Tsvangirai: No Mugabe talks until violence ends

MSNBC

Zimbabwe's opposition leader rebuffs calls for unity government dialogue


MSNBC News Services
updated 9:26 a.m. ET July 2, 2008
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on
Wednesday spurned a call from African leaders for talks with President
Robert Mugabe on forming a unity government, saying conditions were not yet
right.

Tsvangirai, who boycotted a widely criticized June 27 election run-off, said
Mugabe must first stop attacks on opposition supporters and demanded that
negotiations take place on the basis of a March 29 first round vote, which
he won.

"Significantly the conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe are not conducive to
negotiations. If dialogue is to be initiated, it is essential that ZANU-PF
stops the violence, halts the persecution of MDC leaders and supporters," he
told a news conference in Harare.

Tsvangirai said his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which defeated
Mugabe's ZANU-PF in parliamentary election, should be recognized as
Zimbabwe's legitimate government.

Mugabe's officials earlier welcomed the call from African Union (AU) leaders
at a summit on Tuesday to join talks with the opposition on a joint
administration to end the crisis in Zimbabwe, whose economy is ruined.

"The AU resolution is in conformity to what President Mugabe said at his
inauguration, when he said we are prepared to talk in order to resolve our
problems," Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told Reuters.

"We are committed to talk, not just with Tsvangirai but to other parties as
well."

Insurmountable obstacle?
Tsvangirai said talks would be meaningless unless the African Union sent a
permanent envoy to expand mediation efforts by South African President Thabo
Mbeki, criticized for being too soft in his diplomacy with Mugabe.

Despite the AU support for a power-sharing deal modeled on the one that
ended post-election violence in Kenya earlier this year, disagreement over
who should lead the government could prove an insurmountable obstacle.

Mugabe, 84, was sworn in for a new five-year term on Sunday after election
authorities announced he had won about 85 percent of the vote in a run-off,
which was condemned by monitors and much of world opinion as violent and
unfair.


Mugabe has branded the MDC a puppet of former colonial power Britain and the
United States and vowed to never let it rule Zimbabwe. Western countries are
discussing whether to toughen sanctions on Zimbabwe's leaders.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country has take over the
European Union presidency, said on Tuesday the EU would only accept a
government led by Tsvangirai. The European Commission repeated that line on
Wednesday.

"Any transitional government must include Morgan Tsvangirai as prime
minister or head of government," Commission development spokesman John
Clancy told a briefing in Brussels.

Zimbabwe's once prosperous economy is racked by the world's highest rate of
hyper-inflation, food and fuel shortages and 80 percent unemployment.

Tsvangirai wants Ping on board

Zimbabwe Today

The MDC leader says he will negotiate - if he can choose the mediator

Morgan Tsvangirai, embattled leader of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), has called on Jean Ping of Gabon, Chairman of the
African Union (AU), to take over the proposed negotiations between himself
and Robert Mugabe.

The MDC boss says he will change his mind about negotiating with Mugabe and
be willing to have talks about a possible government of national unity, if -
and only if - Ping agrees to partner South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki as
mediator.

Mbeki has come under increasing pressure internationally in recent weeks,
and has been accused of being too soft with Mugabe, ignoring the Zanu-PF
violence tactics, and shielding Mugabe from criticism from other African
states.

In an exclusive interview at his Strathaven home in Harare, Morgan
Tsvangirai told me he thought the task of chairing negotiations in Zimbabwe
was "too heavy for the troubled Mbeki."

"Mbeki has his own troubles, and expecting him to find a lasting solution to
the Zimbabwean crisis on his own is demanding too much of him," he said.

"I believe that Mr. Ping, a respectable man in his own right, can bring on
board ideas that can help us find the solution we require as a nation."

Ping, 65, is Gabon's deputy prime minister and foreign minister. He is the
son of a Chinese trader and a Gabonese mother, and has had a long and
successful career as a diplomat. He was elected Chairman of the AU earlier
this year.

Tsvangirai also said he was concerned that the resolution on Zimbabwe
adopted by the AU appeared to turn a blind eye to Mugabe's lack of
legitimacy as president, following the June 27 run-off.

He pointed out that government-inspired violence is on-going across the
country. "Since the June 27 sham election, nine MDC supporters have been
murdered, and hundreds more beaten and forced to leave their homes," he
claimed.

"In Manicaland alone, since the weekend, five hundred MDC supporters and
their families have been forced to flee, and are now seeking refuge at the
party's headquarters in Mutare. Once again, the MDC calls for peace in our
country."

Posted on Wednesday, 02 July 2008

Statement by The Movement for Democratic Change on the African Union Resolution on Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwean

Wednesday, 02 July 2008 12:17

2nd July 2008

Statement by The Movement for Democratic Change

on the African Union Resolution on Zimbabwe

The Movement for Democratic Change acknowledges the concern about the
Zimbabwe crisis expressed in the resolution adopted at the 11th Ordinary
Session of the African Union General Assembly.

The MDC would like to thank those African leaders who have joined the
global chorus by standing on the side of the Zimbabwean people and
advocating that their voices be heard.The MDC would like to thank the Pan
African Parliament, SADC and AU observer missions for acknowledging the
reality and pervasiveness of the violence in Zimbabwe and refusing to give
the June 27th election any credibility or legitimacy.

The common conclusions of all three reports were:

A - the violence negated the credibility of the June 27 elections

B - the election did not reflect the will of the people

C - consequently the outcome is not legitimate.

If the African Union acknowledged their reports, then we in the MDC
feel that their own resolution should have been consistent with them.
Unfortunately, this was not the case. The MDC is concerned that:

The resolution does not adequately deal with the ongoing violence in
Zimbabwe. Since the June 27 sham election, 9 MDC supporters have been
murdered, hundreds more beaten and forced to leave their homes. In
Manicaland alone, since the weekend, five hundred MDC supporters and
families have been forced to flee their homes and are now seeking refuge at
the party's headquarters in Mutare. Therefore the MDC reiterates its call
for peace in  the country.

In addition, the resolution does not recognize the illegitimacy of the
June 27 elections and the fact that most African leaders refuses to
recognize Mugabe as the Head of State.

Finally, the resolution endorses the concept of a Government of
National Unity without acknowledging that the MDC, as the winner of the last
credible elections on 29th March 2008, should be recognized as the
legitimate government of Zimbabwe. A GNU does not address the problems
facing Zimbabwe or acknowledge the will of the Zimbabwean people.

While the MDC remains committed to negotiations these must be based on
the 29th March results and must move towards a transitional agreement. Our
commitment to a negotiated settlement is not about power-sharing or power
deals but about democracy, freedom and justice.  Our struggle is not about
power but about democracy.

Significantly, the conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe today are not
conducive to negotiations. If dialogue is to be initiated, it is essential
that Zanu PF stops the violence, halts the persecution of MDC leaders and
supporters, releases all political prisoners, disbands the militia bases and
torture camps and that the security services halt their partisan operations.

The MDC's reservations about the mediation process under President
Mbeki are well known. It is our position that unless the mediation team is
expanded to include at least one permanent representative from the African
Union, and the mediation mechanism is changed, no meaningful progress can be
made towards resolving the Zimbabwean crisis. If this does not happen then
the MDC will not be part of such a mediation process.

The crisis in Zimbabwe requires urgent action. The violence,
intimidation, hunger and suffering must be addressed as soon as possible.
Zimbabweans cannot afford any more confusion or delays. Zimbabweans can no
longer afford to listen to words that are not reinforced by action.

The past two weeks have illustrated just how much support the people
of Zimbabwe have on the continent and across the world. The MDC will
continue to work towards resolving the crisis  which is worsening daily.

Zimbabweans, let me take this opportunity to assure you are not alone.
As your leaders, we will never stop struggling on your behalf for a new
Zimbabwe that offers hope, prosperity and freedom.  We will never compromise
betray these ideals.

I thank you.

Movement for Democratic Change Head Office
Harvest House

US prodding UN Security Council to punish Mugabe

Yahoo News

By DONNA BRYSON, Associated Press Writer 49 minutes ago

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The U.S. pressed fellow U.N. Security Council
members Wednesday to impose sanctions to push for change in Zimbabwe, where
leaders cannot agree whether to even talk about how to resolve their crisis
amid fears of worsening political violence.

A draft resolution Washington wants the council to consider proposes
freezing the financial assets of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and 11
of his officials and banning them from traveling outside the country.

The text, obtained by The Associated Press, also demands that Mugabe's
regime immediately begin negotiations on forming a unity government with the
opposition, although Zimbabwe's top opposition leader ruled out talks under
current conditions.

