BBC
Tuesday, 27 August, 2002, 16:21 GMT 17:21 UK
France welcomes Zimbabwe police chief
President Mugabe also travels to international
meetings
Zimbabwe's police commissioner, Augustine Chihuri, is
attending an Interpol meeting in France despite the travel ban imposed by the EU
on the country's top officials.
The Interpol treaty forces France to welcome members of
the executive committee of the organisation 
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French official |
Euro MP
Glennys Kinnock, head of the European Parliament's joint committee on Africa,
called for the sanctions to be tightened to prevent Zimbabwean ministers
"strutting about" in Europe.
And French officials said they had no choice but to allow Mr Chihuri,
Interpol's vice-president, into the country, to attend the meeting in Lyon.
"The Interpol treaty forces France to welcome members of the executive
committee of the organisation," one said.
'Rights abuses'
He last visited France, on Interpol business, in June.
Instead of feting Chihuri, Interpol should arrest him
|
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Gay rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell
|
Speaking to the BBC, Mrs Kinnock, descibed Mr
Chihuri as part of President Robert Mugabe's inner circle.
She said it was ironic that he was in France to talk about international
policing and the rule of law, when the ruling Zanu PF party was "implicated in
widespread human rights abuses".
British gay rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, who has twice tried to arrest
Mr Mugabe under international law, has written to Interpol leaders asking them
to arrest Mr Chihuri on torture charges.
French human rights organisations are reported to be exploring whether they
can force his arrest.
Farm prize
Mr Chihuri has played a major role in organising the expulsion of white
Zimbabwean farmers from their homes.
Police have defied court orders to protect farmers, instead transporting
gangs of squatters and "war veterans" to farms whose owners have not left
voluntarily.
He is also reported to have chosen a farm for himself.
President Mugabe himself is allowed to travel to UN meetings, despite the
sanctions, and is due in Johannesburg for the World Development Summit.
But Zimbabwe's deputy secretary for the disabled, Joshua Malinga, was
detained at London's Gatwick airport in July as he travelled from Zimbabwe to a
UN conference in New York, and put on a flight back to Harare.
Zimbabwe deplored Mr Malinga's removal and threatened retaliatory measures
against UK citizens.
MSNBC
Mugabe says finance minister resigned, not fired
HARARE, Aug. 27 — Former Zimbabwe finance minister Simba Makoni
resigned in a policy row with the government and was not sacked in President
Robert Mugabe's weekend cabinet shuffle, state media said on Tuesday.
Political analysts dismissed the
report, however, saying Mugabe had at best engineered Makoni's
departure.
Makoni was one of the
few Zimbabwe ministers respected abroad.
The official Herald newspaper said
Makoni resigned over policy differences on August 14 and was asked by Mugabe to
stay on until he was ready to announce his new team, which on Monday he called
his ''war cabinet.''
The newspaper said
Mugabe had commented at the time: ''It's not that we dropped him...rather he
chose to resign and drop himself.''
Zimbabwe has been in economic and political crisis since 2000 when
pro-government militants began invading white-owned farms in support of Mugabe's
campaign to redistribute farms to landless blacks without compensation.
Political analysts have interpreted
Mugabe's new line up, consolidating the hold of hardliners, as a repudiation of
strident Western criticism and of quiet African pressure to conform to
international standards of government.
Makoni had been pressing the government to officially devalue the Zimbabwe
dollar, which is pegged at 55 to the U.S. dollar, but trades at 655 to the
dollar on the streets.
Earlier this
month, Mugabe repudiated Makoni's drive in an address to parliament, saying:
''Devaluation is sinister and can only be advocated by saboteurs and enemies of
this government.''
Professor Masipula
Sithole, one of Zimbabwe's leading political analysts, told Reuters on Tuesday
the Herald was trying to screen Mugabe from the consequences of losing Makoni.
''Makoni was working in a very
difficult situation already even before Mugabe publicly dressed him down. And
when he went for him, it must have become impossible.
''So in a way Mugabe fired him...but is
trying to make political capital out of Makoni's offer to resign,'' he said.
SNUB
South African political
consultant Gary van Staden said in an analysis published by PSG Investment Bank
on Tuesday that Mugabe's action could torpedo South African President Thabo
Mbeki's efforts to steer Zimbabwe back to respectability.
