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From The Star (SA), 5 January
Zim's MDC claims fifth member killed
Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), on Saturday claimed a fifth party member has been slain in two weeks of clashes with backers of President Robert Mugabe. The MDC's secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, claimed that Rambisai Nyika was killed on December 24 in Gokwe, in western Zimbabwe, by militant supporters of the ruling Zanu PF. Nyika's death brings to five the number of party members the MDC claims have been killed by government-sponsored militias in recent weeks. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said he was unaware of Nyika's death. Only two of the earlier deaths reported by the MDC have been confirmed by police, who said a third death was due to malaria.
Meanwhile, the MDC's parliamentary deputy for Chitungwiza town, just south of Harare, said his house was attacked on Friday by ZANU-PF militias. He and his supporters were preparing for more attacks, he added. "We've been told they want to attack here again," Fidelis Mhashu told reporters by telephone on Saturday. He said he had sent his family to a safe place, while he and 50 MDC members had banded together at his home in case of further attacks. The MDC claims that militants trained at a government-sponsored youth training camp are behind the attacks on its members. In a statement issued on Friday, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai warned that the youths were driving the country to the brink of a "low-intensity civil war". The government has said the training camps are part of a national service programme, which sees recruits deployed around the country to engage in community service.
From ZWNEWS, 6 January
Sixth holiday killing
A schoolteacher from the Shamva district of Mashonaland Central province was murdered on New Year’s Eve by a mob of 200 Zanu PF supporters and war veterans. The mob first raided Kamujariwa village, where houses were burnt and villagers assaulted, before moving to Madziwa township where Jena, the schoolteacher, was stabbed. He later died of his injuries in Bindura. No arrests have been made.
From News24 (SA), 5 January
Two Zim farmers beaten up
Harare - Two white Zimbabwean farmers were abducted and beaten up by militant war veterans in ongoing farm violence ahead of a crunch presidential poll, the main farming union has reported. The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said in its latest report that around 40 Zanu PF supporters, armed with iron bars, abducted the two farmers from Ardului farm, in Chegutu, some 90km southwest of Harare. The attack took place on New Year's Eve. The farmers were "subsequently assaulted with fists, resulting in one of them losing hearing in one ear," said the report. Violence on white-owned farms has been on the increase in the former British colony since President Robert Mugabe's supporters, including liberation war veterans, launched a campaign of land invasions nearly two years ago. Mugabe faces his strongest challenge yet from opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in presidential polls scheduled for March.
From The Zimbabwe Standard, 6 January
Mayoral posts to be scrapped
The Zanu PF government, facing a strong challenge from the opposition MDC, is to amend the Urban Councils Act to pave way for the abolition of the posts of executive mayor, sources close to the move have revealed to The Standard. The amendment will see the introduction of chief executives appointed by a board whose members will be chosen by the minister of local government, public works and national housing. Under the proposed amendments, prospective candidates will be required to submit their names and credentials to the parent ministry for consideration. "The whole format will be changed with the introduction of a chief executive who will be assisted by a board appointed by the minister. They will be taking over from the incumbent mayors," said the source. "Chegutu was the last mayoral election to be held, but I am not sure whether sitting mayors will be asked to step down. They will probably be allowed to finish their terms."
The terms of office of the executive mayors elected last year in Chegutu, Bulawayo and Masvingo, expire in 2004. Municipal mayoral elections for Chitungwiza, Harare and Gweru are due this year, while those for Mutare are due next year. The latest revelation adds weight to speculation that Zanu PF is determined to maintain its grip on Harare, which is currently being run by an appointed commission. Local government minister, Ignatius Chombo, last week extended the term of the Elijah Chanakira Commission by another six months, effectively circumventing the Supreme Court ruling that elections for the city were to be held by 11 February. Residents see the move as a ploy by the ruling party to avoid an embarrassing defeat just before the crucial presidential election scheduled for March.
