Tsvangirai may press for a full 15-member SADC summit

http://en.afrik.com/article16409.html

A three-leader summit underway to resolve crisis
Tuesday 3 November 2009 / by Alice Chimora

Another summit to tackle Zimbabwe's unending political crisis is set for
Mozambique on Thursday but little is expected from it. Swaziland's King
Mswati, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza and Zambian President Rupiah
Banda will hold talks hoping to help narrow differences between Zimbabwe's
leaders.
Zimbabwe's unity government, which was formed in February, plunged into a
new crisis last month after the premier Tsvangirai partially pulled out the
inclusive government over the implementation of their power-sharing
agreement.

The stalemate in Harare comes after months of bickering over the unity deal.

Tsvangirai's office said it hoped that the Mozambique talks would yield
positive results that would be acceptable by all parties. "The troika will
meet in Mozambique in a bid to break the current deadlock," Tsvangirai's
spokesman James Maridadi said.

According to Tsvangirai, if the three-leader summit fail to yield results,
he would press for a full summit of the 15-member Southern African
Development Community (SADC).

It was not yet clear by Tuesday whether both Tsvangirai and President Mugabe
would attend the Maputo meeting.

The stand-off is the biggest crisis to hit Zimbabwe's new government, which
has managed to stabilise an economy ravaged by hyperinflation, but is still
severely strained by political disputes.

Mugabe is accusing by the premier of undermining the coalition but
Tsvangirai says Mugabe is a "dishonest and unreliable partner".

DRC, leader who is currently in Harare met Mugabe on Monday with Mugabe
saying he expected Kabila to tell Tsvangirai that he must re-join the
coalition "and must be able to face the problems and not to run away from
them."

Kabila the SADC's current chairman, arrived in Zimbabwe on Sunday to meet
the country's feuding leaders.

I got assurances from Kabila: Tsvangirai

http://www.zimonline.co.za/

by Own Correspondent Tuesday 03 November 2009

      HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said he got assurances
from Southern African Development Community (SADC) chairman Joseph Kabila
that the region was committed to see full implementation of Zimbabwe's
power-sharing agreement.

      "He gave me assurances that SADC is committed to see this country move
forward (and) to make sure that the train is back on the rail," Tsvangirai
told reporters after meeting Kabila on Monday night.

      Kabila, who is the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC), met the Zimbabwean Premier after the SADC chairman's five-hour
afternoon meeting with Mugabe.

      "There is common cause that the GPA must be fulfilled, it's a question
of how to implement it," said Tsvangirai

      Zimbabwe's nine-month-old unity government that the SADC helped set up
was plunged into its worst crisis when Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party
announced more than two weeks ago that they were boycotting Cabinet meetings
to protest President Robert Mugabe's failure to fully implement a
power-sharing pact - Global Political Agreement (GPA) - that established the
coalition government.

      Kabila's visit comes two days after a ministerial team from the
regional bloc's politics, defence and security organ - also known as the
Troika - completed a fact-finding mission on the inclusive government.

      The Troika, chaired by Mozambican President Armando Guebuza with
Zambia's President Rupiah Banda his deputy and Swaziland's King Mswati the
third member, is set to meet in Maputo, Mozambique on Thursday to discuss
Zimbabwe's troubled coalition government.

      South Africa attends the Troika's meetings on Zimbabwe as mediator in
the crisis.

      Commenting on the Troika meeting Tsvangirai said there was need for a
solution to be found.

      "They have to move and if this fails then there is need for an
extraordinary summit of heads of states."

      Mugabe's ZANU PF party and Tsvangirai's MDC remain deadlocked over key
appointments while the MDC also accuses ZANU PF of engaging in a campaign to
persecute its supporters.

      At least 17 MDC legislators have been arrested since the beginning of
the year on charges ranging from theft and public violence to rape and
playing music that denigrates Mugabe.

      ZANU PF, in turn, accuses the MDC of reneging on a promise to push for
the removal of travel bans and an asset freeze slapped by the West on its
senior officials. - ZimOnline

Khama to miss another summit on Zim

http://nehandaradio.com

Published on: 3rd November, 2009

By Fortune Tazvida

Botswana's President Ian Khama will for the second year running miss a
crucial SADC summit that is meant to resolve the political impasse in
Zimbabwe.

