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Zim Standard

Mugabe buys luxury limo

Staff Writer
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has bought a new presidential fleet which consists
of a state-of-the-art limousine for himself, a second limousine for one of
the vice-presidents, two Mercedes Benz sedans and 19 presidential escort
trucks with total value of $250 million.

Documents supplied to The Standard show that the President’s limousine, an
armoured Mercedes Benz S600 LV140 AMG (Pullman size), has been ordered from
German armoured vehicle manufacturer, Cloer International GmbH.

The other smaller limousine, a Mercedes Benz S600 LV140 (presidential size)
and the two standard S500 LW220 sedans have been armoured and supplied by
the same manufacturer—Cloer International. The latter is said to have
demanded a 50% deposit which was paid through their bankers, Commerzbank AG,
into account number 707 1220771 00, under sort code 380 400 07.

Local luxury car suppliers, Zimoco, are the intermediaries in a deal which
began in May and culminated in the order of the vehicles in August.

Zimbabwe Government Tender Board resolution TBR 0751 of 23 May 2001, shows
that the board approved the purchase of the Very Very Important Persons
(VVIP) fleet in a meeting held on the same day.

The resolution also gave approval for presidential escort trucks to be
bought from Toyota Zimbabwe and Nissan Clover Leaf. The escort vehicles
consist of Nissan Hardbody, Toyota Landcruiser and Nissan Patrol four-wheel
drive trucks.

The resolution on the purchase of the vehicles followed a special request
from the President’s Office to the Central Mechanical and Equipment
Department (CMED).

“CMED has been requested by the Department of State Residences in the Office
of the President to purchase various types of vehicles. These vehicles are
custom-made as they incorporate security features that cannot be for public
consumption.

“The estimated cost of the vehicles is Z$250 million and 23 vehicles are
required in total. The vehicles are specifically for his excellency the
President’s fleet, the vice presidents, the spouses and the escorts,” reads
the CMED’s request to the tender board.

The President’s Office has requested Cloer International to bullet proof the
President’s limousine to the highest armouring level possible—that of B7
Dragunov-high-level protection. Other lower levels of vehicle armouring
include B4 Magnum-Class, B4+ Kalashnikov-Class and B6 Nato.

The second limousine is also to be armoured to B7 Dragunov level while the
two S500 sedans armoured to B6 Nato-armouring level.

Reached for comment by telephone on Thursday in the German city of Bonn,
co-owner of Cloer International, Fidelis Cloer, told The Standard that he
was not at liberty to reveal details of the president’s limousine.

“I’m sorry I cannot give details on any of our clients or the projects we
are undertaking,” said Cloer.

Despite Cloer’s refusal to supply details, sources within the President’s
Office say the fleet is due for delivery before the end of the year.

Documents in The Standard’s possession show that the VVIP fleet will be
delivered by air from Bonn at a cost of $4,4 million at the official
exchange rate.

The purchase of the VVIP fleet brings to $469 million the amount government
has spent this year alone on luxury cars for use by the president and his
wife, the vice presidents, ministers and their deputies, the speaker of
parliament and senior judges.

Last week, The Standard revealed details of a how government had set aside
$219 million for a fleet for ministers, their deputies, judges and the
speaker of parliament.
The supply of the other 38 Mercedes Benz sedans was put on hold by the High
Court after Harare businessman, Stanley Botsh, alleged tender fraud in the
vehicle deal by Zimoco and top government officials.

The Standard is in possession of documents used by Zimoco to secure the
contract and which purport to involve President Mugabe in the deal.

A letter sent to CMED by Daimler Chrysler (South Africa) was altered to show
that it had been sent to President Mugabe. Kevin Clause of Daimler Chrysler,
told The Standard on Wednesday that his company’s original letter had made
no reference to the President’s Office.

In South Africa, Daimler is embroiled in a scandal in which officials
reportedly received kickbacks in exchange for lucrative vehicle orders. The
scandal has already forced one SA government minister to resign.

Intelligence sources said top CIO officials had expressed reservations about
the president’s limousine being ordered through Zimoco which is co-owned by
Robert Crossly, a Briton. They believe the deal compromises the President’s
security.

Zim Standard

Mugabe’s limousine

Staff Writer
THE interior of President Mugabe’s limousine, showing leather upholstery and
the AMG Advanced Mobile Media System, comprises a high-performance,
top-class integral solution which allows for all the usual facilities of an
office even when on the road.

This high-end system is based on a specially developed, high-performance AMG
in-car PC. Thanks to an HSCSD (High Speed Circuit Switched Data) modem or a
GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) modem, the compact computer ensures
high-speed Internet access, allowing passengers to surf the web or send and
receive e-mails during the journey. The transmission rate of 43 kbps
guarantees quick access of the World-Wide Web.

Large 10.4" monitors are available for surfing the Internet. The flat
monitors swivel out of the multimedia console at the push of a button. The
separate keyboard is neatly stored away in a ruffled pocket positioned in
front of the seat cushion. But when required for use, it can be placed on
one of the two tables available for working. The monitors can also be used
for watching a television programme—even the latest movies, thanks to the
DVD player. The second TV tuner allows one to watch different programmes on
the monitors at the same time.

As well as housing monitors, notebooks and tables, the console also contains
the AMG in-car PC and features a separate power supply. The high-powered
rechargeable battery allows occupants to make full use of the multimedia
system for about 30 minutes after the engine has been switched off.
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Zim Standard

Opinion: It had Zanu PF written all over

Tapfumaneyi S Tapera
THE death of Cain Nkala, the chairman of the Bulawayo branch of the war
veterans’ association, has now been confirmed. Both his relatives and fellow
ex-combatants confirmed to police that the body found near Solusi University
was indeed that of Cain Nkala. But the question that looms is: Whose dirty
work was this?

I am not a Movement for Democratic Change sympathiser, but I am convinced
that Cain Nkala’s death was the work of Zanu PF itself.

I will begin by offering an argument as to why MDC would not have wanted
Cain Nkala dead. Firstly, Cain Nkala’s evidence would have been important in
the court hearing on the disappearance of Patrick Nabanyama, an MDC polling
agent during the 2000 parliamentary elections. The MDC wanted Nkala’s
evidence to expose whoever was behind Nabanyama’s disappearance and the
violence which characterised the June 2002 elections.

Cain Nkala was certainly taking his instructions from senior Zanu PF
officials, if at all he was involved in Nabanyama’s death or disappearance.
They are the ones the MDC and all Zimbabweans who favour justice would have
wanted exposed. So the MDC would have been the last part of society to wish
Cain Nkala dead.

Secondly, Nkala was not a threat to the MDC’s presidential challenge as
Bulawayo is generally regarded as an MDC stronghold—as shown in the recent
mayoral elections there and the June 2000 parliamentary elections.

Nkala was not as powerful within Zanu PF as was Hunzvi or as are Joseph
Chinotimba or Andrew Ndlovu. He was no threat at all to the MDC in so far as
his role in the presidential elections in Bulawayo was concerned. In fact,
he had actually been a failure to his political party, Zanu PF, during the
campaigns for both the mayoral and parliamentary elections.