He said it confirmed Mugabe had no
intention of responding to criticism of his sometimes violent land reform
programme.
''It was an act of defiance
that Mugabe may live to regret. The dismissal of finance minister Simba
Makoni...along with the promotion of another key loyalist, Herbert Murerwa, back
into the post of finance minister (are) an equally clear signal that the
lawlessness has his approval,'' he said.
Murerwa was finance minister from 1997
to 2000, but was replaced in a bid to appease Western donors and bring
Zimbabwe's financial management in line with international norms.
''It was a calculated and deliberate
snub to South Africa,'' he said.
South
Africa's New National Party, which has struck a cooperation agreement with the
ruling African National Congress, said it was time to impose total political and
diplomatic isolation on Mugabe.
''Mugabe's so-called war cabinet is a desperate last effort to save his
faltering regime,'' the party said in a statement.
Makoni was unavailable to comment and
radio and television news have not carried his response.
utv
| TUESDAY
27/08/2002 15:07:12 |
| |
Priest flees Zimbabwe
A
British-based priest has been forced to flee to a safe house after being
arrested three times in Zimbabwe by President Robert Mugabe's security police,
the Roman Catholic Bishop of Plymouth said today.
Bishop Christopher Budd strongly condemned the
treatment of Father Patrick ``P J`` Kelly a priest of the Plymouth Diocese who
has been working in Zimbabwe.
A spokesman for the diocese said Fr Kelly,
who was born in Tubbercurry, County Sligo, Ireland, had been interrogated on
three occasions by Mr Mugabe`s Central Intelligence Organisation, who accused
him of promoting ``opposition politics``.
He was then visited by
so-called war veterans who ordered him to ``stop spreading subversive politics``
or leave his parish of St Gabriel`s, Nyanga, in the Diocese of Mutare, eastern
Zimbabwe, he added.
Bishop Budd said today: ``Fr P J has always been on
the side of the people and would not agree to stop speaking the truth about
justice in Zimbabwe.
``Therefore, he has been forced to leave his parish
for his personal safety.
``I have spoken to Fr P J on the phone and he
told me that a member of his parish was beaten up by the Central Intelligence
Organisation after being interrogated.``
Bishop Budd stressed: ``These
events have nothing to do with white farmers in Zimbabwe occupying most of the
good land and everything to do with the fundamental attitude of the Mugabe
government to its own people, which is an unjust one.``
Fr Kelly was
ordained in 1967 and worked in the parish of St Peter`s, Crownhill, Plymouth,
for four years before going to the Diocesan African Mission in Kenya in
1971.
He was assigned to Zimbabwe in 1998, and worked in St Gabriel`s
Parish, Nyanga, until he was forced to leave on Wednesday last week.
The
diocesan spokesman said Fr Kelly was first detained by the Central Intelligence
Organisation in March this year and accused of promoting opposition
politics.
He was later questioned again by the CIO on two consecutive
days August 14 and 15, when the same accusation was made.
The Plymouth
diocese said the priest was now in a safe house.
Mbeki urged
to denounce Mugabe
Willem Jordaan
Cape
Town - While experts have condemned Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's new
cabinet as a "slap in the face" for President Thabo Mbeki and the Commonwealth,
the South African Institute for Race Relations has called on Mbeki to openly
denounce Mugabe's actions.
Institute of Security Studies executive director Dr
Jakkie Cilliers said on Monday that Mugabe's new cabinet reaffirmed his
implacable stance on seizing commercial farmers' land. Cilliers maintains the
new cabinet, styled as a "war council" by state media, should be seen as a slap
in the face for South Africa, Nigeria and the Commonwealth.
Cilliers said: "Mugabe's cabinet indicates clearly he
is not prepared to come to a compromise with the MDC about a government of
national unity."
Meanwhile, the SAIRR said "no degree of silent
diplomacy on Mbeki's part can change the fact that he is neglecting to condemn
Mugabe for letting down South Africa, Zimbabwe and Africa."
MSNBC
Mugabe says no room for talks with white farmers
HARARE, Aug. 27 — Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe ruled out
talks with white farmers fighting his controversial land seizures on Tuesday,
saying they must hand over their farms to landless blacks and learn to
share.
