Zim Online
Monday 19 March 2007
By
Brian Ncube
BULAWAYO - The Zimbabwe national intelligence agency has
launched a "full
scale" probe of security officers it accuses of providing
tear gas to the
opposition during last week's violent protests in Harare,
ZimOnline has
learnt.
The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
says some senior members of the
Zimbabwean police sold the tear gas to
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party supporters ahead of
last week's violent clashes in
Highfield.
In a memorandum titled,
"Origins of the grenades in opposition possession,"
dated 13 March 2007,
that was addressed to the ministers of defence, state
security and home
affairs, the CIO called for a "full-scale" probe of the
matter.
The
probe, which suggests serious discontent by officers within President
Robert
Mugabe's security forces, is said to be targeting senior officials in
the
armoury section and those at the district and station commands.
"The
demonstrators used the UKMK11number 91 and the UK L1A1 hand grenades,
which
emit CS and CN type of smoke and are only available in police
reserves,
meaning that they were clandestinely obtained from some senior
police
officers.
"Junior police officers could not have sold these as they are
made to
account for each and every grenade they take out for operations once
the
operation is over, hence senior officers are answerable," reads part of
the
memorandum.
Last week, ZimOnline reported that the feared CIO
agency had deployed its
secret agents within the security forces to purge
officers who are suspected
of backing the MDC.
Last week, police
fought running battles with opposition supporters in
Highfield after they
blocked a prayer rally organized by the Save Zimbabwe
Campaign, a coalition
that is fighting for political reform in Zimbabwe.
Morgan Tsvangirai and
several opposition leaders were later arrested and
brutally tortured by
state agents while in police custody torching violent
protests and
demonstrations across the country by opposition supporters.
Tsvangirai's
torture also raised political temperatures in the southern
African country
with several "revenge attacks" against the police being
reported last week
alone.
A police station was petrol bombed in Harare's Marimba suburb
leaving two
police women seriously burnt while a train was attacked in
Zimbabwe's second
city of Bulawayo.
Sources within the state agency
said Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri
was last Wednesday tasked by Home
Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi to institue
an urgent probe into how the tear
gas "found its way into the wrong hands".
"He was given a 14-day deadline
to finish those investigations and furnish
both the agency and the Minister
with the full names of those who sold the
gas.
"The Commissioner has
already drawn names of senior officers that will head
the probe team, while
operatives from the CID Law and Order section have
been deployed to do the
ground investigations," said the source.
Police spokesperson Wayne
Bvudzijean confirmed the probe when contacted for
comment at the
weekend.
"We cannot rule out the fact that some senior officers are
working with the
opposition in the matter. That is why we have instituted
the investigations.
We will not rest until we find who they are," said
Bvudzijena.
Meanwhile, Chihuri has ordered all provincial commanders to
provide weapons
to undercover police officers to guard against revenge
attacks by MDC
supporters following last week's crackdown against the
party's leaders.
In a separate memorandum written last Thursday, titled,
"Arming of Police
Details and New Dress Order for Officers on Duty,"
reference number
GM63/2007, Chihuri said officers from the Criminal
Investigations Department
Law and Order Section and Police Internal Security
Intelligence (PISI)
should be provided with pistols with immediate
effect.
"The pistols should be given to all members of the PISI and CID
Law and
Order section who were trained in weapon handling during their
induction
courses at Buchwa Mine.
"Commanders should adhere to these
without fail and deploy an armed member
near uniformed police officers to
provide cover to them," reads part of the
memorandum.
A junior police
officer in Bulawayo confirmed the latest development.
"We were told that
the situation was very volatile and officers from PISI
and the Law and Order
section would be armed and deployed with us or at a
certain radius to
provide cover," he said. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 19 March 2007
By Justin
Muponda
HARARE - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe will step up a
crackdown on
political opponents to check growing dissent over an economic
meltdown and
moves to extend his long rule, but this could rejuvenate and
embolden the
opposition to confront the veteran leader, analysts
said.
The southern African nation is on political knife-edge as pressure
mounts on
Mugabe, who is presiding over a deepening economic crisis blamed
on his
policies and has seen inflation zoom past 1 700 percent and
unemployment
rocket while poverty rises.
State security agents last
week allegedly assaulted opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
leader Morgan Tsvangirai and several other political
and civic group leaders
as they attempted to attend an outlawed prayer
rally.
Political
analysts said the crackdown could galvanise the fractious MDC and
push its
factions towards unity against Mugabe.
But as tensions rise, with the
opposition vowing to mobilise Zimbabweans
against Mugabe over the crisis,
the government would resort to heavy-handed
tactics to hang on to power,
analysts said.
"There is growing political intolerance on the part of the
government which
is determined to suppress public discontent," said Eldred
Masunungure, a
political commentator and University of Zimbabwe political
science lecturer.
"I can imagine the government is bringing all these
violence charges to
justify a major offensive against the MDC and all the
other opponents,
whether perceived or real which it views as threat to
government," he added.
He was referring to the government's charges that
the MDC was involved in
countrywide militia-style violence, including
attacking police officers with
petrol bombs.
