• Mugabe opponents stage London vigil over troubled election
  UK Zimbabweans protest at elections
• Police confiscate IDs from Dzivaresekwa commuters
• Masaiti assaulted at police station
• Polls Open In Zimbabwe Presidential Race
• Stuffed ballot boxes found as Mugabe begins stealing poll
• Voters blame the leader who can't feed his country
• Opposition relies on huge turnout to end Mugabe era
• School gathering - political?
• South African Airways suspends night flights
• Face of democracy in Zimbabwe
• Bungled Conspiracy victim released
• Undercover in Zimbabwe
• Chaos reigns
• TELEVISION A CAMPAIGN TOOL FOR ZANU PF
• 11 farmers still in detention
• Huge queues as Zimbabwe votes on Mugabe
• Zimbabwe police clash with impatient voters
• Accusations and violence in Zimbabwe's election
• Zimbabwe opposition cries foul on polling day
• Zimbabwe poll 'could be extended'

A vigil has begun outside the Zimbabwe High Commission in London as polling for the presidential elections in the country got under way.

Opponents of Robert Mugabe's regime were also casting symbolic votes in protest at the African Government's refusal to allow Zimbabwean exiles the right to vote.

The vigil, organised by the Freedom for Zimbabwe Campaign, will see brief speeches being made later in the day alongside political songs and dances.

Crimson Tazvinzwa, 29, an exiled journalist from Zimbabwe, said: "This campaign is organising demonstrations and vigils based on the call for free and fair elections and for press freedom.

"I was harassed and threatened by Mugabe's intelligence while working as a journalist. It has been very difficult for the last three years for most journalists. Some of them have been threatened, some have been killed in the process."

He said the war veterans were against the independent press because of the coverage of how they had taken over farms in Zimbabwe.

Mr Tazvinzwa said he had to leave his two brothers, sister and parents behind in Zimbabwe.

He said: "I have been trying to telephone them but I could not get through to anyone. I think they have relocated for this week until the election is over. I don't know where they are for now."

Violence has been reported throughout Zimbabwe in the run-up to the country's presidential elections.

President Mugabe has been accused of attempting to rig the votes and many foreign journalists have been banned from the country.

Story filed: 09:41 Saturday 9th March 2002

Saturday, 9 March, 2002, 05:51 GMT

UK Zimbabweans protest at elections

Robert Mugabe is accused of vote-rigging

Zimbabweans living in Britain are holding a protest at what they say is a denial of their right to vote in this weekend's elections.

Zimbabwe has begun the most fiercely contested presidential elections since independence from Britain in 1980.

There are serious concerns about how the election is being run, with claims of "massive intimidation", ballot-rigging and gerrymandering by the incumbent president, Robert Mugabe, and his followers.

We want to show the people that are in Zimbabwe, and going to vote, that we are with them

Hilton Mendelsohn

Many of those living in the UK have not been given the right to a postal vote.

They will hold a vigil outside Zimbabwe's High Commission in London on Saturday, at which they will fill in symbolic postal votes and place them in a giant ballot box.

A spokesman for the vigil said those attending "are only a few of the hundreds of thousands" who should be voting but who have been barred from doing so.

He said they were being prevented "by blatant rigging of the voters' roll and other means, including the arbitrary withdrawal of citizenship", in what he called a "parody of an election".

'Keep focus on'

Hilton Mendelsohn has lived in Britain for three years and said not being able to take part in the voting procedure was unfair but not surprising.

"I've never thought this election would be free or fair," he said.

"Hundreds of thousands" have been denied a vote

He said the organisers of the vigil were hoping to keep the world focused on Zimbabwe, "so that hopefully we can get a condemnation of a flawed process".

"What we also want to do is show the people that are in Zimbabwe, and going to vote, that we are with them."

Officials estimate there are about 40,000 British nationals in Zimbabwe, of whom about 25,000 have registered with the British High Commission.

In recent months there have been reports that ministers in London have drawn up plans to evacuate British passport-holders, should the country dissolve into violent chaos in the wake of the elections.

However, the Foreign Office has played down such reports, saying it has emergency evacuation plans for most countries as part of routine procedures.

