Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2004 4:20 PM Subject: Healing Hands
Dear
Family and Friends, More than 3 million Zimbabweans have fled the country
since February 2000 and are scattered all over the world, living in exile
like a lost tribe. They have left their friends and families, their hearts
and memories, the sights, sounds and smells that make Zimbabwe home. Some
have gone for economic and other reasons but many thousands have literally
run for their lives, after violence, threats, rape, intimidation and
extreme persecution for their political beliefs. They have gone to
countries where they have no jobs, nowhere to live, no money and no
friends. One of these people who was forced to flee his country under extreme
circumstances is Gabriel.
In January 2003 Gabriel was an ordinary
upstanding member of Zimbabwean society. He was a human rights lawyer who had
often spoken out about the wrongs in our society. He was called to defend
an opposition Member of Parliament who was in trouble. Whilst consulting
with his client, Gabriel was seized by armed police. At first he was held
in a prison cell but then he was removed, shoved into a yellow vehicle,
had his head covered with a black hood and was taken away to an unknown
place. Gabriel was taken down three flights of stairs, stripped completely
naked, had his hands and feet shackled and was abused,
assaulted and interrogated for many hours. Gabriel was forced to drink his
own urine and lick his own vomit off the floor. At times he was hung
upside down and beaten on the soles of his feet, at other times he had
wires attached to his toes and genitals and was repeatedly tortured with
electric shocks. Gabriel was forced to write and sign documents
implicating himself and other senior members of the opposition. Three days
later a High Court ordered that Gabriel be released. Charges of trying to
destabilize the government were thrown out of court but then came the death
threats which finally made Gabriel flee for his life to South
Africa.
Gabriel Shumba may be plagued by nightmares of his own ordeal but
he is determined not to be another statistic, not to be a silent victim. He
has repeatedly spoken of his ordeal and recently addressed the US Congress
for Human Rights. Gabriel is the legal regional director of the
Accountability Commission and with others is involved in the Zimbabwe
Exiles Forum. Their aim is to help Zimbabwean exiles by providing social,
legal and educational assistance to people who have lost everything. The ZEF
wants to rid exiles of the loneliness, destitution and pain that comes
from being strangers in a strange country. They want to bring Zimbabweans
together, help them to survive, heal and learn to love and trust again so
that they will be proud, patriotic and ready to come back and help rebuild
their lives and their country. At the moment it is a tall order as the ZEF
have no resources, no office that people can come to and not
even the transport needed to find the thousands of Zimbabweans who are
forced to beg on highways, prostitute themselves and sleep under bridges.
Gabriel knows of at least 13 000 Zimbabwean asylum seekers and torture
victims in Johannesburg alone that need urgent humanitarian assistance.
They do not arrive to loving arms, warm beds and kindly counsellors. Gabriel
says asylum seekers arrive hugely traumatized, have no relations, money,
accomodation or jobs. The South African government admit they have only
given asylum to 11 people and that thousands have been turned down on the
grounds that "there is no civil war in Zimbabwe." Gabriel says it is
agonising to see the immense suffering of fellow Zimbabweans in exile and
not even be able to offer a "warm hand of significant support." If you
would like to know more about the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum or hold out a helping
hand of healing to exiles in distress, contact Gabriel Shumba at : gabmrech@yahoo.com Thank you for reading
the story of a brave and truly inspirational Zimbabwean man. Happy Easter.
Until next week, with love, cathy. Copyright cathy buckle 10th April 2004.
http://africantears.netfirms.com My
books on the Zimbabwean crisis, "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears"
are available outside Africa from: orders@africabookcentre.com
; www.africabookcentre.com ; www.amazon.co.uk ; in Australia and New
Zealand: johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au
; Africa: www.kalahari.net www.exclusivebooks.com
The crisis threatening Zimbabwe's cricketing future
took a depressing twist late last night when a senior official of the
Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) told reporters that he had sacked up to a dozen
white players.