The U.S., which is among Mugabe's sharpest international critics, is
president of the Security Council this month. Last week, the council passed
a nonbinding resolution condemning violence against Zimbabwe's political
opposition after South Africa, China and Russia opposed taking further
action.

Washington also is considering toughening its unilateral sanctions. The U.S.
Ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, said in an interview Wednesday that
could include expanding the list of about 130 officials now banned from
visiting the U.S. and hit with financial penalties.

European Union spokesman John Clancy said the bloc also was studying
sanctions to add to travel bans and an asset freeze already in place on
Mugabe, his Cabinet ministers and top ruling party officials. New penalties
could include further aid cuts or bars on European companies from doing
business in Zimbabwe.

The United States and Europe say opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai should
be Zimbabwe's next leader, but Mugabe has shown little sign of yielding
power after 28 years as president.

Tsvangirai finished ahead of three other candidates in the first round of
presidential voting March 29, setting up a runoff with Mugabe, who was
second. But state-supported violence against opposition supporters led
Tsvangirai to quit the race days before Friday's ballot.

Mugabe went ahead with the vote despite international condemnation. He was
declared the overwhelming winner Sunday and immediately held an inauguration
ceremony to begin his sixth term as president.

The U.S. ambassador said violence and intimidation continues, even touching
an embassy employee.

McGee said a Zimbabwean driver for the embassy disappeared three days ago.
The man emerged Wednesday to say he had been accosted by unknown assailants,
blindfolded and taken to a small room where he was questioned and denied
food or water for three days.

The envoy would not describe the questions, but said the incident appeared
to be an attempt to try to intimidate people connected with the embassy.
McGee has been a vocal and frequent critic of Mugabe.

"The violence seems to be at least at the same level (as before the runoff).
It may even be getting worse," McGee said in an interview. "We've heard
stories, unconfirmed, of hit lists. But we do know for a fact that people
are being murdered. People continue to disappear."

Tsvangirai told reporters that at least nine of his supporters had been
killed and hundreds beaten and forced to flee their homes just since
Friday's vote. He had said previously that nearly 90 supporters were killed
in the weeks before the runoff.

Speaking outside his home in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, Tsvangirai also
said his group would not participate in talks on forming a unity government
with Mugabe's party unless another outside mediator was appointed to work
alongside South African President Thabo Mbeki.

On Tuesday, an African Union summit reconfirmed Mbeki as Africa's mediator,
even though Tsvangirai has repeatedly rejected him, accusing him of
pro-Mugabe bias. Mugabe has praised Mbeki.

"Our reservations about the mediation process under President Mbeki are well
known," said Tsvangirai, head of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change. "Unless the mediation team is expanded ... and the mediation
mechanism is changed, no meaningful progress can be made toward resolving
the Zimbabwe crisis."

"If this does not happen, then the MDC will not be part of the mediation
process," he said.

The opposition, "as the winner of the last credible elections on March 29,
2008, should be recognized as the legitimate government of Zimbabwe,"
Tsvangirai added.

Late Tuesday, Mbeki told South Africa's state broadcaster he sees his role
as merely helping Zimbabweans resolve the crisis themselves and he rejected
outside intervention such as calls from European nations to void the runoff
as a sham election.

"Certainly the African continent has not made any prescription about the
outcome of what Zimbabweans should negotiate among themselves," Mbeki said.

Mbeki has been criticized for refusing to publicly condemn Mugabe. Other
African leaders have been more vocal, with some even calling for Mugabe to
step down. But Wednesday, Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika sided with
Mbeki, who has said confrontation could backfire.

Western governments in particular "have been condemning Zimbabwe for the
last four years. They have been condemning Mugabe for the last four years,"
Mutharika told reporters in Malawi. "But has it solved anything? Ask
yourself, all that condemnation, has it solved anything? It has not ... ."

Women activists enter 6th week of detention in Zimbabwe prison

International Herald Tribune

The Associated PressPublished: July 2, 2008

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa: Two women honored by the United States, Amnesty
International and others for braving beatings and arrest to hold peaceful
protests against Robert Mugabe are entering their sixth week in detention,
putting them among Zimbabwe's longest serving political prisoners.

At a hearing Thursday, lawyers hope to persuade a judge to grant bail to
Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu of the human rights group Women and
Men of Zimbabwe Arise, who have sleeping on concrete floors in the harsh
cold of a southern African winter in detention. The two were arrested in the
capital, Harare, on May 28 and have been charged with disturbing the peace
and publishing statements prejudicial to the state.

In her blog on the Internet, fellow activist Bev Clark describes visiting
Williams and Mahlangu in prison on Friday, the day of a presidential runoff
election in which Mugabe - Zimbabwe's increasingly autocratic president of
nearly three decades - was the only candidate.

She and other colleagues took the women food and toiletries. A jar of honey
was confiscated by a guard.

"For 30 minutes, we sat on a small wooden bench chatting with them through a
fence," Clark writes. "They are both well and in good spirits but they've
had enough of sleeping on a concrete floor. They want to go home."

Williams, one of the founders of the organization and a former
businesswoman, was honored last year by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice with an International Women of Courage Award.
The U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, said Wednesday he hoped the
two would be given bail and the "sham" charges dropped.

"Jenni is a prominent person whose voice should be heard," McGee said.

Amnesty International, which gave the group known as WOZA an award for its
human rights work, demanded the women's immediate release, calling them
"prisoners of conscience."

The two women were arrested with 12 other activists after they marched to
the Zambian Embassy to call on Zambia, chair of the Southern African
Development Community, to help bring an end to the violence that has
engulfed Zimbabwe since a first round of presidential elections was held
March 29.

Some marchers were beaten by police as they were arrested. The state won an
appeal against bail being granted to Williams and Mahlangu, but the 10
others were released on bail.

"We are deeply concerned that the state is using detention to frustrate the
work of human right defenders," said Simeon Mawanza, London-based researcher
for Amnesty International.

Human rights activists and opposition supporters have increasingly come
under attack by Zimbabwe security forces and supporters of Mugabe.

Formed in 2003, WOZA - an Ndebele word meaning "come forward" - has become a
powerful voice in the deepening economic and political crises in Zimbabwe.
It has held hundreds of peaceful protests and is known for its annual
Valentine's Day march in which red roses are distributed in a call for love,
peace and harmony.

It has 66,000 members across the country, many of whom have been beaten and
arrested countless times.

Williams, a 46-year-old mother of three, has been living in safe houses for
the last few years while her family had to flee to the United Kingdom.

"She has been arrested over 30 times and has certainly been beaten many
times," WOZA spokeswoman Annie Sibanda said.

Mahlangu, 35, a former sports administrator from Matalabeland in the south,
has been arrested more than 25 times.

WOZA members "are very brave and resilient," said Amnesty International's
Mawanza. "Despite repeated arrests and torture, they have continued to do
peaceful protests."

He praised the organization for taking up issues that affected everyday
life, such as access to food, health, education.

"The state is very concerned about their ability mobilize people," he said.
"They are afraid it can grow into a force they won't be able to contain.

Sibanda, who is based in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo where Williams
is from, said the organization is hoping the two women will be released
Thursday.

"But we are not holding out that it will happen. The state has consistently
played games with their lawyers," she said.

She said the organization had scaled down its work during the recent
political tensions but has continued to distribute flyers urging people to
keep up hope that there will be a solution to the crisis.

"The state is threatened by the fact that we are a mass based movement of
ordinary Zimbabwean men and women who over last five years have shown that
despite arrests, beatings and abduction we are still prepared to speak out,"
she said.

MDC MP Abducted Outside High Court in Harare

SW Radio Africa (London)

2 July 2008
Posted to the web 2 July 2008

Tichaona Sibanda

The MDC MP for Buhera South in Manicaland, Naison Nemadziwa, was on Tuesday
abducted in broad daylight outside the High court in Harare.

Onlookers said they saw Nemadziwa being bundled into the back of a waiting
car and driven away, after he became involved in an argument with a group of
six men.

The incident, in full view of shocked passersby, took place just after the
MP had emerged from the court to hear an electoral petition filed by Joseph
Chinotimba, the losing Zanu-PF candidate in the Buhera South constituency.

Pishai Muchauraya, MDC MP for Makoni South in the province, said they were
able to identify one of his abdcutors as Zimbabwe National Army Colonel
Morgan Mzilikazi. The army officer, together with Chinotimba, has been
involved in an unholy alliance of post elections violence against MDC
activists in Buhera.

'We have positive identification that one of them was Colonel Mzilikazi. We
also have information that Chinotimba connived with the group in the
abduction of the MP,' Muchauraya said.

The MDC is reliably informed that Nemadziwa was driven overnight, after the
abduction, to a police station in rural Buhera.

