The Times
June 4, 2008
Robert Mugabe used a UN world food conference in Rome yesterday to
accuse
Britain and its Western allies of trying to topple him through
"illegal
regime change" by crippling Zimbabwe economically.
There was
also serious criticism from a more authoritative source when
Jacques Diouf,
the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, accused
the West of
getting its priorities wrong, worrying about climate change,
cars and
biofuels at the expense of feeding the poor.
Mr Diouf said: "Nobody
understands how $11 billion to $12 billion a year of
subsidies in 2006 have
had the effect of diverting 100 million tonnes of
cereals from human
consumption, mostly to satisfy a thirst for fuel for
vehicles."
Mr Diouf called for £15 billion a year to be spent on
giving 862 million
hungry people "the right to food". He said that the
amount spent on food aid
for the Third World had more than halved in real
terms, from £4 billion in
1980 to £1.7 billion in 2004.
Ed Schafer,
the US Agriculture Secretary, said that biofuels were
responsible for only 2
to 3 per cent of the predicted 43 per cent rise in
food prices this year.
Other participants said that biofuels accounted for
15 to 30 per cent of the
increases. President Mubarak of Egypt called for
"agricultural crops to be
used as food for human beings, not as fuel for
engines".
The biofuel
row threatens to derail attempts to find a consensus at the
summit because
the United States, Canada and Brazil all have sizeable
biofuel industries.
The President of Brazil, Lula da Silva, said that
blaming biofuel for
soaring food prices was an oversimplification.
The summit opened with a
call from Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General,
for world food production
to rise by 50 per cent by 2030 to meet growing
demand. He called for lower
export restrictions and import tariffs with
immediate effect.
The
conference has been overshadowed by the row over Mr Mugabe and by the
presence of President Ahmadinejad of Iran, who has used his visit to Rome to
attack what he called Israel's "criminal and terrorist Zionist
regime".
Mr Mugabe said that Britain had "mobilised its friends and
allies in Europe,
North America, Australia and New Zealand to impose illegal
economic
sanctions against Zimbabwe. All this has been done to cripple
Zimbabwe's
economy and thereby effect illegal regime change in our
country."
He blamed the fact that millions of Zimbabweans were facing
starvation on
the sanctions, as well as on climate change and fuel prices.
Mr Mugabe said
Britain and its allies had channelled funds through
nongovernmental
organisations to opposition parties, which were "the
creation of the West",
thus using food aid as a political weapon. The
Zimbabwean leader said that
his country had democratised land ownership over
the past decade and 300,000
Zimbabweans were now the proud owners of land
previously owned by 4,000
white farmers, "mainly of British stock". This had
been welcomed by "the
vast majority of our people" but had "elicited wrath
from our former
colonial masters".
He was applauded politely but
reproved by the chairman for running over the
allotted five
minutes.
Douglas Alexander, Britain's International Development Minister,
retorted
that Mr Mugabe himself was to blame for ruining Zimbabwe, once the
breadbasket of southern Africa.
In his speech Mr Ahmadinejad alleged
that unnamed profiteering forces were
driving up oil prices to further their
geopolitical aims. "While the growth
of consumption is lower that that of
production and the market is full of
oil, prices continue to rise and this
situation is completely manipulated,"
he told the summit.
Mr
Ahmadinejad had asked for an audience with Pope Benedict XVI but the
Vatican
said all such requests had been turned down. It said the Pope was
unable to
meet various leaders "because of the number of requests, the
limited time
available, and prior commitments". Neither Mr Mugabe nor Mr
Ahmadenijad was
invited to a banquet hosted by the Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi
last night.
Comments
Here we go again blah blah blah. The crux of the
matter is loss of power.
Neither Mugabe nor his generals want to lose power
as they know what will
happen to them. He started losing his grip in 1997
and he is now holding on
to a very oily rope. Have fun whilst you can
Robert, the end is nigh!
Graham, Maidenhead, UK
None of the
comments above seem to have addressed Mugabe's allegations that
the
Zimbabwean economy was crippled by sanctions as a result of his seizing
the
land of white (british) farmers. The reason is clear, his allegations
are
based in fact.
E. Akomi, Lagos, Nigeria
What this story
illustrates is that poverty in the developing world can no
longer be blamed
on American or British imperialism or on Zionism, as some
at the BBC or
Oxford would claim. It is rapacious homegrown thugs who should
be blamed.
Colonialism ended decades ago.
Richard England, Durham, USA
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
03 June
2008
Zimbabwean
opposition leader and presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai
said Tuesday
that the country's military has staged a de fact coup d'état by
taking
control of large areas of the country and declaring them no-go areas
for the
opposition.
Tsvangirai, set to face President Robert Mugabe on June 27 in
a presidential
run-off election already marred by extensive political
violence in the wake
of the March 29 first-round election, issued the
warning after his campaign
was obliged to call off a campaign rally in
Manama Mission, a village near
Gwanda in Matabeleland South province that he
said has been sealed off by
heavily armed soldiers.
Members of a
Tsvangirai campaign advance party heading for Manama were told
that if they
proceeded, the police could not guarantee their security given
the presence
of potentially hostile military units. The army has been
implicated in
political violence by ruling party militia and war veterans
mainly targeting
rural opposition supporters.
The incident occurred amid reports that
Zimbabwean army officers are calling
civilians to political meetings at
which they are being instructed to vote
for Mr. Mugabe.
"I don't mind
soldiers having an opinion about who they want to vote for,
but certainly a
coercive military strategy to force people to support a
particular candidate
and to be active in the campaign has very dangerous
consequences,"
Tsvangirai said.
"That must be discouraged, they are opening up the
military to being
involved in politics, which is dangerous for our
democracy," Tsvangirai
continued. "It's tantamount to a military coup, and I
think that in Africa
today, one of the most condemned actions is a military
coup, because it
undermines democratic development. So I think that's the
most dangerous
development that's happening in this country."
In an
interview with reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe,
Tsvangirai said that because of the violence unleashed against his
supporters, claiming more than 50 lives, his presidential campaign has been
reduced to a whisper.
Tsvangirai is the founding president of the
Movement for Democratic Change,
the two formations of which claimed a
majority in the lower house of
parliament in the March 29 general election.
His MDC formation maintains
that he won a majority in the presidential
ballot, but that the results were
subsequently rigged.
The Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission released its official first-round results
on May 2,
crediting Tsvangirai with 47.9% of the vote and Mr. Mugabe with
43.2% and
declaring that as no one had claimed a majority of 50% plus one
vote a
run-off was needed.
For a government response, reporter Zulu reached
Deputy Youth Minister
Saviour Kasukuwere, also a senior member of president
Robert Mugabe''s
campaign team., who blamed the wave of political violence
on the opposition.
Monsters and Critics
Jun 3, 2008, 23:50 GMT
New York - UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon is to send a special envoy to
Zimbabwe to discuss ways
the international body can support fair elections
in the African nation, a
spokeswoman confirmed in New York on Tuesday.
Ban said on the sidelines
of a UN summit on hunger in Rome that he would
send Haile Menkerios of
Eritrea to Zimbabwe with the approval of President
Robert Mugabe.
On
June 27 Mugabe is to face opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in a
run-off
election. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai won
more
votes than Mugabe in the first round on March 27, but less than the 50
per
cent needed for outright victory.
Human rights groups say Mugabe's
ZANU(PF) party is responsible for nearly
all the election-related violence
that has plagued the nation for months.
Menkerios is the assistant
secretary-general for political affairs.
africasia
HARARE, June 3 (AFP)
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe snubbed a request
Tuesday by UN chief Ban
Ki-moon to send a special envoy to check on security
in the build-up to a
key run-off election, state television
reported.
Ban made the request at a meeting with Mugabe on the sidelines
of an ongoing
UN food summit in Rome, ZTV reported, but the Zimbabwean
leader told him
that concerns about security ahead of the June 27
presidential vote were
misplaced.
Mugabe told Ban that he had been
overly influenced by Western countries
hostile to Zimbabwe and been
"completely blind" to the impact of sanctions
imposed by the European Union
and United States, the report added.
Violence has been steadily mounting
in the approach to the run-off which
will pitch Mugabe against opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader
is only participating in the
run-off under protest, arguing that he won an
outright majority in the first
round and Mugabe's regime is now trying to
ensure it stays in power by
attacking and intidimidating opposition
supporters.
Although Mugabe has accused the MDC of terrorising backers of
his Zimbabwe
African National Union - Patriotic Front party, the United
Nations has said
the opposition has borne the brunt of the post-election
violence.
Mugabe is usually barred from the European Union as part of a
package of
sanctions imposed after he allegedly rigged his 2002
re-election.
However he was able to attend the ongoing Food and
Agriculture Organisation
(FAO) summit in the Italian capital as it is being
staged by the UN.
In his speech at the FAO summit on Tuesday, Mugabe
accused the West of
trying to "cripple" Zimbabwe's economy and "effect
illegal regime change".
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com
June 4, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
BEITBRIDGE - More than 600 Zimbabweans fleeing from recent
xenophobic
attacks in South Africa were taken by pleasant surprise the
moment they
crossed the Limpopo River back into the border town of
Beitbridge.
Matabeleland South governor, Angeline Masuku, was waiting
for them on
Monday, ostensibly to welcome them back. But the ceremony to
welcome
distraught Zimbabweans fleeing from violent attacks on foreigners
was soon
transformed into a Zanu-PF campaign rally, with the governor
promising each
returnee a piece of land. There was a catch in the offer,
however.
They must a vote for President Robert Mugabe in the forthcoming
presidential
election run-off.
Masuku, who is also a Zanu-PF
politburo member, shocked the returnees when
she openly urged them to vote
for Mugabe in the election that pits the
long-time President against
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) president,
Morgan
Tsvangirai.
But her overtures were immediately rejected by many among her
audience, who
refused to register for the promised land.
Togarepi
Chinake the deputy director for the Department of Social Welfare
was the
first to make the offer of land as he addressed the returning
residents at
the Beitbridge district police headquarters.
"We welcome you home," he
said. "I wish to notify you that, if there is
anyone among you, who wishes
to start a new life as a farmer, the government
has land that it can offer
you. At the end of this meeting, you can register
with us, stating the
province where you come from and the one that you
prefer to be resettled
in.
Zanu-PF is employing every trick in the book, including violence,
shutting
out the opposition from rural areas once more and banning
non-governmental
organisations from distributing food aid, in a bid to
secure victory in the
forthcoming crucial poll.
The party has also
launched a campaign blitz on state radio, television and
newspapers, calling
on the electorate to vote for Mugabe.
But having lost to Tsvangirai on
March 29 by about 100 000 votes, the
prospects for a dramatic recovery by
Mugabe look decidedly bleak, given the
ongoing brutal punishment of voters,
especially rural, suspected to have
backed the MDC leader.
"This is
our country," said Masuku. "It can only develop if we pull
together. But for
that to be achieved we need to defend it from
re-colonization."
Zanu-PF has repeatedly claimed that the MDC is a
western puppet bent on
returning Zimbabwe to its former colonial power, the
United Kingdom. The
fact that Mugabe still lost the election after
bombarding voters with such
propaganda for months suggests few still believe
their current plight is the
result of foreign factors.
The MDC has
denied the charges.
"I urge you to vote for President Mugabe so that
the land that we are
offering you today does not revert to the British,"
said Masuku.
Masuku and Chinake officially delivered the offer of land to
the people,
some two weeks after Mugabe said his government would give land
to the
victims of xenophobia in South Africa.
"We have land for
our people in South Africa who may want to return home,"
Mugabe said while
launching his party's campaign a week ago.
The government this week sent
about 10 buses to pick up stranded Zimbabweans
in South Africa, after the
wave of attacks that claimed the lives of more
than 40
foreigners.
After Masuku's speech, the returnees were asked to complete
forms that were
distributed by officials from the Ministry of Public
Service, Labour and
Social Welfare.
Among other details, the forms
also sought to find out if any of the people
wanted to be given land, which
the government had seized over the years from
white commercial farmers since
2000.
Most of the prime farms have however, been parcelled out to Zanu-PF
officials, ministers and senior government officials.
"What is
suddenly so special about us that we are now being offered this?"
asked one
returnee, who refused to fill in the forms for land.
VOA
By Thomas Chiripasi, Ntungamili Nkomo & Carole
Gombakomba
Harare and Washington
03 June
2008
The prominent Zimbabwean opposition figure Arthur
Mutambara, arrested on
Sunday in connection with an article he published in
April criticizing
President Robert Mugabe, was arraigned before a magistrate
on Tuesday and
freed on bail.
From Harare, Studio 7 correspondent
Thomas Chiripasi reported.
Following his release, Mutambara told reporter
Ntungamili Nkomo of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that that rather than being
intimidated by his two
days of incarceration he felt energized and more
ready than ever to
challenge the government.
Meanwhile, sources said
Zimbabwe's jails are filling up with political
prisoners who are being held
in deplorable conditions.
One now in custody is opposition member of
parliament for Buhera West
constituency of Manicaland province, Eric
Matinenga, arrested on Saturday on
charges he incited political
violence.
His lawyer, Tinoziva Bere, said the police refused to let
Matinenga be
arraigned on Tuesday as was expected. He said Matinenga denies
the
allegations.
Bere said conditions in Manicaland prisons are
alarming. Remand cells
designed to hold 300 people are holding more than a
thousand, Bere said.
Most are opposition activists or individuals accused of
dealing illegally in
diamonds, he said.
Bere told reporter Carole
Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
political prisoners continue
to be brought to the cells by members of the
ruling party militia and war
veterans, rendering conditions at the remand
prison increasingly harsh.
Zim Online
by Hendricks Chizhanje Wednesday 04 June
2008
HARARE - An unusually larger proportion of Zimbabwean
households faces
hunger after erratic rains and a shortage of farming inputs
combined to
slash cereal production again this year, United Nations agencies
said in a
preliminary report on food security in the African
country.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food
Programme
(WFP) said in the report that the decline in food availability and
accessibility in Zimbabwe was serious, adding that households were "enduring
an unusually high stress response to the shortage of food
supplies".
"Such responses would not be expected at this time of year,"
said the
agencies that visited Zimbabwe last month at the invitation of
President
Robert Mugabe's government to assess the country's
2007/2008-season harvest.
The preliminary report, which was shown to
ZimOnline on Tuesday, said:
"Production was affected by erratic rainfall
patterns, timeliness and lack
of inputs among other factors. Field visits
suggest that communal farmers
are likely to be the worst affected by the
agricultural downturn.
"A larger proportion of households have
insufficient stocks to provide for
their food in the coming year. WFP
monitoring affirms, however, that cereal
is generally
unavailable."
The UN agencies are due to publish a full report on
Zimbabwe next week which
diplomatic sources said was going to reveal an even
more precarious food
supply situation in the country.
Giving a hint
of what to expect in the report, an FAO economist, Kisan
Gunjal, who was
part of the delegation that visited Zimbabwe, told the media
in Rome that
cereal production would plummet again this year and food
imports announced
by Mugabe would do too little to make up the shortfall.
"Last year output
was down 44 percent. This year we are expecting even
further decreases in
maize and cereal production," said Gunjal.
Mugabe's announced last month
that his government had paid for 600 000
tonnes of maize from South Africa
but Gunjal said this would not be enough
to cover the shortfall with
Zimbabwe expected to harvest a less than the 800
000 tonnes of maize
recorded last season.
Maize is Zimbabwe's main staple food with the
country requiring more than
two million tones of the grain per
year.
Critics blame Zimbabwe's food crisis directly on Mugabe's haphazard
fast-track land reform exercise that displaced established white commercial
farmers and replaced them with either incompetent or inadequately funded
black farmers.
Food production plunged by about 60 percent as a
result while chaos in
agriculture because of the often violent farm seizures
also hit hard
Zimbabwe's once impressive manufacturing sector that had
depended on a
robust farming sector for orders and inputs.
Most of
Zimbabwe's companies have since the beginning of farm seizures in
2000
either closed completely or scaled down operations to below 30 percent
of
capacity, in a country where unemployment is more than 80 percent.
Some
Western governments roundly condemned Mugabe's presence at an ongoing
UN
food summit in Rome this week with Britain and Australia describing it as
"unfortunate" and "obscene" that the Zimbabwean leader could be part of such
a gathering when he was responsible for the collapse of his own country's
agriculture.
In an apparent show of displeasure at Mugabe's presence,
the Italian and UN
hosts of the food summit omitted the Zimbabwean leader
from the guest list
of a ceremonial dinner for the leaders attending the
meeting.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was also not included on
the list of
guest to attend the dinner. - ZimOnline.
Zim Online
by Lizwe Sebatha and Wayne Mafaro Wednesday 04 June
2008
BULAWAYO - Lawyers representing three South Africans
arrested last week with
broadcasting equipment the state says belongs to the
United Kingdom-based
Sky News television station on Tuesday appealed at the
Bulawayo High Court
against a six-month jail term slapped on the
trio.
Magistrate John Masimba on Monday sentenced the three South
Africans -
Bernet Hassen Sono, Resemate Chauke, and Simon Maodi to an
effective six
months in jail each.
The magistrate found the three
guilty of contravening Section 33 of the
Postal and Telecommunications Act
Chapter 12, 03 that prohibits the
possession of broadcasting equipment
without a licence.
In passing the six month jail sentence, Masimba said
although the three
indicated that the broadcasting equipment did not belong
to them,
"possession of the equipment was an offence" and leniency on the
trio would
"send a wrong signal."
However, lawyers for the South
Africans said in the appeal that the jail
sentence was excessive and that a
fine would have been adequate punishment.
"The sentence is unheard of and
a shock. The magistrate should have
considered the option of a fine and not
a jail term. The magistrate did also
not look at the proper provisions of
sentence of such an offence," said
Tawengwa Hara, one of the defence lawyers
in an interview.
"The offence should only attract a penalty of a fine,"
added the lawyer.
The jail sentence was imposed on the South Africans
days after President
Robert Mugabe's press secretary George Charamba warned
that the government
would deal harshly with foreign journalists who sneak
into the country to
cover the June 27 presidential run-off election between
Mugabe and
opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Zimbabwean
authorities have barred foreign media, especially from the West,
from
covering the country's elections alleging that the media groups were
pushing
a regime change agenda against the government.
But several foreign
journalists have continued to sneak into the country to
report on worsening
political violence and human rights abuses ahead of the
run-off
poll.
