Daily Mail, UK
Last updated at 16:20pm on 13th May
2008
Zimbabwean police stopped a convoy of ambassadors investigating
attacks on
opposition supporters today and an officer threateningly drove
his car
toward the U.S. ambassador during the standoff.
A UN
official, meanwhile, warned that post-election violence could reach
crisis
levels.
The diplomats involved in the incident at a roadblock on the edge
of the
capital, Harare, have had tense relations with the
government.
The group included U.S. Ambassador James McGee and the
British envoy.
Police demanded the diplomats prove they had official
permission for a visit
to hospitals and an alleged torture camp they had
just completed.
Mr McGee insisted the convoy be allowed through and the
11 vehicles passed
through after about an hour. A police car escorted them
back to the U.S.
Embassy before disappearing.
The incident reached
its high point when a police officer threatened to beat
one of McGee's
senior aides.
The officer got into his car and lurched toward McGee after
he had demanded
the officer's name. The car made contact with McGee's shins,
but he was not
injured.
McGee climbed onto the hood of the car while
his aide snatched the keys from
the ignition, then the diplomats used their
mobile phone cameras to take
photographs of the officer.
The
confrontation was "a message to us, to try to control what we are
doing,"
said U.S. Embassy spokesman Paul Engelstad, who was among around 50
diplomats and journalists on the tour.
Japanese, EU, Dutch and
Tanzanian envoys and an Associated Press reporter
were also in the
convoy.
McGee noted the government has denied repeated reports from
opposition
officials and human rights groups of government-orchestrated
violence
against the opposition.
"The government has said, 'Present
us with proof.' I think today we have
done just that.
"We do have
concrete proof of what is happening in the countryside and the
government
will have to listen," Mr McGee said.
A priest in northeastern Zimbabwe
had led the diplomats to a lumber camp
whose main building was occupied by
what witnesses told reporters were
ruling party militants.
McGee said
when he confronted them, they hid four notebooks with
interrogation
schedules.
The priest also led the diplomats to a church hospital where
22 people were
being treated after political attacks, some beaten so
severely the flesh had
been stripped from their backs.
Doctors and
nurses at the hospital said one person had died at the hospital
and another
three had died in nearby villages after political attacks in the
last
month.
The diplomats and journalists saw several other victims at a
second
hospital.
The UN resident representative in Zimbabwe spoke of
the escalating tensions
in both rural and urban areas.
"There are
indications that the level of violence is escalating in all these
areas and
could reach crisis levels," Agustino Zacarias told reporters.
He said the
violence was preventing UN humanitarian agencies from reaching
people in
need and had forced them to scale down operations.
Mr Zacarias said
"several people" had died, hundreds had been hospitalized
and many more
displaced by the violence, which was blamed on "some elements
of the
security forces, youth militias and war veterans and gangs of
supporters."
He said there was an emerging pattern of violence
targeting rural supporters
of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change.
Non-governmental organizations and civil rights defenders were
being
targeted, Mr Zacarias said.
The UN representative's comments
echoed those McGee made in an open letter
to media organisations published
yesterday in the state-run Herald
newspaper.
The letter accused
President Robert Mugabe's party of orchestrating violence
to intimidate
opposition supporters before a runoff presidential election.
Mr McGee
said the U.S. government has received confirmed reports of at least
20
deaths and more than 700 incidents of violence resulting in more than 200
people being hospitalized since the first round of voting March
29.
The paper in turn criticized McGee, accusing him of "very scandalous
acts"
and of breaching diplomatic procedure by speaking out on the violence
that
has riven Zimbabwe since the first round.
Opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai won the most votes in the first round,
but not the simple
majority needed to avoid a runoff, according to official
results.
Observers inside and outside Zimbabwe have questioned
whether a second round
could be free and fair with the opposition unable to
campaign freely because
of attacks and threats.
No date for a runoff
has been set.
Mail and Guardian
Mvurwi, Zimbabwe
13 May 2008
05:43
Armed police tried to prevent the United States
ambassador to
Zimbabwe and several other diplomats from leaving a hospital
where victims
of post-election violence were being treated Tuesday, an
Agence
France-Presse correspondent with the convoy said.
Ambassador James McGee and four colleagues tried unsuccessfully
to tour a
hospital in Mvurwi, about 80km north of Harare, without prior
approval and
then found their exit blocked by four armed police.
A
stand-off lasting around 10 minutes ensued before McGee strode
forward and
opened the gates to leave the government hospital himself.
"I
can only speculate that it was just a message for us not to
go and expose
this. Obviously they didn't want us to see the brutality ...
happening in
the rural areas," US embassy spokesperson Paul Engelstad told
reporters.
McGee, who travelled to the countryside with
fellow diplomats
from Britain, The Netherlands, Japan and the European
Union, called it "a
minor, very minor misunderstanding" with a security
officer.
Later as the convoy left for the capital, it was
detained at a
roadblock for almost an hour where police asked for proof the
diplomats had
followed procedures requiring them to notify the authorities
of their travel
plans.
"They wanted to check that we had
put in a diplomatic note. They
asked for our diplomatic note which they were
shown," said the US embassy
spokesperson.
After being
rebuffed at the first hospital, the convoy travelled
to visit another, where
they were able to spend 30 minutes touring wards and
visiting victims of
violence.
"I think it is absolutely urgent that the entire
world knows
what's happening in Zimbabwe," McGee said.
"The [Zimbabwe] government has said 'present us with proof of
what is
happening' ... now we have concrete proof of what is happening," he
added.
British ambassador to the country, Andrew Pockock,
said the
violence was "pretty well organised, well calculated and very
disturbing."
"This is an effort to change the voting
demography in Zimbabwe
either by beating people and intimidating them or
displacing them ... so
they don't vote," he said.
Leoni
Cuelenaere, deputy head of mission at The Netherlands
embassy, said she was
"shocked" by what she saw in the hospital.
Of the political
violence, EU ambassador Xavier Marcel said: "We
all wish that it [the
violence] can be stopped as soon as possible." - AFP
Reuters
Tue 13 May
2008, 17:54 GMT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States condemned
Zimbabwe's government
Tuesday for its "harassment" of the U.S. ambassador
and other diplomats
questioned by police after visiting post-election
violence victims at a
hospital.
State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack said U.S. ambassador James McGee
and diplomats from Britain, the
European Union, Japan, the Netherlands and
Tanzania, were questioned for
about 45 minutes at a roadblock outside of the
capital Harare
Tuesday.
"I guess it is harassment," said McCormack of the questioning of
the
diplomats.
"If on two occasions you're held up for nearly two
hours and questioned
about what you're doing, by security officials, then,
yeah, that's
harassment. Sure," he added.
The diplomats were on their
way back from visiting a rural hospital to see
victims of post-election
violence. They were also held up at the hospital
and questioned by security
officials over their reasons for being there,
said McCormack.
"It's
indicative of the kind of atmosphere that exists in Zimbabwe right
now,"
said McCormack of the Zimbabwean government's tactics in dealing with
the
diplomats.
"If you have foreign diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe who are
facing this
kind of treatment, you can only imagine for Zimbabwean citizens
what life is
like if they make an effort to speak up, to voice their
opinions," he added.
While they were questioned, McCormack said none of
the diplomats were
physically harmed and nothing had been confiscated by the
security
officials.
British ambassador to Zimbabwe Andrew Pocock,
when asked by Reuters about
reports that Western ambassadors had been
detained during their tour of the
hospital, said: "We are having a little
chat with the police. We have not
been detained."
The United States
has had harsh words for Zimbabwe's government, accusing it
of harassing and
attacking the opposition following the disputed March 29
poll which will
likely result in a runoff between President Robert Mugabe
and opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Washington has asked Zimbabwe's government to
provide security guarantees
for Tsvangirai, who left Zimbabwe shortly after
the March 29 poll and has
been visiting the region to garner support for his
cause.
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change accuses the ruling
ZANU-PF of
using violence and intimidation against its supporters ahead of
the runoff,
which could unseat Mugabe after nearly 30 years in
power.
The United States has also accused the Zimbabwean government of a
campaign
of "state-sponsored violence" against the opposition. The
Zimbabwean
government rejects these allegations. (Reporting by Sue Pleming;
Editing by
David Wiessler)
news24
13/05/2008 19:43 -
(SA)
Mvurwi ? The US embassy said on Tuesday that it believes the
attempt by
Zimbabwean police to prevent them from leaving a hospital in
Mvurwi where
they visited victims of post-election violence "was a message
to not
expose... the brutality".
"I can only speculate that it was
just a message for us not to go and expose
this. Obviously they didn't want
us to see the brutality ... happening in
the rural areas," US embassy
spokesperson Paul Engelstad told reporters.
This was after Ambassador
James McGee and four colleagues tried
unsuccessfully to tour a hospital in
Mvurwi, around 80 kilometres north of
Harare, without prior approval and
then found their exit blocked by four
armed police.
