Human Rights Watch
Opposition Voters Tell of Beatings, Intimidation
(Johannesburg,
April 19, 2008) – Zimbabwe’s ZANU-PF party is using a network
of informal
detention centers to beat, torture, and intimidate opposition
activists and
ordinary Zimbabweans, Human Rights Watch said today.
Victims and
eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that ZANU-PF has set up
detention
centers in the opposition constituencies of Mutoko North, Mutoko
South,
Mudzi (all in the province of Mashonaland East), and in Bikita West
(in the
province of Masvingo) to round up and instill fear in suspected
political
opponents.
“Torture and violence are surging in Zimbabwe,” said Georgette
Gagnon,
Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “ZANU-PF members are setting
up
torture camps to systematically target, beat, and torture people
suspected
of having voted for the MDC in last month’s
elections.”
During the day, ZANU-PF and their allies (so-called “war
veterans,” youth
militias and some armed men in military uniform) gather at
these camps to
decide on their targets, generally those known or thought to
support the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). According to witnesses,
the targets
are then rounded up and brought to the camps at night, where
they are beaten
for hours with thick wooden sticks and army batons. Human
Rights Watch has
interviewed more than 30 people in the last two days who
have sustained
serious injuries, including broken limbs, as a result of
these beatings.
Zimbabwe’s parliamentary elections on March 29, 2008
delivered a decisive
defeat for the ruling ZANU-PF led by Robert Mugabe.
Yet, nearly three weeks
later, the ZANU-PF-appointed Election Commission has
failed to announce the
results of the presidential poll that took place at
the same time.
ZANU-PF officials are calling the crackdown Operation
Makavhoterapapi, or
“Where did you put your cross?” There seem to be two
aims to this organized
violence: to punish people for having voted for the
MDC and to intimidate
them to vote for ZANU-PF if there is a presidential
run-off. One victim told
Human Rights Watch: “They told me that next time
you will vote wisely, now
you know what we can do.”
Several
individuals told Human Rights Watch that they had been held in these
camps
for up to three days and interrogated about MDC leaders, MDC funding,
and
the location of other MDC supporters.
One eyewitness told Human Rights
Watch that in Mutoko South he visited
several “torture camps,” including
Luckydip, Rukada, and Jani. The
eyewitness said that at another camp,
Chitugazuwa: “I saw a woman who could
not walk she’d been so badly
beaten.”
Human Rights Watch knows of only one case in which the police
have arrested
individuals responsible for these beatings. In all other
cases, the police
have refused to intervene, saying that they are instructed
not to interfere
in “political matters.” Several victims told Human Rights
Watch that some
police officers encouraged them to take the law into their
own hands and “go
and fight back.”
Human Rights Watch said that the
camps could not operate without the
complicity of senior officials in the
security forces and government
ministers. Should ZANU-PF force an annulment
of the parliamentary vote and a
presidential run-off, government bodies, the
security forces and the
judiciary will not have any credibility to ensure
the political impasse is
fairly and lawfully resolved, said Human Rights
Watch.
In the capital Harare, mixed groups of military officers, riot
police, and
ZANU-PF militia have rendered numerous MDC supporters homeless.
In the
high-density suburbs of Harare such as Dzivaresekwa, Epworth,
Chitungwiza,
and Budiriro, at least 40 people who are real and perceived
opposition
sympathizers have been attacked since April 15 and driven from
their homes.
To date, the intergovernmental Southern African Development
Community (SADC)
and South African President Thabo Mbeki, who was appointed
by SADC to
mediate the crisis, have done little to try to curb ZANU-PF
abuses. Human
Rights Watch called on the African Union to immediately step
in to address
the crisis.
“The SADC and President Mbeki have
completely failed Zimbabweans, and are
allowing ZANU-PF to commit horrific
abuses,” said Gagnon. “The African Union
should assume responsibility for
protecting civilians from rising violence,
and ending the political impasse
before Zimbabwe sinks deeper into
disaster.”
The Zimbabwean
Saturday, 19 April 2008 08:29
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s
government-in-waiting, the MDC, and several human
rights organisations said
this week that government security forces loyal to
the civilian head of the
military junta, Robert Mugabe, have arrested and
beaten hundreds of people
in response to last week's general strike.
Meanwhile, one MDC MP,
Marvellous Khumalo of Chitungwiza, and up to 50
people were being held on
allegations that they participated in last week's
stayaway that brought
Zimbabwe's economy to a standstill, the police and MDC
said. Police
confirmed 38 arrests, state radio reported.
The Zimbabwe Association of
Doctors for Human Rights monitoring group
said that emergency wards across
the country are treating people for broken
bones, bruising and sexual
assault after they were beaten with wire whips,
iron bars, electrical cords
and rifle butts by ruling party militias,
uniformed soldiers and police
reservists.
“Since the election on March 29, up to the end of April 14,
members of
the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) have
seen and
treated 157 cases of injury resulting from organised violence and
torture,”
the report by the human rights group says. “The provinces where
the injuries
were sustained include Manicaland, Mashonaland East and West,
and Masvingo.”
In Harare, witnesses said soldiers were telling people
to remain
indoors at night, with reports of assault of nightclub patrons
reported at
Spaceman Bar in Glen Norah A, Tichagarika Shopping Centre in
Glen View,
Makoni Shopping Centre and many others places in the ghettos
where soldiers
had literally imposed a curfew. Staff members at one private
clinic said
its emergency services treated 20 people.
The police
had no comment on allegations they had a role in the
attacks, but the
military denied any involvement.
Speaking to children last Thursday on
Independence eve, Mugabe
threatened retribution against his opponents,
saying he could never
countenance defeat by the MDC.