Mugabe who has been
defiant in the face of international outrage over the
assault of opposition
members, including Tsvangirai who was treated for head
injuries at the
Avenues Clinic, has said the police would again "bash" MDC
supporters who
defied the police ban on rallies.
The 83-year-old leader, who has caused
further controversy by saying he will
run for president next year if
nominated by ZANU PF, on Friday upped the
stakes against the MDC, urged
ruling party youths to defend the people, a
euphemism for party supporters
to attack opponents.
"The people require protection from you and
protection means fighting for
them, defending them," he said.
"After
this experience we have gone through, we expect our youth will gear
themselves now to the defence of our people, our children, our communities,
our resources," he added.
But some analysts said increasing
government crackdown could actually
embolden the MDC, which says Mugabe is
not panicking.
"We could actually see the MDC being emboldened by this
crackdown. I think
their resolve will strengthen," said John Makumbe, a
political scientist at
the University of Zimbabwe.
Arthur Mutambara,
the leader of the smaller MDC faction, seemed to buttress
this, when he said
last Friday that Mugabe was wrong to think he would face
a divided
opposition, warning that the "tyrant will be chased out of
town."
Analysts said Mugabe would continue to be under pressure as the
economy
implodes.
An international Monetary Fund official said
yesterday inflation, which
central bank governor Gideon Gono has likened to
HIV, would surge to 5 000
percent by year-end.
Mugabe has been shut
out by Western countries who criticize his policies
such as the seizure of
land from white commercial farmers to give to
landless blacks, which is
blamed for hitting commercial agriculture and
worsening food
shortages.
Economic analysts said the current political environment would
make it
difficult for the country to recover, adding that a social contract
envisioned by Gono had been doomed.
Gono has proposed to freeze
prices and salaries under a social contract that
requires government to stop
printing money to fund the budget deficit, but
as tensions rise, analysts
said the plan was dead in the water.
"I think lets just forget about the
social contract, it is not going to
happen in this environment," John
Robertson, a private economic commentator
said. "The government has to
address the political problems first."
Analysts say the economic crisis,
whose effects are being felt in the region
as millions have sought jobs
abroad, was the most serious threat to Mugabe's
hold on power and could lead
to spontaneous street protests last seen a
decade ago.
The World Bank
says Zimbabwe has the fastest shrinking economy outside a war
zone. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 19 March 2007
By Justin
Muponda
HARARE - Zimbabwe's economic crisis will heighten further in the
coming
months with inflation breaching the 5 000 percent mark by year-end as
President Robert Mugabe battles to contain a deep recession that is seen
destabilising the region, a senior IMF official said.
International
Monetary Fund Africa (IMF) Director Abdoulaye Bio-Tchane said
Harare had
shown little signs of coming to grips with its damaging economic
problems,
promising more hardships as political tensions escalate.
"It depends on
how much the people in the country can take," Bio-Tchane was
quoted by the
international media as saying.
"The question is how far it could fall.
The last four years we've seen GDP
falling by more than 35 percent.
Inflation is running at more than 1 700
percent and our estimate is by the
year's end, it could move even beyond 5
000 percent."
Bio-Tchane
spoke as Mugabe's government drew international outrage for
assaulting in
police custody Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader
Morgan Tsvangirai
and other opposition officials who were violently stopped
from attending a
prayer rally in Highfield.
The United States and Britain, which Mugabe
accuses of punishing his
government and plotting his downfall, have led the
chorus of condemnation
and threatened to tighten sanctions further against
the Zimbabwean leader
and his inner circle.
Bio-Tchane said Mugabe
and central bank chief Gideon Gono - whose name has
been thrown around as
his potential successor - appeared overwhelmed by the
crisis, which has
plunged the former food basket of southern Africa into a
basket case,
surviving on aid and imports.
He accused Gono of fuelling the crisis by
widening the budget deficit to
around 40 percent of GDP this year, through
printing cash and generous
subsidies to loss-making
parastatals.
"They need to rein this in," said Bio-Tchane. "But obviously
they need more
than that. You can't let the economy function if people are
not free to
operate, if their rights are not secured, including human
rights."
"You will always find a few people who will benefit from this
system, so
therefore it may continue. I can't give a date when the whole
thing will
stop or collapse.
"But it will certainly continue falling.
This will continue impoverishing
people, people will continue losing their
jobs, continue losing their
purchasing power," he said.
Bio-Tchane
spoke as the country's currency continued to depreciate rapidly
on the black
market, where the bulk of trade is now being handled. The US
dollar fetched
16 000 Zimbabwe dollars at the weekend, compared to 10 000
last
week.
There is a new wave of Zimbabweans fleeing the country for better
paying
jobs abroad, in a move reminiscent of the year 2000, as people
attempt to
escape rising political violence and a haemorrhaging
economy.
"It's holding the sub-region back, and it is holding the whole
Africa region
back," he said. "This was a booming economy, this was a net
exporter of
goods and services in the past. Now exports are falling. It is a
country
that is a net importer today."
He added that it appeared some
countries were helping to bankroll Mugabe
through loans or other
deals.
"We don't have evidence of the sources, but clearly they are
getting some
financing," he said.
Western countries, including the
IMF and World Bank, have halted aid to
Mugabe over policy differences.