The group understood that they had been given
permission by Vince Hogg, the ZCU's chief executive, to miss this weekend's
round of domestic matches so that they could try and find a solution to the
dispute between players and the board which followed Heath Streak's removal
as captain. But Ozias Bvute - the ZCU board member in charge of racial quotas
- sent them all messages saying that that he had dismissed them for not
turning up to play.
The news came as a particular blow
to Hogg, who had been working tirelessly in recent days to try and broker a
compromise which would stave off the planned mass resignation of leading
players that we first revealed last week. But Bvute's unilateral action
undermined not only those attempts, but also Hogg's authority to act on
behalf of the board.
Those who now control the board are
clearly at odds with the bulk of the players - and a number of its own
officials. The faction hell-bent on implementing the wishes of the Mugabe
government have won the internal battle and now control the ZCU.
Streak himself called on the ICC to intervene, requesting it to "come here
and investigate the grave situation at all levels of the game". He added that
he was happy to continue as a player under Tatenda Taibu, but only if his
demands regarding the selectors - which triggered this whole situation - were
met. "Unless they are, " he said, "I will not play for Zimbabwe again." Given
that the board is now openly hostile to the bulk of the team - and Streak in
particular - there is almost no chance of it backing down over
selection.
Former Zimbabwe batsman Murray Goodwin, who quit the
country a while back and now plays for Sussex, said that he had spoken with
"some of the players and they are not happy with the situation." He
continued: "There isn't enough depth in Zimbabwe cricket to cope with the
loss of 14 players and still compete effectively at international
level."
Zimbabwe's Test and one-day series against Sri Lanka is due
to start in less than a fortnight. Unless there is a dramatic change of
policy, there is every chance that the Zimbabwe side which takes the field
will contain no white cricketers, and, more to the point, will be so weak as
to be embarrassing.
Armed
soldiers and police descended on MP Roy Bennett's farm in Chimanimani early
Friday morning and forcefully evicted all the farm workers and
their families. Defying court orders that protect Charleswood Estate
from acquisition, soldiers with AK 47s and police units with dogs and
baton sticks began arriving last night, and truckloads more arrived at
about 6:00am. They forced hundreds of men, women and children out of their
homes and told them to gather by the gates to the farm without any of
their property. Several people were assaulted during the chaos that followed.
A roadblock has been set up to prevent anyone from entering the area, and
all vehicles at Charleswood have been impounded. It is not known where
the families are supposed to go, and what is to happen to the much sought
after farm, but the soldiers allegedly announced that Charleswood now
belonged to Mike Nyambuya, the governor of Manicaland. Nyambuya, along with
local government minister Ignatius Chombo, announced 2 weeks ago at
the inauguration of chief Chikukwa, that there was soon going to be a
final assault on Charleswood. They openly told the gathered villagers that
Roy Bennett would then not qualify for re-election as MP for Chimanimani if
he did not live there.
Rhodesia. The Seventies. "This is
the Rhodesia Broadcasting Corporation. Combined operations headquarters
reports that 15 terrorists were killed in Muzarabani. In Rushinga 11 more
terrorists were killed this evening." The news on radio was always about
"terrorists" killed or captured. This is the abiding memory of the media in
my childhood. Fast-forward to Zimbabwe in the early 21st century at my
parent's home in Gweru. I don't have a watch, and I need to know the time, so
I turn on the radio. I could be turning back the clock because the
broadcaster is now as biased as it was during the colonial era! Any of the
four Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation stations will do. At 27 minutes past,
or three minutes to every hour, Sendekera will play.
This land/soil
that you see is what is called Zimbabwe.
The land is now ours.
We
are happy.
It gives us pride.
Let 'them' be upset.
'They'
are mad.
If it rains this year we shall fill our granaries .
Sendekera.
Sendekera, son of the soil, our land is our
prosperity.