“As long as we
are alive, that shall never happen. Never again shall
this country be a
British colony,” Mugabe vowed.
The authorities say the strike action
was used by the opposition to
incite violence, and claim an opposition mob
had burnt a bus in Warren Park.
It has since emerged that the bus developed
a technical fault on its own and
burst into flames.
The strike was
called by the opposition to protest the prolonged
hold-up in presidential
election results, three weeks after the poll.
A statement issued by US
ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee said
three weeks after elections, the
results are still not known, the economic
tailspin continues and for many,
hope is fading. “Even more disturbing are
the many reports of violent
retribution being carried out in rural
communities,” McGee said.
Amnesty International described deteriorating security conditions and
mass
arrests in Zimbabwe as "a new and dangerous phase of repression".
MDC
spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, said troops and militias have raided
the homes of
opposition supporters across the country, assaulted over 200
activists,
burnt almost 50 huts and killed at least four people since the
March 29
poll, describing the crackdown as slow motion genocide.
The Zimbabwean
HARARE
The military junta running Zimbabwe has heightened its
witch-hunt and is
after several senior officials of the MDC (Tsvangirai) who
have been forced
to go into hiding, as well as civil society and media
practitioners.
The junta has a hit list comprising MDC officials, MPs, senior
administrators, media practitioners and civil society leaders it wants
silenced.
Glen View legislator, Paul Madzore, Marvellous Khumalo of St
Marys as well
as MDC’s chief executive officer Toendepi Shoni have gone into
hiding after
being alerted to plans by the regime to arrest or abduct them
following the
mass action organized by the MDC this week.
A group of
members of the CID, based at Harare Central Police Station, is in
possession
of the hit-list, which also names freelancer, Frank Chikowore who
was
arrested on Tuesday whilst covering the stay away. He was still in
police
custody on Friday, together with former news editor of the banned
Daily
News, Luke Tamborinyoka, who is the MDC information director and
Fortune
Gwaze, the party’s research and policy director.
The Zimbabwean on Sunday
also heard on Friday that the hit squad was after
some of its
reporters.
Other individuals targeted by the hit squad include Progressive
Teachers
Union secretary general Raymond Majongwe, National Constitutional
Assembly
chair Lovemore Madhuku and WOZA coordinator Jenni
Williams.
Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka denied the existence of the hit
squad and
the operation. “That is not true. We are doing out duty normally
and those
crossing the path of the law are duly dealt with,” he said.
MDC
spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the operation was part of a “wider plan to
incapacitate the MDC, civil society and the media ahead of Mugabe’s rerun or
to simply drag the country into a state of emergency where fear abounds
everywhere”.
SABC
April 19, 2008,
17:45
The deafening silence from Africa on Zimbabwe worries him, says
former UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Meeting Zimbabwe's opposition
leaders in Kenya, he said Africa must act
vigorously on Zimbabwe. But he
would not commit himself to playing an active
mediation role yet. Taking
issue with the continent's leaders the Noble
Peace laureate had stern words.
SADC leaders have already come under attack
from some quarters, for failing
to show decisive leadership on the Zimbabwe
issue.
"Where are the
leaders in the region? What are they doing?.... it is a
serious crisis with
an impact beyond Zimbabwe and we must work together to
find a solution,"
appealed Annan. Yesterday Annan held a closed door meeting
with MDC leaders.
They were hoping he would play an active role in resolving
the political
stalemate. It was a daunting task, but Annan pulled it off.
Power sharing
deal
He helped mediate a power sharing deal in Kenya. It ended three months
of
violence which left over 1 500 people dead, and thousands more
displaced.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has started
recounting votes in
23 Parliamentary constituencies today. This follows
claims by the ruling
Zanu-PF party that there were irregularities in last
month’s elections.
However analysts say this is a deliberate ploy by the
ruling party to sway
the outcome in their favour and propel President Robert
Mugabe to a run-off
or even a landslide victory.
Mail and Guardian
Charles Mangwiro | Maputo,
Mozambique
19 Apr 2008 17:26
A
Chinese ship carrying arms to Zimbabwe, which was turned away from
South
Africa, is heading to Angola in hopes of docking there, the transport
minister of Mozambique said on Saturday. The ship left South African waters
on Friday after a court refused to allow the weapons to be transported
across South Africa, the South African Press Association said. Mozambique
Transport and Communications Minister Paulo Zucula told Reuters that
Mozambique has been monitoring the movements of the ship since it lifted
anchor and left South Africa. "We know that it registered its next
destination as Luanda because here we wouldn't allow it into Mozambican
waters without prior arrangements", he said. The An Yue Jiang, a Chinese
ship, had been at anchor off Durban on South Africa's Indian Ocean coast
since Monday, turning into a flashpoint for trade unions and others critical
of President Thabo Mbeki's quiet diplomacy toward Zimbabwe. The 300
000-strong South African Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Satawu)
refused to unload the weapons because of concerns Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe's government might use them against opponents in the
post-election stalemate. Zimbabwean officials have failed to issue results
of a March 29 presidential election. Movement for Democratic Change leader
Morgan Tsvangirai says he won the presidential poll and his party took a
majority of parliamentary seats. Mugabe and his supporters are preparing for
a run-off as well as challenging some of the parliamentary results. A South
African government spokesperson confirmed weapons were aboard the ship but
said the government would not interfere with what it regarded as a trade
matter between China and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's Deputy Information Minister,
Bright Matonga, said on Friday that no party had the right to stop the
shipment. "Every country has got a right to acquire arms. There is nothing
wrong with that. If they are for Zimbabwe, they will definitely come to
Zimbabwe," he told SAfm radio. "How they are used, when they are going to be
used is none of anybody's business." For its part, China is trying to
prevent the controversy from fuelling criticism over its human rights record
and rule in Tibet ahead of hosting the Olympics in August. Violent protests
have followed the Olympic torch across the globe. China's Foreign Ministry
said in a short faxed statement to Reuters that it had seen the reports
about the ship, but "did not understand the actual situation". "China and
Zimbabwe maintain normal trade relations. What we want to stress is China
has always had a prudent and responsible attitude towards arms sales, and
one of the most important principles is not to interfere in the internal
affairs of other countries," the statement said. -- Reuters
Reuters
Sat Apr 19, 2008 12:02pm
ET
By Nelson Banya
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe began a partial
recount of votes from the March
29 elections on Saturday, despite opposition
efforts to block it and
widespread fears that political stalemate could
erupt into violence.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, accused of
treason by the government,
said in Johannesburg he feared being attacked or
imprisoned if he returned
to the country.