I will now move on to why it was that Zanu PF that wanted Nkala dead. The
reasons are clear: Nkala had become a liability to Zanu PF as shown by his
performance —or lack of it—during the parliamentary and mayoral elections.
To add to that, his name was linked with the Nabanyama disappearance which
is still to get a hearing from courts. This made him “unclean” for a
political party, even Zanu PF. That’s why Zanu PF always wants the likes of
Zvobgo and Mavhaire to remain a distance from actual party activities. But
couldn’t they just had fired him and improve their election performance? No,
they couldn’t have done that and got away with it. Nkala was an ex-combatant
who has been at it all. He knew very much about Zanu PF secrets. He could
have called a press conference and told the world about Nabanyama’s case,
and the violence perpetrated by Zanu PF since its draft constitution was
rejected in February 2000. In fact as a war veteran, and a former Zanu PF
member, he could have told all from the days of the liberation struggle, to
the Gukurahundi, up to now. In this connection, simple thinking will tell us
that the easy thing for Zanu PF to do was not to fire him but to eliminate
him.

As for the twenty-three-year- old men who were paid by the opposition to
kill Cain Nkala, the truth of it is that these young men are being paid to
accept that they killed Nkala and that they did this for the opposition.

Then there is also this view that Zanu PF killed Nkala so that they could
get an excuse for a terror campaign for next year’s presidential polls. They
want to terrorise people, particularly those in Matabeleland, in the name of
revenging or hunting Nkala’s killers. Why the people of Matabeleland, is
because they have rejected Zanu PF rule in the last mayoral and
parliamentary elections, and are likely to repeat the same voting pattern if
left undisturbed. But when all else has been said, Nkala died because he had
outlived his importance to Zanu PF.


Zim Standard


Comment—Come clean, comrades

IF ever the government and the ruling party’s dirty tricks department had
difficulty in peddling a theory to the public, they really must be sweating
over the Cain Nkala murder saga.

So botched up has been the whole plan that, even with the concerted and
spirited assistance of the state-owned media, the CIO, war veterans, and the
police itself, the state found it increasingly difficult as the week wore on
to convince Zimbabweans that Nkala had met his fate at the hands of anyone
other than functionaries of the ruling party, and no one else. In short, his
murder was a ZanuPF inside job.

Even the most cursory assessment of the case points to the firm conclusion
that ZanuPF would have, and has, more reasons for eliminating a man who a
day later was due to give key evidence in the murder of Patrick Nabanyama,
Bulawayo South MP David Coltart’s election agent who was abducted just
before last year’s June parliamentary elections, and who is now presumed
dead. As is more fully argued elsewhere in this issue, Nkala represented no
threat whatsoever to the Movement for Democratic Change, and in fact was
part of the team that had failed dismally in its campaign for ZanuPF in
recent council and mayoral elections held in Matabeleland. Why would the
opposition pursue a political nonentity, who in any case was due to provide
sensitive information which they were interested in?

Next, we were told by the police and the ZBC that Nkala had been abducted
from his Magwegwe West home by 10 men heavily armed with AK rifles. But then
we were told that Nkala had been suffocated to death using shoelaces! So
what were the AKs for? Where are they now, and to whose ownership have they
been traced? Where is the Nissan vehicle and whose registration number does
it bear? Surely this information should easily be made available to the
public since there are people who have “confessed” to the crime?

Nkala’s assailants were allegedly found with R1 million in cash on them,
according to the state and to the ZBC. Even presuming that any such money
was found, one would assume that such a huge amount was payment for
undertaking the cold-blooded murder. The fact that the amount given for the
job was so high, presumes that there was the realisation somewhere that soon
after the successful murder of Nkala, certain people would have to move far
and fast. Yet the so-called assasins were found floating around Bulawayo’s
western suburbs a week after the act—and with the money intact?

Further, why are the police preventing the alleged assasins from speaking to
lawyers, or to anyone else other than state agents? Is there something these
men might reveal that will expose the whole sham of their having confessed
to Nkala’s death? Yet within hours of the “discovery” of Nkala’s body, a ZBC
team all the way from Harare was in place to beam to the world the police’s
breakthrough.

There are several other hanging questions which cannot be exhausted in this
column. But there is one observation which must not go unregistered:
Vice-president Joseph Msika last weekend visited the Nkala home, and in
consoling his family, warned the opposition of a bloodbath in retaliation
over the Nkala affair. “Bloodbaths” refer to dead people. Who had told Msika
at that stage that Nkala was dead? How did he know that Nkala was no more
and that he was not, for instance, being held captive somewhere? In these
circumstances, could it be far-fetched to conclude that the events of the
rest of the week were stage-managed?

In synchrony with this roll-out plan were blatant lies in the state press
that the MDC MP for Lobengula-Magwegwe, Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, had fled
since Tuesday when Nkala’s body was “discovered”, and that he was being
pursued vigorously by the police.

Where were they pursuing him? He was at Parliament on Monday, spent the
whole day on Tuesday at the MDC headquarters in Harare, on Wednesday night
he was at home with his family, and surrendered himself to the police on
Thursday after reading press reports that he was wanted.

We could continue with the loopholes in this case ad infinitum. Suffice it
is to say that the Herald, ZBC, the CIO and the police obviously credit
Zimbabweans with much less brains than they have.

We say to the State: ‘Sorry. We will not buy your Nkala-MDC story. Please
come clean.’

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Zim Standard

Nkala’s family breaks silence


BULAWAYO—AS Zanu PF whipped up emotions over the killing of war veterans’
leader, Cain Nkala, and implicated the opposition MDC party in the killing,
it emerged that it was in fact fellow war veterans who killed Nkala.

Breaking their silence, Nkala’s close relatives and friends told The
Standard on Friday that Nkala had been a casualty of the in-house feuding of
the war veterans’ association.

One war veteran said some Zanu PF politicians had wanted Nkala dead because
they considered him a stumbling block to control Matabeleland, and impose on
the province a pro-government war veterans executive.

Relatives said the war veterans’ leader had been preparing to leave the
country for Britain before his abduction from his home in the Magwegwe West
suburb. He had told friends that he wanted to leave the country as his life
was in danger.

The relatives, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal,
said Nkala had been targeted for opposing the use of violence against local
people during the Zanu PF election campaigns.

The killers, they said, had closely monitored the veteran’s movements around
Bulawayo and had got to him before he was able to fly out of the country
with his family. Sympathisers had agreed to pay for his flight to Britain.

Nkala’s relatives declined to disclose the names of the people who had
threatened to kill him but said all former Zipra guerrillas in Bulawayo knew
the killers.

“People should not be fooled by reports in the government newspapers that
Nkala was killed by the MDC,” said one of Nkala’s neighbours in Magwegwe.

Neighbours said Nkala had called out the names of his captors as he was
being forced into the truck. “I heard him call out the names of his
kidnappers but I was too scared to go out,” said one neighbour.

Nkala’s wife, Sikhumbuzo, who is under instructions not to speak to
journalists, is currently under police guard.

Sources said some MDC youths had been paid to implicate their leaders in
Nkala’s death. Already, 14 MDC activists, including the party’s MP for
Lobengula-Magwegwe, Fletcher Dulini Ncube, have been arrested over the
murder of Nkala.

“This is a game of death whereby if you refuse some assignments, you die
like sheep,” said the neighbour, commenting on why MDC youths were being
paid to implicate their leaders in the murder.

One close relative said it was highly unlikely that the MDC had killed Nkala
as he had been well-respected in Bulawayo even by MDC members because of his
opposition to the use of violence.

Nkala’s problems started when he blocked Zanu PF’s Harare terror squads from
descending on Bulawayo. He had also prevented the Harare war veterans from
storming the Solusi University located on the outskirts of Bulawayo. He had
strongly advocated a policy of recruiting locals for teacher and nurse
training.

Other war veterans such as Collen Ndlovu who had shared Nkala’s views in
relation to the rejection of violent campaigns, had been targeted for
attacks by war veterans loyal to the former national chairman of the war
veterans’ association, the late Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi.