'We have instructed our lawyers to visit Muzikomba police station were he's
being held. Since he beat Chinotimba in the parliamentary elections,
Nemadziwa has been hunted down like a fugitive. This is wrong, Zanu-PF
should act to stop this madness,' Muchauraya added.

Zanu-PF militia have been terrorising residents in Harare and Bulawayo in
the last few days, beating up people for not voting for Mugabe in the
one-man presidential election vote last week Friday.

Robert Mugabe's thugs evict opposition supporters in Zimbabwe

The Telegraph

By Louis Weston in Harare
Last Updated: 2:56PM BST 02/07/2008
President Robert Mugabe's thugs have begun evicting opposition supporters
from their homes as part of a punishment campaign.
AFP / GETTY
Drunk on power and victory after Mr Mugabe's triumph in the uncontested
election at the weekend, a mob from the ruling Zanu-PF party has been
targeting supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change around the
capital Harare.

Among their victims was the Kayesu family.

"They came at midnight," said Benjamin Kayesu, 25, sitting on the ground in
a field south of Harare. "The first thing I heard was guns being cocked.

"They started beating at my door strongly, instructing me to come out and
everybody inside to come out. They were pointing guns at me.

"They said we have won so you MDC guys are going down the toilet."

The family are known as MDC supporters, and while Mr Kayesu did not vote and
his wife spoiled her paper the gang, led by a militia member known as
"Killer" and including "black boots", members of a police paramilitary
support unit, did not even bother to check their fingers for the red ink
showing whether they had cast a ballot.

"They hit me on the back with the butt of the gun. They told me to lie on my
stomach and stamping on my fingers asking me where my brother was."

Mr Kayesu's brother Josiah's house was destroyed by a mob after the
election, and when he went to police to lay a complaint he was told they
"can't interfere in these political issues".

Josiah was last seen on Monday, said Mr Kayesu, 25 and unemployed. "I don't
know where my brother is right now. I fear for his health."

Mr Kayesu said he feels "great pain", but added: "There's nothing I can do
to them because they are the ones that have guns and I don't have guns.

"I will stay in my house until I die there. I don't have anywhere to go
because all my parents are dead. If they want to kill me, they can come and
kill me any time."

But organisations dealing with the victims of Zanu-PF's violence say that
they have received few casualties in recent days. It appears that the threat
of "Operation Red Finger", targeting those who did not vote in last week's
one-candidate poll, was intended mainly to create a climate of fear, with
wholescale revenge attacks yet to be authorised following MrMugabe's
"re-election".

But that has not stopped Zanu-PF militiamen taking matters into their own
hands, and it is open to question whether having been unleashed, they can be
restrained.

Isheunesu Mhindu, chairman of the MDC in ward 1 of Harare South
constituency, said mobs had wrecked eight houses in Hopley Farm, including
his own, since the poll and evicted more than 30 occupants.

"They came singing and chanting slogans, saying MDC is a puppet party of the
Europeans so we want to do away with all MDCs. They destroyed our houses."

The 49-year-old and the four other members of his family fled. "We had to
run for our lives. They didn't say anything, they were destroying.

They have the list of all MDCs, whether you voted or not they were
attacking."

It is the second time he has lost his home to Zanu-PF - his previous house,
along with his timber merchant business - was razed to the ground in the
ruling party's Murambatsvina, or "clear out the trash" operation a few years
ago.

A hat, a black T-shirt, a pair of trousers and two brightly-coloured
flip-flops are all he has been left with. "I have got nothing," he said. "As
it is things are hard. We can hardly afford to buy a piece of bread. We
don't have anything to eat, we haven't even bathed because we have no soap."

Zimbabwe central bank chief Gono would face UN sanctions - text

Reuters

Wed 2 Jul 2008, 14:49 GMT

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the
country's central bank governor are among those who, under a U.S.-drafted
resolution, would face U.N. asset freezes and travel bans over last week's
widely criticized election.

According to an annex to the latest version of the draft, obtained by
Reuters on Wednesday, Mugabe is among 12 people who would face U.N.
sanctions because he is the "Head of Government responsible for activities
that seriously undermine democracy, repress human rights and disrespect the
rule of law."

Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono would also face sanctions because he is
"responsible for funding repressive state policies," the text says.

Mugabe won re-election in the June 27 run-off ballot after Morgan
Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, pulled
out of the voting because of attacks on his supporters. He had won a
first-round vote on March 29.

Also on the sanctions list are the army's chief commander, Gen. Constantine
Chiwenga, who the MDC says coordinated Mugabe's campaign for the election,
which African and world leaders condemned as illegitimate.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, who heads the rural housing and social amenities
ministry, is also named in the annex.

Separately, a senior Western diplomat said Western powers are pushing for a
U.N. senior envoy to be appointed to bolster African efforts to mediate a
solution to the crisis.

An African Union summit in Egypt called on Tuesday for mediation efforts by
the Southern African Development Community, led by South African President
Thabo Mbeki, to continue.

But the diplomat, who asked not to be identified because the matter was
still under discussion, said Western countries felt those efforts "need
broader support from the AU and the United Nations."

He said the idea of a senior U.N. envoy to mediate in the crisis around
Zimbabwe's presidential run-off election last week was "on the table,"
adding, "We're discussing it with (U.N. Secretary-General) Ban (Ki-moon) and
others."

Names that had been mentioned as possible candidates included former
Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, former Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjo and current Ghanaian President John Kufuor, the diplomat said.

RUSSIA DISLIKES SANCTIONS

British U.N. Ambassador John Sawers said the U.N. Security Council would
discuss Zimbabwe again next week on the basis of a briefing U.N. officials
will give council members on the circumstances surrounding the election.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Russia disliked using sanctions as a
way of dealing with any problem and said the AU and SADC should be the ones
to deal with the problem.

"We never like the idea of sanctions," he said.

"We're encouraged to see that there is a serious regional effort to try to
bring the situation to a political conclusion, an amicable conclusion for
Zimbabwe and that of course would be the best possible scenario," he added.

Officials from China, which like Russia is a permanent veto-wielding council
member, have made it clear that they feel the Security Council should not
interfere in Zimbabwe and have repeatedly referred to the issue as "an
African problem."

Council diplomats say South Africa, Russia and China are opposed to the U.S.
draft resolution, which the United States hopes to circulate to all members
of the 15-nation council later this week.

Mugabe illegitimate-Rwanda’s Kagame

http://zimbabwemetro.com

By Gerald Harper ⋅ © zimbabwemetro.com ⋅ July 2, 2008 ⋅

Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president has questioned Mugabe ’s legitimacy and
hinted that his country will not recognize the outcome of the second run-off
poll.He told the Financial Times that the head of the Southern African
Development Community election observer mission had circulated reports at
the summit about conditions before the vote “indicating that just about
everything went wrong”.

Mr Kagame said: “Things went wrong, I agree with that. With that background
it is not even possible to talk who is the winner.

“We are not short of what people think about the crisis. What we are short
of is people to actually resolve the problem. I would agree with what some
of them are saying that there is a need to bring the sides together.”

Robert Mugabe met Thabo Mbeki, the South African president and regional
mediator on the crisis, on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Sharm
el-Sheikh. Mr Mugabe later addressed a closed session of the AU, whose
leaders were split on how to respond to questions about his legitimacy after
last Friday’s widely derided presidential run-off election in which he was
the only candidate.

On SundayMugabe was sworn in for a fresh term as president following
elections that were condemned by all the three African missions that
monitored the polls and denounced as illegitimate by western powers.

France May Consider Creating Special Unit to Try Crimes Against Humanity

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)

1 June 2008
Posted to the web 2 July 2008

The French government may consider creating a specialised unit to
investigate crimes against humanity, which currently she lacks and hinders
her determination to try such suspects.

An experts report was submitted on Monday to the French Minister for Justice
suggesting for setting up of such a specific unit, reports Hirondelle
Agency. The creation of such a unit would constitute, according to the
authors of the report, "a strong signal of the France's determination to
fight against the gravest international crimes".

The formation of the unit has also been supported by lawyers and
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) since December, last year, when they
exhorted the French Foreign Minister Bernard Koucher on the necessity of
such a specialised component in the judiciary.

"The treatment of this type of cases obviously requires an excellent
practice of criminal justice, a very thorough, historical and geo-political
knowledge of the context in which these crimes were committed, which only
creation of a unit of specialized investigation can undertake", stated
Koucher in his letter to his justice counterpart, Rachida Dati, in April,
this year.

So far French courts, under the terms of the law of adaptation of the
statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), integrated
in the criminal code in 1996, have universal jurisdiction to try Rwandans
suspected of genocide, if they are on French soil.

