Dealer tortured to implicate top MDC man

Business Day (SA)

"He felt a burning from his buttocks and blacked out"

Harare - Zimbabwean state agents tortured a gun dealer until he passed out to make him confess to working with a top ally of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in a plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, the Harare High Court heard yesterday. The state accuses Roy Bennett, who is the deputy agriculture minister-designate and treasurer in Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, of plotting to overthrow Mugabe. Prosecutors say he gave R5000 to rifle dealer Peter Hitschmann to buy weapons to use against the veteran leader. Hitschmann, who is yet to testify, is the state's star witness against Bennett. But Bennett's lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, told the court that police tortured Hitschmann until he lost consciousness to force him into making a confession implicating her client.

"His (Hitschmann) belt was removed and underpants were taken off … he felt a burning (sensation) from his buttocks and blacked out," Mtetwa said, while cross examining policeman Michael Joseph Nyakatawa, who was part of a team of security agents who arrested Hitschmann about three years ago. Nyakatawa said Hitschmann implicated Bennett voluntarily during questioning. Hitschmann, who says he was tortured into implicating Bennett, has written to the attorney-general saying he has no evidence to give against Bennett. The high court had ruled earlier that Hitschmann was not guilty of treason, and that weapons seized from his property had licences. Investigators have failed to prove the existence of a Mozambican bank account allegedly held by Hitschmann into which the state claims money to buy weapons was deposited. The police have also conceded that some of the guns that the state claims were bought with money supplied by Bennett were recovered from the home of an army officer.

Zimbabwe women rise up for peace

Michael Gerson From: The Australian November 26, 2009 12:00AM

AS Americans count their blessings, it is useful to remember women who count their beatings -- in the once-fair country of Zimbabwe, cursed by Robert Mugabe. Magodonga Mahlangu and Jennifer Williams, leaders of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, sit at a table at the Robert F. Kennedy Centre for Justice & Human Rights, in Washington, recounting acts of courage that should be shouted from rooftops. "We are very ordinary people," says Williams, about a movement of about 75,000 women who have engaged in more than 100 non-violent protests - protests that often end in a hospital or prison.

After visiting the White House this week and receiving the RFK Human Rights Award, Mahlangu and Williams will be greeted in Zimbabwe next month by being put on trial for their activism. They seem unawed by both honour and risk.

Women of Zimbabwe Arise is showing a patriarchal and violence-prone political culture the meaning of peaceful determination. They demand social justice not political power. But in Zimbabwe, the act of protesting against hunger is considered sedition. "For this," Williams says, "we are accused of being `unrepentant criminals' and the mouthpiece of a foreign regime."

Mugabe's Zimbabwe has practised genocidal economics that has left a nation in ruins. This is part of Mugabe's governing strategy. "ZANU-PF is not only using violence," Mahlangu says, "it is making everyone dependent on assistance. People spend nine, 10 or 11 hours a day just fighting for survival, gathering wood and food," leaving little energy for resistance. Having made his people destitute, Mugabe survives because Zimbabweans are preoccupied with their destitution. It is a kind of political vampirism, in which a despot survives by drinking his nation's strength.

Despite these challenges, Mahlangu says, "tens of thousands of women get up, sometimes at 3am, to fit in activism". It is an underground movement. Workshops are conducted to prepare women for what lies ahead - the process of booking and photographing, the rights they can demand.

These women activists espouse no grand theory of social change. They are simply determined to hold government accountable. When I asked what were her motivations, Mahlangu said she was determined to "live truthfully". It echoes the words of another dissident, Vaclav Havel, who said that "a single, seemingly powerless person who dares to cry out the word of truth and to stand behind it with all his person and all his life, ready to pay a high price, has, surprisingly, greater power, though formally disenfranchised, than do thousands of anonymous voters".

Washington Post Writers Group

Zimbabwe Blood Diamonds Banned by Trade Network on Rights Abuse

Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A By Carli Lourens

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Rapaport Group’s RapNet Diamond Trading Network, the world’s biggest, banned its members from dealing in gems from Zimbabwe’s Marange fields because of reports of “severe” human rights violations in the area.

“Rapaport believes that blood diamonds from the Marange fields have been legally exported to the diamond cutting centers with Kimberley Process Certificates and may now be reaching retailers as polished diamonds,” the New York-based company said in a statement e-mailed today.

The Kimberley Process, created to curb trade in gems mined to fund conflict and war, decided against suspending Zimbabwe this month following allegations of abuse. New York-based Human Rights Watch says more than 200 were killed last year as the army and police cleared as many as 20,000 illegal miners from Marange. Zimbabwe police say they had no reports of atrocities.

Marange was seized by the government from U.K.-listed African Consolidated Resources Plc in 2006 after gems were found at the site.

“The Kimberley Process is being used as a fig leaf to cover up human rights abuses in the diamond sector,” Rapaport Chairman Martin Rapaport said in the statement.