Soldiers patrolling the township on Friday did nothing to stop the stoning
and burning of houses belonging to suspected members of the opposition.
Hundreds of war veterans and Zanu PF supporters launched reprisal attacks on
suspected MDC supporters on Friday and went on a rampage in downtown
Bulawayo.

Some of the war veterans had arrived in Bulawayo by train from Harare on
Friday morning.
Offices belonging to the MDC, and a college block belonging to Zanu PF
acting national political commissar, Dr Sikanyiso Ndlovu, were set on fire
in the fiasco which followed.
Meanwhile, Nkala who was on Friday declared a national hero, will be buried
at the national Heroes Acre today.
Zim Standard

Trouble as Nkala body arrives

Staff Writer
Police yesterday evening fired warning shots as war veterans clashed with
commuter bus crews outside a funeral parlour along Union Avenue in Harare.
The crews had refused to vacate the area to make way for the arrival of the
late war veterans leader, Cain Nkala.

Commuter bus crews, whose rank is a few metres from the Doves Morgans
funeral parlour, threw stones at Zanu PF vehicles carrying war veterans who
formed the advance party for the funeral cortege.

Nkala’s body, which had been flown in from Bulawayo yesterday evening, was
being delivered to the parlour in preparation for today’s burial at the
heroes acre.
Trouble started when war veterans ordered the commuter omnibus crews to move
their vehicles off the designated Warren Park and Kuwadzana rank outside the
parlour.

The drivers, conductors and rank marshals refused to budge, questioning what
was so special about Nkala’s body that they had to move off the rank.

The two groups started exchanging abusive words, and while the bus crews
threw stones at the war veterans’ vehicles, members of the public were also
caught in the crossfire.

The war veterans were forced to flee the scene to seek refuge at the nearby
Zanu PF headquarters.

Harare lawyer and The Standard director, Beatrice Mtetwa, was assaulted by a
war veteran identified as Mike Moyo, who slapped her in the face during the
fiasco.

“I had come out of a nearby hair salon and was driving along Union Avenue
when police stopped me, warning me of the prevailing riotous situation in
the area.

“I disembarked from the car to speak to the police, upon which I was
suddenly slapped by a man who was part of a group of war veterans,” said
Mtetwa.

She was only allowed to go after claiming that she was one of Nkala’s family
members from Bulawayo.

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Zim Standard

Matabeleland—the terror returns

Thabo Kunene
THE state-sponsored terror squads, responsible for the violence in
Mashonaland during the parliamentary and by-elections, have transferred
their activities to the rural areas of Matabeleland North—specifically the
Lupane and Nkayi districts.

Vigilante groups comprising war veterans and Zanu PF supporters roam
villages looking for members of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).

They have vowed to turn Lupane and Nkayi into ‘no go’ areas for the MDC
whose meetings have already been banned in Lupane. Indoctrination camps for
MDC abductees have been set up in these areas.

A torture camp has been uncovered in the caves of the Matopo mountains about
46km south of Bulawayo near the Matopo national park.

This camp which was established two weeks before the crucial Bulawayo
mayoral and ward elections in September, was exposed recently by MDC youths
escaping from it.

One of the youths told The Standard that he had been abducted in September
while making his way back home from a beerhall in Mpopoma township. He was
bundled into a truck with no registration numbers and blind-folded. On
arrival at the camp deep inside the mountains of Matopo, he found himself in
the company of people he took to be MDC supporters, some tied to trees and
others with their hands tied behind their backs.

“I was tortured twice, for two days, but others were tortured everyday. I
suspect there were some who were killed at the camp,” said the youth who
requested anonymity.

MDC vice-president, Gib-son Sibanda, confirmed the existence of a torture
camp at Matopo.

Three warlords—Stimela, J Masuku and Khiwa, a former dissident, run the
torture camp.

Another feared war veteran is a nursing aide at Ezinyangeni clinic where he
is said to deny health services to suspected MDC supporters.

Appeals by local villagers to have him removed from the clinic have fallen
on deaf ears for he enjoys the support of the party and police.

Meanwhile, scores of MDC supporters have fled their homes in Lupane
following the deployment of soldiers in the area, for unknown reasons.

According to some of the villagers, the soldiers were deployed in Lupane
following the brutal murder, two weeks ago, of curio vendor and Zanu PF
supporter, Limukani Lupahla.

He had been a member of the MDC up to June when he and other MDC youths
crossed over to the ruling party when they were promised a share of the
$1million prize, sources said. Lupahla is said to have died before obtaining
his cut but others used their money to start self-reliance projects.

Lupahla was abducted from his shack near Lupane service station and his body
was later found dumped along the main Bulawayo-Victoria Falls road. Although
the body had been burnt villagers were still able to identify him.

Police have arrested five youths for his alleged torture and subsequent
murder, while another five MDC youths have fled the area fearing they would
be implicated in the murder.

MDC organising secretary, Mxwayisi Mpofu denied that his party had been
involved in the death of Lupahla. “We are just being framed by the police.
Lupahla was our friend and we spent most of our time selling curios along
the main road with him,” said Mpofu.

Mpofu and other villagers, who have fled their homes in Lupane, have since
given human rights activists the names of the seven people at Lupane
Business Centre whom they believe killed Lupahla.

Mpofu said he fled his village when Zanu PF supporters set his home alight
because of his refusal to defect to the ruling party.
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Zim Standard

Draconian law bounces back

Farai Mutsaka
GOVERNMENT is set to table the draconian Public Order and Security Bill
(POSB) before Parliament within a month, in a move to give police sweeping
powers in the run-up to next year’s presidential election.

The Standard has week established that justice, legal and parliamentary
affairs minister, Patrick Chinamasa, wanted the Bill to be passed in
Parliament urgently to give the police more powers to deal with election
violence.

Contacted for comment, Chinamasa confirmed yesterday to The Standard that he
would be tabling the Bill this month. “It is true. The draft was approved in
the cabinet committee on legislation on Thursday. We are going to table it
to cabinet on Thursday, and if cabinet approves it we will put it to
parliament,” said Chinamasa.

The minister, however, refused to disclose the reasons why he was
reintroducing the Bill or its contents, preferring to say only: “You will
see it when it comes.”

The controversial Bill was first introduced in 1997 to replace the equally
draconian colonial Law and Order Maintenance Act, used by the Rhodesian
authorities to suppress any form of civil unrest.

Although the contents of the current bill are still not clear, it is likely
to be even more restrictive than the previous Bill which made it a crime for
anyone to organise public gatherings without a three-day written notice to a
regulating authority.

It also criminalised uttering of “subversive statements” or statements
likely to incite public disorder or to oppose the State using unlawful
means. It was however not clear what constituted a subversive statement.
The Bill gave magistrates the power to prohibit all public gatherings within
any area for a period of up to three months.

Opening Parliament in July this year, President Mugabe promised to
reintroduce the Bill, which he had refused to approved two years ago after a
public outcry on the draconian nature of the proposed Act.

Legal practitioners and civic society bodies protested at last year’s
attempts to reintroduce the POSB saying the move was tantamount to
“replacing repression with repression”.

Mugabe refused to sign the Bill into law in 1998 saying it had too many
ambiguous sections. Dumiso Dabengwa, then minister of home affairs, said the
bill had to be revised.

MDC secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, told The Standard on Friday that the
re-introduction of the POSB was meant to suppress his party which will be
fielding Morgan Tsvangirai to challenge President Mugabe.

