Today, Saturday 29th May, the Voice for Democracy commemorated the International Day for United Nations Peacekeepers. In 1988 the Peacekeepers won the Nobel Prize for Peace for their dedication and bravery.
Speaking
Truth to Power
An
address by Jacob C. Ngarivhume (Trustee and Chairman) to commemorate the
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF UNITED NATIONS PEACE-KEEPERS: 29 MAY
2010
The Responsibility to Protect
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is a set of principles
based on the idea that sovereignty is not a privilege, but a responsibility.
The responsibility to protect can be thought of as having three parts.
1. A State has a responsibility to protect
its population from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic
cleansing.
2. If the State is unable to protect its
population, the international community has a responsibility to assist the
state to build its capacity to do so. This can mean building early-warning
capabilities, mediating conflicts between political parties and mobilising
standby forces.
3. If a State still fails to protect its
citizens and peaceful measures are not working, the international community has
the responsibility to intervene diplomatically. Only in extreme cases and only as
a last resort, such as in the case of Sierra Leone, should military force be
considered.
At the UN summit in 2005, in the biggest-ever gathering
of world leaders, 150 states committed themselves – including Zimbabwe – to the
principle that they have a “responsibility to protect” human beings from
genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity.[1]
It was agreed that the Responsibility to Protect referred first and foremost to the
responsibility of states to protect their own
people. Only when states could not or would not protect their own citizens,
would the international community have a duty or responsibility to protect
civilians of another country. It is a role for international peacekeepers, not
a call for military intervention.
The fundamental question is whether the Zimbabwe
Government can protect its own citizens from violence, especially the violence
that continually erupts in the run-up to elections. When addressing
a ceremony to mark 30 years of Independence, Zimbabwe’s President said that the
government wants people to "desist from any acts of violence that will cause
harm to others and become a blight on our society."
However, the ability or the willingness of the Zimbabwe
Government to assume its responsibility to protect its own citizens is not
supported by the evidence. In the series of elections between 2000 and 2008,
hundreds of Zimbabweans have been murdered, raped, tortured, beaten and
intimidated. The June 2008 presidential elections were so marred by violence
that neither SADC nor the African Union recognized the election results.
Yet, despite detailed evidence having been reported to
the authorities of this violence, none of the alleged perpetrators of these
crimes have been brought to justice. While those responsible for the violence
remain at large, new reports are being received of militia bases being
re-established. Serious incidents of
violence are once again being reported from the same areas that were
responsible for the highest levels of violence in June 2008. The security
sector has proved its incapacity to impartially execute its duty to protect
citizens.
After all the effort that the South African President has
expended in meeting his commitments as the mediator of the GPA, neither he nor
SADC, the guarantor of the GPA, can allow an election in 2011 to be contested
by the use of violence. They cannot countenance an outcome that is not
supported fully by the international community. As there is nothing to suggest
that the Zimbabwe Government can or will protect its own people, the
Responsibility to Protect voters in the run-up to election falls squarely on
SADC, the AU and the international community.
The Voice for Democracy therefore calls on South Africa
and SADC, together with their partners in the international community, to
immediately establish an early warning system on inter-party election violence.
By the careful monitoring of the potential and likelihood of violence, they
should take early precautionary measures to prevent any build-up or threat of
violence. In particular, they should engage with the United Nations to draw on
its expertise for providing security and reconciliation as well as the professionalism
and dedication of its Peacekeepers.
We also call upon SADC leaders
to establish a Rapid Response Unit that can mobilise at a moment’s notice. Its
task should be to quell potential violence at any flashpoint and to restore
peace and security as soon as possible. This unit will be the central ordnance
for peacekeeping prior and post the election period. It must be in place at
least a few months before elections are held and until authority and power are
firmly in the hands of a legitimately elected government.
Thank you and God bless Zimbabwe.
Source: Voice of
America (VOA)
Date: 28 May 2010
The
collective Western policy since the launch of the unity government in Harare
has been to provide only humanitarian aid pending convincing reform as a
condition for funding development or reconstruction
Blessing
Zulu & Gibbs Dube | Washington
International
donors led by the United States and Britain will meet in Oslo next week to
review their stance on development aid to Zimbabwe.
The
collective Western policy since the launch of the unity government in Harare
has been to provide only humanitarian aid pending convincing reform as a
condition for funding development or reconstruction.
Diplomatic
sources said donors are not ready to modify that policy at present because the
parties to the September 2008 Global Political Agreement for power sharing have
not implemented it in full.
