Africans are also understood to have
promised to supply experts to
train inexperienced Zanu-PF militia in
terrorist tactics.
The meetings come at a time when President Mugabe is
saying openly that
Zanu-PF will never allow the opposition MDC to take over
the country, and
hinting that the current situation could lead to civil
war.
The harassment of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has continued, with
his
arrest, along with 11 party members, on Saturday. He was held for three
hours, then released. No charges were brought.
MDC General Secretary
Tendai Biti, arrested last week, appeared in court at
the weekend, after a
judge ordered that the police produce him. Today,
Monday, a decision on
whether to charge him with treason is expected to be
made.
Meanwhile
40 African leaders have published an open letter calling for the
Zimbabwe
presidential election on June 27 to be free and fair. Signatories
include
former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, Archbishop Tutu of South
Africa, and
Jerry Rawlings, the former leader of Ghana. Observers believe
this may be a
sign that Mugabe's previously blanket African support may be
starting to
slip.
Posted on Sunday, 15 June 2008
The Times
June 16, 2008
Jan Raath in Harare
President Mugabe's lawless
militias crossed a psychological boundary last
week as they extended their
violence and "re-education" campaign from the
poor townships into the
well-off suburbs.
On Friday night a mob of about 20 youths burst through
the gate of the Blue
Kerry home for the elderly, in Harare's upmarket
Chisipite area, brandishing
sticks and chanting slogans for the ruling Zanu
(PF) party. "They were
looking for a lawyer who stays here," an 80-year-old
resident said. "When
they found he wasn't here, one of them grabbed me
through the wrought-iron
gate I was watching them through but I pulled free.
They tried to smash the
gate but they failed.
"So they went on and
found the administrator in his flat. They sjamboked
[whipped] him and beat
him across the head. He was badly hurt. He's gone
into hiding
now."
The mobs have been leaping over the high walls meant to keep
long-term white
residents and the black business executives and
professionals who became
affluent more recently safe. They have been
dragging domestic employees out
of their quarters to pungwes, meetings where
they are made to chant slogans
in front of a huge bonfire and sing in praise
of Mr Mugabe all night.
Having terrorised great swaths of the country's
rural areas with murder,
assault, arson and starvation for having "voted
wrongly" in the March 29
elections, the Joint Operations Command - the
200-odd top security officers
directing Mr Mugabe's political survival
strategy - have moved into cities
and towns, where support for Morgan
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) has hitherto been left
alone.
"It's a nasty situation," said the 80-year-old care home resident. "We
called the police. They came but said they were not allowed to arrest
them."
So far it is not clear if there is more than one gang in Harare's
northern
suburbs. But the capital's overcrowded and poor townships have had
at least
one Zanu (PF) group in their neighbourhoods for more than a month,
wreaking
havoc. Theresa, a middle-aged housewife from Epworth, a sprawling
squatter
town on Harare's southern outskirts, said: "They forced me to come
to a
meeting last week. We had to sing all night.
"They made us line
up and each one had to confess that we had voted for MDC.
They took our
names. Many were beaten, if they confessed the truth or not.
Then after that
we had to buy T-shirts with Mugabe's face and a Zanu (PF)
membership card.
They hold these meetings every night. And every night there
are long, long
queues to confess."
Zanu(PF)'s strategy for the run-off election on June
27 makes a mockery of
assurances to voters that the ballot will be secret.
The results in each
polling station are fixed outside the building for
public inspection - and
the local Zanu (PF) militia leaders have a copy of
the electoral roll for
the area.
Trevor, a university student living
in Mbare township, said: "In the
election in March, Zanu (PF) got very few
votes. So it is easy for Zanu to
know who are their members in the area. So
they know the rest of the people
on the roll voted for the MDC. They are
saying if Mugabe loses again, they
are going to deal with us."
The
sense of fear around the country will have been reinforced sharply by Mr
Mugabe's avowal at the weekend that "we are prepared to fight for our
country and go to war for it", rather than let the MDC win.
At the
weekend the advance party of the Pan-African Parliament's observer
contingent concluded that "clearly the situation is not conducive for free
and fair elections".