“All the legislation they have been bringing is designed to ensure that we
do not have a free and fair election and we can assume that whatever is
contained in that Bill is meant to suppress us, to make sure we don’t hold
meetings and rallies. What they are doing is to ensure that everything is
done legally.

“Unfortunately, Mugabe does not seem to learn from history. History has it
that you cannot keep people in bondage forever. Human beings are going to
search for that freedom. Smith did it but all his legislation did not stop
the people’s quest for freedom. Similarly, no law of Mugabe’s will save
 him,” said Ncube.

The bill comes at a time when a survey by an internationally renowned
agency, Target, has shown President Mugabe trailing Tsvangirai in the race
for the presidency.

The opposition has also been amassing significant support from rural voters
who have for long provided Zanu PF’s support base. The ruling party has all
but surrendered the urban votes to the MDC, but is making desperate attempts
to stop the MDC from penetrating rural areas.

Government has ame-nded the Electoral Act to facilitate the banning of
foreign and local independent election monitors. The Political Parties
Finances Act was amended earlier this year to bar political parties from
receiving foreign funds, in a move seen as a measure of crippling the MDC
financially.
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Guardian

Rioting in Zimbabwe bodes ill for upcoming elections

Andrew Meldrum, Harare
Sunday November 18, 2001
The Observer

A wave of violence sweeping through Zimbabwe, with riots in two cities and
fears of disturbances elsewhere, yesterday increased foreboding about the
run-up to the presidential elections early next year.
Panic erupted in Harare yesterday as President Robert Mugabe's war veterans
descended on the offices of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC). Pedestrians, taxis and motorists fled the city centre, fearing
violence. Some pedestrians were assaulted, but no major property was
damaged.

The war veterans made a show of strength in Harare's downtown area after
waiting for the arrival of the body of Cain Nkala, the chairman of the
Bulawayo war veterans, whose murder has been a flashpoint for recent
violence. Nkala will be buried in Harare as Mugabe's party has declared him
a national hero.

Political strife rocked the cities of Bulawayo and Kadoma on Friday and
extra police units were sent to Bulawayo yesterday. Police were also on
alert for possible outbreaks of violence in Harare, Masvingo and Gweru.

'Civil strife is escalating in our country to such an extent that no one is
going to benefit from it,' said MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. 'Lawlessness,
anarchy and state-sponsored violence are tearing this country apart. There
is no rule of law in Zimbabwe and it is obvious that it is impossible to
have free and fair elections under these conditions.'

Nevertheless Tsvangirai urged all Zimbabweans to vote in the presidential
elections, in which he is challenging Mugabe's 21-year grip on power.

State-sponsored violence is blamed for setting off the rioting in Bulawayo.
Three police vehicles escorted a gang of about 400 of Mugabe's war veterans
to the Bulawayo offices of the MDC. The war veterans threw petrol bombs into
the MDC building as police watched. The government supporters prevented the
city fire department from stopping the blaze.

The gang then ran through Bulawayo's city centre beating passersby,
especially whites. In one incident a German aid worker was dragged from his
vehicle and beaten in front of his terrified children, according to
witnesses.

Bulawayo is a hotbed of support for the MDC and enraged residents rapidly
mounted a counterattack. About 1,000 people attacked the Zanu-PF offices and
a building owned by a prominent Zanu-PF supporter. Police quickly dispersed
the crowd and prevented further damage. The angry MDC supporters burned a
truck belonging to the state newspaper, the Bulawayo Chronicle, widely
reviled as a government mouthpiece.

Mugabe and his government have inflamed political tensions over the issue of
Nkala's murder. When Nkala's strangled body was found last week, Mugabe and
cabinet ministers quickly blamed the MDC for the crime, repeatedly branding
its leaders as 'terrorists'. More than 15 MDC members have been charged with
plotting Nkala's murder, including MP Fletcher Dlamini Ncube.

Other MDC members were arrested in Harare and tortured by state agents,
according to the MDC. The use of the word 'terrorist' by government
officials is widely viewed as a prelude to further arrests and violence
against the opposition party.

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Wave of violence spills into Harare



AFP - Fighting erupted in Harare as the body of a war veteran whose murder
provoked a wave of violence in Zimbabwe arrived in the capital over the
weekend, national television reported.

Police used teargas to break up stone-throwing clashes between supporters of
President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic
Front (ZANU-PF) and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo has been rocked by violence over the
murder of Cain Nkala, a local leader of war veterans, whose decomposing body
was found on Tuesday.

Forty-one-year-old Nkala had been abducted eight days earlier by armed men
from his home in the MDC stronghold of Magwegwe, near Bulawayo. Police said
he had been strangled with one of his shoelaces.

No injuries were reported in Saturday's incidents, which occurred as Nkala's
body was brought to the capital in preparation for his burial at a cemetery
for "heroes" of the fight against British colonial rule.

Interior Minister John Nkomo today urged Zimbabwe's citizens to be on
"maximum alert" against "enemies from inside and outside (who) will do
anything against the stability of Zimbabwe".

Speaking in Harare after his party's offices were firebombed in Bulawayo on
Friday, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai warned that the violence had
"everything to do with the presidential election" taking place next year.

On Friday, Bulawayo buildings and cars were burnt out, opposition activists
and government supporters clashed, passers-by were attacked and houses
ransacked when a group of war veterans went on the rampage.

The unrest in Bulawayo and in the northern city of Kadoma reminded some
Zimbabweans of the violence that rocked the country in the legislative
elections of June last year, in which some 30 people were killed.

Fifteen MDC members, including one MP, have been arrested, over Nkala's
murder, and Nkomo said he had "firm indications" that proved the "direct and
indirect" involvement of MDC members and leaders.

Veterans of the country's 1970s liberation war from white minority rule are
staunch supporters of Mugabe.

The MDC categorically denied any involvement, saying two suspects in police
custody who admitted to having taken part in the abduction and murder had
confessed under torture.

The secretary general of the MDC, Welshman Ncube, has accused police of
protecting the real perpetrators of the crime.

"What kind of justice is that?" asked Tsvangirai, who will be Mugabe's main
rival in the presidential elections.

The MDC leader said Nkala's death was just a government excuse to "execute"
his party before the elections, to be held in April next year at the latest.

Calling Nkala's death "politically exploited," Tsvangirai said: "We have to
face reality: there will be no fair and free elections."

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Telegraph

Land seizures stepped up as Mugabe's health fails
By Brian Latham in Harare
(Filed: 18/11/2001)


SPECULATION that President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is seriously ill
appeared to gain credence last week when the government hurriedly enacted a
new law speeding up the seizure of white-owned farmland.


Robert Mugabe: may have suffered a stroke
Mr Mugabe, 77, said recently that he prayed daily for God to let him live
long enough to see his controversial fast-track land reforms through to
completion.

The announcement of the new law, allowing his ruling Zanu-PF to seize up to
85 per cent of all white-owned farmland, fuelled speculation that his health
was deteriorating.

The story was bolstered last week when the new United States ambassador to
Zimbabwe found himself presenting his credentials not to Mr Mugabe - who had
not been seen for days - but to Vice-President Simon Muzenda. There were
unconfirmed rumours that Mr Mugabe had suffered a stroke and was in a coma.

The new law gives the state the right to confine farmers to their homes for
90 days while their land is reallocated. It was condemned by Colin Cloete,
the president of the Commercial Farmers' Union, which represents most of
Zimbabwe's 4,500 mainly white farmers.

