Daily
News
Mudede given
48hrs
3/22/2003 5:01:35 AM (GMT
+2)
By Loveness
Mlambo
THE High Court yesterday gave
Tobaiwa Mudede, the Registrar-General,
48 hours to release the Kuwadzana
voters' roll for inspection.
The
roll must be released to Nelson Chamisa, the opposition MDC
candidate in next
weekend's by-election. Justice Anele Matika ruled that
Chamisa should be
allowed to exercise his right to inspect the voters' roll
within 48 hours of
presenting himself to Mudede's office and to have a copy
of the voters' roll.
Matika's order will also apply in the Highfield
by-election, which Pearson
Mungofa of the MDC is contesting against Joseph
Chinotimba of Zanu PF. The
polls are scheduled for 29 and 30 March. The
order, delivered yesterday,
stated: "That Chamisa is entitled to inspect the
voters' roll for Kuwadzana
and to make a copy or extract of the said
voters'
roll.
"That Mudede is to ensure
that Chamisa exercises his right under
Section One within 48 hours of Chamisa
presenting himself to Mudede's
offices." The judge said that his order shall
not be suspended by the noting
of an appeal by Mudede and shall remain
operative and in effect pending such
appeal. Last week Mudede filed papers in
the High Court opposing Chamisa's
request for an updated voters' roll, saying
Chamisa had the chance to
inspect it and had seen his name appearing on the
roll. Demands for an
updated voters' roll were made after allegations from
the MDC that there
were 10 000 ghost voters in Kuwadzana. Professor Welshman
Ncube, the MDC
secretary-general, yesterday alleged that there were about 26
000 ghost
voters who have been registered in Kuwadzana and Highfield for
the
by-elections scheduled to take place on 29 and 30
March.
Ncube said the MDC took its own
measures to check on the registered
voters in the constituencies after making
frantic efforts to get an updated
voters' roll and discovered 10 000 ghost
voters in Kuwadzana and 16 000 in
Highfield. Ncube said: "We are warning
Mugabe that if they rig the Highfield
and Kuwadzana elections in the same way
that they did the presidential and
Insiza elections, they should be prepared
for mass action." Paul
Themba-Nyathi, the MDC spokesperson, said the party
had done some sampling
from selected wards using the 2002 voters' roll and
had also taken advantage
of the voters' roll inspection conducted in February
to carry out its own
investigations on the registered voters in the
constituencies. After
realising that there were anomalies, the party,
together with other
contesting parties, demanded an updated voters'
roll.
Remus Makuwaza, the MDC director of
elections, said his party wanted
to verify the figures that they have come up
with through their internal
analysis. He said his party was moving away from
complaining after they have
been cheated. "If no resolution is made before
the date, we will call for
the cancellation of the elections," said Makuwaza.
Calls for updated voters'
rolls for the two constituencies were made by
contesting parties after
allegations that some people from outside the two
constituencies were being
registered at the homes of Zanu PF
activists.
Daily
News
Mugabe orders State agents to
crush MDC
3/22/2003 7:20:32 AM
(GMT +2)
By Precious
Shumba
PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday said
State security agents had been
directed to react promptly and with vigour to
thwart any efforts by the
opposition MDC to mobilise Zimbabweans for a mass
uprising against
his
government.
"When freedom
of expression is used to promote violence and terrorism,
then it will have
turned against the lives of others and should be curbed,"
Mugabe said. "Those
who promote and unleash the ensuing violence and
terrorism must be severely
punished under our laws. "Our law enforcement
agents must react promptly and
with vigour as they provide appropriate
responses to dangerous
mischief-makers. Let the MDC and its leaders be
warned that those who play
with fire will not only be burnt, but consumed by
that fire. "Read us
correctly."
Mugabe was speaking at the
burial of Dr Swithun Tachiona Mombeshora,
58, the Minister of Higher and
Tertiary Education, at the National Heroes'
Acre. The MDC successfully
organised a two-day mass job stayaway on 18 and
19 March and gave Mugabe's
government until 31 March to restore the rule of
law or face massive civil
unrest. Mugabe said he was briefed by "his people"
who read the "rubbish
Press" that Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC president, had
issued an ultimatum to
his government and the ruling Zanu PF. "I don't read
the rubbish Press," he
said. "I was advised by some of my people who read
the rubbish papers that an
ultimatum had been issued. Let me ask you: From
who? Chimbwasungata? Baba
iwe, Muchero! (By a sell-out? Good
gracious!)"
Mugabe said: "Let Tsvangirai
measure his size, even height, I am
taller. He may have a bigger belly, but
let's measure the intellect, I don't
know. Let the people judge. The MDC's
intellect thinks of violence, it
thinks of stayaways and boycotts, but what
policies do they have for the
development of the country, for the
construction of Zimbabwe? We are yet to
see their constructive thinking.
Their thinking is negative. They create
chaos." He said the MDC, "in an
effort to enforce the success of their
so-called mass action", engaged in
violent intimidation. He said the money
used to organise the "pretended"
stayaway, to pay youths to self-destruct
and turn them into career purveyors
of violence, came from Britain, the
United States, Holland and Germany. "All
these nations were united in
sponsoring violence here, ironically to bring us
freedom, democracy, to
deliver us from food shortages and a declining
economy. Yet the same nations
who accuse us of ruining our economy seek to
cripple it through sanctions."
Mombeshora,
who is survived by his wife, Lucy, and four children,
trained as a medical
doctor before independence. Between 1981 and 1985, he
was the Deputy Minister
of Agriculture, and founded the Farm Community Trust
of Zimbabwe, an
organisation that seeks to improve the welfare of farm
workers. At various
times he was previously minister of health, mining,
transport, and
education.
Daily
News
Zanu PF mob threatens
Mudzuri
3/22/2003 7:18:54 AM (GMT
+2)
By Lloyd Mudiwa Municipal
Reporter
ABOUT 300 ruling Zanu PF youths
and women's league members threatened
Elias Mudzuri, the Executive Mayor of
Harare, with death at the burial of
Swithun Mombeshora, the former Minister
of Higher and Tertiary Education, at
the National Heroes' Acre
yesterday.
The mob allegedly
intimidated Mudzuri, elected on an opposition MDC
ticket, in full view of
senior government officials and the police. Efforts
to get police comment
failed yesterday. They had earlier confiscated keys
and a manual to Mudzuri's
official Mercedes Benz parked in the car-park for
VIPs, threatening to burn
the vehicle. This was while the delegates were
laying wreaths on the late
minister's grave. Mudzuri said one of his
security officers informed him as
he was leaving the national shrine that
the keys had been confiscated. "I
informed Mnangagwa, Kembo Mohadi and John
Nkomo," Mudzuri said. "They said
that could not be and called Deputy Police
Commissioner Godwin Matanga, who
said he would sort it out." Mnangagwa is
the Speaker of Parliament, Mohadi is
the Minister of Home Affairs, and Nkomo
is the Minister for Special Affairs
in the President's Office. But the mob
menacingly advanced chanting:
"Mudzuri, you are a murderer and you will also
be
killed."
"My keys and manual have gone,"
Mudzuri said. "I no longer feel secure
in my own city. "Are we saying this is
a Zanu PF event or a national
function? They have accused the opposition of
boycotting national events.
"Are they now saying we must not come to such
events?" The police later
provided Mudzuri an escort to Town House after he
secured spare keys to his
car.
Daily
News
Witness concedes to
defence
3/22/2003 7:19:23 AM (GMT
+2)
Court
Reporter
A STATE witness in the ongoing
treason trial of three MDC leaders
conceded yesterday Ari Ben-Menashe, the
key prosecution witness, took
abnormally long to report the alleged plot by
the opposition party's leaders
to assassinate President
Mugabe.