A stand-off
lasting around 10 minutes ensued before McGee strode forward and
opened the
gates to leave the government hospital himself.
McGee, who travelled to
the countryside with fellow diplomats from Britain,
the Netherlands, Japan
and the European Union, called it "a minor, very
minor misunderstanding"
with a security officer.
Later as the convoy left for the capital, it was
detained at a roadblock for
almost an hour where police asked for a
diplomatic clearance note that
allows them to travel 35 kilometres outside
the capital.
After being rebuffed at the first hospital, the convoy
travelled to visit
another, where they were able to spend 30 minutes touring
wards and visiting
victims of violence.
"I think it is absolutely
urgent that the entire world knows what's
happening in Zimbabwe," McGee
said.
"The (Zimbabwe) government has said 'present us with proof of what
is
happening' ... now we have concrete proof of what is happening," he
added.
British ambassador to the country, Andrew Pocock, said the
violence was
"pretty well organised, well calculated and very
disturbing".
"This an effort to change the voting demography in Zimbabwe
either by
beating people and intimidating them or displacing them ... so
they don't
vote," he said.
New Zimbabwe
Last updated:
05/14/2008 02:10:43
------Statement by the RBZ-----
MATTER OF FACT:
THE HERALD STORY OF 13 MAY, 2008 TITLED “ZIMBABWE DEFIES
ODDS, PAYS US$700 M
TO AfDB DEBT” REFERS
1. As Monetary Authorities, our professional
integrity and ethics have
impelled that we comment on the recent article of
The Herald which suggested
that Zimbabwe paid US$700 million to the African
Development Bank (AfDB).
2. Whilst the article made nostalgic good
reading, as the country’s Central
Bank and custodian of Government’s foreign
exchange receipts and payments,
we wish to categorically state that to our
knowledge, there has not been any
such payment.
3. Indeed, back in
2004/2005 Zimbabwe made a surprise payment to the
International Monetary
Fund (IMF), which experience risks making the public
believe the recent
unfounded newspaper article alleging Zimbabwe’s payments
to the AfDB this
time around.
4. If the country had such resources (US$700 million), the
Reserve Bank
would have prioritized the importation of grain (maize and
wheat); the
importation of fuel, electricity, medical drugs, industrial
chemicals,
fertilizers, seeds, water treatment chemicals, agricultural
equipment, and
other infrastructural development essentials, and of course
leaving some for
debt service.
5. Although as a Central Bank we are
closely working with the Ministry of
Finance with several rods in the fire
to raise foreign exchange resources to
support the economy, such efforts
have not as yet resulted in multilateral
or bilateral creditors and/or
donors disbursing funds or taking over our
debts.
6. To this end,
therefore, we are making efforts to trace and verify the
source and
authenticity of the Herald story, in the interest of setting the
record
straight.
7. Until facts are established on where this article came from,
we would
like to advise the Nation, and our cooperating regional and
international
partners to treat this story with caution.
Thank
you.
________________________
DR. G. GONO
GOVERNOR
13
MAY 2008
News24
Zim won't say how it paid debt
13/05/2008 18:21 -
(SA)
Harare - The Zimbabwean minister of finance refused to reveal
from where his
country managed to raise the US $650 000 to repay part of its
loan to the
African Development Bank (AfDB).
"All countries pay their
debts. When everybody gets a loan they know how
they will repay it," said
Samuel Mumbengegwi, Zimbabwe's minister of finance
in a brief interview in
Maputo on Tuesday.
He refused to answer when asked if his country would
be able to repay its
overdue debts to lending institutions.
Zimbabwe
owes the AfDB US $250 million, according to the bank's president
Donald
Kaberuka.
Kaberuka said his bank was not concerned about how Zimbabwe
managed to raise
the US $650 000 to pay part of its overdue
credit.
"They do not have to tell us how they raised the money because
they are a
sovereign state," said Kaberuka in an interview on
Tuesday.
The bank also said that country had made an undertaking that it
would pay
the remaining debt in the stipulated six-month period.
SW Radio Africa
(London)
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 13 May 2008
Tichaona
Sibanda
Police in Harare have barred the MDC from holding public
rallies in the
capital, ahead of the presidential run-off whose date has not
yet been
announced.
The party's regional officer based in South
Africa Nqobizitha Mlilo said
Zanu PF, which is now the official opposition
party in parliament, is
holding rallies.
'This is an indication
of a regime that has realised they have lost the
elections, a party that is
incapable of winning any elections. So the only
way they believe they can do
something is to frustrate our supporters and
close every little bit of
political space in the country,' Mlilo said.
The MDC said they had
planned to hold three separate rallies in Mufakose and
Budiriro on Saturday
and Sunday and at the Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield on
Saturday, 18th
May.
'Following the provisions of the Public Order and Security Act the
MDC had
tried to notify the police of it's plan to hold the three rallies in
Harare.
However, police authorities at Southerton Police Station refused to
even
accept the letters from the MDC officials,' a statement from the party
said.
After the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced that people
should prepare
for a presidential run-off, Zanu PF has been holding rallies
across the
country. Grace Mugabe, Elliot Manyika and other Zanu PF officials
have all
addressed rallies recently.
'But the same opportunity is
being denied to the party and our leader who
won the historic election on 29
March 2008. The political atmosphere is
biased towards the outgoing regime.
Zimbabweans cannot freely express
themselves in the so-called run-off when
they are being battered every day
and when they are being denied their basic
rights and freedoms of
association and assembly,' the statement
added.
This is one of the reasons why party leader Morgan Tsvangirai has
delayed
his return to the country. Initially, he had announced he was to go
back on
Monday but because of security and other concerns his return trip
has been
shelved for the moment. It's believed Tsvangirai was supposed to
have
addressed these rallies. The MDC leader won the first round of the poll
and
analyst believe the veteran former trade unionist will defeat Mugabe by
an
even wider margin in the run-off.
The MDC have asked that SADC,
the African Union and the United Nations
continue to keep the events in the
country under the microscope. They said
if observers and monitors were not
quickly deployed, the humanitarian crisis
would continue to escalate.
SW
Radio Africa (London)
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 13 May
2008
Tererai Karimakwenda
Just 2 days after the MDC MP for
Mutasa Central in Manicaland was arrested
while reporting the abduction of a
youth member, another elected opposition
official has been taken into police
custody.
Reports say that Heya Shoko, the newly elected MDC MP for Bikita
West, was
arrested in Masvingo on Tuesday. It is still not clear why the
police have
detained him.
The crackdown continues to target
traditional leaders and villagers in
remote areas. Our correspondent Lionel
Saungweme reported that Colonel Den
Masomere of the Zimbabwe National Army
is alleged to have forced out village
headman, Sabhuku Esau Chikanda, and
replaced him with Jefias Jinyika. This
happened in the Ngundu area of Chivi
South constituency. Saungweme described
Jinyika as an outspoken ZANU-PF
supporter who has no sympathy for the MDC.
Our correspondent ran into MDC
supporters in Bulawayo who said they had been
evicted from Ngundu. The
villagers told him that many MDC members have been
banned from staying in
the area. A stream of MDC supporters are now refugees
in Masvingo and
Bulawayo. The displaced villagers have also reported that
Masomere has a
group of ZANU-PF youth militia and so-called "war vets" at
his command. The
Colonel also confiscated bags of maize that the villagers
had purchased from
the Grain Marketing Board.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)
reported Tuesday that one of
their vehicles, a Toyota land cruiser, has been
confiscated by ZANU-PF
supporters at Kotwa Centre, in Mudzi. The ZESN driver
and officer reported
that they were stopped by ZANU PF supporters who wanted
to know the purpose
of their visit in the area. They were interrogated for 6
hours and had their
vehicle searched. All that was found was the driver's
log book which showed
deliveries that had been made to various ZESN partners
and members. The two
were then detained at the ZANU PF offices in Kotwa
until 2:30 A.M. when they
managed to escape.
We reported on Monday
that ZANU-PF youth militia murdered Sabhuku Elias
Madzivanzira in Ward 8
Shamva. His wife was suffered severe injuries from
the attack with axes that
took place on Saturday, and she was being blocked
from getting medical
treatment. We were not able to find out whether she has
been treated
yet.
Our sources say state run hospitals have been ordered not to treat
victims
of political violence. The victims are now being forced to seek
treatment at
private clinics and most cannot afford the fees. It is known
that many
deaths and serious injuries are going unreported in the remote
areas.
Luke Tamborinyoka, Director of Information for the Tsvangirai MDC,
said the
main areas being targeted are Uzumba, Guruve, Shamva, Gokwe, Mvurwi
and
Masvingo. He described their provincial offices around the country as
"refugee centres" filled with victims of state-sponsored violence.
Tamborinyoka added: Our people are living in the mountains and are phoning
the party to report that they have been attacked."
