SA head silent after Harare talks

BBC

22:11 GMT, Friday, 9 May 2008 23:11 UK

South African President Thabo Mbeki has left Zimbabwe for home without
comment after crisis talks in Harare with his counterpart Robert Mugabe.

Mr Mbeki, who is thought to advocate a national unity government as a
way to resolve the presidential poll dispute, had been expected to brief
journalists.

Zimbabwe has still to announce the date of a run-off between Mr Mugabe
and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mr Mbeki's visit came amid concern that poll-related violence is
escalating.

Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
remained in South Africa, in self-imposed exile.

He has not been in Zimbabwe for the past month although there is
growing pressure on him to return home and rally his supporters, the BBC's
Peter Biles reports.

The MDC still believes that he won the presidential election outright,
and there should be no need for a run-off vote.

It also firmly rejects the idea of a national unity government, unless
Robert Mugabe steps down.

Consultations

Mr Mbeki has been leading the effort by all southern African states to
resolve the political impasse in Zimbabwe.

In Harare, he met Robert Mugabe at State House for four hours of
talks, journalist Brian Hungwe told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
He then went to the private residence of the South African ambassador
where it was thought he was liaising with opposition representatives before
returning to resume talks with Mr Mugabe at State House.

According to Brian Hungwe's sources, Mr Mbeki met separately with
senior MDC officials and Zanu-PF minister Emmerson Mnangagwa in South
Africa.

Mr Tsvangirai will clarify his own position in Pretoria on Saturday.

A second round of voting could be increasingly difficult in the
current conditions, Peter Biles notes.

The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights says there has
been a dramatic escalation in organised violence and torture in the rural
areas since the beginning of May.

It says many health workers have reported intimidation and some have
been specifically instructed by state agents not to treat opposition
supporters.

Mbeki urged to quit as mediator

Independent, UK

By Angus Shaw, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, 10 May 2008

No members of Zimbabwe's opposition met with visiting South African
President Thabo Mbeki, who they say should be replaced as mediator in the
country's political crisis.

President Robert Mugabe greeted the South African leader as he arrived at
the airport for his third visit as mediator on behalf of the Southern
African Development Community.

The two men, wearing flower garlands, laughed as they walked hand-in-hand
from the aircraft on Mbeki's arrival. They did not speak with reporters, but
later posed for photographs in Mugabe's residence, State House, where met
for nearly four hours.

Mbeki left later yesterday.

But no one from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change sat down with
Mbeki, seeing him as biased toward Mugabe, opposition spokesman George
Sibotshiwe said.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai "has no confidence in Mbeki," and has
called for him to step aside and allow Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa to
take over mediation, Sibotshiwe said.

Mwanawasa has been more critical of Mugabe, while Mbeki — believing Mugabe
will not respond to confrontation — has stuck to so-called "quiet diplomacy"
on Zimbabwe.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai have been in a tense political standoff. The
opposition leader insists he won March 29 presidential election outright.

The electoral commission said last week that Tsvangirai had won the most
votes but failed to win the simple majority required for a first-round
victory, and so would have to face Mugabe again in a runoff.

Mugabe has been accused of orchestrating violence against the opposition
since the first round, raising questions about whether a runoff would be
free or fair.

Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic Change, is expected to make
an announcement Saturday in South Africa on whether it will take part in a
runoff.

No date has been set for the vote, although Mugabe has already begun
campaigning.

Meanwhile, opposition party supporters are increasingly under attack.

The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights said 22 people had died
and 900 were tortured in postelection violence.

But "violence is now on such a scale that it is impossible to properly
document all cases," the association said in a statement Friday, citing a
"dramatic increase" in violence since the start of May.

In the last 24 hours, Harare hospitals and clinics have treated 30 people
for broken limbs, the association said. Those admitted to hospitals with
injuries included elderly men, breast-feeding women and a 3-year-old boy
struck in the eye by a rock, it said.

"The level of brutality and callousness exhibited by the perpetrators is
unprecedented," the statement said.

The doctors also raised concerns about the intimidation of health workers
and a shortage of medical supplies.

Meanwhile, the deputy director of army public relations, Maj. Alois
Makotore, denied accusations that soldiers had harassed or assaulted people,
the state-owned Herald newspaper reported Friday.

The newspaper also accused opposition supporters of burning the homes of
ruling party supporters. Government and party officials have denied they
were responsible for the violence and instead blamed the opposition.

Carolyn Norris from Human Rights Watch, speaking Friday by telephone from
London, said opposition supporters had occasionally retaliated, but that
violence on the opposition's part was "tiny in proportion to absolute
campaign of violence and intimidation by the ruling party." She said there
was no evidence of the opposition "organizing a revenge campaign

Horror in Zimbabwe

 

 Friday, 09 May 2008 13:13

 

 

STATEMENT MADE BY WILLIAM BRUCE ROGERS AND ANNETTE MARY ROGERS

On the day of the 6th May, 2008 at approximately 1300 hours I was visited by three men at our farm, Chigwell Extension Farm.

They told me that I had two minutes to vacate my property otherwise they will send the mob there and the house is not worth sacrificing my life for.  Because we would lose our lives.  They said they were like hungry lions.

My wife made a report to the Chegutu Police Station about this incident, naming the people involved. At that stage I asked them if they would react to any incident that my occur and they informed my wife that they would speak to the Assistant Inspector.  My wife also saw him before making the report and informed him of the visit and he told her to go and make a report at the charge office.

At about 1700 hours on the same day a vehicle – a white Datsun 1800 pickup arrived at the gate with approximately 10-12 people.  They demanded that I opened the gate because they wanted to talk to me.  I refused and went into the house together with my wife.  We locked ourselves into the house.  They came to the house and wanted me to go outside to speak to them which I refused to do.  They started smashing windows and the front door was smashed open.  One of them pointed a single barrel shotgun inside the house at us – we were by then upstairs.  He fired a shot directly at us which went just over my head and close to my wifes’ head.  He obviously intended to kill us.  After he fired the shot he went out and it went quiet for a while and then we heard three shots coming from the workers housing area.  They returned with all the workers and fired another shot whilst outside.

I managed to get through to the Assistant Inspector and the Chegutu Police Station to ask for assistance before there were dead bodies in the house.  He said that I must phone him back in half and hour.  Throughout all of this my wife was on the phone to numerous friends who were at the Chegutu Police Station trying to get assistance from them with absolutely no result whatsoever.  My wife and I also made many phone calls to the Member in Charge on his cell phone and he refused to answer.

By this time it was dark and the power went off so we were left completely in darkness and unable to identify our own employees.

They then used the workers as a shield so that they could all come inside the house and then were downstairs chanting and singing and making threats.

They sent one of the workers upstairs to demand the shotgun from me to take back to them.  I refused and this employee stayed upstairs with us.  They then grabbed the son of this employee who was downstairs and from what I could gather they threatened to either kill or injure him if he didn’t go back downstairs with the weapon.  He went back downstairs without the weapon.  After about five minutes they told all the singing workers to go upstairs using them as a shield once more.  We tried to identify the workers one by one as they came up the stairs, as my wife was standing at the top of the stairs with a can of mace.  After about 15 workers came through, she could not identify a person and used the mace and sprayed them.  After this they ran back downstairs and out of the house.

This incensed the thugs who then proceeded to break down the back door and started a building a fire in the downstairs lounge directly below us.  As we have a wooden floor upstairs this posed a great threat and we thought we would be burnt alive which is when I said that we would come out and asked if  they would let us leave peacefully which they agreed to do.  We asked the ring-leader to identify himself.  We came downstairs and they demanded the shotgun from me which was loaded and off safety and I refused.  They then insisted that I give it to them and I tried to start unloading it and they attacked me.  They then grabbed my wife around the throat and she started screaming.  While they were trying to take the shotgun from me three shots went off outside the house into the ground as it is a semi-automatic shotgun.  They then took the shotgun from me and wrestled me to the ground and started beating me with what I assume was sticks, or pipes and kicking me with their boots.  They dragged my wife outside and they were trying to strangle her.  At this stage she managed to bite the hand of the man who was grabbing her round the throat.  Whereupon he started to beat her.  At one time there were at least four men beating and kicking her.