Khama the only regional leader to speak strongly against President Mugabe
leaves for Washington on Tuesday to attend the Conservation International
board of directors meeting.

Reports say Khama will meet US President Barack Obama on Thursday. Botswana
Foreign Affairs Minister Phandu Skelemani could not confirm what Khama and
Obama will discuss.

"The meeting has no agenda as such. The two presidents will meet and we will
put forward the challenges facing our country that we think Americans could
help us address," Skelemani said.

Skelemani said the Zimbabwean crisis might be mentioned in passing but it
would be unprofessional to take the matter to the US since SADC was dealing
with the matter.

Mozambique will host a regional summit on Zimbabwe on Thursday in the hope
of breaking a deadlock that threatens the fragile unity government.

Mozambique currently heads SADC's security organ, which sent a delegation to
Harare last week to mediate between President Robert Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader who joined the
government in February.

Last year Khama at almost the same did not attend an extraordinary SADC
Summit on Zimbabwe held in South Africa.

Civil Society excluded from SADC ministerial consultations

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Tichaona Sibanda
3 November 2009

A grouping of 37 Civil Society Organizations has expressed disappointment
after being excluded from meetings with the SADC Troika ministerial team
which visited Zimbabwe last week.

The Civil Society Monitoring Mechanism (CISOMM) is a grouping of civil
society organizations committed to the independent monitoring and evaluation
of the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

CISOMM are unhappy that they were not involved in the latest initiative
aimed at resolving the current impasse between Robert Mugabe and Morgan
Tsvangirai.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights executive director Irene Petras told SW
Radio Africa they were extremely disappointed that their request to the SADC
secretariat for a meeting with the visiting Troika delegation was snubbed.

'Yes it's true that they did not respond to our request. Basically, we
wanted to talk about issues that relate to the GPA that affect us. For
example we have become targets because the GPA is not working. We wanted to
discuss issues of security with the SADC ministerial team.' Petras said.

Besides meeting Mugabe and the Prime Minister, the SADC team met SADC
diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe as well as negotiators from ZANU PF and the
MDC formations.

According to the weekly Legal Monitor (a newsletter produced by Lawyers for
Human Rights) Mozambique's Foreign Affairs Minister Oldemiro Baloi, who was
leading the Troika ministerial delegation, denied that a request for a
meeting had been received by SADC.

CISOMM through its various member organizations that are dotted right round
the country seeks to contribute to a new culture of transparency, scrutiny
and accountability of all public processes taken on behalf of the people of
Zimbabwe by the government.

Some of its participating organizations are Bulawayo Agenda, Christian
Alliance Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Zimbabwe National Association of
Non-Governmental Organizations, Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe,
Women of Zimbabwe Arise, Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights
and Zimbabwe Election Support Network.

The grouping also produces monthly monitoring reports for mass publication,
in order to allow the people of Zimbabwe to understand and discuss political
processes, actions and decisions taken on their behalf and which have an
impact on their lives.

After its visit to the country last week, the Troika team recommended that a
SADC Troika summit be held to try to resolve the crisis. Tsvangirai two
weeks ago suspended co-operation with Mugabe, accusing him of failing to
live up to his side of the power-sharing deal.

The deadlock has heightened fears about the fate of the inclusive
government, which is meant to end the deadly political violence that erupted
after last year's sham one man presidential elections.

Three regional leaders who form the SADC Troika will meet with Zimbabwe's
political leaders in Maputo, Mozambique on Thursday for the crisis summit.

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, Swaziland's King Mswati and Zambia's
Rupiah Banda will meet with Tsvangirai, Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara in
Maputo to tackle the current standoff.

Rights lawyer arrested in connection with Bennett's case

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Violet Gonda
3 November 2009

Human rights and media lawyer, Mordecai Mahlangu, was arrested on Monday for
allegedly obstructing the course of justice, in a case involving MDC
official Roy Bennett.

Media watchdog, MISA-Zimbabwe, says the lawyer was detained after he wrote a
letter to Attorney General Johannes Tomana, protesting a subpoena that was
issued to Peter Hitschmann, directing him to testify against Bennett.
Mahlangu's letter said Hitschmann's statements were extracted through
torture. The lawyer was arrested and detained overnight at Harare Central
police station.

Hitschmann is being forced to testify as a State witness against the MDC
Deputy Agriculture Minister designate, although he made it clear when he was
released from jail in July that he has no evidence against Bennett. The
firearms dealer was arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate Robert
Mugabe in 2006, but was acquitted. However he served a total of 40 months
for possessing dangerous firearms without a licence (although he was a
registered firearms dealer at the time).
Bennett is facing charges of possession of weapons with the intention to
commit insurgency, sabotage, terrorism, and banditry. Robert Mugabe has
refused to swear in the MDC official, claiming he is facing serious charges.
The MDC and Bennett maintain the charges are trumped up. Several other MDC
officials, including the co-Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutsekwa, were also
arrested in connection with this alleged case, but their case fell apart.
Shortly after his release from jail Hitschmann told SW Radio Africa that he
was tortured in custody and forced to make false confessions. He said: "And
when we were tortured at Adams Barracks, because we were taken to a military
barracks for torture during the night of 2006, we were told that we had to
confess and all of us having to confess to about five or six different
scenarios which were dictated to me. So the connection between myself and
Giles Mutsekwa and myself and Roy Bennett and whatever exists in the
imagination of these people, that's where it exists."
Bennett's controversial trial is set for November 9th, in a case that has
now been taken over by the Attorney General Johannes Tomana himself, who
will be acting as lead prosecutor.

Mines Minister Mpofu threatens NGOs over blood diamond reports

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Alex Bell
03 November 2009

Mines Minister Obert Mpofu has shocked international government delegations
and rights groups by threatening NGOs and an international diamond review
mission, who have reported on widespread human rights abuses at the Chiadzwa
diamond fields.

Mpofu was speaking in Namibia where the Kimberley Process, the international
body tasked with ending the global trade in conflict diamonds, is holding
its annual meeting. The meeting is set to decide Zimbabwe's future
participation in the global diamond trade market, after a recent Kimberley
Process review mission to Zimbabwe recommended the country be banned over
gross human rights violations at the Chiadzwa diamond fields. Numerous NGOs
and human rights groups have also voiced their support for Zimbabwe to be
banned because of rampant and ongoing rights violations at the diamond
fields.

As a result, the NGOs as well as the Kimberley Process review mission, came
under attack by Mpofu on Tuesday, where he called them 'deranged and
requiring psychological examination'. A source in Namibia explained Mpofu
has angered many government delegations gathered for the Kimberley Process
meeting, including the Canadian delegation, which has apparently publicly
condemned Mpofu's conduct. It is understood that Mpofu was also snubbed by a
noted Greenpeace activist who the minister co chaired a panel discussion
with. Our source explained that the Greenpeace official refused to shake
Mpofu's hand, saying he "would not shake hands with dishonest people."

Annie Dunnebacke from Global Witness, a British group that monitors the
exploitation of the world's natural resources, confirmed that there has been
intimidation of NGOs by Zimbabwe government officials this week. Speaking
from Namibia, Dunnebacke said that threats and intimidation of rights groups
is 'unacceptable'. Dunnebacke continued that there is widespread concern
about what course of action the Kimberley Process will now take on Zimbabwe,
given that all decisions are based on consensus by member states. She
explained there is a general fear of a stalemate, as some member countries
remain supportive of Zimbabwe's place in the diamond market.
"We are very concerned that there will be no consensus and then there will
be a stalemate on what to do," Dunnebacke said. "A stalemate at this point
could be detrimental to Zimbabwe given the ongoing rights abuses there."

The Kimberley Process review mission, which submitted its final report on
Zimbabwe at the annual meeting on Monday, has accused the government of
deliberately lying to the Kimberley Process, because it is directly involved
in illegal mining and illicit smuggling of diamonds from Chiadzwa. The
delegation completed its mission to Zimbabwe more than four months ago and
had recommended the immediate demilitarisation of the diamond fields. The
recommendation has been openly ignored, and ongoing abuses are still being
reported.