Tamborinyoka said
that ZANU-PF is planning to win a presidential runoff by
displacing
opposition supporters so that they cannot vote if they are not in
their
wards. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission recently announced that
voters will
only be able to cast their ballots in their own specific wards.
Tamborinyoka
described this as a ploy and a rigging mechanism. He said the
entire country
should be considered one ward so people can go anywhere to
vote.
In a
statement on the violence the MDC said: "The arrest of Hon. Shoko is
another
attempt by the ZANU-PF regime to frustrate the operations of the MDC
ahead
of the presidential run-off. Ever since President Morgan Tsvangirai
won
convincingly against Robert Mugabe, the nation has not known peace. The
MDC
is aware that the regime is engaged in a desperate attempt to cow the
nation
ahead of the so-called run-off."
There is consensus that the violence
will not boost the ruling party's
chances of winning runoff presidential
election. Many of the victims say
that they are now even more supportive of
the opposition.
africasia
GLENDALE, Zimbabwe, May 13 (AFP)
Nursing deep cuts to his buttocks that
prevent him from lying on his back,
62-year-old James Chiripanyanga told a
group of diplomats visiting him in
hospital Tuesday how he was targeted as a
suspected supporter of the
Zimbabwean opposition.
The retired
machinist said his name was called out at a meeting convened by
suspected
ruling ZANU-PF youths a week ago. He was led to a nearby tree and
the last
he remembers of his ordeal was when he was handcuffed and kicked in
the
head.
"I remember regaining consciousness at my house where I had been
carried in
a wheelbarrow and the next thing I was brought here," he said,
speaking from
his hospital bed in this farming town, 60 kilometres, north of
the capital.
His 32-year-old wife, Sylvia, lying down in female ward in
the same
hospital, recalls how she was also pulled from a crowd of villagers
called
for a meeting.
"I was taken by six men. They made me lie down
on my stomach while two of
them held my hands down. I was hit on the
buttocks after which I was ordered
to lift up my feet and was hit on the
soles," she said.
"If police had not come to rescue us, I would have been
dead," she said.
Their stories tally with claims by trade unions, doctors
and teachers'
associations that pro-government militias have been
terrorising suspected
supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change in rural areas.
The MDC says 32 of its supporters have been killed
in post-election violence
which followed disputed March 29 elections in
which the ruling party and
President Robert Mugabe were
defeated.
Hitler Muguze, 41, a bricklayer and his wife Anatoria, were
also attacked.
He said they were never told why they were being
beaten.
"I don't belong to any political party, but they beat me up," he
said.
Keen to see evidence of attacks with their own eyes, a group of
Western
ambassadors including the US representative visited the Howard
Hospital, run
by a Salvation Army mission, on Tuesday, where they chatted
with victims.
Authorities at the hospital said 22 people were brought in
a week ago and
one has since died. The most common and serious wounds are
deep cuts on the
buttocks inflicted by sticks.
A 37-year-old teacher,
walking with the aid of frames, said a group of 300
youths came from a
nearby town of Mount Darwin to assault anyone suspected
of helping the
opposition.
"They accused nurses, teachers and other government workers
of campaigning
for the opposition. I don't want to teach in a government
school anymore and
from here I am going to Harare," he said.
Teachers
have been particularly targeted in the violence because of their
links to
the MDC and their part in voter education programmes.
Samuel Grease, a
farmworker carrying a bunch of spinach leaves, was attacked
for allegedly
selling avocado pears on polling day to supporters of Simba
Makoni, who came
third in the presidential elections.
"I am scared. I will probably be
asked after this what I was talking to you
about," he said.
Some
ZANU-PF members were also caught up in the violence, including a former
local government councillor Kapenda Mwanza who had his buttocks
butchered.
"Initially I nursed the idea that if I get well I will go to
Mozambique...
to get weapons and hunt them (his assailants) down one by one,
but my church
members have advised me that God will deal with them," he said
groaning from
pain in his hospital bed.
VOA
By Peta
Thornycroft
Johannesburg
13 May 2008
A U.N.
official in Zimbabwe says post-election violence is increasing, and
he
largely blames President Robert Mugabe's supporters for the attacks. Peta
Thornycroft reports that political tensions are rising as opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai prepares to return to Zimbabwe for a runoff election
campaign.
The United Nations is warning that post-election violence
is reaching crisis
levels in Zimbabwe.
In a rare public statement,
U.N. resident representative Agustino Zacarias
says the violence is largely
inflicted on rural supporters of the Movement
for Democratic Change, which
beat the ruling ZANU-PF in the March
parliamentary election. He said
non-governmental organizations and civil
rights defenders were also being
targeted
Zacarias blames most of the violence on groups loyal to ZANU-PF.
But he said
there were some incidents in which MDC people had perpetrated
acts of
violence.
He said this unrest is preventing U.N. humanitarian
agencies from reaching
people in need and had forced it to reduce
operations.
Shortly after the U.N. official made his statement, police
stopped a convoy
of ambassadors on a tour to a hospital in Mvurwi about 80
kilometers north
of Harare.
According to journalists traveling with
the diplomats that included U.S.
Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee, the
police demanded that the group
provide proof they had permission to visit
the hospital. The group was
visiting victims of political violence who were
being treated at a hospital
in Mvurwi, and insisted they be let
through.
In an open letter published Monday in the state-controlled daily
Herald
newspaper, McGee accused President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF of
orchestrating
violence to intimidate MDC supporters before a runoff
presidential election.
McGee said the U.S. government has confirmed at least
20 deaths and more
than 700 incidents of violence resulting in more than 200
people
hospitalized since the first round of voting March 29.
The
Herald accused the U.S. ambassador of "very scandalous acts" and of
breaching diplomatic protocol by speaking out on the
violence.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the most votes in the
first round,
but not the simple majority needed to avoid a runoff, according
to official
results.
Hundreds of MDC supporters, activists and party
workers as well as human
rights lawyers, journalists, students, trade
unionists and non-governmental
organization workers have been arrested since
the elections.
The Southern African Development Community's Zimbabwe
mediator, South Africa
President Thabo Mbeki, has said nothing about the
violence since he had
lengthy meetings with President Mugabe last
Friday.
Morgan Tsvangirai said Saturday he would be returning to Zimbabwe
this week
for a victory tour and to campaign for the presidential runoff,
which was
supposed to take place by May 24 but has been postponed to an
unknown date.
nasdaq
JOHANNESBURG (AFP)--Zimbabwean opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, who has
been out of the country for more than a month,
will return home by the
weekend to prepare for a run-off election, his aide
said Tuesday.
Tsvangirai is scheduled to address a major rally in Harare
on Sunday where
he will kick-start his campaign for the run-off against
President Robert
Mugabe, the date of which hasn't been announced, said
George Sibotshiwe.
"We are certainly going back this weekend. We may even
be back before then,"
Sibotshiwe told AFP.
The Movement for
Democratic Change leader beat longtime incumbent Mugabe in
the first round
of voting March 29 but fell just short of an overall
majority needed to
avoid a run-off.
Announcing his intention Saturday to contest the
run-off, Tsvangirai said he
planned to be back home within a few
days.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-13-080922ET
The Zimbabwean
Tuesday, 13 May 2008 11:49
HARARE - Zimbabwe's president-in-waiting,
Morgan Tsvangirai, 56,
cancelled his return to Zimbabwe Monday to kick off
his run off campaign,
but was still expected in the country before the close
of this week, senior
MDC officials have confirmed.
The Zimbabwean
heard that Tsvangirai, who was expected in Zimbabwe
Monday, has stayed his
return because Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos,
a close ally of Mugabe
who also heads the SADC troika on Politics, Defence
and Security; had still
not obtained a security guarantee for Tsvangirai by
Monday. The MDC leader
met Dos Santos in Luanda on Saturday to discuss
modalities of returning to
Zimbabwe.
It is feared Tsvangirai could be jailed upon return on
treason charges
or physically harmed. Police commissioner-general Augustine
Chihuri has
already stated that police were "keen" to interview Biti about
his
pre-emptive announcement of election results, which Chihuri asserts was
illegal. Biti however said he merely restated election results that were
already in the public domain since they were posted outside polling
stations.
Tsvangirai's spokesman George Sibotshiwe confirmed
that the MDC leader
would be in Zimbabwe before the close of this week. But
senior MDC officials
said privately Tsvangirai was expected in Harare
tomorrow Friday.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said his party
expected the police force
to act professionally and allow Tsvangirai to
return unhindered and complete
the process of change.
"Of
course we are extremely worried about the security not only of the
president, but of all those in the democratic movement or those with
alternative view point to that of Zanu (PF)," Chamisa said. "That is why we
continue to appeal to the police to execute their duties
professionally."
Tsvangirai had earlier stated on Saturday that he
would return to
Zimbabwe in two days, meaning Monday, to begin campaigning
for a second
round of voting.