Air Vice-Marshal Robert
Mhlanga, of the Airforce of Zimbabwe, told the
High Court, during
cross-examination by defence lawyer Advocate Eric
Matinenga, that the space
of time between the meeting where Morgan
Tsvangirai, the MDC president,
allegedly announced the plot and the day he
reported the conspiracy was "not
appropriate" in the circumstances.
Tsvangirai met Ben-Menashe and his
colleagues in London on 22 October and 3
November 2001. Ben-Menashe
telephoned Mhlanga on 20 November 2001 with
claims of a plot by Tsvangirai
and two other top MDC officials to kill
Mugabe and depose the Zanu PF
government.
Matinenga queried why
Ben-Menashe would take that long to report "a
matter of such a serious
nature". Ben-Menashe got in contact with Mhlanga
three months earlier,
ostensibly selling military aircraft. Mhlanga said
Ben-Menashe offered to
bring evidence three days after he telephoned from
his Canada base reporting
the conspiracy which, he said, involved the MDC
and unnamed ex-Rhodesian
soldiers. The evidence Ben-Menashe had promised
turned out to be a miniature
cassette, a diskette and a transcript which
Mhlanga said was so poor he could
not decipher. "I could not make head or
tail of the discussion on the tape,"
Mhlanga said. "The transcript, I just
browsed through. What I relied on was
what he was saying, as opposed to the
tape and the document. I did not get
any wiser from the two documents."
Asked
by assessor Misheck Nyandoro how he was able to pick out
Tsvangirai's voice
from the audio-tape, Mhlanga said: "I would like to
believe Mr Tsvangirai is
a prominent politician. You can recognise his voice
when he is talking with a
minimum margin of error." Nyandoro asked Mhlanga
whether he did not suspect
the assassination plot was "another commodity"
Ben-Menashe was trying to
sell, to which the airforce official said he had
no reason to doubt
Ben-Menashe's story. Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube, the MDC
secretary-general,
and Renson Gasela, the party's shadow minister of
agriculture, have pleaded
not guilty. The trial continues on Monday.
Daily
News
Confession
queried
3/22/2003 7:19:59 AM (GMT
+2)
Staff
Reporter
FLETCHER Dulini-Ncube, one of the
six men accused of murdering
Bulawayo war veteran Cain Nkala in November
2001, was in Harare attending
Parliament at the time he was alleged to have
called co-accused Kethani
Sibanda to his home in Hillside, Bulawayo, one of
his lawyers said yesterday
Sibanda, Dulini-Ncube, the MDC MP for
Lobengula-Magwegwe, Sonny Masera, the
MDC director of security, Army Zulu,
Remember Moyo and Sazini Mpofu are
alleged to have kidnapped Nkala from his
Magwegwe home on 5 November 2001.
Advocate Eric Morris told Justice Sandra Mungwira: "We can prove in
many,
many ways that this confession (by Sibanda) cannot be true."
Superintendent
Walter Gadzira Hita, a State witness, had alleged that
Sibanda confessed that
he was called by Dulini-Ncube to his home and sent to
collect 1,5 million
rand (Z$10,5 million) and passports for Masera and Zulu
from Isaac Maphosa at
the MDC headquarters in Harare. On Thursday, Advocate
Happias Zhou, one of
the defence lawyers, said Sibanda was threatened with
torture weapons. Zhou
suggested to Hita that his part in Sibanda's
interrogation was "to inform
Kethani that he was simply to maintain the
story of the passports and money
that he had been given". Yesterday Morris
told the court that Masera and Zulu
had not even been arrested at the time
Sibanda is alleged to have been on the
way to collect their passports and
the money.
Daily
News
Leader Page
Zanu PF
youth are misguided
3/22/2003
5:04:47 AM (GMT +2)
iN one of the
most deplorable acts of bad manners, misguided Zanu PF
youths recently took
the law into their hands. They forced the British High
Commissioner to
Zimbabwe, Brian Donnelly, to stop the hand-over of a $2,8
million water
project in Mutasa district in Manicaland after they threatened
to disrupt the
programme.
The British diplomat
did the prudent thing and postponed the ceremony
indefinitely. What the
youths fail to appreciate is that the water project
was supposed to benefit
their own kith and kin, the hundreds of marginalised
rural people around
Mundenda. In any community, particularly in developing
countries such as
Zimbabwe, finite resources like water play a key role in
national
development. Water is so critical to life that it should always be
available.
But because the government has too many mouths to feed, partly
because its
development priorities are skewed, it cannot provide enough
water for
everyone. The rural communities are the worst affected by the
government's
policy blunders. People have to walk long distances to find
safe water to
drink. In the worst cases, people share water with
domestic
animals.
So when donors like
the British High Commission offer assistance, it
must not be scorned, but
accepted with gratitude. Something has gone
terribly wrong in the national
psyche when leaders allow their supporters to
sacrifice the welfare of the
community on the altar of political expediency.
Zanu PF youths have become
synonymous with a terrorist organisation. They
have been unleashed on
innocent civilians by their leaders who are terrified
by the heinous acts
they have committed.
Suspected members of the
opposition MDC are the main targets of this
senseless onslaught and it is
very likely that the owners of these terror
dogs will fail to rein them in.
Incidentally, today is World Water Day.
Daily
News
Leader Page
Torture:
Is nobody's conscience troubled?
3/22/2003 6:59:32 AM (GMT +2)
By Fr
Oskar Wermter
We associate torture
chambers with the dark ages and the rack with the
time when witches and
heretics were burnt at the stake. Civilised people no
longer deliberately and
systematically inflict maximum pain on fellow human
beings by beating and
burning, stretching and strangulating them. Or so some
of us naively
think.
Rhodesian soldiers and
police, defending "civilised" standards, were
found to commit exactly the
barbaric acts which they claimed their minority
rule was stopping the crude
and cruel majority from committing. For ample
evidence see The Man in the
Middle: torture, resettlement & eviction and
Civil War in Rhodesia [Two
reports compiled by the Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace (CCJ&P)
in Rhodesia, 1975, republished 1999]. The swollen,
lacerated faces and maimed
bodies (Civil War, pp.10-11, 23-25) illustrate
what the report says about a
certain victim: "Long constriction all round
neck. Marked bruising of neck,
muscles, congestion of both lungs. The cause
of death was stated as asphyxia
due to hanging. Other wounds the family
discovered when they washed the body
in preparation for burial" (p.15).
Independence should have put a stop to such acts of inhumanity. It
didn't.
This Tsholotsho victim suffered permanent paralysis in both forearms
as a
result of being tied up with wire, February 1983, says a photo caption
in
Breaking the Silence (CCJ&PZ and Legal Resources Foundation, 1997, p.
81)
In 2003 we are still confronted with photos of similarly bruised and
swollen
faces, lacerated buttocks and cruelly beaten bodies. For evidence see
Crisis
of Governance (a report on political violence in Zimbabwe, Election
2000,
Volume One, CCJ&PZ, pp. 122-124): "As we had walked a short
distance, they
ordered us to lie down and they assaulted us with logs. They
continued
assaulting us with pieces of wire and sjamboks"
(p.125).
We could go on quoting from these
and similar sources, and many of us
from memory and personal experience.
Worst of all, we hear more and more of
rape and gang-rape as a form of
torture. Torture is meant to humiliate the
victim to the point where he or
she loses even his or her self-respect. I
keep meeting people in town who
dare not go back to their rural homes where
they have been tortured and might
get the same cruel treatment again. Some
old parent is waiting for them, and
they would love to go, but the memory is
too raw and painful. There was a
time when torturing suspects in order to
make them confess was accepted court
practice. Racked by unbearable pain,
perfectly harmless people, mostly women,
would admit to being witches,
sorcerers and
wizards.