The United
States, Britain, Japan, Germany, France, Sweden, Holland, Norway, Canada and
Australia are members of the so-called Fishmongers Group which will assemble in
the Norwegian capital to discuss Zimbabwe's unity government, debt relief and
public finance, and the country's evolving indigenization program.
Finance
Minister Tendai Biti told VOA that he has sent a message to the group making
the case that increased funding is essential to the success of the transitional
government.
Diplomatic
sources report a U.S. proposal to fund only progressive ministries. But word of
this has escalated tensions in the Harare government between the Movement for
Democratic Change formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on the one hand
and President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF and the MDC formation of Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara on the other, rivals as well as partners of the
Tsvangirai MDC wing.
Harare
political analyst Charles Mangongera told reporter Blessing Zulu that the
political progress in Harare has not been sufficient to convince the Western
donors to modify their Zimbabwe funding stance.
Elsewhere,
Indigenization Minister Saviour Kasukuwere has fired a broadside at foreign
banks operating in Zimbabwe, saying that if they are not willing to provide
working capital to businesses they should leave the country.
Kasukuwere
has been touring the country with other ZANU-PF ministers talking up
indigenization. He blames the banks for failing to rescue business which have
collapsed or have been laying off workers to survive. He is said to have warned
banks to start funding business to avoid a repeat of the chaotic land reform
program.
But former
Affirmative Action Group president Matson Hlalo told VOA Studio 7 reporter
Gibbs Dube that Kasukuwere should not blame foreign-owned banks for the
economic crunch hitting Zimbabwean businesses.
Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, Associated Press
Reporting from Harare, Zimbabwe
Tourist destinations in Zimbabwe and other nearby nations are reportedly receiving bookings from South Africans trying to escape the upcoming World Cup soccer-mania at home.
Campsites and budget-price game lodges in Zimbabwe are receiving bookings from South Africans trying to escape the frenzy of the world's biggest sporting event, according to tour operators and officials.
Call it anti-World Cup fever: Campsites and budget-price game lodges in Zimbabwe are receiving bookings from South Africans trying to escape the frenzy of the world's biggest sporting event at home, according to tour operators and officials.
But other South African neighbors — Botswana with its game parks, Mozambique with its beaches, Swaziland with a slice of royal life — also hope to benefit from World Cup tourists who want to see a bit more of the continent.
Zimbabwe's National Parks department, in charge of the nation's 11 nature preserves, reported a last-minute rush of bookings during and surrounding the June 11-July 11 World Cup.
Emmanuel Fundira, head of the Zimbabwe Council of Tourism, said photogenic safari locations like the Mana Pools wilderness park, on the northern Zambezi river border with neighboring Zambia, were already filling up.
"We must bear in mind South Africans will be running away from the event … we see this pattern translating into local bookings," he said.
Zimbabwe's biggest tourist attraction is Victoria Falls on the Zambezi in the northwest. Seeing the falls is a once-in-a-lifetime experience: They constitute the widest curtain of falling water in the world — more than a mile wide — and are expected to attract World Cup visitors on quick direct flights from South Africa. The resort town has campsites, bed-and-breakfast cottages and 930 star-rated hotel rooms.
But expectations of how many tourists will come are lower than they once were. Despite its abundant animal and natural attractions, Zimbabwe has been hard hit by years of economic and political turmoil, with world-record inflation and a transitional coalition government still headed by longtime ruler President Robert Mugabe.
Originally the Harare government had hoped that up to 30% of soccer fans visiting South Africa would make a side trip to Zimbabwe, but expectations are lower now.
"We had false euphoria four years ago," said Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi.
Tourism in Zimbabwe peaked at 1.4 million in 1999, before the often violent seizures of white-owned farms began in 2000, disrupting the agriculture-based economy and leading to economic meltdown.
The country has now reverted almost entirely to a hard currency cash economy, mostly on the U.S. dollar. Major hotels accept foreign credit cards, but many stores do not have swipe card apparatus, and those that do suffer constant outages on their machines.
South Africa's other neighbors have been sprucing up their image in advance of the World Cup and trying to make life easier for visitors.
Mozambique announced it will honor a new visa recognized by six regional countries to allow free movement between them. The country is also cutting bureaucracy often encountered by tourists from Europe and the United States at frontiers and airports.
Mozambique, a former Portuguese colonial territory, offers unspoiled beaches, deep sea fishing, island trips and cosmopolitan facilities. The main airport in its capital city, Maputo, is getting a $70-million face-lift.
"Many countries in Europe and the Americas do not know what Mozambique has," said Mohamed Juma, a tourism operator in the southern province of Maputo. "I think from June, Mozambique will be on the touristic map."