Human Rights Watch has also echoed calls for urgent action on Zimbabwe by
the Kimberley Process, detailing in a new report that the military grip of
Chiadzwa has intensified. Following an investigation to Chiadzwa last month,
the group explained that "elements of the Zimbabwean Defence Forces have
consolidated their presence in the diamond fields and that they are abusing
members of the local community and engaging in widespread diamond
 smuggling."

Tiseke Kasambala, Africa researcher with the rights group, told SW Radio
Africa on Tuesday that urgent action is critical to prevent the ongoing
abuses at the diamond fields.

"Zimbabwe has had more than enough time to put a halt to the human rights
abuses and smuggling at Chiadzwa," Kasambala said. "The situation there
cannot be allowed to continue any longer."

MDC boycotts Cabinet for third week

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=24453

November 3, 2009

By Our Correspondent

HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party has once again
boycotted the Cabinet meeting which is regularly attended by government
ministers on Tuesday.The latest move somehow puts paid to President Robert
Mugabe's bid to see the current political crisis resolved ahead of the
troika summit on Zimbabwe scheduled for Thursday in the Mozambican capital,
Maputo.

As has happened over the last two weeks, MDC appointed ministers convened a
separate meeting at Harvest House, the party's headquarters in central
Harare instead of attending the full cabinet meeting held every Tuesday at
Munhumutapa Building.

Meanwhile, Zanu-PF ministers and those from Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara's smaller faction of the MDC attended the regular Cabinet meeting.

But Gorden Moyo, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office said the
Zanu-PF - MDC-M meeting did not qualify to be a cabinet meeting saying
cabinet meetings are complete only when representatives of all the three
political parties in government attend.

"What they are having is just a caucus," he said.

"The GPA says government is constituted by all the three political parties
in government and there is no party that can claim to be having a cabinet
meeting without any of the other parties being represented."

The MDC stay-away is the third successive boycott since the party pulled out
of the country's two executive organs of government in protest over
President Mugabe's failure to abide by the terms of the unity agreement
signed last year by the feuding parties.

The MDC is adamant it will not re-engage Zanu-PF at any executive level
until all its demands are met.

"We launched a disengagement from Zanu-PF until such a time when the toxic
issues are addressed," Moyo said.

The MDC disengagement from Zanu-PF, the first major incident to rock
Zimbabwe's otherwise shaky unity government since its formation in February
this year, was described by President Mugabe as a non-event.

The Zimbabwean leader has since toned down his rhetoric against the pull out
by MDC as he prepares to face his peers this Thursday.

Since the visit by the SADC troika ministerial delegation last week, Mugabe
has been tacit overtures towards the MDC.

The visit by the delegation was also in line with SADC's pledges in January
this year to review Zimbabwe's unity government after six months of its
inception.

Mugabe, usually a sabre-rattling speaker, accomplished a rare toning down of
his anti-MDC rhetoric when he told mourners at a Heroes' Acre burial on
Saturday that his party was willing to talk to accommodate MDC's grievances.

SADC leaders are under pressure to reprimand the Zimbabwean leader for his
apparent contemptuous violation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA),
which they brokered last year September.

The MDC accuses Mugabe of violating the GPA through unilateral appointments
of party loyalists into positions which are supposed to be filled through
consultation of all the parties in government.

The irregular appointments cited by the MDC include those of central bank
governor Gideon Gono, Attorney General Johannes Tomana and governors in the
country's 10 provinces.

Tsvangirai's party has been hit by a spate of retributive violence by
militant groups loyal to Mugabe whose party has also been accused of willful
prosecution of MDC officials, most often on spurious allegations.

Quarter of Zimbabwe's rhinos killed by poachers

http://af.reuters.com

Tue Nov 3, 2009 10:29am GMT

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe has lost about 200 rhinoceroses -- a quarter of
its total population -- to rampant poaching over the last three years as
security and the economy deteriorated, state media reported on Tuesday.