Suspects who managed to hold out
without confessing were condemned
anyhow: only a witch in collusion with
Satan could have the strength to bear
the rack without being broken. You
could not escape once you were under
suspicion. Eventually someone denounced
this travesty of justice and torture
was banned and the rack put into the
museum. Maybe the human race is after
all capable of modest moral progress.
But science and technology of the 20th
century triumphed in new torture
chambers. The fertile brains of engineers
of evil kept inventing
interrogation techniques The aim was no longer just
to break people, but to
change their personalities and their entire thinking
through brainwashing.
The Nazis disguised torture as scientific
experimentation. The Truth and
Reconciliation Commission in South Africa
revealed a veritable hell of
degrading practices designed to dehumanise the
enemy. But humankind
represented by the United Nations has long condemned
torture. Article 5 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: "No
one shall be subjected to
torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or
punishment."
The African Charter of Human
and People's Rights says the same. The
Republic of Zimbabwe signed the
Charter on 12 June 1986. The condemnation of
torture was spelled out in
greater detail in the 1985 UN Convention Against
Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Torture means any act by which
severe pain or suffering, whether physical or
mental, is intentionally
inflicted on a person for such purposes as
obtaining information or a
confession, punishing him for an act he or a
third person has committed or is
suspected of having committed, or
intimidating or coercing him or a third
person when such pain
or suffering is
inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the
consent of a public
official or other person acting in an official capacity.
Each State party
shall take
effective legislative,
administrative, judicial or other measures to
prevent acts of torture in any
territory under its jurisdiction.
Zimbabwe
has not yet managed to prevent acts of torture. Our own
police and other
State officials, tasked to protect us against violence and
guarantee
security, stand accused of this crime against humanity. Is nobody'
s
conscience moved? Is cruelty something commonplace in this country?
The
recent Lenten Pastoral Letter of the Catholic Bishops (March 2003)
is
reflecting on the spiral of violence which has been at work
since
colonisation. The philosophy that if you want to attain success,
violence is
the means, seems to have been sown into our nation. How can we
escape our
own unhappy history of violence against fellow citizens, including
torture,
and catch up with the rest of the world, which is leaving this sad
chapter
of human history behind? The ongoing glorification of revolutionary
violence
does not allow us to become a properly constituted state. It
polarises the
nation. It divides us into friends and enemies. Perpetuating
the revolution,
this state of affairs justifies violence and torture as
necessary means
towards preserving privileges achieved by past violence.
There is no freedom
in such a situation, no room for dissent, no right to
demand change
according to rules laid down by the
Constitution.
The government is not only
for the ruling party, but must protect all
its citizens, their rights, as
well as their welfare. Power rests with the
people who should duly elect
whatever party or whoever they choose according
to the just laws of the
country, the bishops' Lenten Letter says. What
Zimbabwe needs is not
confrontation, but participation, not hatred for the
enemy, but respect for
every fellow citizen. No people crippled, disabled
and traumatised by beating
and burning will rebuild this damaged nation, but
free citizens who can be
sure that their personal dignity and integrity will
be guaranteed, can do
so.
Daily
News
Dairibord milks
consumers
3/22/2003 5:00:01 AM
(GMT +2)
Business
Reporter
WHILE consumers are grappling
with a shortage of milk, Dairibord
Zimbabwe Limited (DZL) have increased
prices and introduced smaller packets
aimed at circumventing the price
control regime.
A survey of major
supermarkets in Harare showed that one litre and 500
mililitre packets had
been replaced by 300 ml sachets. DZL however said the
shortage of milk would
continue unless value chain members, mainly producers
and processors,
sustained viability levels. The decline in raw milk supply
has caused a
shortage of milk and milk-related products on the market.
February's volume
sales have declined by 22 percent to two million litres
compared to the same
period last year.
Price controls and the
foreign currency crisis has had a negative
impact on DZL operations,
threatening viability. Retail prices of 300ml
sachets of fresh milk ranged
between $210 to $240 while sour milk cost
between $252 and $280 a
packet.
A depletion in the dairy herd
blamed on the chaotic land reform
exercise, the harsh economic and political
climate are the major causes of a
shortage of milk in Zimbabwe. Anthony
Mandiwanza, the DZL chief executive
had not responded to questions raised by
The Daily News on the smaller
packages and milk price increases at the time
of going to press. Below is a
table showing some of the scarce basic
commodities still available in
leading retail outlets in and around
Harare.
Daily
News
Feature
Face-to-face
with police brutality
3/22/2003
5:00:54 AM (GMT +2)
By Columbus
Mavhunga
On Tuesday this week, I came
face-to-face with the stark reality of
how the police ill-treat suspects in
their custody. Quite often, you tend to
be suspicious of accounts of police
brutality or just their utter lack of
regard for people brought to them on
allegations of breaking the law.
I
was about to be thoroughly disabused of any notions about these
accounts
being rather overblown or exaggerated. I had accompanied Samuel
Nkomo, the
Executive Chairman of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (Pvt)
Ltd, to Harare
Central Police Station to secure the release of the company's
Corporate
Affairs Director, Gugulethu Moyo and photographer Philimon
Bulawayo. Moyo had
been arrested on the day and severely assaulted by the
police and Jocelyn
Chiwenga, the wife of the army commander,
Lieutenant-General Constantine
Chiwenga at Glen View Police Station. Mrs
Chiwenga's presence at the police
station and her role in the beatings still
remains
unexplained.
She is a businesswoman with a
lot of clout - that much cannot be
disputed. But her presence at the police
station? That remained a mystery up
to the time of
writing.
Kelvin Chadenyika, a former assistant
coach of Darryn T Football Club,
participated in the assault. He is
apparently an aide of Mrs Chiwenga's and
is usually a very reliable source of
news. He has often visited the
editorial offices of The Daily News in Trustee
House. Gugulethu Moyo had
gone to Glen View to secure Bulawayo's release. The
two were severely
assaulted by the police before being transferred to Harare
Central Police
Station. First to arrive at the police station was lawyer, Kay
Ncube, at
about 6pm. I arrived later in the company of Nkomo and another
lawyer,
Beatrice Mtetwa. We went to the law and order section where lawyers
Ncube,
Alec Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni were pleading with the police to
have
Moyo and Bulawayo released.
We
were referred from one policeman to another. Mtetwa could not hide
her
exasperation when she said the chances of the two being released were
waning
by the minute. But the two were arrested just for executing their
duties, I
said to myself. I could not make that comment aloud, lest the
lawyers, being
familiar with the level of police nonchalance in these
matters, thought I was
displaying how naive I was, even for a reporter.
While I pondered that
conundrum, a policewoman said: "Your people will not
be released. We have not
completed our investigations." What investigations?
I felt like asking her.
We were eventually allowed to visit the holding
cells to check on the
condition of Bulawayo and Moyo. We found them and were
shocked at the sight.
Not surprisingly, they told us they were in terrible
pain. They could hardly
walk. Gugu was sitting on the floor and looked
exhausted. The moment she saw
us she could not hold back her tears. I cursed
myself and asked if this was
really happening in a proud, independent
Zimbabwe. It was a defining moment
for me.
Moyo only asked for some water to
drink. Bulawayo just shook his head.
They had not eaten anything since their
arrest in the morning. Nkomo and
myself left the police station to buy them
food. At about 7.30pm, Nkomo's
phone rang and Mtetwa was on the line.
