24 April, 2003
POLICE ARREST MOURNERS IN CHITUNGWIZA
Police in Chitungwiza (Harare) last night attacked and brutally
assaulted mourners at the funeral of MDC activist Richard Tonderai Machiridza,
who died last Friday.
Police blocked the road to the community hall where the body of
the deceased was to be taken before burial, and insisted that the body
should not be taken to the hall. Such callous behaviour incensed the
mourners, who then decided to take the body to the home of a police officer
named Chikwizo, who is based in St Mary's (Harare). Before he died
Machiriidza named Chikwizo as one of his torturers.
Two truckloads of police, supported by the army, later descended at the home
of Lovemore Mutamba, a relative of the deceased, where the funeral was
held. They fired at least 10 shots before jumping the security fence and
arresting all the mourners, including the mother of the deceased, his brother
Benjamin and other close relatives.
At the time of writing this press release, all the mourners are still
being detained at St Mary's police station along with the body of the
deceased.
The police are now demanding that the body should be taken for burial today
but have not stated how this is going to be possible when all the relatives of
the deceased are still being detained.
The insensitive behaviour that has been displayed by the police is
shocking. They killed an innocent citizen and they are not even prepared to
let him have a decent burial.
Machiridza and three others were arrested by police officers last Sunday and
were severely tortured in the hands of the same officers. Machiridza later
died at Avenues as a result of injuries sustained.
We have said before that the Zimbabwean police force is now controlled and
directed by ZANU PF and as such will do anything to please their masters,
including breaking the law. The Mugabe regime will do anything to preserve its
illegitimate position.
We appeal to those few police officers at St Mary's who still have a human
soul to refuse to be used to do such disgusting things
Further details can be obtained from Lovemore Mutamba on 00263 91 924
047 or Tendekai on 00263 91 924 134.
Paul Themba Nyathi
Secretary for Information and
Publicity
US Could Influence Regime Change in
Zimbabwe, Analyst Says
http://www.crosswalk.com/news/1196795.htmlStephen Mbogo
Correspondent
Nairobi, Kenya (CNSNews.com) - The
United States could force a regime change
in Zimbabwe without great
difficulty, and without the need to resort to
force as was the case the Iraq,
a political analyst said here.
Dr. Gerrison Ikiara of the University of
Nairobi said U.S. doesn't need to
use military force to bring about political
change in Zimbabwe, as it had a
record of influencing regime changes in
Africa without firing a bullet.
He cited the fall of Kenneth Kaunda of
Zambia, Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, and
the late Kamuzu Banda of
Malawi.
With focused attention, the U.S. could "use the opposition and
civil society
to make Zimbabwe ungovernable," and hence precipitate the fall
of President
Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe is accused of direct responsibility
for the political and
socioeconomic crisis currently gripping the southern
African country.
Ikiara was commenting on reports about renewed U.S.
demands that Mugabe
resign to pave the way for fresh presidential
elections.
Reports cited an unnamed State Department official as saying
Zimbabwe's
neighbors had to realize the seriousness of the problems Mugabe
had brought
upon his country and southern Africa in general.
"What
we're telling them is there has to be a transitional government in
Zimbabwe
that leads to a free and fair, internationally-supervised election.
He
[President Mugabe] stole the last one; we can't let that happen
again."
"It has to be internationally-supervised, open, transparent with
an
electoral commission that works," the official added.
Analysts said
the comments were largely directed at President Thabo Mbeki of
South Africa,
who has emerged as a key Mugabe ally in the region, and says
he is pursuing
"quiet diplomacy" with the embattled leader.
Ikiara attributed Mbeki's
inaction on Mugabe to the support the latter
offered exiled South African
political organizations during the apartheid er
a.
"Mbeki, however,
remains the best route through which Mugabe can be
prevailed upon to resign,"
he said.
South Africa borders Zimbabwe to the south and is its main
trading partner.
Zimbabwean officials have been quick to dismiss the
reported U.S. calls.