Speaking at a rally in
southeastern Zimbabwe, Mugabe said there was nothing to talk about because white
farmers owned large tracts of land while indigenous blacks had nothing.
''There is no room for talks, there is
no room for any negotiations because the real owners of this land are asserting
their rights and reclaiming their land,'' he said in remarks broadcast on
Zimbabwean television.
''If you (white
farmers) want to live with us, to farm alongside us, we, the rightful owners of
our ancestral land, will carve out some land for you...but you cannot decide
what you will have in our country,'' he said in Zimbabwe's local Shona language.
Mugabe's government has ordered 2,900
farmers of the country's remaining 4,500 white commercial farmers to quit their
land without compensation, but nearly two thirds have defied an August 8
deadline.
Nearly 300 have been arrested
and charged for defying the orders. Many are on bail but have been ordered to
stay away from their farms.
Mugabe, who
has been in power since the former Rhodesia gained independence from Britain in
1980, says his land drive is aimed at correcting colonial injustice which left
70 percent of the best farmland in the hands of white farmers.
White farmers say they support land
redistribution but are opposed to the government's methods.
BBC
Zimbabwe raid on opposition HQ
Police in
Zimbabwe have sealed off and are searching the offices of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the capital, Harare.
Heavily armed police and Central Intelligence Agency officers raided the
premises on Monday night and prevented MDC officials from entering.
The lawyer representing the MDC said the police were investigating the murder
last week of an official from the ruling Zanu-PF party.
He said they were looking for weapons and suspects named on a search warrant.
The MDC sees the raid as part of a continuing campaign of harassment against
the party which has staged the strongest challenge yet to President Robert
Mugabe's 22 years in power.
Land crisis
Earlier on Monday the president unveiled his new "war cabinet", replacing his
most liberal finance minister to continue his controversial land reform
programme.
|
|
 |
Zimbabwe's land
reform
2000: 4,000 whites own 70% of prime land
1890-1980: Black peasants were moved to less fertile areas during
the colonial area
March 2000: "War veterans" occupy white-owned farms
2000-2002: Several white farmers and black workers killed during
violence
9 August 2002: 3,000 white farmers must leave their homes
|
|
Thousands of white farmers are being evicted from the land, plunging the
country into an even deeper economic and humanitarian crisis.
While farmers are being prevented from harvesting their crops, six million
people, half the country's population, are facing severe food shortages.
Tens of thousands of black farm workers have also been left homeless and
jobless by the land seizures.
UN concern
In Angola, United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan has called on Zimbabwe
to implement a new land reform programme based on the rule of law, in order to
ease its economic and food supply problems.
Many white farms have been
occupied
|
Mr Annan told
journalists in Luanda that land reform should benefit "all the people of
Zimbabwe, especially the landless poor".
He said it should allow for proper training and adequate support to new small
farmers and pay compensation to displaced farm workers and commercial farmers.
"Such a land reform programme is urgently needed in order to minimise the
negative effects of the current situation on food production and the overall
economy in Zimbabwe. It would also ensure the engagement and future support of
the international community."
Mr Annan is expected to visit Botswana, Lesotho and Mozambique before
arriving in South Africa for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
President Mugabe is banned under sanctions from travelling to much of the
West, but is due to attend the 10-day UN environmental summit in in
Johannesburg.
The MDC is holding a series of protests there.
MSNBC
Annan urges Zimbabwe to pursue lawful land reforms
LUANDA, Aug. 27 — U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan
called on Tuesday for Zimbabwe's urgent implementation of a land reform
programme based on the rule of law and for its leaders to save the country from
a deepening economic and food
crisis.
''There can be no lasting
solution to the current problems unless the government of Zimbabwe implements a
phased and fully funded land reform programme,'' Annan told reporters on his way
from Angola to continue on a tour of southern African nations.
''It should be one that is run
according to the rule of law, that allows for proper training and adequate
support to new small farmers and compensation to displaced farm workers and
commercial farmers.''
Zimbabwe has been
gripped by a political and economic crisis since pro-government militants
invaded white-owned farms in early 2000 in support of President Robert Mugabe's
campaign to redistribute farms to landless blacks.
These land programmes coincided with
drought.
Once the bread basket of the
region, Zimbabwe is at the centre of a biting food shortage also affecting five
other southern African nations and now needs aid to feed more than six million
people, about half of its population.