Mugabe, now 83 and Zimbabwe's sole ruler
since independence in 1980, has
turned to Asia for help, with little
success. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 19 March 2007
By Farisai
Gonye
HARARE - The Zimbabwe government plans to build a massive
shrine to
depict President Robert Mugabe's life and role in the liberation
struggle in
the President's home district of Zvimba, ZimOnline has
learnt.
A senior government source told ZimOnline that Mugabe wants
construction of the shrine to start as soon as possible.
The
Zimbabwean strongman, whose country is facing imminent economic
meltdown,
has already instructed the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to raise
US$400 000 in
foreign currency to buy exotic materials from Asia for the
project.
The project comes at a time when Zimbabwe is battling
to secure
foreign currency to buy food, fuel and electricity while the
Registrar
General's office has since stopped issuing passports and identity
cards
because it does not have foreign currency to import the required
resources.
Sources within the government said Local Government
Minister Ignatius
Chombo, who also hails from Zvimba, had been tasked to
oversee the
construction of the shrine.
Chombo confirmed being
part of the project when contacted for comment
at the weekend.
"The idea (of a shrine) has been discussed and we are moving on to the
planning stage," he said, refusing to reveal the figures
involved.
"It would be shrine for the local community and one that
would be used
to depict the President's life history and legacy as well as
aspects of the
liberation struggle," said Chombo.
On 8
February, Mugabe in the company of Chombo met local clansmen and
traditional
leaders in Zvimba to discuss the idea.
Nelson Chamisa, the
spokesperson of the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
party, condemned the plan to build a shrine for
Mugabe saying the move
showed Mugabe was out of touch with the mood on the
ground.
"The money they are going to use would be better spent on our
hospitals,
which have become death chambers because of government neglect.
It shows
Mugabe is out of touch with the needs and aspirations of our
people," said
Chamisa. - ZimOnline
Financial Times
By Tony Hawkins in
Harare
Published: March 18 2007 20:48 | Last updated: March 18 2007
20:48
Zimbabwe police will be on full alert on Monday to prevent
demonstrations by
opposition activists at the memorial service for Gift
Tandare who was shot
and killed by police during last Sunday's opposition
protest in Harare.
Tempers are running high among the Movement for
Democratic Change following
the seizure of Mr Tandare's body on Saturday by
men who told relatives they
were from the government's Central Intelligence
Organisation and the arrests
of four senior opposition politicians at the
weekend.
In an interview with the BBC on Sunday, the leader of the MDC,
Morgan
Tsvangirai, said: "I think this crisis has reached tipping point and
we
could see the beginning of the end of this dictatorship." Such statements
appear to intensify official intransigence. President Robert Mugabe last
week said he would arm the police to crush demonstrations.
Mr
Tsvangirai's optimism is not shared by foreign observers. In South
Africa,
Moeletsi Mbeki, a brother of President Thabo Mbeki and a critic of
his
Zimbabwe policy of "quiet diplomacy", said the Zimbabwe opposition was
too
optimistic about political change, warning that he saw little chance of
neighbouring governments toughening their stance against Mr
Mugabe.
There is mounting evidence of the government's determination to
smash the
opposition before its protests gain further momentum. On Saturday,
the
leader of the small breakaway wing of the MDC, Arthur Mutambara, was
arrested by police as he prepared to board a flight to South Africa where
his family lives. His lawyers said he has been charged with inciting public
violence.
Two other MDC activists, Sekai Holland and Grace Kwinje,
who were beaten by
police during their detention last week, were also
prevented from going to
South Africa for treatment. They were told they
needed additional clearance
from the Health Ministry. They were taken back
to hospital in Harare where
their lawyer described the police action as "an
arbitrary act".
?Zimbabwe's economic collapse is likely to accelerate
with inflation topping
5,000 per cent by year-end as Mr Mugabe's government
loses control of a
crisis already rippling across Africa, a senior
International Monetary Fund
official said yesterday. Abdoulaye Bio-Tchane,
IMF Africa director, said
Zimbabwe had shown little sign of coming to grips
with its economic
problems.
The Telegraph
By Peta
Thornycroft in Harare and Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Last Updated: 2:36am
GMT 19/03/2007
Zimbabwe's embattled opposition leader
called yesterday on southern
African leaders to intervene and help staunch
the "blood letting".
His call came as it was disclosed that a
Zimbabwean delegation will be
allowed to attend a meeting in Brussels
tomorrow despite an EU travel ban.
The call by Morgan Tsvangirai
comes after days of increasing violence
from President Robert Mugabe's
forces, cracking down on opposition leaders
and ratcheting up the
rhetoric.
"I am frantically trying to link up with SADC (Southern
African
Development Community) ambassadors to ask them to restrain a fellow
member
state from the blood letting, which goes against universal conflict
resolution principles," he said from his home, where he is recovering from a
broken arm and serious head injuries sustained while in police
detention.
"The continued denial within SADC of the existence of a
problem in
Zimbabwe does not assist the ordinary person in this
country."
In a rare rebuke to Mr Mugabe, the African Union said it
was watching
events in Zimbabwe with "great concern".
advertisement
Yesterday, Foreign Office and EU presidency officials
admitted that
Edward Chindori-Chininga, a former Zimbabwean government
minister from the
ruling Zanu PF party, could be given a restricted visa to
attend the meeting
of parliamentarians from European, African, Caribbean and
Pacific countries.
