Crisis, what crisis?
Time for an international
broadcasting reality check
Commentary by Andy Sennitt, 2 June 2005
SW Radio Africa, which has been broadcasting independent programmes into
Zimbabwe for several years, has been forced to suspend its transmissions on
shortwave. In a press release, the station explained that it had run out of
money due to the high cost of using extra shortwave transmitters to counteract
jamming by the Zimbabwe government.
This news came hot on the heels of the cancellation
of a conference, which I was planning to attend, where the training of
broadcasters in developing countries was one of the central themes. Apparently,
too few international broadcasters had decided to send
representatives.
At the same time, I couldn't help noticing that
President Bush had just transferred an extra 7.7 million US dollars - enough to
fund SW Radio Africa for several years - into the already substantial budget
allocated to US government broadcasts to the Middle East.
Wrong priorities
What these things tell me is that
the international broadcasting industry may have some of its priorities wrong.
Funding, it seems, is plentiful when western countries use it to send their
messages into the developing world. But there's a lot less enthusiasm when it
comes to helping broadcasters in developing countries to speak to their own
people, and to their neighbours. Much of international broadcasting, it seems,
is still in the mentality of the colonial era.
There are, of course, a number of well-established
training institutions that specialise in helping prepare broadcasters from
developing countries to go home and use their new skills for the benefit of
their own people. One such establishment is less than 100 yards from where I'm
sitting. But training cannot overcome the media restrictions imposed by people
like Robert Mugabe, and that's why the international broadcasts from outside the
country are so important. It beggars belief that, despite the publicity given to
the Zimbabwe government's jamming, none of the major western countries or donor
organisations appears to have thought it sufficiently urgent to give extra
funding to SW Radio Africa. They claim to loathe Mugabe's policies, but play
right into his hands by making them appear successful.
Politics vs technical expediency
For the time
being, SW Radio Africa has become de facto MW Radio Africa, and can only reach
the southern part of Zimbabwe from the mediumwave transmitter in Lesotho that it
continues to use - though this service too may soon be silenced unless new
funding is forthcoming.
There is, in neighbouring Botswana, a high power mediumwave transmitter used by
the Voice of America that has already caused a lot of tension between Botswana
and Zimbabwe. It would be perfectly feasible for SW Radio Africa to cover a vast
chunk of the country via this transmitter were the Broadcasting Board of
Governors to make it available for, say, a couple of hours a day.
I don't see that happening, partly because the BBG
likes to have total control of the programming that goes out on its facilities,
and partly because it would undoubtedly increase the tension between Botswana
and Zimbabwe.
This, in a nutshell, is the problem in so many parts
of the world. Political reality often prevents the best technical solutions
being implemented. But that's not the only problem. It's also one of attitude.
Too many of the western broadcasters see their mission as telling their target
audiences what they ought to think, instead of providing the means for them to
develop and share their own ideas. A lot of it is well meaning, but the people
who live in Zimbabwe feel much more at ease listening to familiar voices of
their compatriots than being addressed by Europeans or Americans. This is a
factor which Mugabe himself often uses in speeches.
One way to make progress
One thing that the
western broadcasters could do is to employ some of the people they have trained
to produce broadcasts beamed to their homeland. Currently the norm is to provide
training courses, then send the students back home where they may not have the
facilities to do all the things they have been taught, and may be subjected to
harassment and even physical violence when they do. Again, political factors
come into the equation, such as getting work permits. There might also be
problems with trade unions that would see this as a threat to their own
members.
I don't underestimate the logistical difficulties of
integrating more native broadcasters into the existing infrastructure, but it
seems to me that it's time for a fresh approach to the whole concept of
international broadcasting. At the moment, there are too many negative
developments, and the industry is in something of a crisis. The problem is,
people are so busy concentrating on their own local difficulties that they're
not looking at the bigger picture.
Responsibility
Stations like SW Radio Africa show
that it is possible for properly trained broadcasters to circumvent draconian
broadcast laws in their home countries. What's needed is stable funding and
logistical support. Not to provide it would be a derogation of responsibility on
the part of the western nations, and a huge encouragement to all those in
authority in the developing countries who only cling on to power through their
control of the media.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are
the personal views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions
of Radio Netherlands.