Currently, ten legal proceedings against alleged genocidaires are being
conducted by two Paris investigation judges-- the one against the Priest
Wenceslas Munyeshyaka from 1995 and the latest involving Agathe Habyarimana,
the widow of the former Rwandan president, whose assassination in April 1994
sparked the genocide.

The ICTR must finish all its trials by 2010 as directed by the UN Security
Council.

Before the UN Court's closure, proceedings could be transferred to French
courts, however, legal difficulties exist because cases at the ICTR are
tried in the accusatory form; the results of the investigation are given
through public hearing. They will, however, face an inquisitory system if
are to be tried in France, "which supposes a specific work within the
framework of the investigation", according to the experts report.

"The investigation judges in Paris do not have the means to continue the
investigations", remarked William Bourdon, a lawyer who has specialised in
the defence of human rights. He has been one of those who have been on the
forefront for several years for the creation of such a structure. "It is
necessary to give them the means so that finally trials of alleged
genocidaires can be held in Paris before the Assize Courts", he said.

Many associations challenged an amendment voted on 10 June by the Senate
restricting the range of the universal jurisdiction of French courts, which
provides that they will be able to try foreigners residing in France, and
not those on transition, who might have committed crimes falling within the
jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and ratified by
Paris.

Furthermore, the Bill adopted by the Senate provides that only the
prosecutors can initiate proceedings and no longer the victims or
associations of victims.

"The tool of universal jurisdiction remains an essential tool to try
international crimes", added Bourdon, who stressed that it has been
associations or NGOs who for the last 15 years have initiated prosecutions
against alleged genocidaires.

"The specialized unit is good. But France's international engagements are
likely to remain shelved if prosecutors have the monopoly on the
proceedings" cautioned the lawyer.

Three European countries-- Sweden, The Netherlands and Norway--have already
created specific units of prosecutors and police officers to investigate
crimes against humanity.

Canada Imposes Immediate Restrictions on Relations with Zimbabwe

Source: Federal Government of Canada
Published Wednesday, 2 July, 2008 - 17:02

The Honourable David Emerson, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today condemned
the illegitimate and illegal actions of the government of Robert Mugabe in
the conduct of Zimbabwe's June 27, 2008, election, and has rejected the
results of this "election." As a result, Canada will immediately put in
place measures designed to seriously restrict its relationship with the
Government of Zimbabwe.
"The Government of Zimbabwe's systematic use of violence and intimidation
represents a grave violation of human rights and democratic principles,"
said Minister Emerson. "The citizens of Zimbabwe have been denied the
opportunity to shape their future through free and fair elections, and they
remain in constant danger of intimidation, injury and loss of life. Canada
does not consider the result of the June 27 election to be, by any
reasonable standard of democracy, a credible outcome. This 'election' is
illegitimate and will not be accepted by the Government of Canada."

The Government of Canada will immediately put in place a series of measures
to severely restrict its relationship with the Government of Zimbabwe, and
to send a message of solidarity to the people of Zimbabwe and convey our
rejection of the actions of a desperate and illegitimate regime. The
following is an initial series of measures Canada is undertaking:

.Canada will impose restrictions on travel, work and study on senior
Zimbabwean government, military and police officials and their families.

. Canada will summon the Ambassador of Zimbabwe to Canada to convey messages
to her home government.

.Canada reconfirms its long-standing policy against exporting military goods
to Zimbabwe.

.The Government of Canada will not allow any aircraft registered in Zimbabwe
to land in, or to fly over, Canada.

The Government of Canada encourages Canadian companies to voluntarily divest
from Zimbabwe. Canada will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to
those in need in Zimbabwe through trusted Canadian and international
partners.

"Canada is working with its partners in the G8 and elsewhere to ensure a
concerted international approach to dealing with the flagrant abuse of the
democratic process in Zimbabwe. The current government of Zimbabwe is
illegitimate in the eyes of the international community. We call upon the
United Nations Security Council and the African Union to condemn the
election as illegitimate and to take further measures," added Minister
Emerson.

Canada commends the work of regional election observers in Zimbabwe, and
notes in particular the interim report of the Pan African Parliament
Election Observation Mission, released today, which stated that the
elections had been marred by high levels of intimidation, violence,
displacement of people, abductions and loss of life. It concluded that the
elections were not free, fair, or credible.

The Minister further stressed that the Government of Canada is fully behind
the people of Zimbabwe who have shown courage and determination in these
difficult times.

Both sides in Zimbabwe remain far apart

Financial Times

By Tony Hawkins in Harare

Published: July 2 2008 14:10 | Last updated: July 2 2008 16:29

Initial reaction from both government and opposition to Tuesday's African
Union call for a unity government in Zimbabwe shows that there is little
common ground between them.

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
insisted that the March 29 first round of elections which he won, must be
the basis for any talks with President Robert Mugabe's government.

Conditions on the ground were not yet suitable for talks, he said, adding
that the call for a government of national unity "does not address that
violence in the country which is continuing as we speak".
He said another nine MDC supporters had been killed since last week's
run-off, taking the total killed since the first round to more than 90
people, while MDC members were still being beaten and "chased from their
homes"

Speaking to reporters, the opposition leader hardened his stance against
talks mediated by President Thabo Mbeki as envisaged in the AU communiqué,
warning that the MDC would not participate in the talks unless a co-mediator
was appointed to share the job with Mr Mbeki.

"It is our position that unless the mediation team is expanded to include at
least one permanent representative from the African Union and the mediation
mechanism is changed, no meaningful progress can be made toward resolving
the Zimbabwe crisis," he said.

A spokesman for the South African government said that any decision to
expand the mediation team would have to be taken by the 14 member states of
the Southern African Development Community.

For the government, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, still Information minister despite
having been defeated in a by-election at the weekend, made clear that it is
business as usual. Mr Mugabe would remain in the driving seat and would
decide who was invited to multi-party talks.

He said the government welcomed the AU resolution, which was "in conformity
to what President Mugabe said at his inauguration, when he said we are
prepared to talk in order to resolve our problems." The government would
invite other (unnamed) parties to the negotiations and not just the MDC, he
said.

These initial reactions notwithstanding, both sides appear to be keeping
their options open. Mr Tsvangirai told members of civil society
organisations at a closed door meeting on Tuesday that there were three
options on the table - a government of national unity, a transitional
government and "disengagement".

He did not rule out any of the three but said he would hold extensive
consultations with his party before taking a decision, though he repeated
his demand that the mediation team be expanded since MDC leaders have little
confidence in President Mbeki.

Senior members of the ruling Zanu-PF party appear content with developments,
believing that Mr Mugabe's victory in Friday's unopposed runoff has
strengthened their bargaining position.

"There is no hurry. We can play a long game," said one insider, suggesting
that Mr Mugabe's extensive presidential powers would allow him to govern the
country with little recourse to parliament.

But this attitude ignores the reality on the ground - specifically the
accelerating pace of economic collapse. On Wednesday, the central bank
increased the amount depositors may withdraw in cash from their bank
accounts to Z$100bn a day from Z$25bn, but because the parallel market
exchange rate burst through the Z$100bn to the pound barrier reaching
Z$105bn, the real amount a person can withdraw was increased only
marginally.

Farming groups, who share Mr Tsvangirai's concerns about the deteriorating
security situation, accusing the government of failing to act against
criminal gangs operating in some farming areas are also warning that time is
running out for any short-term agricultural recovery programme.

They warn that unless foreign currency is made available soon to import
essential inputs, there will be another harvest failure next year.

Mbeki's Mediation Role More Suspect After AU Summit

SW Radio Africa (London)

ANALYSIS
2 July 2008
Posted to the web 2 July 2008

Tererai Karimakwenda

There has been much criticism of the role played by South African President
Thabo Mbeki at the African Union summit in Egypt this week, and in the days
leading up to it.

Reports said Mbeki was lobbying African leaders to accept Mugabe as the
legitimate leader of Zimbabwe, and he made it clear that he favours a
government of national unity, that features Mugabe at it's head. South
Africa has also been joining China and Russia in blocking resolutions for
sanctions at the UN Security Council. The MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai
last week called for Mbeki to be removed as the SADC mediator on the crisis.

The meetings on Zimbabwe at this 11th Ordinary Session of the A.U. were held
behind closed doors, but it is quite clear that the final resolutions made
by the heads of state on Tuesday reflect Mbeki's own policies on Zimbabwe.
The African leaders called for a continuation of the SADC talks mediated by
Mbeki, and for the MDC and ZANU-PF to negotiate a government of national
unity.

The MDC immediately reacted and on Wednesday they released a statement that
said in part:

"The MDC's reservations about the mediation process under President Mbeki
are well known. It is our position that unless the mediation team is
expanded to include at least one permanent representative from the African
Union, and the mediation mechanism is changed, no meaningful progress can be
made towards resolving the Zimbabwean crisis. If this does not happen then
the MDC will not be part of such a mediation process."