Justice, legal and parliamentary affairs minister, Patrick Chinamasa, on Friday defended the move saying it was impossible to hold elections in February since the registrar-general’s office was currently preoccupied with the presidential election. When The Standard contacted Chinamasa for comment, he denied any intentions to amend the law in order to scrap executive mayoral posts. "I do not know where you are getting that information from. The Harare mayoral elections are to go ahead as directed by the Supreme Court, and Zanu PF is confident of winning the mayoral elections." However, the MDC election director, Paul Temba Nyathi, said his party was aware of the government’s intention. "We are hearing reports of that nature. Zanu PF is willing to do anything to stay in power. They know that they no longer have any support in the urban areas and it is possible for that they don’t want to continue to be embarrassed anymore by losing in the mayoral elections."
Zanu PF lost to the MDC in the three mayoral elections held in Chegutu, Masvingo and Bulawayo last year. In the 2000 parliamentary elections, the ruling party was whitewashed in Harare and Bulawayo and lost all other urban constituencies, save the peri-urban areas such as Chegutu and Bindura. Meanwhile, unperturbed by Zanu PF’s intentions, the MDC will be holding primary elections today to choose a mayoral candidate for Harare. The contesting candidates are Ian Makone, Elisha Mudzuri, David Samudzimu and Ian Kattie.
From The Observer (UK), 6 January
Zimbabwe's defiant exiles cry freedom over the airwaves
A cramped radio studio in a London suburb is an unlikely place to find a voice of freedom in Africa. But for many Zimbabweans it offers their only chance to escape state propaganda. Radio Africa started broadcasting to Zimbabwe from Britain just three weeks ago, sidestepping the regime of President Robert Mugabe, which has cracked down on the independent media. Created and run by Zimbabwean exiles, the station has already made waves back home by being unashamedly critical of the abuses of Mugabe's reign that has plunged the country into its worst economic crisis. 'The role we play in a place like Zimbabwe is crucial. Any time when all the work just seems too much, we just think of that and we carry on,' said Tererai Karimakwenda, one of the station's staff of seven.
The station began broadcasting on 19 December. It sends out a three-hour programme each night of news, features and music in Zimbabwe's three languages of Shona, Ndebele and English. In many rural areas - beyond the reach of Harare-based independent newspapers - the station is the sole non-state controlled source of news. It is the idea of Gerry Jackson, a former radio presenter with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. Jackson was fired from her job in 1997 after taking calls from listeners during riots in Harare. She then fought a long court battle to win the right to set up an independent radio station that ended with a court victory in 2000 and led to the creation of Capital FM in Harare. The station broadcast for just six days before gun-wielding police closed it down.
Jackson was forced into hiding. But now she is back on air after leaving Zimbabwe in November and raising the money for the station from human rights groups. The response from Zimbabweans so far has been huge. By using shortwave transmitters, Radio Africa reaches the whole country. Listeners can email in their numbers and be called back to allow them to take part in discussion shows. Topics such as Aids, the environment and violence against women have all received substantial airtime. Politics gets a high profile. In recent weeks several members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have been killed by government supporters. Radio Africa broadcast a call from a close friend of one of the victims who was speaking at a funeral. 'It was very moving. Everyone in the studio got a bit weepy,' Jackson said. Jackson wants to keep the exact location of the station secret because of Zimbabwean security agents who operate in Britain and have harassed opposition groups in London. Many of the callers decline to use their real names for fear of being identified by police.
Meanwhile, a violent spree by Mugabe's new militia has killed five members of the MDC. The party's leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe was 'teetering dangerously on the brink of a low intensity civil war'. Tsvangirai added that young men and women trained 'under the guise of a national service' were being used 'to terrorise their own parents'. Their deployment is the latest tactic used by the Zanu PF party to campaign for Mugabe, 77, who is running for election to another six-year term as president. The militia, or 'terror teens' as a local newspaper has dubbed them, are young men and women who are trained at national youth centres at government expense. During their 10-day course they have physical exercises, learn pro-government slogans and are trained in violent tactics, according to local reports. Some are trained how to use guns. The youths are provided military-style green uniforms and driven around in government vehicles and let loose on the country. The result is violence, mayhem and death.
From The Washington Post, 6 January
Diamonds in the rough, and more, found at chic hotel
Kinshasa - At the Grand Hotel, it was another typical Christmas season. The lobby was decorated with fake snow. Battery-operated white angels in red robes sang tinny Christmas carols. Neon lights shone brightly while much of the surrounding city of 5 million went without electricity amid a sweltering tropical summer. The boutiques that line the hotel's tiled hallways offered fashionable lingerie from Paris, imported whiskeys and the latest electronic gadgets. The few shoppers were the elite of the city: senior army officers from Angola, generals from Zimbabwe, Ukrainian mercenaries, Spanish diamond dealers and Kinshasa's most expensive hookers. "This place," said Finbar O'Reilly, a local journalist, "is like a bad acid trip." The hotel, once a part of the Inter-Continental chain but now run by Congo's struggling government, is a microcosm of the many problems that keep this country in the heart of Africa among the world's poorest, despite its immense natural resources, including diamonds, gold, uranium, copper and timber. Since a rebellion erupted in 1998, Congo, which is roughly the size of Western Europe, has been effectively partitioned into several autonomous regions, each under the control of a foreign army that systematically loots its area of control. As a result, Congo's plentiful resources enrich the leaders of surrounding countries while providing no benefit to the vast majority of Congolese or even to the foreign soldiers posted here, according to diplomats and recent U.N. studies.
Because of the high financial stakes, the war is in a lull but is unlikely to end anytime soon, diplomats and analysts say. "The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become mainly about access, control and trade of five key mineral resources: coltan, diamonds, copper, cobalt and gold," said a U.N. report published in April. "The wealth of the country is appealing and hard to resist in the context of lawlessness and the weakness of the central authority." Many of the war's few beneficiaries come from the countries that have helped the Congolese government survive the conflict. Since coming to the aid of Congolese ruler Laurent Kabila three years ago, a handful of countries have kept troops stationed in the western, government-controlled half of Congo. To pay for their support, Kabila granted his allies sizable chunks of the country's natural resources. Zimbabwe was estimated to have 11,000 troops in Congo a year ago, when fighting was still intense, and reportedly spent $1 million a day maintaining that force. In return, it was granted a major share in a partnership exploiting the richest diamond fields under government control, according to diplomats and sources in the diamond trade. Angola, Congo's neighbor, continues to position troops on the Congolese side of their shared border, both to support the Kinshasa government and to pursue its own war against Angolan rebels. In addition to compensating his battlefield allies, Kabila opened the country to virtually anyone who could pay to get in, according to diplomats and analysts. Many of the countries doing business here are on the State Department's list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
For example, in exchange for military training, Kabila allowed North Korea to mine uranium in the southern part of the country. Libya sold him desperately needed military hardware. Sudan chipped in with intelligence training, diplomats and political sources said. At the same time, Kabila courted the Israelis, French, Belgians, Americans and Chinese for loans, business investment and foreign aid. "Kabila dealt cards to everyone," said one longtime diplomat here. "The problem was, he couldn't pay everyone, so he traded away his country to meet his debts." Kabila's friends aren't the only foreigners helping themselves to Congolese wealth. In rebel-held eastern Congo, the backers of the rebellion are benefiting from the absence of government control. Rwanda, with some 17,000 troops there, and Uganda, with about 10,000, effectively control most of the east's timber, copper and cobalt fields, as well as important diamond-producing areas. Kabila was assassinated under mysterious circumstances a year ago and was succeeded by his son, Joseph, who has let stand most of the relationships his father initiated. Here in the capital, the spoils of war are in plain view. "You can say that Kinshasa is truly a melting pot of capitalism," said a European diplomat. "You have Lebanese diamond dealers working with Israeli diamond buyers. You have all the major powers, all of Africa, and the North Koreans and Chinese all doing business here. It is pure, brutal capitalism." And it is at the Grand Hotel that most of them meet and transact their business.
Angola and Zimbabwe house many of their officers not in army barracks but in this luxury establishment. They have breakfast not in a mess hall but at the hotel's buffet. In fact, most of hotel's inhabitants are official guests of the government and pay nothing - which keeps costs high for paying customers. Foreigners and senior government officials are practically the only people with access to the luxury goods offered in the hotel's shops, the only ones of their kind in the city. Most Congolese seeking to enter the hotel are stopped at the door and must provide a satisfactory explanation for what they want if they hope to get past the doormen. "The Grand Hotel is not really a part of the Congo," said one diamond dealer who has worked here for years. "It is a marketplace for anything, a place to come when you want to get away from the Congo and shop for anything - diamonds, weapons or a new pair of sunglasses. You can find it all."