© Radio Nederland Wereldomroep, all rights
reserved
Toronto free press
Bob Geldof's excellent solution
by Klaus
Rohrich
Thursday, June 2, 2005
Hey dudes let's do a doobie and, like
solve Africa's problems. It's like
really easy, man! All we got to do is
have a concert like in Scotland or
someplace and like, WOW! The pols'r gonna
get it right.
I just imagine the functioning of the fetid brain that
dreamed up "Live 8",
the concert touted to be the be-all and end-all of
Africa's problems. Geldof
and the musical brain trust comprised of such
luminaries as Sir Elton John,
famous for his flamboyant costumes and
Madonna, also famous for her
flamboyant costumes plan to put on a concert in
Scotland at the same time as
the meeting of the heads of the G-8 nations to
draw attention to the plight
of Africa and to get the G-8 to fix the African
problem once and for all.
"What started 20 years ago is coming to a
political point in a few weeks.
There's more than a chance that the boys and
girls with guitars will finally
get to turn the world on its axis. What we
do in the next five weeks is
seriously, properly, historically, politically
important," Geldof quoted
himself on his web site.
Listening to
Geldof is almost embarrassing in that his simple-minded
approach to solving
the Dark Continent's (oops, sorry, Bob. You call it the
'luminous
continent') problems is reminiscent of the Little Rascals putting
on a revue
to save the radio station. While there's lots of feel good juice
inherent in
a concept as groovy as Bob's plan to save Africa, the reality is
that only
Africa can save itself.
It appears that Geldof is yet another one of
those self-loathing guilty,
wealthy western liberals who thinks that
Europeans are responsible for all
the world's evils and believes that only
actions by the West will ultimately
solve that continent's problems. The
whole idea of predicating the solution
of Africa's problems to western
nations sending bales of cash is an insult
to the people of Africa and, dare
I say it, a form of insidious racism,
assuming that Africans are incapable
of solving their own problems. This
patronizing attitude has long been the
staple of Western liberals, whose
core belief is that native peoples are
similar to helpless children and as
such need the resources of the
industrialized West to solve their problems.
If this were 1950 I might be
more open to the idea of providing
extraordinary assistance to the people of
Africa in their effort to forge a
continental accord. But given the fact
that Africans have been out of the
clutches of the evil Europeans for over
three decades, it's time they fished
or cut bait.
Geldof's simple
solution does not take into account the fact that the
Africans are their own
worst enemies. Choose any of six or seven nations
currently on their
relentless slide into disaster and at the root you will
find tribal
animosities and ignorance to be the two main contributors to
those nations'
decline. The fact that the World Health organization (WHO) is
nearly
powerless to slow the spread of AIDS in Africa isn't attributable to
a lack
of resources. It's strictly about ignorance. Africans do not want to
practice "safe sex" through the use of condoms, as it somehow diminishes a
man's sense of virility.
Rwanda tells us all we need to know about
tribal hatreds and how they need
to change well before there can be any hope
of anything else ever changing
in Africa. A close friend of mine grew up in
Africa and I remember a
particularly poignant story of how building a
railroad trestle across a
gorge, a worker fell from the top of the trestle
some 60 feet, resulting in
near fatal injuries. My friend remarked about how
shocked he was to see the
300+ workers all stop and laugh heartily at the
unfortunate and nearly fatal
accident that befell their fellow worker. After
the medics rescued the poor
soul and rushed him to the nearest medical
facilities, the rest calmly
returned to work. Now there's a real cultural
difference that people like
Geldof apparently can't seem to wrap their heads
around. It's yet another
case of seeing a world crafted in Africa through
lenses made in Europe.
It's beyond arrogant to expect the West to take
responsibility for monsters
like Idi Amin, Haille Mengistu, Julius Nyerere
and yes, Robert Mugabe, who
through the graces of our own corrupt former
Prime Minister, Jean Chretien,
remains at the helm of Zimbabwe. These are
people that eventually the
'luminescent continent' will have to answer
for.
In the meantime Geldof and his entourage would be much more
effective if
they allowed a ray of reality through their rose-colored
lenses.
Klaus Rohrich is columnist with Canada Free Press. He can be
reached at:
letters@canadafreepress.com.
Zim Online
Brigadier seizes tobacco farm
Fri 3 June 2005
MANICALAND - Zimbabwe army Brigadier General Kasirai Tazira has seized
prominent tobacco grower Hammy Hamilton's farm in yet another sign of
continuing lawlessness on farms long after the government announced that its
farm seizure programme was over.
Tazira, who is commander of
the army's 3 Brigade, based near Mutare
city in Manicaland province, invaded
Hamilton's 612-hectare Geran farm last
week. The farm is located in
Manicaland.
As well as forcibly taking over equipment at the farm
worth about Z$10
billion, Tazira is reportedly also demanding that Hamilton
surrenders to him
his ready cured tobacco worth about $1.5
billion.
"I don't know what to do. My family has since moved out
(of the farm)
and they are now staying with some other people," a dejected
Hamilton told
ZimOnline.
Hamilton said he had in desperation
appealed to Vice-President Joyce
Mujuru, influential Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono and
Manicaland provincial governor Tinaye
Chigudu and Lands Minister Flora
Bhuka. But they had all failed to move the
Brigadier General from his farm.
"As I speak to you right now, my
farm has been taken and I brought
this matter to the attention of
Vice-President Mujuru, RBZ governor Gideon
Gono, Manicaland governor, and
Lands Minister Florence Bhuka but to no
avail," said
Hamilton.
ZimOnline was unable to get comment on
the matter from Mujuru, Gono,
Chigudu or Bhuka.
Hamilton, who
was among a few white farmers to have survived the
government's chaotic and
often violent seizure of farmland from whites in
the last four years, had
until last week lived and farmed in Zimbabwe for
the last 45
years.
He was a prominent member of the farming community serving
on the
board of the government's Zimbabwe National Water Authority and on
the
boards of several farmers' associations.
The evicted farmer
said trouble started when a group of youths, who
appeared drunk and high on
some substance, invaded the farm a week ago
laying siege on the farm house.
Hamilton was away from the farm at the time
having gone to Harare to buy
wrapping paper for his market-ready tobacco.
His daughter and
son-in-law who were at the farm had to remain
barricaded in the house for
five days, while the threatening youths camped
outside frequently shouting
abuse at the absent farmer and banging plough
discs hung on trees around the
house, in an obvious attempt to intimidate
the trapped couple to surrender
and leave.
Only when Hamilton returned from Harare did the farmer
and his family
decide to leave the farm.
"How can any farmer
take serious heed of the RBZ governor's call for
experienced commercial
farmers to return under such a situation?" asked
Hamilton.
He
was referring to calls by Gono to expelled white farmers to return
and help
revive Zimbabwe's key agricultural sector, which dramatically
collapsed as
marauding ruling ZANU PF supporters tacitly encouraged by the
government,
invaded farms looting property and equipment, destroying
livestock and
equipment.
At least 10 white farmers were murdered during the farm
invasions
while hundreds of black farm workers were severely assaulted or
injured.
The government followed through the farm invasions by
seizing land
from white farmers and parcelling it out to black peasant
farmers. The
government said the land redistribution programme was aimed at
correcting an
unfair and immoral land tenure system under which a few white
farmers owned
about 75 percent of the best farm land while blacks were
cramped on poor
arid soils.
But the government did not support
the new black farmers with
implements and financing which resulted in
agricultural production falling
by about 60 percent leading to persistent
food shortages. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Mugabe temporarily halts evictions
Fri 3 June 2005
HARARE -- President Robert Mugabe has temporarily called off a police
blitz
on informal traders and shanty dwellers to allow for a review of a
highly
unpopular operation that has seen 22 000 people arrested and left
hundreds
of thousands more homeless.
Sources told ZimOnline that Mugabe
yesterday summoned senior police
commanders and Local Government Minister
Ignatius Chombo, who oversees towns
and asked them to stop the evictions and
review the campaign roundly
condemned by church and human rights groups as
barbaric and inhumane.
The Zimbabwean leader, who has defended the
police blitz as necessary
to clean-up cities of filth and crime, is said to
want the campaign to
continue but is concerned with the adverse publicity it
has attracted and
wants a change of tactics.
"The President
summoned Chombo and senior police officials involved in
the operation today
(Wednesday), he told them he wants the operation to
continue but that there
should be a new way of doing things, a new
strategy," said a senior police
officer, who did not want to be named for
fear of
victimisation.
The officer said Mugabe - who is reportedly under
pressure from some
of his senior lieutenants in ZANU PF to stop the
operation because it fuels
anti-government sentiments - also asked for an
update on measures to
relocate homeless people and informal traders evicted
in Harare and other
urban centres.
"As a result, nearly all
police officers working on the campaign have
been ordered to stop operations
for now. The campaign will slow down
although it will not necessarily come
to a complete stop," the police
officer said.
Mugabe's
spokesman George Charamba could not be reached for comment on
the matter
yesterday. But a police officer told ZimOnline that the clean-up
operation
was being stopped only to give the police a breather before it is
resumed.
He said: "We are taking a breather but the operation
will be back,
maybe as early as before the weekend."
Chombo
would not confirm whether or not he was summoned by Mugabe over
the
operation. He instead defended the police exercise and said the
government
was now looking at providing for those affected by the campaign.
"The situation was getting out of hand. For example, Mbare has a
carrying
capacity of 10 000 but we had a million people living there. We are
now
working on ensuring that those affected find somewhere else to stay or
operate from," Chombo said.
The temporary stoppage of evictions
comes as world human rights
watchdog, Amnesty International, added its voice
against the operation and
called on the Harare authorities to end the
campaign and that they should
ensure safe water and food for evicted
families.
In a statement released yesterday, Amnesty accused Harare
of
flagrantly disregarding human rights, due process and the rule of law by
sending armed soldiers and police bulldozing and burning down makeshift
dwellings for homeless people and destroying market stalls for informal
traders.
"The forced closure of informal businesses, the only
livelihood option
left for many in Zimbabwe's shattered economy, has pushed
thousands into an
increasingly vulnerable position.
"This is
particularly disturbing in light of the high levels of
poverty and food
shortages already present in Zimbabwe," Amnesty Africa
programme director
Kolawole Olaniyan said in the statement.
The Amnesty official added
that Mugabe and his government should
compensate all citizens forcibly
evicted from their makeshift homes and pay
for goods and property destroyed
during the police blitz.
Local church and human rights groups have
also condemned the campaign
saying the police were using excessive force
against defenceless citizens
whose only crime was to try and eke out an
honest living through informal
trading.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights has said it is preparing to file
an application against the
operation at the courts on behalf of evicted
families.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has urged Zimbabweans to
mobilise
against the operation, on Tuesday told journalists in Harare that
his
Movement for Democratic Change party was left with no option but to
organise
popular resistance against the government exercise. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Harare pledges not to tamper with food aid
Fri 3 June
2005
HARARE - World Food Programme (WFP) director James Morris won a key
concession during talks with President Robert Mugabe this week when the
Zimbabwean leader agreed not to interfere or politicise food aid distributed
by the relief organisation.
A source privy to discussions
between Morris and Mugabe earlier on
Wednesday told ZimOnline that Mugabe
pledged to "personally ensure" that WFP
requirements that food is given to
all deserving people regardless of their
political belief would be
met.
The source, who works with one of WFP's local partners, said:
"Morris
asked for Mugabe to assure him that WFP food would not be tampered
with and
that it would not be used for political purposes.
"The
President made these assurances. From the beginning, Morris was
going to ask
for these assurances because Zimbabwe is one of the countries
that have a
track record of mishandling donor food for political mileage."
Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party,
church leaders and human rights groups accuse Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF
party of routinely denying food to starving MDC supporters as punishment for
backing the opposition party. Mugabe and ZANU PF deny the
charge.
Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba could not be reached
yesterday to
ascertain what guarantees on food aid distribution the
President gave to
Morris.
A spokeswoman for the WFP in
Zimbabwe, Makena Walker, said: "The WFP
has standing rules on how its food
is distributed. But I am not sure whether
these were discussed. I would
refer you to Mike Huggins, who is Morris's
spokesman."
Huggins
was not available on his mobile number. The WFP, which often
provides food
to hungry people in countries and regions torn apart by
political strife,
does not allow the politicisation of its food aid.
The talks
between Morris and Mugabe opened the way for the world food
aid agency to
begin relief operations in Zimbabwe after the Zimbabwean
leader had six
months ago told the WFP and other international food
organisations that
their help was not needed because the country had enough
to feed
itself.
Two months ago after his ZANU PF party's controversial
victory in a
parliamentary election, Mugabe also boasted that he would not
be going
around with a begging bowl because his cash-strapped government had
enough
resources to ensure every hungry Zimbabwean was fed.
But
deepening shortages of the staple maize and foreign currency
required to
import food appear to have forced Mugabe into an embarrassing
U-turn to
accept help. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
State witness refuses to divulge information
Fri 3 June
2005
HARARE - A key state witness, in the trial of former finance minister
Chris Kuruneri yesterday refused to divulge to the court what was done with
the R5.2 million which had been deposited by Kuruneri.
Oliver
Sigauke, a state witness in the trial refused to disclose what
was done with
the funds citing "national interests".
"We used the funds to
finance some state obligations that were wanted
to meet the national
interest. I would need authorisation for me to do so
(disclose how money was
used). I cannot disclose anything because of
national interest," said
Sigauke.
The case was briefly adjourned after the State objected to
further
questioning of Sigauke by defence lawyer Jonathan
Samkange.
Samkange also withdrew an application to examine the
Commercial Bank
of Zimbabwe Suspense and Ledger Accounts for 2002-2004 which
showed the
inward and outward movement of foreign currency. The defence
lawyer did not
give reasons for the withdrawal.
Kuruneri was
arrested in April last year for allegedly externalising
huge amounts of
foreign currency which which the state says he used to buy
properties in
South Africa. He denies the charge.
The former minister has already
been convicted of breaching the
Citizenship Act after he was found in
possession of a Canadian passport in
violation of the country's laws which
bar dual citizenship. - ZimOnline
Sokwanele - Enough is Enough -
Zimbabwe PROMOTING NON-VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE
DEMOCRACY
|
Zimbabwe Burns Sokwanele : 2 June
2005
The police are
cutting a swathe of destruction across the towns and cities of Zimbabwe, as the
so called "Operation Murambatsvina" ("Operation Drive Out Trash") continues to
gather momentum. On Wednesday morning (June 1) towns as far apart as Victoria
Falls and Mutare were still reeling under the effects of a virtual blitzkrieg
orchestrated and directed from ZANU PF central command.
In Harare our
reporter was touring the streets of the city's oldest and most populous low
density suburb, Mbare, at 1.00 o'clock in the morning. He could hardly believe
his eyes at the trail of destruction and burning and the general desolation of
the scene. It resembled, he said, an area hit by a bomb. In every direction
through the filthy streets of Mbare could be seen burning household-goods,
furniture and rubble. A few distraught residents still milled around, apparently
stunned by the speed and ferocity of the attack, although the intimidating
presence of scores of heavily armed police kept their number to a
minimum.
Similar scenes have been
reported over the last few days in Mutare, Victoria Falls and several other
centres. The campaign has all the markings of a well-planned and coordinated
blitzkrieg, although the residents received no warning and were taken completely
unawares by it. At Victoria Falls the police burnt a 10 km long line of curio
stalls that have been there for as long as anyone can remember, and in the town
so many dwellings were torched that thousands of residents found themselves
without any shelter for the night. In Bulawayo, one of the last centres to feel
the fury of the ZANU PF attack, a vicious police crackdown got underway on
Tuesday and continued into Wednesday morning. It is understood that many of the
traders whose stalls and produce were destroyed were operating with licences in
structures approved by the local authority.
It is known that more than
18,000 people have been arrested and tens of thousands of families across the
nation have been left homeless. |
Anchorage Daily News
DALE McFEATTERS: Zimbabwe's deepening
misery
Scripps Howard News Service
Published: June 2nd,
2005
Last Modified: June 2nd, 2005 at 11:28 AM
(SH) - Just when
things seemingly can't get any worse in Zimbabwe, they do.
And, sadly, the
misery is entirely inflicted by its own government.
The economy is
moribund, the currency worthless and half the nation is in
danger of
starvation. That would be bad enough, but in an escalating
crackdown that
began last month, police and security forces have been
burning and
bulldozing the pitifully humble homes and businesses in the
sprawling shanty
towns that surround Zimbabwe's major cities.
The main opposition party
estimates that 1 million to 1.5 million are
homeless, with their livelihoods
destroyed.
The government insists that the demolitions are both urban
renewal and a
crackdown on black markets in the basic necessities of life -
corn meal,
cooking oil, sugar and gasoline. This reasoning is nonsense. The
government
doesn't have the money to build anything, let alone whole new
communities,
and the black market is about the only form of commerce
left.
The real reason is to expel an angry, restive urban population and
disperse
it in the countryside where it will pose no threat to the regime of
Robert
Mugabe.
Giving credence to that was Security Minister Didymus
Mutasa who said in a
radio interview quoted by AP, "These were people who
were leaving their
rural homes and they should return there."
These
shantytowns are long-standing fixtures of African life. If there are
recent
arrivals, they left the countryside because they were starving there
and
couldn't go back if they wanted because there's no gasoline.
When Mugabe,
first as prime minister, later as president, took over from a
white minority
government in 1980 Zimbabwe was, despite years of guerrilla
warfare and U.N.
sanctions, prosperous, largely self-sufficient and a major
exporter of food
and minerals. Now it is an international charity case,
negotiating with the
U.N. for food handouts.
Maybe the regime's mad destruction of all that
belongs to people who have
little is the death throe of a doomed regime. Its
end can't come too soon.
Contact Dale McFeatters at
McFeattersD@SHNS.com.
Reuters
Police "tsunami" engulfs Zimbabwe's urban poor
Thu Jun 2, 2005
2:47 PM BST
By Andrew Quinn
HARARE (Reuters) - Officials call
the campaign "Operation Restore Order,"
but residents of Zimbabwe
shantytowns have another name for the blitz that
has left thousands homeless
and destroyed livelihoods for countless more:
"The Tsunami".
In a
clearing in one Mbare' one of the most crowded shantytowns, stunned
families
stand watch over their possessions as bulldozers rumble through the
wreckage
of a once-thriving neighbourhood.
Piles of rubble line the streets, where
houses and shops have been ripped
apart in a campaign by President Robert
Mugabe's government to clean up
urban slums it says are a haven for
black-market traders and other
criminals.
"Everything was destroyed
without notice," said Ernest
Rutsvaro, standing in front of a
half-demolished concrete building which was
once a vegetable
market.
"This is the true meaning of tsunami ... what happened is the
true meaning
of tsunami and what is happening right now is the true meaning
of tsunami."
The crackdown comes as poor Zimbabweans struggle with an
economic crisis
analysts blame in part on Mugabe's policy of seizing
white-owned farms to
give to landless blacks -- a move which gutted
commercial agriculture and
led to sharp drops in foreign
investment.
Fuel shortages cripple transportation, while foreign exchange
and some other
key commodities are also in short supply, increasing
frustration for
ordinary Zimbabweans who are also coping with a drought that
aid agencies
say could leave one third of the country needing food
aid.
The United States on Wednesday warned that the new crackdown could
lead to a
violent backlash -- although there has so far been little sign of
open
defiance in Zimbabwe's shattered slums.
Police spokesman
Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said the
campaign -- which has seen
some 22,000 arrests -- would continue and that
after a bout of violence last
week people were cooperating, often going as
far as to rip down their own
houses.
"We haven't had any negative reports or any acts of resistance,"
Bvudzijena
told Reuters on Thursday.
"It would be foolhardy for any
one to incite people into acts of resistance
... this is for the benefit of
Zimbabwe, and it is for the benefit of
everyone, including the ones who are
affected."
DISASTER BY GOVERNMENT
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) has accused the
government of using the campaign
to target its largely urban support base
following disputed elections in
March which it says were stolen by Mugabe's
ruling ZANU-PF party.
The
government denies the charge, and says it is merely trying to restore
"sanity" to urban areas.
Residents said whatever the rationale, the
devastation in Mbare and other
urban townships hit by the clean-up campaign
rivals that of a natural
disaster -- albeit one organised by
government.
Where police went in and torched illegal structures, burned
and twisted
wreckage remains.
Rows of unapproved houses have been
ripped out like teeth. Large covered
market places have been cleared and
stand empty, while mountains of scrap
metal and wood await clearing, picked
over by desperate men eager to salvage
pipes, car parts or other items of
possible value.
At a bus terminal, people lash household furniture to the
tops of busses,
joining a growing exodus of families who prefer to return to
the countryside
rather than risk another encounter with police demolition
crews.
Some of the tens of thousands made homeless by the campaign are
spending
nights in the open even though winter is setting in.
"We are
suffering, we have nowhere to go. Our houses were destroyed," said
Victoria
Muchenje.
"Our children are not going to school, we are sleeping outside
everywhere
... if you walk, everywhere you see people sleeping in the
road."
Others, who have either no money or nowhere to go, sit guard over
their
possessions and ponder the future, turning Mbare's open spaces into
giant
storerooms of housewares salvaged before the police tsunami
hit.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
Cape Argus
2 million homeless in Mugabe 'clean-up', civic groups
fear
June 2, 2005
By Basildon Peta
Nearly 2 million people in Zimbabwe's urban areas may have been left
homeless in President Robert Mugabe's crackdown in opposition urban
strongholds, civic groups estimate.
And 22 000 informal traders
have been arrested. Although civic groups
admitted it was difficult to
calculate an exact figure of the numbers of
those displaced, they agreed an
estimate of nearly 2 million would not be
far of the mark.
Main
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has been touring
devastated
townships around Harare and meeting displaced people, said up to
1.5 million
had been displaced in Harare alone.
He appealed to the
international community yesterday to intervene and
help stop what he called
Mugabe's tyrannical clean-up.
"Overnight, Zimbabwe has been turned
into a massive internal refugee
centre, with between 1 million and 1.5
million people displaced in Harare
alone," Tsvangirai said, adding that the
figure was much higher if
displacements in other cities was
included.
"Property worth millions of dollars has gone up in
flames. Families
are out in the open without jobs, without
shelter."
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chairman
Lovemore Madhuku
agreed with Tsvangirai's estimates, saying the
displacements were
particularly devastating in Harare.
Madhuku
said his group estimated that at least 500 000 familes had
been affected by
the crackdown in Harare alone.
Mugabe's government has not built
low-cost housing for low-paid
Zimbabweans since the early 1980s, and
backyard shacks and informal
settlements had become the main means of
housing for people flocking to the
towns and cities in search of economic
survival.
Critics say Mugabe is pursuing a relentless campaign to
crush all
dissent and pre-empt any uprising the worsening economic
conditions since
the March parliamentary elections may spawn in opposition
urban strongholds.
The crackdown is also seen as punishment against
urban voters, who
have repeatedly rejected Mugabe's candidates in mayoral
and parliamentary
elections. - Foreign Service.
News24
'Zim doesn't need food aid'
02/06/2005 19:10 -
(SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe said on Thursday it didn't ask for and doesn't
need the
food aid the United Nations (UN) has promised, insisting it could
provide
for its own people amid a mounting humanitarian crisis rooted in
politics.
Social welfare minister Nicholas Goche said the country, once
the region's
breadbasket, had bought 1.2 metric tons of maize from South
Africa.
He said that was enough to alleviate shortages caused by
drought.
Goche said Zimbabwe was not making any request for international
aid, but
welcomes any that comes.
Head of the UN World Food
Programme, James Morris, met with President Robert
Mugabe to discuss what he
described as "an enormous humanitarian crisis".
Morris said between three
and four million Zimbabweans would need food aid
in the next year with the
peak time of need coming between December and
March.
Mugabe gave the
go ahead for food aid
Morris, speaking to reporters in South Africa, said
Mugabe had made a
"strong commitment" to allow non-governmental
organisations to distribute
food aid.
Mugabe's government has been
accused of using its control of aid to punish
opponents by denying them
food.
More than one million people in the capital alone could be left
homeless by
the crackdown the government calls a clean-up
campaign.
The government claims current shortages of many staples,
including cornmeal,
sugar and gasoline, are the result of speculation and
hoarding by black
market traders.
The state-owned Herald newspaper
quoted police spokesperson Wayne Bvuzijena
on Wednesday as saying police had
arrested more than 22 000 people since the
crackdown began.
"We have
so far arrested a total of 22 735 people and recovered 33.5kg of
gold from
47 illegal gold panners and 26 000 litres of fuel," said
Bvudzijena.
Mugabe lashes out against relief agencies
Before
recent elections, Mugabe forecast a bumper harvest of 2.5 million
metric
tons of maize and told relief agencies to direct their efforts
elsewhere and
not "choke" Zimbabweans with unneeded aid.
But Goche's top public
servant, Sydney Mhishi, predicted last week even by
rushed and preliminary
government estimates at least 2.8 million people
would need food aid in the
coming year.
The state radio broadcast on Thursday also carried a denial
by police
spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka that officers involved in the arrest
of street
traders and the demolition of thousands of shacks had been
responsible for
widespread looting.
Reports that police stole food
and electric goods were attempts to smear the
reputation of the police, said
Mandipaka.
Amnesty International (AI) on Wednesday called on the
government to halt the
forced mass evictions it said have left whole
communities homeless and
destroyed thousands of livelihoods.
Housing
minister Ignatius Chombo announced on Thursday 250 000 new housing
plots
would be made available to the urban poor, including 150 000 in
Harare.