Presidential spokesman George Charamba said the
demand was not news, while
spokesman for Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party,
Nathan Shamuyarira, said the
U.S. should respect the "wishes of
Zimbabweans."
"If the Americans don't want to accept our legitimacy, it
is their own
problem," he said. "They can go to hell. There will be no new
elections
here."
Nonetheless, Mugabe in a media interview showed a
rare conciliatory approach
when he
said he was ready to meet with
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai - but
only on condition he recognized
Mugabe as the rightfully elected president.
Meanwhile a civil
disobedience campaign continues, and a national workers'
strike began
Wednesday.
Ahead of the strike, security agents arrested senior trade
union officials,
eliciting a statement of condemnation from the International
Confederation
of Free Trade Unions, which said it supported the labor
action.
Experts have attributed Zimbabwe's economic crisis to a
controversial land
reform program, aimed at giving commercial, white-owned
farms to black
peasants to farm but in the end benefiting wealthy elites
close to Mugabe.
Land confiscations have resulted in farms not being
worked, leading to food
shortages. Many farm workers also lost their homes
and livelihoods when the
farmers they worked for were expelled, sometimes
violently.
The U.N. World Food Program is currently feeding more than
five million
Zimbabweans, out of a total population of 11.3
million.
MSNBC
Zimbabwe opposition chief says barred from
funeral
HARARE, April 24 - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai said on
Thursday police barred him and his supporters from
attending the funeral of
a party activist who was allegedly tortured to death
by security agents.
In a statement,
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
also alleged that police
near the capital Harare detained the dead man's
grieving relatives overnight,
including his wife and mother, and assaulted
some of them after a dispute
over funeral arrangements. They were released
on Thursday, MDC
said.
Police were unavailable for
immediate comment on Thursday. But in the
past they have accused the MDC of
using the private media to smear its
reputation with false allegations of
torture.
The MDC says MDC activist
Richard Tonderai Machiridza died in
hospital a week ago after allegedly being
tortured by security agents who
accused him of involvement in violence during
an opposition protest last
month.
The
MDC organised a two-day national strike in March that turned out
to be one of
the biggest protests against President Robert Mugabe since he
came to power
23 years ago. The government has responded with a fierce
crackdown that has
seen police detain, and later release, about MDC
500
members.
On Thursday, the MDC
said Tsvangirai and other opposition members
were barred from Machiridza's
funeral by police, who according to the MDC
said the burial would be attended
by relatives only and would take place
under police
guard.
''The pattern is the same:
dictators cause the arrest of people,
torture and kill them while in their
custody and refuse to allow their
families to perform their last rites and
bury the murdered innocents in a
dignified way,'' Tsvangirai said in the
statement.
Zimbabwe is facing its worst
crisis in more than two decades, with
soaring unemployment and shortages of
fuel, foreign exchange and food which
many Zimbabweans blame on Mugabe's
policies.
The Zimbabwe government has
been hit this week by the second strike
in just over a month, this time over
higher fuel prices.
The three-day strike
called by trade unions allied to the opposition
began on Wednesday, and has
shut shops and industries in urban areas across
the southern African
country.
Continued Support for National Strike
UN
Integrated Regional Information Networks
April 24, 2003
Posted to the
web April 24, 2003
Johannesburg
Trade union officials on Thursday
said up to 70 percent of the country's
businesses remained closed on the
second day of a three-day national strike.
"Banks, stores and factories
across the country have continued to heed the
call to shut down. This is a
promising sign that the strike has achieved
what it set out to do. We expect
that the success of this action will
increase the pressure on the government
to make some significant changes,"
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) secretary-general, Wellington
Chibebe, told IRIN.
ZCTU
called the stayaway in protest over a 200 percent hike in fuel
prices
introduced last week, which increased urban commuter bus fares. The
ZCTU
argued that workers would now have to spend about 60 percent of
their
monthly wages on transport.
Chibebe said although no incidents
of violence had been reported, there had
been a number of cases where police
had forced shop owners to open their
businesses.
"While some shop
owners were coerced into opening their stores, many found
that they had to do
without their staff who decided to stay at home. In
Mashonaland West there
were reported cases of labourers being frog-marched
to work," he
added.
In terms of the country's security laws the strike is regarded as
illegal by
the authorities.
The official Herald newspaper on Thursday
said the stayaway was ill-timed as
"government was in the process of coming
up with new commuter fares and new
minimum wages" to cushion workers from the
effects of the fuel price hike.
According to the newspaper, the
government and urban transport operators on
Tuesday agreed on new
fares.
But Chibebe dismissed the report, saying: "The government has had
more than
enough time to implement new fares and introduce an increased
minimum wage.
It is mischievous to portray the labour movement as an
accomplice in the
deterioration of the economy when we have called on the
government on
several occasions to address
hyper-inflation."
Meanwhile, Transport Minister Witness Mangwende
threatened to withdraw the
permits of minibus operators if they continued to
"refuse to provide normal
services to the public".
Last month, the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change staged a two-day
strike that shut
down about 80 percent of businesses and industries in one
of the biggest
protests seen in Zimbabwe. The opposition group called on the
government to
restore the rule of law and agree to hold new
elections.
Big Hit Still to Come, Vows MDC As Zim
Grinds to Halt
Cape Argus (Cape Town)
April 24,
2003
Posted to the web April 24, 2003
Brian Latham
The
three-day strike called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions to
protest
against a three-fold petrol price increase kicked in yesterday,
bringing the
country to a virtual standstill.
ZCTU secretary-general Wellington
Chibhebhe said that between 65 and 70% of
workers had stayed at home.
Opposition members said the strike was just the
next step in an ongoing
campaign, vowing that "the big one" was still to
come.
The strike
coincided with the visit to Zimbabwe of the Angolan foreign
minister Jo<o
Miranda ahead of a Southern African Development Community
(SADC) task force
set to investigate human rights abuses in the country.
Miranda said a
date for the SADC task force visit is yet to be decided.
Expecting a wave
of arrests and retribution, ZCTU officials abandoned their
run-down Harare
city centre headquarters yesterday. Instead they
co-ordinated the strike from
homes and cars as police set up roadblocks on
major roads leading into the
city.
"We know we will be arrested, but we don't care because our cause
is just,"
said Chibhebhe.
ZCTU officials said the strike had been
violence-free by yesterday
afternoon, though police spokesman Wayne
Bvudzijena reported that a bank
official in the southern city of Masvingo had
been beaten by youths "asking
him why he had reported for work."
State
radio reported that in parts of the country it was "business as
usual", but
claimed thousands of workers had been unable to find transport
to work
because of the fuel shortage gripping Zimbabwe.
MDC presidential
spokesman Will Bango added: "The whole country is now
effectively shut down
by the ZCTU strike which is a curtainraiser to the big
one coming soon. The
big and final one is set to include the rural areas."
MDC executive
member Eddie Cross said the strike was the start of "a
concerted drive by
civic organisations and the MDC to do what Thabo Mbeki
and Olusegun Obasanjo
were tasked to do and failed, and that is to get
Mugabe to come to the
negotiating table or leave the scene".
BBC
|
Petrol is hard to find in
Zimbabwe | Many shops
and businesses across Zimbabwe have remained closed on the second day of a
national strike, in protest at the government's decision to triple the
price of fuel.
The streets of the capital, Harare, were reported to be busy with some
small shops and fast food outlets open but banks and large outlets were
shut.
Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, remains quiet.
The three day strike called by the country's main labour movement has
been declared illegal and police are patrolling the streets.
But there have been no reports of trouble so far.
The economy is in desperate trouble with inflation running at more than
200%, soaring unemployment and shortages of fuel and foreign currency.