All day long, Sendekera hums in your head. It is played
every 30 minutes on all four radio stations. It is mandatory to play it and,
by extension, to listen to it. Two days of going to bed at 8.05pm is enough
to drive anyone crazy. What else can one do in Gweru after the news
headlines? Usually nothing important happens, if we don't count which high-
ranking official has died or got married. The past few weeks have been an
exception. First it was the denials and then trashing of the BBC documentary
on the Green Bombers. Then it was the arrest of the alleged mercenaries at
Harare airport. For more than two weeks ZBC/TV has been filled with
strident denials from government officials and the youths themselves. One
young woman, in an attempt to show that they were not violated during
the training, nor taught terror tactics, boldly told the nation: "I learnt
a lot, [during National Youth Service Training]. Now, when I am told
turn left, I can turn left. And when they say turn right, I can turn right."
And we thought people learnt this stuff in Grade 0. This was on a
programme called News Hour, which starts with the supposedly rousing
Sendekera jingle.
News content is a mixture of fact, fiction and
outright propaganda. There is no pretence at sophistication and everything
comes back to that old bogey - colonialism. The state broadcaster's take on
the mercenary drama unfolding in Zimbabwe, for example, goes like this: "The
mercenaries plotted to topple the government of the sovereign nation of
Equatorial Guinea, whose President Obiang has fallen out of favour with the
Western imperialist powers, led by America and Britain who are against his
stance on his country's oil, just like President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe,
who has had a similar problem with these imperialist governments over land."
All of this in one breathless sentence! Anti-government sentiments are not
allowed anywhere near our broadcaster. There is no debate of fundamental
issues. The Broadcasting Services Act gives the minister of information and
his hand-picked Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe the power to issue
licences to other broadcasters. Nobody has received such a licence to date,
and ZBC/TV has a monopoly of the airwaves. Radio content must now be 100%
local. On the few occasions when listeners get on to phone-in programmes to
criticise the regime, they are switched off.
Gone from the
airwaves and from our television screens are programmes that civil society
groups (now seen as anti-government) used to produce. These ranged from
HIV/Aids awareness to opportunities for the public to participate on national
issues. The regime will argue that 100% local content is about patriotism and
it's about promoting local artists and local values. These values are, of
course, only for those who can't afford alternatives, the poor black
majority. Those of us in a higher income bracket or with the right
connections, don't have to be subjected to Sendekera. By the flick of our
remotes we can watch SABC Africa, BBC or Movie Magic, and we listen to our
compact disk collections. No government official worth his salt will invite
friends round to watch soccer on ZBC on Sunday afternoon. It's English
football or South African. The Third Chimurenga is fought by poor patriots.
The fruits are enjoyed by those with political power.
The crumbling façade of independence and reason the Zimbabwe
Cricket Union has tried to maintain against a backdrop of social
disintegration in the country finally collapsed on Friday. The final
semblance of normality was wiped away with the revelation that Vince Hogg,
the board's chief executive, had been overruled on a key matter by Ozais
Bvute, the man charged with implementing racial quotas in team
selections.
Bvute's formal role within the ZCU is vague, but it is
his presence, and that of one or two others with dubious cricketing
backgrounds, which sparked the showdown between Heath Streak and the board.
Streak made clear his objection to non-cricketing individuals being involved
in selection, and comments he made to Hogg on this subject triggered the
chain of events which led to the board replacing him with Tatenda
Taibu.
The government-controlled Herald immediately branded Streak a
racist. That was utterly predictable, as anyone who has opposed any part of
Robert Mugabe's regime is tarred with the same brush. But those who know
Streak also know that the accusation is risible.
The subsequent
meeting between the ZCU and a group of players - who are all, incidently,
white - was nothing to do with Streak, although he attended, as did Hogg and
Bvute. With the ZCU refusing to contemplate Streak's reinstatement - given
that its political faction had ousted him, it was never a possibility -
stalemate ensured. Hogg realised that the loss of up to a dozen leading
players would cripple the already disintegrating Zimbabwe side - there are
only about 70 first-class players in the country all told - and so gave the
dissenters the weekend off to consider how the situation might be
resolved.