Luke Tamborinyoka, the MDC Information Secretary, explained that Mbeki's
efforts as SADC mediator produced no results after a year of secret talks
between the two parties. He said: "SADC is not Africa and the A.U., as the
continental body, should send someone to assist with the Zimbabwe crisis".

Mbeki also failed to pressure Mugabe to comply with some of the changes to
the Constitution that had been agreed to at the talks. Embarking on more
talks serves only to extend Mugabe's term in office and plays into ZANU-PF's
strategy of delaying progress.

Zimbabweans had pinned their hopes for a resolution of the crisis on the
summit at Sharm el Sheik, but Tamborinyoka described the result as 'milk and
water' resolutions that did not take into account the negative reports
submitted by the A.U., SADC and PAP observers who monitored the presidential
runoff on June 27.

Mbeki is also under pressure at home in South Africa. On Wednesday the
opposition Democratic Alliance party released a statement that said:
"Reports from the UN Security Council indicate that South Africa is again
collaborating with Russia and China to shield Zimbabwe from international
isolation. By turning a blind eye to human rights violations in Zimbabwe and
the outcome of a farce election, South Africa is complicit in defending the
political situation in Zimbabwe. South Africa still has a moral
responsibility to ensure that the will of the people of Zimbabwe prevails;
part of that solution is to exert strong pressure on those responsible for
stealing the election from the people, by imposing travel bans and asset
seizures on them."

Cosatu to Host Border Blockade At Beit Bridge Saturday

SW Radio Africa (London)

2 July 2008
Posted to the web 2 July 2008

Alex Bell

South Africa's Trade Union federation, COSATU, has organised a demonstration
in solidarity with Zimbabweans, to protest against the illegitimate
government headed by Robert Mugabe.

The federation said in a statement that it is mobilising it's members, civil
society and Zimbabweans living in South Africa "in solidarity with our
fellow trade unions and the people of Zimbabwe", beginning with a
demonstration and border blockade at the Beit Bridge.

The federation slammed the one-man run off election, shortly after Robert
Mugabe was sworn in as President on Sunday, and called on African
governments to refuse to recognise Mugabe as a legitimate head of state and
to bar him from attending meetings of the African Union or SADC.

COSATU said: "It would be a disaster for Africa if its highest
representative bodies, AU and SADC, were to recognise the outcome of such an
'election' and the Mugabe government as legitimate. We urge the African
governments not to recognise the Zimbabwean government and cancel all
invitations to it to attend continental and international meetings."

The statement also read: "The federation reiterates it's call on the workers
in South Africa, SADC, Africa and the world over, as well as all progressive
citizens of the world, to work towards a total isolation of Mugabe and his
government. We are calling on all our unions and those around the world to
make sure that they never ever serve Mugabe anywhere, including at airports,
restaurants, shops, etc. Further we call on all workers and citizens of the
world never to allow Mugabe to set foot in their countries."

COSATU's Patrick Craven told Newsreel on Wednesday that the time has come
"to bring even more pressure on the leaders of the African countries to stop
recognising Mugabe's government". Craven said the only form of
administration that should be accepted is a "transitional administration
made up in proportion to the votes cast in the March elections".

Craven added that Saturday's demonstration will send out a clear message
that people "will not accept the term of office by a leader who has lost
credibility not only in Zimbabwe, but in the world at large".

He said the demonstration is also vital to show the Zimbabwean people that
there are people in the world who are "fully in support of them and that
they are not alone or isolated. On the contrary it is their so called
president who is now internationally isolated".

Tutu Calls for Transitional Government And Peace Keepers

SW Radio Africa (London)

2 July 2008
Posted to the web 2 July 2008

Alex Bell

Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Tuesday night said South Africa had failed its
"Apartheid era friends" by supporting Russia and China in the UN Security
Council vote with regards to Zimbabwe.

He was speaking at the Difficult Dialogues debate at the University of Cape
Town and said he wanted peace and calm restored to Zimbabwe.

He said: "Who would ever have imagined that Zimbabwe, our proud showcase
country that used to export food, would today be a dream turned into a
horrible nightmare? Mr Mugabe and his cohorts have become corrupted". He
said the "nightmare" showed what happened in a country where people are
prepared to kill for their leaders.

The Nobel Laureate told a packed audience that one of the ways for peace to
be restored would be for African leaders to reprimand Mugabe and insist on
negotiations for a transitional government, with the MDC in a prominent
role. He also added that "perhaps we have to consider deploying armed
personnel to oversee a return to normalcy".

Tuesday night's public discussion also featured former Cape Town University
vice-chancellor Mamphela Ramphele and the co-founder of the Economic Justice
Initiative, Wilmot James.

James said UN peacekeeping troops should be sent to Zimbabwe to protect
people from further abuse. He added he was tired of the "smug arrogance" of
the South African government and said it was "hugging and coddling a
dictator for reasons that defy rationality and diplomatic progress".

Ramphele said the "culture of impunity" was to blame for the crisis. She
said: "Impunity is defined as the freedom of punishment or loss. We see it
with Uncle Bob in Zimbabwe, we saw it in Liberia with Charles Taylor and we
saw it with Idi Amin in Uganda."

Zim: 'SA govt must speak out'

News24

02/07/2008 19:09  - (SA)

Johannesburg - The South African government must speak out on the crisis in
Zimbabwe because President Thabo Mbeki is constrained from doing so, the
Congress of SA Trade Unions said on Wednesday.

"Cosatu appreciates the role that President Thabo Mbeki has been playing as
a mediator," said spokesperson Patrick Craven.

He said Cosatu also appreciated the constraints this imposed on his public
statements.

"A mediator must not be perceived to be aligned with one or another of the
contending parties."

He said Cosatu feels "however that it is now time for the government to
speak out, on behalf of all the people of South Africa, in defence of
democracy and human rights."

The elections held on June 27 were clearly not free and fair, said Craven.

Unacceptable outcome

"We urge the government to add its voice to theirs to state publicly that it
cannot accept the outcome of the 'elections'."

A democratic solution to the Zimbabwe crisis must be found through
intervention by the African Union, the New Partnership for Africa's
Development and the Southern African Development Community.

The credibility of these institutes were otherwise at stake, said Craven.

The AU, Nepad and the SADC needed to "condemn and disown" the human rights
violations and violence in the country, the illegitimate election processes
and the censorship of the media.

"It would be a disaster for Africa if its highest representative bodies, AU
and SADC, were to recognise the outcome of such an 'election' and the Mugabe
government as legitimate."

Zimbabwe should have all its invitations to attend continental and
international meetings banned.

Protest, border blockade

Cosatu said it would be mobilising its members, civil society and
Zimbabweans living in South Africa for a protest and border blockade at the
Beit Bridge border post on Saturday.

Craven also said the congress was trying to isolate Mugabe.

"We are calling on all our unions and those around the world to make sure
that they never ever serve Mugabe anywhere, including at airports,
restaurants, shops, etc.

"Further we call on all workers and citizens of the world never to allow
Mugabe to set foot in their countries."

Cutting Off Zimbabwe's Currency

Wednesday, Jul. 02, 2008 By THOMAS MARZAHL / BERLIN

Carlos LITULO / AFP / Getty Images

 

Bowing to a request from the German government, a German company that has been supplying Zimbabwe's embattled regime with bank note paper has stopped its deliveries, further increasing pressure on President Robert Mugabe.

The Munich-based firm Giesecke & Devrient, which reportedly supplies about half the southern African country's skyrocketing needs for paper to print money, made the decision after its president received a phone call Tuesday from German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

"We have taken this step in response to an official request from the German government and calls for sanctions on Zimbabwe from the European Union," Heiko Witzke, a company spokesman, said Wednesday.

A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said that in his call to CEO Karsten Ottenberg, Steinmeier underlined the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe and the mounting calls for stiffer sanctions on the Mugabe regime. She said the ministry had been holding talks with the company for several weeks.

Germany's development minister, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, had written to the company last week asking that it stop its "terrible" dealings with Mugabe, who was sworn in Sunday after he stood as the only candidate for reelection. Protesters brandishing placards saying "No cash for terror" also demonstrated outside the firm's headquarters last week.

Zimbabwe's opposition movement has been brutally suppressed and its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, withdrew from the presidential contest prior to the vote, citing violence and intimidation.

Hyperinflation, estimated at 1 million to 2 million percent per year, is running rampant in the economically devastated country. Zimbabwe's central bank cannot keep up with the demand for ever larger bills and the paper to print them on.

Bank note denominations now run to 75 billion Zimbabwean dollars. A pint of milk, if it can be found at all, can now cost 3 billion dollars, or about 30 U.S. cents.