Zimbabwe's Congress of Trade Unions argues that for many workers it
will now cost more almost as much to get to work as they would earn in a
day.
It has pledged to extend the job boycott indefinitely unless the
government reverses the price increase.
"For now we are happy to say this strike has been massive and the
government should listen to the message from (the) strike," a union
official told Reuters new agency.
The government said the 200% rise in petrol prices was necessary to
help pay for fuel imports. which have become scarce since shipments from
Libya stopped last year.
And it has threatened to withdraw operating permits from transport
operators who join in the strike.
Arrests
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has backed the strike and
called on all progressive Zimbabweans to support it.
Mugabe faces domestic and foreign
pressure | Three trade
union officials were detained by police in Bulawayo in connection with the
strike call.
Last month, the MDC staged a two-day strike that shut down about 80% of
businesses and industries in one of the biggest protests seen in Zimbabwe.
In a security crackdown that followed, hundreds of MDC officials were
arrested.
Speaking in a televised interview marking the 23rd anniversary of
independence, Mr Mugabe blamed the country's current economic problems on
the MDC, whom he described as a neo-colonialist extension of Britain.
But he also said he was ready to meet MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to
discuss the crisis if the opposition recognised his disputed re-election
last year.
But Mr Tsvangirai rejected this offer saying his party would press on
with its challenge to the legality of Mugabe's re-election.
Zimbabwe's opposition leader told the BBC's Network Africa that he
would not accept pre-conditions for talks.
Independent observers have said that Zimbabwe's presidential election
was neither free nor fair.
Nearly eight million Zimbabweans face food shortages which President
Robert Mugabe's government blames on drought but critics pin partly on his
land reform policy.
|
Mail and
Guardian
Mugabe won't step down, says
Leon
Donwald Pressly | Cape
Town
24 April 2003 13:48
Reacting
to the hint that President Robert Mugabe could retire, South
African
opposition leader Tony Leon says said the Zimbabwean president
made
conciliatory statements "in order to buy time but he has no intention
of
being bound by his words".
Mugabe hinted this week he would retire
once his land reform project was
completed.
Leon said reports that
Mugabe was building a R37-million mansion at a time
when his fellow
Zimbabweans faced starvation and members of the opposition
were being
tortured and killed "further illustrates the venality of his
regime but do
not prove his intent to step down".
"Even if suggestions of President
Mugabe's retirement were to be accepted as
true, they would not go far enough
in addressing Zimbabwe's political
crisis. The problem in Zimbabwe is not
just President Mugabe but the entire
corrupt elite that surrounds
him."
Leon said that the only real and just remedy for Zimbabwe was a
return to
democracy -- through holding fresh presidential elections and
monitored by
international observers.
Leon said President Mugage's
heir apparent was Zimbabwe Parliament Speaker
Emmerson Mnangagwa, whom he
described as "a man who has no respect for
democracy or human
rights."
Leon said Mnangagwa was recently named in a United Nations
report as being
the "architect" of the Zimbabwean army's campaign of plunder
in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
"He funneled riches to Zanu-PF
cronies as the Cognolese people bled, and has
been implicated in the trade of
conflict diamonds."
Leon said Mnangagwa was also head of the Central
Intelligence Organisation
during the 1982-87 Matabeleland
genocide.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) leader said Mnangagwa was embraced
and
applauded by ANC officials at the ANC National Conference in December
2002.
"But to the Zimbabwean people, he is not a man to be trusted," said
Leon.
Leon said he had sent a letter to President Thabo Mbeki requesting
that he
make public the Commonwealth Secretary General's report on the
Commonwealth
chairpersons' committee on Zimbabwe.
"I have also asked
that he (the president) president it to the Speaker (of
the National
Assembly) for distribution to all MPs and for debate in the
National
Assembly." - I-Net Bridge
MSNBC
Zimbabwe threatens bus owners to break
strike
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE, April 24 - Zimbabwe on
Thursday tried to break a national strike
over higher fuel prices by ordering
commuter transporters to slash their
fares and threatening to cancel licences
for buses that stay off the road.
But
the strike, called by Zimbabwe's main labour movement after the
government
more than trebled fuel prices last week, entered its second day
on Thursday
with many industries, banks and shops across the southern
African country
shut.
''For now we are happy to say this
strike has been massive and the
government should listen to the message from
(the) strike,'' a union
official told
Reuters.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) launched the three-day
stoppage saying the new fuel prices had
made life harder for ordinary
industrial workers who now have to spend about
60 percent of their monthly
wages on
transport.
Backed by the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, the strike
is the second against President
Robert Mugabe in just over a month. It puts
more pressure on a government
facing its worst political and economic crisis
since independence in
1980.
Armed police set up roadblocks and
patrols in the major centres on
Thursday and in Harare a military helicopter
made rounds over the capital
monitoring the
situation.
But there was no sign of the
violence which marked last month's
two-day opposition strike, which shut down
an estimated 80 percent of
industry and became one of the largest protests
against Mugabe's 23-year
rule.
It
also triggered a crackdown on the opposition by Mugabe's security
forces. The
MDC says Mugabe rigged last year's presidential election and has
vowed to
lead street protests to drive him from
office.
Zimbabwe's government hiked fuel
prices last week, pushing petrol to
Z$450 ($0.55) a litre from $145
($0.18).
It said this was needed to
boost fuel imports in a country facing
severe shortages since Libya cut fuel
shipments last year after the collapse
of a barter
deal.
The increase forced commuter
transport to treble their fares to about
Z$600 a trip in
Harare.
Transport Minister Witness
Mangwende accused some bus owners of
backing the ZCTU strike and warned that
those who keep their buses off the
road would lose their
licences.
A spokesman at the Harare
Urban Commuter Transporters Association
said many operators had pulled out
their fleet off the road in fear of
violence or because of lack of
fuel.
''We are not involved in any
politics or profiteering, and to show
our sincerity we are discussing with
the government the appropriate fares
and we are encouraging those who are
assured of fuel and security to provide
services,'' he told
Reuters.
($ - 824 Zimbabwe dollars at
official exchange rate, or 1,300 at
black market
rate)
ZIMBABWE: Sexual abuse rises as
humanitarian crisis worsens
IRINnews
Africa, Thu 24 Apr 2003
©
UNICEF
UNICEF is part of the "Zero
Tolerance Against Child Abuse" campaign
HARARE, - "Before I came here, I was feeling very guilty, but now I
feel much
better," said 16-year-old Tendai, twisting her hands
nervously.
She was chatting with a woman
who looked on with compassion. They were
both sitting with Tendai's mother in
a small white painted room with bright
posters on the walls. Piled on the
shelves were skilfully crafted
brown-coloured handmade dolls of all ages and
both sexes.
The room is used for
counselling children who have been sexually
abused. The dolls are
anatomically accurate - underneath their clothes they
have either female or
male genitalia.
"We use these dolls when
the children cannot communicate easily,"
explained Miriam Machaya, the
director of the Family Support Trust, which
was set up in 1998 to support
sexually abused children. The dolls are
especially useful for the very young.
For example, that week the dolls were
used with a three-year-old girl who was
able to relate how her "sekuru"
(Shona for uncle) sexually abused
her.
Most of the cases of abuse are
committed by a relative or somebody
close to the family of the child. Tendai
(not her real name) was indecently
assaulted by her stepfather. Her mother
was away at the time. She reported
the attack immediately to her mother and
both of them left her stepfather,
who was drunk and is one of the millions of
unemployed in the country.
The
humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe affects more than half of the
country's 11.6
million people. As it has worsened, so to have the number of
reported cases
of child abuse.
"The effects of two years
of severe drought, increasing poverty, the
devastating HIV/AIDS pandemic and
economic decline have left children
especially vulnerable to abuse," said Dr
Festo Kavishe, UN Children's Fund
(UNICEF) Representative for
Zimbabwe.
Inflation has rocketed to 228
percent and unemployment is reportedly
somewhere between 75 and 80 percent.
Around 75 percent of Zimbabweans are
now classified as poor, and more than 30
percent of the adult population is
HIV
positive.
Soon the number of orphans,
mainly due to HIV/AIDS, will reach one
million. "It is a sad reality that in
the context of hunger and poverty,
these children - who should be the most
protected - are often the most
abused," said Kavishe. "They are often denied
their basic rights, and are
burdened with having to work at the expense of
their rights as children to
play and to attend school. Moreover, they have
fallen prey to sexual abuse
by adult
relatives."
Some 12 percent of all
children are HIV positive, mainly through
maternal infections. But a
significant number is through sexual abuse by men
who are HIV positive,
thinking they can cure themselves of AIDS by having
sex with a
virgin.
UNICEF, in partnership with
several NGOs, supports a national campaign
on "Zero Tolerance Against Child
Abuse". As part of the campaign, UNICEF has
supported training of trainers'
workshops. The participants include
government officials, NGOs, journalists,
police and teachers. UNICEF has
also contributed towards the production and
distribution of 10,000 music
cassettes with messages linking HIV/AIDS to
sexual exploitation and child
abuse.
Machaya, of Family Support Trust, has also worked and trained members
of the
community to be better sensitised to the growing problem. "People in
all
sectors are becoming more aware," said Machaya. "The victims and the
families
are finding it easier to come forward because now they are dealt
with in a
more sensitive manner. Most of them now say they want to go to
court. We
don't force them, although legally they
should."
The clinic which Tendai attends
in the capital, Harare, sees about
eight cases of child abuse every day. The
usual procedure is that a
specially trained counsellor interviews the child.
If it is a rape that
occurred within 72 hours, the child will be offered
antiretrovirals, and
pre-test and post-test HIV counselling. A specially
trained doctor examines
the child and a full report is made which can be used
in court.
If necessary, the child goes to
the treatment room and receives
further counselling. Those children who are
severely traumatised see
a
psychologist.
Victim-Friendly Courts
have also been set up in each province. But due
to lack of funds, the
equipment, such as video cameras to prevent the victim
from seeing the
defendant, has broken down and cases are held up, sometimes
for
years.
Kavishe recounted the case of a
12-year-old girl, Belinda. She was
sick with AIDS-related diseases and told
her counsellors she would not die
happy unless she witnessed the sentencing
"to a long time in prison" of the
man who raped her six years
ago.
In December last year, the
Victim-Friendly Court in Gweru, in the
centre of the country, was able to
function again and Belinda was able to
testify. The man who raped her, who
was a friend of Belinda's late father,
was sentenced to 20 years behind bars
- 10 years for raping Belinda and
another 10 for raping another young child.
Belinda died in January this
year, just a month after the
sentencing.
Kavishe recently attended a
Victim-Friendly Court in Harare, where he
witnessed a three-year-old testify
against a teenage neighbour who had
allegedly raped her. "It was encouraging
to see a child as young as she was,
empowered to defend her right to
protection," he said.
Why Do Africans Never Ever Trust the Voters?New
Vision (Kampala)
COLUMN
April 24, 2003
Posted to the web April 24,
2003
Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
Kampala
President and retired
General, Matthew Okikiolahan Olushegun Aremu Obasanjo
was last Tuesday
declared the 'rightful winner' of Nigeria's presidential
election held last
Saturday. His victory did not come as a surprise to many
Nigerians and
independent observers.
However, the scale of it has been a shock. How
does one react to the glaring
irregularities witnessed by all observers and
reported widely in Nigeria,
especially in the oil-rich Niger Delta
areas?
I am not really concerned about what the so-called
international observers
who are on election safari are saying. Their
hand-wringing and statements of
concern has never really changed the outcome
of any election. Their next
safari is guaranteed once they make their now
customary declarations
bemoaning irregularities and procedural
inadequacies.