''Such a land reform programme is urgently needed in order to minimise the
negative effects of the current situation on food production and the overall
economy in Zimbabwe,'' Annan said.
The
U.N. chief said such a programme would ensure the ''engagement and future
support of the international community'' which has imposed some travel and
financial restrictions on Zimbabwean officials and ruling ZANU-PF supporters.
Zimbabwe's government has ordered 2,900
of 4,500 white farmers to surrender their lands to blacks. About two-thirds of
the farmers have resisted the order and 199 been arrested.
Mugabe has said the land reforms are to
correct nearly a century of colonial injustice that left 70 percent of the best
farmland in the hands of white farmers.
Many western governments have condemned the eviction campaign. Undeterred,
Mugabe swore in a new cabinet on Monday, retaining staunch loyalists, to defend
his policies.
Opponents in Zimbabwe and
abroad allege that the best farms are being given to Mugabe's friends and
allies, including his wife Grace, and not to landless peasants.
''As the risk of famine looms, I
believe that a successful, sustainable land reform programme that will benefit
all the people of Zimbabwe, especially the landless poor, is more important than
ever,'' Annan said.
He urged
governments and donors in southern Africa to avoid what he called the
''politicisation of food aid.''
EARTH SUMMIT
Annan is scheduled to visit Botswana,
Lesotho and Mozambique before arriving in South Africa in September for the U.N.
World Summit on Sustainable Development, which aims to find ways of halting
damage to the environment and tackling poverty.
The 10-day summit started on Monday and
will bring together more than 100 world leaders. It focuses on five broad
themes: water and sanitation, energy, health, food security and bio-diversity.
''I expect the (summit) delegates to
focus on the essential issues of sustainable development, on issues such as
water and sanitation, health, agricultural productivity, education and
bio-diversity,'' Annan said.
Botswana Daily News
SADC
health ministers meet in Harare
27 August, 2002
Health
ministers from 10 Southern African countries and officials from the World Heath
Organisation (WHO) are meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, until tomorrow to strategise
on the health sectors response to the humanitarian crisis facing the region
because of food shortages.
A news release from the WHO office in Gaborone
says the three-day meeting is attended by ministers from Angola, Botswana,
Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and
Zimbabwe.
The release says ways to intensify and accelerate the response of
health systems to the current food crisis in the region will be explored to
prevent the increase of disease and help in the prevention of loss of life.
The meeting will also touch on priority interventions and agree on ways to
strengthen co-ordination and support mechanisms.
WHO officials expected to
attend include the director general, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundland, regional director
for Africa Dr. Ebrahim Samba, director of programme management at the regional
office for Africa Dr. Luis Sambo and all WHO representatives from respective
countries.
Representatives of health and humanitarian organisations working
to improve the health situation in the region are also expected to attend.
UN agencies estimate that nearly 14 million people including 2.3 million
children under the age of five are at risk of starvation because of the
widespread food shortages that are affecting most of the SADC countries.
"Three hundred thousand people in the region could die from hunger and
disease in the next six months," if effective action to reverse the situation is
not taken, says the release.
" It is imperative for governments and their
development partners to maintain or even increase public investment in health
services during emergencies, including investment in nutrition, childcare,
sanitation and clean water.
Health services during food shortages are also
needed to cope with HIV/AIDS," says Samba.
The release says the serious food
shortages are caused by a combination of floods and droughts across the region
and several structural and chronic problems like HIV/AIDS, economic degradation,
increased poverty and faltering health systems. BOPA
About 200 members and supporters of Zimababwe's opposition party,
Movement for Democratic Change, march near the Sandton Convention Centre.
Photo: APProtest decries Mugabe's 'racial
cleansing'
August 26
2002 at 08:54PM
By Caiphus Kgosana, Sapa and AFP
Dressed in riot gear and armed with
batons and shields, scores of heavily armed police officers lined Alice Street
outside the Sandton Convention Centre. Facing them was a small group of
protesters armed only with placards.
The group from Ethiopia was the
second "official" protest during the summit.
Earlier on Monday a group
from Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change had also staged a political
protest.
But the small group of about 40, who represent the Oromo
Community of South Africa, made enough noise to ensure that they drew attention
to their the mistreatment of the Oromo people of Ethiopia.