Meanwhile Reuters photographer Howard Burditt found guilty of
possessing an
unregistered satellite phone was sentenced to two months
imprisonment,
wholly suspended for three years. Burditt was also asked to
pay a fine of
Z$20 billion.
Under Zimbabwe's tough broadcasting laws,
owners of satellite phones must
register the gadgets with the authorities. -
ZimOnline
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com
3rd
Jun 2008 23:10 GMT
By a
Correspondent
HARARE - Howard Nicholas Burditt a photographer with
Reuters' news agency
who was convicted on his own guilty plea of
contravening Section 27(1) of
the Broadcasting Services Act was on 3 June
2008 sentenced to pay a fine of
$20 billion.
Harare Magistrate Archie
Wochionga also suspended two other months in prison
on condition that
Burditt will not contravene the broadcasting Services Act
within the next
five years.
His satellite phone was forfeited by the state. Burditt's
lawyer, Charles
Kwaramba who was standing in for Alec Muchadehama told the
court that the
convict was to pay the fine not later than the 6th of
June.
Howard Burditt who works for Reuters was arrested in Harare on 5
May 2008
and spent three nights in custody when he was found in possession
of a
satellite phone and was released on 8 may 2008.
He later
appeared before the court on 28 May and he pleaded guilty to the
charge of
contravening section 27 (1) of the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA)
which
outlaws unauthorised possession, establishment and operation of signal
transmitting stations.
The Post and Telecommunications Regulatory
Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ)
had licensed Reuters to cover the Zimbabwean
elections, and it was specified
in the contract that they were not to use
big machines like satellite phones
in their broadcasting.
The Telegraph
By Mary
Riddell
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 04/06/2008
How
pleased the starving of Bulawayo will be that the British Foreign
Office is
considering stripping Robert Mugabe of his honorary knighthood.
How
gratified they must feel that the Development Secretary, Douglas
Alexander,
won't be shaking his hand at the United Nations' world food
summit in
Rome.
On the other hand, Zimbabweans might have more pressing
concerns, such
as staying alive. With the country's run-off election
imminent, the tyrant's
henchmen are out canvassing, Mugabe-style. Thousands
of political opponents
have fled. Activists have reportedly had their eyes
gouged out. Morgues fill
with the bodies of the disappeared.
Mugabe is ensconced in his £450-a-night hotel suite on the Via Veneto.
For
him, the dolce vita. For his countrymen, a bitter and a short life: the
average male citizen will die at 37.
Mugabe lectures the world
on malnutrition while his country starves.
His presence has, ironically,
distracted from one of the world's most
pressing problems: hunger. Whether
the meeting hosted by the UN's Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
achieves any consensus is another matter. The
world needs fewer biofuels,
more GM crops and a second "green revolution".
Export bans should be lifted;
trade barriers removed. Don't rely, however,
on much progress.
Cutting deals has, in any case, seemed secondary so far. Mugabe, whose
arrival provoked no protest from the FAO, has made the UN look pathetic.
Western hand-wringers are appalled. It's a pity their rage against our
leading international institution is so selective.
Zimbabwe,
meanwhile, goes back to the polls on June 27. Power ebbs
from Mugabe. In
this, his last, desperate chance of victory over Morgan
Tsvangirai, he will
do anything to recapture the country he has pillaged.
Expect more abduction,
murder and vote-rigging. Many lives, and democracy
itself, are at stake. If
ever there was a case for UN intervention, this is
it.
The
secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, could send in hundreds of monitors
to ensure
fair play. He could despatch a special envoy. Neither move would
involve the
Security Council or any red tape. He could just do it. But he
hasn't. This
failure has provoked little comment in the West. Yet its
consequences are
potentially far graver than Mugabe ordering spaghetti alle
vongole from room
service.
Mr Ban's inertia follows a string of shaming episodes.
Only last week,
Save The Children reported that UN peacekeepers were
sexually abusing
children in Africa. Supposedly a lifeline to the poor, the
UN now conjures
up a vision of gravy-train bureaucrats.
Other
international bodies and clubs are elitist and wasteful, too.
The revving of
presidential jets is enough to convince people that nothing
is going to
happen. When Gordon Brown says he will ask the G8 to sort out
the price of
oil, the public thinks (with justification) that he might as
well entrust
the job to Cleethorpes WI.
But the UN is the worst offender. Yes,
it does some fine work. But,
too often, it is a disappointment or a
disgrace. Its peacekeepers spread
Aids in south-east Asia. Its functionaries
got rich on the oil-for-food
scandal in Iraq. My own memory goes back 14
years, to Sarajevo, where
General Sir Michael Rose was commander of the UN
Mission in Bosnia. Rose
told me how he went fly-fishing; his soldiers ate
ice creams as they walked
the streets. This looked like light-touch
peacekeeping at its best.
Later though, after he had left,
thousands of men and boys were
slaughtered in the Srebrenica massacre, as
the UN's Dutch contingent looked
on.
Mr Ban never appeared
likely to solve the myriad problems of the UN.
He was seen as a safe but
uninspiring choice when he was appointed in 2006.
Many would have preferred
Ashraf Ghani, the former Afghan finance minister
and an early architect of
rebuilding his country after the Taliban fell.
Dr Ghani has just
published a book called Fixing Failed States.
Co-written with Clare
Lockhart, it exposes how the UN failed Afghanistan. In
2002, "hundreds of
thousands" of young people spent what money they had on
business, computer
and English classes. With no interest in the "clash of
civilizations", they
wanted only to be connected to the outside world.
But instead of
putting money into opportunity, the UN used the first
tranche of
international aid to finance an airline for its officials and
other
international staff. Since then, it has subsidised the service by as
much as
£150 million while failing to invest in the Afghan state airline,
which is
now almost bankrupt.
The first presidential election was an
opportunity for the country to
buy itself an electronic system and
modernise. Instead, the UN insisted on
registering voters with thumbprints
inked on card. The result was widespread
fraud and no enduring electoral
roll. The UN's excuse was that it did not
want to offend the donor who had
supplied the cardboard.
Such stories are minor compared with
allegations of the graft and
kickbacks in an organisation with a £20 billion
budget and an audit trail
that a market trader might find lax. Even so, the
failures in Afghanistan
are a grave indictment of the UN. They help explain
why the opium trade has
boomed, why the country is on the brink of meltdown,
and why the 100th
British soldier could be close to being
killed.
Afghanistan and Zimbabwe are two examples among many. Why
has the UN
proved so feeble in Darfur, where less than half of a promised
peacekeeping
force is in place? Where was Mr Ban as thousands of Burmese
flood victims
perished? His supporters say he (finally) helped prevail on
the generals to
allow a trickle of aid. Nonetheless, the world's foremost
troubleshooter
looked barely more impressive than Paris Hilton on a mission
to Rwanda.
True, the UN is only as good or bad as its subscribers.
Consensus is
harder than ever; reform much easier said than done. Hence, in
America,
impatient advocates are lining up behind John McCain's idea of a
"league of
democracies". Dividing the world up into "goodies" and "baddies"
sounds
sinister. More practically, it would - to take just one example - be
impossible to get Brazil on board while debarring its new trading partner,
China. The enthusiasm for McCain's scheme proves how low esteem for the UN
has sunk.
Yet the need for a powerful United Nations has never
been more acute.
Individuals can change corners of the earth. The best aid
worker I know is a
Catholic priest who has helped thousands of Bangladeshi
Muslims and
Christians to live and prosper, while bravely facing down the
militias who
come to kill his congregation. Nation states, by contrast, can
do less and
less. The future of a hungry and divided world depends on joint
solutions.
In Italy today, one spotlight is on food. The other is
on a tinpot
tyrant whose jaunt is more useful than it seems. Mugabe has
inadvertently
reminded the world of the link between a failed dictator and a
UN that needs
to refind its purpose. What better starting point than
Zimbabwe? Elections
are almost here. The body count is rising. And, thanks
to Mugabe's Roman
holiday, the world is watching.
Daily Mail
By Lord Tebbit
Last updated at 1:37 AM on 04th
June 2008
The sight of Robert Mugabe anywhere, anytime is enough to
turn the stomach
of any decent man or woman.
There is no real
point arguing whether he is mad, bad or both. Some of my
medical friends
argue that he may be exhibiting symptoms of tertiary
syphilis, but whatever
is driving him to destroy his own country is hardly
relevant.
He
has taken one of Africa's most promising nations and turned it into the
starving, bankrupt and brutalised basket case it is today.
There
has rightly been outrage at the way in which he has held on to office
despite the outcome of the recent election, an election he failed to win
despite his best efforts to rig the results.
There should, however,
be even greater outrage that he has been allowed by
the wider world to get
away with it.
Few tyrants could match Mugabe for the scale of the
disaster he has brought
on his own country.
The man is a pariah - a
mad dog on two legs.
The only contact a civilised nation should have
with him is to put him in
handcuffs and lead him to trial.
But
what does the United Nations do with this monster? It doesn't just stand
idly by and excuse him, but invites him to Europe and gives him a platform
for one of his foam-flecked racist rants at a conference on - of all
things - the global threat of starvation.
As his own people starve
in their thousands back in Zimbabwe, he ate a
lavish lunch of prawn and
pumpkin pate at the UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation meeting in Rome and
then launched into a vitriolic speech
criticising Britain and justifying his
seizure of white farms. It is an
absolute disgrace.