Commonwealth split

MEP Glenys Kinnock warned on Friday that the international community must be ready to respond decisively if the election is judged to have been rigged.

Violence has been reported across the country

Mrs Kinnock, co-president of the EU-African Caribbean Pacific joint parliamentary assembly, said: "The EU must continue to make it clear that this election will determine the future of Zimbabwe and the whole of the southern Africa region.

"When the polls close, the international community must be clear and swift in its response should the legitimacy of the process be in question."

A Mugabe victory could possibly split the Commonwealth if a consensus on expelling Zimbabwe is not reached.

Earlier this week its heads of government decided to set up a committee to decide what action to take against Zimbabwe after the elections, if Commonwealth observers find them to have been rigged.

The summit opted to set up the committee rather than back UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's argument for Zimbabwe's immediate suspension from the Commonwealth, in the run-up to the ballot.

From The Guardian (UK), 9 March

Voters blame the leader who can't feed his country

Matopos, Matabeleland - Robert Mugabe has warned the people of Matabeleland that a vote against him in this weekend's presidential election will bring 'fire' to their homes. Residents of the blighted region in southern Zimbabwe have good reason to fear conflict. Thousands of Ndebele were murdered by Mr Mugabe's army two decades ago for failing to submit to the domination of the ruling Zanu PF. But war is no longer the worst imaginable calamity. Matabeleland's people are living with a more immediate threat - hunger. Drought has withered crops and the upheaval of the land invasions has left shops bare of maize and cooking oil, crucial ingredients in the Zimbabwean diet. It is no way to go into an election, particularly as many in the region hold Mr Mugabe personally responsible for their empty bellies. "People are hungry. That's what really matters," said Washington Saensole, a former high court judge who is now one of Mr Mugabe's sharpest critics in Matabeleland. "Mugabe wants to make out he is strong with his threats but people see that this is a president who does not even have the capacity to get food to people when they are hungry."

At a small church in Matopos, the congregation feels threatened both by the lack of food and by the political terror visited upon them. But while the violence is sporadic, the hunger is always there. People at the church say 'sadza' - the staple made from maize – has disappeared from their diet. Many have only one meal a day. "The president came here recently. He didn't bring food," said LK Dube. "We have had to kill our goats for something to eat or sell them to buy food. But you can only kill them once. We blame the president because he has the power." The anger has been compounded by profiteering. With the shop shelves bare of maize, an illegal trade has sprung up at double the official price. It is usually run by ruling party members and is a source of bitterness in the church.

Mr Mugabe has boosted attendance at his rallies in the region with wholesale food distributions. People began queuing hours before the meetings in Bulawayo and Beitbridge with plastic bags and buckets in hand in expectation of a gift of maize. Most were not disappointed, but it is unlikely to win their votes. Intimidation has risen sharply in recent weeks in an effort to scare the Ndebele into supporting the president, even though they have consistently voted against Zanu PF for more than two decades. The ruling party's militia has rampaged through the region, burning villages and torturing overt opposition supporters. Mr Mugabe's henchmen have threatened collective retribution on those villages that do not support the president. In the church, no one actually says who is bringing the terror. The identities are implicit and unspoken until a girl, about 12 years old, pipes up. "It's Zanu PF. They are forcing people to buy party cards or they beat you," she says. Mr Saensole believes the intimidation will not work. "I detect a mood of determination," he said. "There's a consensus here that Mugabe has to go."

From The Guardian (UK), 9 March

Opposition relies on huge turnout to end Mugabe era

Zimbabwe's voters go to the polls amid fears of vote-rigging and a military takeover

Harare - Robert Mugabe's two-year campaign of political terror comes to a head today with a presidential election that will reveal whether Zimbabwe's voters have been induced to perpetuate his 22-year rule. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change is banking on a massive turnout during the two days of voting to produce such a decisive defeat for Mr Mugabe that neither intimidation nor vote rigging can reverse it. But the ruling Zanu-PF is hopeful that if voters have not been persuaded that the opposition is a front for white recolonisation, then MDC supporters can be discouraged from going to the polls or frightened into supporting the president. If that does not work, the government has laid the ground for extensive fraud. The MDC candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, says Zanu PF has "crafted and implemented every imaginable trick", to manipulate the election, but he believes he can still win. "The electoral process has been blatantly and outrageously distorted in favour of the ruling party," he said. "But the people will vote for change." Mr Mugabe says the burning issue of the election is the 'war' for the land and the struggle to prevent Britain recolonising Zimbabwe. His opponents say the vote is about the right of Zimbabweans to choose another government. For many Zimbabweans, evident excitement at the prospect of removing Mr Mugabe from power is tempered by fear at what the coming week will bring. The opposition says that Zanu-PF is preparing to escalate the violence if the president loses and there are persistent warnings of a military coup.