He called on world diamond trading and production bodies to expel members who deal in Marange diamonds, which can be identified before they are polished. RapNet says it has more than 4,100 members in 80 countries and daily online listings of gems worth more than $4 billion.

Old Mutual

Kimberley Process officials weren’t immediately able to comment when Bloomberg News called their offices today in Windhoek, Namibia.

Mauritius-based Grandwell, part owned by South African scrap metal recycler New Reclamation Group Ltd., in a venture with Zimbabwe’s government has begun mining in Marange, the Zimbabwe state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Nov. 11. New Reclamation is part owned by Old Mutual Plc.

Reclamation Chief Executive Officer Michael Movsas wasn’t available when Bloomberg called his Johannesburg office. Lynn Bolin, head of media and communications at Old Mutual Investment Group, couldn’t immediately comment when Bloomberg reached her by phone today.

To contact the reporters on this story: Carli Lourens in Johannesburg at clourens@bloomberg.net.

Zimbabwe talks on power-sharing finally begin

By KITSEPILE NYATHI, NATION CorrespondentPosted Tuesday, November 24 2009 at 18:02

VOA news; HARARE, Tuesday

Zimbabwe’s three governing political parties have finally started dialogue to save their shaky power sharing arrangement after missing a two week deadline.

Representatives from President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF and the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) factions led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara resumed the crucial talks late on Monday.

The meeting dragged deep into the night and the six negotiators were also due to meet again on Tuesday.

The talks came two days after the expiry of a 15 day deadline set by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on November 6 for the Zimbabweans to start discussions on a number of outstanding issues threatening the unity government.

Regional leaders meeting in Maputo directed the parties to start the talks within 15 days and conclude them within 30 days.

South African President Jacob Zuma who has taken over the mediation from his predecessor Mr Thabo Mbeki had been expected to visit Zimbabwe after the 15 day time line to assess progress.

Officials say he has now decided to give Mr Mugabe and his former rivals until December 5 to find a common ground.

However, the parties now say the deadline was not “cast in stone” suggesting that the negotiations might drag on for some time.

“The SADC time line was not cast in stone,” one of the Zanu PF negotiators Mr Nicholas Goche told the state media.

“The situation is not like that of a school where the headmaster would punish us for not meeting the timeline.

“We are going to meet and update them on the progress made. I am a perpetual optimist. I do not see any reason why we should not resolve the issues.”

Zimbabwe has recorded 143 suspected cholera cases in the past few weeks as fears grow of a repeat of last year’s epidemic that killed more than 4 000 people.

The Minister of Health and Child Welfare Dr Henry Madzorera said 21 cases, including six from the capital Harare had been confirmed in laboratory tests.

Five people have died from the disease since the first cases were reported in September.

Children, Women Hardest Hit by Collapse of Zimbabwe's Social Services

A new report by UNICEF and the Zimbabwean shows reduced access to key social services for the poorest women and children especially those in rural areas.

Ish Mafundikwa | Harare 25 November 2009

Photo: AP
Children gather eggs at a rubbish dump in Mbare, a township southwest of Harare, Zimbabwe

A new report by UNICEF and the Zimbabwean government reveals a worsening situation for women and children in Zimbabwe. The report shows reduced access to key social services for the poorest women and children especially those in rural areas.

The report paints a bleak picture of the situation faced by poor women and children in Zimbabwe. Micaela Marques de Sousa, UNICEF Zimbabwe's chief of communications, says the report confirms what has been evident to observers for a long time.

"This report validates through evidence based data the situation of children and women in Zimbabwe in terms of maternal mortality, infant mortality in terms of child health in terms of particularly the most vulnerable, the children themselves," said de Sousa.

Data from the report which is the result of a survey conducted in May shows a 20 percent increase in under five child mortality since 1990. This, says UNICEF, means that 100 children are dying every day. Most of the under fives succumb to HIV/AIDS, newborn disorders, pneumonia and diarrhea. Children in rural areas and those in the poorest one fifth of the population are the most vulnerable, the report says.

The survey revealed stark disparities between the rich and poor saying the poor are hardest hit in terms of access to critical services in health and education.

The data also shows that 79 percent of orphans and vulnerable children are not receiving any form of external assistance. Further, around two-thirds of all children in the country do not possess birth certificates.

UNICEF says the survey is designed to provide policymakers with information they can use to make decisions on development priorities and budgets. In addition it provides data on Zimbabwe's progress in meeting international priorities like the so-called Millennium Development Goals. UNICEF's de Sousa, however, says a lot is already being done to remedy the situation.

"It is important to not that there are a series of actions being taken already in order to mitigate the situation not only from the support that UNICEF provides directly to the government but the government itself," she said.

"With the inclusive government one of the key priorities of the government of Zimbabwe is to ensure that there is a revitalization of the basic social services; education health even water and sanitation supplies," she added.