He has been in exile since April
10, launching an intense diplomatic
offensive aimed at pressuring Mugabe to
relinquish power. Tsvangirai has
been based in South Africa and Botswana for
the past month, amid concerns
for his safety in Zimbabwe, where the MDC says
31 of its members have been
killed and hundreds of supporters injured by
pro-Mugabe militia and soldiers
since the elections.
He has
tabled a set of conditions before participating in the poll,
including
reconstitution of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commision (ZEC), that the
run off
be held by May 23 and international supervision for the run off.
Zanu (PF)
spokesman and interim Justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa has
rejected these
demands.
Chamisa retorted: "There is no reason why men and women of
good
standing, men of good and reputable moral, political and electoral
practices
would hide away from international observers. Zanu (PF) are not
interested
in having international observers because they know that they are
thieves."
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commision has also ruled out the
possibility of
the run off being held by May 23. Mugabe, 84, who has ruled
Zimbabwe since
independence in 1980, is seeking a sixth term in power,
despite vandalizing
Zimbabwe's economy.
Reuters
Tue 13
May 2008, 8:15 GMT
JOHANNESBURG, May 13 (Reuters) - The leader of
Zimbabwe's main opposition
group said on Tuesday he would contest a
presidential run-off against
veteran President Robert Mugabe even if only
regional observers could be
present.
Morgan Tsvangirai had previously
called for unfettered access for
international observers, which the
government rejected.
"At the moment the obligation is on (regional group)
SADC. I am sure that
they will fulfil their obligations, especially to send
SADC peacekeepers and
observers," Movement for Democratic Change leader
Tsvangirai told Reuters in
a telephone interview. "For us that is
sufficient."
Asked how long he was willing to wait for a run-off,
after electoral
authorities said there would likely be a delay, he
said:
"The thing is that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, if it has to
extend
the time of a run-off, it has to do so within a reasonable period.
I'm sure
that SADC will also be pressurising them to set a date." (Reporting
by
Caroline Drees; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
The Zimbabwean
Tuesday, 13 May 2008 08:18
Zimbabwe Election Support
Network
Harare 13 May 2008 – A vehicle, a Toyota land
cruiser belonging to the
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has been
confiscated by Robert
Mugabe's ZANU PF supporters at Kotwa Centre, Mudzi,
about 130kms north-east
of Harare.
The ZESN driver and officer
who had the vehicle reported that they
were stopped by the ZANU PF
supporters who were in an unregistered red
Mitsubishi open truck in Mudzi
and were asked to explain the purpose of
their visit in the area. After 6
hours of questioning, the ZANU PF
supporters searched the vehicle and found
the driver’s delivery book which
showed deliveries that had been done to
various partners and members. The
two ZESN staff members were then
subsequently detained at around 1000hrs at
the ZANU PF offices in Kotwa
under the guard of three ZANU PF youths. Around
0230hrs the next morning ,
the two managed to escape fearing for their
lives.
ZESN says in
a statement released today that it is distressed by the
continued reports of
observers being victimised and assaulted in the
aftermath of the 29 March
2008 harmonised elections.
" ZESN would like to remind all
political parties in Zimbabwe, in
particular ZANU PF, the police, the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the
general public that in observing this
and previous elections, ZESN has
broken no Zimbabwean law and has conducted
its electoral observation efforts
in accordance with the laws of the country
including recognised regional and
international standards.
" As
such, the organization calls the responsible authorities to
ensure the
apprehension of perpetrators of violence. ZESN urges the police
to launch a
massive campaign that protects observers, party agents and
supporters of any
political party. Political leaders should continue making
public
pronouncements against any forms of violence regardless of the
perpetrator’s
affiliation," says the statement .
The Zimbabwean
Tuesday,
13 May 2008 11:51
by Nelson Chamisa.
The death toll of MDC
victims of political violence has reached 32
after eight deaths were
recorded in the last 72 hours.
Political violence perpetrated by
Zanu PF supporters has reached
alarming and shocking levels with the MDC
today recording the deaths of 32
of its members since announcement of the
presidential poll results, which
showed that President Morgan Tsvangirai had
trounced Robert Mugabe in the
historic poll.Today, the MDC received two
reports of deaths in Gokwe
Nembudziya following a week of unprecedented
violence in the area. The Zanu
PF militia led by one Major Moyo from the
Zimbabwe National Army is
perpetrating the violence.
Zanu PF
supporters on Sunday night murdered two MDC activists, Isaac
Danda and
another man the MDC has managed to identify only as Gomwe, 84. The
two were
murdered in the Tsungai area where Zanu PF thugs looted and burnt
down a
shop belonging to MDC senatorial candidate, Liah Nyathi.
According to
witnesses Danda was stabbed with a knife and died on the
spot while Gomwe
was axed on the head and died on his way to Gokwe Hospital.
The MDC
House of Assembly candidate, Kizito Mbiriza attempted to make
a report at
Nembudziya Police Station but was instead arrested by the police
and is
still in police custody.
A number of MDC activists who own businesses
in the area had their
shops destroyed by the Zanu PF activists.
The
MDC candidate for Muzvezve constituency, Midlands, Ketayi Makosa
was
detained on Saturday for three days at Eiffel Flats police station on
trumped up charges on threatening Zanu PF supporters.
In Harare,
Nelson Emmanuel, 29, of Harare South was buried on Sunday
after Zanu PF
supporters beat him to death at his home in Hopley Farm.
Emmanuel leaves
behind a wife and a three year-old daughter.
Other deaths that the MDC
has managed to record are of three MDC
supporters who were murdered in
Uzumba, in Mashonaland East on Saturday 10
May. They are, of Musafare
Mudimu, Karombe Benson Chipingu both of Manyika
village and Ruth
Mushayahembe of Chimbwanda village.
In Shamva North, Mashonaland
Central, Elias Madzivanzira, a headman in
ward 8 and his wife were axed to
death by Zanu PF youths including purported
war veterans known as Muroyiwa
and Joshua who are based at Bata Farm in the
area.
The death toll
of Zanu PF's political violence at Manyika village has
risen to three
following the earlier death of Brighton Mabwera, aged five
years. The child
was burnt to ashes on 17 April after Zanu PF supporters
torched the house of
his parents.
According to MDC supporters in the area, Gokwe now
resembles a war
zone as the situation was tense and MDC supporters have been
forced to flee
to the mountains as their houses have been razed to the
ground. Zanu PF
supporters have also set up torture bases in the
area.
This situation is contrary to claims by the police today that
they had
managed to dismantle torture bases and had intensified their
operations.
Zanu PF is at the centre of the violence-taking place
nationwide.
Whatever it takes, the people of Zimbabwe are geared for change.
They want
their dignity back. They want to finish off this regime at the
next
available opportunity.
HARARE, 13 May 2008 (IRIN) -
The United Nations has asked the government to
help it conduct an assessment
to evaluate the extent of politically
motivated violence, which "could reach
crisis levels", warned Agostinho
Zacarias, the UN Resident Representative
and Humanitarian Coordinator in
Zimbabwe.
"We are in touch with the
government through the ministry of foreign affairs
and they have requested
evidence of political violence to justify the joint
assessment, and we have
done that," Zacarias told IRIN.
"They said they are still considering our
request and we hope they will come
back to us with a positive answer. We
have visited hospitals and spoken to
victims of political violence. Our
worry is about those who may have failed
to make it to the hospitals and are
still out there in the countryside."
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu,
Zimbabwe's information minister said the UN's request to
conduct an
assessment was "being processed".
Zacarias said the UN Country Team
(UNCT) had received requests for
humanitarian assistance from victims of
violence, allegedly perpetrated by
security forces, war veterans, youth
militia and supporters of the ruling
ZANU-PF party. The victims claim the
violence is the result of a
post-election crackdown and is politically
motivated.
President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government lost its
parliamentary majority
for the first time since independence in 1980 in
elections held in March.
"These reports indicate that some people have
died, several hundred others
have been hospitalised, while many more have
been displaced from their homes
and some have lost property that includes
livestock, their homes and
belongings," said Zacarias.
According to
the UN official, there were also reports that opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) supporters were resorting to violence
and
intimidation.
Violence affecting aid work
The UNCT had evidence of
reported cases of violence and intimidation, which
had also affected
humanitarian work. "The UN humanitarian agencies and their
partners in the
NGO [non-governmental organisation] community have been
experiencing limited
access to the affected people due to this heightened
tension and localised
outbreaks of violence, resulting in the scaling-down
of humanitarian
programmes, thereby exacerbating the humanitarian
situation."
Zacarias said more than half of their NGO partners in the
humanitarian field
had been unable to visit remote areas in the countryside
because government
officials had denied them access, or because the
employees were worried
about their personal safety. The number of internally
displaced people had
become an issue of concern.
"We also urge the
government to set up a clearing house, which will be a
safe and secure
environment where victims can report cases of politically
motivated violence
without fear of retribution," he said.
The official daily newspaper, The
Herald, reported on 12 May that police had
begun dismantling "bases", set up
mainly in rural areas and manned primarily
by militia and war veterans.
These camps have allegedly been used as centres
from which surrounding
villages have been intimidated, or worse.
Diplomats
detained
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe faced a diplomatic crisis after several
ambassadors and
journalists on a fact-finding mission on the political
violence in the
volatile Mashonaland Central Province were detained for more
than two hours.
The diplomats included James McGee, the US representative
in Zimbabwe,
Andrew Pocock of Britain, and representatives from Tanzania,
Holland and the
European Union. Apparently the diplomats had been mistaken
for journalists.
A reporter who spoke to IRIN said: "I strongly suspect
that the police and
soldiers who detained us were youth militia in uniform.
They were drunk and
naďve. Ambassador McGee convinced them that we were all
his employees at the
embassy back in Harare [the capital]. There was a light
moment when he
alleged the other diplomats were his
employees."
During the weekend McGee and other Western diplomats toured
hospitals and
spoke to victims of politically motivated violence. They all
claimed they
had been tortured by war veterans, ZANU-PF militia, soldiers
and police.
[ENDS]
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations]
The Zimbabwean
Tuesday, 13 May 2008 09:31
HARARE -
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was conducting inspections to
ensure
enforcement of the new directive that allowed holders of free funds
to
offload them through normal banking channels instead of the ubiquitous
black
market.
The directive has pushed the exchange rate sharply as the
Zimdollar
weakened dramatically following the central bank-sanctioned
liberalisation
of the foreign
currency market by Reserve Bank
governor, Gideon Gono.
The key changes were made through the first
quarter monetary policy
statement presented last week which floated the
Zimdollar on the market and
allowed market forces to determine rates on a
willing buyer-willing-seller
basis.
The move is aimed at crashing
the parallel market in the pricing of
cash, by removing distortions between
the official and black market rate.
Officials in the central bank's
public affairs and information
department said any violations of the
regulations would be dealt with in
terms of penalties provided in the
legislation.
He said there had been a massive inflow of foreign
currency into the
official banking system over the past week.
The
new law had adversely affected black market dealers that had been
flogging
forex using the parallel market rates.
The enactment of the exchange
control order was prompted by the need
to curb foreign exchange activities
in the parallel market.
Violations of this order would constitute
contravention of the
Exchange Control Act and regulations made under
it.
"Culprits will be dealt with in accordance with the law in terms of
the Exchange Control Act," said a spokesman.
The new statutory
requirement was met with relief by holders of free
funds.
"This is
safe," said Merjury. "I lost a lot of money on black market
after being
given counterfeit notes."
But black market dealers, while remaining
defiant, admitted that
business had sunk to rock bottom levels.
Economists warned that while there was now no justification for anyone
to go
and do shady deals on the black market, stabilisation of rates would
not be
achieved any time soon because of the unsustainable
increases in money
supply.
"The big question is how long it will continue before
government stops
it," said respected economist Tony Hawkins. "With the rate
that money is
being printed, the rate can only go up and so will inflation.
It is a
vicious cycle."
On Tuesday, the greenback was trading at
ZD250 million.
States
in Transition Observatory, Idasa
May 12, 2008
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When the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission finally announced the results of the Presidential election, quite apart from the relief that they were finally announced, there were two predominant reactions. The first was a total lack of surprise that Morgan Tsvangirai had beaten Robert Mugabe: all the indications from every source, as well as the evident disbelief of Zanu PF and the subsequent shenanigans of ZEC, were that this would be the case. The second reaction was the lack of surprise that ZEC had not announced Morgan Tsvangirai as the outright winner with an absolute majority.
It was clear to all concerned that the results were known in detail by Monday, 31 March, and there have been a number of "leaks" to this effect, all suggesting that Tsvangirai won outright. If the Electoral Act had been followed to the letter, then Morgan Tsvangirai would have been sworn in as President of Zimbabwe, and Robert Mugabe would have had no further recourse except by election petition. So, it was clear to all that a run off result had to be engineered, and thence followed the farce of the recount, a wholly unlawful recount according to the Electoral Act.
It was also clear to all that there had to be a delay in order for a very shocked Zanu PF to re-organise and decide what to do. Zanu PF had to prepare for a run off as well as provide the grounds for a run off. After a short hiatus, the strategy emerged, and a well-worn strategy it was, quite apart from the delay in announcing results. (We will return to the results later).
The first move was to re-invent the "land" gambit, and, after announcing that white farmers were rushing back to claim their farms, the "people" began to invade the remaining 400 farms. By all accounts, these invasions have been more violent and intimidatory than those between 2000 and 2005, even worse than 2000 or 2002. This was the public strategy, but it was accompanied by an even more sinister strategy, one that had also worked in 2000 and 2002, and this was the unleashing of the militia, under military supervision - but more blatant military supervision than has been the case previously. As in 2002, the violence had the purpose of retribution for voting against Zanu PF, for, as in 2002, it was evident, but more so in 2008, that rural people had voted against Zanu PF. But in 2008, it also has the purpose of driving out any vestige of the MDC form the rural areas, and obviously handicapping the MDC in any preparations for a run off.
Whilst all this was going on, there was still the problem of engineering a re-run, and this was much more problematic for the results published by ZEC for the Senate, and the House of Assembly seemed valid and reliable according to a number of independent estimates, including the MDC. ZEC did not and has not announced the Local Government results, but Justice Chiweshe has claimed that there is no need to as they were already published at the Ward command centres. As an aside, this is highly contradictory given that ZEC felt the need to publish all other results, and to "scrupulously" ensure that the results of the Senate, the House of Assembly, and the Presidency were correct.
Thus, a high old farce ensued. The House of Assembly
results were announced over days and days, and eventually it emerged that MDC
Tsvangirai had a majority, and that the opposition had an absolute, but not a
constitution changing,
majority. However, it was majority enough to suggest that the former opposition
would now become the government, or there would be severe problems for Robert
Mugabe, if he won the presidential poll outright, and Zanu PF in governing as a
minority government. They would be unable to pass a Bill or even obtain the
finance necessary to govern without the total cooperation of the "opposition."
The farce then continued with the tedious announcement of the Senate results,
and it emerged that the two groups, Zanu PF and the MDC's, were
even.
Reuters
Tue 13 May 2008,
17:53 GMT
HARARE, May 13 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe on Tuesday suspended import
duty on some
basic commodities, including cooking oil and flour, in response
to a sharp
spike in prices following the flotation of the local currency by
the central
bank last month.
"The high level of (import) duty,
incidental to the current inter-bank rate
used in the valuation for duty
purposes depresses imported volumes of basic
commodities," information
minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told reporters.
"In view of the above,
government is therefore suspending duty on basic
commodities for a period of
90 days, with effect from 12 May."
The rate of import duty levied varied
with the products but stood at between
60 to 100 percent.
Some of the
goods include cooking oil, rice, flour and soap, whose prices
have shot up
by as much as four times since the country's disputed March 29
election.
Zimbabweans had hoped the elections could help end their
country's economic
meltdown, which has triggered inflation of 165,000
percent, 80 percent
unemployment, severe food and fuel shortages, and a
flood of refugees to
neighbouring states.
Instead, prices have
skyrocketed in the stalemate since the poll and reports
of politically
motivated attacks are spreading.
Official results showed opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat Mugabe for
the presidency in the first round,
but not by enough votes to avoid a
run-off. (Reporting by Nelson Banya;
Editing by Stephen Weeks)
IOL
May
13 2008 at 12:28PM
By Peta Thornycroft
It feels as if
this story will never end. That we will never sleep
again, that the tension
will never ease, that the cruelty will know no
bounds. That evil will
prevail.
The communication problems are so bad that it feels as if
we will
never get the story out and never get it right either.
In communal areas telecommunications are the same as they were during
Southern Rhodesia. And that is where most of the violence is
happening.
So how do we get information? With the utmost
difficulty. Are we
exaggerating? No we are not. That is those of us who are
accountable and
write for mainstream media. Do we get information wrong?
Yes, sometimes.
The police won't speak to us, except, occasionally
if they answer the
landlines at Police General Headquarters in Harare. Then
they deny
everything, or say they don't have any information, but mostly
they are
unavailable.
Their mobile phones? Occasionally we
might get through if we hit
redial 25 times and the call stays live for
longer than 10 seconds. Police
won't or can't confirm or deny anything on
their mobile or landlines.
Hospital phones go unanswered too, or
staff won't say anything, or
there is no one available, or if there is, they
certainly don't want to
speak to journalists.
The informal
network of information between the rural areas and towns
is largely broken
as there are so few buses travelling and because it is too
expensive for
people to go "kumusha" (home).