The Times
June 16, 2008
Sam Coates, Chief Political
Correspondent and and Jonathan Clayton
Johannesburg
Britain and its
international allies will urge South Africa to cut off
electricity supplies
to Zimbabwe if Robert Mugabe steals the election in two
weeks' time, The
Times has learnt.
Plans are being drawn up to persuade Zimbabwe's allies
to mount an economic
blockade and diplomats are considering a ban on the
children of the elite
going to school in Europe if Mr Mugabe loses the
election but refuses to
step down.
Concern is growing at the scale of
the violence and intimidation before the
rerun of the presidential election
on June 27, with David Miliband, the
Foreign Secretary, describing yesterday
as "sadism" the murder and torture
in the country.
Mr Mugabe vowed at
the weekend that Zimbabwe would never be ruled by his
"puppet" opponent,
Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement
for Democratic
Change (MDC). Mr Tsvangirai has been detained five times over
the past ten
days. The MDC says that 66 of its supporters have been killed
since the
first-round polls in March.
Gordon Brown, commenting yesterday on the
action against Mr Tsvangirai and
the MDC, said that it was "further proof,
if it is needed, that Robert
Mugabe is becoming more blatant in his attempts
to steal the 27 June
election".
Diplomatic sources recognise that the
run-up has become so bloody that the
election might not be able to proceed.
They still profess hope, however,
that Mr Mugabe will be unable on polling
day to overturn his opponent's
adavantage of 47.9 per cent to 43.2 per
cent.
Private opinion polls are being quietly held in Zimbabwe; diplomats
hope
that the results can be used to show a decisive lead for Mr Tsvangirai
and
employed in the propaganda war during polling weekend.
Diplomats
are also optimistic that individual polling stations will display
the
results of their ballots, making it more difficult for numbers to be
altered
in Harare before they are announced.
Mr Miliband spoke over the weekend
to Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General,
as part of efforts to increase the
number of African election observers from
150 to 400.
Mr Mugabe was
quoted in the state-run Sunday Mail as saying that he would be
willing to
hand power to a ruling-party ally when he was sure the country
was safe from
"sellouts" and from British interference, although he put no
timing on such
a decision.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is also drawing up a
range of options in
case the President refuses to go. It is hoping to
persuade Zimbabwe's
neighbours to create an economic blockade. Vital imports
have to come
through Mozambique and South Africa. "One way or another, this
summer is
likely to mark the endgame for Robert Mugabe," one diplomat
said.
British diplomats are talking up their chances of building a wide
coalition
in case of the need for action, in the knowledge that this cannot
be
presented to Zimbabwe solely as a British issue. African statesman,
including the former Presidents of Nigeria, Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi,
Tanzania and Benin, along with Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General,
signed a declaration on Friday expressing concern at the violence and
calling on African leaders "at all levels" to oversee the
election.
Privately, countries such as Nigeria have told diplomats that
they are
concerned at Zimbabwe's effect on Africa's reputation; the US has
also been
tough. Even China, which signed a trade deal with Zimbabwe, made a
"helpful"
intervention at a UN debate last Thursday, diplomats
said.
Some of Zimbabwe's intermittent electricity comes from South
Africa, and
diplomats believe that they might be able to persuade the South
African
Government to restrict or turn off the supply. Although this has
been seen
as tantamount to declaring economic war, public opinion has
changed because
South Africa is experiencing its own power shortages. There
is also
opposition to the sale of electricity to Botswana and Mozambique as
well as
Zimbabwe.
British officials are also examining ways of
widening sanctions against
Zimbabwe in ways that will not hurt the
population further. Plans to freeze
the financial assets of the Zimbabwean
elite, in ways similar to those used
on North Korea and Iran, are being
considered.
The European Union may follow Australia in banning the
children of the
country's leaders from being educated in member states. A
military
intervention is highly unlikely unless there is a "complete
breakdown of law
and order".
Officials recognise that South Africa
will be critical in attempts to put
pressure on Mr Mugabe to go. That
President Mbeki is still close to the
Zimbabwean leader is seen as a
problem.