Afterwards, Nkomo said: "The police
have finally seen reason and agreed to
take Bulawayo and Moyo to hospital
for medical treatment." When we got to
Harare Central Police Station, Ncube
told us the police were having transport
problems in trying to take the two
to hospital for medical attention. He said
the police had flatly turned down
his offer for them to use his car. "The car
is now on its way. We will be
taking your clients to hospital soon,"
announced one policeman. At 10pm the
policewoman left, after telling us that
an Inspector Chinyerere would see to
it that Bulawayo and Moyo received
medical treatment. We bade her farewell
and thanked her a million times.
Honestly, why not? Thirty minutes later,
Chinyerere said he had no idea of
the arrangement for the two to be taken to
hospital. He promised to assist us
and left the office to consult a Chief
Inspector Njobo.
Njobo came 20 minutes
later and to our consternation, turned down the
request. He said: "The people
you should have asked for that favour are
gone. See you tomorrow. I will not
even allow a medical doctor to examine
the two." Everyone was shocked. It was
around 11pm. We decided to retire for
the day but passed through the cells to
advise Bulawayo and Moyo that they
would not be treated. At the cells, a
policeman told us the pair had been
taken to Parirenyatwa
Hospital.
We could hardly believe him. We
drove to Parirenyatwa Hospital and, to
our pleasant surprise, found Bulawayo
and Moyo there, handcuffed to each
other. They tried to smile at us but
fatigue had taken its toll. I asked
Bulawayo for his home address so that I
could inform his relatives about his
ordeal. Before he could respond, I was
pushed aside by one of the policemen.
As
hospital officials were taking Bulawayo and Moyo's details, the
latter knelt
down. Nkomo approached her to find out what was wrong.
Surprisingly, the
policeman who had pushed me said he was returning them to
the police station
before they had been attended to because we were
obstructing the course of
justice. At first we did not take him seriously.
Five minutes later, they
were taken away without receiving treatment!
Nkomo could only remark: "I have never seen anything like
this
before."
Telegraph
England plea to Zimbabwe
By Mihir
Bose (Filed: 22/03/2003)
English cricket is to make a
fence-mending mission to Zimbabwe to ensure
that following the decision not
to play the World Cup match in Harare there
will be no fallout this summer
when Zimbabwe are due to tour.
David Morgan, the chairman of the England
and Wales Cricket Board, will next
week travel to Harare to meet officials of
the Zimbabwe Cricket Union.
He will explain that England did not go not
to Harare because of security
fears, not for political reasons.
The
decision angered the Zimbabweans and even before England pulled out
there
were fears that Zimbabwe might retaliate by not coming to England.
If
they did it could cost English cricket £1 million in lost television
and
sponsorship revenue and ticket sales.
Morgan, however, is hopeful
that his peace mission can mollify the
Zimbabweans and that it will not be
necessary to seek a replacement country,
although Pakistan have been sounded
out.
Richard Caborn, the sports minister, has told The Daily Telegraph
that the
Government, who opposed England's visit to Harare, will welcome
the
Zimbabwean team to England.
Whatever Zimbabwe decide, and they are
likely to tour, there is no doubt
that South Africa will be in England for a
five Test series.
Six weeks ago, at the opening ceremony of the World
Cup, with England
agonising over whether to go to Harare, Percy Sonn, the
president of the
United Cricket Board of South Africa, told Tim Lamb, the
chief executive of
the ECB, that if England did not go to Harare, South
Africa might decide not
to come to England.
But as The Daily Telegraph
revealed yesterday, with South African cricket in
such a parlous financial
state, they cannot afford not to tour.
The England authorities confirmed
yesterday that their tour would go ahead
as scheduled. Advance ticket sales
for the five Tests have already passed £4
million.
Daily
News
Letters
Selfishness is
the enemy of change
3/22/2003
7:16:09 AM (GMT +2)
This letter is
addressed to all those who did not stay at home on
Tuesday and
Wednesday.
It is said that a
country gets the government it deserves and we
Zimbabweans deserve the
government we have, because we are not prepared to
make a
sacrifice.
This applies to all those who went
to work, all those who opened their
shops, all those who went shopping, all
those who told their employees that
they had to report for work and all those
who went into town just "to see".
It is your fault that Zimbabwe is in the
trouble it is in now. Stop blaming
the government or the war vets or the MDC.
It is because you are not
prepared to stand up or make an effort that the
majority of Zimbabweans are
starving. What a pathetic, cowardly and selfish
nation we have turned out to
be. No one cares about the consequence of their
actions, no one worries
about their
neighbour.
All everyone thinks about is
themselves. The nation will continue on
its downward spiral until you, not
some one else, but each and every one of
you get up and does something. God
helps those who help themselves, not
those who expect someone else will do it
for them.Your future is your
responsibility. Do not be content to "wait and
see".
Act
Now
Bulawayo
AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC AI Index: AFR 46/010/2003
21 March
2003
UA 81/03 Arrest and detention
without
charge/abduction/"disappearance"/ fear for
safety
ZIMBABWE Giles Mutsekewa (m), Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) member
of parliament for Mutare North Austin
Mupandawana (m), MDC member of
parliament for Kadoma Central Up to 500
others
Up to 500 people including officials and members of
parliament of the
opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
have been arrested
without charge by police in Zimbabwe. An unknown
number of people have
reportedly been abducted by supporters of the
ruling Zimbabwe African
National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), and
state security personnel.
There have also been reports that a number of
MDC activists have
"disappeared".
The incidents took place
before and during a peaceful "stay-away"
coordinated by the MDC in
protest of state repression and human rights
violations in the country,
on 18 and 19 March. Giles Mutsekewa, MDC member
of parliament for
Mutare North in Harare and Austin Mupandawana, MDC
member of parliament for
Kadoma Central in Kadoma were among some 60 MDC
activists and around 70
others arrested in and around the capital Harare on
19 March, as the
police went around arresting people in their homes and in
the streets.
Giles Mutsekewa is reportedly being held at Harare Central
Police Station
while Austin Mupandawana is being held at Kadoma Police station.
Police
have reportedly denied Austin Mupandawana access to his
family.
Hundreds of others arrested throughout the country on 19 March
remain in
detention.
Also on 19 March, the army is believed to
have been deployed in the town
of Masvingo and various suburbs of
Harare, where they reportedly targeted
and assaulted a number of people
perceived to be MDC supporters. On 20 March,
the army again attacked
scores of MDC activists in the suburbs of Harare.
Sixty people were
also arrested in the Eastern Highlands of Chimanimani
province on that
day.
According to reports, four MDC activists were abducted by
ZANU-PF
supporters and state agents in the town of Bindura on 18 March.
Their
whereabouts remain unknown and it is feared that they may
have
"disappeared". Four other MDC activists were also allegedly
abducted in
the town of Mabvuku. Other MDC activists are reported to be
missing and their
whereabouts remain unknown.
BACKGROUND
INFORMATION
Politically motivated violence has intensified in the run
up to
parliamentary by-elections scheduled for 29 and 30 March in
Kuwadzana and
Highfield, two suburbs outside the capital Harare. MDC
supporters and
officials together with human rights activists and
members of Zimbabwe
civil society have been subjected to intimidation,
arbitrary arrest and
detention without charge and torture by government
authorities and
militia.