Popular discontent with the government has risen sharply in recent weeks because of widespread food shortages that are mostly the result of Mr Mugabe's land policies compounded by drought. But the best indicator of the president's unpopularity is the extent of his strategy to undermine the vote. This weekend's ballot caps what amounts to a two-year campaign since Mr Mugabe was forewarned of the looming challenge to his power by his defeat in a constitutional referendum and the narrow victory of his party in parliamentary elections in 2000. Zanu PF has been much better prepared for this ballot. The populist campaign for land redistribution quickly evolved into a general strategy of murder and terror aimed principally at the black population. More than 120 people have been killed, and thousands tortured by "war veterans" and ruling party militia. About 70,000 have been driven from their homes.

The violence has been supplemented with draconian laws to curtail free speech, including a bar on 83 MDC election rallies. The opposition is also banned from the airwaves. Hundreds of thousands of people have been struck from the voters' roll, including Zimbabweans living abroad. Administrative obstacles have been thrown up to keep young people from registering because they are overwhelmingly against Mr Mugabe. The election hinges on the size of the turnout, and whether people still think their vote is secret. Independent analysts, such as Professor Masipula Sithole - a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe and author of the most recent opinion poll - believe people will not be dissuaded from voting. "There's likely to be a massive turnout. This is the big one that people have been preparing themselves for since the 2000 referendum," he said.

Mr Tsvangirai can count on a healthy majority in the two main cities - Harare and Bulawayo - which are home to more than one-in-five registered voters. But the government is attempting to keep the opposition vote down in urban areas by slashing the numbers of polling places in the cities. Mr Tsvangirai should also be able to count on a sizeable majority in the two provinces of Matabeleland, where Mr Mugabe is loathed for the mass slaughter his army visited on the region two decades ago. Violence and intimidation have been widespread there. In Bulawayo last week, eight Zanu PF supporters stoned a man to death at a night-club after he could not produce a ruling party membership card. Zanu PF militia have razed villages and Mr Mugabe has threatened another war in the region if he loses. Zanu PF's militia has also been let loose in Mashonaland to ensure support holds up in Mr Mugabe's traditional stronghold.

The key to the entire election may lie with three provinces that, statistically, are up for grabs - Manicaland, Masvingo and Midlands. Mr Mugabe has already suffered what looks to be a decisive blow in Masvingo, one of Zimbabwe's most populous provinces. Its Zanu PF leader, Eddison Zvobgo - a former cabinet minister - has effectively endorsed the opposition. Manicaland and Midlands are a closer call but without decisive majorities in both, Mr Mugabe will have difficulty offsetting the MDC's popularity. This raises the spectre of rigging. The government has severely limited the numbers of independent election monitors - accrediting just 300 local observers to monitor 4,700 polling booths. The military has taken effective control of the electoral process, and party agents are for the first time prevented from staying with ballot boxes. Last month, a police car which crashed was found to have ballot boxes already stuffed with votes in its boot. On Tuesday, Mr Mugabe signed a decree giving election officials sweeping powers to alter voters' rolls and restrict monitors from scrutinising the vote. But Prof Sithole believes that popular discontent with the government is so widespread if Mr Mugabe attempts to cling to power in the face of overwhelming defeat he will face a popular revolt

South African Airways has temporarily halted its night flights to Zimbabwe amid fears that violence could erupt there.

Citing safety concerns, the airline said the night flights would be suspended until March 17.

South African Airways has 11 flights a week to the capital of Harare and to the northwestern tourist center of Victoria Falls.

It flies three flights a week to the second city of Bulawayo.

Daytime flights to those cities will continue.