The tiny, mountainous southern African kingdom of Swaziland recorded 1.3 million international arrivals last year, up 13.3% from the previous year, according to state Tourism Authority chief Eric Maseko. Major attractions include wildlife parks.
Asked about the World Cup, Maseko said, "We are ready." But he added that stray cattle on roads in the countryside were still "a problem the government is working hard to sort out."
Sibonangaye Dlamini, who owns a handicraft stall in Swaziland's capital, Mbabane, said he looked forward to brisk business from World Cup visitors.
"We won't change prices just because it is the World Cup," he promised.
South Africa's western neighbors, economically stable diamond producers Botswana and Namibia, are known for cultural diversity and magnificent scenery and wildlife. Namibia offers the haunting dunes of the seaside Namib desert and Skeleton Coast; Botswana has huge inland wetlands and swamps in the Okavango Delta, and the Chobe game preserve farther north.
Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe converge near the Victoria Falls — known as Mosi Oa Tunya, or the Smoke that Thunders, in the local language, for the roaring spray rising from the cascading waters visible from long distances.
Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and shortages of food and gasoline led to Zambia dominating tourism at the Victoria Falls on its side. Zambian operators offer bungee-jumping, whitewater rafting and helicopter rides over the falls for the so-called Flight of the Angels — taken from British explorer David Livingstone's description of the falls as "sights so lovely they must have been gazed upon by Angels in flight."
The helicopter trips from the Zambian side are $125 per person for a 15-minute trip. By In contrast, in Zimbabwe's ailing economy, a waiter in the nearby luxury Kingdom casino hotel on the Zimbabwe side of the Smoke that Thunders earns $120 for a month's work. But the gaming tables at the Kingdom have been closed for lack of business, leaving only the slot machines in place.
Associated Press writers Sello Motseta in Botswana, Emanuel Camillo in Mozambique, Phathizwe-Chief Zulu in Swaziland and Lewis Mwanangombe in Zambia contributed to this report.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press.
By ANGUS SHAW (AP)
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Tudor Parfitt has
spent years chasing a theory that a lost tribe of Jews wound up in Southern
Africa. But his latest leap has landed him in a minefield.
The subject at hand is this British
scholar's contention that the remains of a 700-year-old bowl-shaped relic which
he tracked down in a Zimbabwe museum storeroom in 2007 could be a replica of
the Ark of the Covenant that carried the Ten Commandments.
According to African legend, white
lions of God and a two-headed snake guarded the "drum that thunders"
in a cave in southwestern Zimbabwe's sacred Dumbwe mountains. Parfitt's theory
has sparked fierce reactions from some Zimbabwean scholars, who suspect a plot
to superimpose foreign origins on what is purely a product of African culture.
Having long disappeared from public
view since its discovery in the 1940s, the artifact is now on display at the
Harare Museum of Human Sciences. It is about 45 inches by 24 inches in diameter
and 27 inches tall with a pattern of shallow engraving on the outside that
could have held gold threads. Scorch marks on the base inside were possibly
left by primitive gun powder.
Parfitt, a professor of Modern Jewish
Studies at the University of London's prestigious School of Oriental and
African Studies, says he first heard of the vessel during his two-decade search
for Jewish tribes lost in Africa.
At the center of that research is a
southern African ethnic group variously called Lemba, Remba or waLemba. Parfitt
says 52 percent of them carry a Y chromosome known as the Cohen Modal Haplotype
(CMH) — unique to ancient priestly Jewish communities and raising the
possibility they are descended from Aaron, Moses' brother. Other groups in
Zimbabwe have no CMH.
The waLemba are also set apart from
other tribes by such Jewish customs as observing a weekly Sabbath, practicing
circumcision, shunning pork and slaughtering animals by methods similar to
Jewish kosher rules.
Parfitt acknowledges that theories
counter to his are "wholly plausible," and the museum is careful not
to take sides. The materials accompanying the exhibit that opened this year
outline both the theories behind the relic.
One says the original Ark of the
Covenant may have been destroyed when the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem in 586
B.C., that several copies likely were made and that one was taken to Ethiopia
by Prince Menelik, the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Another could
have found its way to ancient Zimbabwe, says the exhibit.
The other posits that it is a purely
African relic, and that according to legend, was made by waLemba craftsmen for
royal elders to give them magical powers.
In the Zimbabwean Shona language, the
artifact is called "Ngoma Lungundu," the "drum that
thunders," while the waLemba call it "the voice of God."