The company's code of conduct states that its products and services "contribute to the social progress and technological advancement of society." Asked whether supplying a government widely regarded as despotic with paper for its currency violated that code, the spokesman said Giesecke & Devrient did not involve itself in "political" issues. "The important point is that it's not up to us to rely on political considerations in supplying bank note paper," he said. "We only deliver to central banks, not regimes."

The German company, whose slogan is "creating confidence," supplies central banks and governments in nearly 100 countries with high-security paper for bank notes and other financial instruments. Its 2007 sales were $2.46 billion. In its annual report, the company stated that its bank note business with African countries had been especially successful. Giesecke & Devrient said World Bank regulations prohibited it from revealing details of its contracts with Zimbabwe.

Citing a bill issued to a Harare printing firm, Munich's Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that in March, Giesecke & Devrient delivered bank note paper worth $856,000 to Zimbabwe. The spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the figure.

The family-owned firm once supplied the Weimar government of 1920s Germany with paper for its currency at a time of hyperinflation, and also printed the tickets for the 1936 Olympics during the Third Reich. Its current business also includes smart-card technology, integrated chips to store biometric data and border-control systems.

Zimbabwe can't paper over its million-percent inflation anymore

http://www.swradioafrica.com/pages/paper020708.htm

Under pressure, German company cuts off shipments of blank bank notes to
Mugabe.

Marcus Walker and Andrew Higgins
02 Jul 2008 13:49

Robert Mugabe has kept his embattled regime in Zimbabwe afloat on a sea of
paper money. Now, he'll have to try to do it without the paper.

The Munich-based company that has supplied Zimbabwe with the special blank
sheets to print its increasingly worthless dollar caved in to pressure on
Tuesday from the German government for it to stop doing business with the
African ruler.

Mr. Mugabe's regime relies on a steady supply of the paper -- fortified with
watermarks and other antiforgery features -- to print the bank notes that
allow it to pay the soldiers and other loyalists who enable him to stay in
power. With an annual inflation rate estimated at well over 1 million
percent, new notes with ever more zeros need to be printed every few weeks
because the older ones lose their worth so quickly.

Giesecke & Devrient -- a secretive, family-owned Bavarian company that once
made its money churning out worthless cash for the doomed Weimar Republic in
the 1920s -- has been airlifting tons of blank notes to the Zimbabwean
capital Harare. The company, which has been doing business with the African
nation since before Mr. Mugabe took power in 1980, is one of the few sources
in the world for the specialized paper that is so important in an age when
computers and laser printers have made forgery easy.

Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, phoned Karsten
Ottenberg, Giesecke & Devrient's chief executive, Tuesday to complain about
the deliveries, according to a German diplomat. On Friday, Germany's
development minister denounced the company's dealings with Zimbabwe as
"terrible" and sent a fax demanding that they stop.

Giesecke & Devrient said it would halt deliveries in response to the German
government's objections, public opinion, and the worsening political
situation in Zimbabwe. Neither the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the country's
central bank, nor the company would say how much the contract was worth.

The firm tried to weather the storm. Producing bank notes is lucrative,
particularly for countries like Zimbabwe that are ravaged by hyperinflation
and need to issue new notes so often. Zimbabwe's central bank stopped
posting inflation figures in January, when it stood at a relatively modest
100,580%. A loaf of bread costs 30 billion Zimbabwean dollars.

Gideon Gono, the governor of Zimbabwe's central bank, said in a phone
interview that the cutoff in deliveries will create hassles but "there is no
need to commit suicide...We are basically prepared for anything that comes
our way." Inflation, he added, is a grave problem but Zimbabwe will "survive
the onslaught."

The Munich money connection stirred outrage among opponents of Mr. Mugabe,
who, after a one-candidate election last week, was sworn in for another
five-year term Sunday.

The German supplier was "supporting the regime, and anyone who supports the
regime is helping to suppress our people," says Elton Mangoma, treasurer for
Zimbabwe's opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. He's now on
the run from security forces, he says.

'Money Down the Drain'

Zimbabwe, he says, has been "pouring money down the drain" by paying
Giesecke & Devrient to produce paper money that quickly loses any value. Mr.
Mangoma uses a 10 million Zimbabwe dollar bank note, worth 0.0008 of a U.S.
cent, as a bookmark because he doesn't "care if I lose it."

Zimbabwe now has a plethora of different bills, most of which have
negligible value. An accountant by profession, the MDC treasurer Mr. Mangoma
says billions are rarely used in his line of work anymore and have been
replaced by quadrillions -- a million billion. "Our economy is too crazy to
understand," says Mr. Mangoma.

The U.S. Federal Reserve keeps $100 bills in circulation for around 89
months, figuring that this is how long they can withstand ordinary wear and
tear. Notes in Zimbabwe rarely last more than a few weeks because they lose
their value so quickly. A 500,000 Zimbabwe dollar bill issued late last year
is already out of circulation: It is worth just 0.00004 U.S. cents at the
official exchange rate -- and much less on the black market.

Vending machines, which take coins, fell out of service in Zimbabwe years
ago. A single soda would require the deposit of billions of coins. Imported
from South Africa and in very short supply, a Coke sells on the black market
for around 15 billion Zimbabwean dollars. Civil servants mostly get paid
through direct deposits into bank accounts, which limit withdrawals to 25
billion Zimbabwe dollars a day.

In place of ordinary bank notes, Zimbabwe's central bank has taken to
issuing bearer checks in recent years. These look much the same as bills and
use the same German paper, but are valid for only a fixed period. The
government last year tried another tack, imposing price controls on a range
of basic goods. Supplies of goods dried up, and authorities relented.

Before Tuesday, Giesecke & Devrient, which produces bank notes for 100
countries around the world, said it took no view on Zimbabwe's economic or
political woes. A company spokeswoman said the firm follows rules laid down
by international bodies such as the United Nations and the European Union,
and they haven't imposed trade sanctions on Zimbabwe.

"It is not our place to enter into political considerations in delivering
bank notes," she said. On Tuesday, the company changed its tune under
pressure from the government in Berlin. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has
been vocally critical of Mr. Mugabe's regime, and the company's continued
dealings were "sending the wrong signal," said a senior German official.

The company -- which printed tickets for Hitler's 1936 Olympics and did
business with fascist Spain under General Francisco Franco -- has annual
revenues of $2.45 billion. The largest printer of euros for the European
central banks, Giesecke & Devrient makes bank-note paper at two factories,
one in the Bavarian Alps, the other in the mountains of Saxony near the
Czech border. But, fearful of protests, it won't say which plant produced
the Zimbabwe paper.

Giesecke & Devrient's ties with Zimbabwe go way back. It supplied Ian
Smith's white minority regime with bank notes and money-printing machines
when the country unilaterally declared independence from Britain in 1965.
Britain tried to stop the deliveries by suing Giesecke & Devrient in German
courts, arguing unsuccessfully that since the world didn't recognize the
Smith regime, the bank notes were forgeries.

White-minority rule ended, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, Mr. Mugabe became its
leader in 1980, and Giesecke & Devrient carried on selling to the central
bank. In the late 1980s, Mr. Mugabe publicly praised the company for its
loyalty to Zimbabwe, according to Klaus Bender, author of the book
"Moneymakers: The Secret World of Banknote Printing."

"The business of printing bank notes is comparable only to the arms trade,"
Mr. Bender said in an interview. "It's discreet, highly political, and based
on long-term relationships."

Giesecke & Devrient's decision to end its relationship with Zimbabwe raises
a host of questions. The opposition MDC says that without German supplies to
keep the printing presses rolling, the central bank, run by Mr. Gono, a
stalwart ally of Mr. Mugabe, will have trouble pumping out money in ever
greater volumes.

'Simple Equation'

Hyperinflation, says Steve H. Hanke, a professor of applied economics at
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and an expert on the subject, "is a
very simple equation" -- stop printing money and it stops. A bout of severe
hyperinflation in Yugoslavia in the 1990s paused, he says, when the
country's mint "just maxed out," and it couldn't print new money fast
enough.

But, say Mr. Hanke and others, Zimbabwe will likely find another way to
churn out fresh money even without special paper from Germany. He doubts
much will change in Zimbabwe unless it gets rid of its central bank and
adopts an entirely different monetary system.

Mr. Gono says he's "got a Plan B" to cope with the German paper deficit.
It's secret, he says.

Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, where baked beans cost $30 billion

The Telegraph

By Louis Weston in Harare
Last Updated: 7:34PM BST 02/07/2008
Zimbabwe's dollar, ravaged by hyperinflation, does not even come in the form
of a proper bank note.
Instead most bills are 'bearer cheques', marked with an expiry date, but
will become worthless long before it is reached.