They say you
can tell a lot about a man by the company he keeps - and the
UN has told
us an awful lot about itself by the way it treats this despot as
if he were
a legitimate head of state.
In fact, while the UN was founded to put
the world's wrongs right, it is
increasingly becoming part of the global
problem.
Although it has its headquarters in New York, the organisation's
heart seems
to be with those Third World governments which reek the most of
corruption.
And UN officials who should know better are too
politically correct to speak
out, instead providing a soap box for any
lunatic leader who wants to vent
his spleen.
The UN does, of
course, have its uses.
It can be a forum in which action can be
agreed upon to deal with crisis, as
it was during the Korean War in the
1950s, or Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in
the 1990s.
It also
provides a place where countries which cannot otherwise afford to be
seen
communicating with each other can make contact away from the
cameras.
But there is little doubt that many of those close to the
top of the UN turn
their eyes away from the corruption not only of
governments like Mugabe's,
but the atrocities committed by their own
peacekeeping forces in Africa as
well.
The UN establishment knows
that it is commonplace for Third World
politicians and bureaucrats to have
their hands in the till or to spirit
away into their Swiss bank accounts the
overseas aid money given by
hard-pressed Western taxpayers.
The
problem is that many officials simply don't want to do anything about
it.
Just as the corrupt politicians are getting away with theft
and murder, so
the UN is getting away with appalling
indifference.
We can only hope that seeing the monster Mugabe in Rome
will so outrage the
people and governments of Europe that something will
finally be done.
His presence is an insult to Europe and it is time
that civilised countries
acted not only against Mugabe but his protectors at
the UN too.
Perhaps it is too much to hope that our Government would
make a stand.
After all, our ministers have been strong on
criticising Mugabe, but too
scared of being branded racist to actively rid
Zimbabwe of its tyrant.
Nevertheless, even the Foreign Office might
try to persuade our friends and
allies in the U.S and European Union to do
something determined.
If all EU member states threatened to withdraw
their funding for the UN
unless Mugabe was banned from travelling outside
Zimbabwe, it would be a
start.
Unfortunately, many Western
governments are too weak-willed to do that,
essentially encouraging the UN
to maintain its own pathetically indifferent
stance to
tyranny.
What this whole disgraceful affair has now done is to raise
the question of
whether the UN has completely lost its way. I would argue
that it has -
and many millions will pay the price.
Whether you
believe the U.S. and Britain should or should not have gone to
war in Iraq,
there can be no doubt that the UN failed to manage that crisis
effectively.
Similarly, it sits idly by while Burma's governing
junta allows hundreds of
thousands of its own people to die of starvation
and disease while the aid
to save them sits just offshore.
As
piracy once again flourishes and threatens shipping off Somalia, the UN
does
nothing.
It shrugs off reports that it has covered up the most
terrible abuses of
women and children by its own peacekeepers in Africa, and
once again, does
nothing.
Worse still, it continues to get away
with doing nothing, over and over
again.
While the UN continues
to befriend Mugabe, it risks being tarred with the
brush of defeat,
corruption and indifference to those it should defend -
the poor and the
oppressed.
Sooner or later, it must make up its mind. Whose side is
it on? The people
of Zimbabwe, or their oppressors?
http://www.hararetribune.com
By Marvis Murray | Staff
Reporter
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 19:37
news@hararetribune.com
Zimbabwe,
Harare --Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC), said Tuesday that the country's military has staged
a de fact
coup d'état by taking control of large areas of the country and
declaring
them no-go areas for the opposition.
Tsvangirai, set to face President
Robert Mugabe on June 27 in a presidential
run-off election already marred
by extensive political violence in the wake
of the March 29 first-round
election, issued the warning after his campaign
was obliged to call off a
campaign rally in Manama Mission, a village near
Gwanda in Matabeleland
South province that he said has been sealed off by
heavily armed
soldiers.
Members of a Tsvangirai campaign advance party heading
for Manama were told
that if they proceeded, the police could not guarantee
their security given
the presence of potentially hostile military
units.
The army has been implicated in political violence by
ruling party militia
and war veterans mainly targeting rural opposition
supporters.
The incident occurred amid reports that Zimbabwean
army officers are calling
civilians to political meetings at which they are
being instructed to vote
for Mr. Mugabe.
"I don't mind soldiers
having an opinion about who they want to vote for,
but certainly a coercive
military strategy to force people to support a
particular candidate and to
be active in the campaign has very dangerous
consequences," Tsvangirai
said.
"That must be discouraged, they are opening up the military
to being
involved in politics, which is dangerous for our democracy,"
Tsvangirai
continued.
"It's tantamount to a military coup,
and I think that in Africa today, one
of the most condemned actions is a
military coup, because it undermines
democratic development. So I think
that's the most dangerous development
that's happening in this
country."
Mutambara freed
The leader of a faction of
Zimbabwe's main opposition party was granted bail
and released from custody
on Tuesday after his arrest for publishing an
article critical of President
Robert Mugabe.
A court in the capital Harare ordered Arthur Mutambara
freed on bail of 20
billion Zimbabwean dollars ($28) after he appeared to
face charges of
contempt of court and communicating falsehoods prejudicial
to the state.
Mutambara, who heads the smaller of two wings of the
Movement for
Democratic Change, was ordered to appear in court on June
17. He also cannot
leave the southern African nation until the case is
resolved.
"What has happened is nothing compared to what the people of
Zimbabwe are
experiencing. Mugabe is violating the human rights of our
people," a defiant
Mutambara said after his release, accusing the government
of a crackdown on
opposition supporters.
Mutambara made a similar
accusation in an article published on April 20 in
the Standard, a privately
owned weekly newspaper. He criticised Mugabe's
handling of the March 29
elections and questioned his government's right to
stay in office.
He
was arrested on Sunday.
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF lost control of
parliament in the election for the
first time since he led it to power in
1980. Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC faction
won the most seats, with Mutambara's
MDC winning a smaller number.
The two MDC factions split in 2005 but
recently agreed to combine forces and
work together to unseat Mugabe's
government.
Results from a parallel presidential election in March showed
Tsvangirai
beating Mugabe but without a big enough margin to avoid a
run-off, which
will be held on June 27.
Both MDC factions, however,
have raised concerns about the fairness of the
upcoming presidential poll
and have called on the government to end what
they describe as an
orchestrated intimidation campaign.
Scores of MDC supporters have been
beaten and killed since the elections in
March, according to the party.
Mugabe and his ZANU-PF say the opposition is
responsible for a wave of
violence targeting its activists-.-Harare Tribune
http://www.hararetribune.com
By Tafara Shoko | Staff Reporter
Tuesday, June
3, 2008 19:39
news@hararetribune.com
Zimbabwe,
Harare --The ZANU-PF government, moving to prevent a repeat of
what it
believes resulted in its defeat by the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC),
is moving to clean-up what one ZANU-PF insider privy to the
scheme as
'scum.'
The number of the entities that ZANU-PF leaders blame for the
loss to the
MDC is long and ZANU-PF has been working to clean it up since
the March 29
election.
The list includes workers at Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH), which
oversees, ZBC TV and Radio, the state
electronic media outlets. ZANU-PF, to
show its displeasure with management
at ZBH, wielded the axe and fired ZBH
boss Henry Muradzikwa.
In
recent days, following Muradzikaw's dismissal, ZBC tv & radio are back on
tune, eulogizing Mugabe & ZANU-PF. The state daily newspapers, Herald
&
Chronicle, have essential thrown out their journalistic principles and
are
firing on all cylinders promoting Robert Mugabe's candidature during the
runoff.
Non governmental organizations (NGOs) are another core
constituency ZANU-PF
leaders blame for their loss to the MDC. The NGOs are
accused to not only
campaigning for to the MDC under the cover for being
neutral entities but
also of throwing spanners into the Zimbabwe National
Army's (ZNA)
campaigning in the rural areas by reporting the army's
activities,
activities ZANU-PF wants to keep under wraps, to the outside
world.
This week, ZANU-PF decided to disable all NGOs.
CARE
International said Tuesday that the government suspended the group's
aid
operations in the country after accusing it of campaigning for the
opposition. At least two other aid groups also said they had been told to
curb some activities. CARE's Africa communications director, Kenneth Walker,
said the order for an immediate halt to aid work came during a Friday
meeting with Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche.
Nicholas Goche
has been quoted as saying that other aid agencies could also
have their
activities halted.
"Several other non-governmental organizations involved
in food distribution
in Manicaland province will also be asked to cease
operations while we
investigate them," said.
"There is a crucial
run-off coming and our information indicates that NGOs
are involved in plans
to undermine our candidate."
Walker said officials ordered that the halt
continue during an investigation
into allegations of political activity by
CARE staff members in support of
opposition candidates before the disputed
March 29 presidential and
parliament elections.
Walker said CARE
"categorically" denies it encourages or tolerates political
activity by
staff. "We have a very strict policy against political
activity," he
said.
The group provides aid to about 500,000 Zimbabweans and had been
scheduled
to expand food distribution to about 1 million people this month,
he said.
Zimbabwe, once a breadbasket for southern Africa, now
struggles to feed its
people without international assistance.
The
key agriculture sector shriveled after President Robert Mugabe ordered
the
seizure of farms from whites beginning in 2002, leading to an economic
collapse that has left millions unable to pay for food and other
essentials.
