Washington Post
A bounty of food relief
sits unused in Zimbabwe
Claim of bumper crop ties aid
groups' hands
Craig
Timberg / The Washington Post
Children at
the Deli Primary School in Umguza, Zimbabwe, line up for an enriched corn and
soy porridge provided by the U.N. World Food Program. |
|
By
Craig Timberg
Updated: 12:50 a.m. ET July 20,
2004
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe - Giant bags
of cornmeal, labeled "USA" for the country that donated them, sit stacked 40
high in a U.N. warehouse on the outskirts of this city. Together with the
cooking oil, beans and high-protein meal for porridge also stored here, there is
enough to feed hundreds of thousands of people.
But there is no plan to do
so.
President Robert Mugabe, the only
ruler Zimbabwe has had in the 24 years since the end of white rule, has
announced that a bumper harvest will produce more than enough food for the
country this year, for the first time since 2000.
That means officials of the U.N.
World Food Program, which like other aid groups operates only at government
request, have little choice but to ignore the evidence around them -- the brown
and withered fields, the beggars on the street, and the hungry faces in
townships less than a mile from the warehouse, one of several the United Nations
maintains in Zimbabwe.
So the
World Food Program and other international aid groups here are in retreat. They
are cutting staff, dismantling their distribution networks and wondering who, if
anyone, will help Zimbabweans who have relied on U.N. feeding centers over the
past three years. At the peak in 2003, the U.N. facilities fed more than 6.5
million people, more than half the nation's population of 12 million.
"We have to accept the
government's forecasts of a bumper harvest," said Mike Huggins, a spokesman for
U.N. feeding programs in southern Africa. "We only hope that people with no
source of income will be able to access some of that surplus."
Few independent observers here
believe there will be a surplus. In June, U.N. special envoy James Morris warned
that as many as 5 million people in the country may need food aid in the coming
year.
Mugabe's government has
restricted information, shut down newspapers and criticized people who disagree
with its pronouncements. In May, it suspended the crop estimate program
conducted annually by the government in concert with U.N. officials.
Mugabe has attacked aid groups as
a threat to his party and made clear his willingness to expel them if they defy
his wishes. A cabinet minister last month told provincial governors they should
not hesitate to tell groups that fail to coordinate their activities with the
government "to pack their bags and go," according to the government-run
Chronicle newspaper in Bulawayo.
Overgrown and untended
As aid
groups scale back their operations, Zimbabweans are left increasingly
vulnerable.
|
Craig Timberg / The Washington Post
There are 14 million metric tons of
donated food in aWorld Food Program warehouse in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, including
these bags of corn meal, the country's staple.
|
In Bulawayo, the
nation's second-largest city, some residents eke out a living smuggling in goods
from South Africa or Botswana to sell on street corners or in flea markets.
Others stay with their parents, grandparents or cousins, one of whom might have
a steady job.
In the townships and rural areas,
where poverty is more severe, people are skipping meals to protect their stocks
of cornmeal, which figures show have more than quintupled in price since April.
Overall, the annual inflation rate is nearly 400 percent, according to
government figures.
Cornmeal is central to life
throughout the country. It is typically boiled into sadza, a stiff, sticky mush
that often is eaten by hand. Prosperous Zimbabweans have sadza as a side dish
with chicken or beef. But many poorer residents eat it at nearly every meal,
often with no other food.
The corn harvest, once so
bountiful that Zimbabwe exported food, has fallen sharply since 2000, the year
Mugabe began violent land seizures of thousands of commercial farms owned by
whites. Most of the white farmers have since fled the country, and the farms
have been run by the government or doled out, generally to government cronies
with little expertise in agriculture.
U.N. figures show Zimbabwe
produced 2.1 million metric tons of corn in 2000, but less than 500,000 in
2002.
Yields improved to 800,000 last
year, and some Zimbabweans say that better rains are making for a bigger harvest
this year. Corn cobs almost fill the storage bins at some farms outside
Bulawayo. But many other farms throughout the country appear overgrown and
untended, the fields all but reclaimed by nature.
Official government estimates are
that this year's corn harvest will be nearly triple the size of last year's,
which would make it the best since 1996, when the country was still considered
the breadbasket of southern Africa.
Mugabe told Britain's Sky News in
May that those days were returning and the need for food aid had ended. "We are
not hungry. It should go to hungrier people, hungrier countries than ourselves,"
Mugabe said. "Why foist this food upon us? We don't want to be choked. We have
enough."
Political tactic
Controlling
the food supply has long been used as a political tactic by Mugabe's party,
according to observers and human rights activists, who say that as elections
approach, the governing party rewards supporters with 50-kilogram, or about
110-pound, bags of cornmeal and withholds them from opponents.
Independent news reports indicate
that Mugabe's camp is buying cornmeal from neighboring countries and storing it
in warehouses ahead of national parliamentary elections in March.
As the election season nears, the
Christian aid group World Vision also finds itself caught in the nation's
political dynamics. World Vision announced two weeks ago that it was ending its
general feeding program in Zimbabwe, which at its height delivered food to 1.5
million people a month.
"The government has made it clear
to all agencies . . . that they do not expect a food aid operation," said Rudo
Kwaramba, the top World Vision official in the country. "One has to be wise, if
I may use that term, in the prevailing socioeconomic-political environment in
Zimbabwe. You try the best that you can to maintain your operations."
Instead of feeding centers open
to all hungry people, the United Nations and World Vision have shifted their
focus to targeted programs at schools, orphanages and medical clinics.
The government has not yet sought
to curtail those efforts, and if they continue, much of the food in the Bulawayo
warehouse may be distributed over the course of coming months.
One recent morning at the Deli
Primary School in Umguza, a rural area about 45 miles northwest of Bulawayo,
students lined up with empty bowls in their hands. Awaiting them were steaming
pots of an enriched corn and soy porridge, courtesy of the United
Nations.
It was nearly 11 a.m., and for
most of these children, it was their first meal of the day. They sat on brown
grass, not far from dried cow dung left by cattle sharing the school's field,
and scooped food into their mouths in the traditional way, with two fingers.
Through such targeted programs,
the United Nations still hopes to provide food to 550,000 Zimbabweans next
year.
But unless the government changes
its mind, the United Nations does not intend to restart the general feeding
centers that once fed 10 times that number.
"The government will want to be
the one giving out food," said John Makumbe, a political science professor at
the University of Zimbabwe in the capital, Harare. "You have your party card,
you get your food. You don't get your party card . . . you don't get your
food."
© 2004 The
Washington Post Company
New Zimbabwe
Top cop Chihuri named in car-theft racket
By Staff
Reporter
Last updated: 07/20/2004 09:58:56
ZIMBABWE'S chief of police,
Commissioner Augustine Chihuri was nearly jailed
10 years ago over a
car-theft racket, according to new sensational claims by
a former police
officer.
Leo Chikomba told Zimbabwe's indepedent SW Radio Africa that
Zimbabwe's top
cop corruptly authorised the release of two stolen vehicles
that had been
impounded by police in Southerton, Harare.
He got away
on a technicality after the presiding Judge noted that he had
duped the then
Police Commissioner Henry Mukurazhizha into signing the
release
papers.
After his freedom he went on a purge of officers who had
investigated him
and succeeded into hounding them from the force. Last month
Chihuri fired
the chief staff officer in charge of internal investigations,
senior
assistant commissioner Ngonidzashe Gambiza.
"Gambiza's crime
was that he stumbled upon damning information implicating
Chihuri in a car
theft racket," SW Radio reported.
Chikomba said if Gambiza was to
challenge his dismissal in court he would
win the case and expose Chihuri as
one of he most corrupt Commissioners in
Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe Government Plans Mass Rigging of
Elections
By Godfrey Karoro
Rusape, Zimbabwe, July 19, 2004 - Rusape is known
in Zimbabwe for the wrong reasons. The small agricultural town has become the
center of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF)
when it comes to innovative ways of keeping President Robert Mugabe's autocratic
government in power.
Following the dismal showing of Zanu-PF in the 2000
parliamentary and 2002 presidential elections in the country's major cities,
Rusape, located 170 kms east of the capital Harare on the high way to the
eastern border city of Mutare, initiated the idea of banning opposition politics
and declaring it a one-party area.
In this respect, all residents of Rusape and those
passing through the area are expected to carry with them Zanu-PF party
membership cards. Already in rural Rusape, chiefs and headmen are required to
ensure that everyone has a party card, which costs 1,000 Zimbabwe dollars (less
than 20 US cents), a sum most rural people cannot afford to part with in this
hostile economic climate.
The town and its environs were also the first to
ban all independent newspapers from being sold there. Only government-owned and
run newspapers - full of propaganda praise worshipping the ruling party and its
leadership -- are allowed to circulate in the town. Two years ago, former editor
of the banned 'Daily News' Geoffrey Nyarota, incensed by the ban of his paper,
approached Didymus Mutasa to enquire why the 'Daily News' papers were being
burnt or torn, while newspaper vendors found with the publication were
thoroughly beaten.
Mutasa, a veteran politician and a member of
parliament representing one of the constituencies in the area, is believed to be
behind all the political problems in the town and has thus been nicknamed 'the
Rusape War Lord'. He is currently the minister in charge of corruption in the
president's office.
According to Nyarota, who is now based in the
United States, Mutasa pleaded ignorance that independent papers were not
allowed, but conceded that if the people of Rusape did not want the papers there
was nothing he could do about it.
Nyarota took the bull by the horns and spent the
whole day in Rusape selling the paper himself. But that was only for that day.
Come the following day the youths were at it once again burning the 'Daily News'
and terrorizing vendors found with the paper.
Only this month, a traveler on his way to the
eastern highlands, a tourist Mecca renowned for its cool weather, rugged terrain
carpeted with thousands of hectares of exotic and indigenous fauna and flora in
national parks, received a rude awakening when he was roughed up a bit for
bringing the 'Financial Gazette' and the 'Independent' weekly newspaper into the
no-go town.
Thugs from the youth wing of the Zanu-PF party make
sporadic forays into people's homes and go on the rampage beating up all
suspected opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters and
officials. Reports say the worst escapades of the unruly youths include throwing
bodies of opposition cadres into the Rusape River.
"Next year's parliamentary elections will not be a
walk in the park," a youth leader in the town said innocently. "Unlike during
the 2000 elections, this time we will make sure that there is no one from the
opposition who will be allowed to stay in this town. We are going to apply the
tactics used during the liberation war. Those from the opposition will be
severely dealt with and we will not allow relatives to bury the victims before
they explain their relationship and which side they are on."
The youth leader, who is unemployed and spends his
time spying on residents of Vengere township, revealed that the ruling party in
Rusape had already received from Zanu-PF headquarters in Harare eight Landrover
trucks and "a lot of money" to be used during the campaign period.
"We have already started mobilizing all the youth
so that they remain vigilant. President (Robert) Mugabe has already told the
youth that they should be at the forefront of the election campaign. This
election will be against (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair," he said parroting
Mugabe's words during the youth congress held in early July.
"We must teach the MDC a lesson across the whole
country that Zimbabwe will never be a colony again. Go and Work. If we lose the
elections, I will expect you in the youth league to be answerable," Mugabe
exhorted the youths who gathered at the University of Zimbabwe campus for the
national congress.
"We are fighting Blair. It is an anti-Blair
election and we must win it and demonstrate to him that Zimbabwe shall never be
a colony. This will be the anti-Blair elections to seal the ruling Zanu-PF
party's victory over the British prime minister and his local puppets - the
MDC."
Taking a cue from Rusape, other small towns across
the country are also adopting the same weird and primitive tactics of
intimidating opposition supporters, banning independent newspapers from
circulating in their areas and preparing the youths to take center-stage during
the run-up to the 2005 parliamentary elections.
The ruling party on its part has not been idle, but
has come up with ingenious though incredulous methods of making sure that
Zanu-PF, in power since independence from Britain in 1980 after a protracted
liberation war, will win, if not all the 120 seats in parliament, but at least
achieve a two-thirds majority to legally allow it to change the country's
constitution at will and strengthen its iron grip on power.
The Mugabe regime has decided to renovate the
controversial youth training camps used to produce cadres indoctrinated enough
to work -- mind, body and spirit -- for Zanu-PF especially during the
forthcoming elections. The cash-strapped government will spend an unbudgeted 500
million Zimbabwe dollars (approximately 10,000 US dollars) in order to train
more than 6,000 youths before the March 2005 vote. These would be deployed to
strengthen the ruling party's electoral machinery.
The training camps, according to insiders, would
also be used as militia bases and house the youth wing during the campaign,
which is expected to be violent following Mugabe's utterances at the youth
congress.
The Mugabe regime is also accused of planning to
use food as a political weapon, following claims that the southern African
country has enough food to feed all its people, despite facts on the ground
indicating a serious shortage of the staple cereal maize following poor harvests
across the country.
According to the South African Grain Information
Service, Zimbabwe has imported more than 168,000 tonnes of maize from the United
States, Argentine and South Africa and more than 50,000 tonnes of wheat, despite
claims that the country will produce a record 2.4 million tones of cereals,
enough to feed the 11 million people and livestock.
International donor agencies, like the World Food
Programme, have warned that the country will harvest less than 900,000 tonnes
and that about 2.3 million Zimbabweans will face starvation if they do not get
supplementary food rations.
Observers, however, argue that Mugabe is portraying
a bumper harvest in order to keep out donors who will give all needy people food
aid as opposed to the government, which will use its party structures to
distribute food to Zanu-PF members only. Such a scenario would force opposition
members to go begging in exchange for a Zanu-PF vote.
"They have a plan to starve people to death for
political ends, to get everyone aligned to their party at all costs," Catholic
Archbishop of Bulawayo Pius Ncube pointed out. During the presidential elections
in 2002, the government tried in vain to thwart efforts by donor countries and
agencies to distribute food to all and sundry, using Zanu-PF youths on several
instances to raid food distribution centers.
The Mugabe regime has also threatened to ban all
civic organizations operating in the country, unless they tow the Zanu-PF line.
The government has accused local and international NGOs, lawyers and media
practitioners of siding with the MDC and stealthily and covertly campaigning for
the opposition party while performing their humanitarian chores across the
country.
According to observers, the craftiest method to
ensure Zanu-PF wins the March poll are the cosmetic changes made by Mugabe to
the electoral system. The 80-year-old president approved sweeping electoral
reforms, albeit because of massive pressure from erstwhile comrades-in-arms from
the region. These include the introduction of an independent electoral
commission, voting over one day instead of two, the use of transparent ballot
boxes in place of wooden ones and the counting of votes at polling
centers.
The reforms are supposed to comply with Southern
African Development Community (SADC) Principles and Guidelines Governing
Democratic Elections draft which encourages SADC member-states to establish
impartial, all-inclusive, competent and accountable national electoral bodies
staffed by qualified personnel, as well as competent legal entities including
effective constitutional courts to arbitrate in the event of disputes arising
from the conduct of elections.
The draft also urges member-states to safeguard
human and civil liberties of all citizens, including freedom of movement,
assembly, association, expression and campaigning. Further, SADC states are
encouraged to take necessary measures and precautions to prevent the
perpetration of fraud, rigging, or any other illegal practices throughout the
whole electoral process.
However, Mugabe has taken steps to legitimize the
2005 elections by circumventing the guidelines where it suits him. Firstly, he
has unashamedly banned election observers from any western country to monitor
the plebiscite, in the hope that monitors from SADC, Africa and the third world
might give the elections a thumbs up and declare them free and fair even if they
are marred by violence and rigging. "We will not allow the erstwhile
imperialists to judge our elections," he bellowed.
The ageing president has also given himself powers
to appoint members of the 'independent' electoral commission, which might
include the Registrar General, Tobaiwa Mudede, who has been accused of rigging
previous elections in favour of Zanu-PF.
According to the official Herald newspaper, the
proposed new Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) will be "independent of
government" and replace the current supervisors, including the Registrar General
and the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC). Mugabe will select five of the
seven ZEC candidates proposed by parliament.
"I am sceptical about the changes. How independent
can the new commission be when its chair is going to be appointed by the leader
of a political party? In fact, the new commission will be less independent than
some of its counterparts in the region," commented John Makumbe, a political
analyst.
However, Zanu-PF head of information, Nathan
Shamuyarira, explained that all candidates nominated to sit on the commission,
including its chairperson, would be proposed by parliament and not by the
president. "The entire electoral process will be handled by the new commission.
We will have nothing to do with it."
Unconvinced, the MDC has described the reforms as a
way of trying to fool the international community. The opposition party wants,
as a basis for free and fair elections, the youth militias to be demobilised,
draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Public
Order and Security Act to be repealed. The opposition is also demanding that all
radio and television channels to be made accessible to other voices and not be
used as propaganda tools by the ruling party. In addition, the MDC wants the
government to unban the 'Daily News', its sister paper 'Daily News on Sunday'
and other media banned from operating from Zimbabwe such as the British
Broadcasting Corporation.
"The Mugabe regime must not be allowed to get away
with murder," an irate human rights lawyer here said. Mugabe just wants the
world to endorse his vote rigging and perpetuate his grip on power. The playing
field must be made even now to allow all political parties to campaign freely.
Otherwise, the poll should be declared null and void even before it is held."
(GK)
Zim Online
SHAMUYARIRA ADMITS INTERNAL ZANU PF FEUDS
Tues 20 July
2004
HARARE: ZANU PF secretary for information and publicity
Nathan
Shamuyarira has conceded that there is infighting within the ruling
party as
it prepares for its crunch five yearly congress in December. But he
said
internal political feuding was not exclusive to ZANU PF. It was
prevalent in
several other political organizations, including powerful
western
governments.
Shamuyarira had been asked to respond to
information that serious
internal feuding in the ruling party was on the
verge of tearing it apart.
Shamuyarira said this was not the case. The
feuding would not be allowed to
destroy ZANU PF.
ZANU PF
insiders say the inner-party hostilities have intensified
greatly as factions
vying to succeed President Robert Mugabe try to position
their candidates
ahead of the December congress. They say the serious
infighting in some
instances manifests itself in state media reports trying
to discredit
potential contenders to Mugabe's throne.
For instance, Special
Affairs Minister John Nkomo has been subjected
to vitriolic attacks in the
state media over the past few months. These
attacks are believed to be
inspired by Information and Publicity Minister
Jonathan Moyo, who seems
determined to derail Nkomo's ambitions to succeed
Mugabe.
Nkomo
has been trying to force Moyo, as well as other multiple farm
owners, to
relinquish extra farms - but to no avail. Some of the farms have
been
registered in the names of relatives. Moyo denied owning more than one
farm
in a Herald report last week, saying the other farm in question in
Hwange
had been withdrawn from his ownership a long time ago. He then said
the farm
had been allocated to his cousin, Mrs Jackie Mayers.
He did not
explain why the same farm had been allocated to a close
relative of his after
being repossessed from him, despite
there being thousands of other
Zimbabweans in need of land. Moyo is
known to be good friends with
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, who was
responsible for allocating
previously white owned farms.
Because of his differences with Nkomo
over land, Moyo is said to have
vowed he would do all he could to sabotage
Nkomo's potential ascension to
the throne. Other senior party officials like
Shamuyarira himself and
Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa have also
come under heavy attack
from state media controlled by Moyo. It is believed
Moyo is trying to
promote a candidate from his own camp, which comprises Made
and Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa.
Insiders say Moyo also
wants to promote himself as a potential
candidate for succession, but add
that there is "no place under the sun" for
Moyo to be President of Zimbabwe.
In fact his political career could be over
as soon as Mugabe is out of
power.
The vicious infighting between Nkomo and Moyo also came to
the fore
when Nkomo indirectly accused Moyo of trying to "destroy ZANU PF
from
within" after having failed to do so from outside in a recent
press
interview.
Another highly influential ZANU PF official,
Solomon Mujuru, is at the
same time said to be fighting hard to ensure
Mnangagwa is completely
excluded from the succession bid. Mnangagwa himself
is doing all he can to
secure the necessary support
from the
provinces. A new vice president to replace the late Joshua
Nkomo will be
elected at the December Congress. Whoever is elected to the
position is seen
as Mugabe's likely successor.
Shamuyarira conceded that there was
some infighting but played down
its crisis potential. "The little fights are
happening but they do not
necessarily mean we are tearing the party apart. It
is necessary to have
those. It is healthy. The infighting demonstrates that
there is democracy in
Zanu PF, which should not be a serious problem to
anyone," Shamuyarira
told Zim Online.
He said ZANU PF
politicians could not be expected to agree on
everything because they had
different backgrounds. "There are ambitious peop
le within our party who also
have their agendas......," said Shamuyarira.
Zim Online
Zim Online
Britain tightens visa requirements for Zimbabweans
Tues
20 July 2004
THE British Embassy in Harare has tightened its visa
requirements for
all Zimbabweans intending to travel to the United Kingdom.
People are no
longer allowed to queue outside its mission to apply for visas.
All
prospective travelers now have to either use a facility known as the
"drop
box" or the services of the local Fedex offices.
According
to the embassy, you can use the "drop box" if you "are aged
60 or over and
are visiting your mother, father, sister, brother, son, or
daughter in the UK
or you are the holder of a valid UK work permit or spouse
or child of a work
permit holder and you are applying to join them."
Hardest hit by
the new requirements are all those who have not
traveled to Britain over the
last two years or who have not visited any
Schengen country during the same
period. If you have not visited Britain or
any Schengen country in the last
two years, then you cannot use the "drop
box" but a courier service called
fedex.
Schengen countries include Holland, France, Germany,
Luxembourg,
Spain, Greece, Portugal, Sweden and Belgium.
Other
countries which one needs to have traveled to in order to be
able to use the
"drop box" include USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or
Switzerland, and
proof has to be shown of the actual visit to those
countries. There are an
estimated 1 100 000 Zimbabweans living in the United
Kingdom, with the bulk
of them suspected to be illegal immigrants.
Despite the cold winter
weather numbers of prospective travelers to
the UK having been sleeping
directly opposite the embassy building in Samora
Machel Avenue. To beat the
long queues, others have resorted to hiring
street kids as
placeholders for their space.
According to embassy officials, those
able to use the "drop box" also
include Zimbabwean government employees on
official business, members of a
diplomatic mission accredited in Zimbabwe,
diplomats in the Zimbabwean
foreign service, or members of airline crews on
routes which pass through
the UK. Also allowed to use the facility are
returning residents who have
evidence of their current status in the
UK.
Excluded are those who have been denied a visa before in the UK
or
denied entry into any country, or those who failed to "comply with
your
conditions of entry or been refused an extension of stay." Zim
Online
Zim Online
Widespread starvation in Matabeleland despite bumber harvest
claims
Tues 20 July 2004
NKAYI - At a time when the Zimbabwe
government is trying to convince
the whole world that it has surplus food to
last till the next agricultural
season, thousands of villagers are facing
starvation in Nkayi. Tshanke, an
area 60 kilometers north of Nkayi center,
has about ten thousand villagers
who are already starving. Some families are
reported to be going without
food for days.
Abednico Bhebhe, the
Member of Parliament for the constituency, told
Zim Online that many
villagers are close to death because of malnutrition.
The situation has been
worsened by the lack of water in the area. The only
borehole available is at
a local school. But school authorities have had to
lock it up to preserve
water for teachers and children.
"The situation is set to worsen
as the dam is likely to go dry before
August," said Bhebhe. Patricia Masuku
(42) from Tshanke recalls with
nostalgia the days when rains would fill
rivers to the brim, nourishing her
crops, and when she and her family would
collect a rich harvest from their
fields of maize in the area, the staple
diet for her and her children.
"This place was awash with maize and
that stream over there was full
of water," she said, gazing at the drought
stricken land that surrounds her
today. "It was once a rich pasture for our
livestock to graze, but
persistent drought which has kept coming back to this
area for the past four
years has destroyed everything. We are now virtual
beggars surviving on the
grace of God and well wishers," she said, clearing
her throat.
Masuku's words reflect the feelings of households
across Tshanke. This
was once a maize growing heartland but is now among the
areas worst hit by
hunger expected to render more than 5 million Zimbabweans
dependent on food
aid his year, according to UN officials. The severity of
the drought is
revealed starkly at Tshangani River, formerly a huge water
body that lies 20
kilometers south of Nkayi center. The river has dried up
leaving an empty
expanse of sandy soils.
To make matters worse,
the desperate villagers have been cut off from
UN food aid due to
insufficient international donations. As a result they
are now forced to eat
wild fruits like kernels and edible roots to stave off
hunger. Bhebhe said
other parts of Matabeleland North and South were also in
dire need of food
handouts following successive droughts that ravaged the
provinces,
killing herds of livestock and crops.
"About 60% of children in
Matabeleland province are chronically
malnourished. The major problem is that
the government will only talk to the
media without coming down to the really
affected people and seeing for
themselves the dire poverty and utter
hopelessness prevalent in the area."
Bhebhe added: "What pains us
most is that the government is saying
that there is food in abundance in the
country, yet people are dying of
hunger. Instead of encouraging those who
have surplus maize to keep it for
the future, the government is encouraging
them to sell to the GMB (the
state-run Grain Marketing Board). Why? Because
the same maize will be used
to buy votes from the desperate villagers in the
coming parliamentary
elections." Zim Online
Zim Online
State media journos "fed up" with Moyo
Tues 20 July
2004
HARARE- JOURNALISTS in state run media say they are fed up
with their
boss, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.
The accuse Moyo
of "killing professionalism" by persistently standing
in the way of good
stories.
Journalists from both the country's sole broadcaster, The
Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), and Zimbabwe Newspapers
(Zimpapers), said
in interviews Moyo continues to block them from publishing
stories deemed to
be against his friends or giving mileage to his
foes.
"He (Moyo) has literally imposed himself as the
Editor-in-Chief of
both Newsnet and Zimpapers. He tells us what to broadcast
and what not to,"
said a ZBC reporter, who requested anonymity. She accused
Moyo of making
several late phone calls into newsrooms ordering the spiking
of stories he
does not like. Apparently Moyo is given access to the daily
diary of stories
at both ZBC and all titles published by
Zimpapers.
It is understodd that one Herald journalist was recently
forced to
abandon a story she was doing about the dismissal of a top
policeman by the Zimbabwe Republic Police at the behest of Moyo. The
story
has since been published on Zim Online and repeated by the
Sunday
Mirror.
Journalists interviewed said Moyo instructed
editors to use his
columns, written under pen names, unedited. "Little does
he realise that his
columns are doing more harm than good....No wonder why
our readership is
still not impressive even
after the closure of The
Daily News," said one journalist.
Moyo writes propaganda columns in
The Herald, its sister paper, The
Sunday Mail and The Sunday News using pen
names like Nathaniel Manheru,
Lowani Ndlovu and Mzala Joe. The columns are
full of hate language against
the MDC, British Prime Minister Tony Blair,
United States President George
Bush and whites in general. Zim Online
Zim Online
Executive Summary of Damning AU Report on Zimbabwe
Tues 20
July 2004
INTRODUCTION
Following widespread reports of
human rights violations in Zimbabwe,
the African Commission on Human and
Peoples Rights (African Commission) at
its 29th Ordinary Session held in
Tripoli from 23rd April to 7th may 2001
decided to undertake a fact-finding
mission to the Republic of Zimbabwe from
24th to 28th June 2002.
The state purpose of the Mission was to gather information on the
state of
human rights in Zimbabwe. In order to do so, the Mission sought to
meet with
representatives of the Government of the Republic of
Zimbabwe,
law-enforcement agencies, the judiciary, political parties and
with
organised civil society organisations especially those engaged in
human
rights advocacy. The method of the fact-finding team was to listen
and
observe the situation in the country from various angles, listen
to
statements and testimony of the many actors in the country and
conduct
dialogue with the government and other public agencies.
FINDINGS
1. The Mission observed that Zimbabwean society is highly
polarized.
It is a divided society with deeply entrenched positions. The land
question
is not in itself the cause of division. It appears that at heart is
a
society in search of the means for change and divided about how best
to
achieve change after two decades of dominance by a political party
that
carried the hopes and aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe through
the
liberation struggle into independence.
2. There is no doubt that
from the perspective of the fact-finding
team, the land question is critical
and that Zimbabweans, sooner or later,
needed to address it. The team has
consistently maintained that from a human
rights perspective, land reform has
to be the prerogative of the government
of Zimbabwe. The Mission noted that
Article 14 of the African Charter states
"The right to property shall be
guaranteed. It may only be encroached upon
in the interest of public need or
in the general interest of the community
and in accordance with the
provisions of appropriate laws ". It appears to
the Mission that the
Government of Zimbabwe has managed to bring this policy
matter under the
legal and constitutional system of the country. It now
means that land reform
and land distribution can now take place in a lawful
and orderly
fashion.
3. There was enough evidence placed before the Mission to
suggest
that, at the very least during the period under review, human
rights
violations occurred in Zimbabwe. The Mission was presented with
testimony
from witnesses who were victims of political violence and others
victims of
torture while in police custody. There was evidence that the
system of
arbitrary arrests took place. Especially alarming was the arrest of
the
President of the Law Society of Zimbabwe and journalists including
Peta
Thorncroft, Geoffrey Nyarota, among many others, the arrests and torture
of
opposition members of parliament and human rights lawyers like
Gabriel
Shumba.
4. There were allegations that the human rights
violations that
occurred were in many instances at the hands of ZANU PF party
activists. The
Mission is however not able to find definitively that this was
part of an
orchestrated policy of the government of the Republic of Zimbabwe.
There
were enough assurances from the Head of State, Cabinet Ministers and
the
leadership of the ruling party that there has never been any plan or
policy
of violence, disruption or any form of human rights violations,
orchestrated
by the State. There was also an acknowledgement that excesses
did occur. 5.
The Mission is prepared and able to rule, that the Government
cannot wash
its hands from responsibility for all these happenings. It is
evident that a
highly charged atmosphere has been prevailing, many land
activists undertook
their illegal actions in the expectation that government
was understanding
and that police would not act against them - many of them,
the War Veterans,
purported to act as party veterans and activists. Some of
the political
leaders denounced the opposition activists and expressed
understanding for
some of the actions of ZANU PF loyalists. Government did
not act soon enough
and firmly enough against those guilty of gross criminal
acts. By its
statements and political rhetoric, and by its failure at
critical moments to
uphold the rule of law, the government failed to chart a
path that signalled
a commitment to the rule of law. 6. There has been a
flurry of new
legislation and the revival of the old laws used under the
Smith Rhodesian
regime to control, manipulate public opinion and that limited
civil
liberties. Among these, the Mission's attention was drawn to the
Public
Order and Security Act, 2002 and the Access to Information and
Protection of
Privacy Act, 2002. These have been used to require registration
of
journalists and for prosecution of journalists for publishing
"false
information". All of these, of course, would have a "chilling effect"
on
freedom of expression and introduce a cloud of fear in media circles.
The
Private Voluntary Organisations Act has been revived to legislate for
the
registration of NGOs and for the disclosure of their activities and
funding
sources.
7. There is no institution in Zimbabwe, except the
Office of the
Attorney General, entrusted with the responsibility of
oversight over
unlawful actions of the police, or to receive complaints
against the police.
The Office of the Ombudsman is an independent institution
whose mandate was
recently extended to include human rights protection and
promotion. It was
evident to the Mission that the office was inadequately
provided for such a
task and that the prevailing mindset especially of the
Ombudsman herself was
not one which engendered the confidence of the public.
The Office was only
about the time we visited, publishing an annual report
five years after it
was due. The Ombudsman claimed that her office had not
received any reports
of human rights violations. That did not surprise the
Mission seeing that in
her press statement following our visit, and without
undertaking any
investigations into allegations levelled against them, the
Ombudsman was
defensive of allegations against the youth militia. If the
Office of the
Ombudsman is to serve effectively as an office that carries the
trust of the
public, it will have to be independent and the Ombudsman will
have to earn
the trust of the public. Its mandate will have to be extended,
its
independence guaranteed and accountability structures defined.
8. The Mission was privileged to meet with the Chief Justice and
the
President of the High Court. The Mission Team also met with the
Attorney
General and Senior Officers in his office. The Mission was struck by
the
observation that the judiciary had been tainted and even under the
new
dispensation bears the distrust that comes from the prevailing
political
conditions. The Mission was pleased to note that the Chief Justice
was
conscious of the responsibility to rebuild public trust. In that regard,
he
advised that a code of conduct for the judiciary was under
consideration.
The Office of the Attorney General has an important role to
play in the
defence and protection of human rights. In order to discharge
that task
effectively, the Office of the Attorney General must be able to
enforce its
orders and that the orders of the courts must be obeyed by the
police and
ultimately that the profession judgement of the Attorney General
must be
respected.
9. The Mission noted with appreciation the
dynamic and diverse civil
society formations in Zimbabwe. Civil society is
very engaged in the
developmental issues in society and enjoys a critical
relationship with
government. The Mission sincerely believes that civil
society is essential
for the upholding of a responsible society and for
holding government
accountable. A healthy though critical relationship
between government and
civil society is essential for good governance and
democracy.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In the light of the above
findings, the African Commission offers the
following recommendations
-:
On National Dialogue and Reconciliation
Further to
the observations about the breakdown in trust between
government and some
civil society organisations especially those engaged in
human rights
advocacy, and noting the fact that Zimbabwe is a divided
society, and noting
further, however, that there is insignificant
fundamental policy difference
in relation to issues like land and national
identity, Zimbabwe needs
assistance to withdraw from the precipice. The
country is in need of
mediators and reconcilers who are dedicated to
promoting dialogue and better
understanding. Religious organisations are
best placed to serve this function
and the media needs to be freed from the
shackles of control to voice
opinions and reflect societal beliefs freely.
Creating an Environment
Conducive to Democracy and Human Rights
The African Commission
believes that as a mark of goodwill, government
should abide by the
judgements of the Supreme Court and repeal sections of
the Access to
Information Act calculated to freeze the free expression of
public opinion.
The Public Order Act must also be reviewed. Legislation that
inhibits public
participation by NGOs in public education, human rights
counselling must be
reviewed. The Private Voluntary Organisations Act should
be
repealed.
Independent National Institutions
Government
is urged to establish independent and credible national
institutions that
monitor and prevent human rights violations, corruptions
and
maladministration. The Office of the Ombudsman should be reviewed
and
legislation which accords it the powers envisaged by the Paris
Principles
adopted. An independent office to receive and investigate
complaints against
the police should be considered unless the Ombudsman is
given additional
powers to investigate complaints against the police. Also
important is an
Independent Electoral Commission. Suspicions are rife that
the Electoral
Supervisory Commission has been severely compromised.
Legislation granting
it greater autonomy would add to its prestige and
generate public
confidence.
The Independence of the
Judiciary
The judiciary has been under pressure in recent times. It
appears that
their conditions of service do not protect them from political
pressure;
appointments to the bench could be done in such a way that they
could be
insulated from the stigma of political patronage. Security at
Magistrates'
and High Court should ensure the protection of presiding
officers. The
independence of the judiciary should be assured in practice and
judicial
orders must be obeyed. Government and the media have a
responsibility to
ensure the high regards and esteem due to members of the
judiciary by
refraining from political attacks or the use of inciting
language against
magistrates and judges. A Code of Conduct for Judges could
be adopted and
administered by the judges themselves. The African Commission
commends to
the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe for serious
consideration and
application of the Principles and Guidelines on the Right
to Fair Trial and
Legal Assistance in Africa adopted by the African
Commission at its 33rd
Ordinary Session in Niamey, Niger in May
2003.
A Professional Police Service
Every effort must
be made to avoid any further politicisation of the
police service. The police
service must attract all Zimbabweans from
whatever political persuasion or
none to give service to the country with
pride. The police should never be at
the service of any political party but
must at all times seek to abide by the
values of the Constitution and
enforce the law without fear or favour.
Recruitment to the service,
conditions of service and in-service training
must ensure the highest
standards of professionalism in the service. Equally,
there should be an
independent mechanism for receiving complaints about
police conduct.
Activities of units within the ZRP like the law and order
unit which seems
to operate under political instructions and without
accountability to the
ZRP command structures should be disbanded. There were
also reports that
elements of the CIO were engaged in activities contrary to
the international
practice of intelligence organisations. These should be
brought under
control. The activities of the youth militia trained in the
youth camps have
been brought to our attention. Reports suggest that these
youth serve as
party militia engaged in political violence, The African
Commission proposes
that these youth camps be closed down and training
centres be established
under the ordinary education and employment system of
the country. The
Africa Commission commends for study and implementation the
Guidelines and
Measures for the Prohibition and Prevention of Torture, Cruel,
Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment in Africa (otherwise know as the
Robben
Island Guidelines) adopted by the African Commission at its 32nd
Ordinary
Session held in Banjul, The Gambia in October 2002.
The
Media
A robust and critical media is essential for democracy. The
government
has expressed outrage at some unethical practices by journalists,
and the
Access to Information Act was passed in order to deal with some of
these
practices. The Media and Ethics Commission that has been established
could
do a great deal to advance journalistic practices, and assist with
the
professionalisation of media practitioners. The Media and Ethics
Commission
suffers from the mistrust on the part of those with whom it is
intended to
work. The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists could have a consultative
status in
the Media and Ethics Commission. Efforts should be made to create a
climate
conducive to freedom of expression in Zimbabwe. The POSA and Access
to
Information Act should be amended to meet international standards
for
freedom of expression. Any legislation that requires registration
of
journalists, or any mechanism that regulates access to broadcast media by
an
authority that is not independent and accountable to the public, creates
a
system of control and political patronage. The Africa Commission
commends
the consideration and applications of the Declaration on The
Principles of
Freedom of Expression in Africa adopted by the 32nd Ordinary
Session of the
African Commission in Banjul, October 2002.
Reporting Obligations to the African Commission
The African
Commission notes that the Republic of Zimbabwe now has
three overdue reports
in order to fulfil its obligations in terms of Article
62 of the Africa
Charter. Article 1 of the Africa Charter states that State
Parties to the
Charter shall "recognise the rights, duties and freedoms
enshrined in the
Charter and shall undertake to adopt legislative or other
measures to give
effect to them." Article 62 of the Africa Charter provides
that each State
Party shall undertake to submit every two years "a report on
the legislative
or other measures taken, with a view to giving effect to the
rights and
freedoms recognised and guaranteed by the present Charter." The
African
Commission therefore reminds the Government of the Republic of
Zimbabwe of
this obligation and urges the government to take urgent steps to
meet its
reporting obligations. More pertinently, the African Commission
hereby
invites the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe to report on the
extent to
which these recommendations have been considered and implemented.
ENDS
The Scotsman
No escape for alleged mercenaries in Zimbabwe
JANE
FIELDS IN HARARE
THE road to Chikurubi maximum security prison on the
outskirts of the
Zimbabwean capital Harare is pot-holed and lined with
straggling eucalyptus
trees. To the left are yellowed fields, to the right
the rundown, brown
concrete housing blocks of the paramilitary
police.
It was not the route Simon Mann intended to take one sunny day
back in
March. As he and 69 other alleged mercenaries are set to begin their
trial
here tomorrow on arms and immigration charges, they will be hoping that
the
next time they travel down the track it will not be on their way
to
Equatorial Guinea, whose government they are accused of plotting to
oust.
Mann, an old Etonian, former member of the SAS and a businessman
with links
to Pretoria-based mercenary outfit, Executive Outcomes, had
intended to be
in and out of Zimbabwe as quickly as possible.
There
was the small matter of a £100,000 weapons consignment to take
delivery of
from the state-owned Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI). Then he
had planned
to slip out to Harare International Airport to meet the Boeing
727-100 cargo
plane his company Logo Logistics had bought in South Africa a
few days
earlier.
Waiting for him on the plane were more than 60 men, most of them
Namibians,
Angolans and South Africans. Many were down-at-heel ex-members of
32-Buffalo
Battalion, an apartheid-era mercenary force. Mann and his
associates had, so
they claim, contracted them to guard diamond mines in the
rebel-ridden
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). They had been promised a
salary of more
than £3,000 a month.
But Mann's plans went wrong and,
instead of a smooth take-off, Zimbabwean
military police stormed the Boeing.
Home affairs minister Kembo Mohadi
announced triumphantly that a plane-load
of "mercenaries of various
nationalities" had been captured.
For a day
or so after their arrest it was not clear whether the men had
intended to
attack the Zimbabwean regime and the government announced that
the army had
been put on full alert.
But then, 1,920 miles north of Zimbabwe, the
government of Equatorial Guinea
announced it had captured an "advance party"
of 15 mercenaries. One of the
detainees, Nicholas du Toit - who also has ties
to Executive Outcomes -
appeared on state television in Malabo to confess to
a plot to oust
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and install exiled
opposition leader
Severo Moto.
In a secret location in Zimbabwe, the
70 men signed confessions admitting
their involvement. Their lawyers say they
were tortured first.
It was the start of a new dawn in relations between
Zimbabwe and Equatorial
Guinea, a tiny West African state whose status as
Africa's third biggest oil
producer will, analysts say, prove useful in
eventually securing the
extradition of the suspects from fuel-starved
Zimbabwe. It was also the
beginning of a nightmare for the men, by now held
behind the
razor-wire-topped walls of Chikurubi.
The detainees - at
least two of whom have provided security to British
Department for
International Development staff operating in Iraq - are
sticking to the
guarding diamond mines story. One said he had never heard of
Equatorial
Guinea.
The Boeing's pilot, South African Jaap Steyl, testified that all
he had
signed up to was a short flight to Bujumbura in the DRC during a
two-week
holiday from his regular job - flying an Indian MP between his
international
brewery concerns.
The men's families are distraught.
Several have taken out a short-term lease
on a house in Harare and attend
court hearings together, packed lunches in
hand. Shortly after the men's
capture, a few made a half-hearted attempt to
claim their relatives were
bounty-hunters out to capture deposed Liberian
president Charles Taylor and
claim a $2 million (£1.07 million) reward from
the United States. Those
claims have since been dropped. Attempts are being
made to force the South
African government to apply for the men's
extradition back home.
One
court has already rejected the case: the Zimbabwean authorities agreed
to put
off the trial from yesterday to tomorrow to allow an appeal to be
heard.
"They asked for the case to be postponed and we did not object to
that
because they were open about it,'' state prosecutor Lawrence
Phiri
said.
But there is no evidence Harare plans to go soft on the
men. Foreign
minister Stan Mudenge has threatened them with the death
penalty, although
state prosecutors have only charged them with offences
under firearms,
aviation, security and immigration laws, which carry a fine
or a five-year
jail term.
That is unlikely to be the end of the story.
It emerged yesterday that the
president of Equatorial Guinea is seeking
damages in a separate action at
London's High Court against the
men.
There is also mounting evidence that Mr Mugabe's regime will send
the men to
Equatorial Guinea, before or even after they have served sentence
here.
Zimbabwe has recently added Equatorial Guinea - whose human rights
record is
no prettier than Zimbabwe's - to the list of countries with which
it has
extradition treaties. Preparations for extradition are said to be
well
advanced.
Interest in the case in Harare has waned. "The attitude
is - so what, it's
an occupational hazard," said one diplomat. "I don't think
anybody cares.
This matter is for the embassies involved. It's a tough
reality, but I think
they're on their own."
The Telegraph
Sudan is getting away with murder
By Mark
Steyn
(Filed: 20/07/2004)
'Where are the Kiplings of today to
rouse public opinion?" my anguished
colleagues on the Leader page asked
yesterday apropos Sudan. "Do we
humanitarians care less about Darfur than our
imperialist ancestors would
have done?" The answer to that second one is:
yes. John Mann, the
Presbyterian minister of Pollak in Glasgow, fancies
himself as a fine
humanitarian, but, as his interview with Scotland on Sunday
made plain, his
priorities lie elsewhere.
For the umpteenth
time, he denounced the "unnecessary, unjust war" in Iraq
and said that, if he
were Tony Blair, "I don't know how I could live with
myself".
If I'd
ipso facto supported the continuation in office of a psychopathic
dictator, I
don't know how I could live with myself. But each to his own.
The point
is that today's humanitarians are too busy for Sudan. Ask Barbra
Streisand
and she'd say, "Sudan Hussein? Bush lied!!!" As for Kipling, if he
were
around today, he'd be tied up with the big Not In Our Name march with
fellow
versifiers Harold Pinter and Andrew Motion. Or possibly he'd be
preening with
Ashley Judd and Rupert Everett and other experts at the big
world Aids
conference in Bangkok, and getting his photo taken next to an
effigy of
George W Bush smeared with blood. America spends more money
combating Aids
than the rest of the world combined, but why let some petty
number-crunching
spoil your fun?
Darling Rupert denounced Bush's Aids plan for Africa as
"extremely
frightening" because of its "judgmental attitude" toward sex. Kofi
Annan was
also critical of Bush's initiative, mainly because all those
billions of
dollars are being spent directly by America in Africa, rather
than being
sluiced through the UN.
Now that the Oil-for-Fraud
programme has come to an end, many UN bureaucrats
are at a loose end and
would have been only too happy to bring their
experience and efficiency to
bear on Bush's pathetically pitifully footling
judgmental $15 billion. Once
the UN's administration fee had been deducted,
there could easily have been
enough left over to buy 20 thousand bucks'
worth of condoms, no doubt from a
rubber factory co-owned by the husband of
an old mistress of Jacques
Chirac's.
The Americans could probably make a difference in Sudan, too.
The USAF could
target and bomb the Janjaweed as effectively as they did the
Taliban. But
then John Mann and Harold Pinter and Rupert Everett would get
their knickers
in a twist, and everyone from John Kerry to Polly Toynbee
would complain
that it's "illegitimate" unless it's authorised by the UN. The
problem is,
by the time you've gone through the UN, everyone's
dead.
The UN system is broken beyond repair. In May, even as its proxies
were
getting stuck into their ethnic cleansing in Darfur, Sudan was elected
to a
three-year term on the UN Human Rights Commission. This isn't an
aberration:
Zimbabwe is also a member. The very structure of the
organisation, under
which countries vote in regional blocs, encourages such
affronts to decency.
The Sudanese representative, by the way, immediately
professed himself
concerned by human rights abuses at Guantanamo and Abu
Ghraib.
The UN, as the Canadian columnist George Jonas put it, enables
dictators to
punch above their weight. All that Elfatih Mohammed Ahmed Erwa,
the Sudanese
government's man in New York, has to do is string things out
long enough to
bog down the US call for sanctions in the Gauloise-filled
rooms. "Let's not
be hasty," Erwa told the Los Angeles Times. And,
fortunately, not being
hasty is something the UN is happy to do in its own
leisurely way until
everyone is in the mass grave and the point is
moot.
Today, British charities are launching a campaign to save Darfur,
which they
describe as the "world's worst humanitarian crisis". If we were
serious
about the plight of Sudan, we'd stop using that dully evasive
word
"humanitarian". It's fine for a hurricane or a drought, but not a
genocide.
The death and dislocation in Sudan is a political crisis every
step up the
chain - from the blood-drenched militia to their patrons in
Khartoum to
their buddies in the African Union to the schemers and cynics at
the UN.
It's "multilateralism" that magnifies some nickel 'n' dime murder
gangs into
a global player.
In W. F. Deedes's account yesterday, I was
struck by this line: "Aid
agencies have found it difficult to get visas."
That sentence encapsulates
everything that is wrong with the transnational
approach. The UN confers on
its most dysfunctional members a surreal,
post-modern sovereignty: a state
that claims it can't do anything about
groups committing genocide across
huge tracts of its territory nevertheless
expects the world to respect its
immigration paperwork as
inviolable.
Why should the West's ability to help Darfur be dependent on
the visa
section of the Sudanese embassy? The world would be a better place
if the
UN, or the democratic members thereof, declared that thug states
forfeit the
automatic deference to sovereignty. Since that won't happen, it
would be
preferable if free nations had a forum of their own in which
decisions could
be reached before every peasant has been hacked to death. The
Coalition of
the Willing has a nice ring to it.
One day, historians
will wonder why the most militarily advanced nations
could do nothing to halt
men with machetes and a few rusting rifles. After
Kitchener's victory over
the dervishes at Omdurman, Belloc wrote:
"Whatever happens/ We have got/
The Maxim gun/ and they have not."
We've tossed out the Maxim gun for
daisycutters and cruise missiles. In
Darfur, meanwhile, the Janjaweed on
their horses are no better armed than
the dervishes were. But we're powerless
against them because we've
fetishised poseur-multilateralism as the only
legitimate form of
intervention. Who needs a "Kipling of today" when the old
one works
perfectly well:
"Take up the White Man's burden/ The savage
wars of peace/ Fill full the
mouth of famine /And bid the sickness cease;/
And when your goal is nearest/
The end for others sought,/ Watch Sloth and
heathen Folly/ Bring all your
hope to nought."
He didn't know the half
of it. Today, we have devised a system of protean
"world government" that
amplifies both the Sloth of the West and the heathen
Folly of the thug
states. And, because of it, in Sudan as in Rwanda,
hundreds of thousands will
die.