The recount in 23 of 210
constituencies could overturn the results of the
parliamentary election,
which showed President Robert Mugabe's ruling
ZANU-PF losing its majority to
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
for the first
time.
ZANU-PF lost 16 of those 23 constituencies in the original count,
the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said. The ruling party needs to win nine
more
seats for a simple majority in parliament.
Results of a parallel
presidential ballot have not been released but
Tsvangirai, leader of the
MDC, says he won that.
"The vote recounting process has started, and it's
going to be a thorough
exercise. We expect it to take about three days," a
Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission official told Reuters.
There have been
concerns in the West and among the opposition that Mugabe is
trying to rig
the results and the MDC has said it will not accept the
recount
"We
reject the process. We reject the outcome of this flawed process," MDC
spokesman Nelson Chamisa told Reuters. "As far as the MDC is concerned, the
first results stand. Anything else will be an illegitimate
process."
Tsvangirai, who left Zimbabwe earlier this month, said he would
return but
first wanted to gather international support.
"It is no
use going back to Zimbabwe and become captive. Then you are not
effective.
What can you do?", he told Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper. "Do
you want a
dead hero?"
Both President George W. Bush and Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice have
urged African states to take more action to end the
post-election deadlock
in Zimbabwe.
A South African-led team from the
14-country Southern African Development
Community (SADC) is observing the
recount. The SADC called last weekend for
the outcome to be announced
quickly, but African reaction has been muted.
OBSERVERS AND
DIPLOMATS
A Reuters correspondent at one of the counting stations -- in
the rural
district of Domboshava about 30 km (20 miles) north of Harare --
said SADC
observers and diplomats were present to witness the vote
recount.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told the state-controlled
Herald newspaper
petrol bombs were thrown at offices where ballot boxes for
three
constituencies in the Gutu rural district were stored early on Friday,
but
all failed to explode.
ZANU-PF triggered the recount after it
accused election officials of taking
bribes to undercount votes for Mugabe
and his ruling party and committing
other electoral fraud. Several election
officials have been arrested since.
Harare's High Court rejected an MDC
application to block the recount on
Friday. The court previously denied its
request to force authorities to
release the result of the presidential
vote.
Opponents accuse Mugabe, 84, of wrecking his once-prosperous
country, where
the collapse of the economy and inflation of about 165,000
percent have led
to chronic shortages of water, food and fuel, and 80
percent unemployment.
The delay in announcing results has given rise to
opposition fears the
recount could be a government ploy to steal the
election.
"Clearly these guys have tampered with the boxes. They can't
deny that," the
MDC's Chamisa said. "How do you expect us to have confidence
in the
process?"
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in
1980, has brushed aside
criticism from London, Washington and opponents at
home and is preparing for
an expected run-off against Tsvangirai.
The
MDC has accused the former guerrilla commander of unleashing loyal
militias
to help him rig victory in the runoff and allowing veterans of the
independence war to invade some farms, echoing a wave of land invasions that
began in 2000.
Human Rights Watch said on Saturday ZANU-PF was using
a network of informal
detention centers to beat, torture, and intimidate
opposition activists and
ordinary Zimbabweans into voting for the ruling
party.
(Additional reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe and Cris Chinaka, and
Renato
Andrade in Toronto; Writing by Caroline Drees; editing by Andrew
Dobbie)
From Owen
Chikari
MASVINGO, April 19, 2008 (thezimbabwetimes.com) - There was chaos
in
Masvingo as the Zimbabwe electoral commission began recounting of votes
amid
complaints from the Opposition MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai that the
ballot
boxes were tampered with.
The recounting process which was
supposed to start at 8 am was delayed for
two hours as winning MDC
candidates for Masvingo Central and Masvingo West
constituencies complained
bitterly that the ballot boxes were tampered with.
“The boxes which we
see today are new,” said victorious MDC candidate for
Masvingo West,
Tichaona Chiminya. “We cannot start recounting the ballots
when it is clear
that these ballot boxes were tampered with.”
Jefferyson Chitando MDC
candidate for Masvingo Central also complained that
some of the boxes were
tampered with.
“We cannot open some of these ballot boxes because the
presiding and
election officials who were present on the polling day are no
longer here”
said Chitando. “Some have actually left the
country.”
Despite these complaints from the MDC, which according to the
results of the
election, ceased to be the opposition party on March 29, ZEC
officials
insisted that the recounting of votes should go ahead as
planned.
Zanu-PF candidate for Masvingo Central Edmund Mhere said the
recounting
should go ahead because it was the only way one’s victory could
be
ascertained. He did not explain how a candidate’s victory was more
assured
in a recount than in the original counting.
“We do not share
the same feeling with the MDC that the boxes were tampered
with,” said
Mhere.
Heavily armed police officers, far outnumbering elections
officials, were
deployed at the civic centre where the recounting of ballots
for Masvingo
Central and West constituencies was conducted.
The
police officers searched vehicles and even barred members of the public
from
visiting the civic centre until the recounting process ends.
In Bikita
South the recounting process kicked off at 8 am without MDC
elections
agents. The MDC, which won the parliamentary elections, said all
its
election agents in Bikita South were forced to move out of the are by
Zanu-PF supporters immediately after the election.
MDC Masvingo
provincial chairman Wilstaf Sitemele said :"The recounting in
Bikita South
is being done and our election agents are not there because
they were chased
out of the area by Zanu-PF activists soon after the
elections".
Zanu-PF party has complained of irregularities in 23
constituencies where
the recount is being conducted.
In Masvingo a
recount is underway in nine constituencies. In one
constituency Bikita West,
Zanu-PF claimed victory on Sunday long before the
recount.
Meanwhile,
Zimbabweans continue to wait anxiously for the results of the
presidential
election, which the MDC says it its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai
won.
africasia
DOMBOSHAVA, Zimbabwe, April 19 (AFP)
As Zimbabwean officials recounted ballots from
last month's general election
in the farming village of Domboshava Saturday,
local residents said their
patience was running out.
"We have been
waiting for nearly three weeks now for the presidential
election results and
instead we have a recount," said one of dozens of
villagers who gathered
near a local job training centre used for the
recount.
"Everyone
wants a transparent process where whoever is declared winner is
the rightful
winner but they need to move at a faster pace," said the
47-year-old
villager, who would identify himself only as Murape.
Domboshava, 35
kilometres (22 miles) north of the capital Harare, is the
regional centre
for the Goromonzi West constituency -- one of 23 areas that
on Saturday
began recounts after disputed March 29 elections.
In the presidential
race, veteran President Robert Mugabe faced a double
challenge from Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai
and former finance
minister Simba Makoni.
But three weeks after the voting, the presidential
poll results are yet to
be announced.
Meanwhile, official results
from last month's parliamentary elections saw
Mugabe's party losing its
majority in parliament for the first time since
independence 28 years
ago.
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party complained of fraud by officials from
Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission, leading to the arrest of several officials
and prompting the recount.
In the Goromonzi West constituency, the
recount was at the request of the
MDC's Ian Makone, who lost the
parliamentary vote.
Makone did not come to witness the recount but the
party's chief election
agent Cosmas Njanji said: "We suspect there was
stuffing of ballot boxes and
criminal activity. That is why we asked for a
recount."
But hours after the counting was due to start in Domboshava,
election
officials were still sorting poll material scattered in a lecture
room at
the centre as armed police patrolled outside.
Voter lists
were strewn on tables. In the confusion, officials could not
locate a
supplementary register of voters omitted from the official list.
A
provincial elections officer, who gave only his surname, Madziwa, defended
the delay, saying: "We are going to count every ballot from the council to
the presidential.... It's going to be a thorough and strenuous
process."
But as the recount dragged on, villagers aired their
frustration.
"We have been here for nearly four hours and they have only
recounted the
ballots for one polling station," said Jasper Chitsote before
he was joined
by three friends and set off for a drink.
"We are going
to be waiting again for the results of the recount just as we
have been
waiting for three weeks for the presidential election results. I
can't
continue to wait," he said.
In Mugabe's home region of Zvimba, Local
Government Minister Ignatius
Chombo, who won the vote, asked for a recount
because he said he was
shortchanged.
"I want to win and I want to win
fairly, I don't want anyone to tamper with
my numbers," Chombo said as
officials began recounting the ballots in a
local business
centre.
Herbert Murerwa, a local official from the ruling party, said:
"We won here
and we don't see any need for a recount. But if it adds to the
transparency
of the process and makes everyone happy, its fine."
SABC
April 19, 2008,
15:15
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it
rejected
the partial recount of votes from March 29 elections which began
today, and
said it would not accept the outcome.
The recount in 23 of
210 constituencies, which is due to take three days,
could overturn the
results of the parliamentary election, which showed
President Robert
Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF losing its majority to the MDC for
the first time.
Results of a parallel presidential election have not been
released. "We
reject the process. We reject the outcome of this flawed
process," MDC
spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said. "The position of the party
is we have
nothing to do with the process."
"It's not a recount, it's a discount of
the will and the vote of the
people," he said by telephone from the Midlands
city of Gweru, where the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is recounting votes
from seven of the 23
constituencies. - Reuters
Media
Institute of Southern Africa (Windhoek)
PRESS RELEASE
18 April
2008
Posted to the web 19 April 2008
Detained freelance journalist
Frank Chikowore's lawyer, Harrison Nkomo, has
filed an urgent High Court
application compelling the police to take
Chikowore to hospital as he is
complaining of abdominal and chest pains.
The application also compelled
the police to have Chikowore appear before a
Magistrate on 17 April 2008, as
the 48-hour period within which a person
arrested by the police should
appear before a Magistrate court, as
stipulated under Zimbabwean laws, has
elapsed.
Chikowore, who was gathering news on the fateful day, was
arrested on 15
April together with supporters of the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).
He and the MDC supporters are said to be facing charges of
malicious damage
to property for allegedly torching a bus belonging to
Nyamwenda Bus Company
in Warren Park.
According to Chikowore's
lawyer, who was hired by MISA-Zimbabwe under its
Media Defence Fund (MDF),
the police initially wanted to charge Chikowore
under the draconian Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA) but later discovered
that he is an accredited journalist and that
there was no offensive material
on his laptop.
BACKGROUND:
Chikowore was arrested in Harare on 15
April 2008 in unclear circumstances.