More recently the reserve bank, which is issuing bills in ever-larger
denominations, moved on to 'special agro-cheques', leading to comments about
how much 'aggro' people have to deal with.

All three agro-cheques - they come in a brown Z$50 billion denomination, the
green Z$25 billion, and the pink Z$5 billion - have a picture of a grain
silo on one side. The sad irony is that the national treasury is as empty as
the country's grain silos.

On the rare occasions when products are available, the prices are
astronomic.
At the TM supermarket in Borrowdale, in Harare's western suburbs, many
shelves were bare yesterday. But a kilo of mince cost Z$490 billion, a kilo
of sausage Z$170 billion, and a tin of baked beans Z$30 billion.

Despite Zimbabwe's desperate shortage of food, heavy import duties have been
slapped onto edible products, and a litre of imported orange juice cost an
eye-watering Z$303 billion.

Some prices have trebled from a week ago, when lavatory paper worked out at
just under Z$22 million for a single sheet of two-ply. There was none in the
supermarket yesterday, but by now there is probably an alternative use for
the Z$50 million dollar note.

At one Harare restaurant dinner was Z$875 billion per person, and the house
wine a little short of half a trillion dollars a bottle.

In one shop a television was on sale, with a sign marked '1.7'. Asked if
that meant trillions, the shopkeeper answered: "No, the next one. I don't
know what it's called."

The Zimbabwean dollar is now so worthless that the zeros have become
confusing - to machines as well as people. Technical standards mean most
tills around the world are limited to 12 digits, so Zimbabwean businesses
have been forced to slash six zeros off their display prices, and receipts
are marked 'multiply all prices by 1,000,000'.

As well as the difficulty of dealing with prices that double every few days,
the sheer number of notes involved mean that some businesses are now
switching to accepting US dollars and South African rand, despite the
illegality of doing so.

Mugabe's regime may run out of money

The Telegraph

By Louis Weston in Harare and Harry de Quetteville in Berlin
Last Updated: 7:30PM BST 02/07/2008
The printing presses which produce reams of worthless banknotes in Zimbabwe
may soon fall silent after a German company stopped supplying paper.
Giesecke and Devrient, based in Munich, said it would no longer deliver
watermarked paper to President Robert Mugabe's Reserve Bank. This was due to
"the critical evaluation by the international community, German government
and general public" of the political situation in Zimbabwe.

Facing an spiralling economic crisis, Mr Mugabe's bankrupt regime must print
money in order to pay its bills. This has sent inflation rising above two
million per cent and wiped out the value of the Zimbabwe Dollar.

Today, the currency is not even issued in the form of a proper banknote.
Instead, most bills are "bearer cheques", marked with an expiry date. In
practice, prices double every two or three days and the notes become
worthless long before they officially expire. More recently, the Reserve
Bank, which is issuing bills in ever-larger denominations, moved on to
special "agro-cheques", leading to wry comments about how much "aggro"
people have to handle.

The highest value banknote is worth Z$50 billion - which is presently enough
to buy one can of baked beans. At the TM supermarket in Harare's northern
suburb of Borrowdale, many shelves were bare yesterday. But a kilogramme of
mince cost Z$490 billion and a kilogramme of sausage was going for Z$170
billion. A litre of imported orange juice cost an eye-watering Z$303
billion.

Some prices have trebled from a week ago, when toilet paper worked out at
just under Z$22 million for a single sheet. There was none in the
supermarket yesterday, but by now there is probably an alternative use for
the Z$50 million note.

At one Harare restaurant, dinner was Z$875 billion per person, and a bottle
of house wine was a little short of half a trillion dollars a bottle.

In one shop, a television was on sale, with a sign marked "1.7". Asked if
that meant trillions, the shopkeeper answered: "No, the next one. I don't
know what it's called."

The currency is now so worthless that the multitude of zeros have become
confusing - to machines as well as people. Technical standards mean most
tills around the world are limited to 12 digits, so Zimbabwean businesses
have been forced to slash six zeros off their display prices, and their
receipts are marked "multiply all prices by 1,000,000".

As well as the difficulty of dealing with prices that double every few days,
the sheer number of notes involved mean that some businesses are now
switching to accepting US dollars and South African Rand. This is officially
illegal - and also increasingly unavoidable.

After stolen election, life goes on

http://www.hararetribune.com

By Staff | Harare Tribune News
Wednesday, July 2, 2008 14:04
news@hararetribune.com

Chamunorwa Shamhu* works for one of the few non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) still allowed to operate in Zimbabwe, but by
mid-afternoon this week had still not managed to write the five paragraphs
needed for a funding proposal.

His boss said he had noticed other staff had "switched off" when they
came to work on 30 June, the day after the announcement that President
Robert Mugabe had won the uncontested second-round presidential run-off
election.

"This is no joke - people have been operating like zombies," he told
IRIN. "People are listless, dejected, have no interest in their work and
there are now very few smiles and laughter at the work place."

"Dejected" perhaps fails to convey the strength of Shamhu's feelings.
When Mugabe lost the first round of the presidential race to opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai on 29 March, he said he had dared to hope that
change could finally come to Zimbabwe after eight straight years of
recession and increasing political repression.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had won a majority
in parliament, and Tsvangirai almost scored an overwhelming majority in the
presidential vote, which would have given him a first-round victory against
Mugabe, 84, who has ruled since independence in 1980.

"At the time I was ready to skip the country and go to South Africa,
Botswana, Mozambique or Zambia, but when the government lost the election my
hopes were revived that a better Zimbabwe, with jobs and a normal life, was
about to return."

Instead, Tsvangirai pulled out of the 27 June run-off, citing the
political violence that had driven thousands from their homes, had injured
hundreds, and claimed the lives of over 80 MDC officials and supporters
since March.

Rather than the financial aid and goodwill that was likely to have
greeted a new government, Mugabe's swearing-in as president and apparent
determination to ignore international condemnation of the ballot has left
Zimbabweans to struggle along with daily shortages of the most basic
household needs, and an inflation rate that could be as high as 10 million
percent.

"To put it simply, I earn Z$300 billion a month. The bank only allows
a maximum withdrawal of Z$25 billion a day. Bus fare for one person to town
is Z$10 billion, which means I spend $20 billion per day on transport,"
Shamhu said. Today's exchange rate is roughly Z$30 billion to US$1.

"A decent meal in lunch-break costs Z$25 billion, and it also means I
have to spend four hours in a queue every day. At home my wife and I do not
have maize-meal [the staple food], sugar, milk, soap, electricity and water.
I have had to park my car because fuel is not available. With the prospects
of another five years under Mugabe, how can you expect anybody to look
forward to the following day?"

Psychologist Paddington Japajapa said people appeared to have symptoms
akin to post-traumatic stress disorder - a condition associated with
horrific experiences. "The condition manifests itself through profound
sadness, fear, depression, apprehension, failure to concentrate, failure to
participate in usual activities."

Sharon Dube*, who has two children and is a junior executive at an
advertising agency, said she does not know how she has managed to keep
going; things have been so bleak in recent years. "My children are growing
up and they need to eat, but my earnings are not able to sustain them. I
have all along led a pretty decent life but as things stand, if the
hardships continue, the only option left to me would be prostitution."

The gloom that descended has not been conducive to the work of an
advertising agency, she told IRIN. "Coming up with advertising ideas or
concepts requires a lot of creativity and concentration, and the entire
department has not done well so far this week because of anxieties connected
to our future and the possibilities of more hardships."

Escape from tyranny

http://www.hararetribune.com

By Jan Raath (newsweek) | Harare Tribune
Wednesday, July 2, 2008 13:04
news@hararetribune.com

The Air Zimbabwe flight from Harare landed at London's Gatwick
airport. Sixteen single young black men and women filed off the plane and
were met by immigration officials, who wasted no time poring over their
papers. When the vetting process was over, all 16 of the young Zimbabweans
were sitting forlornly near the immigration counter. A few hours later, they
took seats on the same plane and were flown back to Harare--their savings
gone, their dream of escaping from President Robert Mugabe's repressive
regime shattered, at least for the time being.

Many will simply try again. Since 1998, when Mugabe made unbudgeted
payouts to party militants and sent the economy into a death spiral, his
countrymen have been fleeing en masse. And since the flawed presidential
election this past March, the exodus has only intensified. Contrary to
conventional wisdom, most of the people leaving are not the white "racist"
ex-Rhodesians that the state propaganda machine decries.

Rather, they are educated, middle-income Zimbabweans, the cream of the
country's work force. "I'm scared now," says Agnes Moyo, a 44-year-old bank
executive who is shortly to leave for a new job in South Africa. "It's not
normal to spend five hours in a queue for maize meal [the national staple].
It's not normal to arrest journalists all the time. It is not normal for
people to be killed for voting for who they want. It's simply not
acceptable."