The southern African country has been badly damaged by an economic crisis,
which critics blame on President Robert Mugabe's seizure of white-owned
farms, including wildlife farms, to resettle landless blacks.

The director of the National Parks and Wildlife Authority, Morris
Mutsambiwa, told a parliamentary committee that 86 poachers linked to
international smuggling syndicates had been arrested this year alone.

"We have lost close to 200 rhinos in the last two to three years,"
Mutsambiwa was quoted saying by the Herald newspaper.

"From the intelligence we are gathering, we strongly believe that there are
syndicates which operate in the region, involving locals."

Estimates put Zimbabwe's black and white rhino population at about 500 and
300, respectively.

Mutsambiwa said poachers were mainly targeting the low-lying south-eastern
part of Zimbabwe and the Zambezi valley to the north. Asia seemed to be the
main destination for the illicit rhino horns.

The southern African country has been badly damaged by an economic crisis,
which critics blame on President Robert Mugabe's seizure of white-owned
farms, including wildlife farms, to resettle landless blacks.

Mutsambiwa said the wildlife authority was unable to provide adequate
security, hence the rise in poaching cases.

"We haven't been able to generate enough revenue for rhino protection.
KwaZulu-Natal (in South Africa) spends $3,000 per square metre, while we
spend less than $10," he said.

Simon Mann: a brief history of the murky affair of the last dog of war

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Simon Mann was jailed for 34 years in July 2008 by a court in Equatorial
Guinea for a failed attempt to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang in 2004.

By Andy Bloxham
Published: 11:13AM GMT 03 Nov 2009

The former SAS officer's jail term in the small, oil-rich African country is
a far cry from his privileged background.

He was born the son of the heir to the Watney Combe & Reid brewery, one of
the main beer-makers in London, and attended Eton then Sandhurst.

Mann passed out and served in the Scots Guards before getting through SAS
selection and starting a career as one of the last mercenaries of Africa
known as "the dogs of war".

Mann, who is now 57, was leading a team of 70 battle-toughened South African
mercenaries to seize control of Equatorial Guinea in 2004, when he was
captured and jailed in Zimbabwe.

In February last year, he was taken from Harare and flown through the night
to the target of his attempted coup.

He was sentenced to 34 years and taken to the Black Beach prison in the
island capital Malabo, where an Amnesty International report suggests denial
of medical treatment of sick prisoners is routine and rumours of worse
treatment abound.

However, lawyers and diplomatic sources said he had negotiated a deal with
the country's by agreeing to name the alleged co-conspirators in return for
his freedom.

Despite the grim conditions for most in Black Beach, Mann has reportedly
been treated very well, eating chicken, steak and vegetables cooked
specially for him by chefs in a nearby hotel, and drinking good wine.

He has an exercise bike in his cell to keep him fit and is allowed an hour's
daily phone conversation with his wife Amanda and seven children in
Hampshire.

He also apparently enjoys conversations with the minister for national
security while he eats.

However, Mann's relaxed prison regime also allows President Obiang to combat
claims of horrific conditions in Black Beach, as well as to use Mann's
comments as a wider public relations exercise to improve the reputation of
his regime with the international powerbrokers, and to crack down on
opponents.

It has also been suggested that Western powers may be anxious to avoid being
associated with a dictator on whom they depends for vast quantities of oil
and that any benefit to his international stock could ease pressure on
trade.

Obiang is reported to have a personal wealth of around £6 billion, invested
in around 60 bank accounts, in one of which he deposited £430m in a single
year.

The president has been accused of cannibalism - he belongs to a tribe once
feared for eating human flesh - a charge he denies and counters with the
insistence that he is "a Catholic and a humanitarian".

One clue to his vast wealth was revealed in a rare interview in 2004, in
which he admitted he personally signed for, and received, all his country's
oil money "so that nobody else could steal it".

Shortly afterwards, he hired a Washington lobbyist on a reported £100,000 a
month salary to boost his image.

At around the same time, the coup against him came to a premature end.

During Mann's trial, he said he was a mere "employee", and suggested the
real masterminds included a London-based millionaire called Ely Calil, 62,
who he nicknamed The Cardinal, and Sir Mark Thatcher, 55, the son of
Baroness Thatcher. Mr Calil and Sir Mark have denied any involvement.