According to his wife, Chikowore left
their home in Harare's suburb of
Warren Park early in the morning on his way
to work, only to return later in
the company of seven police officers, four
of whom were in riot gear and
three in plainclothes. The police then
reportedly searched the house and
confiscated a laptop, recorder and
camera.
International Freedom of
Expression Exchange Clearing House (Toronto)
PRESS RELEASE
18 April
2008
Posted to the web 19 April 2008
Brussels
The International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today called on the
government of Zimbabwe
to end harassment of media after an attack on Matthew
Takaona, President of
the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ), and called
for an investigation
into the abduction of Stanley Karombo, a freelance
journalist.
"We
are very worried about the worsening conditions journalists face in
Zimbabwe," said Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa office. "We
condemn the attack on Matthew and call on the government to conduct
investigations into this attack and the reported abduction of
Stanley."
In recent weeks the government of President Robert Mugabe
has cracked down
on journalists in the country in the midst of political
unrest. At least
five foreign media workers and two Zimbabwean journalists
have been arrested
for their coverage of tensions in the country after the
opposition
reportedly won presidential and parliamentary elections held on
March 29.
On Thursday night Takaona was brutally assaulted by individuals
wearing
national army uniforms. His attackers also robbed him of a
substantial sum
of money.
Karombo has reportedly been abducted by
unknown persons and his whereabouts
are unknown.
Another journalist,
Frank Chikowore, was arrested on April 15. According to
news reports, his
lawyers filed an urgent application in the High Court
Thursday to have him
taken to hospital. Chikowore, a freelancer, was
arrested on arson charges
during an opposition strike. The IFJ believes the
charges against him are
without merit and has called for his release.
The former secretary
general of the ZUJ Luke Tamborinyoka who is now an
information director of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change was
arrested along with the
Chikowore and others and has been in police cells
since.
The IFJ
calls for the release of all journalists in the country.
Four of the
foreign journalists arrested in Zimbabwe were cleared of charges
this week
and released. A fifth journalist was convicted of making a false
declaration
of the motives for his presence in the country and was deported.
The IFJ
represents over 600,000 journalists in 120 countries.
The Zimbabwean
HARARE - The
ministry of state responsible for Land Reform is sitting on a
damning report
- the fourth audit on the bloody land grab - that highlights
the systematic
looting of prime farms by senior government officials, army
generals and
Zanu (PF) cronies.
The explosive report documents the fourth land audit
exercise to assess the
status and ownership of farms acquired under the
controversial land grab.
It highlights the abysmal production on grabbed
farms, mainly due to input
and financial shortages, lack of security of
tenure and the inability of the
grabbers to farm.
Highly placed
government sources told The Zimbabwean on Sunday that Didymus
Mutasa, the
former minister of state for Land Reform and Resettlement, was
sitting on
the damning report, which should have been presented to Mugabe by
now.
Sources said the report affirmed the findings of previous reports
that
senior government and military personnel had looted prime farms at the
expense of the landless people. There are also several cases of multiple
farm ownership by senior government officials and generals, in open defiance
of Mugabe’s one-man-one-farm decree.
The sources said the latest move to
reclaim at least 1,449 A2 farms - the
category for commercial production -
was prompted by the land audit, which
is understood to have been completed
at the end of 2007.
“The report paints a classic picture of looting that has
characterised the
affairs of the party over the years,” added the source.
Zanu (PF) is
peddling the lie that the MDC will return land to whites, a
charge that has
unsettled senior government officials about change of guard.
The allegation
has been dismissed by the MDC.
Efforts to obtain comment
from Mutasa were futile. But a ministry official
admitted that “there were
problems” in the report.
“Yes the report has been finalised and we are going
to publish it soon. It
has some problems but we are not at liberty to
discuss them with the press
now,” she said.
So far, government claims to
have resettled over 300,000 families under the
A1 model scheme as well as
about 51,000 others under the A2 model scheme.
Most of these A2 model
farmers did not take up their pieces of land.
IOL
April 19
2008 at 04:45PM
By Deon de Lange
The world's
parliamentarians have issued their strongest condemnation
yet of the
electoral crisis in Zimbabwe, saying further delays in releasing
results can
only be "detrimental to the crumbling credibility of the
process".
The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which held its
118th assembly in
Cape Town this week, on Friday approved a "presidential
statement" on
Zimbabwe that called for all restrictions on freedom of
assembly and speech
to be lifted. "We are deeply concerned that almost three
weeks after
elections were held in Zimbabwe, results have not been fully
released. We
call for their immediate publication."
The
statement further implies the recent election may not have been
free and
fair, saying the people of that country "have a right to determine
their
future through free and fair elections as enshrined in universally
accepted
norms and standards governing democratic elections".
The IPU also
urged "all parliaments - as institutions of democracy and
oversight - to
continue to exert their influence until this matter is
resolved in its
entirety".
This position will make it difficult for South African
Speaker Baleka
Mbete, who served as president of the assembly, to deny South
African
opposition party requests for a debate on Zimbabwe when Parliament
reconvenes next week.
The ANC has consistently refused to
debate the situation in Zimbabwe
since a parliamentary observer mission
declared the 2003 elections in that
country to be "free and
fair".
This view was contradicted by DA members on the same mission
who
issued a minority report to the contrary - as they did when the recent
Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission similarly declared the
Zimbabwean election to have been a "fair reflection of the will of the
people".
The IPU presidential statement comes as a double blow
to the
Zimbabwean delegation, led by parliamentary secretary Austin
Zvoma.
Presenting its report to the assembly, the IPU committee on
the human
rights of parliamentarians cited "gross human rights abuses"
relating to
arrests, torture and illegal detention of a number of opposition
MPs over
the past years.
This article was originally
published on page 8 of Saturday Argus on
April 19, 2008
www.cathybuckle.com
19th
April 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
Behind every tree, under every
bush and around every corner, it seems there
is a British enemy waiting to
invade Zimbabwe.
"We must maintain the utmost vigilance in the face of
vicious British
machinations," Mr Mugabe warned as he spoke at his
celebration of Zimbabwe's
28th anniversary of Independence.
No one
that I've spoken to this week had even the vaguest clue of what a
machination is. A few thought it had something to do with machinery or
engines, others that it was a mispronunciation of the word imagination.
Still others wondered if these mysterious machinations had anything to do
with the Chinese ship steaming around looking for somewhere to unload its
cargo of death destined for Harare. The ship loaded with 3 million bullets,
1500 rocket propelled grenades and 3000 mortar shells. So we sat on the edge
of our chairs this Independence day wondering just exactly where the British
are hiding and what their unknown vicious something-or-other means to our
daily lives.
Nearly thirty years after Independence the threats and
warnings of British
plots haven't just worn thin, they've worn out
altogether. It is generally
agreed that at most there are perhaps thirty
thousand white people left in
Zimbabwe - a miniscule percentage in a
population of approximately 11
million people. It's way past time for our
leaders to stop blaming someone
else and accept responsibility for their own
deeds and machinations such as
those portrayed on the front page of one
weekly independent newspaper:
"Hundreds flee Zanu PF
Rampage."
"Murder, torture, terror."
It's three weeks since Zimbabwe
voted and we are exhausted, frustrated and
frightened. As each day passes
there is less and less food to buy, more and
more reports of people beaten
and hiding and still no final election
results.
Zimbabweans want food and
jobs not grenades and bullets. We want our voices
to be heard and our votes
to be respected. When the South African Transport
workers union refused to
unload the Chinese cargo ship in Durban this week
they showed the way and we
thank them for this. Zimbabwe is not at war, it
is hungry.
Until next
week, thanks for reading, love cathy
www.cathybuckle.com
19th April 2008
Dear Friends.
April 18th 2008
and Independence Day in Zimbabwe. No prizes for guessing
what Our Dear Old
Man will talk about in his 'keynote speech' at Gwanzura
Stadium today. He
will attack the British imperialists and their puppets in
the MDC. He will
make the usual totally unproven allegations of white
farmers returning to
the country to occupy their stolen farms in a British
inspired plot to
retake the country. He will of course renew his vitriolic
abuse of Gordon
Brown ' that little dot on the universe' as he so wittily
described the
British prime minister much to his friend Mbeki's audible
amusement. And the
great 'Liberation Hero' will probably boast about the
support he has from
the rest of Africa. My bet is that he will not even
mention the recently
held elections; he will behave as he always does on
these occasions, as the
one man who led the nation out of bondage - the new
Moses as one of his
creepy clerics once described him.
His 'supporters' will have been bussed in
from all over the country and to
sweeten the pill there will be the usual
football match to entertain the
captive crowd. All exits will be firmly
closed by armed guards and no one
will be allowed out. That's how it works
in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. The freedom
that Zimbabweans fought and died for in
their thousands twenty eight years
ago is just a word. When Robert Mugabe
talks about 'our sovereignty'- as he
undoubtedly will today - he is not
talking about you and me, ordinary
Zimbabweans. No, he's talking about Zanu
PF and the top chefs in the army
and the police, the very people who are
still keeping him in power three
weeks after the elections. Mugabe and his
cohorts care nothing for ordinary
Zimbabweans; how else can we explain this
farcical delay in announcing the
presidential results? A delay which is
causing untold suffering not only for
the hapless victims of brutality in
the rural areas up and down the country
but for ordinary citizens
desperately trying to survive as everything
collapses around them. No food,
no water, no power and no government
officials to carry out their duties as
the infrastructure breaks down and
inflation shoots ever higher. 165.000%
the Central Statistical Office
announced this week and the fat cats rub
their hands in glee as their bank
balances and waistlines get even
bigger.
What kind of man can inflict such suffering on his own people? The
answer is
clear, only a man of cruel and vindictive nature. Sane or insane,
the truth
is that the one thing Mugabe cannot stomach is rejection. Study
the voting
patterns around the country, pinned up outside polling stations
and you will
see very clearly the correlation between the brutal assaults on
opposition
supporters and the inroads the MDC made into what was once
considered safe
Zanu PF territory. If you voted against Mugabe you will pay
with your blood,
that's the message Mugabe is sending out to 'his' people.
Even the British
media here in the UK has finally got the message, thanks to
brave
Zimbabweans courageous enough to take photographs of the bloodied
victims of
Mugabe's terror tactics.
He will mention none of this when he
addresses the crowds today. He will not
explain to them why a Chinese
container ship is moored in Durban harbour
waiting to unload its weapons of
war destined for Zimbabwe. He will not
explain why he needs such weapons in
a country that is not at war except
against its own people. He will not
explain why Chinese troops have been
seen patrolling the streets of Mutare,
armed and in full military regalia.
African solutions to African problems
intones Thabo Mbeki in his pathetic
attempts to shield the old man and as
each day passes the crisis that Mbeki
refuses to acknowledge grows ever
deeper and the world looks on in amazement
at the sight of grown men
behaving like bully boys in a playground. What
Mbeki is doing - or not doing
- is bringing shame and ridicule on Africa.
Mbeki knows, he must know, that
Mugabe is bringing the whole region into
disrepute. The flagrant abuse of
human rights would never be tolerated in
South Africa for one minute. Yet
Thabo Mbeki turns a blind eye to the chaos
in Zimbabwe, denies its existence
because the man who is carrying out all
the destruction is a Liberation Hero
and Africa cannot break ranks with the
heroes of the liberation struggle.