Spokesperson
Shibiru Wondimu said the Oromo were the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia,
representing about 50 percent of the population.
"Successive governments
in Ethiopia have taken our land and killed our people."
"Five million
Oromos have up to now lost their lives," he said.
Three busloads of
supporters of the MDC staged an authorised protest march, accusing President
Robert Mugabe of "racial cleansing".
Spokesperson Moses Mzila-Ndlovu said
the 200 marchers, wearing MDC T-shirts and waving placards berating Mugabe as a
"liar", were marching to focus the world's attention on the plight of ordinary
Zimbabweans, especially commercial farmers and their workers.
"The world
must know, there is a racial cleansing in Zimbabwe. This must be brought to an
end," Mzila-Ndlovu said.
Groups opposed to the summit, plan to go ahead
with an unauthorised march on Saturday. Speaking for the Social Movements
Indaba, US citizen Elise Miller said: "We will march in any case."
Safety
and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said agreement on 13 out of 17
applications for protests had been reached, but four applications were still
under discussion.
Norway Post
Norway protests
against Zimbabwe's refusal to admit MPs
Norwegian authorities
have sent an official protest to Zimbabwe, after three
Norwegian members of
parliament were refused entry to the country last
Sunday.
The
Norwegian Department of Foreign Affairs (UD) has instructed its embassy
in
Harare to deliver the protest to the Zimbabwe authorities, NRK
reports.
The Norwegian embassy is also requested to ask for an
explanation for why
the three were turned away at Harare Airport, UD states
in a press release.
The three women MPs were on their way to inspect an
aid project in Zimbaabwe
run by the Norwegian Red Cross.
They were
forced to get back on the plane and return to Johannesburg,
South
Africa.
IRIN
ZIMBABWE: Police deny report of politically-motivated
rapes
IRINnews Africa, Tue 27 Aug 2002 Email this story to a
friend
Print this
story
©
IRIN
Supporters of opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai are allegedly
being
targeted
JOHANNESBURG, - The
Zimbabwe police on Tuesday denied press reports of
a deliberate campaign of
rape by ruling party militia against women
suspected of supporting the
opposition.
A leading British newspaper
alleged on Sunday that women and girls
were being raped and beaten by ruling
party thugs because they did not
support President Robert
Mugabe.
The report quoted one young girl
as saying that her mother and younger
sisters were forced to chant praises to
Mugabe while she was gang-raped.
She said
her attackers told her the assault was punishment for those
who "wanted to
sell this country to [UK Prime Minister] Tony Blair and
the
whites".
Frances Lovemore, the
medical director of the Amani Trust, an NGO
which helps victims of torture,
told IRIN that her organisation had
interviewed a number of people who said
they were victims of
politically-motivated rape. They alleged they had been
targeted because of
their political affiliations, or their husbands', and
were called
"Tsvangirai's whores", Lovemore
said.
Morgan Tsvangirai is leader of the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change
(MDC).
The women usually only told of the
rape on the third or fourth visit
to the Amani Trust. Lovemore said the
attacks took place around the country
and named Masvingo, Buhera, Marondera,
Mashonaland and Mt Darwin as some of
the areas where rapes had
occurred.
"There are reports of women
being taken to camps and raped, and men
being forced to witness sexual
violence," she said. "It is very difficult to
quantify how many women are
affected. Rape is universally under-reported
because of the stigma, but some
women say they know of other women who it
has happened to. Rape is a
well-recognised form of torturing and terrorising
a community," she
said.
Lovemore said that although the
cases were reported to the police,
"nothing really happened". But, "we
believe that if a docket is opened,
there will eventually be some justice,
even if it's five years down the
road."
However, police Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena denied women
were
being raped as part of a political
campaign.
"Politics is never a reason for
rape. I have come across murder,
assault and public disturbances that are
politically motivated, but never
politically-motivated
rape.
"The newspaper article doesn't help
us identify the individual or the
victim of the alleged rapes. It's also
significant that the article is timed
to coincide with the Earth summit
[World Summit on Sustainable Development
in Johannesburg] and I think it's
cheap propaganda. A similar thing happened
during the Commonwealth summit in
Brisbane."
He said the media allegations
had not given names and places for the
police to verify, and neither had
human rights NGOs. He "challenged" Amani
and other organisations to provide
police with details so that they could
investigate the
allegations.