Jacob Zuma, the president of the ANC, has been significantly
more
sympathetic, appearing publicly with Mr Tsvangirai and offering
support. Mr
Zuma wields considerable influence inside South Africa because
he is
regarded as the heir apparent before elections next year, and is
already
operating a "shadow government".
Ways the world can
act
Existing sanctions:
- Travel ban on about 100 top Zanu (PF)
officials and executives. Ban does
not cover world diplomatic conferences,
hence Mr Mugabe's recent appearance
at the UN food summit in Rome
-
Seizing of some assets
Future sanctions may include:
- Widening of
travel ban to include relatives of Zanu (PF) members thought
to be involved
in human rights abuses
- Children of officials prevented from attending
schools overseas
- Freeze bank accounts and assets held in US or EU by
regime members,
officials and relatives
- Complete trade embargo and
ban on purchase of goods
- Action against Western companies maintaining a
presence
- Freezing all aid
- Increased pressure on neighbouring
states to suspend Zimbabwe from the
Southern African Development
Community
- Pressure on China to break off Zimbabwe relationship, which
has allowed it
to mitigate the impact of the current sanctions
The Times
June 16, 2008
We must
cut off Zimbabwe's access to foreign currency to force a free and
fair
election
Nick Clegg
In less than two weeks the fate of the people of
Zimbabwe will be determined
by the result of a run-off presidential
election. If Robert Mugabe is
allowed to steal that election the tragedy
will be complete. The scale of
the catastrophe that Mugabe has precipitated
in his country is almost
unimaginable. In just ten years, life expectancy
has plummeted from 61 years
to less than 36 - the lowest in the world. The
economy has disintegrated -
inflation by the official measure stood at
164,900 per cent in April,
unemployment is more than 80 per cent; the shops
are empty, the health
service has collapsed, the school system no longer
functions and millions of
Zimbabweans have fled.
Amid the chaos and
misery for ordinary Zimbabweans there exists a grotesque
contrast. It is to
be found in the ostentatious houses, newly built in the
suburbs of Harare by
Mugabe's party cronies and the military top brass; in
the expensive cars
that chauffeur the Zanu (PF) elite around the capital and
the luxury foods
available to those with access to foreign currency. But
this grotesque
contrast is most sinisterly apparent in the foreign currency
miraculously
found to arm and equip the forces that brutalise Mugabe's
opponents, while
public services and infrastructure crumble.
In view of the extreme
circumstances facing Zimbabwe, I urged Gordon Brown
two weeks ago to warn
Mugabe that unless his Government met the basic
minimum standards for a free
and fair election on June 27 we would work with
our allies in the region and
the wider world to do the thing that his regime
fears: cut off access to the
foreign currency that keeps them in power. This
step could be taken straight
away by Britain using the powers of the
Exchange Control Act
1947.
Since everything hinges on what happens in the coming days, a sharp
and
aggressive strategy with immediate consequences is justified and this is
the
only tool with sufficient force to secure the guarantees that we need
now to
ensure there is a fair election. We propose that its application
should be
reviewed weekly and be lifted immediately should the regime meet
basic
requirements for fair elections.
Blocking Zimbabwe's access to
foreign currency would be a serious step and I
do not propose it lightly. I
know that many ordinary Zimbabweans rely on
remittances from friends and
relatives abroad. But access to foreign
currency is what sustains Mugabe's
brutal rule; blocking it is the only step
that will have an impact on his
regime because it would threaten its ability
to function.
Since I
raised this matter with the Prime Minister, the political situation
in
Zimbabwe has deteriorated even farther. Aid agencies have been banned
from
distributing desperately needed food, Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition
leader, has been detained five times and prohibited from holding rallies;
more than 60 opposition supporters have been killed, and thousands have been
beaten, intimidated and driven from their homes. Mugabe at the weekend said
that he was willing "to go to war" if he lost. The Joint Operations Command,
made up of the heads of the military and state security organisations, is
already directing a violent campaign to "decompose" the Movement for
Democratic Change.
Mr Brown said that he was willing to consider any
measure that might secure
a free and fair election, but I fear that in the
end we will settle for
nothing more than the usual hand-wringing and ritual
condemnation.