The African Renaissance that Mbeki
promulgated in the early years lies in
ashes because African leaders have
failed totally and utterly to condemn the
excesses of men like Robert
Mugabe. It is so much easier to attack the white
west for their colonial
past than it is to speak out honestly about Africa's
dismal record on
governance and human rights.
Put not your faith in
African leaders is the message I learn from all this,
instead put your faith
in the people. Zimbabweans have shown their courage
in voting for what they
want but once again a cruel and ruthless leader is
denying them their voice.
And in South Africa there is growing evidence that
ordinary South African
are not behind Mbeki in his support for the
Zimbabwean despot. The Cape
Times reports today that the trade unions have
declared that their members
will not unload or transport the Chinese weapons
of war to use against their
brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe. 'An injury to
one is an injury to all'
that was one of the slogans of the anti-apartheid
struggle but Mbeki appears
to have forgotten it. We shall overcome!
Yours in the (continuing) struggle.
PH
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 19 April
Mandy Rossouw and Jason Moyo
The Botswana Foreign
Minister, Phandu Skelemani, has taken the unusual step
of criticising
President Thabo Mbeki over his dogged insistence that there
is no electoral
crisis in Zimbabwe. With the results of the presidential
election not
released more than two weeks after polling, Mbeki raised
eyebrows worldwide
by claiming, after a meeting with Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe at the
weekend, that "there is no crisis in Zimbabwe".
Referring to the
extraordinary SADC summit on Zimbabwe in Lusaka at the
weekend, Skelemani
said: "Everyone agreed that things are not normal, except
Mbeki. Maybe Mbeki
is so deeply involved that he firmly believes things are
going right. But
now he understands that the rest of SADC feels this is a
matter of urgency
and we are risking lives and limbs being lost. He got that
message clearly."
Although it was not articulated in its official
communiqué, the SADC summit
gave the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)
five days to verify and release
the results of the presidential election.
Skelemani confirmed this,
describing Zimbabwean attempts to compare the
delay with ballot counting
glitches in the past in the United States,
Mozambique and the Democratic
Republic of Congo as "nonsense ... which won’t
wash". We couldn’t expect
them to have it finished by Monday. So now we give
them a few days to do the
verification with the representatives of the
opposition parties present," he
said. But, he conceded that SADC could do
nothing except "bring pressure to
bear on the government and get Mugabe to
ensure that the ZEC brings the
results".
Botswana is one of a minority of SADC countries that wants
a tougher line on
Zimbabwe - in part because it has been hard hit by the
mass exodus of
Zimbabean economic refugees. With Malawi and Mauritius, it
sided with
Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) at the SADC
summit. However,
Mugabe’s heavyweight allies, principally Mozambique’s
President Armando
Guebuza, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Joseph Kabila,
Namibia’s
Hifikepunye Pohamba and Angola’s José Eduardo dos Santos, blocked
a tougher
stance. Calling only for the results to be released, the
communiqué issued
at the end of the summit was the slightest tap on the
wrist for Mugabe.
Skelemani remarked cynically that the Zanu PF delegation
at the summit, led
by Emmerson Mnangagwa, had agreed to release the results
"because they don’t
want to be seen as spoilers". Mugabe had not attended
the summit because "he
wasn’t consulted when the summit was arranged ... Now
it is a question of
revenge -- you snubbed me, now I snub you. If he had
come in person and
heard what his counterparts had to say, he would [better]
appreciate the way
they think." Skelemani said that in the case of a run-off
in Zimbabwe’s
presidential poll, the SADC would need to send a larger
monitoring group to
observe the elections. "People with more credibility
need to be sent. If you
send the same team you’ll not be able to cover the
whole country and you
have to make sure that there is an observer at every
polling station. The
SADC team will need to be beefed up." Deputy Foreign
Minister Aziz Pahad
said on Thursday that South African observers would
travel to Harare at the
weekend to watch over the vote recount in 23
constituencies. Zanu PF is
disputing the results in these
constituencies.
In a telephonic interview with the Mail &
Guardian the chairperson of the
ZEC, George Chiweshe, said he would reject
any attempt by SADC to tell it
what to do. "I don’t know what SADC said. We
are an independent commission.
We don’t take orders from SADC and even if we
get them, we will reject
them." Chiweshe said the commission was still
awaiting a high court ruling
on a recount of the polling in 23
constituencies. A reversal of these
results would overturn the opposition’s
narrow victory in the parliamentary
elections. He described as "erroneous"
widespread media reports on Monday
that the Harare High Court had forbidden
the ZEC to recount, as this would
be grossly unreasonable before the results
had been released. The Department
of Foreign Affairs said to its knowledge
there is no court case pending.
Skelemani also said that Botswana would not
accommodate MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai, who returned to Gaborone on
Tuesday, after landing in Harare and
feeling unsafe, for an unlimited time.
"If he did not win the presidential
election, we will say to him ‘my friend,
you’ve lost, go back home’." An
African diplomat in Harare who attended the
summit said the MDC had the
wrong game plan at the summit. "It needed to
push for specific matters that
were within SADC’s reach. I would’ve expected
it to go after a targeted,
strong statement from SADC demanding the
immediate release of results.
Instead it wanted SADC to declare its leader
president." Reclaiming
Parliament is important for Mugabe, as the
legislature would have to vote in
his successor. "He knows he will have to
step down soon. Even within the
party, there is consensus that we cannot
carry on like this," a senior
member of Mugabe’s politburo said. "But you
have to understand that Mugabe
will step down only for a Zanu PF person, not
for Tsvangirai."