In 1999 the Jimmy Carter Centre Observers even refused to
formally endorse
the results of the election for Obasanjo's first term. It
did not make an
iota of difference.
What did international concerns
about Chiluba's stitch-up operation in
favour of Mwanawasa do to Zambia? And
the mother of all disputed elections:
Mugabe in Zimbabwe? Despite
Commonwealth ducking and diving, is Mugabe not
still in power?
But of
all the international busy bodies those that I resent most for their
lack of
humility and self-righteousness are the American ones.
You would have
thought that after the stolen mandate of Florida that has
inflicted Bush Jr
on the world, Americans would be more humble on questions
of democracy and
the democratic process.
The National Democratic Institute (NDI) that is
closely tied to the
Republican Party is one of the election tourists
monitoring the Nigerian
elections and making all kinds of noise about
'irregularities'. Until I read
its 'independent verdict on the American
presidential polls of 2001, I will
not be bothered to hear its view on
Nigeria's or any other country's
elections. As they say, charity begins at
home.
But that is just one side of the grim picture. We should not be too
bothered
about what outsiders say or think about us since they often do not
bother or
give a damn about what we think of them. However, while holding
our
solidarity against busy body outsiders we should not be complacent about
our
failings.
Therefore, we should take seriously what the real actors
and victims of the
electoral circus, their activists, local monitors and
regional observers are
saying.
The Transition Monitoring Group (an
umbrella grouping of local NGOs across
the country) deployed over 10,000
monitors across the country: the Catholic
Justice, Development and Peace
Commission (JDPC), had over 30, 000 monitors
while the Media Monitoring Group
also had monitors across the country. They
all expressed grave concerns about
a lot of irregularities, violence,
intimidation and flagrant abuse of the
electoral process.
One of them observed that "voting generally went off
peacefully but
collation and counting of votes is largely fraudulent
especially in the
Southeast and in the Niger Delta".
All the
machinations, skulduggery and manipulations of incumbency, power of
money,
promise of positions and threat of officialdom aside, I believe
Obasanjo
defeated his closest rival, General Muhammadu Buhari, whatever the
case.
Apart from Buhari, all the other 19 candidates were not
serious
contenders.
Obasanjo and his party has joined the unenviable
club of Africa's unwilling
democrats who do not trust the voters enough to
leave all to them, probably
sharing the cynicism embodied in the saying:
"faith needs a helping hand".
Why should contestants rig or manipulate
results in an election they would
have won? This seemingly absurd practice
has its own logic.
First, it is just to be sure, triple sure, that the
voters voted wisely (for
the advantaged party).
Second, inflated
figures from areas that a party (usually ruling party) has
won may help
counter or neutralise gains that may have been made by opposing
parties in
other areas.
Third, it also nullifies the political threat that other
parties may pose to
the winning party by reducing their real impact and voter
base. Four, in the
final game of numbers at the national level, the bloated
figures give a
wrong impression of the actual popularity of the winning
party.
The recrimination from the opposition parties is predictable. In
Africa, the
only result politicians accept is one in which they are winners.
But that
said, God has to be a Nigerian for this 'massive victory' of the PDP
and
Obasanjo not to become a defeat for Nigeria.
One party controlling
28 out of 36 states in addition to the presidency may
leave too many
stakeholders out and undermine the very fragile uneven
democratic process.
One hope is the possibility that some of the obvious
electoral thefts may be
reversed through the tribunal process otherwise the
legitimacy crises will
overwhelm Obasanjo's second term and dim the hope of
those who believe that
he would improve in his second and final term.
The election should not be
the end of the democratic process. The aggrieved
shouldrely on the law to
pursue their grievances peacefully.
Nigeria Betrays Africa
The Monitor
(Kampala)
EDITORIAL
April 24, 2003
Posted to the web April 24,
2003
Kampala
The opposition in Nigeria has called the result of
the general election,
which was conducted on 19 April, a "huge
joke".
Various reports suggest massive electoral fraud carried out by
those who
wanted to retain Olusegun Obasanjo as the president of Africa's
most
populous nation.
On top of the fraud that has been confirmed by
both local and international
monitors, there have been at least 25 deaths at
the hands of the armed
forces that are quite happy about Mr Obasanjo's
disputed victory.
Nigeria has thus again embarrassed Africa before the
international
community.
This is one country that should ideally be
showing the poorer and smaller
African nations the way towards democracy and
economic development but
instead she prefers to wallow in self-destructing
behaviour.
From the oil rich Rivers State to Kaduna, there was a complete
break down in
the electoral process. Commonwealth observers are now saying
that "the
official results collected bore little relation to the evidence
gathered" on
the ground.
The Nigerians will have themselves to blame
for the reversal from the hope
that came with a return to "civilian" rule in
1999.
Nigeria has one of the best brains in Africa and, with more than
100
universities, she easily lays claim to huge numbers of highly
educated
people.
How sad that in such enlightened circumstances, the
best Nigeria could come
up with for presidential candidates are disgraced
generals and other people
with very questionable reputations.
By
allowing soldiers who do not necessarily hold democracy in high esteem
to
lead the way, the Nigerians inadvertently gave up their right to free
and
fair self-determination.
After the brief optimism that the
December 2002 election and peaceful hand
over of power in Kenya brought to
the continent, the Nigerians have
succeeded in re-introducing the gloomy
picture that Africa presents to the
world community.
Ironically, Mr
Obasanjo sits on the Commonwealth committee that is working
to return some
sanity to Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
Where will a man who has himself been
accused of stealing an election get
the moral authority to lecture good old
Mugabe on good governance?
Business Day
Leon proposes
monitored Zim election
(Haven't we had this
before?...B)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By
Donwald Pressly
South African opposition leader Tony Leon says the only real
and just remedy
for Zimbabwe was a return to democracy - through holding
fresh presidential
elections and monitored by international
observers.
Reacting to the hint this week that President Robert Mugabe
could retire -
once his land reform project was completed - Leon said the
Zimbabwean
president made conciliatory statements "in order to buy time but
he has no
intention of being bound by his words".
Leon said reports
that Mugabe was building a R37-million mansion at a time
when his fellow
Zimbabweans faced starvation and members of the opposition
were being
tortured and killed "further illustrate the venality of his
regime but do not
prove his intent to step down".
"Even if suggestions of President
Mugabe's retirement were to be accepted as
true, they would not go far enough
in addressing Zimbabwe's political
crisis. The problem in Zimbabwe is not
just President Mugabe but the entire
corrupt elite that surrounds
him."
Leon said President Mugage's heir apparent was Zimbabwe Parliament
Speaker
Emmerson Mnangagwa, whom he described as "a man who has no respect
for
democracy or human rights".
Leon said Mnangagwa was recently named
in a United Nations report as being
the "architect" of the Zimbabwean army's
campaign of plunder in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
"He funneled
riches to Zanu-PF cronies as the Cognolese people bled, and has
been
implicated in the trade of conflict diamonds."
Leon said Mnangagwa was
also head of the Central Intelligence Organisation
during the 1982-87
Matabeleland genocide.
The Democratic Alliance leader said Mnangagwa was
embraced and applauded by
ANC officials at the ANC National Conference in
December 2002.
"But to the Zimbabwean people, he is not a man to be
trusted," said Leon.
Leon said he had sent a letter to President Thabo
Mbeki requesting that he
make public the Commonwealth Secretary General's
report on the Commonwealth
chairpersons' committee on Zimbabwe.
"I
have also asked that he (the president) president it to the Speaker (of
the
National Assembly) for distribution to all MPs and for debate in the
National
Assembly."
I-Net Bridge
There has been no Daily News online since
Tuesday - because of the strike?
Here is what the Herald is
saying...