"It is possible to grant visas to restricted
persons for attendance at
international conferences, particularly if it is a
meeting where there will
be discussions on human rights," said an
official.
Glenys Kinnock, who will be chairing the meeting,
disagreed. "Zanu-PF
must be refused entry to Europe," said the Welsh MEP,
who is calling on EU
governments to introduce "new, targeted personal
sanctions against Zanu-PF
and its business associates".
"The EU
must stand up against the brutality and devastation that
Mugabe is wreaking
on Zimbabwe."
She was also angry at EU plans to invite Mr Mugabe to
a Lisbon summit
with African leaders this winter. "Far too much has been
invested in
ensuring that summit can take place. I think a number of member
states have
been prepared to agree that Zimbabwe should not be a block to
the summit
going ahead."
Meanwhile a leading Zimbabwean
opposition MP was taken to hospital
with a fractured skull last night after
he was severely beaten by unknown
attackers at Harare's international
airport.
Nelson Chamisa, 28, was beaten unconscious in front of
passengers as
he arrived to check-in for a flight to Brussels. He had only
been discharged
from hospital three days earlier after treatment for
injuries sustained when
he was arrested alongside Mr Tsvangirai at an
opposition rally last week.
Pearson Mangofa, a fellow MP who drove
Mr Chamisa to Harare's airport
yesterday, said the attack was "the most
shocking, shocking thing".
"Nelson was walking from my car, when
these guys attacked him, I
counted eight of them, and I saw one holding a
metal bar," he said.
The attack echoes the assault last week on Mr
Tsvangirai, the leading
figure in the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change, which has caused
international outrage.
Alpha Oumar
Konare, the chairman of the AU commission, said the
organisation "recalls
the need for the scrupulous respect for human rights
and democratic
principles in Zimbabwe" before calling for a "sincere and
constructive
dialogue" between "all concerned parties".
Arthur Mutambara, the
president of a second faction of the MDC, was
arrested at the airport on
Saturday, on his way to South Africa. He is in
detention at Harare police
station.
Two other senior opposition activists, Sekai Holland, who
is in her
late 60s, and Grace Kwinjeh, both injured during last week's
arrests, were
barred from flights to South Africa, where they were due to
receive medical
treatment.
Jewishcomment.com
Last uploaded :
Monday 19th Mar 2007 at 04:45 Contributed by : Carol
Gould
London
18 March 2007
It has been a revelation
this past week registering the reactions of people
on the political Left
when the subject of Zimbabwe creeps into the
conversation.
I have
been following the fortunes of Morgan Tsvangarai for some time
because of my
British friends' admiration for his valiant battle against the
tyranny of
Robert Mugabe. These friends have family in Zimbabwe on farmland
there until
suffering total destruction and even brutal murder in recent
years.
Last week Morgan, the head of the Movement for Democratic
Change, was nearly
beaten to death in what was described as a police
detention after an
anti-government demonstration. His colleagues, including
two prominent
female officials, were brutalised and barely left alive.
According to
reports from African correspondents in London an activist was
shot dead and
then the mourners at his funeral shot by police. One corpse
was taken miles
away and buried by the authorities to avoid a further
demonstration.
This weekend MP Nelson Chamisa was stopped at Harare
airport and brutally
beaten as he was preparing to leave for a conference in
Belgium. Already
badly injured from last week's police station attack, it is
feared he has a
cracked skull. Arthur Mutambara, leader of one of the
factions of the MDC,
was re-arrested on Saturday, and is now being held at
Harare central police
station. His fate does not bear thinking about. Frail
Grace Kwinje and Sekai
Holland, who also suffered beatings in the police
roundup, were on their way
to South Africa to receive treatment on Saturday,
Tafadzwa Mugabe, a lawyer
who accompanied them, told the BBC's World Today
programme.
Ms Mugabe said all their papers were in order but just before
boarding the
flight officials said the women needed a supplemental
"clearance letter from
the ministry of health".
This is a sorry state
of affairs. Two British friends, one of whom I had not
heard from in a year,
rang me last week to thank America for intervening
before Tsvangarai was
murdered. Indeed, it was the US envoy who protested
and was reported to have
been instrumental in getting the wounded activists
to hospital. The American
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also
intervened. President Mugabe
reacted by threatening to expel any Western
envoys who interfered in the
running of the country.
What this all adds up to is a remarkable sequence
of reactions that have
come my way in the past few days from anti-war,
anti-Israel, anti-Bush
campaigners and hangers-on. I rang a colleague who is
active with Jews for
Justice for Palestinians and she very nearly deafened
me with a screaming
rebuke that went something like this: ' There are plenty
of people dying in
the Congo and Rwanda and nobody is making headlines about
that.' I tried to
explain that Zimbabwe, once the Orchard, Bread Basket and
Garden of Africa,
was now suffering 80% unemployment and 1700% inflation,
not to mention the
murders of white farmers, and she could only rage more
about how she 'did
not care' about Morgan Tsvangarai.