The Zimbabwean presidential elections have started and will continue through the weekend. The run-up to the race has been marred by political violence.

President Robert Mugabe is fighting for his political survival against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Unrest in Zimbabwe has been blamed for a slump in the South African economy. Foreign investment has slowed down and the country's currency, the rand, has lost more than a third of its value since the beginning of last year.

Face of democracy in Zimbabwe MDC election monitor Richard Chidziva, centre, and two of his colleagues patched up in Harare after being beaten by supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF. Photo: AFP By Tim Butcher in Bulawayo Richard Chidziva was the bloody face of democracy in Zimbabwe yesterday. The polling agent observer for the Movement for Democratic Change was first abducted, then beaten and finally held captive by police in yet another example of how the vote taking place this weekend is a long way from free. On the ground, there was farce and chaos. The discovery of ballot boxes stuffed with votes for Robert Mugabe spilling out of a police car involved in a crash gave the last day of campaigning in Zimbabwe's presidential election an almost comic air. But few of the country's 5,607,812 registered voters were laughing as they prepared to go to the polls after an election campaign that will be remembered as one of Africa's most murderous and turbulent. So cruel were the mobs unleashed by Mr Mugabe to bring voters in line that one man was beaten to death by supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF party simply because his house had decorative mud hand-prints on the walls. An open hand is the emblem of the Opposition MDC and this was enough to cost James Sibanda his life. The mob never stopped to ask his political affiliation. He was a lifelong supporter of Mr Mugabe. Human rights groups estimate that about 40 people have died since the campaign began. Opposition members believe the number is at least double. The sad truth is that no-one will ever know the exact number of casualties. Bodies will continue to be found for years to come, half-buried in shallow graves or dumped out in the bush. Huge tracts of Zimbabwe have become no-go areas for normal traffic. Towns such as Nkayi and Tsholotsho were judged by Mr Mugabe's cronies to be disloyal and were subjected to terror on a scale that bears comparison with the Khmer Rouge. The Zimbabwean Army, trained partly by the British and combat-hardened in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was judged not to be sufficiently loyal for the job after some grumbling from the grassroots that perhaps a change of leader might not be such a bad idea. So for the past seven months mobs of "youth militia" have been plucked from the swollen ranks of Zimbabwe's unemployed, given a pocket full of spending money and trained in the dark arts of stealing elections. At camps dotted all over the country these louts have learnt how to beat people without leaving bruises, how to half-drown people in buckets of water and the most effective way to use fear as a political tool. Every approach road leading to Nkayi has been blocked by checkpoints run by these militia for weeks. Cars are routinely stoned or stolen. Ownership of an MDC membership card or even an old copy of the independent Daily News paper can amount to a death sentence. Two elderly white farmers, John and Margaret Sankey, who had sent their workers' identity cards to Bulawayo to prevent them being confiscated - which would have robbed the workers of their votes - were shot at repeatedly as they drove to town. One human rights lawyer estimates that 40,000 crimes have been committed during the campaign. But after endless intimidation of the opposition, blatant massaging of the electoral roll and the subversion of the country's judges, perhaps the most sinister feature of Zimbabwe is the way the police force has done nothing to uphold the law. The look of blank unwillingness to help on the faces of police officers when Zimbabweans, black or white, try to report a crime is perhaps the clearest proof of how rotten Mr Mugabe's rule has become.

Saturday, 9 March, 2002, 13:18 GMT

Undercover in Zimbabwe

Matabeleland has witnessed some of the worst crimes of the Mugabe era

By the BBC's Fergal Keane in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe

If you didn't know what had happened there, you'd believe it to be the most beautiful place in all of Africa.

But in Matabeleland even a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I am not at all a superstitious person, but I have always found places where terrible things have happened, seriously unsettling.

And if you have read the tour guide's brief history of Matabeleland you learn enough to feel, well, at the least unsettled.

I was carrying a guide book. I was in Matabeleland as a tourist. I wore a South African rugby jersey, a pair of bush shorts, a baseball cap and carried my wildlife books in a rucksack.

I looked like one of those white Johannesburgers who raves about having a mystical attachment to the bush, but who never ever succeeds in looking anything other than a large, white man in Africa.