Mugabe claimed the land seizures were to benefit poor blacks,
but many of
the farms were doled out to the loyalists who have helped him
cling to power
since independence in 1980.
There are widespread fears
Mugabe will try to steal the election when he
faces opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai in a June 27 presidential runoff.
Mugabe finished second in the
first round behind Tsvangira
There is a crucial run-off coming and
our information indicates that
NGOs are involved in plans to undermine our
candidate.
Nicholas Goche
Rights groups decry violence and other
intimidation in the run-up to the
vote that has killed more than 50
opposition supporters.
Thousands of Zimbabweans have been driven from
their homes, especially in
rural areas where Mugabe lost much support in the
first round of voting.
On Tuesday, Mugabe accused the West of using
non-governmental organizations
to channel funds to the
opposition.
"Further, these Western-funded NGOs also use food as a
political weapon with
which to campaign against government, especially in
the rural areas," he
said at a U.N food summit in Rome.
The United
States criticized the decision to halt CARE's work, calling it a
"tragedy"
and said it showed a "hardened indifference on the part of the
Zimbabwean
government to the plight of its people."
"It is a cruel irony that this
is taking place while President Mugabe is in
Rome feigning interest in the
issue of food security," State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack told
reporters in Washington.
Walker said Zimbabwean officials alleged the
group's staff distributed
brochures in support of the opposition and
threatened to withhold emergency
food from Mugabe supporters.
Rachel
Pounds, Zimbabwe director for Save the Children, said the group was
told by
a local official in a rural area to suspend aid work, but that other
work
was continuing.
"We weren't told anything specifically about why," she
said.
An official of Atlanta-based ASAP-Africa said his organization had
been
asked late last week to pull its dozen or so field workers out of rural
areas but officials gave no reason.
The official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because the matter was
sensitive, said the group had
complied and added that such requests were
typical at election
time.
World Vision said its Zimbabwe operations had not been affected by
the
"crackdown on NGOs." But it said in a statement that it has minimized
"exposure to risk by maintaining minimal activities" and was closely
monitoring the situation.
Civil and human rights groups predicted
Tuesday that there will be more
violence after the presidential runoff,
saying they do not believe Mugabe
will step down if he loses.
"Mugabe
will not transfer power to the winner," Gordon Moyo, with the civil
rights
group Bulawayo Agenda, said in South Africa.
ZANU-PF leaders indicated
that they will continue to route out the entities
aligned with the MDC "to
make the playing field level" -.-Harare Tribune
http://zimbabwemetro.com
By Roy Chinamano ⋅ zimbabwemetro.com ⋅ June 3,
2008 ⋅
Eric Matinenga,MDC-Buhera West., a prominent lawyer to majority
party leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, who was picked up on Saturday in Buhera and
was being
charged with inciting public violence is still in police
custody.
Matinenga had travelled to Buhera with his wife to investigate the
alleged
arrest, assault and detention of his clients among whom was Mbambata
Nkomo
and to serve a court order he had obtained against the Zimbabwe
Defence
Forces.
His lawyer, Tinoziva Bere, said the police refused to
let Matinenga be
bought to court on Tuesday as was
expected.
Matinenga was elected as member of parliament for Buhera West
on March 29
and is the sixth MDC legislator to be arrested ahead of the
presidential
run-off.
Since the March 29 5 MDC House of Assembly and
Senate elects have been
arrested. And they are
Marvellous Khumao,MDC-St
Marys., Sen.Tapela Lutho,MDC-Bulilima-Mangwe., and
Norman Mpofu,MDC-Bulilima
East.
Early this month police also arrested Heya Shoko,MDC-Bikita West.,
Ian
Hamilton Kay,MDC-Marondera Central., and Amos Chibaya,MDC-Mkoba.
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com
4th
Jun 2008 00:39 GMT
By Tinoziva Bere
1. Advocate Eric Matinenga is a
registered legal practitioner, a former
President of the Administrative
Court of Zimbabwe and currently an Advocate
of the High Court of Zimbabwe in
the Advocates Chambers and the duly elected
Member of the House of Assembly
of Zimbabwe for Buhera West Constituency.
2. He recently successfully
sued the Zimbabwe National Army over harassment.
Torture and political
persecution of MDC supporters in Buhera West
Constituency.
3. The
Investigating Officer for the case is Chief Superintendent Makone,
who is
assisted by Detective Sergeant Jonhera and Detective Sergeant
Murambiwa.
4. Advocate Eric Matinenga has been detained for longer
than the period
stipulated at law or permitted in terms of the Constitution
of Zimbabwe and
no effort has been made to respect his rights.
5. On
the 31st May 3008 Adv. Eric Matinenga travelled to Buhera to
investigate the
alleged arrest, assault and detention of his clients among
whom was Mbambata
Nkomo and to serve a court order he had obtained against
the ZDF arising
from in respect of harassment, torture and their illegal
activities in the
area led by one Major Svosve.
6. On arrival at Buhera Police Station Adv.
Eric Matinenga stated the nature
of his business and produced his Law
Society of Zimbabwe identity.
7. Adv. Eric Matinenga was denied access
to his clients and instead he was
subjected to questioning by an officer he
remembers only as Assistant
Inspector Jim. The said officer advised Adv.
Eric Matinenga that he would
not be allowed to see the accused persons but
was free to leave but as Adv.
Eric Matinenga was protesting his right to see
his clients, one Major Svosve
whose notoriety is recounted in the High Court
papers in case no. 2624/08
arrived and beckoned to Assistant Inspector Jim
to come to him at which
Assistant Inspector Jim rushed out of the office to
go and consult privately
with Major Svosve.
8. On his return from his
conference with Major Svosve, Assistant Inspector
Jim no longer wanted to
release Adv. Eric Matinenga and instead said he
could no longer let Adv.
Eric Matinenga go.
9. Assistant Jim then took Adv. Eric Matinenga to
another office where
another officer whose name Adv. Eric Matinenga does not
know and another
person who appeared to be a civilian discussed briefly and
Assistant
Inspector Jim then ordered Adv. Eric Matinenga to go and wait at
the Charge
Office and Adv. Eric Matinenga complied.
10. When
Assistant Inspector Jim followed, he advised Adv. Eric Matinenga
that he had
been instructed to and he had no choice but to arrest and detain
Adv. Eric
Matinenga
11. Adv. Eric Matinenga asked why and was simply told "public
violence". He
asked for specifics and none was given. He was told that he
would know from
Law and Order section from CID Mutare. He was immediately
ordered to remove
his shoes, belt and jacket.
12. One Muchinjikwa and
another officer then asked to search Adv. Eric
Matinenga’s car which they
did and despite finding nothing of interest to
them, they still detained the
car and confiscated the car keys. Adv. Eric
Matinenga’s wife had to walk
to main road and use other means of transport
to go and find shelter for the
night.
13. This arrest occurred around 12.31pm at Buhera Police Station
on 31st May
2008.
14. At the time of arrest of Adv. Eric Matinenga,
the arresting officer had
no reasonable grounds to suspect Adv. Eric
Matinenga of having committed any
offence a key requirement in Zimbabwe
law.
15. Adv. Eric Matinenga was not informed “forthwith†by the
person
arresting him of the cause of arrest. This failure persisted even
when Trust
Maanda, one of Adv. Eric Matinenga’s legal practitioners
attended Buhera
Police Station to see Adv. Eric Matinenga and sought answers
from the police
on Sunday the 1st June 2008. The police officers at Buhera
said that they
did not know the reason for Adv. Eric Matinenga’s arrest
and were merely
keeping him for CID Mutare. Mr Maanda was made to wait for 2
hours before he
could see the client, the Adv. Eric Matinenga.
16.
When Mr. Maanda finally met the CID Mutare officers, namely Detective
Sergeant Murambiwa, Detective Sergeant Jonhera and Chief Superintendent
Makone none of them knew the reasons for arrest and detention. Mr. Maanda
was then allowed to see the Adv. Eric Matinenga who was still in the dark as
to why he was being detained. At the cells, the CID officers also followed
and Mr. Maanda explained to the officers that he could not take meaningful
instructions without reasons for arrest and detention and details of the
nature of the offence charged if any. Chief Superintendent Makone instead
expressed surprise that a person of the stature of Adv. Eric Matinenga could
up to that time not be aware of the allegations he was facing and referred
Mr. Maanda back to the Charge Office to be told of the reasons of
detention.
17. At the Charge Office all that was in the Detention Book
was an entry of
Adv. Eric Matinenga’s name with no information of who had
arrested Adv.
Eric Matinenga. The CID officers left promising that they
would return early
Monday, the 2nd June 2008 to record statements from Adv.
Eric Matinenga and
take him to court.
18. On Monday Mr. Maanda and I
went to Buhera Police Station and arrived at
around 1pm. We were allowed to
see Adv. Eric Matinenga but in the presence
of 3 police details. When we
asked for privacy for us to consult we were
advised that seeing Adv. Eric
Matinenga through the fence as arranged by
them was a favour they had
granted us as CID Mutare were the only persons
who could allow access to
Adv. Eric Matinenga. The police details in
question did not the reasons why
Adv. Eric Matinenga had been arrested or
detained.
19. In my
conversation with Adv. Eric Matinenga I established that he still
had not be
advised of the nature or details of the allegations against him.