Rather like the Stasi in the old GDR
(German Democratic Republic),
there is an enormous network of informers.
Many are not evil, just doing
something to earn a little.
So we
have to be careful when we look for the evidence we need, and we
ask
questions carefully, nonchalantly, as if we are not really interested.
We
will stop at a roadside shop, looking for a cool drink. Stupid really,
since
there is nothing in any of these shops. Nothing to sell. Nothing to
buy.
Mostly the road blocks are just that, a time-wasting stop,
where the
police couldn't care less who we are or what we are doing and wave
us
through. But just in case, we have to be ready with a bunch of half
truths.
Just in case.
It is always "just in
case".
We get caught because we are at the wrong place at the wrong
time, not
because the CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation) are
smart.
If they wanted to, they could catch all of us all the
time.
Somebody at the top decides it is time to catch the
journalists, so
there is a spurt.
Like Monday a week ago, when
they went around from lodge to lodge
looking for journalists. They had two
names. Derek Watts (Carte Blanche) and
Kate Adie, (BBC retired). Both had
been in Harare about 2002 or 2003 as we
recall.
Sometimes
journalists get caught because they relax, lulled into
forgetting that
Zimbabwe is, more or less a police state.
At first glance it looks
okay - nice, even. Orderly. Not as dirty as
Johannesburg. Polite people, not
starving. Police quite smart. Army too,
although a lot are hitch-hiking
these days. No guns going off, no bombs, no
military parades, no military
aircraft and the only choppers are those
flying President Mugabe or the
smaller one carrying super rich Billy
Rautenbach. So no frightening overhead
noise.
In Harare's northern suburbs the rich still go out to
dinner, but the
menus have shrunk, restaurants are pretty empty and thin
young men selling
flowers in pot-holed parking lots haven't got flowers any
more so they are
guarding cars.
No one is having fun. Not even
the people in the restaurants. Not even
children at birthday parties. There
is an agonising limbo, an all-pervading
anxiety.
And we
reporters are struggling like hell to tell this story when the
action
happens so far from town. We also depend on unnamed heroes and
heroines who
do far more than we to ensure the story gets out.
Every night we
know that people are being assaulted, or tortured or
beaten. We don't really
expect many fatalities, because Zanu-PF has learned
that body counts are bad
for business.
We more or less know who is doing the violence as the
victims we visit
can usually name their assailants.
We know the
weapons, logs, poles, metal from dismantled windmills,
planks, rope, bicycle
chains, nails, everyday objects.
Huts are burned down. I
interviewed someone who was in his house and
35 of his neighbours' houses
were also burned. That was a staggering number
of people who were made
homeless during a couple of hours, before midnight
ten days ago in one
village about an hours drive north-east of Harare.
On Tuesday, I
got an sms about what sounded like a massacre. Eleven
dead. At first I
sighed. Oh God. What to do? Who to call? They won't all be
lying in some
field waiting for me to inspect their bodies and pick over
their wounds to
discover how they died.
They will be scattered. Maybe picked up by
cops. Maybe picked up by
relatives. Maybe under a tree, a small heap hidden
by tall grass.
So far I can only name six and that is thanks to
contacts and heroic
sources and some hearsay which on examination I now know
was true all the
time.
There won't be political funerals. Most
will be buried quickly and
quietly among the huts in the bush because people
are poor and fearful.
I now know that what the MDC's enormously
strained welfare department
has been telling us for nearly a week about the
11 dead is almost certainly
true.
They have the same problems
we have. Difficult communications and they
are also working underground and
fearful of being arrested. Their
information personnel were locked up for
three weeks, their computers have
been taken, their offices
wrecked.
Some of this is being reported, much more will be written
in future
days and extraordinary everyday heroes will tell generations to
come about
how they survived the 2008 elections.
They won't be
talking about regime change, or the West, or puppets,
they will be talking
about teachers at schools, drugs in clinics, buses to
"kamusha", relatives
overseas and remembering when they couldn't buy sugar
for a cup of
tea.
Even those who voted for Mugabe in the presidential election
or who
are dependent on their Zanu-PF MP to assist them get grain, are
living
miserably.
So what should I say about the 11 dead? Say
six dead, but reports
exist of five more?
There is great relief
when sober accounts emerge from concerned
doctors who have treated victims
and have a broad picture not only of
numbers of injured, but through
anecdotes, faithfully recorded, of the scale
of the violence.
The tension will get worse, so will shopping, finding stuff to keep
one
going, fuel, the internet, electricity and water cuts and enough
batteries
to keep everything else going.
Colleagues come in from London, Los
Angeles, Brussels, Toronto and
Melbourne. Some have been coming in and out
for years without fuss and
without accreditation. They get the story going
again as they report on
Zimbabwe with fresh eyes.
Where are the
SABC journalists? Where are the South African
journalists? What happened
since the end of apartheid? Did all the heroes
become managing directors?
(Thanks e.tv for trying.) Thanks to the few who
did come.
Is
this generation of South African journalists flaky or leaderless?
Or worried
about legality when it never bothered them during the apartheid
era? Never
worried them when foreign journalists sneaked in to South Africa
to make
documentaries about Steve Biko.
Actually, folks, you don't need
accreditation any longer, as of
January 11, its not a crime to be a
journalist, even if you are foreign.
So why don't you come up north
and tell the story? Please.
This article was originally
published on page 13 of Cape Argus on May
13, 2008
15:07 GMT, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:07 UK
|
Zimbabwe's deep political divide has spilled over into the religious arena. The pews which would normally play host to 1,000 worshippers held just 42 people on Pentecost Sunday, giving a melancholy feel to the huge building. Zimbabwe's Anglican women normally look resplendent in their white and blue uniforms, singing joyous praise to the Lord. But none of Sunday's worshippers were wearing any uniforms. Even the singing, which was accompanied by traditional drums was dull and could have been mistaken for funeral dirges.
Outside the church, three armed policemen sat on a park bench directly opposite the entrance to the cathedral. They have become a permanent feature at Sunday services since Zimbabwe's Anglican Communion split last year, resulting in violent clashes between worshippers loyal to Bishop Nolbert Kunonga and his rival Bishop Sebastian Bakare. Bishop Kunonga is a staunch supporter of President Robert Mugabe and once described Zimbabwe's leader as a "prophet of God". He was dismissed by the church's regional leaders last year and says he is being persecuted by the global church leadership for his opposition to the ordination of gay priests. But Zimbabwe's opposition says the government installed him to stop the church criticising human rights abuses. 'Victimised' Church regular Locadia Mutandiro says she is extremely disappointed by what is happening at the cathedral. "The house of God has been turned into a boxing-ring by politicians," she said.
"The last time I attended service in March, we were only a few church-goers, as many prefer to go elsewhere to avoid being victimised by state security for supporting the Bishop Bakare group." The Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) sacked Bishop Kunonga last November after he resisted pressure from the Anglican leadership to criticise Zimbabwe's government. But he refused to step down and has been accused of using young thugs allied to Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party to attack the rival faction. The police have been accused of taking sides in the dispute, by beating up worshippers, including women taking the Holy Communion. 'Borrowed time' Last month, the Anglican church leadership strongly criticised the situation in Zimbabwe following the disputed March elections and how the local church had been affected. Archbishop of York John Sentamu said President Robert Mugabe was "living on borrowed time".
He famously cut up his dog collar live on television and vowed not to wear it until Mr Mugabe left office. Such statements will not have gone down well with Bishop Kunonga. He says he is being persecuted by the global church leadership for his "principled stance on homosexuality in the church". President Mugabe is also virulently opposed to gay rights. Bishop Kunonga says western groups in favour of ordaining gay priests are funding his rivals to gain support for their position in Africa, where many church leaders take a traditional view. Moreblessing Mutare, a young father of two who belongs to the Bishop Kunonga faction, was very abusive when asked to comment on what was going on at the church. "You journalists are fuelling this whole thing. I won't speak to you again. Our Bishop [Kunonga] is right on the issue of homosexuals, but you want to make it as if he has done something wrong. If you read the Bible, it condemns homosexuality. That is our position," he said. Running battles Following the split, the High Court ruled that the two factions should share the church's property and hold Sunday services at different times. The mood at the church varies according to which groups holds the service, says Musafare Chiraga, who attends service every week.
He said the attendance for Bishop Kunonga is boosted by members of the state-run National Youth Service, known by some as the "green bombers" and accused of being a pro-Mugabe militia. "The happy and peaceful mood has disappeared as people are apprehensive about what can happen any time since the clashes began," Mr Chiraga said. The dispute spilled over into violence just after Christmas last year. Rival groups fought running battles at the St Andrews parish in Harare's Glen View district. Then in February, the Deputy Sheriff had to use a bolt-cutter to break in to the cathedral after followers of Bishop Kunonga defied the court order and barred their rivals from using it to conduct their service. Police were summoned and they took leaders of the two camps to the police station to try to find an amicable solution. But to no avail and the legal wrangles have now been taken to the Supreme Court. Church regulars say the majority of the congregation backs Bishop Bakare, while Bishop Kunonga enjoys the support of the state. As Zimbabwe awaits the date of a run-off in the presidential election, some say this mirrors the situation countrywide. The contributor's name has been changed for his own safety. |
Catholic
Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
13 May 2008
Posted to the web
13 May 2008
Pretoria
A run-off presidential election will not be
possible without an immediate
end to intimidation, violence and torture and
deployment of reliable
international election observers, the Catholic Church
in the region said.
"Out of concern for the people of Zimbabwe, the
bishops of the Catholic
Church in Southern Africa appeal for international
and regional pressure to
end the systematic intimidation, violence and
torture in Zimbabwe. The
current environment is not conducive to free and
fair run-off elections,"
said Archbishop Buti Tlhagale OMI, President of the
Southern African
Catholic Bishops Conference.
In a statement
Tuesday, Archbishop Tlhagale said he and Cardinal Wilfrid
Napier, Archbishop
of Durban, visited Zimbabwe recently and got first-hand
accounts of
systematic intimidation, violence and torture.
"The victims identified
the perpetrators as agents of the Zimbabwe Armed
Forces, the Police, the
Central Intelligence Organization (C.I.O), War
Veterans, Youth Militia and
plain thugs."
The human rights abuses are visited not only on those
thought to have voted
for the opposition, but also on those who assisted the
election process,
such as polling officers.
"This 'reign of terror'
has seen many deaths, savage beatings and flight
from family, homes and
communities. Human dignity is intrinsic to every
human being, regardless of
political affiliation and must be respected. I
call on all political parties
to reign in their supporters and end this
horror."
Archbishop
Tlhagale wondered whether a free and fair run-off election will
be possible
if the violence is not stopped. He called for immediate
deployment of
international election observers to assess preparation for the
run-off
election whose date is yet to be announced.
"I call on all Zimbabweans to
remember the hope with which they entered the
March elections, so well
expressed in the call by civil society in the
document 'The Zimbabwe we
want', and to do all in their power to restore
Zimbabwe to its rightful
place in the family of nations."
Afrique en ligne
Cape Town, South Africa - Tensions are running high in
Johannesburg, South
Africa, after a series of attacks on immigrants in
Alexandra township north
of the city.
Police said two people have
been killed and 40 others injured.
Police have arrested 38 suspects on
charges of murder and attempted murder.
The attacks have sparked fears
that xenophobia is on the rise, particularly
because foreigners are accused
of "stealing" jobs.
Some of those who were attacked were Zimbabweans who
are often accused by
residents of contributing to the country's high crime
rate.
In April, shacks belonging to Zimbabweans were looted and set on
fire.
The City of Johannesburg has called on communities to act in a
responsible
manner and remain calm.
"Johannesburg has a long history
of peaceful co-existence between South
Africans and foreign nationals. For
years, we have stayed, worked, played
and worshipped God together. Ours has
been and will continue to be an
inclusive city.
"The city has a
policy on managing migration and seeks to ensure that all
those who live
within its jurisdiction abide by the country's laws and are
treated fair in
keeping with the country's human rights guidelines," said
city spokesman
Gabu Tugwana.
A migrant's desk was established in 2007 to assist migrant
communities with
a wide range of services including advice on how to access
services and
information about economic and social opportunities.
The
city will, on 25 May 2008 celebrate Africa Day.
"We are building
Johannesburg into a world class African city. While doing
this, we recognise
our cultural diversity. We should always strive to build
a vibrant and
inclusive society. We remain committed to getting rid of
challenges of
poverty.
"Those who choose to be intolerant and personally attack
immigrants are
sowing seeds of division not very different from our racist
apartheid past,"
Tugwana added.
Cape Town - 13/05/2008
In all the press releases and reviews I have
read post election, nobody
mentions what I consider the most important fact.
Even with Government
rigged results, it still shows that 59 % of Zimbabweans
voted Mugabe out.
The figure is probably far higher.
Instead of
focussing on the 47.3% MDC got, the line should be the 60% of the
people that
voted Mugabe out. It would be difficult for the World Community
not to
respond to a statement of this nature. The majority of Zimbabweans
voted him
out.
MDC should use this statement as the cornerstone of their statements
and
pronouncements.
All the best.
--------------
Throughout this
mahem, it's become apparent just how adept Zanu PF are at
sowing the seeds of
confusion. Traversing the forums, one can see how
members of the illegal
regime apply their poison digits. Rascism rears it's
ugly head time and
again on these forums. Tribalism has proved successfully
divisive. Perfectly
sensible discussions are reduced to mud slinging and
name calling. It's also
curiously clear how ignorant people are about how
the 1st world works.The 1st
world, as a whole, does not operate on
ideaology. It focuses on business.
They'll do business with you if you
respect a) Human Rights and b) Property
Rights. Bleating about past
injustices simply does not work anymore.
Particularly if one has had 28
years to right the wrongs and move on
successfully. Mugabe's rhetoric is one
big yawn. It's obvious that he doesn't
have the faintest clue about
economics. We're constantly reminded of his
numerous degrees. The only
degree he seems proficient in is the Violence one.
There is no doubt that he
has the street cunning of a sewer rat but he is
certainly not 'clever', in
the academic sense. The proof is in the
pudding.
It's important to shoot this 'sanctions' rubbish in the foot. He
has used
this line very successfully. Which is why SADC still put up with
him. He
knows which buttons to push and manipulates them with their
own
insecurities. Look how the younger leaders of Zambia and Botswana are
more
inclined to condemn him. They are not stuck in a communist time warp.
Mugabe
holds no emotional power over them. They want what the 1st world
wants.
Stability in the region. The UK certainly does not want to
re-colonise
Zimbabwe. They can do without the headache.Therefore, it's
vitally important
to keep clarifying the sanctions issue for the common folk.
The simple fact
is that Zanu PF have not made their repayments, therefore
their lines have
credit have dried up. It's as simple as that. The only
sanctions at play are
directed at individuals within Zanu PF. If this simple
truth is hammered
home, it closes the only excuse Mugabe has left for the
disgraceful
condition of Zimbabwe. He's wrung dry his other favourites. The
chaotic land
acquisition and resultant consequences must be addressed -
again. It's
diabolical that Mugabe can still use this as a 'claiming back our
heritage'
tool, whilst it's blatantly obvious that the land has been gifted
out to
favoured cronies. Mugabe seems to be blissfully unaware that land is
finite
and crops don't just grow themselves.
Finally, it's a matter of
urgency to push for the popularly elected MDC to
take the reins. The culture
of corruption has a stranglehold on Zimbabwe.
This evil can take years to
eradicate. It has proved the ruin of Africa.
God Bless
Zimbabwe.
F
--------------------
May you please be kind enough
to edit your articles before you put them up
or atleast inform the people
that write the articles you put on your website
, to stop reffering the MDC
as the opposition party .The MDC has the highest
number of seats and Zanu Pf
the least hence it will be totally correct and
internationally accepted even
the heavens will agree that Zanu Pf is the
opposition party .And please also
correect the Term "PRESIDENT" when talking
about Mugabe he is not the
official President of the the Republic of
Zimbabwe please , God Forbid
.Rather call him the President of the Zimbabwe
Ruins or care taker of The
Republic of Zimbabwe.And thy shall not call his
bum lickers the Government
of Zimbabwe again God Forbid they are The
Caretakers assistants never should
they be called Ministers we all know even
the cockroaches of Zimbabwe all
know that they are just mere assistants and
not Ministers .The President of
Zimbabwe is Indeed the Honarable Morgan
Tsvangirai and the rulling party is
the one and only MDC .The Caretaker
Mugabe and his assistans have just
delayed the President Mr Morgan
Tsvangirai from assuming office and
executing his duties .They still need to
be beaten again in the runoff then
sent to the political waste land to be
buried and forgotten for all
eternity .
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
subject
line.
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1.
Simon Spooner
Dear JAG,
I have listened to the moaning and
groaning as well as the criticism for a
long time. There has been little or
no encouragement.
A generation is to follow and we must take
responsibility for our actions or
inactions when confronting issues that
affect us. That next generation will
judge us as custodians of their history
and by the nation we leave behind
for them.
This is a battle and in
battle there are winners and losers. We must choose
what we are to be as
individuals. Yes, there is security in numbers and
there is leadership as
there are organisations in the forefront but,
individuals must draw their own
battle lines and fight! In the struggle of
Zimbabwe today, a hostile and
illegitimate Government, funded by you, the
taxpayer, is throwing everything
at you, every resource of the state is
pitted against you, to convince you to
concede just as Hitler's Germany
attempted to subdue the British in 1941. ZPF
know that they cannot win a
fight where you and the people believe in
winning. Already they behave and
act like losers and fear is their one and
only remaining weapon.