The disguise fooled the officials at passport control, though there was a nervous moment when I was asked exactly what kind of work I did.

Close encounters with rhino

You may find this hard to believe, but lying does not automatically come easy to a journalist.

I had to think quickly, and sought refuge in my favourite hobby.

"I am a fisheries expert," I said.

"What does that mean?" said the official.

"It means I try to stop foreigners stealing my country's fish," I replied.

In a country in the grip of state paranoia, a tourist with a camera and a notebook tends to stand out

At this the official burst out laughing, stamped my passport and bid me on my way.

The difficult thing about being a tourist who has a lot of journalistic work to do is that you do have to go through the motions of being a tourist.

In a country in the grip of state paranoia, full of spies and government lickspittles a tourist with a camera and a notebook tends to stand out.

So every day I and my colleagues did something touristy.

One morning the tour guide suggested we go and view some rhino in a game park.

We headed out in the warm, early sun, the glorious silence of the bush punctuated by the endless chatter of two elderly Italian ladies seated in front.

I have a feeling they were the only genuine tourists in Zimbabwe.

We quickly came across some rhino munching happily in the thorn bush.

I was quite happy to observe this from the Landrover - the Italians wanted to get up close and the guide reluctantly agreed to lead them into the bush.

I was shamed into following.

The problem was that the Italian ladies would not stop chattering. The guide pleaded and for a few minutes the torrent subsided.

But then it resumed, and as it did the rhino caught our scent on the wind. There was a fierce snorting from the other side of the bush, a loud rumble and then the sound of huge animals galloping - away from us.

I pictured the headline: "BBC undercover man gored by rhino."

And then the thought of leaving hospital only to enter the tender care of Mr Mugabe's security police.

Past atrocities

Most of my time in Matabeleland was spent travelling, for I had come to Matabeleland to investigate the worst crimes of the Robert Mugabe era - atrocities committed nearly 20 years ago when Britain and the rest of western countries believed he was a good thing for his nation, or at least if they thought otherwise they were diplomatic enough to keep any doubts to themselves.

People in Matabeleland still fear what Mugabe's men will do next

In January 1983 Robert Mugabe sent the North Korean trained Fifth Brigade of his national army into Zimbabwe.

When they were withdrawn nearly two years later between 10,000 to 20,000 people were dead and an entire population traumatised.

It was a campaign of rape, torture and mass killing - Mugabe called his men the Gukuruhundi: the storm that sweeps away the chaff.

In Bulawayo - the main town of Matabeleland - the memories of that terrible period are undimmed.

And there is fear about what Mugabe's men may do next.

One morning as I was playing the tourist in the city centre, I encountered a large group of young men carrying posters of Mugabe.

I smiled at them but they glowered back.

"Go away white man," said another.

Speaking out

I was on my way to the Roman Catholic cathedral to meet one of the bravest men in Africa.

My secretary was worried that I might endanger myself, but I have to speak out. How can you not speak out?

Archbishop Pius Ncube

Archbishop Pius Ncube has been campaigning on behalf of victims of the Fifth Brigade for years, and he is hated by Robert Mugabe.

I asked him if he was worried about doing an interview.

"My secretary was worried that I might endanger myself, but I have to speak out. How can you not speak out?" he said.

I have returned safely from Zimbabwe.

But Bishop Ncube is still there, still speaking out, still being threatened.

Whenever you are tempted to despair of Africa and its seemingly unending miseries, think of the bishop with no other weapon but his courage.

Think of him and be comforted.

Huge queues as Zimbabwe votes on Mugabe
By Nicholas Kotch and Cris Chinaka - March 9 2002 16:33
Financial Times: 9 MArch 2002

HARARE (Reuters) - Huge queues built up around Zimbabwe on Saturday as voters waited for hours to vote in a violence-scarred election which will decide whether President Robert Mugabe can extend his 22-year-rule.

Opposition challenger Morgan Tsvangirai said he would seek an extension of the two-day poll, saying the government's sharp reduction in the number of polling stations in his urban strongholds would deny many people the chance to vote.

"There is no way we can finish this in two days" Tsvangirai told reporters when he voted on the first day of the poll.