The British Government has faced a difficult dilemma in
tackling the
Zimbabwe crisis. The Foreign Office has been understandably
fearful that
robust action against Mugabe's regime would play into his hands
by
discomforting our allies in southern Africa and by allowing him to
characterise the MDC Opposition as stooges of Zimbabwe's "colonial
oppressors".
The Government's reticence may have been understandable
while hope remained
that Thabo Mbeki, the President of South Africa, would
act decisively, but
that hope faded long ago. In any event, anyone who has
recently read the
pages of the Zimbabwe Herald recently, or heard the
broadcasts of the state
radio or television channels, will know that the
virulence of Mugabe's
anti-British/anti-MDC rhetoric is already so extreme
that he could not
increase the level of vitriol even if he wished
to.
Critics of the measures I have proposed argue that blocking foreign
currency
from entering the country would precipitate greater suffering. I do
not
underestimate the severe consequences.
The alternative, however,
is to do nothing. That may spare us our moral
qualms but it would not spare
us the responsibility for the far greater
disaster that will engulf Zimbabwe
if Robert Mugabe is allowed to steal the
election. The consequences for
Zimbabwe's people of that outcome would be
catastrophic beyond any
imagining.
Nick Clegg is leader of the Liberal Democrats
The Telegraph
By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor
Last Updated: 11:13PM BST
15/06/2008
Gordon Brown has launched his strongest attack yet on Robert
Mugabe,
denouncing his "criminal regime".
The Prime Minister condemned
the latest arrest of Morgan Tsvangirai, the
opposition leader, and said that
"over 2,000 people" had been beaten or
tortured during the election
campaign.
"These are the acts of an increasingly desperate and criminal
regime and are
further proof that Robert Mugabe is becoming more blatant in
his attempts to
steal the election," the Prime Minister said. He is likely
to raise the
subject in his talks today with President George W
Bush.
Britain will also condemn Mr Mugabe before the Security Council. An
official
stressed Mr Brown's strength of feeling about Zimbabwe, saying he
had
discussed it in all his meetings with foreign leaders in the past
week.
Mr Brown accused Mr Mugabe of "using food as a political weapon"
and said
that "four million people now face hunger and starvation".
He
added: "I say to those orchestrating the violence: the world is
watching."
Nehanda Radio
16 June
2008
By Fortune Tazvida
It is most likely Zimbabwe is now being
governed by an 84 year old who is
mentally deranged and surrounded by
hangers on who are just cheerleading him
on to new levels of
madness.
Comments by Mugabe that there will be war if he loses the
presidential
run-off election and that he would rather cede power to a
fellow Zanu PF
member should be dismissed with the contempt they
deserve.
Firstly all the murderers and pill-poppers in Zanu PF need to be
reminded
that only the people of Zimbabwe have the right to determine who
leads them
not 'shoe shopping' Grace Mugabe, 8 percent Simba Makoni,
handkerchief
Kenneth Kaunda or pipe smoking Thabo Mbeki.
We have had
enough of this nonsense were some people think they are the
eternal
custodians of all that is Zimbabwean.
Yes we know its hard to swallow,
but the long and short of it all is that
despite your monopoly of the state
media, killing of opposition officials,
use of state resources and food for
votes schemes, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai
and the MDC beat Zanu PF and Robert
Gabriel Mugabe during the March 29
election.
That will never change.
Millions of Zimbabweans want change and Mugabe
behaves like he owns the
country.
We have always never understood the use of violence by Zanu PF
and Mugabe.
The reason is that no-one person can monopolise violence.
Violence begets
violence. Does Mugabe assume when he threatens war, he is
the only who can
fight one.
Zimbabweans all over the world need to
stimulate a collective response to
this madness in our country and stop this
one person who acts like he own us
and determines our fate. Its a matter of
who fires the first shots.
Zim Online
by Mutumwa Mawere Monday 16 June
2008
OPINION: At 84 and with 28 years in power, President
Robert Mugabe genuinely
believes that Zimbabwe's sovereignity is still under
the threat of
imperialism and it would, therefore, make no sense for him to
relinquish
state power prior to the annihilation of the alleged vestiges of
imperialist
forces that are allegedly manifesting themselves in the form of
resistance
to the land reform and indidenisation programmes.
The
outcome of the March 29 election has been described by Mugabe as a
triumph
of imperialism against nationalism.
Mugabe, who still has to recognise
his competitor, Morgan Tsvangirai, as an
independent thinking Zimbabwean, is
convinced that Zimbabweans made a
mistake by voting for the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and the
runoff elections offers another chance for
the mistake to be corrected.
Mugabe believes as many of his colleagues
that the change agenda is being
driven from without and the driving force
for this kind of agenda is the
desire by the former imperial power, the
United Kingdom, to entrench the
status quo ante in so far as the control of
Zimbabwean resources is
concerned.
Whether the threat of imperialism
to the sovereignty of Zimbabwe is real or
imagined is not the issue but what
seems to ignite emotions is that there
appears to be no guarantee that the
post-Mugabe era will not lead to the
reversal of the recent changes in land
ownership pursuant to the operation
of the controversial land reform
programme.
The interest Zimbabwe continues to enjoy at the global level
is then used as
evidence that there is more at stake than the interests of
the long
suffering majority Zimbabweans. It is argued by supporters of
Mugabe that he
is their most potent weapon against imperialism and
Zimbabweans are more
vulnerable without his personal protection and
stewardship.
An argument has been advanced that targeted sanctions have
been put in place
to undermine the regime for the political expediency of
imperialist forces.
The real beneficiaries of the sanctions regime, in the
eyes of Mugabe, are
the imperialists and their kith and kin that stand to
benefit from the
change of government.
The threat of imperialism has
provided Mugabe with a convenient excuse for
clinging on to power in so far
as he can argue that his regime has been
prevented from delivering on its
promise by external forces that were lying
low as long as his leadership
played along with the neo-colonialist agenda
of entrenching the pre-colonial
class and racial relations.
If the argument that Mugabe was a good leader
until he started attacking the
property rights of the white Zimbabweans is
accepted, then the imperialist
conspiracy theory gains traction. Zimbabwe is
then seen as a target for
imperialist games.
Mugabe, who is a
disciple of Karl Marx believes like his mentor that
colonialism was an
aspect of the prehistory of the capitalist mode of
production. It was Lenin
who identified imperialism as the highest stage of
capitalism and it cannot
be denied that monopoly finance capital was
dominant in Lenin's time as it
is now forcing nations and private
corporations to compete to control
Africa's rich natural resources and
markets.
Even critics of Mugabe
have to accept that no significant changes have taken
place in post-colonial
Zimbabwe through the invisible hand of the market and
to a large extent the
inherited class relations that were predominantly race
based are still
intact. The people who had most to lose in post colonial
Zimbabwe did not do
anything to protect their interests, choosing to leave
the burden on people
whose views and attitudes were inherently
anti-capitalistic.
The
colonial government was structured is such a way to benefit a target
group
and, therefore, an argument has been advanced that the post-colonial
state
should focus on the majority who were, in any event, excluded by the
colonial state. However, evidence suggests that the primary victims of the
post-colonial order are the very people the system was supposed to
advantage.
Imperialism is mostly understood in relation to empire
building as the
forceful extension of a nation's authority by territorial
conquest so as to
establish economic and political domination of other
nations. It also
describes the imperialistic attitude of superiority,
subordination and
dominion over foreign people and is often autocratic and
monolithic in
character. The term is also equally applied to domains of
knowledge,
beliefs, values and expertise.
When it is argued that
Zimbabwe is a failed state, the counter arguments
that are then used
typically are framed in anti-imperialist language. It is
often argued that
imperialists do not have any regard for the values,
beliefs and traditions
of their victims.
When British Prime Minister Gordon Brown takes the role
of spokesman for the
change agenda in Zimbabwe, the implied hypocrisy is
easily exposed and used
as a basis for mobilising support for the
entrenchment of the status quo.
Mugabe believes that no imperialist is
qualified to talk about rule of law
and property rights when history informs
that natives were never protected
by the law.
Proponents of the
change agenda argue that it is irrelevant to imply that
imperialism is at
the root cause of the Zimbabwean crisis. Mugabe's ZANU PF
party has been in
control of the state for a sufficiently long time to
address the alleged
ills of colonialism and it is then argued that it would
be opportunistic for
an incumbent to seek to remain in power using old and
recycled
arguments.
While Mugabe mourns about the vices of imperialism it is
instructive that he
also believes that sanctions have had an adverse impact
on the economy. Why
would he want his country to benefit from an evil system
like imperialism?
Should he not have developed an alternative ideology that
works for the kind
of Zimbabwe he wanted to see when he was fighting for
liberation?
The role of imperialism in undermining the sovereignty of
developing nations
will continue to be a subject for debate. To what extent
was the colonial
state subsidised by the imperial state? It has been argued
that Rhodesia
survived not because the settlers were waiting for handouts
from the
colonial master but because the settlers themselves believed in the
idea of
creating a new civilisation that they funded from their own
initiatives but
underpinned by a repressive colonial state.
In terms
of institution building, it has been accepted that the settlers
were clear
that they wished to be self-governing and in some instances there
were
clashes with the imperial state. The settler farmers formed their own
system
of government owned by its members. They believed that the colonial
state
was their creation and, therefore, they did not see any role for the
natives
who were regarded as inferior.
The colonial agricultural system was
underpinned by a collective approach to
business. Building societies and
friendly societies were established to
support the colonial state. There was
a realisation among the settlers that
they were on their own and had to fend
for themselves.
In 1927, Old Mutual opened its first office in Harare.
However, we still
have to form our own "New Mutuals". The role of the state
actors in
empowering citizens to take ownership of their future cannot be
understated.
Why is it that the last 28 years of self-governing have not
been translated
into institution building where citizens, informed by the
experiences of the
colonial state, take ownership of their own
destinies?
It should not be sufficient to critique imperialism without
offering
alternatives. Regrettably it has become a habit in developing
countries to
point a finger at others without offering viable and
sustainable
alternatives. If Mugabe were to be re-elected, what new ideas
can be
expected from him?
The world is informed by interests and will
continue to be so whether Mugabe
is in power or not. What is important is
that a leadership be put in power
that believes in service and not in
blaming others for things they can do
something about.
Imperialism
should not be a threat to organised people. After 28 years in
power someone
must accept responsibility for failing to provide the kind of
leadership
required by a rainbow nation like Zimbabwe. It should not be
acceptable to
argue that after 1980 and its promise, race should be used as
an election
strategy by an incumbent who has failed to lead. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Nokuthula Sibanda Monday 16 June
2008
HARARE - The Botswana government said on Sunday that it
had formally
protested against the repeated detention of Zimbabwean
opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai and arrest of his secretary general
Tendai Biti.
In the clearest sign yet that regional governments were
growing impatient
over President Robert Mugabe's controversial rule,
Gaborone said it summoned
Zimbabwean ambassador Thomas Mandigora last
Thursday to express displeasure
at the arrests that it said violated a
regional treaty on the holding of
free and fair elections.
Zimbabwe
police have detained Tsvangirai on no less than five occasions over
the past
two weeks, in what the opposition leader has said was an attempt by
the
government to derail his drive to end Mugabe's decades-long rule.
Police
have also charged Biti with treason but his Movement for Democratic
Change
(MDC) party says the charges are trumped up. Biti, who appears in
court on
Monday, faces the death penalty if convicted.
"Botswana is alarmed by
these arrests and detentions as they disrupt
electoral activities of key
players and intimidate the electorate thus
undermining the process of
holding a free, fair and democratic election,"
Botswana foreign affairs
minister Phandu Sekelemani, said in a statement
issued by presidential
spokesman Jeff Ramsay on Sunday.?
Gaborone said the "politically
motivated arrests" posed a serious threat to
the holding of a free and fair
run-off presidential election in Zimbabwe
later this month, adding that the
arrests were unacceptable and violated the
principles and objectives of the
Southern African Development Community
Treaty.
Tsvangirai starts as
favourite to win the run-off poll that is being held
because the MDC leader
defeated Mugabe in a March 29 poll but fell short of
the margin required to
takeover the presidency.
But political violence has marked campaigning
for the run-off poll, amid
charges by the MDC that Mugabe has unleashed
state security forces and
ruling ZANU PF party militias to wage violence
against the opposition party's
supporters and structures in an attempt to
regain the upper hand in the
second ballot.
The opposition party says
that at least 66 of its members have been killed
in political violence over
the past two months while several thousands more
had been displaced from
their homes.
The government denies committing violence and instead
accuses the MDC of
carrying out violence in a bid to tarnish Mugabe's
name.
The action by the Gaborone authorities is the first public sign of
disapproval from government in a region that has come under attack in some
quarters for its policy of quite diplomacy towards Mugabe.
Last
month, Zambian government also expressed concern to Harare officials
over
the continued attack of President Levy Mwanawasa by Zimbabwean
state-owned
media that has accused the Zambian leader of aiding Western
attempts to
topple Mugabe's government. - ZimOnline
See the poster for this event
Day of Prayer 21st June Salisbury Cathedral Close 10-4pm
The Times
June 16, 2008
David Sharrock
Simon Mann, the Old Etonian mercenary accused of
plotting a coup against the
president of Equatorial Guinea in 2004, will
stand trial in the tiny
oil-rich West African nation tomorrow amid signals
that the legal process
has been rigged against him.
Mann's
Equatoguinean defence lawyer Ponciano Mbomio Nvo was unceremoniously
stripped of his right to practice in the country last week - coinciding with
a sudden announcement that the trial was about to begin.
Mr Mbomio
Nvó has been replaced by José Pablo Nvó, a lawyer who has been
described as
being a supporter of President Obiang's ruling political party.
Mr Mbomio
Nvó told The Times last week that it was impossible for Mann's
trial to
begin any time soon because the correct legal procedures, based on
the
Spanish judicial system, have not been observed.
He said that the
preparation of the case was still at the police stage and
that the defence
had not even been informed of the specific charges that
Mann
faces.
Since Mann was extradited from Zimbabwe in January, where he
served a
three-year prison sentence for immigration irregularities, Mr
Mbomio Nvó has
been building a case based around the former mercenary's
illegal
extradition.
No extradition treaty existed at the time that
Mann was flown out of
Zimbabwe to the notorious Black Neach prison in
Malabo, the capital of
Equatorial Guinea. His defence lawyers launched an
immediate appeal against
the decision to extradite him, but Mann went
missing for three days during
the legal wrangle and only resurfaced once he
was in Equatoguinean custody.
By the middle of last week Mr Mbomio Nvó
had still heard nothing from the
state prosecutor's office nor seen any of
the evidence against his client.
Under the Spanish system of examining
magistrates, both the prosecution and
defence are given several weeks to
examine the files before a trial begins.
In April Mr Mbomio Nvó was
accused of defamation by Equatoguinean attorney
general José Oló Obono - a
man whom Mr Mbomio Nvó has defended in the past
and whose release he secured
from Black Beach prison.
At the time Mr Mbomio Nvó said he was not
alarmed nor surprised by the
development and continued to practice as the
country's only independent
lawyer.
However, the coincidence of the
announcement of the start date for Mann's
trial and Mr Mbomio Nvó's
suspension for a year by the country's College of
Lawyers will raise
suspicions that the Old Etonian and former friend of Mark
Thatcher will not
be fair.
Amnesty International claimed that the 2004 trial of Mann's
co-accused
conspirators, including Nick du Toit, was similarly
flawed.
Mann, a former officer in the SAS, was arrested in 2004 with 70
other men
when his plane landed in Zimbabwe to collect a shipment of arms
purchased
from the country's state arms manufacturer.
Another group,
which included du Toit, was arrested in Equatorial Guinea
itself. Together
they were accused of hatching a plot to overthrow the
country's president,
who seized power in a coup in 1979.
Although Mann "confessed" in a
television interview that he was the
"manager" of the plot, he denied he
was the "main man". He implicated Mr
Thatcher, son of the former prime
minister Margaret Thatcher, as part of the
conspiracy. The Equatoguineans
have issued an international arrest warrant
for Mr Thatcher through
Interpol.