I thought I had
caught this lady on a bad day. But then I saw Clare Short MP
on BBC
'Question Time' and to my utter disbelief she showed not one ounce of
sympathy for the campaigners and said that the rest of Africa was not
stepping in to help because Britain had sullied its reputation with them
when it had expressed concern for the white farmers. What twisted logic!
Nobody on the panel challenged her on this and I was stunned. Clare Short
will spend hours complaining with considerable passion about the plight of
the Palestinians, but where is her compassion for the people of
Zimbabwe?
This puzzle of the heartless Left came better into focus
tonight when I
watched 'Dateline London' on BBC News 24, and Abdel Bari
Atwan of Al Quds
newspaper said the problems of Zimbabwe stem solely from
the sanctions
imposed by Britain and America. (Oh, yes, blame evil America
for the
countless murders and burning of farms across that once fertile
paradise.)
Thankfully the panel demolished this idea and suggested it was
the brutality
of Mugabe and the stupidity of his replacing the white farmers
with cronies
who knew nothing about agriculture that had caused the famine
and economic
catastrophe gripping the nation. ( Later Bari Atwan made sure
to get in a
dig at the USA about using up 90% of the world's consumer goods
each year.
When will these Third World pundits get a life? )
So, it
seems that the Left that rails against Israel and the USA and
organises
marches for the liberation of Palestine is going to do nothing
about the
plight of Zimbabwe because that means siding with America. Such
twisted
logic is sickening.
As of this posting the brutality of the regime is
becoming the shame of
Africa. Desmond Tutu has scolded the rest of Africa
for doing nothing and
sitting in silence. If the USA has to step in to save
Zimbabwe from total
destruction so be it; if saving lives and putting food
on tables is the
result then God Bless America, and Clare Short, Bari Atwan
and the 'peace'
movement be damned.
Canberra Times
Monday, 19 March
2007
Cathy Alexander
The time has come for
Western governments to step up sanctions against
repressive Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe, according to a former
Australian high commissioner
to the African country.
The brutal nature of Mr Mugabe's regime was
highlighted last week by
attacks on political opponents.
The
world's media ran images of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as
he
emerged from custody with a swollen, cut face.
Australian high
commissioner to Zimbabwe in 1998-2001, Denise Fisher,
called yesterday on
Western governments including Australia to take action
against Mr Mugabe's
regime.
"It is unconscionable for the international community to
tacitly
accept what is going on," Mrs Fisher, who was speaking at a meeting
in
Canberra, said.
"It should not be tolerated ... some Western
governments are not doing
enough."
Mrs Fisher called on
governments to withdraw large-scale aid projects
and investment from
Zimbabwe. She urged stronger sanctions against the
country's leaders and
those associated with the regime.
Basic humanitarian aid should be
continued and Western governments
should do more to support Zimbabwe's
democratic opposition. The country's
neighbours also had a key role to
play.
Mrs Fisher said she knew Tsvangirai personally and described
him as a
reluctant leader doing a "creditable job".
"I see the
way he has been treated, it's sickening," she said.
Mr Mugabe had
presided over a flourishing country after independence
in 1980, but later
had begun to fear his support base was eroding, and had
resorted to
increasingly desperate means to suppress dissent.
Democracy, the
judiciary and journalists had suffered as a result.
Mrs Fisher, who
met Mr Mugabe while she was high commissioner, said he
was a well-educated
man who was "almost courtly" in his manner. She
dismissed reports that the
recent crackdown on opponents was a sign the
83-year-old was losing his grip
on power. "He's tenacious and he's very
powerful ... he's got all means at
his disposal," she said. "He's not likely
to go soon."
Mrs
Fisher said Australia had previously taken the lead in condemning
Mr Mugabe,
and urged the Federal Government to consider its punitive options
once more.
Australia imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe in 2002, namely visa
restrictions on government officials and a halt to non-humanitarian
assistance and defence sales. No trade or sporting sanctions were put in
place.
Pretoria News
March 19, 2007 Edition
1
Did the anonymous policeman or Zanu-PF thug who nearly cracked
Morgan
Tsvangirai's skull last Sunday unwittingly strike a powerful blow for
Zimbabwean freedom?
That blow reverberated around the world,
provoking a chorus of condemnation
that even echoed, albeit in muted form,
from the hitherto silent corridors
of power in southern Africa.
As a
result of that blow and others dealt to Tsvangirai's followers, the
Southern
African Development Community has been moved to call a meeting next
week to
discuss the Zimbabwe crisis.
Of course, we know that the SADC has taken
up the Zimbabwe issue before,
only to let it go the moment Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe said "boo"
or agreed to its polite requests and then
completely ignored them.
But that was then and this is now. The
devastation Mugabe has wrought upon
his country has strengthened and
encouraged the opposition to him, inside
and outside his party as well as
abroad.
Though tough as nails for his age - he is 83 and not immortal and
in the
Darwinian world of African politics - his enemies are scenting
weakness and
beginning to circle.
Could this at last be the moment
when the region strikes a telling blow?
In counterpoint to the cacophony
of condemnation of Mugabe and of President
Thabo Mbeki for failing to
condemn him last week, one brave soul chose to
defend Mbeki's quiet
diplomacy. Francis Kornegay of the Centre for Policy
Studies suggested that
having done all they could to bring Mugabe and
Tsvangirai together to
negotiate a way out of the crisis, SA and the SADC
were right to be sitting
back to let "Zimbabwe stew in its own juice".