He said: "In a move, it eradicates every tenet of property rights -
especially rural landowners' rights - that we ever had." Despite government
promises to restore the rule of law, farm violence has worsened recently.

More than 100,000 squatters have now invaded well over half the country's
farms - burning workers' houses and barricading farming families into their
homes. David Coltart, the shadow minister for justice from the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, also criticised the latest moves.

His party has been plunged into crisis by the killing of a key Matabeleland
supporter of Mr Mugabe's drive to seize white-owned farms for redistribution
to landless blacks - a murder for which the MDC is being blamed.

Cain Nkala, the chairman of the war veterans' association in Bulawayo, was
abducted by gunmen a fortnight ago. His body was discovered in a shallow
grave in Bulawayo last week. A television crew from a state-owned station
was, coincidentally, at the graveside to witness the find.

Police and agents from the Central Intelligence Organisation swooped on the
MDC's Bulawayo offices. Fourteen MDC activists later appeared in court on
murder charges.

On Friday, pro-government militants smashed shop windows and burnt down the
party offices in a violent protest over Nkala's killing. State radio said
the dead man had been declared a national hero.

"We've been pretty much closed down in Bulawayo," said Mr Coltart. He
believes that the harassment is partly directed at him.

"We've had reports that war veterans held a meeting at which it was decided
to eliminate me," he said, minutes after a light aircraft in which he was
travelling was ordered to land shortly after take-off on a flight from
Harare to Bulawayo. Security agents detained Mr Coltart, the pilot and two
other passengers for 90 minutes.

He said: "They wouldn't give a reason for my detention. Perhaps they thought
I was going to skip the country - something I'd never do."

Another Vice-President, Joseph Msika, has warned the MDC that the party can
expect a bloodbath in retribution for Nkala's murder, which the
government-controlled media refer to as a terrorist act.

Many Zimbabweans believe that Nkala was killed by people from within the
Central Intelligence Organisation who are fiercely loyal to the president.
Nkala was himself due in court for the kidnapping of Patrick Nyabanyama, Mr
Coltart's election agent for last year's parliamentary poll.

"The whole thing was contrived," Mr Coltart said of the discovery of Nkala's
body. "Since when do you have television cameras ready and waiting, hundreds
of kilometres from the capital? It's a clumsy attempt to pin the blame on
the MDC."

The arrests have driven the MDC deeper underground, strengthening the hand
of Mr Mugabe - if his health holds up - in a presidential poll due early
next year.

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Independent (UK)

Zimbabwe police on alert after rioting in Bulawayo

By Alex Duval Smith in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
18 November 2001

Amid warnings that street violence could spread across the troubled southern
African nation, police in Zimbabwe were on high alert yesterday after their
riot squads clashed with opposition supportersinthe second city, Bulawayo.

Following a day of tit-for-tat arson attacks on Friday, and looting and
assaults on tourists in the opposition stronghold, the Deputy President,
Joseph Msika, called for calm. Patrols were increased in Kadoma, where
trouble was also reported on Friday, and Masvingo and Gweru.

Bulawayo, in Matabeleland, is considered one of the most volatile areas in
Zimbabwe, and is seen by observers as a potential sparking point for civil
strife ahead of the presidential elections expected by May next year.

In the mid 1980s, President Robert Mugabe ordered tens of thousands of
people killed in the region as part of his campaign, named Gukaruhundi, to
co-opt Joshua Nkomo, the region's leader at the time. As a consequence, the
region is now staunchly pro-opposition.

The latest violence has involved about 500 militants of the ruling Zimbabwe
African National Union–Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), who on Friday randomly
beat whites on Bulawayo's streets and firebombed the offices of the
opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The violence followed comments by President Mugabe blaming the MDC for the
murder of Cain Nkala, chairman of Bulawayo's war veterans' association and a
supporter of Mr Mugabe's controversial campaign to seize white farms for
redistribution to landless blacks.

Police have arrested 16 opposition activists and an MDC member of parliament
on charges of murder. The body of Nkala, who was kidnapped on 5 November,
was found in a shallow grave outside Bulawayo on Tuesday.

The MDC claims it is innocent of the charges and has accused the government
of cracking down on the opposition ahead of the elections.

It was understood the Zanu-PF supporters arrived by train from the capital,
Harare, and ordered all businesses in the city centre to close before they
marched through.

Several schoolchildren, two Germans, including an aid worker, and a
Norwegian, were reported caught up in the violence. A German diplomat said:
"These people were just randomly attacking whites."

About 1,000 MDC supporters attacked a private college belonging to Sikanyiso
Ndlovu, a former ruling party official. "They commandeered a car which they
used to smash a plate-glass window, then put a match to its petrol tank," a
bystander said, adding that heavily armed paramilitaries fired tear gas to
break up the mob.

The MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, speaking from Harare, confirmed that
Zanu-PF militants, claiming to be veterans of the 1972-80 war against white
rule, had torched his party's local headquarters. He said they were escorted
by police officers.
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From the MDC mailing list
Larger image on news page 18 November
The Bulawayo offices of the Movement for Democratic Change were burnt on
Thursday 15th November by Zanu PF hooligans and rogue elements of the War
Veterans Association.

The MDC will not be defeated or destroyed by these acts of violence.
Undeterred the MDC is all the more committed to ensuring a peaceful
democratic process to complete the change for a better life for all
Zimbabweans.

As a demonstration of this resolve, MDC Vice President Gibson Sibanda,
Secretary General Welshman Ncube, MDC MPs and party leadership from across
the country will assist in restoring the sabotaged offices.

These officials and MDC members will remove the debris and rebuild the
offices starting from 8am Monday 19th November. This group will work until
the job is complete with the intention to have the office functional by the
end of the day.

All are invited to assist this effort in whatever way possible and to join
in this act of solidarity against lawlessness.

The power to resist thuggery and rebuild our nation is in our hands.
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Daily News

One-man one-vote does not automatically entail freedom

11/17/01 5:13:43 AM (GMT +2)


Pius Wakatama

OUR battle cry during the struggle against colonial oppression was "One man
one vote! Freedom now!"

With the end of British colonial rule and the coming of one-man one-vote, we
all looked forward to freedom under black majority rule. Little did we know
that we were jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

During the struggle, our leaders promised us free schooling for our
children, free health care, enough housing for all and peace and prosperity
for the nation.

Alas, that has remained but an illusion. The reality on the ground is that
almost half, if not more, of our children of school-going age are out of
school because families cannot afford the high fees being charged.

There is now no health care to talk about. What the white colonialists left
is now a sorry spectacle indeed. This year the World Health Organisation
ranked Zimbabwe as having the worst health delivery system in the world. As
for the "housing for all by year 2000" slogan, it has remained nothing but a
failed electioneering promise.As for peace, we have already forgotten that.
The violence which started in earnest with the farm invasions has escalated
to such an extent the spectre of civil war is there on the horizon for even
the half-blind to see. The country is slowly but surely being enveloped by a
culture of violence.

The recent gruesome murder of Cain Nkala, the Bulawayo War Veterans'
Association chairman, left even the most hardened among us chilled to the
bone with shock. Instead of calming the outraged people and asking them to
allow the law to take its course, what are some of our leaders doing?

They are further encouraging violence and promising "a bloodbath". Where has
our traditional fear of ngozi (the avenging spirit) gone? And for those of
us who profess to be Christians, where is our obedience to God's
commandment: "Thou shalt not kill"?