Reports indicate that the "stay-away" was
observed by the vast majority of
people in the country. In the two main
cities of Harare and Bulawayo, many
workers stayed at home and most
business remained closed. On 20 March, the
day after the "stay-away",
the MDC gave the government a deadline of 31
March to meet certain
demands or face "an escalation of protests". It is
feared that human
rights violations may increase as this
deadline
approaches.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to
arrive as quickly as possible,
in English or your own language:
-
expressing serious concern over the escalating levels of human
rights
violations in the country, and the involvement of government
authorities
and militia, in these human rights violations;
-
expressing concern for the safety of up to 500 people, including
members
of parliament Giles Mutsekewa and Austin Mupandawana, who have
been
arrested without charge by the authorities;
- calling on the
authorities to either charge Giles Mutsekewa, Austin
Mupandawana and
others who remain in custody, with a recognizably criminal
offence, on
the basis of solid evidence, or release them immediately;
- expressing
concern at reports that an unknown number of people have
reportedly
been abducted by supporters of the ZANU-PF party and state
security
personnel;
- calling for the whereabouts of those reportedly abducted
to be verified
and for the authorities to do their utmost to secure
their immediate
release;
- calling for an immediate investigation
into the reported abductions, for
the results to be made public, and
for those responsible to be brought to
justice.
APPEALS
TO:
Minister of Home Affairs
The Honourable Khembo Mohadi
11th
Floor Mukwati Building
Private Bag
7703
Causeway
Harare
Zimbabwe
Fax: + 263 4 726 716 (please
keep trying)
Telegram: Minister of Home Affairs, Harare,
Zimbabwe
Salutation: Dear Minister
Police Commissioner
Mr.
Augustine Chihuri
Police Headquarters
P.O Box
8807
Causeway
Harare
Zimbabwe
Fax: + 263 4 726 084/ 235 212/
728 768 (please keep
trying)
Telegram: Augustine Chihuri, Police
Headquarters, Harare,
Zimbabwe
Salutation: Dear Mr
Commissioner
COPIES TO: Diplomatic representatives of Zimbabwe
accredited to your
country.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the International Secretariat,
or your section office, if
sending appeals after 2 May 2003.
Washington Times
Exiles use Iraq war to highlight
plight
By Geoffery Hill
THE WASHINGTON
TIMES
JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwean exiles
living in South Africa yesterday
called on the world not to forget their
homeland during the U.S.-led war in
Iraq.
With
banners that read "Arrest Mugabe for War Crime" and "Bush, Give
Mugabe 48
hours," more than 450 black Zimbabweans marched eight miles from
the center
of Johannesburg to the plush northern suburb of Sandton, where
ministers and
diplomats do their shopping.
White and black South
Africans showed their sympathy by joining the
procession at various points
along the route.
"We have fled from Robert Mugabe, a
dictator as ruthless as Saddam
Hussein," march organizer, Jairos Tama, told
the crowd. "But, Zimbabwe has
no oil and no warheads, so the world leaves us
to suffer."
More than 2 million black Zimbabweans
live in South Africa and Mr. Tama
estimates that another 1,500 cross the
border every day.
Mr. Tama said that he had worked
as a schoolteacher in Zimbabwe, but
had refused to join Mr. Mugabe's ruling
Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front, a condition of employment.
"So I was chased from my
job and my family were harassed by the government
militia. In the end, I had
to come to South Africa," he
said.
Mr. Mugabe, 79, has ruled the country since
its independence from
Britain in 1980. Last year, he won an election that
observers said was
marred by state-sponsored violence and intimidation. Many
nations, including
the United States, have refused to recognize the
result.
Over the past three years, the government
has forced all but 600 of the
country's 4,000 white commercial farmers off
their land as part of a program
to give farms to poor blacks. Aid agencies
say much of the land has gone to
members of the ruling elite and to Mr.
Mugabe's family, including his
sister, Sabina, and his second wife and former
secretary, known as Comrade
Grace.
The United
Nations estimates that the disruption to farming, coupled
with a drought, has
left more than 60 percent of the country's 12 million
people dependent on
food aid.
Yesterday was a national holiday in South
Africa to honor 69 black
civilians who were fatally shot by the former
white-minority government in
1960 at the town of Sharpville, south of
Johannesburg. The massacre marked
the start of the country's isolation that
only ended when democracy was
introduced in 1994.
South African president Thabo Mbeki addressed a rally, but the
marchers
criticized him for not doing more to dislodge Mr.
Mugabe.
"Zimbabwe is landlocked and relies on South
Africa for most of its
imports, including electricity," Mr. Tama
said."President Mbeki could force
Mugabe to soften his dictatorship just by
threatening to close the border,
but he takes virtually no
action."
Dear Family and Friends,
Last week I reported on how women had been arrested
and beaten whilst in police custody. I apologise for getting my facts wrong;
women were indeed beaten and abused in police custody, but this was in Harare
and not Bulawayo. I am sorry that I caused offence to the brave women of
Harare and Bulawayo, all of whom have earned the country's highest respect for
their most courageous stand. Everyday life in Zimbabwe is so filled with tales
of horror, violence and arrests that sometimes it's hard to keep track of
all the facts.
This week Zimbabweans began to show our government
that they are almost at the end of their tether and have had enough of living
like this. The opposition MDC called for a 2 day national stayaway and it is
estimated that as many as 80% of shops, businesses and factories stayed closed
for the two days. The country's two main cities of Harare and Bulawayo were
apparently almost deserted. At the end of the 2 days, it was estimated that at
least 200 but possibly as many as 500 people had been arrested for a host of
obscure reasons. Included amongst those arrested was a newspaper photographer
who was held for 2 days without being charged and assaulted whilst in
custody. When the Corporate Director of the Newspaper company enquired at a
police station as to the photographer's whereabouts, she was also arrested and
then severely assaulted by the wife of the Commander of the Army, Jocelyn
Chiwenga and her messenger. No one knows what Jocelyn Chiwenga and her
henchman were doing in a police station or why they were
allowed to do what they did.
Newspapers reported
that in Ruwa, 15kms from the capital city on an MDC MP's leased farm, armed
men in army uniform, over two days indiscriminately assaulted men, women and
children who work and live on the farm. Three security guards at the farm
had their fingers and toes broken by these men and were then severely assaulted.
The farm manager and his wife were beaten and then the attackers turned their
attentions on at least 80 men, women and children resident on
the property. Dozens had to be taken to hospital and one man,
Steven Tonera was literally beaten to death by the men in army uniforms.
At the end of our country's mass public
action calling for an end to anarchy, the MDC delivered a 15 point ultimatum to
the Zimbabwe government. Basically they have given the ruling party until the
31st March to restore freedom and democracy to the country. Amongst their
demands are an end to the torture of people in police custody;
the restoration of freedom of speech, worship and association; disbanding
of the youth militias; repealing the repressive legislation and depoliticising
the police and security personnel in the country. We have little hope that any
of these most basic of human dignities will be adhered to by the Zimbabwe
government. The MDC leader has stated publicly that if these demands are
not met by the end of March, "mass action will escalate" and "proceed on
another level." Dark days are undoubtedly ahead, but for the first time in over
a year, we have seen that Zimbabweans have had enough and are starting
to making a stand.
Any changes in Zimbabwe can't come soon
enough. This month telephone charges went up by almost 100%, inflation
is over 220% and every day, week and month has become a struggle for survival.
This week, both South African and Mozambican suppliers of electricity
to our country have said they will disconnect us completely if the massive
and outstanding bills owed to them are not paid by the 23rd of March. Our
electricity company, Zesa, do not know where to find the foreign money they owe.
Industrialists say that supply restrictions in the form of load
shedding to domestic households during the day and to factories at
night are very likely in the weeks ahead. Winter is just two months
away and facing it with restricted light, heat and cooking facilities is a
frightening possibility. Until next week, with love, cathy. Copyright cathy
buckle, 22nd March 2003.
IOL
Zim treatment a travesty -
SA
March 21 2003 at
10:23PM
South Africa has broken its official silence about Zimbabwe's
continued
suspension from the Commonwealth, saying the decision to extend
the
punishment was a "political and procedural travesty".