So it's off to London--Harare North in local parlance--or to South
Africa. There are no reliable statistics on the number of people who've left
Zimbabwe over the last two or three years, but there is no question that the
figure is large: in the first five months of this year, South Africa alone
repatriated 20,397 Zimbabwean border crossers. Demographers estimate that
there are more than 1 million Zimbabweans living illegally in South Africa
and about 300,000 in Britain.

There is much talk in London of Zimbabweans who've slipped through the
immigration net on their second or third try (in order to gain legal
residency, immigrants must prove they are capable of supporting
themselves--a condition few of the arrivals are able to meet). ASA
Consultants, a migration-advisory service from Australia, put an
advertisement in a Harare newspaper last week offering assistance to
would-be immigrants to Australia. "We are completely inundated [with
prospective clients]," says an ASA official. "People want any which way to
get out."

"Three quarters of the people who applied to us were well-off black
professionals and business people," says Nick Jack, a migration consultant
from New Zealand. "It's a tragedy. The country is like a dying star; it's
imploding."

While the corrupt political environment is troubling, it's the
collapsing economy that has many Zimbabweans packing their bags. The
Zimbabwean dollar is now a tenth of its value of only 18 months ago, and the
inflation rate is 120 percent. That has spurred the politically
indifferent--and even many supporters of Mugabe's ruling ZANU(PF) party--to
get out.

"We've got two kids at high school, and the fees just went up 100
percent this term," says a bookkeeper who asks not to be named and plans to
head to England. "Zimbabwe's been our family's home for four generations,
and we love it. But we just cannot afford to live here anymore."

Those Zimbabweans who do emigrate aren't kicking up their heels in
Soho. Families typically choose one member to go abroad, counting on him or
her to send home remittances. That's also hard for those left behind. "Most
of the black kids at this school are now in split families because the
breadwinner has gone overseas to earn money," says the headmaster of a rural
Christian private school. "As soon as the [wage earners] can accumulate the
air fare, they are off. Some of them live 30 at a time in two-room
apartments in London."

The one thing that may slow the flight of migrants is a lack of money.
In the last fortnight the Zimbabwean dollar has lost half its value at the
semi-official "parallel" exchange rate, trading for U.S. dollars at a rate
of 750 to 1. That has made buying plane tickets extremely expensive.

"An open ticket to London for my wife and I will cost the best part of
1 million Zimbabwe dollars," said retired doctor Jack Crossman last week.
"We just could never afford that. But neither can we afford to live here
now. We are trapped." Many are feeling that way--and doing whatever's
necessary to get out.

Zimbabweans sigh, shrug over latest developments

Santa Barbara News-Press

Shashank Bengali

July 2, 2008 10:58 AM

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

NAIROBI, Kenya - I'm just back from Zimbabwe, where the events of the past
couple of weeks are familiar to pretty much everyone. Robert Mugabe remains
in power, the opposition has been butchered and outmaneuvered, the world
can't agree on what action to take, and the suffering of ordinary
Zimbabweans continues.

In the days before Friday's vote, with Mugabe running uncontested, the most
common sound in Harare was a sigh. Anyone I asked about the election - in
hushed, clandestine conversations that usually took place inside a trusted
taxi - just seemed to shrug their shoulders. What's left to say?

On the surface things in Harare looked the same as ever. The airport is
still clean but depressing, with the immaculate, skylit reception area
darkened by the rows of shuttered kiosks and the inevitably long line of
Zimbabweans at the ATMs, waiting to pull out worthless money. Cars still ply
the roads and pedestrians are still everywhere, because even with fuel
shortages and 80 or 90 percent unemployment, people still have places to go,
and every able-bodied man, woman and child is hustling to survive.

You had to look closer to see the scars. Unlike on my last trip, in March,
when I could drive deep into the countryside and freely snap photographs at
opposition rallies, I was warned not to drive more than a few miles outside
the city center, where roadblocks awaited, and the only posters on the
streets were of Mugabe. Having lost the first-round election in March, he
had decided not to take any chances in the runoff. The old man everyone
calls ''Bob,'' or ''the old man,'' glared at you from every corner, fist
clenched, with an appropriately warlike campaign slogan such as: ''This is
the final battle for total control.''

My trusted driver, S., had procured a Mugabe picture to display in his car
window, to avoid getting harassed by youth militias, and on election day he
tied a ruling party bandanna - slogan: ''100% EMPOWERMENT'' - to the
rearview mirror as extra insurance against carrying a foreign-looking guy in
the passenger seat.

The militias, the so-called ZANU-PF youth, are the thugs believed
responsible for the worst of the election violence. They were hard to miss.
I saw them the night I arrived - a group of them, kids far younger than me,
with huge, V-shaped upper bodies and matching green bandannas, piled into
the back of a parked pickup truck, a new-looking Toyota with no license
plates. They each looked either totally bored or spoiling for a fight.

They're in a one-sided battle. The rest of the country has no more fight
left. There's a new, U.S-funded survey that suggests that Zimbabweans are
the unhappiest people in the world. I'm not totally sure of that. There is
plenty of humor in Harare, even though most of it is gallows humor. S.
laughed bitterly, for example, when we drove around the city on Election Day
and found that the only lines anyone was bothering to stand in were the
lines to buy bread, not to vote.

---

Shashank Bengali covers Africa for McClatchy Newspapers. E-mail him at
sbengali

The grind goes on

HARARE, 2 July 2008 (IRIN) - Chamunorwa Shamhu* works for one of the few
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) still allowed to operate in Zimbabwe,
but by mid-afternoon this week had still not managed to write the five
paragraphs needed for a funding proposal.

His boss said he had noticed other staff had "switched off" when they came
to work on 30 June, the day after the announcement that President Robert
Mugabe had won the uncontested second-round presidential run-off election.

"This is no joke - people have been operating like zombies," he told IRIN.
"People are listless, dejected, have no interest in their work and there are
now very few smiles and laughter at the work place."

"Dejected" perhaps fails to convey the strength of Shamhu's feelings. When
Mugabe lost the first round of the presidential race to opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai on 29 March, he said he had dared to hope that change
could finally come to Zimbabwe after eight straight years of recession and
increasing political repression.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had won a majority in
parliament, and Tsvangirai almost scored an overwhelming majority in the
presidential vote, which would have given him a first-round victory against
Mugabe, 84, who has ruled since independence in 1980.

"At the time I was ready to skip the country and go to South Africa,
Botswana, Mozambique or Zambia, but when the government lost the election my
hopes were revived that a better Zimbabwe, with jobs and a normal life, was
about to return."

Instead, Tsvangirai pulled out of the 27 June run-off, citing the political
violence that had driven thousands from their homes, had injured hundreds,
and claimed the lives of over 80 MDC officials and supporters since March.

Rather than the financial aid and goodwill that was likely to have greeted a
new government, Mugabe's swearing-in as president and apparent determination
to ignore international condemnation of the ballot has left Zimbabweans to
struggle along with daily shortages of the most basic household needs, and
an inflation rate that could be as high as 10 million percent.

"To put it simply, I earn Z$300 billion a month. The bank only allows a
maximum withdrawal of Z$25 billion a day. Bus fare for one person to town is
Z$10 billion, which means I spend $20 billion per day on transport," Shamhu
said. Today's exchange rate is roughly Z$30 billion to US$1.

"A decent meal in lunch-break costs Z$25 billion, and it also means I have
to spend four hours in a queue every day. At home my wife and I do not have
maize-meal [the staple food], sugar, milk, soap, electricity and water. I
have had to park my car because fuel is not available. With the prospects of
another five years under Mugabe, how can you expect anybody to look forward
to the following day?"

Psychologist Paddington Japajapa said people appeared to have symptoms akin
to post-traumatic stress disorder - a condition associated with horrific
experiences. "The condition manifests itself through profound sadness, fear,
depression, apprehension, failure to concentrate, failure to participate in
usual activities."

Sharon Dube*, who has two children and is a junior executive at an
advertising agency, said she does not know how she has managed to keep
going; things have been so bleak in recent years. "My children are growing
up and they need to eat, but my earnings are not able to sustain them. I
have all along led a pretty decent life but as things stand, if the
hardships continue, the only option left to me would be prostitution."

The gloom that descended has not been conducive to the work of an
advertising agency, she told IRIN. "Coming up with advertising ideas or
concepts requires a lot of creativity and concentration, and the entire
department has not done well so far this week because of anxieties connected
to our future and the possibilities of more hardships."

* Not their real names

[ENDS]
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations