|
Independent, UK
By
Ian Evans and a Special Correspondent in Manicaland
Tuesday, 15 July
2008
Foreign mercenaries have joined so-called "war veterans" and
militiamen
attacking opposition supporters in rural parts of Zimbabwe, human
rights
workers have confirmed.
Eyewitnesses say the men are more
vicious than their Zimbabwean
counterparts, with the marauding gangs
attacking suspected members of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
forcing them to renounce the party.
They dress in army fatigues, carry
Russian-made guns and are accompanied by
interpreters when out with the
militias.
Patrick Chitaka, the MDC chairman in Manicaland province in the
east of the
country, said the foreigners had been identified in the past two
to three
weeks supporting government-backed men.
Mr Chitaka said: "We
have observed that some of the people leading the
violence are foreigners
because they speak a different language and they do
not understand our local
languages.
"Also the tactics they are using are not peculiar with
Zimbabweans because
they are cutting out the tongue, removing eyes and
genital parts. We are not
sure where they come from."
It is the first
time reports of foreigners fighting alongside Zanu-PF have
surfaced. Since
losing the presidential vote on 29 March, Robert Mugabe and
an inner circle
of military and intelligence chiefs have launched a military
campaign of
violence against opposition areas which voted against him and
his
party.
More than 100 people have been killed, thousands injured and more
than
200,000 displaced as gangs target one-time MDC strongholds.
The
claims were supported by human rights workers in Manicaland last night.
A
spokesman for one group who did not want to be named said observers on the
ground had witnessed "tens, if not hundreds" of foreigners accompanying
government-backed militias. He said the soldiers were not from neighbouring
countries but were more likely from farther north in Africa, possibly
Rwanda, Kenya or Uganda.
Local people claim the irregular forces are
Hutus from Rwanda, but the human
rights representative said he could not be
definitive. There are an
estimated 4,000 Hutu refugees living in Zimbabwe,
some of whom took part in
the genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in
1994.
Many fled the country, seeking asylum after the killings, which
destabilised
neighbouring countries especially the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
The human rights official said: "These men do not speak any local
languages
and are extremely violent. They are attacking people in their
homes and as
they get off buses, giving them terrible beatings. We do not
know what these
people are doing in Zimbabwe. There is a problem identifying
these people.
You cannot go to the police because they say it is political -
they are not
interested."
The spokesman said observers in two
constituencies - Makoni South and Makoni
West - west of Zimbabwe's third
city of Mutare, had calculated there were up
to 200 foreigners spread across
both areas.
"There are between six and 10 foreigners in each base, and
there are 20 Zanu
bases in the two constituencies. They wear military
uniform, carry guns
especially shotguns which we think are Russian. They are
cruel and brutal.
Each unit has an interpreter who tells them what to do.
People here live
close to several borders and they know Portuguese from
Mozambique and
languages from Malawi and Zambia. They don't speak any of
those or English.
"The tongues are from much farther up north - Kenya,
Uganda or Rwanda."
Mr Chitaka added: "People are very scared of them
because they know no
bounds. They go house-to-house in MDC areas and beat
people and force them
to shout for Zanu-PF. The men then get their victims
to beat their
neighbours in the same way.
"They have gang-raped women
and abducted them. People are missing but
families are too afraid to look
for them."
Rwandan refugees fear they may be sent home if an MDC-led
government came to
power. Despite internationally backed efforts to
rehabilitate Hutu refugees,
fears remain among exiles that those returning
will face persecution from
the government of President Paul
Kagame.
Among those Hutus staying in Zimbabwe is said to be Protais
Mpiranya, the
former head of the Rwandan presidential guard during the 1994
genocide. He
is on the wanted list of the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda, but
is suspected to have strong business links with senior
Zimbabwe army
officers.
The United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees' representative in
Zimbabwe, Marcellin Hepie, said a change of
government would not necessarily
see repatriation of
refugees.
Oppression by numbers
*115 Movement for Democratic
Change supporters killed in attacks by police,
army, war veterans and ruling
party militia
*More than 200,000 displaced by the violence since the
elections on 29 March
*Three million at risk of starvation after ejection
of aid agencies by
government
*1,450 documented cases of
state-sponsored beatings, torture or assault of
opposition
supporters
*Inflation now running at two million per cent. There are
350bn Zimbabwe
dollars to the pound
VOA
By Chris Gande & Blessing Zulu
Washington
14 July 2008
Following last week's defeat
in the United Nations Security Council of a
U.S. resolution calling for more
sanctions on the Zimbabwean government, the
responsibility for finding a
solution to the country's post-election crisis
lies with the Southern
African Development Community and the African Union,
U.S. Ambassador to
Zimbabwe James McGee said Monday.
McGee said the U.S. and other Western
governments will continue to pursue
U.N. action, but added that "SADC and
the African Union do have to play the
major role. We're happy that we're
starting to see some movement among
leaders in SADC, in the African Union
saying the right things about
Zimbabwe. But saying the right things will not
resolve this problem in
Zimbabwe - we really do need to see firm action from
SADC and the African
Union."
McGee said the results of the March 29th
first election round, in which the
opposition claimed a majority in the
lower house of parliament and Movement
for Democratic Change founder Morgan
outpolled President Robert Mugabe,
should be the point of departure for
talks on a power-sharing arrangement
between the MDC and Mr. Mugabe's
ZANU-PF party.
"Anything after that has clearly been repudiated as an
illegal election, not
only by the Western countries but by SADC in their
statement and the African
Union in their statement," the ambassador said in
an interview conducted
live on Thursday's broadcast of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe by hosts Chris
Gande and Blessing Zulu.
McGee said reports
he was receiving squared with information from VOA
sources saying that
political violence had subsided somewhat. "From what
we're seeing, yes, that
is accurate, there has been a decrease in the
political violence, but it's
nothing more than, I think, a lull in the
storm. We're concerned that any
violence is too much violence. and there's
no way that this violence has
totally stopped. People are still being
displaced from their homes, people
are being kidnapped, people are being
murdered. Any, any violence is too
much violence."
McGee said the U.S. government would continue to provide
"as much assistance
to the people of Zimbabwe as possible," but "the
government of Zimbabwe has
to step up" as well.
Political violence has
targeted humanitarian activities and that the Harare
government "has to stop
this," he said. Non-governmental organizations must
be allowed to operate
freely "and until this happens we are going to
continue to have a problem in
Zimbabwe."
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com
15th
Jul 2008 00:16 GMT
By
Chenjerai Chitsaru
THE first secretary-general of the Organisation of
African Unity, the
Guinean diplomat Diallo Telli, died in a Conakry jail. He
was incarcerated
on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government of
Ahmed Sekou Toure,
one of the founders of the OAU.
The superstitious
among some of us loyal, patriotic and often dewy-eyed
admirers of African
leadership, have always linked his tragic, undignified,
untimely demise to
the misfortunes of, not only the OAU, but its successor,
the African
Union.
But others have picked on the allegations of malfeasance against
another OAU
chief as having jinxed Africa 's quest for total unity, but
particularly for
the urgent economic development of the
continent.
Some of this resort to an explanation of our woes originating
with what has
been called "black magic" by our detractors suggests most
analysts - African
or foreign - are at a loss to ascribe our failures to
"natural causes":
short-sighted planning, incompetence, or the
leaders'selfishness and greed.
That our progress towards pulling the
continent out of the trough of poverty
in which it has wallowed since the
end of colonialism has been slow cannot
now be disputed, even by
pan-Africanists, who say only the white devils
are to blame.
So, to
follow that line of least resistance, Africans who die while trying
to cross
the oceans to Europe, should blame the Italians, the Spaniards, the
Portuguese, the French, the British and the Greeks for making their passage
difficult, if not impossible. Not often do you hear anyone blaming the
African governments.
The other day, I watched, with the usual sense
of horror, a documentary made
in Bamako, Mali, of another group of Africans
condemned to wait forever - it
would seem - for Fate to intervene and allow
the Malian government to let
them cross the ocean to Europe to begin go
really live as human beings.
All of them have no papers to legitimise
their crossing. All of them spent a
lot of money to "buy" their way to
Bamako and then, hopefully, to the next,
final destination which would
eventually open the way for them to enter
Europe - and salvation from
poverty.
It's the poverty that drove them to such desperate straits, as
it ahs driven
Mexicans to risk life and limb trying to enter the United
States, and
Zimbabweans drowning as they try to cross the Limpopo into South
Africa .
One man said he sold his mother's annual harvest to raise the
money for the
attempt. He would not return to his home country to explain
why he had
failed - that he had spent her money but had not been able to
"buy" his way
to Europe. She would beg the ancestral spirits to punish him
most severely.
He said he would remain at the "ghetto" in Bamako until he
succeeded in his
mission.
Meanwhile, he and a colleague were busy
trying to launch a career as "rap"
singers, their songs obviously
concentrating on their plight as young people
unable to achieve their
potential because Africa may be united at the
leaders' lofty level, where
they massage each others' egos at every
opportunity, but falls short at the
people's level.
At that level, unfortunately, their concentration seems
to wander off to
other dimensions, mostly unrelated to the glaring
inequities of wealth on
the continent. It must be this capacity for their
attention span to wander
off which has enabled them - one is forced to
conclude - to dismiss the
crisis in Zimbabwe as a tiff between two
governments, Gordon Brown's and
Robert Mugabe's.
That many unarmed
people have been killed in so-called political
disturbances, that others
have died in hospitals without doctors, nurses and
drugs, the economy ruined
by the government's monumental mismanagement and
millions forced to flee
hunger and joblessness to neighbouring countries and
across the oceans seems
to be viewed as a natural consequence of this tiff
between Brown and
Mugabe.
China and Russia vetoed the Security Council resolution on
sanction against
Mugabe and his friends on the grounds that the crisis in
the country did not
constitute a threat to international peace and security.
It must be assumed
that the AU and the Southern Africa Development Community
(Sadc) did not
launch any spirited campaign to apprise these two former
bastions of
communism of the true plight of the people of Zimbabwe, apart
from the 14
intended to be targets of the sanctions.
At the G8 summit
in Hokkaido, Japan, the Russians had publicly joined the
others in endorsing
a sanctions resolution at the UN. But since the
communism in the former
Soviet Union, very strange people have run things in
that
federation.
But then one must consider Vladimir Putin's robust
disinclination to wander
off the Cold War path. He was for a long time a top
KGB man. He was for a
long time a top KGB MAN. The West, led by both Britain
and the United
States, have recently annoyed the man who still leads Russia,
although he is
now only the prime minister, in their bilateral relations,
the former over
the poisoning of a former KGB agent in London, the latter
over the
stationing of missiles in a former Soviet satellite
state.
The next logical step for the people of Zimbabwe could be to
confront China
and Russia where it could hurt them the most: their economic
interests in
Zimbabwe. It might be dismissed as a mosquito bite, but then
the anopheles
does inflict malaria, doesn't it?
Indirectly, this
could also challenge Mugabe's arrogance. So far, he has
virtually insulted
the people by insisting that "only God can remove me"
from power. The
scriptures may not confirm this in straightforward language,
but it stands
to reason that if people help themselves, God is bound to come
to their
aid.
Yahoo News
2
hours, 29 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States vowed Monday
not to abandon its efforts
to press Zimbabwe to stop attacking political
foes after the United Nations
failed to secure fresh
sanctions.
The United States will speak to "like-minded countries, in
Europe and around
the world, to see what we might do to keep the focus on
the issue of
Zimbabwe," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told
reporters.
These include the eight other countries that voted for the
US-sponsored
Security Council draft resolution that failed last Friday
because of vetos
from permament council members Russia and
China.
Voting for an assets freeze and a travel ban on President Robert
Mugabe and
13 of his cronies as well as an arms embargo were the United
States,
Britain, France, Burkina Faso, Belgium, Costa Rica, Italy, Panama
and
Croatia.
"Part of the idea is to work with like-minded nations,
not only to try to
influence Zimbabwe, but try to influence those with
influence on Zimbabwe
and their decision-making apparatus," McCormack said,
referring to South
Africa.
South Africa, Libya and Vietnam voted
against the resolution. Indonesia
abstained.
"But we'll continue to
talk to the Russians and the Chinese, although they
have clearly not
expressed the depth of commitment to the issue that we
have, and those other
eight countries have," the US spokesman said.
"If Zimbabwe continues down
this road, it will continue spiraling downward
economically, as well as
politically," McCormack said.
It was the first double veto by Russia and
China since January 2007 when
they vetoed a draft resolution in the
15-member council that would have
urged Myanmar to ease repression and
release political prisoners.
"Countries who voted against it were on the
wrong side of history,"
McCormack said.
Sponsors of the draft said
the sanctions were needed to pressure Mugabe into
stopping the violence
against his political foes and agreeing to a genuine
power sharing deal with
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mugabe was re-elected in a run-off
last month after Tsvangirai pulled out,
citing a campaign of intimidation
and violence against his supporters that
had killed dozens and injured
thousands.
Middle East Times
By MARC S.
ELLENBOGEN (UPI International Columnist)Published: July 14, 2008
RABAT,
Morocco, July 14 (UPI) -- African leaders, led by South Africa's
Thabo
Mbeki, have blathered diligently and said nothing about the
disgraceful
conduct of Zimbabwe's strongman Robert Mugabe. The notable
exceptions are
the ANC's Chairman Jacob Zuma and Nigeria's former president,
Olusegun
Obasanjo. It is revolting that African leaders can let Africans be
slaughtered by a petty criminal of the highest order.
The grand
suggestion to come out of the African Union meeting in Egypt is as
half-witted as it is an insult to African people. You asked Mugabe to form a
unity government in Zimbabwe -- which he promptly and arrogantly rejected,
walking embarrassingly over all of you in the process. WOW, guys, it must
have taken a great deal of brainstorming to come up with that idea. First,
Mugabe steals the votes, murders his opponents, violently beats his own
people -- yours as well -- and then the best suggestion you have is a unity
government.
If the approach to Rhodesia had been as halfhearted as
your clarion call in
Egypt, there might just still be a white government in
Salisbury. In those
days you fought for human rights, asked for boycotts of
Ian Smith's
government. You called for violent action and were even prepared
to use it.
I gather, and maybe I am daft, that there is a difference when
whites are
slime-bags compared with one of your brethren.
I am
wondering if you are suggesting justice is indeed a matter of color.
Whites,
it seems, should not be racists or criminal, but it is perfectly
acceptable
when it is one of your own. I am more than happy to be corrected
on this
issue. Personally, I think racism should be rejected in all its
forms.
The fact is that while Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai are both
Shona, most of
the conflicts in Africa are tribal-based. You can call us
racists all you
want, you may call us colonialists, and you may say we cut
up your land in
an unfair way.
It is mostly -- and regrettably --
true.
But African leadership since the fall of colonialism has been
abysmal. You,
the leaders, have mostly stolen from your own people, treated
democratic
principles with contempt, bought as many weapons as you could
from anyone
willing to sell them to you while your own people have wasted
away.
African culture is old and esteemed. Africa has its own rules. Many
of us in
the West do not understand African rituals, tongues and tribal
identities.
We barely know any of your languages, and when we do, probably
speak them
badly.
But surely you cannot accept the culling of your
own friends, families,
children, women and seniors. I know elders are of
prime importance in
Africa. Is that why you are not standing up to Robert
Mugabe, despite his
revolting criminal behavior?
Students often ask
me about Africa. They know I have advised projects there.
They know I invite
people of color to give guest lectures. And they -- the
Africans, Europeans
and Asians -- do not understand your reaction to Mugabe
at all. I have given
up trying to explain it to them. Frankly, I am the
wrong person to do so.
They should be hearing it from you, not me.
They should be hearing you --
all of you, and not just the few who have done
so -- condemning Mugabe's
actions. They should be seeing you stridently
fighting to bring down his
government. They should hear you using words that
give them hope that you
believe in human rights, fairness, justice and the
rule of
law.
Personally, I think Robert Mugabe deserves to be offed -- before or
after a
trial. His actions themselves warrant punishment. His treatment of
Zimbabweans is shameful. I am pained watching it happen. Are you not pained
as well? Some might think he is paying you hush money, and giving you
weapons, and thus it is easy to turn a blind eye to justice. Never mind the
economic, social and health effects it is having on all of southern
Africa.
I have met Robert Mugabe. He was a guest of the Global Panel
Foundation in
the early '90s. Back then the world thought he would bring his
country --
once the breadbasket of Africa -- back to
civilization.
At a small dinner he spoke of the need for an independent
Africa, good
leadership, the rule of law and integrity. He was indeed
charming,
thoughtful and intense. But we all know the flip side of
brilliance is
insanity.
This "white boy" asks you step over your
shadow and solve a problem that
only you can solve. Having the Russians and
Chinese veto the recent U.N.
Security Council resolution is a pathetic first
step.
--
(UPI International Columnist Marc S. Ellenbogen is
chairman of the Berlin,
Copenhagen and Sydney-based Global Panel Foundation
and president of the
Prague Society for International
Cooperation.)
--
(e-mail: ellenbogen@globalanel.org)
Kenya Today
By
KITSEPILE NYATHI, NATION Correspondent in HARARE
Last updated: 4 hours
ago
Zimbabwe's churches and civic groups, who are critical of South
African
President Thabo Mbeki's mediation efforts, say they have started
holding
talks with the major political parties to find a home grown solution
to the
political impasse in their country.
This fallows reports that
negotiations between the ruling Zanu PF and the
Movement for Democratic
Change factions stalled over the weekend because of
continued violence
against opposition supporters.
They say the parallel mediation effort led
by the Harare based Centre for
Peace Initiatives in Africa (CPIA) a regional
conflict resolution and
management centre, would speed up efforts to end the
crisis caused by
President Robert Mugabe's controversial re-election on June
27.
Governance in the Southern African country has been in a limbo since
Mr
Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF lost its parliamentary majority to the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change in the March elections.
Despite
claiming a landslide victory in the presidential run-off election
where the
major contender, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC was forced to
withdraw
because of escalating violence against his supporters, Mr Mugabe
cannot form
a new government without the opposition.
Currently meeting
Zanu PF
and MDC negotiators are currently meeting in South Africa to discuss
possibilities of the two groups forming a government of national unity or a
transitional authority that would lead to fresh elections. But few
Zimbabweans are giving the dialogue a chance because of the seemingly wide
differences between the two parties.
Churches and civic groups
complain that the talks are not inclusive enough
and that President Thabo
Mbeki has done little to consult other players
outside Zanu PF and the two
MDC factions.
"We resolved at a conference that was attended by all
political parties
except Zanu PF that there must be a local solution to the
problems facing
our country because all along the African Union and the
Southern African
Development Community have encouraged us to resolve our
differences
internally," said Reverend Max Chinogwida, the CPIA deputy
director.
He said the CPIA would use its experience as a conflict
resolution center to
facilitate an all inclusive dialogue by inviting all
stakeholders into the
negotiating table.
"Zimbabweans are very
experienced in conflict resolution as they helped
bring peace to Angola,
Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo, so
as soon as an
opportunity avails itself we will start the dialogue," he
said.
Forbes
Jens F. Laurson and George A.
Pieler 07.14.08, 6:00 PM ET
The tragic situation in Zimbabwe appears
intractable, but it shouldn't be
and it isn't. An astute blend of principled
involvement and pure
self-interest on the part of African and Western
governments can yet rescue
Zimbabweans from the combined tyranny of Robert
Mugabe and the Zimbabwe
African National Union (ZANU) that oppresses
them.
Too many Western commentators mistook Mugabe's ineptitude in
rigging the
first round of Zimbabwe's election for a general lack of
ruthlessness or
even a drift toward democracy. Yet that first-round loss
reinvigorated
Mugabe and his cronies. All in two days, the run-off election
was held, the
votes counted and Mugabe was declared the winner and sworn
in--when in March
it took six weeks just to release "official
results."
A brutal awakening for those who expected a democratic change
of government,
Mugabe and his military backers have returned to violence,
suppression,
intimidation and murder. After all, Mugabe--who sees himself
chosen by God
to lead Zimbabwe--is above any law. According to him, he and
he alone
expresses the "will" of Zimbabweans; no outside pressure, political
nor
economic, need be listened to. Perhaps the West's underestimation of
Mugabe
was as much strategic as it was wishful thinking. Where optimism
rules, kind
wishes and words of support suffice; action isn't necessary. But
action
might have made a difference--from the West, which belatedly labeled
the
election a farce--but especially from Zimbabwe's neighbors.
With
South Africa as the designated mediator, these members of the South
African
Development Council and the African Union (A.U.) have failed
utterly, and
not for the first time. Fears of a Zimbabwean precedent that
could rebel
against them makes African leaders, democratic or not, wary of
direct
intervention in Harare's regime change. Only a few, like Kenya's
Raila
Odinga, dare call for Zimbabwe's expulsion from the A.U. Odinga, of
course,
narrowly won his own election in the face of violence and
intimidation, with
the help of outside pressure. He knows the score, as it
were.
Even if
the AU and the West don't care enough about the rights of the
Zimbabwean
people, who are dying from economic genocide as well as armed
assault (with
weapons provided by China and South Africa, whose moniker of
"neutral
moderator" ought to have been stripped away long ago), their
self-interest
should push them to act before their own countries are
over-run by
Zimbabwean refuges. Southern Africa in particular can only
benefit from a
democratically elected government in Zimbabwe, one that is
free not just of
Mugabe but the ZANU hierarchy that props him up.
At last week's summit,
G-8 advocates ratcheted up sanctions on the Mugabe
circle. The U.S. wanted
an arms embargo from the U.N. That would have been
fine, but even that was
too much for China, Russia and South Africa, which
vetoed the plan.
Sanctions alone, however tight, have no record of bringing
about a change in
leadership. They helped in South Africa, but only as part
of a multi-front
assault on apartheid as a regime and as an abhorrent
political concept. It
was in the interest of South Africans, black and
white, to change--and
change they did.
In Zimbabwe, as in South Africa, the role of the private
sector is key. No
one will invest in an economy in freefall, as Zimbabwe's
is. Whether Western
interests (mining, tobacco and finance) should withdraw
or set themselves up
as drivers of change is a question that demands careful
and urgent
consideration. As hosts of this year's Olympics and the 2010
World Cup,
China and South Africa should understand that they won't profit
from serving
as the last props of a defunct yet still dangerous
dictator.
The appeal to self-interest isn't cynical, nor does it presume
a lack of
idealism among Zimbabwe's neighbors and commercial associates. The
West
operates the same way: principles shrouded by cheap talk and actions
that
result only from self-interest. Merging the two can bring splendid
results,
and may yet do so for Zimbabwe. The country has ample natural and
human
resources, albeit not the strategic kind, like oil, that really
motivate
potential interveners. For better or worse, only self-interest will
turn
meaningless statements and bold rhetoric into real action. The
landmarks of
shame--Rwanda, Kosovo, Darfur--are too many already. We don't
need any more.
For Europe and the U.S., realpolitik means understanding
they can never
outbid China, Russia or any other conscience-free competitor
in supplying
investment-as-aid to Southern Africa. Nor can they live off
talk and symbols
alone while still retaining the respect of Africans. For
the West, the trump
card is freedom and democracy, nurturing the aspirations
of Zimbabwe's
suppressed population and among the country's true friends.
You might even
say that is what the Bush doctrine demands.
Jens F.
Laurson is editor in chief of the International Affairs Forum.
George A.
Pieler is Senior Fellow with the Institute for Policy Innovation
Zim Online
by Mutumwa Mawere Tuesday 15 July
2008
OPINION: The veto of a draft United Nations resolution
sponsored by the US
and UK governments to impose an arms embargo against
Zimbabwe as well as an
asset freeze and travel ban on President Robert
Mugabe and 13 of his
colleagues was as predictable as it was inevitable
given the composition of
the Security Council.
Naturally, Mugabe must
have been excited in learning that what he considers
to be a plot by his
Western detractors to effect regime change by any means
necessary had
failed.
Zimbabwe exposed the emergence of a new cold war at the world
stage
characterised by a contestation on what kind of values ought to
dominate and
inform global conversations on the role of the UN in a world
characterised
by a lack of universally agreed standards on how to handle
absurd situations
as that prevailing in Zimbabwe where an incumbent is
determined to cling to
power at all costs.
It would have been naïve
to expect Russia and China to support a resolution
whose long-term
implications on countries that do not fully subscribe to
democratic
principles and values could be devastating and poisonous.
If Mugabe was
Chinese or Russian, there is no doubt that he would have been
considered a
hero of the national democratic revolution. It would be absurd
to expect the
Chinese and Russians to find anything wrong with what they
generally
consider to be a domestic housekeeping issue.
The Chinese and Russians
may not fully agree with Mugabe's naïve approach to
democracy in that he
allowed the situation to get out of hand by not
successfully rigging the
elections.
Former President Vladimir Putin and now Prime Minister of
Russia
demonstrated that succession can be manipulatively
managed.
The Chinese political system is not capable of creating a person
like Morgan
Tsvangirai and it is the case that they are not used to a
situation where an
incumbent deeply rooted in an ideology where citizen
choice is not an
operative word in political decision-making is successfully
challenged by a
person supported by the West.
If Tsvangirai was a
Russian or Chinese opposition leader, his fate would not
lie in a negotiated
settlement mediated by a foreign party.
By allowing the situation in
Zimbabwe, Mugabe is generally seen as having
betrayed the cause and creating
a dangerous precedent for the club of
leaders who believe that equality,
freedom and justice are luxuries.
The AU has not found any fault with the
manner in which Mugabe handled the
run-off election and it is evident that
he enjoys the support of many in
salvaging a situation that had gone out of
hand.
Many of the people who support the notion of a government of
national unity
are fully convinced that Tsvangirai does not fit the profile
of what they
would like to see as a successor to Mugabe.
In Africa as
it is in many developing countries, anyone who is disliked by
the West
easily enjoys the support of those that seek to change the global
distribution of power and the foundation of the multilateral
institutions.
The energy crisis has repositioned the Chinese and Russian
brands.
The emergence of sovereign wealth funds as drivers of the global
economy
suggests that the US and Europe must revise the manner in which they
relate
to global issues including attempts to impose their value system in a
world
where the powerful always have their way.
Mugabe will argue
convincingly that if George Bush and Tony Blair could have
their way in Iraq
and Afghanistan, he should not be treated differently in
terms of
suppressing and intimidating his adversaries.
Although China and Russia
have not proved themselves as reliable development
partners to Africa, it is
not clear how Zimbabwe will benefit from the show
down on the sanctions
issue particularly if Mugabe wants sanctions to be
lifted by the very
countries that are opposed to his ways.
The fact that the targeted
persons were all black notwithstanding the fact
that the economy of Zimbabwe
is still sustained and driven by companies
whose owners are domiciled in the
West leads many to question the motives
behind the push for sanctions whose
real impact has more to do with
embarrassing Mugabe and his colleagues than
promoting real change.
The targeted sanctions have so far failed to
produce the desired results.
If anything, they have helped bolster
Mugabe's assertion that the Zimbabwean
political and economic crisis is a
creation of the West.
Mugabe has not accepted that he bears any personal
responsibility for the
economic decay and he still holds the view that his
continued leadership is
indispensable to the survival of the
nation.
It is instructive that His Excellency Boniface Chidyausiku,
Zimbabwe's
Permanent Representative to the UN greeted the blocking of the
draft
resolution by saying: "It's a reflection of the rule of law in the
United
Nations that nobody has monopoly on how things should be in the
Security
Council. Reason has prevailed. Adopting this resolution will set a
dangerous
precedence and will only serve to undermine the ongoing dialogue
between the
political parties, and risks worsening the political and
socio-economic
situation in the country, and will affect other countries in
the region."
What may not be obvious to Chidyausiku is that it has been
generally
accepted that the rule of law in Zimbabwe is now a luxury for a
few who
believe that they are more Zimbabwean than others.
It must be
accepted that the climate in Zimbabwe is now so poisonous that it
will take
more than negotiations of the three political parties to restore
the country
to normalcy.
Even the Chinese and Russians would agree that Zimbabwe
needs to turn a new
page and the future of the country lies in a renewal of
leadership.
It is now universally accepted that losing will never be part
of Mugabe's
vocabulary.
He knows no limit when it comes to the energy
and tactics he will use to
stay in power no matter how
distasteful.
Mugabe is a natural warrior, never more energised than when
faced with a
towering foe.
Mugabe came into the March 29 election
confident and in the June 27 run-off
emotionally scarred by the
loss.
He must be bewildered and deeply hurt by the personal attacks on
him and his
targeting as a "bad boy" when he thinks that he has been the
best leader for
Zimbabwe.
He has accumulated more than enough
repressed anger to fuel him to go
through a 1 000-year war oblivious of the
damage his reign has on the
country he purports to love.
He remains
unapologetic about his actions and must be angry to be accused of
human
rights abuses by the West.
He genuinely believes that sanctions must be
imposed on Bush, Blair and
Gordon Brown rather than on him.
To Mugabe
war is an important metaphor. He believes that politics is war and
that war
means any instrument, any tool, any means to achieve his end.
He is a
fighter and regards the Security Council victory as a vindication of
the
justice of his methods.
Whether Zimbabwe's better day is still possible
with Mugabe at the helm is a
question that should occupy the minds of
Zimbabweans rather than the
Security Council.
The Zimbabwean case is
an unusual one requiring a creative and innovative
way to release the
country from its current political gridlock.
Mugabe had calculated after
the negotiated constitutional amendments
effected before the elections that
he was going to win the election and
would then proceed to amend the
constitution with a parliamentary majority.
The current arithmetic of the
composition of the new parliament does not
give him much room to
manoeuvre.
As a crafty politician he will argue that any negotiation must
start from
the premise that he is the legitimate head of state and the March
election's
outcome had constitutional consequences including the
run-off.
The outcome of the Security Council vote on sanctions may have
the effect of
giving him new hope that he can have his way with
impunity.
If he cannot get the sanctions to be lifted by the West, there
may be no
real incentive for him to negotiate in good faith, especially when
he knows
that any outcome that may leave him with unfettered powers may not
be
acceptable even to his friends in Africa. - ZimOnline
From the Zimbabwe Vigil
14th July 2008
Our partner organisation in Zimbabwe, Restoration of
Human Rights (ROHR), is
launching an ongoing arts festival in an effort to
counter political
violence. It is working with Zimbabwe Poets for Human
Rights (ZPHR) and
their first event will be held in Kadoma (Rimuka Hall/
John Mack Hall) on
Saturday, 19th July.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
a)
To promote active participation of citizens in the healing process of
the
nation through promoting tolerance and urging citizens to work as one.
b)
To encourage the youth to desist from any kind of sponsored violence.
c)
To nurture a culture of peace and one love in the post run off
election
period.
d) To advocate for the respect, recognition and restoration of
human
rights as the basis of achieving one love, one people and one
nation.
For further details check the ROHR page on the Zimvigil
website.
Vigil co-ordinator
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy,
429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to
protest against gross violations of
human rights by the current regime in
Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
The Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:01am
BST 15/07/2008
The situation in the African country is
worsening by the day - but
people in Britain can still take action, writes
Alice Klein
With unemployment rife and poverty now affecting 80 per
cent of the
population, Zimbabwe is a human catastrophe unfolding before our
eyes. As
Russia and China veto UN security council sanctions against the
country, it
may feel like little or nothing can be done to
help.
Yet small acts can make a big difference, as was demonstrated
earlier
this month, when we featured The Zimbabwean - an independent
newspaper
edited in the UK but distributed in Zimbabwe.
It says
there was a terrific response from readers, many of whom
bought gift
subscriptions and wanted to know what else they could do. Here
are 10 other
simple but significant suggestions that can have a real impact:
1.
Donate to charities such as Zane (www.zane.
uk.com) and Homes in
Zimbabwe (www.justgiving.com/hiz), which work
with people on the ground to
provide medication, care and food to elderly
British nationals who are
living in residential homes or on their own
farms.
2. Send a message of support via the faith-based charity
Tearfund,
which is still operating through local churches
(www.tearfund.org/zimbabweprayer).
Karyn Beattie, of Tearfund, says: "Every
time I forward on these messages, I
get a reply saying 'Thank you', as it
means so much to know that people in
the rest of the world have not
forgotten about them."
advertisement
3. GardenAfrica (www.gardenafrica.org.uk) trains
teachers, parents and
rural smallholders to cultivate food on a small scale
within fenced-off
school grounds, with techniques that use less energy and
water. This means
people can use their new skills at home to grow fruit and
vegetables, which
is especially important for those living with HIV since it
helps them to eat
a more nutritious diet.
4. Take out a
subscription with the independent Zimbabwe-owned Mail
and Guardian (www.mg.co.za) or The Zimbabwean (www.thezimbabwean.co.uk), as
mentioned above.
5. Donate old clothes, shoes, blankets and
toothbrushes to Vimba
(www.vimba.co.uk). Run by five UK-based
Zimbabwean and South African women,
the organisation is sending a shipment
to an orphanage in Zimbabwe at the
end of this month.
6.
Zimbabwean nurse Coral MacKenzie worked for the Island Hospice in
Harare for
14 years before emigrating to England in 2000. She sends medical
equipment
back to Zimbabwe and will be grateful for items like unused
dressings,
bandages, plasters, catheters, cotton buds, syringes and
scissors. Send
information of any equipment that you could donate to
coral.mackenzie@homecall.co.uk.
7. Earlier this month, London Mayor Boris Johnson terminated Transport
for
London's contract with the Munich-based firm Giesecke & Devrient, which
was manufacturing Oyster cards, after the company was found to be providing
banknotes to Mugabe's central bank. Write to your local MP and ask them to
demand a boycott of any other companies with links to Zimbabwe. If you do
not know the name of your local MP, try
http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/commons/l/.
8. Join the Zimbabwe Vigil Coalition, a group that has been meeting
outside
the Zimbabwe Embassy in London every Saturday since 2002 to protest
against
human rights abuses under Mugabe's regime (www.zimvigil.co.uk).
9. Do not
travel to Zimbabwe. Not only does the Foreign Office advise
against it on
safety grounds, but the money you spend on an entry visa (£35)
and
travelling within the country will all go to prop up Mugabe's
regime.
10. Write to Zimbabwe's government and ask them to lift the
ban on
non-political charities and aid organisations so they can continue
their
work (HE Mr Gabriel Mharadze Machinga, Embassy of the Republic of
Zimbabwe,
Zimbabwe House, 429 Strand, London, WC2R 0JR).
Meanwhile, continue donating to charities such as Oxfam, which is
supporting
some 7,000 Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa, and Save the
Children, which
is waiting to resume the delivery of health care, clean
water and basic
sanitation supplies to vulnerable children.
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
14 July
2008
Health experts and others in Zimbabwe say rape and other
forms of sexual
abuse have become common as ruling party youth militia
continue to terrorize
rural and urban communities.
The opposition
Movement for Democratic Change formation led by Morgan
Tsvangirai says some
2,000 members were raped or otherwise sexually abused
following March 29
elections.
Former Harare North member of parliament Trudy Stevenson has
launched a
campaign to raise awareness, saying she feared that rape as a
political
weapon would continue, urging women and girls affected to seek
medical
treatment to minimize the risk of infection with HIV.
"It is
important for these victims and all potential victims...to know that
they
can get help and that they need to act quickly for the anti-HIV and
emergency contraception medication to be most effective," Stevenson wrote
recently in an open letter.
Dr Douglas Gwatidzo, chairman of the
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for
Human Rights, told reporter Carole
Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
that many victims may not be
reporting rape due to cultural taboos, but may
be in serious need of medical
attention.
|
http://www.inthenews.co.uk
Tuesday, 15 Jul 2008 00:01
Zimbabwe's
ruling Zanu-PF party is seeking to completely destroy all further
political
opposition, it has been claimed.
Author Lauren St John told
inthenews.co.uk youth militia and party
operatives have been systematically
targeting those who did not vote in the
June 27th runoff vote, punishing
them with beatings and torture.
Operation Red Finger, as it is called,
saw those who did not back Mr Mugabe
subjected to horrific abuse in a
campaign "which will not now finish until
all opposition is
destroyed".
"Everyone that did vote had their finger dipped in indelible
red ink. So
they could hunt those who did not," she explained.
"My
father was confronted by a war veteran. They came for my Dad. He told
them,
legitimately thank God, that his authorised polling station was more
than an
hour's journey away and he didn't have the petrol to get to the
polling
station."
Ms St John's comments come as she publishes a book on her own
experiences in
the country, Rainbow's End: An African Memoir.
Her
father's neighbours, the Campbells, were recently abducted by Zanu-PF
because of their support for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
Members of their family are now mounting a legal challenge to
the situation
in Namibia.
"People are so incredibly desperate, I
can't tell you," she added.
"What's disturbing is that the same people
that were fighting for freedom
and for justice and for equality are now the
same people that are
destroying. and have no truck for equality and seem
intent in reducing the
country to famine."
Ms St John is concerned by
the rate of hyperinflation is helping cement Mr
Mugabe's position in power.
At around 100,000 last year, inflation is
expected to hit eight billion per
cent this year.
"Given that a minimum of 80 per cent of people are out of
a job. anyone that
can get work by helping Zanu-PF probably will. The
tragedy of Zimbabwe is
not just the horror of what's happening - we're in
completely uncharted
economic territory."
Mr Mugabe has cut
international aid from abroad amid harsh criticism from
the global
community.
But despite the UN security council's vetoed resolution
punishing his
regime, Ms St John remains positive about the international
response to
recent events in Zimbabwe.
She fears the actions of other
countries will not make a real difference on
the ground,
however.
"The rhetoric of the outside world will not be any help to
somebody who has
no idea where to get tonight's food," she explained.
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
14 July
2008
Zimbabweans are again facing acute cash
shortages and long lines at banks, a
development economists attribute to
unremitting hyperinflation combined with
last month's decision by a German
printing firm to cut off the central
bank's supply of banknote
paper.
Sources in Harare reported long lines at banks and other financial
institutions with few automated teller machines in service.
In
Bulawayo most people are said to be relying on the parallel market to
obtain
cash - only companies and civil servants are turning to banks to meet
their
needs.
Sources in Mutare, in eastern Zimbabwe, said most consumers are
trading in
and out of hard currencies like the dollar to preserve the value
of their
money against roaring inflation.
Economist Godfrey Kanyenze,
director of the Labor and Economic Development
Research Institute of
Zimbabwe, told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
hyperinflation has combined with the loss of the
paper source to create a
cash crunch.
Mutare resident Brendan Dhliwayo explained how he is coping
with the
shortages.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
14 July
2008
Post-election political violence in Zimbabwe has diminished
in some parts of
the country from the levels seen in May and June,
nongovernmental and
political sources said, but others noted that attacks on
members of the
opposition continue at a high rate in certain
districts.
Violence remains a common occurrence in Shamva North
constituency of
Mashonaland Central province, and parts of Mashonaland East
province
continue to see violence though most of the "torture bases" set up
by ruling
party militia are said to have been dismantled.
In
Manicaland, reports of violence continued to emerge from Buhera and
Makoni
South, but sources familiar with the area said conditions were
improving
elsewhere.
Officials of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
declined to
comment as to any decline in violence, cessation of which is an
MDC
precondition for entering into substantive discussions with the ruling
ZANU-PF party on sharing power.
Political violence sprang up after
the March 29 general and presidential
elections in which the MDC claimed a
majority in the lower house of
parliament and opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai outpolled incumbent
President Robert Mugabe. Attacks on rural
communities that voted for the
opposition gave way to more targeted assaults
on opposition supporters and
officials, more than 100 of whom the MDC says
have been killed since March
29.
Opposition lawyer Tapera Sengweni of
Gokwe, Midlands province, who this week
visited some opposition victims of
violence who have been denied treatment
in a local hospital, told VOA
reporter Jonga Kandemiiri that Gokwe-Kabuyuni
remains a troubled area
Thanks to the pusillanimity of the
African Union and the Southern African Development Community, insufficient
pressure has been brought to bear on Robert Mugabe to force him to agree to an
acceptable power-sharing deal. As a result, the crisis will bleed on for many more months, as the collapsed economy leads to mass starvation and hundreds of thousands more desperate refugees flee into neighbouring countries, particularly South Africa. That's the view of veteran journalist Allister Sparks who expresses hope that President Thabo Mbeki, 'whose timid mediation is largely to blame for this alarming situation', has a plan in mind to accommodate this human flood so that South Africa doesn't experience a recurrence of the xenophobic violence that did so much damage in May to the country's battered international image. In a column in The Star, Sparks says Mugabe will not agree to serve in a unity government of which he is not the leader - and certainly not in one led by Morgan Tsvangirai. 'Tsvangirai will not agree to serve in a unity government led by Mugabe, whom he beat decisively in the March 29 election. He is not fool enough to be emasculated the way the old Zapu leader, Joshua Nkomo, was when Mugabe sucked him into a unity deal in the 1980s. He also knows his party would reject him if he headed that way. The crunch may well come when the Mugabe regime - which we now know is in fact a military junta - runs out of money and can no longer pay its soldiers. But that is still some distance away. Meanwhile, the refugees are on their way.' Full column in The Star Also see an assessment in Business Day |
Zim Daily
By Tatenda Moyo
Monday
14 July 2008
The majority of Zimbabwe's baking companies, about 80
percent, have
temporarily ceased operations as the country faces serious
flour shortages.
The country's leading bakers Lobels, Bakers Inn and
Superbake, which employs
more than 50 percent of the industry's total labour
force, are among the
casualties.
As the country runs out of wheat after a
failed winter wheat season last
year, ZimDaily has learnt that 368 bakers,
members of the National Bakers'
Association (NBA) have not received adequate
flour supplies from millers.
An NBA official who spoke to ZimDaily
said work stoppages are continuing
daily.
"If the situation
continues like this we are going to see a total extinction
of bread from our
shops," said the official.
The official also said efforts to import
flour had hit a snag after the
government added rolls and twists on the
controlled products list.
The controlled selling price of bread is
$440 million a loaf but bakers get
flour from millers at over US$35 (ZW$2, 1
trillion) per 50kg.
Meanwhile ,the country's largest retailers have
reduced their opening hours.
Some shops have reduced the number of shelves
to accommodate the few
commodities in stock.
Zimbabwe's economy
is going through its darkest hour as the Robert Mugabe
regime continues to
effect its repressive economic policies against a
background of political
strife.
Analysts have warned that the country's economy of over 10
million percent
will not allow business to operate any longer.
Los Angeles Daily News
By Michelle
Faul, The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 07/13/2008 09:04:21 PM
PDT
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Robert Mugabe's brazen power grab in
Zimbabwe's
election saga has left cracks in one of African leaders' unspoken
rules:
Never turn on one of your own.
The fact that even several
nations are refusing to recognize Zimbabwe's
ruler of 28 years marks an
unprecedented change in Africa that offers a
glimmer of hope for a brighter,
more democratic future.
A younger generation of African leaders appears
willing to break from the
clubbiness that has characterized the governing
elites on this continent
where authoritarian rule has long been the
norm.
Among the most outspoken has been Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the
Liberian
president who is the continent's only female leader.
On a
visit to South Africa this week, she was the first African leader to
support
proposed U.N. sanctions against Zimbabwe's leaders, saying they send
a
"strong message" that the world will not tolerate violence to retain
power.
"It's important, because it's the first time that we are
seeing on the
African continent that leadership has transitioned from the
old
perceptions," said Chris Maroleng, a South African political
analyst.
"We're seeing more leaders beginning to embrace their own
democratic
notion," he added.
They include Zambian President Levy
Mwanawasa, a lawyer who is his country's
third leader since independence in
1964; former army commander Seretse Ian
Khama of Botswana, Africa's most
enduring democracy; and Nigeria's Umar
Yar'Adua, only the third civilian
leader since 1966, though he still is
fighting a court battle over his
fraud-riddled election.
Mugabe's June 27 runoff "was neither free nor
fair and therefore the
legitimacy of his presidency is in question. He
cannot wish that away,"
Kenya's Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula told The
Associated Press.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who won the most
votes in March
elections, withdrew from the runoff against Mugabe after
weeks of
military-orchestrated violence left dozens of his supporters dead,
thousands
severely beaten and thousands more homeless as they were chased
from
villages, fled attacks or had their houses burned down.
Two days
after the vote, Mugabe was declared the winner and flew to an
African Union
summit in Egypt where he was seen hugging many leaders,
gaining the veneer
of legitimacy that he sought.
"President Mugabe was accepted by his peers
... so he is legitimate,"
Congo's Foreign Ministry spokesman Claude Kamanga
Mutond said.
But a few voices of dissent have cropped up across
Africa.
"The violence that preceded the election was so intense that the
results did
not reflect the wishes of the people of Zimbabwe," Sierra
Leone's Foreign
Minister Zainab Bangura said.
Rwanda also condemned
the election, as did Senegal.
While some presidents were reported to have
had harsh private words for
Mugabe, the vast majority chose the traditional
path of not putting public
pressure on a fellow leader, ignoring U.N. and
Western calls for tough
action.
Many feared being seen as doing the
bidding of the West. And Mugabe, despite
his destruction of his country,
still is seen by many Africans as a hero who
defeated the white-minority
rulers of then-Rhodesia and then drove whites
off land considered stolen
from blacks. Mugabe's seizure of commercial
white-owned farms broke the
backbone of the country's economy.
Youth Forum Position on
the veto decision by Russia and China on Zim
Youth Forum Zimbabwe is
greatly disturbed by the decision taken by the above
stated countries in
line with travel ban and financial sanctions on Mugabe
and 13 of his top
cronies. We totally concur with UK foreign minister's
sentiments that, '
China and Russia 's stance is incomprehensible' and the
statement by Sir
John Sawers that, 'the people of Zimbabwe need to be given
hope that there
is an end in sight to their suffering', yet it is totally
opposite to such
expectations. ' Russia and China have indeed stood with
Mugabe against the
people of Zimbabwe .' Countries with double standards
like Russia are really
a threat to global development and partnership with
such countries must be
done with ultra care. We take this as promotion and
licensing gross human
rights abuses, for China it is not the first time, it
is less than two
months ago when they sold arms to this nation despite being
fully aware of
the abuse of such weapons by the state and it is
disappointing that Russia
has also joined the bandwagon.
With 113 people having been killed, 5000
missing and 200 000 displaced by
the Mugabe regime we expect the
international community to take a leading
role in condemning the political
mess which is being perpetrated by ZANU PF
under the auspices Robert
Mugabe's sovereignty and empowerment. As youths we
are the most vulnerable
age group since the majority of us are poverty
stricken despite being the
greater part of the population. The political,
social and economic
conditions have persistently deteriorated to pariah
levels and we cannot
imagine the levels to be reached in the next two months
at most with Mugabe
a failure, tyrant and a saboteur at the helm. We urge AU
and SADC to be
rational enough to see that the majority of Zimbabweans
cannot take anymore
of Mugabe's nonsense. The pressure on Mugabe should
increase as each day
progresses. This nation can no longer afford even a
single minute with
Mugabe as a leader. It is only Mugabe and his cronies who
are holding this
country at ransom against the will of the people as
expressed by the March
29 harmonized election. We maintain that real talks
can prevail if human
rights violations being perpetrated by the state come
to an end without such
a scenario it is just a a waste of time to look
forward to find a lasting
solution from the 'talks'. We also insist that
they should reflect the
people's will and not the politicians' will.
Youth Forum Information and
Publicity Department
Contact: +263 913 014 693, +263 913 022 368
Website:
www.youthforum.org.zw
Trócaire
Date: 14 Jul 2008
Trócaire, the overseas development agency,
has said today that it is
bitterly disappointed at the failure of the UN
security council to impose
sanctions against Zimbabwe.
'Once again
the international community has failed the ordinary people of
Zimbabwe,'
said Justin Kilcullen, Trócaire's director. 'Failure to introduce
sanctions
means that the illegal regime can still purchase arms, can send
the
country's wealth into banks abroad and Robert Mugabe and his cronies can
travel the world with impunity.'
'Meanwhile the ordinary people of
Zimbabwe continue to be subjected to
violence at the hands of the regime,
experience massive inflation and a
shortage of basic items including food,'
Mr. Kilcullen continued. 'How can
we take international institutions such as
the UN seriously when they fail
to protect vulnerable people when it is in
their power to do so?'
Mr. Kilcullen concluded, 'China and Russia bear
particular responsibility
for the continuation of a totally unacceptable
situation in Zimbabwe.'
Yahoo News
Robert Dreyfuss Mon Jul
14, 10:59 AM ET
The Nation -- There's no defense for the ugliness in
Sudan and Zimbabwe. But
US policy in connection with those two problematic
nations is running into a
buzzsaw. In both cases, the United States is
acting clumsily, and it is
facing stiff opposition from Russia, China, and
many African nations.
Two obvious conclusions: the Bush
Administration's muddled pursuit of
democracy-by-force has made the entire
world suspicious of America's motives
in world crises, especially when
they're tied to possible armed
intervention. And confronting nations'
real-world strategic interests, such
as China's interest in Sudan, under the
guise of humanitarian concerns won't
fly, after Iraq.
First, there's
the indictment today of Sudan's President Bashir by the
International
Criminal Court (ICC), the Hague-based body that was rejected
by the Bush
Administration but is now embraced by Washington over Sudan. The
indictment,
not a surprise, was widely feared by world diplomats, who
concluded that the
consequences of indicting the Sudanese president were
unpredictable and
probably both dangerous and counterproductive.
It's the first indictment
of a sitting head of state since the ICC was
founded in 2002. But Bashir
will resist the charges, and no one is going to
charge into Sudan to arrest
him. Meanwhile, UN diplomats and peacekeepers
worry that Sudan will react
forcefully, making the situation in Darfur in
southwestern Sudan worse. The
African Union issued a statement over the
weekend warning against "the
misuse of indictments against African
leaders" -- perhaps thinking, too, of
Zimbabwe. Both Russia and China (which
has close economic ties to Sudan and
its oil) were against the indictments,
too.
Australia is already
reconsidering its planned deployment of peacekeepers to
Sudan, fearing
greater violence. The Arab League is having an emergency
meeting over the
crisis.
Then, Zimbabwe. Over the weekend, Russia and China cast a double
veto
against proposed economic sanctions against Robert Mugabe's government.
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilizad, the one-man wrecking ball and neocon
strategist who represents the United States at the UN, blasted Russia for
its veto. "The U-turn in the Russian position is particularly surprising and
disturbing," said Zal-Khal. "They decided to make a point on this issue, to
say nyet. Something happened in Moscow." Zal-Khal also accused South
Africa's President Mbeki of trying to start fake negotiations to bring about
a coalition government in Zimbabwe. Fake or not, the talks are stalemated,
but continuing.
Russia has flatly denied making any "U-turn." And
Russia's top diplomats are
blistering Khalilzad. Not a good omen.
Ekklesia, UK
By
staff writers
14 Jul 2008
The United Reformed Church (URC) has urged local
congregations to take
action to support Zimbabweans living in Britain, as
its national officers
pledge to bring influence to bear on government over
the continuing crisis
in the southern African nation.
The URC has
warned of the gradual "implosion" of Zimbabwe. The Church
condemned tactics
employed by the ruling ZANU-PF party, and added its voice
to those calling
for the establishment of a transitional government to
negotiate a framework
for political and economic recovery.
Simon Loveitt, URC convenor for
church and society, introducing a resolution
to the Church's general
assembly, meeting in Edinburgh on Saturday 12 July
2008, declared: "We have
all watched with growing alarm and disbelief,
Zimbabwe gradually imploding.
The increasing violence and intimidation by
government supporters of its
citizens, has been very distressing to witness".
In response, the URC
agreed to ask local congregations to offer hospitality
and support to
Zimbabweans living among them, and to continue praying for
justice and peace
to be restored to Zimbabwe.
A delegation will seek to discuss the
Church's concerns with Britain's
Foreign Secretary as soon as
possible.
Other British churches are also discussing and coordinating
their response
ecumenically through Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
(CTBI).
Despite the paucity of statistics in
Zimbabwe due to the near collapse
of
the system, it is possible to
analyse the present economic situation
based
on what we know of the
fundamentals.
It is clear that inflation is now at record levels
exceeding the
experience of other countries who have gone
through
such a phase and that economic activity has slumped to new
lows. The traffic
in the towns are a clear indication of this.
If what we believe is
happening, the GDP will have slumped to a new
low of about 40 per cent of
the level achieved 10 years ago. It certainly
will decline by 12 per cent or
more this year alone. This process is being
driven by falls in the real
output of all industries and sectors of the
economy.Even mining, despite
high international prices and demand and some
new investment in the platinum
sector, physical output is falling.
Industry seems to be the most
affected at present and whereas output
last year would have been about 60
per cent of 1998 levels, by the end of
2008 it will be perhaps half of this
- driven by a cocktail of problems from
power shortages, to foreign exchange
shortages and price controls. Tourism
shows
no sign of recovery and
if it is actually possible, farm output is in
steep decline driven by
insecurity and lawlessness, low prices and the
shortage of virtually all
inputs.
The inflation spiral we are in is being fed by a massive
budget
deficit -funded by printing money mainly, and by the abuse of the
foreign
exchange system. The latter is being managed both to reduce the real
value
of remittances to Zimbabwe and to allow those associated with the
regime to
secure hard currency at very low "official exchange " rates. This
is
tantamount to printing money as the RTGS system is used to buy hard
currency
on the local market at massive premiums.
Unable to
cope with the very rapid depreciation of the currency and
watching their
working capital being consumed by inflation, business
organisations are now
simply closing down. Major wholesalers and retailers
are particularly
affected as there are no credit facilities available and
they are unable to
finance their stocks. A serious breakdown of the
distribution chain has
taken place. Manufacturers are not far behind and
only those who are
exporting a majority of their output are surviving.
In the mining
sector, threats of nationalization without compensation
together with the
continued control of marketing and the use of the
interbank rate for the
payment of local currency for a proportion of export
sales and the
maintenance of an artificial price for gold, is
affecting returns and
confidence. This, coupled to shortages of essential
inputs and electrical
energy, are further curbing output and investment.
In the
agricultural industry, maize production in the past season is
now estimated
as only 425 000 tonnes while winter cereal production looks as
if it will
only be a fraction of last years output. This is due to a
shortage of inputs
as well as continued farm invasions and insecurity.
Tobacco sales are down
on last year and it is expected that output could
decline again this year
due to uncertainty and the non-availability of
essential supplies and
electricity. Oilseed production is down and for the
first time there
is
a shortage of tea, fruit and sugar - all normally in free
supply.
One immediate consequence of this situation is a critical
shortage of
all basic foods. What little is available is now priced at
levels
significantly above those prevailing in South Africa - a reversal of
the
historical
relationship. This situation is so serious that it
is likely to result
in mass starvation if it is not attended to soon.
Political controls over
the supply and sales of food are now universal and
seriously affecting the
welfare of those in the cities and in the rural
areas who supported
the MDC.
One of the new consequences of
this state of affairs is the inability
of staff in all State controlled
institutions to cope with the
situation.Poorly paid at best and with
salaries that simply cannot keep up
with the inflation, they are unable to
maintain their standard of living.
Many State departments and services are
collapsing. How the PTC and ZESA are
maintaining their activities is
anyone's guess.
Couple this situation with the widespread violence
and intimidation
and you
can understand why millions of people are
on the move. They are
desperately
trying to get out of the country
- to anywhere that might offer a
means of
support and shelter.
South Africa is the main destination and I simply
cannot even imagine
how many people are moving south on a daily basis.
Today a local
businessman said to me that traffic from South Africa to
Bulawayo was
running at 25 pick ups per hour to the City and 4 times
that
number
to Harare. This is as South African migrants respond to the
increasing
desperation of their families at home.
The Zanu PF regime shows no
sign of understanding or being even
willing to
do what is required
to bring this situation under control. I cannot
believe
that they
do not know what to do - its quite simple really but needs
political
will and a determination to get things right. Both seem to
be
almost completely absent.
I said to a friend recently that Mugabe
and Zanu PF are like a small
boy who
has been chasing a large bull
in a field. At last the bull has stopped
and
they have the bull by
the tail - but they have no idea what to do with
it
and run the
risk that this will annoy the bull that, with further
irritation, might
turn around and toss the kid into the bush with its
horns.
The
other danger for the kid is that the bull will do what comes
naturally
and Zanu PF will find itself covered in you know
what!
Whatever, the kid is not in charge of the bull and they know
it - but
they
simply do not know what to do - the wise thing would
be to drop the
tail and
run. But then Zanu PF is not given to
wisdom - in any field.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 12th July
2008
http://www.dailypress.com
July 14, 2008
On the day the Colombian military
freed Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other
long-held hostages, the Italian
Parliament passed yet another resolution
demanding her release. France had
made her an honorary citizen of Paris,
passed several resolutions and held
many vigils for her.
Europe had long ago adopted this French-Colombian
politician as a cause
celebre. Unfortunately, karma doesn't easily cross the
Atlantic Ocean.
Betancourt languished for six years in cruel captivity until
freed by a
brilliant operation conducted by the Colombian military,
intelligence
agencies and special forces -- an operation so well executed,
the captors
were overpowered without a shot.
This, in foreign policy
establishment circles, is called "hard power." In
the Bush years, hard power
is terribly out of fashion, seen as a mere
obsession of cowboys and neocons.
In Europe and America, the sophisticates
worship at the altar of "soft
power" -- the use of diplomatic and moral
resources to achieve one's
ends.
Europe luxuriates in soft power - nowhere more than in l'affaire
Betancourt,
in which Europe's repeated gestures of solidarity hovered
somewhere between
the fatuous and the destructive. Europe had been pressing
the Colombian
government to negotiate for the hostages. Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez
offered to mediate. Of course, we know from documents captured
in a daring
Colombian army raid into Ecuador in March -- your standard
hard-power
operation duly denounced by that perfect repository of soft
power, the
Organization of American States -- that Chavez had been secretly
financing
and pulling the strings of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia. These
negotiations would have been Chavez's opportunity to gain
recognition and
legitimacy for his terrorist
client.
Betancourt was, however, only one of the high-minded
West's many causes.
Solemn condemnations have been issued from every forum
of soft-power
fecklessness -- the European Union, the United Nations, the
G-8 foreign
ministers -- demanding that Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe stop
butchering his
opponents and step down. Before that, the cause du jour was
Burma, where a
vicious dictatorship allowed thousands of cyclone victims to
die by denying
them independently delivered foreign aid - lest it weaken the
junta's grip
on power. And then there's Darfur in Sudan, a perennial for
which myriad
diplomats and foreign policy experts have devoted uncountable
hours at the
finest five-star hotels to deplore the genocide and urgently
urge relief.
What's done to free these people? Nothing. Everyone knows
that it will take
the hardest of hard power to remove the oppressors in
Zimbabwe, Burma, Sudan
and other godforsaken places where the bad guys have
the guns and use them.
And who's going to intervene? The only country
that could is the country
that in the past two decades led coalitions that
liberated Kuwait, Bosnia,
Kosovo and Afghanistan: America. But having
sacrificed much blood and
treasure in its latest endeavor -- the liberation
of 25 million Iraqis from
the most barbarous tyranny of all and its
replacement with what's beginning
to emerge as the Arab world's first
democracy -- and having earned
near-universal condemnation for its pains,
America has absolutely no
appetite for such missions.
And so the
innocent languish, as did Betancourt, until some local power -
inexplicably
under the sway of the President Bush notion of hard power, gets
it done --
often with the support of the American military. Upon her
liberation,
Betancourt offered profuse thanks to God and the Virgin Mary, to
her
supporters and the media, to France and Colombia and just about
everybody
else.
As of this writing, none to the United
States.
Krauthammer is a columnist with The Washington Post. Send
e-mail to
letters@charleskrauthammer.com.