I was impressed by the speed of the police in finding Nkala's body and
apprehending some suspects. This is as it should be. One can only wish that
the police had acted with the same speed and dedication to find the body of
Patrick Nabanyama, who is now presumed dead, and to apprehend his killers as
well as the killers of many Zimbabweans including David Stevens, Tichaona
Chiminya, Martin and Gloria Olds, and Matthew Pfebve, among many others.
Some of the suspected abductions and killers are well known to the police.
Or, is our government there for Zanu PF supporters only and the rest are
animals to be slaughtered with impunity without fear of the law?

As for our prosperity, you can forget that too. Zimbabwe is now a
basket-case despite the bumper harvest predicted by our Minister of Lands,
Agriculture and Rural Resettlement who had come to his conclusions after
observations from an aeroplane. The country is now facing starvation and
this is official.

It is reported that Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Dr Simba
Makoni, made an appeal to the international community to come to the rescue
of Zimbabwe to avert a humanitarian crisis caused by shortages of food. He
said Zimbabwe needed to import 544 255 metric tonnes of maize to avert
starvation.

He asked the international community to assist with $19,8 billion in aid.
The Zimbabwe Mirror of 9 November 2001 reports that Makoni is now in hot
water for approaching the international community for aid.

Instead of applauding Makoni for taking time-out action to avert the looming
disaster, ruling party leaders, including the President, are livid. They are
criticising him because his appeal is exposing their hypocrisy and the
dismal failure of their policies. They are ashamed to be seen to be asking
the international donor community for food because they have often vilified
them for "interfering in our national affairs". Zvino vave kunyara
kuvakumbira chikafu (Now they are ashamed to go begging for food aid).

What happened to our struggle for freedom, peace and prosperity for which so
many sacrificed so much, including lives? What happened is we failed to
realise that freedom does not automatically come by the act of electing a
representative government. It is true that the democratic system of electing
lawmakers is the best way because fear of not being re-elected is usually an
incentive enough for politicians to desist from passing repressive laws.
However, this democratic system does not always guarantee freedom.

Writing in the American magazine, The Freeman, in 1991, Donald Smith said:
"Freedom is something that exists alone, and of itself. A big turnout on
election day is meaningless if those elected aren't primarily concerned with
the rights of the individual. If, indeed, the people who are elected are
intent on passing laws that impinge on personal freedom, then representative
government is working against the people."

What we need to learn is that, first of all, freedom can be guaranteed, to a
certain extent, if good, selfless men and women are elected to parliament.
Secondly, the people must realise that the power of any government is not
absolute. Total power resides in the people who have social values which
they cherish and which set clear limits of acceptable conduct by elected
officials. This people's power is expressed through an independent judiciary
and an equally independent Press buttressed by a strong network of civil
society groups.

Non-governmental organisations independent of the state and including the
church must have the will and determination as well as the collective
strength to call those who exercise state power to account in terms of
acceptable social values.

In Zimbabwe we failed in that we bowed to intimidation and fear and elected
into government some worthless buffoons who were only good at dancing the
kongonya without evaluating their personal integrity.

However, our social values as people cannot be faulted hence we have strong
civic bodies which are loudly crying foul over the way Zanu PF is ruling us.

Recently the government banned civil society from carrying out civic and
voter
education. People like David Chimhini, executive director of the Civic
Education Trust, must be commended for threatening to take the government to
court if it does not reverse this ban on civic and voter education ahead of
next year's presidential poll.

Hope is not yet lost for Zimbabwe. There are many civic organisations keen
to fight for the country's freedom and in these lies our hope for real
freedom in Zimbabwe, and not in politicians and political parties. Without
the people being their watchdogs through their own independent
organisations, politicians of whatever party or shade are susceptible to
corruption and abuse of power.
He who has ears, let him hear.
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Daily News

Diplomatic mission arrears soar to $1,5bn

11/17/01 5:07:34 AM (GMT +2)


By Ngoni Chanakira Business Editor

While other Southern African Development Community (Sadc) countries are
reducing their international diplomatic presence in order to slash costs,
the Zimbabwean government's diplomatic mission arrears continue to soar and
are now more than US$27 million (about Z$1,5 billion).

The figures are for the period ending 26 October this year.

Dr Simba Makoni, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, in
presenting the year 2002 National Budget in Parliament two weeks ago,
admitted that the government's embassy and other arrears amounted to US$27,3
million.

He said the government would repay some of it by the end of the year.

The government has more than 3 000 troops in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC) propping up President Joseph Kabila's forces under threat from
rebels who want to topple him.

The government is spending more than $3 million a month in the DRC and has
said it will not "pull out until there is peace in the area".

The government also has at least 33 embassies and high commissions scattered
throughout the world at huge cost to the fiscus.

The diplomats, their accommodation, as well as general upkeep is paid for in
foreign currency which is in acutely short supply in Zimbabwe.

To worsen the situation, the Zimbabwean dollar keeps tumbling and is at its
lowest levels since independence. The dollar continues to decline against
the world's major currencies.

Zimbabwe is underperforming. Exports have been falling relentlessly because
of unfavourable macro-economic fundamentals.

Makoni also admitted that the cash-strapped government owed the Paris Club
US$124,7 million in arrears as at 26 october.

He said the government had promised to pay US$25,1 million by the end of the
year.

The minister has, however, not revealed where the money would come from
since the country is facing foreign currency constraints.

The government owes the "Non Paris Club" US$2,6 million. Makoni said the
government would repay some of the amount by the end of the year.

The government has million-dollar debts owed to other creditors such as the
International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the African Development Bank as
well as various other international creditors

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ABC News

Mugabe Says Britain Funding Terror in Zimbabwe


By Cris Chinaka
HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe accused
British Prime Minister Tony Blair Sunday of co-funding what he called a
"terrorist plot" against his government and vowed to crush anti-government
opposition.

In a blistering 40-minute attack on his foes at the funeral for slain war
veterans' leader Cain Nkala, Mugabe labeled the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and the country's white farmers "terrorists" at
least 20 times.

Mugabe has repeatedly accused the MDC, whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai poses
an unprecedented challenge to Mugabe's 21-year rule in presidential polls
next year, and white farmers of sabotaging the economy in a bid to oust him
from power.

"Comrade Nkala's brutal murder was a bloody outcome of an orchestrated, much
wider and carefully planned terrorist plot by internal and external enemy
forces with plenty of funding from some commercial farmers and organizations
in the region (and) organizations internationally...," he said.

He said his government had established that one of the organizations, a
British pro-democracy group, "gets its dirty money, its dirty tricks from
the British Labor Party, the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party and also
from the government of Tony Blair."

MDC DENIES ACCUSATIONS

British officials were not immediately able to comment on the accusations.

The MDC has denied involvement in Nkala's death and accused the ruling
ZANU-PF government of using it as an excuse to crack down on the opposition
as the country sinks deeper into an economic and political crisis.

Police arrested 16 opposition activists and an MDC member of parliament on
charges of murder after Nkala's body was found in a shallow grave outside
the western city of Bulawayo Tuesday.

"We are not a terrorist organization by any stretch of the imagination, nor
are we foreign funded," Welshman Ncube, secretary general of the MDC, told
Reuters Sunday.

He said the party was concerned that Mugabe was building a case to ban the
MDC before the election, due before April.

"They want to systematically terrorize our people and drive us out of the
campaign field," he said.

The MDC nearly beat Mugabe's party in parliamentary polls held in June last
year despite a campaign of pro-government violence which left at least 31
people dead, mainly MDC supporters.

"Let's make no mistake about what the target of the MDC and its British
sponsors is. It is our sovereignty, our independence and their wish to
subjugate us," Mugabe said to cheers from mourners.