She, however, cautioned that it would take time and a lot of money. The publication of the report comes just before the announcement of the national budget next month. De Sousa hopes the government will use the findings of the survey to allocate more funds to the rehabilitation of social services, which she said used to be amongst the best in Africa.

Teachers in Zimbabwe Agree to Oversee Exams Without Pay - For Now

The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Teachers Association seek eventual compensation

Jonga Kandemiiri | Washington 25 November 2009
VOA news

Zimbabwe's two main teachers unions said Wednesday they will encourage members to oversee ordinary and advanced-level examinations expected to start Thursday, while they engage the government on payments. Education Minister David Coltart said Tuesday that the government does not have enough money to pay teachers to invigilate examinations, urging teachers to perform this duty for the good of their students. Zimbabwe Teachers Association Secretary General Richard Gundani told VOA Studio 7 reporter Jonga Kandemiiri that his members will oversee exams while continuing to discuss the question of compensation with the government. In a related development, the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council was accused of failing to issue timely statements of entry to candidates sitting for this year’s ‘”O” and “A” level examinations, though officials in some schools reached by VOA said they received statements of entry Wednesday. Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe President Takavafira Zhou told Jonga Kandemiiri his union will ask the government to credit teachers with additional days of work if they oversee examinations in this period.

Zimbabwe, South Africa to Sign Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement

Governments attribute the delay to President Robert Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farms, including hundreds which belonged to South Africans

Peta Thornycroft 25 November 2009
VOA news

Photo: AP
1998 - Laborers tend to tobacco crops on a white-owned tobacco farm near Centenary, 80 miles (129 kilometers) north-west of Harare

After a decade of negotiations, South Africa and Zimbabwe on Friday are scheduled to sign a so-called Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement. Officials from both governments attribute the delay to President Robert Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farms, including hundreds which belonged to South Africans.

Rob Davies South African trade and industry minister told VOA that the word land is not in the agreement even though land seizures in Zimbabwe have been central to negotiations towards the deal. But he did say that past events, such as what he called Zimbabwe's "land reform program" would not be addressed retrospectively.

Davies added that the agreement would protect South African interests only from the date it is signed.

This has angered hundreds of South African farmers who had their farms in Zimbabwe seized without compensation. They are even more angered because they have made countless unsuccessful representations for assistance to the South African government since the first of their farms was seized.

Now many are going to the Pretoria High Court early Friday to try and stop the signing of the agreement being signed later in the day in Harare.

Among them is Louis Fick, who this month was forced off his farm 80 kilometers north of Harare.

He told VOA his lawyers in Pretoria had drawn up an urgent application to the High Court for the signing ceremony to be put on hold because he said he and his colleagues suspect their constitutional rights and international law will be broken by this agreement.

He added that if South Africa signed an agreement that explicitly excludes assistance for South Africans for past injustices it would be a clear indication that South Africa condones Mr. Mugabe's seizure of rural property from white farmers.

Fick says the agreement ignores a ruling by the Southern Africa Development Community's Tribunal last year that white farmers in Zimbabwe were victims of racial discrimination and that the few who survived should be left in peace. That court also ordered Mr. Mugabe to pay compensation to farmers already evicted.

South Africa, like Zimbabwe, is a member of SADC.

Crawford van Abo, another South African farmer who is now 75, and who was forced off his ranch early in Mr. Mugabe's purge of white farmers, has an ongoing court case in South Africa. He says he hopes to eventually claim substantial damages from his government for his losses in Zimbabwe.

Earlier this year the World Bank's International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes awarded 13 Dutch farmers evicted from their land and homes in Zimbabwe nearly $12 million which the center said must be paid by Zimbabwe. The government of the Netherlands and Zimbabwe had a bilateral trade and protection agreement.

Although the agreement will provide relief, particularly to South African investors in Zimbabwe's mining, commercial and industrial sectors, some western financial analysts say the unresolved issue of eviction of thousands of white farmers and tens of thousands of their workers, will continue to undermine foreign investor confidence.

Many evicted white farmers or those still struggling to survive on-going attacks say they are disappointed with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change party, who support the agreement. They say white farmers provided considerable funding to the MDC shortly after it was launched in late 1999 and that many of them assisted the MDC fight elections.

In the political agreement which led to formation of Zimbabwe's unity government in February, Mr. Tsvangirai committed his party to recognizing that nearly 10 years of seizures of land from white farmers, including South Africans, was irreversible.

A lawyer in South Africa who did not want to be named said the investment protection agreement was unusual. He told VOA it indicates South Africa has decided to put in the past what he described as Mr. Mugabe's racist land seizures. He said this is inconsistent with South Africa's constitution.

Nearly 20 million acres of white-owned agricultural land was taken from white farmers and most of it was given to members of Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF. Satellite images of the seized land shows that about 80 percent of the land taken for crops is fallow.

Mr. Mugabe launched land invasions after he suffered his first political defeat at a referendum early 2000. He said white-owned land was taken to redress the evil of colonialism.

Once the agreement is signed it will have to be ratified by parliaments in both countries.