Most would regard this lack
of action as helplessness at best and perverse
solidarity at worst. But
Kornegay graced it as a "phase" of "dynamic
inaction" in Pretoria's overall
strategy of quiet diplomacy.
He explained: "Silence can be golden and, in
the Taoist tradition of
'dynamic inaction', the best approach to certain
intractable situations."
Perhaps he had in mind Chapter 2, paragraph three of
the Tao te Ching of Lao
Tze, the bible of Taoism, which states: "Therefore
the sage manages affairs
without doing anything, and conveys his
instructions without speech."
So is the sagacious Mbeki really exerting
some sort of mystical influence on
events across the Limpopo, as Kornegay
suggests?
Let us suspend our disbelief, as we are supposed to do in the
theatre - a
considerable engineering feat in this case - and assume he is
right, that
Mbeki has somehow helped to bring events in Zimbabwe to their
present pass.
A pass where Mugabe, more out of fear than courage, it seems,
is striking
out at his enemies wildly but in fact striking
himself.
If that were true, then now surely would be the moment for Mbeki
and Co to
move on to the next phase of diplomacy and hasten and smooth
Mugabe's
departure.
Now would be the time for the SADC leaders to
tell Mugabe some home truths.
Like, "time's up, Mr President; go now and you
go with dignity; stay and we
will be unable any longer to support and defend
you, diplomatically or
otherwise".
Mugabe's plans to change the
constitution to allow him to extend his present
term from next year until
2010, appear to have run into strong resistance
within his own
party.
In stubborn fashion, he has now threatened, that being so, to
stand again in
2008. That would keep him in State House until 2013, a
33-year tenure which
he would end at age 88.
That is open defiance of
the whole world, but it smacks of desperation.
Mugabe's enemies are now
within the camp. If all of them join forces, they
can bring him down.
Sunday, March 18, 2007 at 23:23
BRUSSELS (EUX.TV) -- The European Union's presidency said on
Sunday that it
was "outraged" and "deeply concerned" over the arrest and
beating of
yet-another member of the opposition in Zimbabwe.
Nelson
Chamisa, a member of the parliament in Zimbabwe for the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party, was on his way to Brussels to attend a
meeting of parliamentarians from developing nations and EU
countries.
While travelling, Chamisa was arrested and treated brutally,
leaving him in
critical condition in a Harare hospital under policy guard, a
statement
issued late Sunday by the German EU Presidency said.
South
African broadcaster SABC reported that Chamisa probably lost an eye in
the
beating by officials. He is also believed to have suffered a cracked
skull
after he was attacked with iron bars.
Also this weekend, MDC members
Sekai Holland and Grace Kwinjeh, who were
detained temporarily and
mistreated by the police last week, were arrested
again on Satuday withhout
being charged and prevented from travelling to
South Africa for medical
treatment, the EU said. The opposition MP Arthur
Mutambara was also arrested
once more.
The EU presidency said it welcomed the statements issued by
John Kufuor,
President of the African Union, and Bishop Tutu, who both
protested against
these incidents.
"The Presidency condemns these
actions by the security forces in the
strongest possible terms and calls on
the Zimbabwean Government to release
all detained opposition politicians
immediately, to enable them to have
access to legal assistance and medical
care, and to allow representatives of
the EU Presidency to visit the
detainees," the EU statement said.
The EU also appealed to the Robert
Mugabe dictatorship to respect the rule
of law and human rights and to
refrain from doing anything which might lead
to a further escalation of the
situation in Zimbabwe.
-- From the EUX.TV newsroom news@eux.tv
SABC
March 18, 2007,
22:00
Zimbabwean police have allegedly threatened a lawyer from Zimbabwe
Lawyers
for Human Rights with "disappearance" after he handed them a court
order,
said a Johannesburg-based non-governmental
organisation.
Andrew Makoni attempted to serve police from Zimbabwe's Law
and Order Unit a
court order indicting them from further interference with
the body of Gift
Tandare, a young activist shot and killed by police in last
weekend's
crackdown, wrote the Open Society for Southern Africa Initiative's
Isabella
Matambanadzo in a statement.
However the commanding officer
allegedly tore up the court order and
threatened him and his colleagues with
"disappearance" should they continue
to act for victims of the
crackdown.
Makoni threatened with arrest
Makoni had been forced to
undergo an extensive search on entry to the
department, was allegedly told
he was carrying "arms of war" and that
lawyers were facilitating what police
alleged to be violence perpetrated by
the opposition.
The commanding
officer then allegedly ordered the officers in attendance to
arrest Makoni
if he was again seen on the premises before he was ordered to
get out, said
Matambanadzo.
Nicole Fritz, the director of the Southern Africa
Litigation Centre, said:
"The actions of Zimbabwe's Law and Order Unit have
to be condemned in the
strongest terms.
"Even the most repressive
societies generally respect the role of lawyers
and understand that if some
semblance of the rule of law is to be
maintained, you cannot go about
threatening the physical security and
well-being of legal representatives,"
said Fritz.
Cosatu speaks out
The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu)
condemned the recent wave of
violence by the Zimbabwean state forces. This
included reports that police
stole Tandare's body and buried it near his
rural home in Mount Darwin,
wrote Patrick Craven, the Cosatu spokesperson,
in a statement.
They then allegedly forced his father to go to the grave
at gunpoint. The
Movement for Democratic Change's lawyers said the
government had no legal
basis to demand his corpse and filed a high court
application to compel the
government to return it.
"If true, these
reports confirm Cosatu's view that the government is
systematically and
ruthlessly crushing all democratic rights," said Craven.
The union
federation has demanded the immediate release of all those
arrested and
insisted that the police return Tandare's body to his family
for his
funeral, scheduled for tomorrow. - Sapa
East African Standard
Letter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
recent attack on Zimbabwe's opposition leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and
his
colleagues was a clear indication that President Robert Mugabe's
government
has little left to offer.
During the attacks, Tsvangirai sustained a deep
cut in the head and lost a
lot of blood after police broke up a rally civil
society and religious
groups had organised.
His colleagues also bore
the brunt of the police brutality and were injured.
The treatment meted out
on the opposition is reminiscent of the apartheid
system in South Africa
before 1994. By banning opposition rallies, Mugabe
has deprived it of the
right to assemble and freedom of expression.
The media have not been
spared either. Several journalists have been
arrested for allegedly writing
negative stories about the government.
The 83-year-old President has been
in power since independence in 1980,
making him one of the longest serving
Heads of State in the world. He is
also seeking another term in office when
the current one ends in 2008!
Mugabe should know that history will judge
him harshly just like other
dictators, including former Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein. And the
suffering in Zimbabwe demands that Mugabe
concentrate his energy in
resuscitating the ailing economy.
Majority
of the population live in abject poverty and the gap between the
rich and
poor is wide and widening. The neighbouring countries, the African
Union and
the United Nations must condemn Mugabe's actions.
Zablon
Matara,
Moi University
Independent, UK
Letters:
The shock of returning to
a parched, hungry Zimbabwe
Published: 19 March 2007
Sir: I was called
upon to travel to Zimbabwe last week at short notice due
to a family
illness. I had not visited the country since 1999 and despite
regular
reports from people living there was totally unprepared for what I
found.
Driving from the airport I looked out along the side of the
main road for
the familiar fields of maize and cattle. Both have been
replaced by dry
savanna. My driver explained that the farms had "all gone".
In the past
crops had been grown all the year round as a result of
irrigation. Nowadays
the only maize that is grown depends on the rain and
Zimbabwe is
experiencing yet another year of severe drought. Maize is the
staple diet of
most Zimbabweans, without it people rely on food
aid.
During the six days that I stayed in the country the water was cut
off every
day from midday until about 5pm. We experienced long stretches
without
electricity. People all over the country have resorted to
alternative means
of fuel for cooking and heating, mainly wood burning. This
then was the fate
of the trees and the reason (my driver says) that the
rains no longer come
to Zimbabwe. Sure enough, the familiar black heavy rain
clouds that arrive
early in the afternoon during the rainy season still
appeared but apart from
a few drops the rain refuses to fall.
My
driver is a resourceful hard working man. He has a wife and five children
to
support, one of whom is sick from Aids and has her own baby to feed. My
driver works long hours and supplements his income by making brooms for
sale. Even so at the end of each month his total income is not enough to buy
one bar of imported soap. The only Zimbabweans who are living above the
subsistence line are those with access to foreign currency. During my
six-day stay the value of my pound sterling on the black market rose from
Z$17,000 to Z$26,000. I was rich. How can the economy sustain such rampant
inflation?
ROSEMARY FARRAR
LONDON W6
The Bahama Journal
19th March
During my lifetime,
names of states on the continent of Africa have changed.
Today names like
the Gold Coast, now Ghana seems to be a part of a distant
past. Ghana
celebrates 50 years as Ghana . As states gained their
independence, the name
change was inevitable.
For those of you who do not know there was a colony
called Rhodesia . In my
early geography classes, there were North and South
Rhodesia which on
independence became Zambia and Zimbabwe .
An
interesting aspect of the Rhodesia story was that the name Rhodesia was
derived from the British diamond king and political figure, Cecil Rhodes.
Rhodes came into prominence during the White Settler era in Southern Africa;
he was able to amass a vast fortune from his diamond empire. Southern Africa
was a territory, which was fought after, by the British and the Dutch so it
was quite an achievement for Rhodes to claim such a vast territory, which he
named after himself, for Britain. This was Africa at the end of the 19th.
Century. It would take a half-century before Africa would attain definitive
political change. This occurred when the Gold Coast, under Kwame Nkrumah,
gained its independence from Britain.
The skeptics would argue that
Africa's independence era has been a disaster
politically and economically.
Some states have experienced incidences of
ethnic squabbling, degenerating
to genocide. Sub-Sahara is possibly the
poorest region on the globe; it is
certainly the region where HIV/AIDS has
had its greatest effect as millions
have died as a result of the spread of
the AIDS virus.
One of my
friends continuously accuse me of making excuses for the ineptness
of
African political leaders resulting in a poor governance record virtually
through out Africa. My affinity to Africa stems from the fact that my family
has always maintained connectivity with Africa because we have always known
that Africa was our ancestral home and we cherished our Yoruba
roots.
March 25th. will mark two hundred years since people of my genre
would
have been in the New World as Liberated Africans. This is a story for
another day. However, in viewing Africa today, the world is appalled by the
recent events in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe under President Mugabe has
evolved into an economic basket case as
its vital economic indicators have
plummeted since the achievement of its
independence.
When Zimbabwe
was Rhodesia, it was the bread basket of Southern Africa; it
had a
burgeoning agricultural sector. Today, Zimbabwe cannot feed itself and
its
citizens are facing starvation. Mugabe has become a tyrant and, at the
age
of 83 years, he refuses to surrender political power to a newer and
younger
generation hence the actions by the Opposition.
This past weekend, an
Opposition leader and many of his followers were badly
beaten. The
governance in this country has been badly undermined and the
international
community is calling for economic sanctions against Zimbabwe.
This will mean
more suffering for the people of Zimbabwe; a people who have
been oppressed
by the Mugabe government.
Zimbabwe's neighbour, South Africa, has spoken
out against the recent
actions of the government. Some people in The
Bahamas are asking: why hasn't
the government of The Bahamas spoken
oppressed against Zimbabwe? When the
people of Rhodesia, and now Zimbabwe,
was being subjugated by the Ian Smth's
White Regime, CARICOM Leaders were up
in arms calling for sanctions against
Rhodesia. The sanctions came, the
Smith Regime fell and elections were
called. In the recent incident, the
voices of CARICOM leaders have been
silent. The Commonwealth countries
should also be initiating action against
Mugabe and his cronies.
CARICOM has to speak out against Mugabe's atrocities in Zimbabwe.
Independent, UK
By Daniel
Howden, Deputy Foreign Editor
Published: 19 March 2007
In a divided
country where political and racial differences have been
exploited by a
regime intent on staying in power, there is one thing that
almost all
Zimbabweans have in common: the burial society.
A kind of morbid
Christmas club, these savings associations bring people
together to meet the
costs of burying their sons, daughters, sisters and
brothers at a rate that
is accelerating beyond comprehension.
A decent burial and a patient,
ceremonial funeral - sometimes lasting for
days - are integral parts of
society in Zimbabwe and other African
countries. Grieving relatives are
obliged to meet the entertainment costs of
the extended family, often
running to hundreds of people for the duration of
mourning. Failure to join
a burial society means a pauper's funeral and the
stigma that accompanies
that.
On a typical Sunday morning, people in their best clothes will
gather in the
shade of a jacaranda tree, or in a vacant beer hall. They will
bring their
monthly subscriptions - no one wants to tempt fate by getting
behind on
payments - redeemable only when there is a bereavement in the
family. But
the economic unravelling of the country means meeting the costs
of a
dignified end has become impossible for most individuals and even most
burial societies.
Zimbabwe now has the lowest life expectancy in the
world: 37 for men and 34
for women. But these figures are based on data
collected two years ago and
researchers at the World Health Organisation
admit the real figure could be
as low as 30 by now. Zimbabwe has found
itself at the nexus of an Aids
pandemic, a food crisis and an economic
meltdown that is killing an
estimated 3,500 people every
week.
Shenghi, a 26-year-old from the slums of Bulawayo, is typical: she
has been
forced to join two societies. What used to be a biannual event has
now
become a deluge, with death stalking every family. "In the past three
months, we've had to bury 14 of the 50 people in our society," she says. She
herself has lost four relatives in the past six months.
These
societies are evolving into platforms for protest. The draconian laws
drafted by Robert Mugabe's regime to eliminate all public space for dissent
means that, for many Zimbabweans, the burial societies and related church
groups are the only public gathering they can attend.
Hundreds draw
together for the night vigil and the day of the funeral, and
the police dare
not break up such gatherings. People afraid to speak out
elsewhere can voice
their anger and despair freely. Pamphlets detailing
alleged abuses by Mr
Mugabe are often distributed and people share
information in a society where
newspapers and television outlets are under
total government
control.
This is why the regime has stolen the body of a murdered
activist, Gift
Tandare, to prevent a mass gathering for his
funeral.
ABC Australia
Monday, March 19, 2007. 3:14pm AEDT
The Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander
Downer, says he will talk to the
Australian Cricket Board about whether a
tour should go ahead in Zimbabwe.
The United Nations is looking into
recent violence in Zimbabwe in which
police stopped Opposition members from
leaving the country after they were
beaten in custody last week.
Mr
Downer says he is deeply disturbed by the events and will raise the issue
with cricket officials about an Australian tour scheduled in Zimbabwe for
September.
"I've not been a great fan of cricket tours to Zimbabwe
and the final
decision [rests] with the Australian Cricket Board and the
International
Cricket Council - a lot of issues tied up there with
contractual issues and
so on," he said.
"But once the World Cup is
over, we'll talk to the Australian Cricket Board
about this but we won't be
doing that while they're focusing on the World
Cup."
Four members of
Zimbabwe's Opposition have been stopped from leaving the
country.
One
was attacked by police at the airport.