Commonwealth
Secretary-General Don McKinnon said this week that he was
extending the
12-month ban - imposed in protest against alleged
election-rigging and the
seizure of white-owned farms for landless blacks -
until December's
Commonwealth summit in Nigeria.
However, South Africa's High Commissioner
in London, Lindiwe Mabuza, said in
a statement that "neither the Commonwealth
Chair nor the Secretary-General
has a mandate to extend the
suspension".
"Any such decision must be after consultation with all
member states and
must be by consensus."
The statement said consensus
was mandatory in the Commonwealth "otherwise
there is no consistency and the
outcome is a consequence of a political and
procedural travesty".
"It
is thus important for us all to know precisely which countries were
consulted
and what positions they communicated to the Secretary-General."
Mabuza
said African members of the Commonwealth were opposed to Zimbabwe's
continued
suspension.
McKinnon's assertion that the troika had accepted the
decision "does not
represent the views of the troika".
A foreign
ministry spokesperson in Pretoria confirmed that Thursday night's
statement
reflected the government's views on the issue.
The treatment of Zimbabwe
has split the 54-nation Commonwealth along racial
lines.
It was
unclear what South Africa intended to do, if anything, to try to get
the
suspension lifted.
McKinnon, speaking after Sunday's announcement, said
that the "clear
majority" of members were in favour of extending the
suspension, which was
originally imposed in March last year, and that South
Africa and Nigeria had
reluctantly accepted his decision.
The two
African powers are in a troika with Australia, set up to pilot
the
Commonwealth's Zimbabwe policy.
But the triumvirate has broken
down because the Africans say President
Robert Mugabe has done enough to earn
readmission to the group, while
Australia says his abuse of political and
civic freedoms is so bad that
tougher sanctions are
justified.
Zimbabwe's urban centres were virtually paralysed this week in
a mass
protest by the country's main opposition, the Movement for
Democratic
Change. - Sapa-Reuters
Yahoo
News
Witness in Zimbabwe trial says assassination plot authentic:
reports
Sat Mar 22, 5:42 AM
ET
HARARE (AFP) - A witness in the treason trial of Zimbabwe
opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai said he had no reason to doubt the
authenticity of an
alleged opposition plot to kill President Robert Mugabe,
press reports said.
Testifying at the end of the trial's seventh week,
Air Vice Marshal Robert
Mhlanga said he was told of the plot by political
consultant Ari Ben
Menashe, who had previously tried to sell military
aircraft to the country.
According to the state-controlled Herald
newspaper, Mhlanga was asked Friday
whether the plot was not just another
"commodity" Ben Menashe wanted to sell
to the government.
"I have no
reason to believe that," Mhlanga, the third witness to appear for
the state,
reportedly replied.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader
Tsvangirai and two senior party
officials are on trial for allegedly plotting
to assassinate Mugabe ahead of
presidential elections last year.
They
deny the charges, which carry the death penalty on conviction.
They say
the plot was contrived in order to sideline Tsvangirai ahead of
the
hard-fought poll, which he lost to Mugabe but which international
observers
and the opposition have said was rigged.
The state's case
hinges on a video tape supplied by Ben Menashe, a
Canada-based consultant
whom the opposition leader allegedly approached for
assistance to eliminate
Mugabe.
The state says the tape incriminates the opposition
leader.
Ben Menashe was the first state witness to testify. During the
month he
spent on the witness stand, defence lawyers tried to rubbish his
evidence
and expose him as an internationally renowned fraudster.
They
alleged that the consultant had also tampered in key elections in
Australia
and the United States during the 1980s.
Mhlanga, of the Air Force of
Zimbabwe, was the first person Ben Menashe
contacted with news that
Tsvangirai wanted to assassinate Mugabe, the
private Daily News reported
Saturday.
The paper said Ben Menashe had got in touch with the vice
marshal three
months before with the offer to sell military
planes.
However, the court heard on Friday that the consultant waited
nearly a month
before informing the Zimbabwe authorities of the alleged plot
to kill
Mugabe.
Defense lawyer Eric Matinenga asked Mhlanga why Ben
Menashe had waited so
long before making the revelation, given its
seriousness.
"He was the custodian of the information, what he wanted to
do with it I
cannot say," the state-run Herald quoted Mhlanga as
saying.
Interest in the treason trial has dwindled in recent days, with
the
previously packed public gallery now only attracting a handful
of
spectators.
Public attention has been diverted by the trial of a
prominent sect leader
charged with rape, who was this week sentenced to 32
years in jail with hard
labour by a local magistrate.
The three
opposition leaders appeared in the dock this week during a two-day
mass work
stoppage called by the MDC in protest over alleged misgovernance
by Mugabe's
regime.
Sydney
Morning Herald
Protest rage grows over Mugabe militia rape,
torture camps
March 23 2003
The Sun-Herald
Zimbabwe's
Movement for Democratic Change yesterday vowed to escalate mass
action to
force President Robert Mugabe's government to reform or leave
office as new
and horrifying details of young girls being held in "rape
camps"
emerged.
A two-day national strike late last week was the biggest protest
for more
than two years against Mr Mugabe's 23-year rule, closing factories,
shops,
banks and other businesses in protest at alleged human rights abuses
and the
economic decline.
As the strike ended, reports emerged of rape
being used as a political
weapon by the youth militia and other groups allied
to the country's ruling
party, said human rights workers and church
groups.
Investigations reveal allegations of politically motivated rape
against
opposition supporters.
According to victims' testimony, Mr
Mugabe's militia are also forcing young
women to be their
concubines.
Zimbabwe's human rights forum reports seven cases of
politically motivated
rape last year, as well as 58 murders and 1061 cases of
torture. But the
reported rapes, verified by medical examinations and
interviews, are just
the tip of the iceberg, human rights workers
say.
"There is a serious problem of political rape in Zimbabwe," said
Tony
Reeler, human rights defender for the Institute for Democratic
Alternatives
for Southern Africa. "The documented cases are low, but there
is
considerable stigma and fear about reporting rape. From enormous
anecdotal
evidence we know the number is much higher.
"The victims are
mostly young females, relatively uneducated, poor, rural,
the most vulnerable
members of society. Many urgently require
antiretrovirals for HIV
infection."
The trauma of rape is evident in the dull gaze of
Sithulisiwe, 21. For eight
months she was held captive at a "youth camp" for
Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF
party, where, she says, she was repeatedly gang
raped and tortured. She said
she was abducted in December 2001 and marched to
a camp in a Bulawayo
suburb.
"It was surrounded by security guards so
we could not get out," she said.
"There were hundreds of us. We were fed
horse meat and rotten food. They
woke us up at 3am and we had to run 20
kilometres. Then we had to do 200
press-ups and other exercises. If anyone
failed to do so, they were beaten.
We had to chant slogans and sing Zanu-PF
songs.
"They taught us the history of our country, starting from colonial
slavery,
and they told us we should hate whites. We slept in large rooms, the
men and
women together. We were raped by the boys. I can't even count how
many times
by how many different men. If we complained to the camp commander,
we were
beaten."
Sithulisiwe says she felt sorry for the young girls,
of just 12 and 13,
picked out, by the camp commander and taken to a nearby
hotel to be raped.
Her voice is flat and only when she talks to her
five-month-old child does
her face light up. "I have named her Nokthula,
which means peace. I want her
to find peace - imagine, I do not even know who
her father is."
Sithulisiwe and others were caught trying to escape. She
says they were
buried up to their necks. "We were beaten and thought we'd be
killed, but
the camp commander rescued us. They made us roll in mud, then
would not let
us take a bath."
The camp closed in July last year. Many
of the youths went to government
training camps and Sithulisiwe was sent
away. Aided by a church group, she
and other women then reported the rapes at
Hillside police station near
Bulawayo.
"Then the doctor gave me a
blood test. He told me I was HIV-positive."
Her story has been
independently verified. This month she testified at a
service led by
Archbishop Pius Ncube at the Bulawayo Catholic cathedral.
People across
Zimbabwe told of rape and torture at the hands of Zanu-PF.
"We have
several reports of gang rapes and beatings at the youth militia
camps," said
a human rights worker. "The camps have become centres of
torture and sexual
abuse. Reports are made to police but they take virtually
no
action."
Zimbabwe's police deny this. "Irrespective of whether they are
political
cases or not, if they are true rape cases then we will investigate
them,"
said Wayne Bvudzijena, an assistant commissioner. He was not aware
of
reports of rape at the Bulawayo camps.
But investigations have
revealed other accounts of politically motivated
sexual
violence.
Rebecca, 36, says youth militia dragged her from her home in
eastern
Zimbabwe. "They beat me, saying I wanted to give the country back to
whites.
Six guys raped me. These people threatened to kill me and my family.
I am
afraid I may be infected with HIV."
Sarah, 22, from central
Zimbabwe, tells how Zanu-PF youth attacked the
homestead where she farmed.
"They burned our house and destroyed everything
we owned. They beat me, even
though I had our baby on my back. They took my
baby away. They beat the soles
of my feet. Then, they raped me."
The
Star
Ja nee, this is a must for
foreignrs visiting SA
March 21,
2003
By James
Clarke
Brian Hough, a small business
consultant - no, that sounds wrong, he's
a consultant to small businesses -
has dug up from somewhere a Cricket World
Cup visitor's guide to South
Africanisms.
Ali Bacher: The man
responsible for staging the Cricket World Cup and
getting South Africa back
into international cricket, and for bringing the
much-needed rain. A
Bacher/English dictionary is in preparation ("griggid" =
"cricket"), because
not even South Africans understand what he is
saying.
Apartheid: Few white South
Africans have heard of it and fewer know
anybody who voted
Nationalist.
Braaivleis: The ritual
incineration of raw meat over coals. Anything
can be braaied over this fire,
from chicken wings to intact gnus.
Not to
be confused with a barbecue, which is generally far less
carcinogenic.
Braaied meat is sometimes like eating a lump of coal; a good
braai explains
the great mystery of why Man found fire.
Breezy: In Cape Town, East London and Port Elizabeth, this means wind
that
sucks the lungs out of your chest and bowls oil-rigs end-over-end up
the
beach. In Kimberly it implies that the temperature is likely to drop
below
45.
Channel surfing: The frustrating
activity of hopping between South
Africa's five channels and finding only
Zulu versions of Sesame Street and
old episodes of The Love Boat in
Sotho.
Hijack: Car hijacks happen less
than expatriate dentists in London say
they do, but a lot more often than the
government says.
Ja nee: "Yes no" - a
phrase that makes perfect sense to South
Africans. If a groundsman is asked
if the seamers are likely to get any help
from the wicket, he will answer "Ja
nee", leaving the distinction up to you.
But an armpit-scratch can imply the
negative while a hefty spit towards
cover means
yes.
Mampoer: A mixture of fermented
apricots, peaches, jet fuel and
antifreeze. A source of great mirth where
foreign tourists are concerned, as
the unfortunate virgin drinker blows fire
out of his ears. Do not drink
anything in an unlabelled bottle proffered by a
cackling old fellow who
looks like an extra from
Deliverance.
Now / just now / now now: If
the clerk at your hotel tells you that
your rental car will be arriving
"now", expect the car to arrive between 15
minutes and an
hour.
If the clerk says the car is arriving
"now now", expect it in about
two
hours.
If the clerk says it's arriving
"just now", it means he hasn't yet
phoned the rental agency and you are
entitled to garrotte him with his World
Cup
tie.
Religion: South Africa is a
God-fearing country peopled by a wide
range of creeds and denominations. It
is important to learn some basic
religious
terminology.
Satan: The name of either
Pakistani umpire Javed Akhtar or Australian
counter-part Daryl Hair, both of
whom are alleged
to have committed atrocities
against past South African teams.
Hell:
Another name for Australia.
Heaven: Sydney. An
ironic state of affairs, given that while most
South Africans consider
Australia to be the Dark Empire, a great many want
to emigrate to
Sydney.
Taxi: A metal box, about the size
of a minivan, containing up to 40
people; powered by diesel and gunpowder
with the thrust equivalent of
Starship Enterprise's plasma warp drive.
Passengers must time their entry
and exit carefully as the taxi cannot slow
down below 60km/h for fear of
imploding and tearing a hole in the space-time
continuum.
Zimbabwe: A kingdom to the
north ruled by King Bob who is in line for
the Humanitarian of the Year Award
nominated by the South
African
government.
"Zim" has struck a
blow against smoking by turning once thriving
tobacco farms into wilderness
and has freed thousands of people from having
to go to work. It produces
millions of soapstone carvings of birds sitting
on toilets, and owns Andy
Flower.
The
Star
OHYCAEI: the secret code to
Mbeki's Zim policy
March 21,
2003
By Peter
Fabricius
President Mbeki seems to be
using the fog of war in Iraq to conceal a
tactical attempt to have his cake
and eat it on Zimbabwe. (If you will
pardon the mixed
metaphor.)
Mbeki is a member of the
Commonwealth troika, a committee of heads of
government mandated by the
Commonwealth summit last year to deal with
Zimbabwe. The other members are
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and
Australian Prime Minister John
Howard.
Last March the troika suspended
Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth for a
year after Commonwealth observers deemed
that the presidential elections had
been
rigged
Iraq's fog of war used to conceal embarrassing
dilemma
.
The summit's mandate included an
instruction to the troika to
reconsider Zimbabwe's suspension when it expired
this week. But Mbeki and
Obasanjo decided recently that the troika need not
meet again because
President Robert Mugabe had done enough to merit
readmission to the
Commonwealth. Howard strongly disagreed and instructed
Commonwealth
secretary-general Don McKinnon to ask the Commonwealth leaders
directly what
to do. Last Sunday, McKinnon announced that the majority of the
leaders
believed Zimbabwe should remain suspended until December at the next
summit.
McKinnon, significantly, said the
troika had agreed with him that this
was the right course of
action.
But since Sunday night, Mbeki
himself has said nothing publicly to
confirm or deny McKinnon's statement.
His aides, however, have been saying
off the record that he did not agree
that Zimbabwe should remain suspended.
They have also referred journalists to
the SA High Commission in London for
on-the-record
comment.
On Wednesday, SA's deputy high
commissioner in London, Sisa Ncwana,
said: "As far as we are concerned,
Zimbabwe's suspension from the
Commonwealth expired today (Wednesday) ... we
are not part of any decision
to extend the sanctions
..."
After three days of being given the
run-around by Mbeki's
spin-doctors, the penny finally dropped. Distracted by
Iraq, journalists
have become victims of Operation Have Your Cake and Eat It
(OHYCAEI) - my
title, not their's.
The
aim was apparently to dissociate SA from the decision to keep
Zimbabwe out in
the cold - while not too obviously telling McKinnon that he
was a liar. The
method was to try to isolate Mbeki from his own government
conceptually: the
SA government could go public denying McKinnon while Mbeki
would refrain from
doing so explicitly to avoid contradicting
himself.
Some people cannot understand
that multilateralism does require
contortions. When a country joins a
multinational organisation like the
Commonwealth, its interests obviously
don't always coincide with the
group
consensus.
The elegant way of
dealing with that dilemma is to compromise; to
accept that your preferred
national view cannot always prevail and to adapt
it a bit, in order to
present a consistent position. Or simply to agree to
disagree. Mbeki could
stand up and say: "Look, I don't think Zimbabwe should
remain suspended, but
that is the view of the majority, so I will go along
with
it."
But he seems to have chosen instead
to try to maintain two
contradictory positions simultaneously, without
acknowledging the
contradiction. As South Africa's president he continues to
suggest, through
off-the-record remarks from his spin-doctors and
on-the-record remarks from
junior officials, that he has not agreed to the
continued suspension of
Zimbabwe.
That
plays well in Harare where the ruling party's mouthpiece, the
Herald, carried
Ncwana's remarks prominently this week.
But as a member of the troika - in private conversations with
McKinnon -
Mbeki seems to have gone along with the Commonwealth position to
keep Mugabe
out.
If my hunch about OHYCAEI is right,
this is dishonest and clumsy
diplomacy. Mbeki is implicitly calling McKinnon
a liar but I suspect it is
his own credibility and that of his government
that will eventually suffer
the most damage.
Details of MDC ultimatum
By 31st March 2003, the regime should have addressed and resolved the
following 15 urgent issues or face a popular mass action to regain
the
people's liberties, freedoms and dignity.
The
15 demands are:
1. An immediate release
of all political prisoners, those arrested for exercising their constitutional
right to demonstrate against violence, torture and general misrule.
2. Agree
to a programme clearly designed to restore the legitimacy of government.
3.
Stop all state-sponsored violence against the people, including torture of
suspects in police custody.
4. Restore all the political and civil liberties
of the people including the freedoms of assembly, association, expression and
movement and in particular repeal POSA and AIPA.
5. Depoliticise food
distribution
6. Disbandment of all militia groups and the restoration of war
veterans to a non-political role.
7. Stop the persecution of workers, women
and youth.
8. Restore a professional and non-partisan police, army and
prisons service.
9. Stop the political persecution of professional soldiers,
police officers, prison officers and judges.
10. Stop the political
persecution of the church, its leaders and interference with the freedom of
worship.
11. Restore law and order.
12. Repeal the Broadcasting Act and
free the airwaves.
13. Restore academic freedom and university
autonomy.
14. Put an end to the ongoing state sponsored electoral violence
and fraud
15. Stop the political persecution of civil society and respect the
human rights of all Zimbabweans.
Paul Themba Nyathi - MDC
Spokesperson
Independent (UK)
Seized land is earmarked for Mugabe
family, farmers say
'War veterans' abandoned by government
By Tom
de Castella in Norton, Zimbabwe
23 March 2003
The image went round
the world: the body of Terry Ford, a white farmer
killed by Zimbabwe's
notorious "war veterans", being guarded by his Jack
Russell terrier. For many
the sight symbolised the country's descent into
tyranny under Robert
Mugabe.
That was a year ago. Now Gowrie, the 840-hectare farm at Norton,
25 miles
west of Harare, is a scene of desolation - fields mostly lying
fallow or
overgrown with weeds, the farmhouse an empty shell, stripped of
anything
that can be sold for money or food. Only 16 people remain where 45
were once
employed, growing maize, tobacco and soya as well as keeping cattle
and
sheep.
When I visited Gowrie, posing as an aid worker, Mike Silas
Bressing, a "war
veteran" acting as spokesman, told me: "We are hungry. We
have mealie
[maize] meal for 10 days, then nothing. We have no sugar or
cooking oil. We
have planted 20 hectares of maize and eight hectares of
potatoes and
broccoli, but the harvest is not till the end of May or
June."
What has happened at Gowrie is being repeated all over Zimbabwe.
White
commercial farmers and their black workers are driven off, to be
replaced by
people with few agricultural skills. The result is starvation:
even
according to government figures, two-thirds of the 12 million
population
faces famine.
But when the "veterans" killed Terry Ford and
seized his farmstead - the
chief murder suspect, a man known as Mwamba, moved
into his bedroom, but was
not around the day I appeared - they did not
realise that they too were
being manipulated. In many cases the people who
take over prime farms are
used as shock troops by President Mugabe's circle,
who end up owning the
land.
Mike Silas Bressing and the others
struggling to exist at Gowrie could never
have foreseen how quickly they
would be abandoned by their powerful backers.
Huddled round a fire, shivering
and hungry, they complained about the
absence of funds to help them cultivate
the land, and, now that they are
hungry, the lack of government food
aid.
Despite their plight, they are having to prepare for a "field day",
a
government scheme designed to show off the "new farmers" in action -
the
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation swamps the airwaves with propaganda
about
the great strides being made in the rural areas "now the land is ours".
The
"veterans" have very little to show for their work, however, and had
to
visit a nearby white commercial farmer, one of two left in the area, to
ask
if they could borrow a tractor for the day.
Mark Ford, Terry's
son, has moved in with his girlfriend. Since his father's
death he has sought
to find out who was responsible, and who now owns
Gowrie. No one has been
convicted of the murder, but everyone, including the
police, knows who the
killers are, Mark says.
As for the question of ownership, "it seemed
impossible ... there's no
paperwork. What we have is a pyramid system, the
war vets at the bottom,
then the head war vets, then Zanu PF party officials.
The question is: who
is at the top?"
Now Mark thinks he has the
answer. Local farmers have uncovered evidence
that Sabina Mugabe, the
President's older sister and the area's governor,
has earmarked Norton's
farms, among the most valuable in the country, for
her family. Already around
a dozen farms bordering Lake Darwendale,
including Terry Ford's, have been
occupied. Local officials say they have
been reserved for "the royal family"
- which in Zimbabwe today means only
one thing.
Farmers believe that
once the fuss dies down the war vets who were
encouraged to occupy the farms
will be moved off, and Mugabe family members
and prominent government
supporters will take over and begin farming them
seriously. Leo Mugabe, the
President's nephew, is known to own the
500-hectare Diandra Farm, while
Sabina is thought to have claimed the
1,000-hectare Audley End Farm for
herself.
Mark Ford still hopes that one day he will be able to reclaim
Gowrie farm,
which had been in his family for six generations. Despite the
brutality of
his father's murder, he says he could one day forgive the
killers. "The war
vets are more frightened than we are," he said. "They're
uneducated people
doing what they're told. But the people who actually run
the war veterans
and ordered them to attack, the people at the top of the
hierarchy - I'll
never forgive them."
News24
Mugabe: No more soft gloves
22/03/2003
21:34 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe vowed
Saturday "greater action"
would be taken against the main opposition party
which he accused of wanting
to overthrow his government.
In comments
carried by state television, Mugabe slammed the Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) and its stay-away vowing that from now on there
would be
"greater vigour, greater vigilance and greater action by
my
government".
"We shall not treat them with soft gloves anymore,"
Mugabe told hundreds of
youths from his ruling Zimbabwe African National
Union - Patriotic Front
(Zanu-PF).
The comments came as the MDC
claimed hundreds of its officials and
supporters had been abducted in night
raids by military agents after a
widely followed job stay-away closed down
urban areas.
The stayaway was organised to protest alleged
misgovernance.
Mugabe, however, claimed the stay-away was "a flop" and
accused the
opposition party of violence.
"They can't tell the world
that they succeeded, because their target was to
overthrow our government,"
he told cheering supporters at his party's
headquarters in Harare.
And
he said black MDC supporters were really whites. "Yes, you wear our
skin, but
below that skin, you are white."
Mugabe's government regularly accuses
the MDC of being a front for white
interests and former colonial power
Britain.
Rights groups say there has been increased repression against
the opposition
and rights activists by state agents in Zimbabwe during and
after the
stay-away.