Monsters and Critics
Apr 19, 2008, 10:29 GMT
Berlin - China's arms
deliveries to Zimbabwe are 'alarming in the extreme'
the German government's
human rights commissioner said Saturday.
Beijing was delivering arms to a
regime that had effectively been voted out
of office, Guenter Nooke told
Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in an interview.
'This is alarming in the
extreme,' Nooke said, noting the potential for
violence given the deadlocked
situation between the regime of President
Robert Mugabe and the opposition
following the March 29 elections.
The arms, reported to be millions of
rounds for AK-47 rifles, mortar bombs
and rocket-propelled grenade
launchers, were of a kind that could be used
against the population, Nooke
said.
'That is disgraceful,' Nooke said.
There were no grounds for
fresh elections in Zimbabwe, the commissioner
said, describing Mugabe's
moves in this direction as an attempt to
prevaricate until he got the result
he wanted.
He accused the Mugabe regime of attempting to intimidate the
opposition and
called for international pressure on Harare to be
increased.
Nooke was sharply critical of the attitudes of neighbouring
countries, in
particular that of Zimbabwe's powerful southern neighbour,
South Africa,
mentioning President Thabo Mbeki by name.
The Chinese
ship carrying 77 tons of munitions destined for landlocked
Zimbabwe left the
South African port of Durban Friday after a South African
court ordered that
its cargo could not be transported overland.
Dock workers had also
refused to off-load the cargo, saying that to do so
would be 'grossly
irresponsible.'
ninemsn.com
Saturday Apr 19
18:43 AEST
A group of Zimbabwean activists rallied in central Sydney, calling
for an
end to President Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe.
The group
of about 30 white and black Zimbabweans marched from Belmont Park
to the
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade NSW office in Pitt Street.
They
chanted Free Zimbabwe, waved hand-lettered signs bearing the slogan
Mugabe
Must Go and sang and danced.
One of the activists, Fred Nyamhunga, said
protests were gaining momentum
against the situation in Zimbabwe, where
officials had yet to declare the
outcome of the March 29 general
election.
Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai has
claimed victory
in the presidential poll and says his opposition party had
won a majority of
the parliamentary seats.
But Mr Mugabe and his
supporters are preparing for a run-off in the
presidential contest as well
as challenging some of the parliamentary
results, with a partial recount
under way.
"There is a crisis and we must make our voices heard," Mr
Nyamhunga said at
the event.
Mr Nyamhunga said it was risky for
people to cast their vote in Zimbabwe and
the election results should be
released.
"The Australian government is doing the right things and
pushing the right
way," he said.
"Western countries can put pressure
on the Southern African Development
Community. They have to take
responsibility for the situation in Zimbabwe.
"How can the world look at
this and say this is not a critical situation?"
Mr Nyamhunga said
conditions in the country were dire, with huge inflation,
unemployment and
poor life expectancy.
He also said the group was concerned about the
movement of arms to the
country.
A Chinese ship had tried to unload a
cargo of arms in South Africa for
transport to Zimbabwe but was stopped by a
court order.
"We fear there will be a war," he said.
OhMyNews
Zimbabweans Shun Independence Celebrations
Nelson G.
Katsande
Published 2008-04-19 17:30 (KST)
Zimbabweans shunned
the country's independence celebrations held April 18.
Most people accused
President Robert Mugabe of ruling the country by force
after the March 29
presidential elections, in which observers say he lost to
Morgan
Tsvangirai.
The celebratory scenes were pathetic as mostly school
children, police and
security forces were in attendance. Even the war
veterans shunned the
celebrations. The few war veterans who were in
attendance chanted liberation
war songs. School children too, clad in
ZANU-PF T-shirts, were forced to
chant chimurenga [struggle] war
songs.
President Mugabe who has refused to concede defeat to the
opposition
attacked Britain in his address speech. Road blocks were set up
in Harare
where motorists were diverted and forced to attend the
celebrations. ZANU-PF
youths were nowhere to be seen as they are believed to
have jumped ship and
joined the opposition.
Elias Mafa a former
ZANU-PF youth told OhmyNews, "It is senseless to support
Mugabe amid this
economic and political turmoil. Go to the shops and see how
badly the
situation is."
"The shelves are empty," he added.
In Mashonaland
Central province, a former ZANU-PF stronghold, the opposition
is said to
have won all seats in the just ended council elections. Prior to
the
presidential elections, Morgan Tsvangirai the MDC leader held a rally in
the
province in which thousands of former ZANU-PF supporters attended.
The
Bindura council which had made efforts in repairing the badly
"pot-holed"
road network which led to the venue where Tsvangirai was to
address his
rally, was stabbed in the back by ZANU-PF for its alleged
support of MDC.
This led to the suspension of Town Clerk, Mr Mugogo. But the
council which
was doing its moral obligation of repairing roads in the area
was accused of
siding with the opposition.
A source within the council's finance
department said, "Staff are under
constant attack from ZANU-PF supporters.
We are now even scared of reporting
for work."
Zimbabwe has the
highest inflation rate in the world. The country's monetary
policies have
been blamed for the current hyper-inflation as the government
prints
currency as and when it likes. The acute food shortages facing the
country
have resulted in millions of people dying from starvation. The
health
delivery network has collapsed with nurses and doctors having fled
the
country in search of greener pastures.
Civil servants are regularly on
industrial action and the government has
failed to provide solutions. After
the March 29 presidential elections,
people were hoping for a change. But
after 28 years in power, President
Mugabe is determined to hold on to power
despite his defeat to Tsvangirai.
The election results are yet to be
announced. Zimbabwe is now dependent on
other neighbouring countries for
food. From independence to dependence, the
southern African