But Bvute immediately overruled him and seized on the chance to
strike - when the dissenters didn't appear to play for their sides in the
weekend's Logan Cup matches, he banned them all. It was opportunist, and as
unsubtle an implementation of the government's will as it is possible to
have. So isolated, and so out of touch with reality, is the Mugabe regime
that it probably believes that Zimbabwean cricket can lose almost all its
white cricketers and emerge stronger. It is in for a frighteningly rude
awakening.
What is emerging is that Bvute is perhaps the most
powerful figure within the ZCU. His appointment was made by the ruling Zanu
PF party, and local observers say that he is charged with ensuring 'political
loyalty' to Mugabe. Last year, Mugabe's position of the ZCU's patron came up
for re-election. It was assumed that he would be returned unopposed. But a
ZCU member suggested that the matter should be discussed. "If the member
knows what's good for his health," Bvute warned, "he will desist from asking
such questions." So much for being apolitical.
Bvute is also the
man who personally threw Henry Olonga off the team bus following his
black-armband protest in the World Cup, and he also demanded that Olonga stop
wearing any official Zimbabwe team kit. He was also involved in the attempts
to drop Andy Flower from the side, a move thwarted by another threatened
strike by several of the side. One former player is quoted as saying that
Bvute "constantly tells team members that he has been to [information
minister] Jonathan Moyo's office and been talking to him about cricket
issues. If that's not being involved in politics in Zimbabwe today, nothing
is."
Peter Chingoka, the ZCU's chairman, who has consistently
maintained the line that the board is independent and is widely considered to
be a good man, is also becoming marginalised. An insider at Friday's meeting
said that Bvute and Max Ebrahim (another selector) repeatedly shouted
Chingoka down when he tried to raise the subject of Streak's concerns.
Ebrahim is believed to be a supporter of Mugabe, and his father, Ahmed,
headed the task force which cleansed the side of dissidents. Chingoka is
shrewd enough to realise that in a dictatorship, you don't upset people with
the ear of the leadership, and that you have to make compromises to
survive.
Another insider said that the board had gradually isolated and
removed people who were genuinely apolitical, with the result that while it
was until recently independent, in recent months it had become "dominated
by politics". Chillingly, the insider added: ""I think the ZCU should
be renamed the Zanu PF cricket union. There are certain individuals who
are using the way the country's being run as a blueprint for the
ZCU."
In ten days time Chingoka is due at Lord's to discuss this autumn's
proposed tour of Zimbabwe by England - Bvute is also in the delegation - but
it is hard to see how he can seriously hold those talks when his position -
and that of his chief executive - are clearly utterly irrelevant. The England
& Wales Cricket Board must be eyeing the situation as its Get Out Of Jail
Free card.
These developments should also be worrying the
International Cricket Council. To date, it has repeatedly put the
self-interest of certain factions within it ahead of any semblance of
morality. Even Malcolm Speed, its hardline chief executive, might struggle to
maintain its stance if the ZCU carries on as it has in the last ten
days.
Those with hidden agendas will probably try to play a
combination of the race and colonial cards. But those now look convenient and
too irrelevant. In yesterday's Times, Simon Barnes eloquently argued why the
Zimbabwe situation cannot be ignored. "The contention that the Government of
Zimbabwe is worthy of cricket's support is unacceptable," he wrote. "The
contention that cricket should not concern itself with politics is
impossible. In other words, there are only two possible ethical arguments for
the ICC's support of Zimbabwe and neither stands up."
The movers and shakers of this world may not watch Oprah, but this might be a
way of spreading the word? The following suggestion was on
a messageboard:
Love her or hate her, MILLIONS around the world watch
and respect Oprah. A good suggestion by Ruth on Rhodesiawassuper
website: