http://news.yahoo.com
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's
government claimed Tuesday to be the victim of a
terror campaign after an
assassination bid against the air force chief, as
the diplomatic heat was
turned up on President Robert Mugabe.
With the death toll from a cholera
epidemic now nearing 1,000, UN chief Ban
Ki-moon delivered an apocalyptic
assessment of the political and health
crises afflicting a nation which was
once seen as a post-colonial role
model.
Former colonial power
Britain said the 84-year-old Mugabe was in denial
about the state of the
southern African nation he has led since independence
28 years
ago.
Officials said the attack on powerful air force chief Perrance
Shiri, who
was shot in the arm while driving towards his farm on Saturday
night, was
part of a larger campaign of terror being waged against senior
figures.
"The attack on Air Marshal Shiri appears to be a build-up of
terror attacks
targeting high-profile persons, government officials,
government
establishments and public transportation systems," the state-run
Herald
newspaper quoted Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi as
saying.
Shiri -- a cousin of Mugabe's -- was leader of the Fifth Brigade
which
oversaw a brutal crackdown in southwestern Matabeleland in the early
1980s
when up 20,000 people were killed.
The shooting comes in the
wake of a series of bomb explosions at police
stations in Harare and an
attack on a bridge outside the capital, according
to the
daily.
Zimbabwean authorities said Monday they had "compelling evidence"
that
neighbouring Botswana was harbouring and giving material support to
opposition-aligned rebels seeking to topple Mugabe.
The main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has refuted the
claims,
saying it is convinced the government is preparing a state of
emergency as
an excuse to further disregard rule of law in the nation.
It also accused
Mugabe's regime of "intensifying its terror campaign"
against the opposition
saying three of its councillors in Bindura were
arrested ahead of a key
ZANU-PF conference there later this week.
"The three were arrested on
trumped up yet to be disclosed charges and are
detained at Bindura Central
Police Station," the MDC said in a statement.
Top officials from the
ruling party met Tuesday to discuss the agenda of the
conference, which
state radio reported would include "restructuring of the
party, the cholera
outbreak, state of the economy, the all-inclusive
government and the
security threat to the country."
Diplomats said South Africa had blocked
a bid by the United States on Monday
night to have the UN Security Council
adopt a non-binding statement
condemning Mugabe for his failure to protect
his people from the cholera
outbreak.
Jacob Zuma , the head of the
ruling ANC, said Tuesday South Africa had a
"responsibility" to push
Zimbabwe to resolve its crisis and complete the
long-delayed implementation
of a power-sharing accord.
"We are concerned that they are taking longer
to finalise the agreement
while the humanitarian situation is
deteriorating," he said.
South Africa's former president Thabo Mbeki has
been trying to mediate
between Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai since
disputed elections in
March.
Although he did persuade the pair to
sign a power-sharing agreement in
September, it is still to be implemented
amid disagreements over who should
control key ministries.
In his
briefing to the council, Ban said the UN was being effectively locked
out of
the efforts to resolve the impasse as "neither the (Harare)
government nor
the mediator welcomes a United Nations political role."
"The current
cholera epidemic is only the most visible manifestation of a
profound
multi-sectoral crisis, encompassing food, agriculture, education,
health,
water, sanitation and HIV/AIDS," he added.
http://www.zimbabwetoday.co.uk/
The truth behind the Shiri shooting
Zimbabwe's Air Force
commander Perence Shiri, the target of an attemped
assassination on Sunday
morning, was shot at by his own side. My sources
reveal that Shiri was the
victim of a plot hatched by the feared spy agency
the Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO).
Four hitmen armed with machine guns waylaid Shiri as
he was driving back
from his farm in Shamva, a mining town in Mashonaland
Central. The plan was
to fire first at the car, forcing it into a ditch, and
then to finish off
the Air Marshal at point blank range.
Three
bullets hit Shiri's vehicle, one of them wounding him in the shoulder.
But
it is understood that he pulled out a pistol and returned fire, forcing
the
hitmen to flee. He later received treatment for the wound at the
hospital at
Manyame Air Force Base.
My source in the CIO told me that Shiri, who is a
member of the Joint
Operations Command, the military junta that virtually
rules Zimbabwe today,
was targeted because of his growing stature within the
ruling Zanu-PF party.
"He has begun to rival the Zimbabwe Army Commander,
Constantine Chiwenga," I
was told. "Chiwenga is determined to succeed
Mugabe, so it was decided that
Shiri should be eliminated."
There was
also a suspicion within Zanu-PF that Shiri had been in secret
contact with
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), with a
view to
achieving immunity from prosecution, in the event of the MDC taking
power in
the country.
Immunity is something Shiri would surely need. His name is
still cursed in
parts of Zimbabwe, because in the 1980s he personally
masterminded the
infamous Gukurahundi operation, in which 20,000 Ndebeles in
the Matebeleland
region were massacred.
Now of course the government
will attempt to blame the assassination attempt
on some mythical opposition
force allied to the MDC. Most Zimbabweans will
reject this explanation. We
have long known that, if you join the turbulent
ranks of Zanu-PF, you will
find you have more enemies inside the party than
out.
Posted on
Tuesday, 16 December 2008 at 17:44 |
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance
Guma
16 December 2008
A day after ZANU PF repeated it's allegation
that Botswana was training MDC
bandits, the state media came up with another
dramatic story. This time a
failed 'assassination' attempt on Air Force
Commander Air Marshal Perence
Shiri. According to reports Shiri, who was
traveling alone to his farm in
Mashonaland West, was shot in the hand after
'he stopped his vehicle at the
sound of gunfire and got out, thinking he had
a puncture.' The incident
allegedly happened on Saturday evening but after
much hesitation was only
published Tuesday by the state media. Website New
Zimbabwe.com who covered
the story on Monday report that state television
was told to hold back on
covering the incident for as yet unexplained
reasons.
The immediate reaction of most Zimbabweans was to dismiss the
story as
another excuse to justify a state of emergency. This would allow
Mugabe to
suspend the constitution and rule by decree. Analysts say given
that the MDC
controls parliament, Mugabe's authority outside a power sharing
deal is
likely to be compromised. Something he would find completely
unacceptable.
On Tuesday Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi predictably
latched onto the
reports claiming there appeared to be 'a build-up of terror
attacks
targeting high-profile persons, government officials, government
establishments and public transport systems.'
Mohadi said Shiri's
attack 'showed the assailants were well trained and
there was a clear
attempt to destabilise the country through acts of
terrorism.' The claim of
well trained assailants seems a little unlikely, as
Shiri was alone and
defenceless on an empty road, and was only injured in
the hand. A well
trained assailant would surely have finished the job.
This week MDC
Secretary General Tendai Biti told Newsreel they had reports
that several of
their abducted activists have been tortured into making
confessions about
alleged 'military training' in Botswana. He said Mugabe's
regime is forcibly
extracting false and incriminating information in order
to justify declaring
a state of emergency. He said they were told the
'confessions' were also
filmed.
Using the state owned Herald newspaper Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa
has claimed that ZANU PF has evidence the MDC was training bandits
in
Botswana. A charge that has been repeated constantly in the past few
months,
despite Botswana challenging Mugabe to produce the
evidence.
A spate of suspicious bombings at various police stations this
year has also
added to growing evidence that ZANU PF is plotting something.
No one has
been killed or injured in any of the bomb blasts, which have
always targeted
empty office blocks.
Similar tactics have been used by
Mugabe's government against past political
opponents like the late Dr Joshua
Nkomo and Ndabaningi Sithole. And recently
the state attempted to bring
treason charges against Morgan Tsvangirai and
Tendai Biti.
Biti told
journalists: 'This is a natural ZANU PF DNA. In 1982, ZANU PF
planted arms
at the homes and farms of ZAPU members and they were arrested
on trumped up
charges, including it's leader Joshua Nkomo, who had to skip
the country to
Botswana dressed as a woman in order to avoid arrest. Again
in 1995, Zanu
Ndonga leader Ndabaningi Sithole, was arrested on false
treason charges of
trying to assassinate Robert Mugabe.'
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Africa Features
By Sebastian
Nyamhangambiri Dec 16, 2008, 13:50 GMT
Harare - In scenes that
rattled the regime of President Robert Mugabe and
stoked speculation its
days were numbered, dozens of soldiers ran amok in
the capital Harare on
December 1 in protest over the country's economic
meltdown.
Some
bystanders watched in amazement, some joined in as junior soldiers who,
frustrated at being unable to access their meagre salaries because of acute
cash shortages, ran through the streets, looting shops and attacking
black-market currency dealers.
Although the state moved quickly to
put the genie back in the bottle,
arresting 16 soldiers who face court
martial proceedings, the footsoldiers
of Mugabe's repressive regime warn
they are likely to hit the streets again
before long.
'Just like
everyone else, we have stomachs and families to feed. We are
suffering, just
like most citizens in this country,' one junior officer Ola
(not his real
name) tells Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Sitting in a house in Mbare
township south-west of Harare in worn boots and
faded fatigues, Ola, a
27-year-old father of two and Duke (not his real
name), 29, tell of the
frustration that provoked their outburst.
'There is no junior army
officer that still supports Mugabe. We are tired,
we are suffering,' says
Duke. 'If a foreign army comes to fight us, we will
join them or flee to a
neighbouring country.'
The riots began when the soldiers were forced to
to stand in long line with
ordinary Zimbabweans for their money at a bank
ATM instead of being paid at
the barracks.
'Cash ran out (at the
barracks) because the top guns finished the money. We
then started walking
into town to queue for cash,' said Ola. 'We got angry
when we could not get
it (the banks ran out of cash). That is when the chaos
started.'
The
rioting was the first open challenge to Mugabe in his 28 years in power
from
within the normally loyal military. While that loyalty is still strong
among
the top brass, whom Mugabe has showered with gifts, including luxury
vehicles and confiscated farms, junior officers, who are feeling the pinch
of the economic crisis, are showing signs of fatigue.
The lowest-paid
soldier in Zimbabwe earns about 10 dollars a month.
'I am now (illegally)
changing money. My wife does that when I am at work,'
says Ola, who has just
returned from the city centre to receive a money
'drop' from his
wife.
'Because of the recent unrest (a series of protests by unions and
activists), we are not allowed to go on leave - lest the situation gets out
of hand and the army is called in,' says Duke.
'They took our
passports. Otherwise many of us could have fled the country
and sought
asylum,' Duke says amid widespread reports in recent months that
thousands
of soldiers have already deserted, mostly to South Africa in
search of
work.
Although the soldiers were seen attacking money changers, Ola
blames the
police and military police for violence during the protest. The
police used
batons to quell the riot.
'The idea was to show the
public that even soldiers were now tired of this
chaos. We wanted them to
join us in marching since they have the same
problems like us,' Ola
says.
Coming after bombings at two police stations in recent weeks that
were
caused minimum damage and were described by police as an inside job,
the
riots have sparked speculation that Mugabe's hold on power may be
loosening.
Ola and Duke said junior soldiers were ready to meet the
Mugabe regime 'head
on.'
'The top guns are getting payment in foreign
currency but the rest of us, we
are getting shells of peanuts,' Ola
complains. 'We want to see if we will
get a substantial salary rise in
December as they promised. Otherwise, there
will be another round of
protests.'
[No date on this but I think it is current]
http://www.radiovop.com
GUTU - Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) members
based at 4.2 Infantry
Battalion went on a rampage Saturday night, beating up
anyone in sight,
including bank officials and illegal foreign currency
dealers, following
their failure to get cash from
banks.
This follows similar incidents in Harare and
Masvingo a fortnight ago,
as mutiny escalates in various quarters of the
defence forces.
Sources within the army said the forces emulated
similar actions by
their fellows around the country and started to beat up
everyone in sight
following massive disgruntlement over low salaries which
they struggle to
get from the banks.
In Gutu, like in other towns,
soldiers were receiving preferential
treatment and were receiving more than
the gazetted cash withdrawal limits
of more than Zd 200 million per week but
this changed when bank officials
said they did not have the required cash
reserves to sustain the gesture.
"Most banks in the growth point
had little cash and said they could
not give us unlimited cash as they had
to cater for everyone. But, like
people who were used to getting favours,
...this was viewed as a rebellion
by the bank officials.
"They
started beating everyone at around five in the evening, up to
late in the
night after they were riled by their bankruptcy. They, however,
did not
break into shops. Several people, including innocent civilians and
illegal
forex dealers lost substantial amounts of cash and sustained serious
injuries," the source added.
Witnesses said the soldiers accused
them of failing to revolt against
President Mugabe's rule, as they
(uniformed forces) are not allowed to
revolt.
"One soldier grabbed
me and floored me, and as I was on the ground, he
accused civilians of being
cowards who fail to revolt against Mugabe as they
were ready to join us, not
disperse us. He said we tolerated the crisis in
the country, hence we had to
suffer," a victim who requested anonymity said.
No arrests were made.
Army officials refused to comment on the matter,
referring all questions to
Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander, General
Constantine
Chiwenga.
Meanwhile in Masvingo, riot police on Sunday night
descended heavily
upon stranded depositors who were sleeping outside a bank
while waiting to
get the new Zd 500 million cash limit.
Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Gideon Gono increased the
maximum withdrawal
limits to Zd 500 million per week starting last Friday,
as he also
introduced another new Zd 200 million note.
This has left most banks in
the city battling with congestion as
almost everyone wants to get his weekly
stipend following the illegal
foreign currency trading at banks, dubbed
"burning".
Depositors who slept at the Central African Building Society
(CABS) in
town on Sunday said armed police officers with the dog section
squad beat up
all those who were sleeping at the veranda, saying "they did
not want to see
anyone there."
Some people got injured as they were
scampering for safety.
At CABS, officials give out numbers to
depositors and only those with
the numbers would be served that
day.
"The police wanted to get rid of the people so that they would be
able
to get money themselves, remember they take advantage and abuse their
uniform to jump queues," said one observer.
But provincial police
spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Phibion
Nyambo, professed ignorance over
the matter.
"I am yet to find out, I did not hear about that, but I do
not think
it is true. Why would they beat up people sleeping outside a
bank?"
http://www.politicsweb.co.za
Sebastian Nyamhangambiri
16
December 2008
Discontent grows among the rank and file of the
Zimbabwe army
HARARE (Sapa-dpa) - In scenes that rattled the regime
of President Robert
Mugabe and stoked speculation its days were numbered,
dozens of soldiers ran
amok in the capital Harare on December 1 in protest
over the country's
economic meltdown.
Some bystanders watched in
amazement, some joined in as junior soldiers who,
frustrated at being unable
to access their meagre salaries because of acute
cash shortages, ran through
the streets, looting shops and attacking
black-market currency
dealers.
Although the state moved quickly to put the genie back in the
bottle,
arresting 16 soldiers who face court martial proceedings, the
footsoldiers
of Mugabe's repressive regime warn they are likely to hit the
streets again
before long.
"Just like everyone else, we have stomachs
and families to feed. We are
suffering, just like most citizens in this
country," one junior officer Ola
(not his real name) tells Deutsche
Presse-Agentur dpa.
Sitting in a house in Mbare township south-west of
Harare in worn boots and
faded fatigues, Ola, a 27-year-old father of two
and Duke (not his real
name), 29, tell of the frustration that provoked
their outburst.
"There is no junior army officer that still supports
Mugabe. We are tired,
we are suffering," says Duke. "If a foreign army comes
to fight us, we will
join them or flee to a neighbouring
country."
The riots began when the soldiers were forced to to stand in
long line with
ordinary Zimbabweans for their money at a bank ATM instead of
being paid at
the barracks.
"Cash ran out (at the barracks) because
the top guns finished the money. We
then started walking into town to queue
for cash," said Ola.
"We got angry when we could not get it (the banks
ran out of cash). That is
when the chaos started."
The rioting was
the first open challenge to Mugabe in his 28 years in power
from within the
normally loyal military. While that loyalty is still strong
among the top
brass, whom Mugabe has showered with gifts, including luxury
vehicles and
confiscated farms, junior officers, who are feeling the pinch
of the
economic crisis, are showing signs of fatigue.
The lowest-paid soldier in
Zimbabwe earns about 10 dollars a month.
"I am now (illegally) changing
money. My wife does that when I am at work,"
says Ola, who has just returned
from the city centre to receive a money
"drop" from his
wife.
"Because of the recent unrest (a series of protests by unions and
activists), we are not allowed to go on leave - lest the situation
gets
out of hand and the army is called in," says Duke.
"They took our
passports. Otherwise many of us could have fled the country
and sought
asylum," Duke says amid widespread reports in recent months that
thousands
of soldiers have already deserted, mostly to South Africa in
search of
work.
Although the soldiers were seen attacking money changers, Ola
blames the
police and military police for violence during the protest. The
police used
batons to quell the riot.
"The idea was to show the
public that even soldiers were now tired of this
chaos. We wanted them to
join us in marching since they have the same
problems like us," Ola
says.
Coming after bombings at two police stations in recent weeks that
were
caused minimum damage and were described by police as an inside job,
the
riots have sparked speculation that Mugabe's hold on power may be
loosening.
Ola and Duke said junior soldiers were ready to meet the
Mugabe regime "head
on."
"The top guns are getting payment in foreign
currency but the rest of us, we
are getting shells of peanuts," Ola
complains. "We want to see if we will
get a substantial salary rise in
December as they promised. Otherwise, there
will be another round of
protests."
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Violet Gonda
16 December
2008
Despite thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing the cholera infested
country to
neighbouring countries and the crippling economic and human
rights crisis,
South Africa has done it again and blocked a motion to allow
the United
Nations to get a consensus on how to deal with the Zimbabwean
crisis.
A closed-door session on the country by the UN Security Council
on Monday
ended with South Africa and Russia going against a motion to
censure Robert
Mugabe.
This was the first discussion on Zimbabwe by
the Security Council since
July, when South Africa and others vetoed an
attempt by western countries to
impose UN targeted sanctions on the Mugabe
regime. They claimed the crisis
in Zimbabwe was an internal
matter
The group known as the Elders, who had been refused entry into
Zimbabwe,
had also been invited to physically present a report, but
disappointingly
they declined because 'they wanted to preserve their
independence from the
Security Council'. They sent a written report. However
the UK Times
newspaper reports an insider saying South Africa had
discouraged their
attendance.
Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General,
is quoted saying: "Despite our
continued efforts, I unfortunately have to
conclude that neither the
government nor the mediator welcomes a UN
role."
Political analysts say although shocking, this latest development
is not
surprising.
Alex Magaisa said a resolution would have shown an
acknowledgement by the UN
that there is a fundamental problem that needed to
be dealt with in
Zimbabwe.
He said many had high hopes when Thabo
Mbeki left the South African
Presidency and Kgalema Motlanthe came in, but
it appears the new South
African leadership has the same attitude towards
Zimbabwe. This is in spite
of the neighbouring country declaring a disaster
zone on the border with
Zimbabwe.
Magaisa believes that while
international pressure is a help, Zimbabweans
themselves will have to be
seen to be at the forefront of their own
liberation and that obligation
falls on the MDC.
But the analyst said it is obvious that the options for
the MDC are very
limited.
So far the MDC has only said pressure must
be put on the Mugabe regime to
negotiate an equitable power sharing
agreement, but there are growing calls
for the party to pursue other options
as dialogue is clearly failing and
abductions and violence against civic
society and the MDC is again on the
increase.
There is still no news
on the whereabouts of any of the 23 activists
abducted in the last seven
weeks.
http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/2942#more-2942
The Zanu PF regime has
intensified its terror campaign against MDC
supporters in Bindura,
Mashonaland Central province ahead of its annual
conference, which begins in
the town tomorrow. Eleven of the 12 councillors
of the Bindura Municipality
have fled their homes after the police arrested
Ward 10 councillor, Norbert
Dhokotera and two other MDC activists in
pre-dawn raids last
night.
The three were arrested on trumped up yet to be disclosed charges
and are
detained at Bindura Central Police Station.
All the 12
councillors in the Bindura Municipality are MDC representatives.
Last
week, Councillor Dhokotera was arrested again by Bindura police on
false
charges of petrol bombing the houses of Zanu PF supporters.
He was
however; released after it turned out that it was in fact Zanu PF
youths who
had petrol bombed five houses belonging to MDC supporters.
Nearly all MDC
activists in Bindura are on the run and they have not known
any peace since
the death of Zanu PF's political commissar, Elliot Manyika
in a car accident
last week.
Zanu PF youths have also joined the armed police and are
looting property
and food at the homes that police have targeted as the
occupants have fled
fearing unlawful arrests.
The Zanu PF regime is
trying to finger MDC activists with the shooting of
Air Force of Zimbabwe
Commander Perrance Shiri on Saturday.
Instead of carrying out proper
investigations resulting in the shooting of
Shiri, the regime, which has
been hard hit by internal hemorrhage in the
party's top hierarchy is coming
up with false allegations that the MDC is
training its members in banditry
activities in neighbouring Botswana.
As the clampdown on MDC activists
intensifies, there has been upsurge of
nationwide violence by Zanu PF on
innocent people.
The regime is ignoring the cholera outbreak that has
reached alarming levels
and the starvation that is stalking the countryside
but is choosing to
unleash terror on defenceless people.
Over 20 MDC
activists including a two-year old child have been abducted by
the Zanu PF
regime and their whereabouts are unknown. Among those abducted
is Jestina
Mukoko, the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project.
MDC Information and
Publicity Department
This entry was written by Sokwanele on
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 5:37
pm
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
16
December 2008
Members of pressure group the National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA) again
became targets of riot police on Tuesday, after yet
another violent
crackdown on peaceful demonstrations across the
country.
Scores of people had been expected to take to the streets on
Tuesday for the
fourth round of NCA led protests calling for a democratic
Zimbabwe. The last
three actions have been the sites of chaos, as police
used force to break up
the crowds of demonstrators, and two weeks ago more
than 20 people were
injured at the hands of the police.
Tuesday's
planned demonstrations went ahead in central Harare, Mutare and
Masvingo and
predictably the crowds of demonstrators were once again
dispersed by heavily
armed riot police. According to a NCA statement
released on Tuesday evening,
the Harare demonstration had more than 500
participants who were set upon by
police armed with guns, teargas and
batons. The NCA explained that police
did not hesitate to fire shots at the
NCA members, and "all hell broke loose
as the heavily armed police unleashed
terror on the demonstrators as well as
members of the public."
More than 51 people were arrested and are
currently in police custody at
different stations in Harare, while more than
10 activists sustained serious
injuries. At the same time NCA officials
explained on Tuesday evening that
eight people are confirmed to have been
arrested in Mutare. Meanwhile, more
than 300 demonstrators took to the
streets in Masvingo, and successfully
marched without any interference from
police.
http://www.zimeye.org/?p=824
By Xolani Sibanda & Moses
Muchemwa
Nyamandlovu Zimeye)-Zimbabwe's war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda
has
ordered ex-combatants to be on high alert claiming that Botswana was
threatening an invasion.
Sibanda told war veterans to resume morning
training exercises arguing that
threats of war multiplies with incidents
like the attempt on Air Marshall
Perence Shiri used as an example.
He
was speaking during a function to distribute farming equipment to war
veterans from Zimbabwe's second city Bulawayo.
He attacked Botswana
for planning terrorist campaigns against Zimbabwe.
Sibanda further stated
that Botswana lacked experience in terms of war fare
having established it's
own army in 1978 ten years after Zimbabwean
nationalists had taken up arms
against white minority settlers of British
origin led by the late Ian
Smith's Rhodesian front party.
The war veterans leader who led terror
campaign against Zanu-PF opponents in
the March elections, said "the French
leader Nicholas Sarchozy should ask
former president Jacque Chirac about why
France should always be a coward a
country that was overrun by the Germans
in the second World War,
"France are cowards who should not challenge
Zimbabwe they don't know us as
a fighting force so they should leave us in
peace".
Mugabe uses the war veterans to unleash violence on political
opponents. He
is accusing he MDC of training bandits to be used in terror
attacks. The
opposition has dismissed the allegations.
(Zimeye,
Zimbabwe)
(Moses muchemwa is a journalist and partner ith the Zimeye. He can
be
contacted at mmuchemwa@zimeye.com
)
This
entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 11:55 am
JOHANNESBURG, 16 December 2008 (IRIN) -
Neighbouring Botswana dismissed Zimbabwe's sabre rattling at it as nothing more
than "distorted" and "concocted facts".
Photo:
IRIN
Looking
for bandits
Zimbabwe’s state-controlled
daily newspaper, The Herald, launched a broadside attack on its neighbour on 15
December, claiming the government had "compelling evidence" that Botswana was
providing military training to "bandits" from the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).
Botswana is the region’s staunchest critic of
Zimbabwe and recently suggested that sealing the landlocked country's borders
would lead to the collapse of President Robert Mugabe’s 28-year rule in a week.
Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa told The Herald: "My plea to
[Botswana's President Ian] Khama and his government is to think carefully about
the irreversible harm they have been plotting to unleash on the region.
"Botswana has availed its territory, material and logistical support to
MDC-T [the MDC faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai] for the recruitment and
military training of youths for the eventual destabilisation of the country,
with a view to effecting illegal regime change."
The use of the word
"bandits" is a chilling reminder of Operation Gukurahundi (The rain that washes
away the chaff before the spring rain), which Mugabe's government launched on
the then opposition party and its supporters soon after Zimbabwe’s independence
from Britain in 1980, on the pretext of tackling insurgents and
counter-revolutionaries sponsored by apartheid South Africa.
Echoes of Gukurahundi
In the event, about
20,000 people, almost all civilians, were killed by the North Korean-trained 5th
Brigade in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in southwestern Zimbabwe,
strongholds of the rival liberation movement ZAPU.
"We now have evidence
that while they [MDC] were talking peace, they have been preparing for war and
insurgency, as well as soliciting the West [the US and Britain] to invade our
country on the pretext of things like cholera," Chinamasa said.
The
death toll from a cholera outbreak that began in August and spread across the
country has reached nearly 1,000.
Chinamasa said the "evidence" had been
handed to the Southern Africa Development Community's (SADC) Organ on Politics,
Defence and Security.
A statement by Botswana's department of foreign
affairs said: "As Zimbabwe has already publicly passed judgment on its own
allegations, the ministry wishes to reaffirm that Zimbabwe's submission [to the
SADC] contains nothing more than distorted and or concocted evidence, none of
which is supported by facts."
Botswana submitted its response to
Zimbabwe's allegations to the SADC on 10 December, saying in the statement that
"Zimbabwe had dismally failed to produce any tangible, much less compelling,
facts in support of its allegations."
Zimbabwe had dismally failed to
produce any tangible, much less compelling, facts in support of its
allegations
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said
the rhetoric levelled against it and Botswana, which often hosts Tsvangirai,
were "false".
"The MDC does not believe in violence, and there is no way
we can train youths to overthrow President Mugabe. We believe in democratic
methods just like the ones we used and displayed in March this year, when we
defeated ZANU-PF in the harmonised [combined presidential and parliamentary]
elections," Chamisa said.
He said the abduction of 15 MDC activists in
Manicaland Province, in eastern Zimbabwe, more than a month ago was a plan to
force a "confession" from them that Botswana was providing military training to
MDC members.
"ZANU-PF is torturing our activists and they want to force
them to admit to undergoing military training in Botswana, so as to divert
international and regional attention from their own human rights record and the
humanitarian situation unfolding in the country.
"But this will not
work,” Chamisa said. “We are aware of ZANU-PF plans to declare a state of
emergency in Zimbabwe, using false claims."
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk
Ed Harris
16.12.08
ROBERT Mugabe was
today accused of "misrule and corruption" by Britain's
Foreign Secretary as
Zimbabwe's cholera crisis worsened.
David Miliband said cholera was
making the headlines but Zimbabwe's real
disease was "the disease of misrule
and corruption" under President Mugabe.
The UN says 978 people have been
killed by cholera, a 25 per cent increase
on the last figure given just days
ago. Talks between the government and
opposition are deadlocked.
UN
chief Ban Ki-Moon said his organisation could do little to help Zimbabwe
because of its leaders' refusal to allow it to mediate.
The cholera
epidemic was the most visible manifestation of a wider crisis,
Mr Ban told a
session of the Security Council.
Mr Miliband described Mr Ban's
closed-door briefing as "devastating". The
meeting ended without agreement
on a motion to censure Mr Mugabe. A diplomat
present said this was due to
opposition from South Africa.
Mr Mugabe said last week that cholera had
been contained, and accused
Western powers of trying to use the outbreak as
a pretext to invade the
country.
Zimbabwe has also accused its
neighbour Botswana of being involved in a plot
to overthrow Mr Mugabe's
government and hosting military training camps for
opposition rebels.
Botswana, whose president Ian Khama is one of the few
African leaders to
have publicly criticised Mr Mugabe, denies the claims.
http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk
Tuesday,
16th December 2008. 3:44pm
By: Manasseh Zindo.
Nairobi: The support for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe from a
section
of world leaders have angered US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
who
says that despite their denunciations of gross human rights violations
in
some African countries, intentional actors have remained both unable and
unwilling to force the removal of tyrants such as Zimbabwe's Robert
Mugabe.
This impotence is undermining the UN's "Responsibility to
Protect"
doctrine, which states that international military force should be
used to
stop governments from crushing its own citizens. The UN Security
Council
appears unlikely to respond positively to Dr Rice's expected call on
Monday
December 15 for "meaningful action" against Mugabe.
Two
of the council's five veto-wielding members - China and Russia -
have not
endorsed demands by the other three - Britain, France and the US -
that
Mugabe step down.
China and Russia both vetoed a US-sponsored
Security Council
resolution in July calling for an arms embargo against
Zimbabwe and
financial restrictions on him and 13 other top officials. There
is no
indication that Moscow and Beijing have grown favourably disposed to
more
direct efforts to bring about regime change in Zimbabwe.
The US and its allies have also not managed to convince South Africa
to take
action likely to lead to Mugabe's downfall.
An unnamed US official
was quoted last week as suggesting that if
South Africa were to close its
border with landlocked Zimbabwe, "within a
week, it would bring the
[Zimbabwe] economy to its knees."
South Africa does have the power
to bring down Mugabe, US ambassador
to Zimbabwe James McGee implied last
week.
Describing South Africa as "the big dog on the block," he
said that
"we expect South Africa to take an active stance on everything
that happens
in the southern tier of Africa. We do continue to work quietly
and behind
the scenes with South Africa to make that happen."
Just as South Africa continues to resist US pressure, America itself
shows
no sign of moving unilaterally to apply the Responsibility to Protect
doctrine in the case of Zimbabwe. With the US already engaged militarily in
both Iraq and Afghanistan, the American public has no appetite for an
intervention in Africa. The African Union, which has dispatched forces to
both Darfur and Somalia, has likewise made clear that it will not send
troops into Zimbabwe, despite calls for such a step by Kenyan Prime Minister
Raila Odinga and respected South African Archbishop Desmond
Tutu.
All this has led Rice to express frustration over the world's
inability to topple oppressors such as Mr Mugabe. "We all undertook this
notion of a responsibility to protect a couple of years ago with great
fanfare, and we've, as a community, fallen short," she said in an interview
last week with National Public Radio in Washington.
The failure
does not result from US inaction, she added. "We've put
unilateral sanctions
on Sudan, on Burma, on Zimbabwe. And very often, we've
been joined by other
states, particularly the Europeans, in several of those
circumstances. But
much of the world is prepared to turn a blind eye, and
that's really
unfortunate, and I think it really damages the credibility of
the Security
Council."
The incoming administration of US President-elect Barrack
Obama can
break this global deadlock, a group led by two former top-level US
officials
said last week.
The Genocide Prevention Task Force,
co-chaired by ex-Pentagon head
William Cohen and ex-secretary of state
Madeleine Albright, urged Obama and
his designated foreign policy chief,
Hillary Clinton, to launch "robust
diplomatic efforts" to gain consensus for
action on the part of the UN
Security Council.
http://africa.reuters.com
Tue 16 Dec 2008, 15:32
GMT
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The United
Nations warned on Tuesday it may have
to cut food rations to millions of
hungry people in Zimbabwe despite a
worsening cholera epidemic, due to a
lack of funds.
The rainy season under way in the region is expected to
fuel the spread of
the contagious water-borne disease, which has infected at
least 18,418
people and killed 978 since August.
Nearly 4 million
Zimbabweans receive monthly food rations from the U.N.'s
World Food
Programme (WFP), which hopes to feed 5.1 million -- almost half
the
population -- from January.
But donors have contributed only $16 million
towards a $140 million WFP
appeal for Zimbabwe, leading to smaller
distributions of maize and beans to
families in the past two months,
according to WFP spokeswoman Emilia
Casella.
"The decision on whether
to cut and by how much will be made in late
December. We very much hope
donors heed the call because decisions they make
today will impact on the
stomachs of children and vulnerable people in
January," she told
Reuters.
WFP needs 47,000 tonnes of food a month for Zimbabwe, reeling
from economic
collapse and a political turmoil after failure to form a
government since
March elections. [nLG544351]
Matthew Cochrane,
spokesman of the International Federation of Red Cross and
Red Crescent
Societies, said aid agencies were scrambling to boost cholera
treatment and
prevention programmes.
But rains have begun in Zimbabwe and Congo, which
typically swell the
Zambezi, flooding wells and septic tanks, he
said.
"If we don't do what we need to do as a humanitarian community now,
it could
be catastrophic. We've already got a very serious situation and
rain will
only make it much, much worse," Cochrane told a news briefing on
his return
from Harare.
The Federation, the world's largest disaster
relief agency, plans to issue
an emergency appeal for Zimbabwe in the next
48 hours, according to John
Roche, head of its Africa
operations.
"Our main concern is a lot of Zimbabweans who work in South
Africa will be
moving back during this Christmas period. If we don't take
measures now to
keep this under control, we could have it spread much faster
and wider in
the region," he said.
Some 751 cholera cases including
11 deaths have been reported in South
Africa, according to the World Health
Organisation (WHO), a U.N. agency.
(Editing by Jonathan Lynn)
http://www.iht.com
The Associated PressPublished: December
16, 2008
GENEVA: The onset of seasonal rains in Zimbabwe has increased
fears that the
cholera epidemic could turn into a catastrophe with tens of
thousands more
sickened and further spread into neighboring countries, the
Red Cross
federation said Tuesday.
"We've already got a very serious
situation and rain will only make it much,
much worse," said Matthew
Cochrane, a spokesman for the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies.
The rainfall, which usually brings floods to the
southern African country,
has started in the northern provinces, he
said.
Aid agencies have been warning the rains could spread cholera
further in a
population already weakened by disease and hunger.
The
outbreak continues to grow and the fatality rate is alarmingly high,
said
Cochrane, who just returned from Zimbabwe.
The United Nations
said Monday that 18,413 people have been infected with
the waterborne
disease in the country and 978 died from it.
Unless aid agencies and the
government massively scale up their operations,
"it could be catastrophic,"
said Cochrane.
The total number of cases could reach 60,000 and cholera,
which has already
spread into South Africa and Botswana, could spill into
other neighboring
countries, he said.
Botswana and South Africa are
sufficiently equipped to contain the outbreak,
Cochrane said. But if cholera
was to spill into Zambia or Mozambique, it
would be more difficult to stop
it because those border regions lack the
necessary health system and funds
to contain it, he said.
"If we start seeing huge numbers of people going
across the border into
those countries bringing with them cholera or being
exposed to cholera, then
it could be like a wildfire in the bush," he said.
"We really could see the
whole region flare up."
The Red Cross
federation, which supports around 30,000 volunteers from the
Zimbabwean Red
Cross, is negotiating with the government on how to ramp up
aid operations
in the country, Cochrane said.
Informing people about basic hygiene,
giving them access to clean water and
improving sanitation and waste systems
are the most urgent challenges, he
added.
Africa Briefing N°56
16 December 2008
OVERVIEW
The inter-party negotiations that have sought to end Zimbabwe’s political, economic and now full-blown humanitarian crisis following the fraudulent June 2008 presidential election run-off are hopelessly deadlocked. Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF will not accept genuine power sharing, and Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are unwilling to join a ZANU-PF dominated administration as a junior partner, responsible for ending international isolation but without authority to implement needed reforms and emergency humanitarian relief.
No new power-sharing formula premised on Mugabe remaining president and Tsvangirai becoming prime minister seems likely to produce a workable outcome. Nor does it seem realistic to contemplate any non-negotiated solution to the deadlock. Additional sanctions and other forms of external pressure could be applied but seem unlikely to be productive in the absence of a new approach. Despite the calls increasingly being made for outright military intervention to resolve the crisis, this seems a wholly unrealistic option, not least because regional resistance to any such course remains intense.
There is a possible negotiated way forward that could avoid Zimbabwe’s complete collapse. But it will need a radical shift in negotiating objectives by the country’s leaders and regional states, and the standing aside of Thabo Mbeki as mediator in favour of someone perceived as more neutral. The core idea is to establish a transitional administration, run by non-partisan experts, in which neither Mugabe nor Tsvangirai would have any position. It would be mandated to implement fundamental political and economic reforms to stabilise the economy and prepare new presidential elections in eighteen months.
The negotiation process so far has produced a memorandum of understanding on broad principles of a power-sharing arrangement on 21 July and the signature on 11 September of a Global Political Agreement (GPA) for a government of national unity with Mugabe as president and Tsvangirai as prime minister. The GPA’s basic flaws, however, have blocked implementation. At the same time, the ZANU-PF regime has repeatedly violated its premises, including by resuming a campaign of violence against MDC supporters and reappointing key stalwarts responsible for the economic meltdown, such as Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono.
With the support of renegade parliamentarians from ZANU-PF and a splinter group from its own ranks, the MDC elected on 25 August its candidate as parliament speaker, but the incentives for it to join a unity government have withered. It considers, reasonably, that without control of the ministries of home affairs – which oversees the police and the electoral system – and treasury and a major share of senior civil service and security posts, it would be reduced to legitimising the status quo and facilitating Mugabe’s plans to eventually hand leadership to a ZANU-PF colleague of his choosing.
Even if the parties find a compromise on ministry allocation and related issues, the creation of two power centres by the GPA suggest that, in the context of their intense mutual distrust, political paralysis would prevent serious action to address the country’s problems. With the meltdown of vital social services, a cholera epidemic that has claimed 1000 lives, the flight of a third of the population to neighbouring countries where cholera is also spreading, and a third of its remaining citizens facing starvation, securing an end to Zimbabwe’s nightmare is going to require a fundamentally new approach.
All relevant Zimbabwean and external actors should commit to a process with the following key elements:
From The Star (SA), 15 December
In the ongoing crackdown in Zimbabwe, another journalist,
Andrisson Manyere,
has been arrested. Manyere, a freelancer, was accredited
to work as a
journalist in Zimbabwe. He was picked up at his Harare home
yesterday and
taken by detectives to the Harare Central police station. On
Saturday,
President Robert Mugabe's spokesperson, George Charamba, who
writes a weekly
column in the state-controlled Herald, warned that state
action against
journalists was coming. He wrote that the "line between these
journalistic
misdeeds and espionage grows thinner by the day, and the
authorities are
about to place a price on those concerned". Charamba accused
journalists of
misreporting the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe, which has
claimed about 800
lives and seen 17 000 infected, with a high fatality rate
of 4%. The UN says
a death rate of 1% is an acceptable limit.
The
unelected Information Minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, has explained the
cholera
crisis as the work of the West, saying it has launched biological
warfare
against Zimbabwe. More than 20 people, mostly opposition Movement
for
Democratic Change activists and human rights workers, have been abducted
from their homes and offices in the past few weeks. Mugabe has accused the
West of using the cholera epidemic as an excuse to "invade" Zimbabwe, and
said last week that cholera had been beaten. The following day, Charamba
said Mugabe had made a "sarcastic" remark. Most journalists regularly
working in Zimbabwe have been arrested in the past eight years. Many have
been forced to flee the country. Lawyers representing activists and
journalists have also been detained in Zimbabwe's never-ending repression.
It was not yet clear whether any lawyer had had access to Manyere, or
whether he was going to be charged. He was not working when detained,
according to his friends.
Meanwhile, the MDC is not yet ready to
enter government, despite Mugabe
having gazetted legislation to enable it to
do so. On Friday, Mugabe's
government gazetted a bill to amend the
constitution for the 19th time to
create the position of prime minister for
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, in a
power-sharing, unity government in which
Mugabe would remain president. Both
President Kgalema Motlanthe and his
predecessor Thabo Mbeki, the regional
mediator on Zimbabwe, have welcomed
the gazetting of the amendment as
clearing the way for a unity government.
At a summit last month, the
Southern African Development Community said
passing amendment 19 should be
the last obstacle to launching the
long-delayed unity government. The SADC
agreed the only outstanding ministry
was Home Affairs, which controls the
police. It said it had resolved that
the ministry be shared between the MDC
and Zanu PF. SADC said the
distribution of 10 powerful governor's positions
should be negotiated.
http://www.apanews.net/
APA-Harare
(Zimbabwe) Zimbabwe plans to slap a blanket ban on all foreign
media foreign
groups, accusing them of "playing little gods" on the country's
affairs, the
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said here on Tuesday.
The
regional media rights watchdog said Zimbabwe's presidential spokesman
George
Charamba had threatened to ban all accredited foreign bureaux or
local
reporters working for foreign news organisations because he said they
had
embarked on a propaganda assault on the southern African country.
MISA
said Charamba was on a war path after accusing the foreign bureaux
accredited in Zimbabwe of quoting President Robert Mugabe out of context
following his remarks last Thursday that the country had "arrested" the
cholera outbreak.
"He said Zimbabwe had no need to accredit the
foreign news agencies as
required under the repressive Access to Information
and Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA)," the Namibian-based watchdog
said.
Targeted media houses included Britain's Reuters, Agence France
Presse, the
British Broadcasting Corporation, Associated Press of the USA,
France 24
International and Al Jazeera from Qatar, which are accused of
misrepresenting facts about Zimbabwe to suit the agendas of the news
organisations' host nations.
Writing in the state-run Herald
newspaper at the weekend, a columnist under
the pen-name of Nathaniel
Manheru threatened to deal with the foreign news
organisations.
"They
have played little gods with copy on Zimbabwe, in the process
rubbishing the
letter and spirit of AIPPA. There has to be robust response,"
wrote the
columnist.
Charamba is widely believed to be the author of the
column.
JN/nm/APA 2008-12-16
http://www.nasdaq.com
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AFP)--Zimbabwe's opposition Tuesday accused the
authorities of instigating a crackdown on its members by arresting three of
its councilors ahead of the ruling party's annual conference this
week.
"Eleven of the 12 councilors of the Bindura Municipality have
fled
their homes after the police arrested Ward 10 ccouncilor Norbert
Dhokotera
and two other Movement for Democratic Change activists in
ppredawnraids last
night," read an MDC statement.
"The three
were arrested on trumped-up yet to-be-disclosed charges and
are detained at
Bindura Central Police Station."
The MDC said President Robert
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party was "intensifying
its terror campaign" ahead of its
annual conference, which starts in Bindura
in northwestern Zimbabwe
Friday.
Officials from the ruling party met Tuesday to discuss the
agenda of
the conference.
"The meeting focused on items on the
official program including
restructuring of the party, the cholera outbreak,
state of the economy, the
all-inclusive government and the security threat
to the country," reported
state radio.
The party conference
comes nine months after the March general
elections in which ZANU-PF lost
its majority in parliament for the first
time since independence 28 years
ago.
Top Mugabe aides would meet as international pressure on the
veteran
leader to step down mounts amid an economic crisis, cholera outbreak
and
political stalemate over the formation of a unity
government.
The opposition party said Mugabe's regime was trying to
blame it for a
failed assassination attempt on the country's air force chief
Perrance Shiri
and that it was plotting with neighboring Botswana to
overthrow the
government.
Police couldn't be reached to confirm
the arrests.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-16-081152ET
http://www.voanews.com
By Joe
DeCapua
Washington
16 December 2008
As the year
draws to a close - and Zimbabwe's political crisis continues -
many are
questioning whether South Africa's role as mediator has had any
real effect.
Critics are also saying that South Africa has failed to take
advantage of
its temporary seat on the UN Security Council to help resolve
the
crisis.
Darrel Glaser, professor of political studies at the University
of
Witwatersrand, spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De
Capua
about whether South Africa's efforts in Zimbabwe have achieved any
results.
"I don't see that mediation as having been very successful at
all. There
have been moments when it looked as though our former president,
Thabo
Mbeki, was being reasonably successful in at least cajoling the
parties to
talk to each other, but essentially nothing's come of it. We've
seen that in
recent weeks the process has gone backwards, " he
says.
Glaser says that the claims made regarding Mbeki's "quiet
diplomacy" have
"simply not been vindicated." When asked why, he says, "I
think that the
type of diplomacy that is needed in Zimbabwe is one where the
third party is
not simply going to be an entirely neutral mediator between
the two sides
but is willing to at least take sides to the extent of
recognizing that
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is more a part of a
problem than the
solution and more of a problem than his
opponents."
The professor says that if diplomacy is going to be
successful there needs
to be real pressure on the Zimbabwean leader, whether
"behind the scenes or
in public."
He says, "Mugabe has to be made to
understand that he's lost the support of
probably the majority of his people
and that he has to make way for new
forces in the country."
He also
says South Africa could have done a better job this year in using
its seat
on the UN Security Council to deal with Zimbabwe's political
crisis.
"Throughout the period that it's had that seat.it has taken what
some people
have called a Third Worldist position, which has essentially
been a tendency
to side with countries in the Third World or the Global
South against what
is seen as the dominant imperial powers of the North. And
I think
unfortunately this has resulted in a kind of knee-jerk tendency to
support
Third World regimes no matter what their character simply
because.(they) see
themselves as historically victims of colonialism or
neo-colonialism." He
says.
For example, Glaser is critical of South Africa's vote in favor of
the
military junta in Burma. "This has been very tragic that South Africa
has
tarnished a great deal of the prestige that it acquired in the 1990s as
a
global champion of human rights," he says.
He doesn't see South
African policy toward Zimbabwe changing much, if at
all, if ruling ANC party
President Jacob Zuma is elected South African
president next year.
So
what can be done if South African mediation efforts fail? "Well, this is
a
very difficult question to answer. For a start there has to be stronger
symbolic and diplomatic pressure. There has to be some stepping up of
economic pressure that is somehow separated out from the whole question of
humanitarian aid," he says. Perhaps even intervention.
"If you're
asking me personally, I wouldn't altogether rule out the sort of
option that
Archbishop Desmond Tutu was referring to, which is some kind of
limited
humanitarian-military intervention, provided it was conducted
entirely under
southern African regional leadership. I would not like to see
Western powers
having any role in that. I think that would discredit the
whole exercise.
But I think that things have become so desperate and this
crisis has become
so regional in terms of spreading disease across borders
and sending floods
of refugees in every direction that I think the region
has to be willing to
take concerted action, including, for example, if
necessary, armed action to
protect relief supplies and so on," he says.
The number of cholera deaths
in Zimbabwe is nearing 1,000, with tens of
thousands of cases reported
overall. Many thousands of Zimbabwe have crossed
the border into South
Africa, for example, to escape the political turmoil
in Zimbabwe or to seek
treatment for cholera.
http://news.yahoo.com
BLOEMFONTEIN (AFP) - Ruling ANC
chief Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday that South
Africa had a responsibility to
push Zimbabwe to resolve its crisis,
expressing concern it was taking too
long to form a unity government.
"We are concerned that they are taking
longer to finalise the agreement
while the humanitarian situation is
deteriorating," he said as deaths from a
cholera epidemic inched closer to
1000 in the neighbouring country.
"We have a responsibility to push them
all in the right direction, and will
continue to do so."
Zuma was
addressing a gathering of African National Congress military
veterans in
Bloemfontein, as the small city in central farming province of
the Free
State also attracted a group of ANC dissidents launching a new
party on
South Africa's Day of Reconciliation.
His remarks came as a swelling
international effort to turn up the heat
against Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe faltered, as South Africa blocked a
western bid to put the issue on
the agenda of the United Nations Security
Council.
Mugabe's ruling
ZANU-PF and rival Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change have
been stuck in a three-month logjam over the formation
of a unity
government.
"We are continuing to put pressure on our ZANU-PF comrades
and the MDC
formations to agree on a unity government without further
delay," said Zuma,
addressing former members of the Umkhonto we Siswe
military wing of the ANC.
He said the party had conducted visits to
former liberation movements in
neighbouring countries that had helped the
ANC in the fight against
white-minority apartheid rule, and would "undertake
a similar visit to
Zimbabwe once the political stalemate in Zimbabwe is
resolved."
The Day of Reconciliation is held in remembrance of a day in
which thousands
of Zulus were killed in a war with Afrikaners in 1838. But
it is celebrated
as a day for fostering reconciliation and national
unity.
HARARE, 16 December 2008
(IRIN) - Abel Chuma, 42, is a gardener working in Mabelreign, one of the
affluent northern suburbs in the Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. Adjacent to his
employers' home is a vacant piece of land, where for years Chuma has grown
enough maize, the staple food, for his needs.
Photo:
Obinna Anyadike/IRIN
Forced to
buy, instead of grow maize
"It looks like I may have
to start buying mealie-meal [maize-meal] next year because I cannot afford the
high prices of maize seed and fertiliser.
"The little maize seed and
fertiliser that is available is beyond my reach because they are sold in United
States dollars, which I do not have.
"All efforts to get free or cheaper
maize seed and fertiliser have failed.
"Some urban farmers have received
the farming inputs, but only those who are in the ZANU-PF [party, which has
ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years] leadership structures have benefited from donations
of the inputs.
"I went to my rural home, hoping to access them, but was
met with the same story. Very few families had received free seed and
fertiliser, and those who received it were well-known party stalwarts.
"The few families with fertiliser and maize seed had received it from
children, friends and relatives who work in urban areas or are in the diaspora
[of millions of Zimbabweans who have left the country].
"I have
identified some places from where I will collect some manure, which I will
spread on my piece of land. Urban farmers have over the years contributed to the
country's food security.
“By producing enough food for our families, it
means the government would have fewer people to source food for. [The UN
estimates that over five million Zimbabweans will need food aid in early 2009.]
"However, if we are to continue providing that service, then the
government has to acknowledge our critical role by availing seed and fertiliser
to urban farmers.
"Pricing inputs beyond us just increases possibilities
of hunger in the country, especially in urban areas where food security is not
guaranteed."
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
16 December
2008
While Zimbabwe's Zanu PF government started a game of
finger-pointing last
week over the cause of the devastating cholera
outbreak, hundreds more
people are reported to have died - bringing the
official death toll to
almost a thousand.
The United Nations on
Monday announced that the cholera death toll had
reached 978 since last
Friday, when there were 784 reported deaths. The new
figure means the
fatality rate increased by an estimated 25 percent in three
days. With only
a minority of cases across the country being treated and
reported, there are
fears the actual number of deaths is already well beyond
the 3000 mark.
Officially more than 18 thousand people are reported to be
infected,
according to the UN's new figures, and at the same time the killer
outbreak
has seen hundreds of Zimbabweans flee their homes, hoping to escape
the
disease or find treatment outside the country.
Regional countries are now
on high alert as cholera deaths have been
reported in at least four
neighbouring states, and there are warnings that
the worst is yet to
come.
The UN's announcement came just days after Robert Mugabe last
Thursday
claimed that cholera had been 'arrested' and no longer existed in
the
country. While speaking during a nationally broadcast speech at Heroes
Acre
Mugabe also pinned the blame of the outbreak on the west, saying the
disease
was a mere 'excuse' for western leaders to invade Zimbabwe. Mugabe's
Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, echoed the dictator's rant against
the favoured western scapegoat, saying the British had deliberately planned
the outbreak, saying the epidemic is "meant to incite the people of Zimbabwe
so they can turn against the government."
The dire situation has seen
the British Red Cross and Oxfam launch
emergency appeals to tackle the
outbreak, that aid organisations have
previously warned is set to get much
worse. Aid groups and medical experts
have said the onset of the rainy
season will cause the outbreak to run
further out of control, and that
immediate action is needed to prevent
staggering numbers of deaths. The
international appeals will be used to
supply emergency relief through
community based health, water, sanitation
and hygiene projects, while
delivering aid and education to those most in
need in Zimbabwe and across
the Southern African region.
The Red Cross has been on the ground in
Zimbabwe since the beginning of the
cholera epidemic, focusing largely on
public education. One of the
organisation's delegates, Matthew Cochrane
recently returned from Zimbabwe
and explained to Newsreel that the group is
planning for the 'worst possible
case scenario'. He described the growing
fears that the rains and the season's
first floods will drastically worsen
the situation, if the disease is not
contained as a matter of
urgency.
"This is a disease and an enemy we know how to defeat, we have
it's number,"
Cochrane said. "But we need to get a lid on it before it
becomes totally out
of control."
http://www.radiovop.com/
Masvingo - A White Doctor and
Medical Superintendent of Masvingo's
Morgenster Missionary Hospital, Dr
Henry Ten-hove, is being hailed as a
messiah after his recent decision to
top up workers' salaries in foreign
currency in addition to pumping his own
money to run the hospital and
feeding patients.
"I am
happy because Dr Ten-hove is concerned about our welfare. We
have since
agreed that we proceed with our normal operations as long as his
(Dr
Ten-hove) promises are fulfilled. It does not make sense for us to wake
up
early and go to work while our children are dying because of hunger. The
reason for going to work is to earn a better
living," said a staff
member.
Dr Ten-hove averted a strike on Friday when he announced
at an
emergency meeting that all medical staff would receive R 200 as
survival
allowance over and above their salaries. The administration and the
general
workers were promised R150 and R100 respectively.
This
comes at a time when most state hospitals throughout the country
have closed
due to shortages of drugs and poor renumeration and conditions
of
service.
"I am happy because Dr Ten-hove is concerned about our
welfare. We
have since agreed that we proceed with our normal operations as
long as his
(Dr Ten-hove) promises are fulfilled. It does not make sense for
us to wake
up early and go to work while our children are dying because of
hunger. The
reason for going to work is to earn a better
living,"
said a staff member.
When Radio VOP visited the institution,
workers and patients expressed
their gratitude to Dr Ten-hove.
"The government should learn that Whites can help us. Dr Ten-hove has
rescued several lives. We can not hide our joy. This man from Netherlands
has become our Messiah," said one patient.
In addition Dr
Ten-hove is also giving mealie-meal to all workers and
donating food to
patients.
Radio VOP could not talk to Dr Ten-hove as he was out of
office.
Morgenster hospital is run by Reformed Church in Zimbabwe
(RCZ). It is
servicing more than 250 patients a day.
http://www.morningmirror.africanherd.com
On December 10, 1948 the General
Assembly of the United Nations adopted and
proclaimed the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, sixty years ago ...
sixty whole
years ago
this week .......
What happened to those rights in Zimbabwe ?
Are
we not members of the United Nations ? Why are we not being accorded the
basic
Human Rights right here in our own country ?
Do we have
freedom of speech ?
Do we have the right to medical care ?
Do we have the
right to have a safe working environment ?
Do we have freedom of the press
?
Do we have the right to privacy ?
Do we have the right to bear arms
?
Do we have freedom of opinion and expression ?
Do we have the right to
receive an education ?
Do we have freedom of movement/travel ?
Do we have
the right to adequate housing ?
Do we have freedom from cruel and unusual
punishment ?
Do we have the right to an attorney ?
Do we have the right to
a fair trial by jury ?
Do we have the right to have a minimum wage
?
Do we have the right to adequate housing ?
About the only Human
Right we have in the long list is the right to live, to
exist,
because
that is just about all we are doing at this moment.
Have we
got the right to Security ?
Safety from violence ?
Protection from the law
?
Having a fair trial ?
To be seen as innocent, even if a person is
arrested, until the person is
found to be guilty
by a fair court ?
To
be a citizen of a country ?
To vote ?
To seek asylum if a country treats
you badly ?
To think freely ?
To peacefully protest against a government
or group ???
To a basic standard of living ??
Education ??
Health care
??
What basic rights do we have as Zimbabweans ?
What are we going to
do about it ?
MUSINA, 16 December 2008 (IRIN) - After
just a few hours on a drip, Merycinah Chauke said she could see an improvement
in her three-year-old son, under treatment for cholera in a makeshift emergency
centre at Madimbo Clinic, in South Africa's northern Limpopo Province.
Photo:
Taurai
Maduna/IRIN
Merycinah
Chauke and son
"We came in this morning after I noticed he was continuously vomiting
and having diarrhoea," said a still worried Chauke as she offered her boy a sip
of water.
The giant tent in the grounds of Madimbo Clinic, 85km south of
the Zimbabwean border, is one of two emergency centres set up to deal with a
cholera outbreak that has been declared a disaster by the provincial government.
More than 660 cases of suspected cholera have been recorded in Limpopo
over the past month, with eight deaths.
Madimbo Clinic serves the
surrounding farming community, and the cholera cases they treat occur among the
Zimbabwean migrants crossing the border looking for work as well as local
residents. But as a public awareness campaign has got into gear, the numbers
have fallen; on 15 December there were just four cases in the emergency unit,
three of them children.
"We used to treat a lot of adults but now the
numbers have dropped," Tshinakaho Mulaudzi, a health worker, told IRIN. She has
been educating the community about the symptoms of cholera, and what can be done
to prevent and treat it.
Musina, the town nearest the border with
Zimbabwe, has been at the centre of South Africa's cholera outbreak, but the
cholera treatment centre at the general hospital has also seen a marked
reduction in cases, despite the epidemic continuing to rage in Zimbabwe.
"The situation has greatly improved; there are fewer cases of cholera
that are being reported," said John Shiburu, provincial disaster relief
coordinator at the South African Red Cross. Around 15 cases were being treated
in Musina on 15 December.
Shiburu is still concerned about conditions at
the Musina show grounds, an expanse of public land on the outskirts of the town
where more than 2,000 people, mostly Zimbabweans seeking asylum, are sheltering.
Suffering in show grounds
There are only a few
water taps, and the portable toilets that have been provided are blocked;
bedding often consists of a flattened cardboard box laid out on the dusty
ground.
"We are feeding close to 2,000 people
every day, there is no shelter and clean water; hygiene has been compromised,"
said Shiburu. The asylum seekers who have money buy buckets of cooked meat, rice
and maize-meal porridge from hawkers - a heightened health hazard in an area
where a disease that is spread by poor sanitation is present.
Photo:
Taurai
Maduna/IRIN
Eye sore
at show grounds
People
endure the conditions at the show grounds because of its proximity to the
Department of Home Affairs office, where people queue daily for asylum
application forms, and hope for safety from repatriation to Zimbabwe.
The queue for registration is long and fractious. "Home Affairs is
delaying processing asylum papers - I have been here for the past week and I am
struggling to get a form. More and more people are coming every day," said a
young Zimbabwean man, who asked not to be named.
Yet he told IRIN that
sleeping rough at the show grounds, and putting up with the pushing and shoving
in the application queue, was better than life in Zimbabwe with its
unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
Individual tragedies of people,
vulnerable and desperate, are common in Musina. One migrant from Masvingo, in
southern Zimbabwe, said that some of those lucky enough to win asylum papers had
run out of money, and where now selling their hard-won documents.
Another would-be refugee told IRIN: "There are some girls who are
sleeping with anyone for as little as R10 [US$1] to buy a plate of sadza
[maize-meal porridge]".
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2008/12/diagnosing_dementia_with_sarca.html
December 16, 2008
After years of being lambasted as
"the lowest form of wit", sarcasm has
fallen into the good graces of doctors
as a tool for diagnosing dementia.
John Hodges, a neurologist at Prince
of Wales Medical Research Institute in
Australia, and his colleagues
designed two sets of short plays that were
identical except for the tone of
voice: words were said either seriously, or
sarcastically.
Patients
with Alzheimer's could tell the difference between the plays,
whereas
patients with fronto-temporal dementia could not, Hodges and
colleagues
report in Brain.
"This new study indicates that testing people's ability
to detect sarcasm
may help diagnose fronto-temporal dementia," Rebecca Wood,
Chief Executive
of the Alzheimer's Research Trust told the
Telegraph.
FTD affects 1 in every 4,000 people, and "people with FTD
become very
gullible and they often part with large amounts of money", says
Hodges.
Currently, FTD is difficult that diagnose or to tell apart from
depression,
schizophrenia or personality disorders.
Here, at The
Great Beyond, we have no doubt that doctors worldwide will
embrace sarcasm
tests.
In other news, Mugabe was trying to be sarcastic when he said
recently that
there was no cholera in Zimbabwe, the Guardian reports. No
word yet on
whether inappropriate use of sarcasm is also a sign of
dementia.