Accusing the MDC of numerous assaults and murders of government supporters,
Mugabe said his government would not "allow this program of terrorism to
win."

"The MDC should also know that their days are numbered," he said.

Mugabe, under fire from the Commonwealth and other international bodies for
his often violent campaign to seize white farmland for redistribution to
landless blacks, has banned foreign funding for independent media and
opposition parties.

He has also has forbidden non-government organizations to distribute food
aid. More than half a million mainly rural Zimbabweans face starvation,
according to the U.N. World Food Program, which is planning a massive relief
operation.

The country has been in turmoil since February 2000, when ZANU-PF
supporters, led by veterans of the liberation war, invaded hundreds of farms
in support of Mugabe's land reform program.

The incidence of poverty has doubled since 1980 to about 75 percent of the
population and unemployment is soaring amid severe foreign currency and fuel
shortages, but Mugabe denies mismanaging the economy.


BBC
 
Sunday, 18 November, 2001, 20:16 GMT
Mugabe says UK behind killing
President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe
Mugabe says Britain wants him out of power
By the BBC's Hilary Anderson in Johannesburg

The President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe has accused Britain of involvement in the murder of a local leader of the country's war veterans.

Speaking at the funeral of Cain Nkala, Mr Mugabe said the killings were part of a carefully planned terrorist plot funded by Britain's main political parties and some white farmers.

This was a day for President Robert Mugabe's supporters from his Zanu PF party to show their strength and their anger.

In their hundreds they attended the funeral of Cain Nkala.

Difficult elections

His body was found strangled and dumped in a shallow grave near the town of Bulawayo earlier in the week.

President Robert Mugabe blamed the opposition MDC party for his murder. He also blamed Britain, who he accuses of supporting the opposition and of trying to unseat him.

"No where else, not in Asian nor in Africa, but in Europe, it's there that conspiracies are being worked out and sponsored by the British government," said President Mugabe.

"Let them tell us today who the terrorists in this country are, is it the government of Zanu-PF or is it the MDC that they're sponsoring?"

Robert Mugabe faces difficult elections early next year.

His controversial land reform programme - which has forced many white farmers off their land - has plunged Zimbabwe into an economic and political crisis and he has pitted himself against the western world.

As well as lashing out at Britain he has banned foreign observers from monitoring the elections which he knows he will have to fight tooth and nail to win.

 
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Daily News

Abducted MDC leader recovering in hospital

11/17/01 4:57:55 AM (GMT +2)


Staff Reporter

Steven Chasara, the MDC district chairperson for St Mary's in Chitungwiza
who was abducted together with the party's provincial chairman for
Chitungwiza, Davis Mtetwa, by seven men from his Zengeza 5 home on
Wednesday, is recovering in Chitungwiza General Hospital after a severe
beating from his kidnappers.

Chasara and Mtetwa were abducted from Chasara's house at Number 10 Nhoro
Street, a stone's throw away from the Zengeza 5 police post.

Mtetwa's whereabouts could not be established by late yesterday.

The intruders beat up Chasara and Mtetwa and thoroughly searched the house.
Narrating their ordeal from his hospital bed on Thursday, where he lay in
blood stained sheets, Chasara said they had been abducted and tortured by
men in plain clothes.

He said: "We were taken to Highlands police station and were each given six
sheets of paper and told to write our life history and our structures and
activities in the MDC."

Chasara said at about midday they were then taken to a room at the Harare
Central police station where they were severely beaten up.

"We were beaten with baton sticks on the soles of the feet, on the legs and
all over the body. We were also slapped," Chasara said, showing his
injuries.
"Despite our blistered feet and very painful legs, we were made to run on
the spot while shouting slogans."

He said: "Because we are used to our own MDC slogan - "Chinja maitiro,
maitiro chinja" - that is what we shouted. This incensed them. They called
us sell-outs and beat us until we shouted the Zanu PF slogan denouncing the
MDC."

Chasara said he received seven stitches to a gaping wound in the left leg.

Chasara, who said he suffers from hypertension, said the beating stopped at
about 6pm when he was taken to a man he described as the officer-in-charge
of the CID Law and Order Section.
"They then released me and took me home."

He said he was taken to Chitungwiza Hospital by his family.



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Mugabe vows 'terrorist' opposition crackdown

Robert Mugabe has vowed to crack down on the Zimbabwe opposition, describing
them as UK-sponsored "terrorists".

He made the accusation at a state funeral of a murdered ruling party
militant.

President Mugabe blamed the death on opposition activists.

He said: "Let it be heard in the tall towers of London, in their tall towers
elsewhere ... we shall never, ever brook attempts to subject us directly or
indirectly to colonial rule."

Mugabe said the Movement for Democratic Change was responsible for the
abduction and murder on November 5 of Cain Nkala.

His body was found strangled in the western city of Bulawayo and MDC
officials have denied any connection to his death. Nkala was known for
leading many violent farm occupations in the Bulawayo area.

The leading ruling party militant has been posthumously declared a national
hero by the government.

Mugabe told the funeral: "(It) was the brutal outcome of a much wider
terrorist plot by internal, and external terrorist forces with plenty of
funding from some commercial farmers and organisations like the Westminster
Foundation, which we have established beyond doubt gets its dirty money from
dirty tricks, from the British Labour Party, the Conservative Party and
Liberal Party and also of course from the government of Tony Blair."

A Foreign Office spokesman said that any suggestion that Britain was
supporting any kind of terrorism was "absurd".

The spokesman said the UK has helped fund the Zimbabwean opposition through
the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, a body set up in 1992 to support
democracy around the world.

Story filed: 17:26 Sunday 18th November 2001

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REGISTER TO VOTE! The power is in your hands!

MDC on Monday
12 Nov 01

Voter Registration Now!

"Bad governments are elected by good citizens who don't vote."

The only way to get rid of this cruel and corrupt regime is to register now and vote next year. Registration of voters for the presidential elections began on 15 October 2001.  If you don't register by 13 December 2001 You may not have an opportunity to register to vote.

You can register in all your District Offices. In addition to your District Offices there will also be Mobile Registration Units in some primary and secondary schools close to you where you can register. Be on the lookout for these Mobile Registration Units in schools close to you. You can even ask from your nearest headmaster when the Mobile Registration Unit is coming.

§ When registering, you need to take either your ID or passport. Bring friends and family members to register as well.

§ Use your vote to change this country and make it what you want.

§ Boycotting the election will only ensure that Zanu PF remains in control and you will get poorer and poorer.

Zimbabwe's economy is suffering. High inflation, a huge government deficit, foreign currency shortages, business closures, retrenchments and increasing poverty continue unabated.

The people of Zimbabwe are suffering from Zanu PF's misguided policies, while government ministers and their Zanu PF cronies continue to grow rich.

Let's put an end to this nonsense. REGISTER NOW to vote in the presidential elections.

For more information on when the mobile units will be near you, please email elections@mdczimbabwe.com

Together we will complete the change for a better life for all Zimbabweans. The power is in our hands.

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From The Sunday Times (UK), 18 November

Mugabe’s thugs want poll cancelled

Demands by Zimbabwe’s war veterans for the cancellation of elections next spring have raised the possibility that President Robert Mugabe may abandon any remaining democratic pretence in his determination to cling to power. Amid growing attacks on opposition members, Andrew Ndlovu, the leader of the war veterans and a close associate of Mugabe, declared last week that "the presidential election will not be held". Accusing the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of "acts of terrorism", Ndlovu said his association would urge Mugabe to declare a state of emergency and rule by decree.