They then tied me up with rope and threw me into the back of their pickup.  At this stage my wife was still being beaten.  When they had finished beating her, one of them grabbed her by her feet and dragged her over to the vehicle.  They then demanded that she stand up and get into the back of the truck which she was unable to do.  One of them grabbed her by the hair, pulled her into a standing position and pushed her up against the back of the truck and told her to get in.  She did climb in. They searched my wife and found the car-keys in her pocket and demanded she show them what vehicle the keys were for.  They couldn’t find the keys to the other truck. They drove my vehicle onto the lawn, parked near the truck where I was tied up.  The immobiliser for the vehicle went off.  They demanded that my wife show them where the immobiliser switch was situated which she did do.  One of them drove off with the vehicle which we never saw again. They still had all the employees on the lawn around a fire that had been lit by the front door and they were still forced to sing.

There were about four or five of them around the vehicle watching the two of us, all the time they were shouting verbal abuse and racist comments and threatening to kill either one or both of us and also stating the manner in which they should kill us.  This must have gone on for almost an hour.  They were burning my feet with cigarettes and then we saw vehicle lights shining towards us and then my wife was told to get out of the vehicle and was dragged towards the headlights of the vehicle that had arrived.  When she got to the vehicle she saw there were four armed policeman from Kadoma Police Station who asked what had happened.  She told them briefly what had happened and demanded that they fetch me immediately from the vehicle as she feared for my life.  One of the thugs came and untied me and told me to get out of the vehicle and made me walk towards the headlights of the parked vehicle.  I noticed that they were armed policeman.  The incident was described in more detail to them and they accompanied us into the house to get some warm clothing.  Once we were in the house we saw that the gun cabinet had been opened and ransacked and that my weapons were missing.  I informed the police that the weapons were missing.  They then took us out of the house and told us to get in their vehicle as we were going to Chegutu Police Station to make a report.

We got to Chegutu Police Station and they had to call some superior officer to take a statement and he only arrived as were were leaving to go to Harare to get urgent medical attention.  No police personal of any authority seemed to show any interest in taking our statement.

We were attended to by medical staff at the Avenues Clinic where numerous x-rays and CT scans were taken.

My injuries are two cracked verterbrae in my lower back.  Fractured cheekbone, fractured nose there was copious bleeding into my sinuses and extensive lacerations and deep-tissue bruising to my face and back and a bite to my right earlobe.

My wifes injuries are fractured cheekbones, fractures around her orbital socket round her eye, perforated eardrum, cracked ribs and extensive bruising to her face and back and throat.

W.B. ROGERS ………………………………………..

A.M. ROGERS………………………

US, Other Envoys In Zimbabwe Visit Victims Of Political Violence, Urge Halt To Attacks

VOA

By Sylvia Manika, Blessing Zulu & Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
09 May 2008

U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee, in company with envoys from Angola,
Britain, Spain and Sweden, on Friday visited victims of political violence
under medical care at a Harare hospital, expressing outrage at the brutality
of the post-election assaults and killings and imploring those responsible
for them to stop.

A group of Zimbabwean physicians meanwhile issued a report saying that its
members have treated more than 900 victims of beatings and other assaults
since the country's March 29 presidential and general elections. The victims
have mainly been members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change,
which claimed a majority in the lower house of parliament, and a number of
them have told VOA that they were attacked by youth militia and war veterans
affiliated with the ruling ZANU-PF.

The violence is also seen as aimed at intimidating opposition supporters
ahead of the presidential run-off election called - but not scheduled - by
electoral authorities in which President Robert Mugabe is to face opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

The MDC says more than 30 of its supporters have been killed in the attacks.
Human Rights Watch and other groups say the violence is state-sponsored and
has involved the Zimbabwean military both directly and through provision of
arms and transport.

"The violence in Zimbabwe has to stop," McGee told reporters after touring
wards of the Avenues Clinic where about 20 victims of political violence
were under treatment for injuries. "Whoever is perpetrating this violence,
please, stop this now," he said.

"What I've seen is just absolute brutality," McGee said."When I see an
80-plus-year-old woman, a grandmother who is just beaten senseless for no
reason other than that her children were MDC activists, it makes no sense to
me whatsoever."

British Ambassador Andrew Pocock expressed horror at the effects of the
violence, saying it was clear its perpetrators intend to see Mr. Mugabe
remains in power.

Correspondent Sylvia Manika of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe reported.