"Mugabe is trying to move the goalposts to disenfranchise people if they are people he thinks will vote against him."

As thousands of Zimbabweans turned out before dawn to vote, there was news of more of the violence that dogged the campaign. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change reported 30 of its election monitors were assaulted by ruling ZANU-PF militants with clubs and broken bottles in Shamva, 75 miles northeast of Harare, on Friday night.

Five were badly injured with head and facial wounds.

Tsvangirai, who campaigned on Zimbabwe's collapsing economy, charges that Mugabe used violence, special laws and dirty tricks to try to steal the election, in which the president faces the toughest challenge since independence from Britain in 1980.

Up to four million of the 13 million population face food shortages caused by drought and the violent occupation of white-owned commercial farms. Inflation has hit 117 percent and unemployment 60 percent.

WHITE FARMERS DETAINED

Police detained 12 white farmers overnight after a confrontation with ZANU-PF militia who stopped them transporting MDC polling agents northwest of Harare. The farmers were released early on Saturday.

A white farmer's house in central Zimbabwe was burned to the ground on Friday night by youths believed to be from ZANU-PF, neighbors said. The farmer was not home at the time.

Mugabe, voting under heavy security in Harare's Highfields suburb, told reporters: "I will accept the result, more than accept it because I will have won."

Well before voting began around 7 a.m. (0500 GMT), people wrapped in blankets against the cold formed long lines at polling stations in poor parts of Harare.

"I could not wait to pass this vote. I came early to make sure I do," said Japhet Dongo, who cast his ballot at a school in Glenview suburb after waiting in a queue since midnight.

People pushed and jostled in the line as they waited.

Under gray skies and in a light drizzle, at least a thousand people were lined up at Glenview Number 2 primary school.

In Harare's Kambuzuma township, one queue stretched for a mile and groups of boisterous youths gave the open-palm MDC sign to passing motorists.

The MDC won all of Harare's 19 constituencies in parliamentary elections in 2000. Tsvangirai said there were now 80 less polling stations despite an increase in city population.

NORWEGIAN OBSERVERS

The head of Norway's election observer team said the signs of a high turnout were encouraging.

Kare Vollan told Reuters: "We are worried about the deployment of party polling agents. We had some reports of problems overnight, mainly from the MDC, but they are still to be confirmed."

Norway's 25 observers are the largest European team at the elections. The European Union withdrew scores of observers before the vote after the government banned those from Britain, Denmark, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden on the grounds that their governments were pro-opposition.

In Bulawayo, second city of the former British colony, long queues formed outside polling stations hours before the vote began.

"I have been here since 4 a.m. because I am very anxious to vote. I want somebody who will address my needs like the cost of living, which is now very high," said Gatsheni Khumalo, a 29-year old accountant. The United States on Friday again condemned the violence.

"The government of Zimbabwe continues its blatant campaign of violence, intimidation and manipulation of the electoral process in an effort to win the poll...It is clear that the government intends to win the election by any means," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

The few opinion surveys point to a close finish.

South African analyst Richard Cornwell said that despite government intimidation it would be impossible for ZANU-PF to rig the vote if as many as 70 percent of population vote for Tsvangirai, as some polls predict.

Polling in Zimbabwe's bitterly contested presidential elections could be extended by two days to ensure voters get the opportunity to cast their ballots.

Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa insists that everyone who wants to vote will be able to do so.

The opposition is complaining their vote is being affected by the slow work of polling officials in their urban strongholds.

"Everyone who wants to vote is going to vote," Mr Chinamasa told the BBC.

"If necessary we can extend the vote - there is no problem," he said, adding that polling stations could remain open for an additional two days if need be.

Mr Chinamasa predicts that by the close of polling, the turnout could be up to 80%.

A dozen people were injured when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at voters trying to force their way into a polling station in the western Harare township of Kuwadzana.

A crowd of 3,000 people tried to rush the building in what appeared to be a protest at the slow pace of the work of polling officials.

Throughout the election campaign, human rights workers have accused President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF of sponsoring militants who have attacked opposition supporters and their offices.

Police broke up several opposition rallies and arrested dozens of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's supporters.

Story filed: 18:03 Saturday 9th March 2002