"Amani doesn't go to the
extent of verifying whether the story is
accurate or not and that is their
handicap, and that of other NGOs,"
he
said.
"It's not only rape, we have
read articles about murders which have
never occurred," said Bvudzijena,
referring to a recent court appearance of
journalists in connection with an
inaccurate report on the beheading of the
wife of an MDC
supporter.
Lovemore said that although the
Amani Trust did not have the resources
to travel to the "scene of the crime"
to verify information, the women who
went to the organisation for help had
three separate initial consultations
with a forensic nurse, a medical doctor
and a counsellor and told the same
story to all three people. Afterwards they
spoke to a lawyer and were always
referred to the police to make a report and
open a docket.
Lovemore said the police
sometimes refused to open a docket if they
felt the crime was political.
However, she added that she could provide the
police with docket numbers, on
request, if they needed to verify reports.
Lovemore also said the Amani Trust was completing a video of rape
survivors
relating their ordeals, which would be released to the media
within the next
two
weeks.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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humanitarian
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on this site, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations
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All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian
Affairs 2002
From The Observer (UK), 25 August
Bill Saidi: All the news the government likes to
read
In its version of What the Papers Say, the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation's television service focuses on the Herald of Harare,
the capital, and the Chronicle, of Bulawayo, the second city. Both are
government owned. Politically, the cities are strongholds of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change. Shown on screen in a two-hour news programme
called This Morning are the lead stories on the two papers' front and back
pages. The programme features either attacks on the MDC, the British, the
Americans or the European Union. The country's only independent daily newspaper,
the Daily News, has not once featured it. Neither have any weekly independent
papers. On the rare occasions they have been mentioned, they have been vilified
for 'publishing falsehoods' - a euphemism for stories that get up the
government's nose. Since the constitutional referendum of February 2000, which
Mugabe's party, Zanu PF, lost, the government has waged war on the private
media, which it blamed for that defeat and for the loss of a huge chunk of its
parliamentary representation in the general election in June that year. Since
then there has been a war of attrition between the two. The government finally
bared its fangs and introduced the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA) this year. With booming self-righteousness, the government
said it intended to bring an element of 'ethics' into Zimbabwean journalism. For
most journalists in the independent media, this was another euphemism – ethical
journalism was that which didn't annoy the government.
The independent newspapers have until 31 October to register
their companies and their journalists. All journalists, local and foreign, have
to pay to be registered. The decision to permit them to operate rests with the
Media and Information Commission, chaired by Tafataon Mahoso, head of the
government's journalism school, a regular TV panelist and columnist in a
government weekly. All these provisions are part of the AIPPA, an acronym which
in the Shona language means 'he is bad', a reference to Jonathan Moyo, the
junior minister of information who piloted the law's stormy passage through
Parliament. He is recognised as the chief architect of Mugabe's pursuit of all
journalists critical of his regime. The Act has already netted two editors,
Bornwell Chakaodza of the Standard, and Geoff Nyarota of the Daily News, whose
case is before the Supreme Court, his paper's lawyers having challenged the
law's constitutionality.
A serious setback for the government was last month's acquittal
of Andrew Meldrum, correspondent of the Guardian and The Observer. He had filed
a dispatch quoting a story in the Daily News in which a man alleged his wife had
been beheaded in front of her small children by Zanu PF activists in a remote
village in Mashonaland West, Mugabe's home province. On discovering the story
was false, the Daily News published an apology, as did the Guardian. But the
government pursued Daily News reporter Lloyd Mudiwa and Meldrum, who was
acquitted but ordered to be deported within 24 hours. But the High Court
suspended the deportation and referred the matter to the Supreme Court. It must
decide whether Meldrum, who has lived in Zimbabwe for 22 years, enjoys, as a
permanent resident, the same rights as a citizen. The Supreme Court decision,
although not dealing with the 'falsehood' of the story which sparked the case,
may still have a bearing on the AIPPA which, to every independent journalist in
Zimbabwe, is designed virtually to emasculate their freedom of expression, or
turn their stories into 'falsehoods' only when they annoy the government.
Bill Saidi, acting deputy editor of the Daily News, is one of
Zimbabwe's leading journalists and the author of five
novels.