We have to ask ourselves again, are we going to be
the losers or the
winners? Are you going to make their task easier by handing
them victory on
a plate?
This is not about bullets and guns but about
who believes in victory the
most. Who is the stronger and not the weaker?
There can only be that one
winner and we must ensure, at any cost, that that
will be us. To lose, would
dishonour those that have suffered so
much.
This struggle is going to be in the history books one day, not too
far from
now, and is certainly the most notable of the 21st century thus
far.
Will our generation be able to look our children in the eye one day
in the
future and be able to say "we did our best"?
This battle is not
about forex, inflation, the cost of living, but about a
whole Nation besieged
by an unlawful authority. All Zimbabweans are victims,
bar the ruling elite,
and it is up to us to draw the line in the sand
together, for everyone's sake
and fight and not give up!
To finish, one of the best antidotes for
depression and despondency, is to
place that wasted energy at the front line,
in which ever way you can, to
confront the enemy. Join now, the brigade of
unpaid volunteers who believe
in that victory and WILL win!
How
quickly that victory comes, depends on how many compatriots, like you,
who
find the courage to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.
Simon
Spooner
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2.
Gerry Whitehead - |Lowveld news 10th May 2008
Dear JAG,
RE: Terror
campaign escalates.
ZANU PF's well planned terror campaign is escalating
in the Lowveld now,
Army commanders in plain clothes are in the communal and
farming areas
swapping groups of youth militia around so that they will not
be recognized
by the local people.
On Friday there were queues of
youth that we did not recognize cashing in
cheques for exactly 1 billion
dollars. It is thought that these are the
militia cashing in their pay or
reward.
On the 2nd May in Zaka East militia led by war vets Gwava and
Samson Svundu
chased 14 youths at Chiredzana dip tank (ward 13) but only
succeeded in
catching three of them. They were paraded and severely beaten up
in front of
a gathering of some 2000 odd people who were told that if this
area voted
for the MDC president Morgan Tsvangiria, all hell would break
loose for
them. One of the young boys Jerry Tolivaripi had to be hospitalized
at St.
Anthonys Mission Hospital, but only 5 days later for serious deep
wounds and
bone fractures to his arms, the other 2 were also treated for deep
cuts and
bruises.
Reports say that many people have left this area for
the towns and cities.
Police were seen at this evil demonstration, but
did not take part nor did
they do anything to prevent it.
The Chiredzi
and Zaka parliamentary candidates with me have been threatened
with
death.
Gerry
Whitehead
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-----------------------------------------
3.
Cathy Buckle - On the Roadsides
Dear JAG,
It's hard to believe
that six weeks ago the MDC won a parliamentary majority
and their leader
Morgan Tsvangirai got more presidential votes than Mr
Mugabe. It's even
harder to believe that the parliamentary and presidential
losers have managed
to completely obfuscate the entire process and remain in
positions of power
and authority as if nothing had happened - as if we'd
never had an election
at all.
How can this be happening, is the question we are all asking.
It's like
being stuck in an impossible horror story. The will of the people
has not
been heard. The aspirations of a broken nation have been ignored. The
voices
of the majority have been obscured in fear and betrayal. We all
thought that
by now the breath of life would have begun blowing through the
country
bringing desperately needed food, fuel, medicine and
stability.
Perhaps even some of our family and friends, in exile for
eight years, may
have begun thinking about coming home. So far the inevitable
conclusion has
not taken hold and every day has become a blur of utter
exhaustion and real
trauma for ordinary people. Trauma of finding food and
having enough money
to buy it and extreme trauma associated with the orgy of
violence,
intimidation and retribution which has engulfed our
countryside.
While Zimbabwe remains paralyzed in time, every day lost
this May 2008 is
condemning us to yet more hunger. We are now in the main
wheat planting
season and yet farmers everywhere are in crisis. With
inflation at 160
thousand percent, no fuel for ploughing or transporting
inputs and virtually
no electricity for irrigation, there seems little hope
that we can grow
anywhere near enough wheat for the coming year. The
situation is being
exacerbated as farm workers have now been caught up in the
brutal political
punishment campaign.
This week the agricultural
workers union said 40 thousand farm workers and
their families had been cast
out, beaten up and were destitute. The Union's
Secretary General, Gertrude
Hambira, said: "Our members and their families
have been left homeless. They
have been attacked by a group of militia
wearing army uniforms. They have
been accused of voting for the opposition.
Most of them are on the roadsides.
We are trying to find ways of taking food
to them."
Every day the
international talk is of a global food crisis and yet Zimbabwe
seems hell
bent on adding to it. Blessed with fertile soils and a temperate
climate and
once proud to be called the breadbasket of Africa, to our shame
Zimbabwe is
wasting another wheat growing season. It seems that bashing
heads and
breaking legs is far more important than growing food this winter
because
losers simply won't accept defeat.
With so much negative news, there is
still hope because, even though
convinced he won, Morgan Tsvangirai has
agreed to take part in a re-run
Presidential election. Hopefully this means
the President-in-waiting will
now come home and see for himself the hell his
supporters are enduring.
Until next time, thanks for reading, love
cathy.
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4.
Susan Chemirmir (Texas, USA)
Dear JAG Team
RE: Invitation to
displaced commercial farmers of Zimbabwe
I would like to extend and
invitation to any displaced farmer who would like
to get a fresh start
Ethiopia. I am not sure if there is a way to get a hold
of anyone interested.
I was unable to access the CFU (Commercial Farmers
Union)
website.
Does anyone have any suggestions? These Farmers have provided
food not only
to Zimbabweans as well as many parts of the world, they deserve
better.
Many of us from various parts of Africa sympathize with their
plight and
suffering under the brutal dictatorship of the government would
like to
offer them a chance to start over in a new home is peace and
security.
If anyone is interested, please reply to:
Susan
Chemirmir (Texas, USA)
lamorena61@yahoo.com
Thank
You.
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-----------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of
the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
Billions of dollars raised for African famine relief by celebrities Bono and Bob Geldof have instead funded civil war across the continent, says terrorism expert Dr Loretta Napoleoni.
London-based Napoleoni, in Auckland to appear at the Writers & Readers Festival, has written two books, Terror Inc: Tracing the Money Behind Global Terrorism and Insurgent Iraq: Al-Zarqawi and the New Generation, on the economics of terrorism.
Her latest book, Rogue Economics, studies the destabilising effect of economic globalisation, focusing in part on why more than half a trillion dollars worth of aid sent to Africa since the 1960s failed to reach the intended destination - developing the nations' economies.
That huge amount of aid, which includes money from the United Nations and donations generated by Live Aid for Ethiopia, organised by Geldof, and the Live 8 concert in 2005, organised by Bono, has instead "served as a rogue force, notably as an important form of terrorist financing" in countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Kenya. Ethiopia, for example, received $1.8 billion in foreign aid between 1982-85, including a large contribution from Live Aid; $1.6 billion of that, she points out, was spent on buying military equipment.
"The money has ended up making Africa poorer and more violent because the money has been diverted towards warlords, weapons and armed invasions," she says. "The problem of Africa is corruption."
Napoleoni says there are parallels with Burma in the aftermath of the cyclone as aid organisations appeal for donations. "What is happening in Burma is a good example. You can have the best intentions but getting the money to the people in need is very hard because you have to go through the bureaucracy. The problem is the governance. You also need expertise. What the international relief organisations are saying is, you should send people from our team who know exactly what to do in these circumstances."
The cult of celebrity means that people who are famous for nothing more than being pop or movie stars speak out on issues they don't fully understand. "People like Bono and Bob Geldof are not ill-intentioned," she says. "But the simple fact that being a celebrity puts you in a position above everybody else is unacceptable.
"These people don't realise they are being manipulated by politicians and others. That is the case in the relationship between Bono and [American economist] Jeffrey Sachs, who is among the people who caused the chaos of the transition of the former communist countries into free-market economics. Sachs has been trying to relaunch himself as a sort of economist celebrity so he has been linking himself to Bono.
"Bono is repeating what he has been told about Africa. I am sure Bono hasn't got a clue about economics."
Napoleoni, who knows Geldof as a neighbour in the London suburb of Battersea, says he told her the first Live Aid was the "worse experience of his life because he found it very difficult to control where the money went. He suddenly realised it's easy to put famous musicians together to make money but to bring the money to the people in need is another matter."
Napoleoni adds that there is a certain amount of hypocrisy among stars linked to good causes. Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Bono and the other members of U2 were last year outed as tax-evaders for diverting their funds to the Netherlands, circumventing their democratic responsibilities to their home country of Ireland.
And Brad Pitt, Napoleoni points out, may drive a hybrid car, but he and Angelina Jolie use a private jet. Their trip to Namibia a couple of years ago, she notes, burned up enough fuel to take Pitt's hybrid all the way to the moon.