Mann said Calil, a friend of EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, was the
overall boss who financed the plot, which he alleged was to fly in a puppet
leader from Spain after the mercenaries overwhelmed the presidential guard,
seized the radio station and, if necessary, murdered Obiang.

Six men on trial were each jailed for between one and 18 years. Another man
died before the trial after he was beaten. The official verdict was
 "suicide" caused by throwing himself from a police bed.

Mann was jailed for 34 years and ordered to pay a fine of £12million.

However, less than 18 months into his sentence, he is a free man.

Summits on Zimbabwe are a waste of time

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

     
      Written by Robb WJ Ellis
      Tuesday, 03 November 2009 17:15
      So the Southern African Development Conference (SADC) has decided to
hold a summit in Maputu on Zimbabwe on Thursday.
      Aren't we getting a little bit sick of this?
      Whenever the situation in Zimbabwe becomes too much for the
politicians in the country to handle, they turn to SADC and ask them to
mediate to resolve the issue - and what do SADC do? They have a summit to
talk about talking about it!
      I have stated, on many occasions that Mugabe is a past master on
delaying tactics. He will embark upon negotiations and these will last
forever, and then, having almost sorted the problem, the mediator announces
a 'breakthrough' which doesn't happen and the situation resets itself for
yet another summit and so on.
      But perhaps the point that irks me more than any other is the fact
that Mugabe somehow dictates the pace of events in Zimbabwe and he heads a
political party that lost the election last year. Why do the regional
authorities accept this? Why do the governments in the area accept what
Mugabe does to his own people? Why do they insist on letting Mugabe get away
with nothing short of murder?
      Why waste more time, resource, people and money talking into a vacuum
when Mugabe is never going to go along with whatever is decided, and he will
be thankful for the additional days that he has in power? Mugabe sees each
day as a victory. Time is his friend.
      We know that he and his party faithful have stripped Zimbabwe of
virtually anything and everything worth having, that they have private
accounts scattered throughout the world that are filled to overflowing with
public funds stolen from the people of Zimbabwe.

      An example of this is easy. An audit of a government department
revealed huge corruption. "The Comptroller and Auditor-General has made more
shocking revelations that expose gross abuse of state resources, with
government vehicles being taken away by top government officials and state
assets, fuel coupons and cash being misappropriated. In her report for the
first quarter of 2009 financial year tabled in parliament last week the
Comptroller and Auditor-General Mildred Chiri showed how rampant corruption
is in government.
      In addition to the cars being possessed by ministers and their
deputies and permanent secretaries, the report revealed that state assets
such as laptops, computers, fax machines, cell phones and spares of cars
were stolen but no police reports were made.
      A total of 14 vehicles donated to the Ministry of Public Service,
Labour and Social Welfare by the Reserve Bank in 2008 were neither recorded
in the vehicle register nor the donations registered. Vehicle registration
papers were not produced and therefore the report said specification details
of the vehicles were not known to the ministry." The report goes on to
reveal more and more illegal activity, and we should remember that this is
just one department!

      And what has been done about this?
      Nothing. Zero. Zip. De nada.
      And yet we have regional government representatives going to Maputu to
talk about Zimbabwe! Why? The man who ostensibly rules Zimbabwe - the man
that stole the presidency - continues to take whatever he wants (and a
little more besides). Why should the regional heads want to sit down and
talk to a person (or his representatives) when his securing the post he
holds transgressed so many basic laws?
      SADC should not be holding a summit to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis -
they should be working out just how to remove him from any position that
could conceivably allow him to continue his wholesale destruction of the
country which was once the bread basket of Africa.

      To perpetuate Mugabe's rule is not only pointless, but is a serious
threat to the region.

      Robb WJ Ellis
      The Bearded Man

      http://mandebvhu.instablogs.com/entry/summits-on-zimbabwe-are-a-waste-of-time/

Bill Watch 36 of 3rd November 2009 [GPA reviewreferred to SADC ORGAN Troika Summit]