The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights said the violence and
torture have escalated sharply in recent weeks, and that the perpetrators
have displayed new levels brutality and callousness even towards children,
women and the elderly.

Sources told VOA that in a number of cases the Central Intelligence
Organization, a secret police branch attached to the office of President
Robert Mugabe, has seized X-rays and medical reports from state hospitals to
suppress evidence of assaults.

Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights Chairman Douglas Gwatidzo told VOA
reporter Blessing Zulu that the violence has become intense and
unrestrained.

The Zimbabwe Peace Project issued a report saying it had documented 4,331
cases of political violence in April, including 10 murders. It said the
human rights violations in April shattered the record set in 2005 during the
government's infamous Operation Murambatsvina, in which forced evictions and
demolitions by security forces left hundreds of thousands of people homeless

The group detailed violence in provinces north and east of Harare, where
soldiers, war veterans and youth militia have set up camps from which to
attack opposition members in communities where there was a vote swing to the
MDC in the March elections. But it said violence was now "creeping into"
Matabeleland in the country's west.

The Peace Project called on the government to put a stop to the violence,
and issued a challenge to police to “bring sanity” to the disturbed areas.

A Zimbabwean army spokesman on Thursday denied allegations that the military
was supporting and participating in the violence. Major Alphios Makotore
said the military "categorically distances itself and any of its members
from such activities." But an opposition spokesman said the army's role has
been well documented.

Deputy Water Resources Minister Walter Mzembi, who has been accused of
directing violence in Masvingo Province, told VOA he is being framed by the
opposition.

Some opposition members have begun fighting back against attackers. In
Mhangura, Mashonaland West, opposition activists reportedly defended
themselves against an attack by ZANU-PF youth militia. In Shamva,
Mashonaland Central, sources said MDC supporters took the offensive after
their homes in the mining town were destroyed.

Mhangura resident Bernadette Dhakwa told VOA reporter Jonga Kandemiiri that
riot police were deployed when it appeared that the youth militia were
losing ground.

In Masvingo Province, sources said villagers in Zaka West were tortured at
camps set up at the Veza and Mageza business centers, and were being obliged
by the militia to pay fines in cash, goats and cattle for backing the
opposition.

Rice seeks African 'insight' to help resolve Zimbabwe crisis

Yahoo News

1 hour, 33 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke Friday with
African leaders and former UN chief Kofi Annan for their insight into how to
end Zimbabwe's presidential election crisis, her spokesman said.

Rice spoke to Botswanan President Ian Khama, Zambian President Levy
Mwanawasa, and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete about how they could help
promote a solution, according to State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Rice and her African envoy Jendayi Frazer decided "to get a sense from
leaders in the region who really have some deep insights into the situation
and how it might go forward, as to what the situation is, how they saw it,
and how they were thinking about (how) it might move forward," McCormack
told reporters.

It was also important for Rice to talk to Annan, "who plays an important
role in the international system, but particularly on issues related to
Africa," he added.

But the spokesman did not say why Rice did not speak with South African
President Thabo Mbeki, who was in Harare for intensive talks with veteran
Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe.

"I don't have any particular reason," McCormack said.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which won control of
parliament and whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai won a first-round victory
against Mugabe in polls on March 29, has called for Mbeki to be axed as a
mediator over his softly-softly approach towards the Zimbabwean leader, who
has held onto power since 1980.

Instead, McCormack stressed broader regional and international efforts to
solve the problem.

Though Zimbabwe's opposition parties will have to reach an understanding
about how to proceed, "it's going to need the support and encouragement of
neighboring countries" as well as international players, he added.

As the Zimbabwean and South African leaders held talks in Harare, a
coalition of doctors said there had been a dramatic escalation in attacks in
rural areas by Mugabe supporters.

The main labor federation, meanwhile, said its two top leaders had been
arrested over speeches made to workers at a May Day rally.

Mugabe Wages Retribution Campaign After Losing the Election: Hundreds Flee for “Safety”

May 10, 2008

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

• Wellington (left) and his wife Tariro barely escaped with their daughter and two friends. Photograph by Ephraim Nsingo. •

In the early hours of April 25th, Tariro Gweru and her husband Wellington awoke to a deafening knock on their bedroom hut. Wellington says he identified the frantic voices of his two friends, Simon Takavada and Misheck Dzikamai, got up and quickly opened the door.

As his two friends made their way breathlessly into his house, Wellington knew there was something seriously wrong. Simon and Misheck indeed had bad news: while coming home after having a beer, the two spotted trucks packed with ZANU PF youths, war veterans and soldiers making their way to their village.

In the weeks following the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC) announcement that the MDC party had won the house of assembly, an orgy of violence linked to ZANU PF swept through Muzarabani (more than 400 kilometers outside Harare near the Mozambican border). The architect of this reign of terror is Edward Raradza, who won the house of assembly seat on a ZANU PF ticket unopposed.

Wellington and his friends had heard about the violence and knowing that some of the well known opposition MDC party activists were nearby in Howa, knew that ZANU PF's retributive campaign would one day catch up with them.

While Tariro quickly packed a few of their belongings into a bag, Wellington and his friends ran to the few homesteads nearby and warned other opposition activists of the pending danger. They were soon joined by other MDC party youths and supporters who helped them sound the alarm bells.

Moments later Wellington returned home, picked up his wife and three year old daughter Trish and fled into the mountains with Misheck and Simon, avoiding major roads so they would not be tracked by the ZANU PF thugs. Risking attack from lions and elephants, Wellington and his family walked 50 kilometers to St. Albert's Mission to catch the first bus to Harare. Their destination was the MDC headquarters where they hoped they could seek refuge, but instead were met with more bad news.

I spoke to Wellington and Tariro upon their arrival in Harare on the morning of April 25th.

Police had raided the MDC headquarters where more than 300 displaced families had sought refuge. Among the arrested were women and children, the youngest having been around five months. Police commissioner Augustine Chihuri claimed the MDC headquarters was harboring criminals guilty of "politically motivated acts of violence."

Wellington shook his head in disappointment.

"All I wanted to do was to take my family to safety. I knew that once I got to Harare my family would be safe, even if this meant traveling through the bush… Being attacked by wild animals was much better than dying at the hands of Mugabe's army. As I fled my home, my only thought was for my three-year old daughter - how could I let her die for my sins? My crime is supporting Morgan Tsvangirai and standing in the council elections against a ZANU PF candidate. Now ZANU PF is baying for my family's blood."

Had the Gwerus and their two friends arrived one hour earlier they too would have been victims of political violence and among those arrested. They felt lucky but watched helplessly as police forcefully loaded hundreds of activists from the MDC headquarters into police trucks.

Wellington and his family were eventually referred to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights for placement with a social welfare organization (not disclosed for security reasons).

Days later, through the MDC information office the Gwerus learned that many of their colleagues back home were nursing injuries of varying degrees. ZANU PF youths had left many homeless after torching homes and burning cotton and maize crops.

On the verge of tears, Tariro responded to the news saying, "I left my hard earned property, my unharvested cotton crop which I had worked hard to produce. I am deeply saddened by what has become of our lives. How can we keep killing each other like wild animals? I am just grateful to God for having spared my daughter's life."

• Tariro is weary but thankful that her daughter was not harmed during their escape. Photograph by Ephraim Nsingo. •

During the interview, the strain of the long journey on Tariro was quite evident: her legs were swollen and she could barely concentrate.

But the Gwerus are among the few people who have been lucky during this terrible time in Zimbabwe. Many people have not been this fortunate.

As the post election violence here in Zimbabwe escalates, I count myself among the extremely lucky too, particularly when I consider the number of journalists who have been arrested since this whole chaos began. Since the election on March 29th at least ten local and international journalists have been arrested and victimized by police.

One of my colleagues Frank Chikowore is a freelance journalist and spent close to a month in police custody. He was arrested on April 15th with journalist and MDC's Director of Information and Publicity, Luke Tamborinyoka, while covering the MDC’s work boycott.

Others arrested include local journalists Sydney Saize, Precious Shumba and Stanley Karombo, along with international journalists Barry Bearak (New York Times), Stephen John Bevan (a British freelancer), Sipho Moses Maseko and Ismail Gaibbe (both South Africa based journalists). Last week police raided the Agencie France Presse (AFP) and Reuters offices and arrested photographer Howard Burditt.