The comments coincided with the emergence of a strategic planning document purporting to come from Zanu PF, the ruling party, which openly canvassed for the "outright elimination" of Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader. The document spoke of "making sure there is no Morgan Tsvangirai to vote for come 2002". Joseph Msika, the vice-president, attacked the MDC in terms that were interpreted by some as an effective call on Zanu PF supporters to hunt down opposition members. The tension turned to open violence on Friday when hundreds of war veterans, escorted by police, marched into the centre of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, attacking whites and burning down the MDC headquarters. Heavily armed riot police later fired tear gas and chased opposition party supporters through the streets.

The opposition increasingly resembles a hunted resistance movement in an occupied country. Isaac Maposa, the MDC’s chief executive, said police had tried to force their way into the party’s offices three times on Monday and Tuesday but had been turned back because they had no warrants. The next day Steve Chasara and David Mtetwa, two of the most important activists in Chitungwisa, Harare’s largest township, were abducted. "Steve was dumped back in the street barely alive," Maposa said. "They had beaten him almost to death, stamped on his fingers and he needs a lot of stitches. It’s not certain he’ll live. There’s no sign of David Mtetwa. We are desperately worried about him. Nobody is safe."

On Thursday, Fletcher Dulini Ncube, the party’s treasurer, was arrested and charged with the murder of Cain Nkala, a war veteran whose body was found in a shallow grave in Bulawayo last week. More than a dozen other MDC supporters were picked up by the police on the same charge and paraded on state television; some had been badly beaten and could hardly walk. Police said one of the group, most of whom were drivers and security guards, had been paid by Ncube: proof enough, it was claimed, that he had financed Nkala’s murder. The MDC rejected the charge as absurd. "Fletcher’s our treasurer, of course he pays our drivers," a party official said. "When we heard that the police had raided Fletcher’s house in Bulawayo, we arranged to drive him there so he could give himself up. Does this sound like the behaviour of a guilty man?" Ncube, a soft-spoken, middle-aged man, has diabetes and a weak heart.

Nkala was widely suspected of the murder of Patrick Nabanyama, the election agent for David Coltart, the MDC’s justice spokesman, during last year’s parliamentary election. MDC members claimed Nkala had been putting out feelers to them because he wanted to come clean over the Nabanyama affair. According to this version, he was then killed to prevent him from talking. The opposition fears that Mugabe’s real aim may be to force Ncube to divulge the party’s sources of funding. Although the government is believed to receive considerable support from Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, the Libyan president, it has made it illegal for parties to receive funds from abroad. The Amani Trust, a Zimbabwean human rights group, claims more than 100 MDC supporters have been killed by Mugabe supporters – war veterans, the secret police or Zanu PF activists - over the past year. MDC supporters claim Mugabe was alarmed by a poll this month that showed him trailing Tsvangirai. The government is also concerned at growing calls within Europe and America for sanctions. "All arms of the state are distorted into a single mission – to smash the opposition," said Judith Todd, a human rights campaigner. "The time now is for action, not diplomacy. You can’t treat diplomatically a crazed and criminal thug and his henchmen."
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From ZWNEWS, 18 November

Horrific violence in the Valley

This witness statement gives a graphic account of the hell people are going through in the Zambezi Valley. The itching from the huriri (buffalo) bean has to be experienced to be believed. The aggravation can last for eight hours on hard skin and three days on tender skin. Their story tells the rest. About 20 people have been assaulted in similar fashion in the last week. The Members in Charge of Mashonaland Province and Guruve District have been made aware of the stance of the Member in Charge of Mushumbi Pools' police. The torture is compounded as the victims do not have the money to travel for medical help, the Red Cross and United Nations High Commission for Refugees say they cannot get involved because it is political, and there are no safe houses left in the cities.

1. I am a male and live at Nyakatondo village near Mushumbi Pools in the Dande Communal Land of Guruve North.

2. On 28th October 2001 Vengai Kanyoka was forced to lie on the ground on his stomach and was beaten by Koshiwe Jonasi and Stanford Mafunga on his back and buttocks. He managed to escape from the torture of the 11th of November by running away after seeing a group of people coming.

3. On 13th November 2001 Anderson Munyambiri was assaulted by about 20 Zanu PF youths under the leadership of Koshiwe Jonasi who is the Youth Chairman. He had grumbled that some young girls are attending meetings until sunset and he quarrelled with his daughter. She reported this to the youth leaders. This old man was severely beaten and had to lie with his head in a pool with thorns over his head so he could not raise his head to breath. They were attempting to kill him. He lost consciousness and was left for dead. His son rescued him but later that night he went into a coma and his family thought he had died. He has not gone for treatment as the clinic is not allowed to attend to MDC victims. The police also do not help MDC supporters.

4. On 13th November 2001, in another incident, the wife of Zata Munyambari was severely beaten by Zanu PF youths under the leadership of Jonasi. They accused her husband of going to MDC meetings when he had actually fled after they had assaulted him.

5. All this happens in broad daylight because the officer in charge is a war vet named Musukwa. Most of the time Musukwa visits Jonasi for strategic moves. If anything happens he only states that it is public fighting, go and talk to your fellow mates.

6. On 11th November 2001 I was called to a Zanu PF Youth Training centre at the old Neshangwe Primary School. The meeting was being conducted by Koshiwe Jonasi, the Zanu PF Youth Chairman.

7. Whilst there I was surprised when my name was called out and I had to stand out with some other youths, Manikidzo Kopakopa, Wilson Karikoga, Ephraim Kopakopa, Peter Naison and Howard Chitumba.

8. Koshiwe Jonasi told us that we were wanted by the war veterans at Chitepo village in Ward 9. We walked all the way to the village.

9. To my astonishment we were called to a place in the bush near the Dande river.

10. Joseph Musauki, a war vet leader and Zanu PF commissariat secretary, called me to come closer to him. He clapped me and then started to strongly assault me with a wooden log. I was forced to lay flat on the riverbed on the hot sand. He assaulted me with that log countless times.

11. He then handed me over to Emmanuel Kirmukiyani (Dombo), Desmond Gomo, Nyande Musauki and Pius Musauki, who tied me up hand and foot and carried on to assault me for six hours. The assault was by beating, making me roll in the hot sand for more than 150 metres, lying on the hot sand without moving, putting my head in a hole and barking like a dog and doing military drills.

12. During this time Dombo brought huriri, a very hot plant powder, (buffalo bean) and spread it around my body from time to time.

13. During this time they left me in the hot sun for almost three hours without drinking water. I felt that I was dying. Finally I was offered a cup of water which I could not finish as they hit it down after I took two sips. They left me and told me to go and rest under a tree after they notice that I was momentarily loosing my breath.

14. Lastly Dombo opened the foreskin of my penis and brushed the huriri against my penis. With the help of Desmond Gomo, Nyande Musauki and Pius Musauki, he opened my buttocks and dropped this hot stuff inside. While I was in agony with this huriri they then beat me with eighteen cuts.

15. I was then told to go home after they had mixed the huriri into my clothes. I was forced to wear those clothes.

16. As I am speaking my penis has some paining cracks and my anus is developing a wound. I am definitely desperate. They have said they want to set an example on me to show that Zanu can kill.

17. This victimisation is a plot by Zanu PF to silence opposition members. They definitely know that if I am allowed to campaign Zanu PF would never stand a chance.

18. I could not report to the police in Mushumbi Pools. The Member in Charge, Inspector Musukwa, has vowed not to help MDC supporters as he is a war veteran.

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