Parfitt says that according to oral
tradition, the waLemba could have been among peoples who left Judea in biblical
times and migrated through Yemen to east Africa, Ethiopia and beyond, bringing
the ark with them.
Eminent Zimbabwean historian Rob
Burrett disputes Parfitt's theories.
"He is on the wrong track. Wooden
drums — ceremonial drums and war drums with great powers similar to those
attributed to the ark — are an integral part of African culture," Burrett
said.
The genetic test "doesn't prove
anything," he said, noting that early European explorers of the east
African coast found a strong presence of Arab and Jewish traders moving into
the African interior.
"These people were certainly not
celibate and would have created mixed-blood communities along the way,"
Burrett said.
African traditionalists believe the
Ngoma is a royal drum so powerful that it imploded and was rebuilt on the
original wooden base 700 years ago. Indeed, a splinter from the top of the
artifact has been carbon-dated to about 1300, making it probably the oldest
surviving wooden object in southern Africa.
Only carbon-dating of the entire
object, including its scorched base, would resolve the debate, but Zimbabwe
authorities are reluctant to let that happen. In a nation striving to eradicate
tribalism, a result favoring Parfitt's claims might stir tribal divisions by
implying the waLembas' origins are not truly African.
"Everyone has placed this object
in a context of their own," conceded Giles Mutsekwa, co-minister of home
affairs, the body in charge of archives and antiquities.
One context that arouses anger in
Zimbabwe is race. During the colonial era, Europeans defended white-supremacist
ideas by arguing — wrongly — that Africans could not have built advanced
civilizations such as the massive citadel of stone houses called Great
Zimbabwe.
Harald von Sicard, the Swedish-German
missionary who discovered the Ngoma, theorized in the same vein — that the
artifact couldn't have been crafted by Africans. Burrett describes von Sicard
as "an old-fashioned, Old Testament" preacher whose views bordered on
racism.
Parfitt says he spent weeks living in a
waLemba community looking for clues about the ark and getting nowhere. He says
he was about to give up when he met a retired train driver in a bar in the
southern city of Bulawayo. The man said he recalled hauling a boxcar of
artifacts 440 kilometers (275 miles) from Bulawayo to the capital, Harare, for
safekeeping during the country's war of independence.
Parfitt searched the Harare museum in
2007, and there it was — in a dusty storeroom littered with mouse droppings.
But after he published his findings a year later, controversy flared.
"Some people thought it was all a
sinister plot and I was interfering. There was open hostility," he said.
Tempers erupted at a February meeting
on the topic at the main Zimbabwe university, with one Zimbabwean academic,
historian and former education minister Aenias Chigwedere, storming out of the
discussion, denouncing the presence of the British scholar.
Ken Mufuka, a professor of history from
Zimbabwe who teaches at Lander University in South Carolina, called Parfitt a
"publicity-monger" and "a charlatan" in a newsletter
published in Harare.
Burrett, who is also an associate
researcher at the Bulawayo museum, said the furor is rooted in the nation's
more recent political history.
"There is a fear of undermining
the post-independence myth that we are one people, not divided by tribe or
origin," he said. "It's as though we are in denial of having a
multicultural society."
Copyright © 2010 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved.
May 30, 2010 12:00 AM
The illegal diamond trade in
Zimbabwe is believed to be the single biggest source of "blood
diamonds" or "conflict diamonds" in the world today - and one of
the last cash lifelines of the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, and his
cohorts.
In this file
photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2006, women take a break from digging for
diamonds in Marange, eastern Zimbabwe.
Photograph by: TSVANGIRAYI MUKWAZHI
An investigation by The Times of
London established how the Marange diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe - a
fabulously wealthy but virtually unexploited diamond find - had fallen under
the control of the top men in Zimbabwe's secret services.
And despite the news this week
that the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) ordered the Zimbabwean
government to halt all illegal diamond dealings, that country's government
seems hellbent on circumventing the directive.
The KPCS is a joint governments,
industry and civil society initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds -
rough diamonds used by rebel movements to finance wars against other
governments.
The KPCS imposes extensive
requirements on its members to enable them to certify shipments of rough
diamonds as "conflict-free". As of December 2009, the KPCS had 49
members, representing 75 countries, with the European Union and its member
states counting as an individual participant.
KPCS monitor Abbey Chikane, who
is also chairman of the Southern African Diamond Board, ordered that Zimbabwe
stop unlawfully selling diamonds to Dubai.
Mines Minister Obert Mpofu last
week confirmed he had suspended the sale of diamonds pending the finalisation
of the KPCS process.
"The real issue is (that)
Chikane told Zimbabwean authorities that while they can try to go it alone and
sell their diamonds outside the KPCS, they were going to face serious problems.
He demanded that they must stop their diamond sales," a senior diamond
mining executive said.
In 2006, the Mugabe regime
cancelled the mining lease for Marange that had been secured by a
British-registered company called African Consolidated Resources (ACR). Last
year a court confirmed that ACR was the rightful owner - but Mpofu and General
Constantine Chiwenga, the defence force chief, have shown no intention of lessening
their grip on such a lucrative trade.
Mugabe's wife, Grace, is also
alleged to be involved.
Attempts by the country's new
unity government, which has the former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as
prime minister, to gain access to the fields to find out what is really going
on have so far failed.
Analysts say they fear that the
elite in the regime are using the diamond wealth to entrench themselves in
power before an expected succession battle when Mugabe, 86, finally bows out.
- © The Times, London and Sunday
Times Foreign Desk
May 30, 2010 12:16 AM
Mugabe reassures mine owners at
Victoria Falls conference. President Robert Mugabe said on Friday the
government would not expropriate mines and was refining a controversial local
ownership law to enable miners to expand their operations.
ABOUT TURN:
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe Picture: REUTERS
Photograph by:
" 'No mine
has been nationalised since independence' " Jacob Zuma
"Government has no intention
of expropriating the mining industry. No mine has been nationalised since
independence," Mugabe told an annual mining conference at Victoria Falls.
Early this year the government
published regulations forcing foreign-owned firms, including mines and banks,
to cede 51% shares to locals, a move which divided the coalition administration
and spooked investors.
"The implementation of the
empowerment initiative will take cognisance of the need to promote growth of
the mining industry," Mugabe said.
"Accordingly, mechanisms are
being refined to ensure that investors find it attractive to expand current
operations and to bring new investment into the country."
The regulations took effect on
March 1 and require foreign-owned companies to submit plans to show how they
will sell 51% of their shares to black Zimbabweans within five years.
But the power-sharing government
formed by Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last year is deeply
divided over the regulations, which Tsvangirai has said will frighten
investors.
Some of the foreign-owned miners
that will be affected by the law include the world's number one and two
platinum producers Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum Holdings and Rio Tinto.
Meanwhile, while Mugabe was at
Victoria Falls, the make-or break meeting of Zimbabwe's principals in the
country's shaky Global Political Agreement (GPA) failed to materialise on
Friday as scheduled, after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai arrived late from
regional and international engagements, further stalling the mediation process
to find a solution to the country's crisis.
President Robert Mugabe, Prime
Minister Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, the three
principals in the rickety power sharing truce, had scheduled Friday's meeting
to specifically deal with outstanding issues.
Tsvangirai, whose popular faction
of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has long complained that Mugabe was
treating it as a junior partner in the government of national unity, was expected
to take Mugabe to task over his unilateral appointment of five judges last week
without consulting the other two principals.
"The Prime Minister is very
tired after visiting South Korea. We arrived late from South Africa on Thursday
night. He needed rest and as such the principals meeting could not take
place," said James Maridadi, Tsvangirai's spokesman.
"The principals would now
possibly meet on Monday next week," said Maridadi.
Tsvangirai passed through
Pretoria, where he was guest speaker at the Southern Africa Liaison Office.
In his address, which was made
available to the Sunday Times on Friday, Tsvangirai said the GPA was in trouble
because Zimbabwe still had a section of the bureaucracy that continued to
resist any changes to the status quo and a security establishment leadership
that no longer felt safe in the unfolding new political dispensation.
"Whether it is resistance to
implement agreed democratic reforms; or the looting and misuse of state funds
and resources; or the lack of respect for the rule of law and the constitution;
or simply the ruthless determination to retain or usurp power at all costs and
by whatever means. all of this shows how fragile this marriage is, and how
fragile the transition process is in Zimbabwe. Just last week, President Mugabe
unilaterally appointed five new judges, including a Judge-President, without
even a nod to the undertakings he had signed: to consult with me, and to
protect the fundamental principles of independence and non-partisanship of the
judiciary," said Tsvangirai.
"Being in Government with a
partner who does not respect the very agreement which it signed up to as a
basis for that partnership is a challenge, to put it mildly. It is now
abundantly clear that Zanu-PF never intended to implement much of what it
signed up to.
''Fortunately for us though, and
for the people of Zimbabwe, the world - and most importantly, the region - is
watching. That agreement, the GPA, was brokered and guaranteed by SADC. And
SADC has proved that it is determined to see it respected and implemented.'' -
Reuters and Harare correspondent