Even worse is that Mugabe has stepped up his terror campaign after the results of the presidential elections were finally announced by the ZEC on May 2nd.

The results show that the MDC faction, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, won 47.9% of the vote while Mugabe won 43.2%. According to the Electoral Act, the ultimate winner of the election has to garner at least 50 percent of the vote, but because no candidate managed to do that, the law requires a runoff between the two rivals.

As vindictive as ever, Mugabe has unleashed his army and so called war veterans and ZANU PF youths to teach Zimbabweans a lesson.

People have died, lost their livelihoods, their possessions, their homes and everything they have worked hard for almost all their lives because Mugabe cannot accept defeat. Even a brief look at Mugabe's rule shows that he is vindictive by nature.

In 1983, Mugabe unleashed a reign of terror that became known as Gukurahundi in the Midlands and Matabeleland provinces of Zimbabwe. He said this was meant to quell "disturbances" he claimed were caused by "dissidents" who were threatening national peace.

The so-called dissidents were in fact former Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) forces who fought in the war under the command of the late Joshua Nkomo. The ZIPRA forces were accused of trying to cause a civil war in Zimbabwe.

However, the truth is that after independence, ZIPRA forces were unhappy about not being incorporated into the new Zimbabwe, though they had played a huge role in liberating the country.

Mugabe wanted the Zimbabwe National Liberation Association (ZANLA) forces that had been under his command during the war to take all the credit for the defeating the British forces and gave them preferential posts in the army, police and air force while ZIPRA forces were sidelined.

When ZIPRA forces spoke out, Mugabe hounded them like dogs. More than 20,000 innocent civilians were killed, accused of hiding and feeding the alleged dissidents.

The MDC now reports that at least 30 of its supporters have died in post election violence clearly perpetrated by ZANU PF. More than 3,000 people in rural Zimbabwe have also been displaced.

Eleven of the victims died on May 5th after ZANU PF militia descended on the rural village of Chinehanda in Chiweshe. Human rights activist say the Chiweshe incident has been one of the worst since this terror campaign began. Even aid officers from local humanitarian organizations that assist the displaced families are being arrested by police and harassed by the army.

The situation only gets worse and we pray for God's intervention.

In the event of a runoff I believe that ZANU PF will yet again suffer a huge and humiliating defeat. I know that once again Zimbabweans will vote tyranny out.

Tariro summed it up by saying, "Should this regime eventually get me, they should not make the mistake of leaving me alive because even in a wheelchair I will go and vote Mugabe out in the runoff."

About the Author
Constance Manika is a journalist who works for the independent press in Zimbabwe. She writes under this pseudonym to escape prosecution from a government whose onslaught and level of intolerance to journalists in the independent press is well documented.

In Meltdown in Zimbabwe, an exclusive and ongoing series at The WIP, Constance provides continued on-the-ground reporting from her embattled country where Zimbabweans struggle daily for democracy, economic sustainability and human rights.

Arson attacks on ZESN observers’ homes

The Zimbabwean

Friday, 09 May 2008 12:17

Alert - 9 May 2008 – ZESN is deeply concerned about the continued
targeting of its accredited observers in Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland
East by known ZANU PF supporters and war veterans for having allegedly
worked with the MDC in facilitating a ZANU PF defeat in the 2008 Harmonised
Election.

Reports received during the past 3 days point to arson attacks on the
homes of 5 accredited observers.  3 of the cases occurred at Logan Farm
about 10km from Shamva where ZANU PF supporters, particularly war veterans
had been threatening to evict and burn down resettled farmers that observed
the election.  It is confirmed that on the 5th of May 2008 war veterans and
ZANU PF supporters descended on the home of one supervisor and torched her
hut destroying food reserves and furniture in broad daylight.  Similar
attacks followed on the huts of two other observers on the same farm on
allegations that their activities on election day resulted in an MDC
victory.

In Wadzanai, a residential area in Shamva, the home of another ZESN
observer was extensively damaged and property destroyed when a gang of ZANU
PF youth went on a rampage attacking suspected MDC sympanthisers on the eve
of the 7th of May 2008. In all the incidents, the perpetrators of the acts
are known ZANU PF activists that have been threatening such attacks since
the announcement of election results in April.  Property has been
extensively damaged and food stocks have been drastically affected and the
acts are particularly heinous when one considers the food crisis in the
country at the moment.  The police have been informed of the incidents but
no arrests have been made.

The continued violation of the rights of accredited observers has
extended the confiscation of accreditation cards, ZESN observers t-shirts
and other identification particulars of these observers in Mutoko and Mudzi
North area. The perpetrators who are also restricting movement of citizens
in the area and asking people to report to their base camps include war
veterans, ZANU PF youth militias and traditional leaders like the headman
Chingwena of Mudzi North .

As already pointed out in earlier statements, in the absence of
concrete steps by relevant authorities to weed out rogue elements
perpetuating such human rights violations, the country could easily slide
into a state of anarchy where victims of politically motivated violence take
the law into their own hands in defence of their property and self.

The failure by the police to quickly contain the situation in Shamva
where over 100 victims of arson attacks by known ZANU PF supporters have
been camped at Shamva Police Station for over three days should be of
serious concern to authorities that are constitutionally mandated to uphold
the law and protect citizens.

ZESN observers have not engaged in any unlawful activity.  They are
therefore entitled to be protected by law.

ZESN calls upon ZEC, political parties and the police to swiftly
revive the Inter party Liaison Committees to stem out political violence
particularly in Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland East before more homes
are destroyed and innocent citizens are displaced.

Malloch-Brown's vision for Africa: 'having an aid policy is not enough'

Ex-UN man turned minister on the continent's future - and being policed by
the media

Patrick Wintour and Julian Borger
The Guardian,
Saturday May 10 2008

Of probably all the eminent figures drafted from outside Labour politics
into Gordon Brown's "government of all the talents" last year, Lord
Malloch-Brown, foreign office minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, had the
toughest entry into what he describes as Britain's media-policed political
culture.

In one interview the former UN deputy general secretary famously said that
Gordon Brown and George Bush would not be joined at the hip in the manner of
Bush and Tony Blair, a remark that fed much speculation about the end of the
"special relationship". Many also feared there would not be much of a
special relationship between Malloch-Brown and the foreign secretary, David
Miliband, after the former number two described himself as the éminence
grise.

Since then, he has effectively been gagged from speaking to the media. Now,
one year on, Malloch-Brown is full of praise for Miliband as "a great guy to
work for" and admits he had an initial, almost philosophical, problem
adjusting from international politics to an oppositional national culture.
"In international politics you are always looking for points of common
agreements with the other guy. It is the nature of it. You are trying to
find as much consensus as you can in a creative dynamic way to move things
forward. Working with someone like Koffi Annan, you do have a great freedom
to create that consensus, because the 192 member states at the UN have no
practical way of achieving one.

"In national politics, policed as we are by the media, it is the most
damaging thing on earth to say there is anything of value in what a Tory
just said. Before you know it, you are up for treason in the following
morning paper's headlines. It creates a rigid party line that I have had
some difficulty adjusting to.

"I am just not a particularly partisan figure. Equally, I am used to a
slightly more fluid, slightly less exacting, policy environment in which you
could float the odd balloon and see how other countries react without the
guillotine falling on you."

A former journalist with the Economist, Mark Malloch Brown made his name
with Washington's legendary Sawyer Miller political consultancy during the
late 1980s, and was made a life peer when he was brought into Brown's
government last year. He admits to being unique in seeing Brown in a
different way to most. "With Gordon I have this spectacular relationship in
that I am the only one whose entire knowledge of his politics comes solely
from meeting him internationally. I knew him from the World Bank and the UN,
so I look down the opposite end of the telescope at Gordon Brown to most.

"I see this Adam Smith figure that has this Scottish belief in the global
political economy and how it operates, and is fascinated by the issue of
markets and market corrections, and why the Doha and the Millennium
Development Goals are so important. I think I was appointed as minister for
Gordon's international preoccupations because for so much of what he is
doing on Africa, Asia and international institutional reform I am - through
David - his point person."

The immediate preoccupation is Zimbabwe. Britain, as the former colonial
power, has to tread delicately. He sees a new mood in the region for the
impasse over the elections to be resolved cleanly by holding a second round
of elections. Faced by ballot rigging and intimidation, the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change have not yet agreed to participate in such a
round.

Malloch-Brown argues: "You have a situation where the constitutional
requirement of 50% plus one victory in the first round has not been met, and
even the opposition is claiming only 50.3%, so no one can claim with
complete confidence and objectivity that the barrier has been crossed. So to
prevent a weak compromise government, the cleanest way is for a second round
that gives a decisive victory to the opposition, which seems the likely
result."

Authoritarian

"The Southern African leaders - who have a better finger on the pulse
probably than we do - look at Mugabe's authority as being fatally breached.
Their view is that when an authoritarian ruler like that goes down he
doesn't get up again. A vital climate of fear that he exercises over people
has been broken and you can't restore it."

In his view, true support for MDC is running at 75%: "It is almost
impossible to imagine a degree of disguised intimidation that could reverse
that in a way that is plausible or credible."

But he also discloses the existence of parallel discussions, sometimes
through intermediaries, between MDC and elements of Zanu PF over a
government of national unity in which the MDC would take the presidency. He
estimates that Mugabe's allies in government are so fractured and in such
disarray that they no longer regard Mugabe as the strongman, but as a
millstone round their neck. "They are in a much more defensive and reactive
mode than is visible from outside.

"What gets lost in this is the extraordinary flip from where Mugabe could
broadly rely on benign compliance in the region with his worst excesses, to
one where he has basically lost most of the key leaders who are embarrassed,
exasperated and impatient. They feel the reputation of the region is being
dragged down by all this."

He claims the dispute is no longer seen as between Mugabe and the colonial
power, but between Mugabe and the world. "It has sharply reduced Mugabe's
ability to invent a result."

He understands the reluctance of South African President Mbeki to "embarrass
an old liberation hero of the continent", adding: "What Mbeki is worried
about is a genuine breakdown of governance altogether in Zimbabwe, so he
gets a Somalia in his neighbourhood." Nevertheless, he suggests, "the time
has come for a firmer public position", warning Mbeki not to get behind
public opinion in South Africa.

The frustration is that Zimbabwe is hindering "a repositioning of Africa in
the eyes of the west, as not just being this broken problem, this dependency
region of catastrophe, aid and climate change". He sees a highly
differentiated growth in Africa, that makes sweeping talk of the continent
as misleading as generalisations about Asia.

"We have three groups of countries. We have the energy producers that are
having huge governance problems in relation to how they manage resources in
a transparent, rule-of-law based way - the so-called curse of oil or
diamonds. We have a second group - the African tigers - that have been
growing very fast from a low base without oil, for instance Mozambique,
which has been growing at 10% for a long time. The simple take on Kenya's
problems is that they have been caused by poverty - the truth is that Kenya
has reduced its dependency on aid to about 6%. Kenya's problems grew from
how its growth was distributed, and not from inert poverty that people
associate with political conflict in Africa. And yes, there is a third tier
of highly problematic countries with low growth."

The new scramble for Africa and its resources, he argues, could go one of
two ways. "We could have a race to the bottom - making private, less than
transparent, not fully honest deals to secure these resources, or we could
have the system leveraged up to a genuine competition for Africa's
resources, which would benefit Africa and western companies with deep
pockets willing to pay market prices for these assets. We need to recognise
in this new world that we will win some and lose some."

Scramble for Africa

The new formidable competitor in Africa is China, a force that he
controversially sees as playing a largely beneficent role. Pointing out that
China is winning 75% of contracts in sub-Saharan Africa, he argues that it
is rightly reorientating aid in Africa away from just education to
infrastructure and agriculture. "We are seeing a phenomenon that we last saw
in south-east Asia 50 years ago when the Chinese started stores in the
railheads in the Philippines and Malaysia for the plantations, and by doing
so, brought capitalism. It has been a long time since anybody left Britain
to start a small store in rural Zambia or in the Congo, but the Chinese are
doing it, and they are bringing commerce to economies that have been
ostensibly feudal up to this point."

In the process, China is globally engaging and developing a new doctrine of
intervention. "Global engagement is the great counter to the [former]
domestic instinct of China, which is to limit their international engagement
to a commercial one."

With all this differentiation, resources, proximity to Europe and Chinese
engagement, he concludes: "It is time for Britain to show the respect of
having not just a development policy, but a foreign policy for Africa."