No
statement had been recorded at all. I inspected the DB and it had entries
which Adv. Eric Matinenga had not seen before suggesting that one Chogugudza
was the arresting officer and the alleged offence was "public violence". The
car which had been taken the day before was not appearing in the DB and had
apparently taken without legal formality.
20. We then confronted
Constable J. Kapfudza who was the person in charge at
the Charge Office to
tell me what they were detaining Adv. Eric Matinenga
for and she said she
did not know. In response to my request that she
releases the Adv. Eric
Matinenga’s vehicle she said she could not release
it.
21.We then
waited for Chief Superintendent Makone who was said to be the
Investigating
Officer. When he finally arrived we met him and he said he
could not shed
light on the allegations but was transferring Adv. Eric
Matinenga there and
then to Mutare for appearance in court the following
day, We suggested that
since they all did not seem to know the details of
the alleged offence the
ends of justice would not be defeated by them
releasing him to us in order
for him to come and answer questions or record
a statement but our request
was declined. Chief Superintendent Makone asked
me to come to the CID
offices at 10am if I wished to assist accused to
record a warned and
cautioned statement and I promised to be there.
22. Adv. Eric Matinenga
was then transferred to Mutare by Chief
Superintendent Makone and detained
overnight at Mutare Central Police
Station.
23. At 9am I was informed
that the officers assigned by Chief Superintendent
Makone to record a warned
and cautioned statement from Adv. Eric Matinenga
were ready for us and Mr.
Maanda and I went. After some search we found the
officers at Police
Provincial HQ, Murahwa Building .
24. The officers who attended us were
Detective Sergeant Murambiwa,
Detective Sergeant Jonhera whom we had seen
the previous day. They typed a
preamble which we asked to have so that we
could return to Mutare Central
Police Station to consult Adv. Eric Matinenga
over the newly disclosed
allegations. Detective Sergeant Jonhera said he
could not do so without
first consulting and getting approval of Chief
Superintendent Makone. After
a phone call D/S Jonhera advised that he could
not give us a copy of the
preamble. We then pleaded that it be read slowly
so that we could write
notes and take to our client for consultation and
that was done.
25. The preamble was a contravening section 187 (1) (a) as
read with section
26 (1) (a) of the Criminal Law Codification Reform Act,
incitement to public
violence at Mbambata Nkomo's homestead and Muindisi
Homestead of Gwebu
Village Buhera on 31 May 2008 where it is alleged that I
incited MDC youths
to attack ZANU PF supporters in Buhera West
Constituency
26. We then asked to see or client and D/S Jonhera asked us
to go with him
ask to the Central police station to see Chief Superintendent
Makone who
would authorise us to see or client. We left for Mutare Central
Police
Station where we saw Chief Superintendent Makone. Makone referred us
back to
D/S Jonhera. We waited for a two hours before Jonhera could come. We
were
then invited into Makone's office. We were advised that the allegations
had
changed from those we had heard from the preamble read to us. The
preamble
now had different names of the complainants and other
details.
27. The second preamble to the charge was “public violence
which occurred
on 31st May 2008 between 9.00hrs and 24.00hrs at the
following homestead all
in Gwebu at Makotami Homestead, Phillip Gwebu’s
Homestead, Richman
Gwebu’s homestead, Wellington Ncube’s homestead and
Tinei
Makwavarara’s homestead, where it is alleged that you paid moneys to
a
group of about 50 to 60 MDC youths and thereafter thanked them for
unleashing acts of violence against Zanu Pf supporters and further
encouraged them to continue perpetrating violence against Zanu PF
supporters. It is further alleged that the same youths went on to attack the
aforementioned homesteads assaulting the occupants
28. We then sought
and were granted for the first time some privacy and an
opportunity to
consult in private with Adv. Eric Matinenga. This was the
first time that
Adv. Eric Matinenga had ever been told some sort of detail
about the nature
of the allegations against him.
29. Adv. Eric Matinenga denied the
allegations and did so in writing and was
asked questions which he answered
in writing too. The long hand statements
were taken for typing and so we
waited again. On return Adv. Eric Matinenga
was then given typed statements
which he signed.
30. We then asked to go to court and were advised that
it was too late.
31. Chief Superintendent Makone went away and when he
returned he advised
that we should be available for further statement
recording because he could
be pressing more charges from investigations that
he said were ongoing. We
gave him contact details and left.
32. We
approached the Area Public Prosecutor to see if Adv. Eric Matinenga
could
not be brought to court and were told that he was busy with some
officials
from Harare and could not attend us. The set-down prosecutor
indicated that
it was too late to have any new cases and that in any event
the prosecution
could not expedite any case.
33. Adv. Eric Matinenga has therefore spent
72 hours since arrest in
violation of the laws of the country and has no
choice but to seek relief of
this court to have his arrest and detention
declared unlawful and an order
for immediate release granted.
34.
Adv. Eric Matinenga avers that these allegations are politically
motivated
to silence him and his Constituents, punish him for challenging
the army
excesses in Buhera West and to intimidate MDC members in the area.
Independent, UK
By Peter Popham in Rome
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
As an
exercise in chutzpah it took some beating.
Taking the stage at the United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation
summit on food security in Rome
yesterday, President Robert Mugabe of
Zimbabwe presented his ravaged nation
as a text-book case of land reform -
its only problems being the result of
"illegal sanctions" and the
machinations of opposition parties "which are a
creation of the West".
The country's gross national product has plummeted
40 per cent since the
land invasions by Mr Mugabe's self-styled "war
veterans" began in 2000,
dispossessing the white farmers whose corn, wheat
and beef had kept Zimbabwe
and the region around it in food surplus. The
militants lacked the skills to
run the farms, most of which have in turn
been taken over by Mr Mugabe's
cronies. Now most of those farms lie
idle.
As result, Zimbabwe is today forced to import tens of thousands of
tonnes of
maize to stave off famine, and if it were not for famine relief
provided by
the UN the people would starve. Zimbabwe's inflation rate is
more than
165,000 per cent, and residents rely on remittances from
Zimbabweans living
abroad to help keep them afloat. But nothing could be
farther from President
Mugabe's rosy vision of his nation.
"My
country's primary agriculture policy objective remains that of ensuring
national and household food security through our own production," he told
the conference yesterday. "In this regard, Zimbabwe has recognised the
importance and centrality of land... Over the past decade, Zimbabwe has
democratised the land ownership patterns in the country, with over 300,000
previously landless families now proud landowners."
Disillusionment
with Zimbabwe's economic collapse and its failure to feed
itself are seen at
the root of the challenge to his power in the last
election in March, which
has forced the run-off election to be held on 27
June. But that's not how
the President sees it. The people have warmly
welcomed his policies, he
claimed. Only the iniquity of the British and
their friends have caused
difficulties.
"While this land reform programme has been warmly welcomed
by the vast
majority of our people, it has however... elicited wrath from
our former
colonial masters," he told the conference. The UK in turn "has
mobilised her
friends and allies in Europe, North America, Australia and New
Zealand to
impose illegal economic sanctions against Zimbabwe. They have cut
off all
development assistance, disabled lines of credit... all this has
been done
to cripple Zimbabwe's economy and thereby effect illegal regime
change in
our country." Those behind the efforts to unseat him, he said,
were
"opposition political parties, which are a creation of the
West".
Back in Zimbabwe, the latest target for the government's ire is
the aid
group Care, which has had all its work suspended because of
allegations that
it sided with the opposition party during this year's
election season - a
charge denied by a spokeswoman at group headquarters in
Atlanta, Georgia, in
the US. "Care has strict policies against political
involvement and
categorically denies that the organisation has encouraged or
tolerated any
political activity," said Lurma Rackley.
In Rome
meanwhile, Mr Mugabe was vaunting the achievements of his
government's
agricultural policy, which included irrigation, building small
and
medium-size dams, farm mechanisation and low-interest loans.
Douglas
Alexander, the International Development Secretary, skipped Mr
Mugabe's
contribution.
From Washington, Tom Casey, the State Department's
spokesman, said Mr Mugabe
could only serve "as an example of what not to do
in terms of managing
agricultural and food policy", and that Mr Mugabe "has
a lot to answer for
to his own people".
The Telegraph
Last
Updated: 12:01am BST 04/06/2008
Away from the grotesque
grandstanding of Robert Mugabe, there was much
serious debate yesterday at
the UN conference on world food security. Ban
Ki-moon, the UN Secretary
General, called for food production to be
increased by 50 per cent by 2030.
Yet, like too many UN conferences, it is
questionable whether much of this
high-minded talk will translate into
action.
The British
Government chose the easy option of writing a cheque. But
money is not the
real issue, and much can be learned from India's "green
revolution" and the
rise of countries like Brazil and Vietnam as
agricultural
powerhouses.
Agricultural productivity in the world's poorest
countries is dire,
with farmers stuck in barely democratic co-operatives,
earning less than a
dollar a day by cultivating small plots with
back-breaking toil.
Higher-yield, genetically modified crops are treated
with suspicion. That is
a mistake: the use of specially bred "miracle rice"
was what enabled India
to feed itself in the last century, and GM crops are
today's equivalent.
There is little use of fertiliser or machinery:
they are prohibitively
expensive thanks to punitive tariffs. Such
protectionism is holding back
productivity and economic growth. It is
unsurprising, therefore, that 45 out
of the 49 least developed countries are
net food importers, and not because
their peoples are occupied in more
lucrative industry or services sectors.
Meanwhile, politicians, in
Europe and America, should recognise that
the subsidised growing of biofuels
has been an error. Their environmental
benefits are disputed and their
effect on world food prices has been
significant. Yet the EU refuses to
accept this is mistaken and has decided
that 10 per cent of all transport
fuel should come from biofuels by 2020.
The subsidies should be
repealed.
Times Online
June 4, 2008
Richard Owen in Rome
World leaders
attending the UN food summit in Rome settled down today to a
"modest" lunch
in order not to be accused of "hypocrisy" as they were at the
last world
food summit six years ago.
Lobster, goose and foie gras have given way to
pasta, mozzarella, spinach
and sweetcorn. "It does not look good if leaders
discussing global
starvation are seen to be dining lavishly," an official of
the Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said. "At the last summit in
2002 we did not
give enough thought to the menu and were open - unfairly, in
our view - to
the charge of hypocrisy."
The summit six years ago
aimed to halve the number of the world's hungry by
2015. Like this week's
meeting, it was held amid tight security at the FAO's
palatial headquarters,
housed in the former Fascist Ministry for the African
Empire near the
Colosseum and the Circus Maximus.
The 2002 menu, published by The Times,
began with foie gras on toast with
kiwi fruit and lobster in vinaigrette,
followed by fillet of goose with
olives and seasonal vegetables and ending
with a compote of fruit with
vanilla, all accompanied by an array of fine
wines.
This time the catering was scaled down. Leaders first ate vol
au vent
stuffed with sweetcorn and mozzarella, followed by a pasta dish with
a sauce
of pumpkin and shrimps, and then veal meatballs and cherry tomatoes,
with a
fruit salad and vanilla ice-cream for dessert. The wine was a
"straightforward but very acceptable Orvieto Classico", officials
said.
Tomorrow the lunch menu features cheese mousse, pasta, green beans
and
pineapple with ice-cream, all washed down with a Nero d'Avola Cabernet
from
Sicily. On Thursday, the last day of the summit, delegates will be
offered
courgette tart, parmesan risotto, ragout of veal with sautee
potatoes, and
lemon mousse for dessert with a strawberry sauce, with Pino
Grigio from
Trentino as the wine.
The inclusion of mozzarella is seen
as a UN vote of confidence in the
cheese, which is made from buffalo milk.
Earlier this year buffalo farms in
the Campania region were quarantined
because of a scare over allegedly high
levels of dioxin, the result of the
Naples rubbish crisis, in which
uncollected mountains of waste have turned
toxic and been set on fire by
desperate residents.
Tonight the food
summit delegates repair for dinner to the Renaissance-era
Villa Madama, in
the hills overlooking Rome, which is used for government
hospitality.
Italian officials said, however, that neither Mr Mugabe nor
Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, the Iranian leader, had been invited to the banquet,
hosted by
Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister.
The FAO was founded in
1945, initially to help countries devastated by the
Second World War to
re-establish food supplies and later to help the newly
independent countries
of the Third World. It works alongside IFAD (the
International Fund for
Agricultural Development), which finances Third World
farming projects, and
the World Food Programme (WFP), which supplies
emergency aid.
That
2008 menu in full:
Vol au vent avec mais et mozarelles
Pates a la
creme de potiron et crevettes, Paupiettes de veau avec tomates
cerises et
Bailic Epinards a la romaine
Salade de fruit avec glace a la
vanille
Vin: Orvieto Classico Poggio Calvelli
2005
Comments
Italy destroys millions of tons of oranges
deliberately every year to
artificially keep retail prices high. Hypocrites,
stink to high heaven
Orlando Mayo, Jaen, Espana
Why didn't they
hold the meeting in Zimbabwe so they could all see what
Mugabi has allowed
to happen to his country, and how most of the population
are
starving.
liz, Fort Myers, USA
"At the last summit in 2002 we did
not give enough thought to the menu and
were open - unfairly, in our view -
to the charge of hypocrisy." Never
underestimate the power of denial. Of
course they were hyprocrits. It's
beyond silly to suggest anything else. The
UN is full of hypocrits!
Sonya B., Raleigh, NC, USA
Mmegi/The Reporter
(Gaborone)
3 June 2008
Posted to the web 3 June 2008
Lekopanye
Mooketsi
The South African High Commission in Botswana on Friday
locked out
Zimbabweans who tried to hand in a petition.
However, High
Commission officials denied refusing the Zimbabweans access to
their
premises but the petition was handed over outside the High Commission
building on Queen's Road in the Gaborone main mall.
Earlier the
Zimbabweans were welcomed at the South African Development
Community (SADC)
headquarters and the United Nations (UN) offices where they
handed their
petition.
Reason Machenere, of an organisation called the People to
People Coalition
of Zimbabweans in Botswana, said it was only the South
African High
Commission chiefs who snubbed them.
On Friday morning,
unemployed Zimbabweans, who usually converge on White
City to look for piece
jobs, participated in peaceful demonstration.
The petition centred on the
June 27 Zimbabwean presidential election run-off
and the recent xenophobic
attacks on foreigners in South Africa. The
demonstrators decried the upsurge
in violence in Zimbabwe especially in the
rural areas, perpetrated by
alleged youth militias, war veterans and state
agents sympathetic to
ZANU-PF. They noted that the eruption of violence has
led to the
displacement of people and arson attacks on their properties.
They pointed
out that there has been an influx of Zimbabwean refugees into
neighbouring
countries.
The petition called on SADC, UN and the South Africa
government to urgently
deploy credible election observers for the impending
election run-off. In
addition, they should ensure that observers are visible
in remote rural
areas, especially those affected by the post March 29
election violence. The
observers should monitor the campaigning, voting,
counting, collating,
announcement of results and the inauguration process of
the winner.
They should also ensure that the results are announced by the
Zimbabwe
Election Commission (ZEC) within 48 hours after voting. After March
29
presidential elections, the results were only announced after a
month.
Both SADC and UN should make arrangements to have observers in
provincial
command centres and national command centre for transparency
during the
counting, verification and announcement processes.
The UN
should send observers to ensure voters are safe before, during and
after
voting. "Zimbabweans need to see and feel the existence of the UN in
Zimbabwe, region, continent and world at large. UN, SADC and AU to send
peacekeepers before, during and after elections.
UN, SADC and AU to
immediately send a special envoy to investigate
incidences of violence and
to provide humanitarian assistance to victims,"
part of the petition
reads.
The petition further calls on UN, SADC and the South African
government to
act on the findings of the retired generals from South Africa,
appointed by
President Thabo Mbeki, who reported that state institutions in
Zimbabwe were
also involved in violence. Some of the institutions are the
police, army and
the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). The petition
says the generals
also reported that national institutions have been
partisan in their
dealings with violence in Zimbabwe. "It is against this
background that we
call upon UN to exercise its mandate of protecting the
people of Zimbabwe as
that country is now stateless since no one is
protecting the people of
Zimbabwe. The police are also perpetrators of
violence."
SADC has been called to appoint an additional mediator to work
with
President Mbeki, who should stay in Zimbabwe until the crisis is
resolved.
Another area of concern is the upsurge of xenophobic attacks on
foreigners
especially Zimbabweans in South Africa.
The South African
government has been urged to ensure the safety of
foreigners in that country
against xenophobic attacks.
The demonstrators carried placards some of
which reads: SADC deploy
observers, Mugabe is feasting on our people. "ZANU
PF is the most notorious,
corrupt opposition party in
Africa."
Another placard pronounced the death of ZANU-PF as March 29
(elections day)
and burial date as June 27 (run-off day).
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com
June 4, 2008
By Munyaradzi
Mutizwa
THE prospect of a government of national unity, which senior
Zanu-PF
officials have been trumpeting ahead of the June 27 presidential
run-off
election, has been unequivocally dismissed as a non-starter by
leading civic
society organisations and pressure groups.
One speaker
at a forum organised Tuesday in Johannesburg dismissed the GNU
as a "project
of losers and an insult to Zimbabweans".
Speaking at a press briefing
organised by the Institute for a Democratic
Alternatives for Zimbabwe
(IDAZIM) held in Johannesburg the civic
organisations said SADC should
facilitate such an arrangement only if
President Robert Mugabe refuses to
hand over power to his challenger, MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai, should the
latter win as is being widely
predicted.
Tsvangirai humiliated Mugabe
on March 29 by winning 47, 9 percent of the
presidential poll to Mugabe's
43, 2.
The chairperson of IDAZIM, Arnold Tsunga, said his organisation
was an
advocacy and policy making institute aiming to facilitate good
governance in
Zimbabwe through democratic transitional
alternatives.
Tuesday's meeting brought together many civil society
representatives. They
included former Minister of Information and political
analyst Jonathan Moyo,
who is the Member of Parliament for Tsholotsho North
and Gabriel Shumba from
the Truth and Justice Coalition. Abel Chikomo from
the Media Monitoring
Project of Zimbabwe, Bishop Levee Kadenge of the
Christian Alliance, and
Clever Bere of Zimbabwe National Students Union also
attended.
"It is our belief that Zanu-PF which is now a clear minority is
going to
loss the presidential run-off election", Bulawayo Agenda executive
director
Gorden Moyo said.
"We as civic society in Zimbabwe are
saying any discussion of a government
of national unity at this moment is
unnecessary, it will save nothing
because the previous unity did not save
any purpose. It was dismantled. Let
us have a run-off election first because
any government of national unity
will only favour Mugabe. We should not
waste out time on this. It is a
project of losers"
Tsunga said
Zimbabwe was now a "de facto military state" in which the
military was
propping up Mugabe's unconstitutional rule.
Student leader, Clever Bere,
called on the civic society to utilize the
remaining weeks before the
election to implement strategies to ensure that
the people displaced by the
current violence will vote on election day.
"It is any insult and fallacy
to talk of government of national unity. Let
us work out in the next 20 days
to make sure that all the displaced people
vote in the run-off", he
said
Moyo said civic organisations in Zimbabwe should ensure that all
voters
displaced by the current violence will be transported back to their
respective constituencies in time for the election.
http://www.hararetribune.com
| Staff
Reporter
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 19:40
news@hararetribune.com
Zimbabwe,
Harare --South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
called
Tuesday for a repeat later this month of what she said were
democratic
first-round presidential elections in Zimbabwe. Her call came as
US
President, George Bush, condemed post election violence and called for
international observers to be allowed to monitor the historic
poll.
"The (first round of) elections were free and fair and we would
like to see
the same situation, the same environment and conditions for this
run-off,"
Dlamini-Zuma told a joint news conference with her Slovenian
counterpart
Dimitrij Rupel.
Zimbabwe will hold the second round of
presidential elections on June 27
after President Robert Mugabe lost the
first-round poll to opposition rival
Morgan Tsvangirai on March
29.
Violence broke out in mostly rural parts of the country after
Mugabe's
Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) lost
its
majority for the first time in 28 years in general elections, also held
on
March 29.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
claims at least 50
of its supporters have been killed, hundreds injured and
at least 25,000
displaced in retributive attacks in the aftermath of the
polls.
The ruling party meanwhile blames the violence on the
MDC.
Dlamini-Zuma said Tuesday that South Africa had decided to increase
the
number of its observers monitoring the run-off vote.
"We have
also spoken to all sides (urging them) to try and make sure that
there is no
violence," she added.
"Our president (Thabo Mbeki) has even put a team
together of retired
generals to go and check what these violent activities
are," Dlamini-Zuma
said.
Dimitrij Rupel, whose country currently
holds the EU presidency, added that
the bloc "hopes that democratic wisdom
will prevail" in the presidential
run-off.
"I believe Zimbabwe will
pass this test," he said.
Dlamini-Zuma was in Slovenia Tuesday to attend
a meeting with the European
Union troika, composed of current EU president
Slovenia, its predecessor
Portugal and France, which will succeed it on July
1.
Violence condemed
Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush
accused Mugabe's government Monday of
a "deplorable" pre-election campaign
of violence against opposition figures
ahead of a June 27 presidential
run-off.
In a statement, Bush urged the Southern African Development
Community, the
African Union, the United Nations, and other international
organizations "to
blanket the country with election and human rights
monitors immediately."
"The continued use of government-sponsored
violence in Zimbabwe,
While Robert Mugabe makes political
statements in Rome, his people
continue to face empty markets at
home
US President George Bush
including unwarranted arrests and
intimidation of opposition figures, to
prevent the Movement for Democratic
Change from campaigning freely ahead of
the June 27 presidential run-off
election is deplorable," said the US
president.
He spoke after,
Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a rebel faction of the MDC
party was
arrested Sunday over a written attack on President Robert Mugabe,
becoming
the most senior opposition politician to be detained ahead of the
vote.
After a brief appearance in court, a Harare magistrate has
since released
Mutambara from police custory.
"We call on the regime
to immediately halt all attacks and to permit freedom
of assembly, freedom
of speech, and access to the media," said Bush, who
vowed to help ease what
he called "government-induced starvation in
Zimbabwe."
"We also are
concerned by reports that misguided government policies are
projected to
result in one of the worst crop harvests in Zimbabwean
history," he said, as
Mugabe attended a UN food crisis summit in Rome.
"While Robert Mugabe
makes political statements in Rome, his people continue
to face empty
markets at home," Bush said, adding that US food aid to
Zimbabwe was about
170 million dollars in 2007 and fed more than one million
people.
"We
will continue these efforts to prevent government-induced starvation in
Zimbabwe," the US president pledged.
Mugabe's trip to Rome was the
first time he has left Zimbabwe since a March
29 general election which saw
his ZANU-PF party lose control of parliament
and Mugabe come second to MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
While the official electoral commission
pronounced that Tsvangirai fell just
short of an overall majority in March,
the MDC is adamant its leader won
more than 50 percent of the votes and is
only participating in a run-off
election at the end of the month under
protest.
Mugabe is usually subject to a travel ban from the European
Union and the
United States after he allegedly rigged his 2002 re-election
but he is able
to attend UN meetings-.-Harare Tribune
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com
3rd
Jun 2008 23:12 GMT
By a
Correspondent
HARARE - The Editor of the Kwekwe based newspaper, The
Midlands Observer,
Flata Kavinga was on 29 May 2008 threatened by a war
veteran. According to
Kavinga, he was approached by the war veteran named
Diva, while he was
standing in a queue in the bank. Diva began by asking
Kavinga if he knew the
Midlands Observer Editor because there was a
'programme of action' to deal
with him.
The war veteran accused the
paper of being pro-opposition by supporting the
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) and writing articles critical of the
state. Furthermore, he
accused the paper of being anti-government as it only
publishes articles
meant to discredit ZANU-PF.
Upon notifying Diva that he was in actual
fact the Editor of the said paper,
Kavinga was told to be careful or face
the consequences.Meanwhile, another
Midlands Observer journalist, Kudakwashe
Zvarayi was on 1 June 2008
threatened by some top ZANU-PF officials of
Kwekwe district, after being
spotted putting on a MISA-Zimbabwe world press
freedom day t-shirt.
According to Zvarayi the officials said "who are you
to demand media
freedom. Who has deprived you of this freedom which you are
clamoring for?
If you continue putting on this t-shirt we are going to beat
you up and burn
the t-shirt also."MISA-Zimbabwe condemns the threatening and
harassment of
media practitioners going about their professional duties.
This is moreso in
light of the increase in the number of journalists who are
being wantonly
victimized for writing articles viewed to be 'unfavorable" to
the interests
of certain individuals.
MISA-Zimbabwe calls upon the
responsible authorities to bring to book
perpetrators of politically
motivated violence against journalists and
ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe .
This is moreover in light of the post
election violence which has become
rampant in the rural-areas in the run-up
to the run-off elections scheduled
for 27 June 2008.
Zim Online
by Cuthbert Nzou Wednesday 04 June
2008
HARARE - Feminist groups in Zimbabwe on Tuesday said a
second round
presidential election later this month would not resolve the
country's long
running political and economic crisis.
The June 27
run-off presidential election is being held after opposition
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai defeated President Robert Mugabe in March but fell
short of the
margin required to takeover the presidency.
The Feminist Political
Education Project (FePEP) called for a negotiated
settlement involving the
main political players and all stakeholders and
that would eventually lead
to the holding of truly democratic elections to
enable Zimbabweans to freely
choose a new government.
"It (run-off) will not address the root causes
of the present crisis in
Zimbabwe given the current socio-political
environment," FePEP said in a
communiqué after a three-day meeting in
Harare. "What Zimbabwe urgently
needs is a negotiated settlement by all
political actors," the women's group
said.
There are growing calls
within Zimbabwe, the southern African region and
beyond for Mugabe and
Tsvangirai to forgo the run-off election and instead
start negotiations for
a transitional government of national unity that
would be tasked to
stabilise the political and economic environment before
new free and fair
elections are held.
Proponents for a government of national unity or
transitional authority
argue that the run-off election would not end the
economic crisis,
especially if won by Mugabe, while victory for Tsvangirai
could see army
hardliners staging a coup to forestall the opposition leader
taking power.
In addition to political crisis, Zimbabwe is also grappling
with its worst
ever recession marked by the world's highest inflation of
more than 165 000
percent and acute food shortages.
The FePEP said a
run-off election - that had already seen a rise in
political violence and
human rights abuses - could further polarise a
divided nation and possibly
plunge Zimbabwe into civil unrest.
FePEP is made up of women politicians,
human rights actors and
representatives of women's rights non-governmental
organisations.
The organisation appealed to the Southern African
Development Community
(SADC) to immediately institute a process that gets
all the political actors
to a negotiating table to discuss the form and
nature of the transitional
arrangement, while also urging full and equal
representation of women at the
negotiating table.
"The outcomes of
the negotiations should of necessity include a clear
economic turnaround
plan that is responsive to women's needs and a
constitution that addresses
gender equality and women's human rights," the
group said.
The
organisation expressed concern at the "feminisation of the current wave
of
the politically motivated violence" in the country which had seen women
particularly targeted for rape and other sexual attacks.
Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change party says at least 50 of its
supporters have
been killed in state-sponsored violence since the March 29
harmonised
elections that saw Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF losing the control of
Parliament
to the opposition for the first time since independence in 1980.
The MDC
accuses Mugabe of unleashing state security forces and ZANU PF
militias to
wage violence against the opposition party's supporters and
structures in an
attempt to regain the upper hand in the second ballot - a
charge the veteran
leader denies. - ZimOnline