Washington Post
Notes, Witnesses
Detail How Campaign Was Conceived and Executed by Leader,
Aides
By Craig
Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 5, 2008; Page
A01
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- President Robert Mugabe summoned his top security
officials to a government training center near his rural home in central
Zimbabwe on the afternoon of March 30. In a voice barely audible at first,
he informed the leaders of the state security apparatus that had enforced
his rule for 28 years that he had lost the presidential vote held the
previous day.
Then Mugabe told the gathering he planned to give up
power in a televised
speech to the nation the next day, according to the
written notes of one
participant that were corroborated by two other people
with direct knowledge
of the meeting.
But Zimbabwe's military chief,
Gen. Constantine Chiwenga, responded that the
choice was not Mugabe's alone
to make. According to two firsthand accounts
of the meeting, Chiwenga told
Mugabe his military would take control of the
country to keep him in office
or the president could contest a runoff
election, directed in the field by
senior army officers supervising a
military-style campaign against the
opposition.
Mugabe, the only leader this country has known since its
break from white
rule nearly three decades ago, agreed to remain in the race
and rely on the
army to ensure his victory. During an April 8 military
planning meeting,
according to written notes and the accounts of
participants, the plan was
given a code name: CIBD. The acronym, which
proved apt in the fevered
campaign that unfolded over the following weeks,
stood for: Coercion.
Intimidation. Beating. Displacement.
In the
three months between the March 29 vote and the June 27 runoff
election,
ruling-party militias under the guidance of 200 senior army
officers
battered the Movement for Democratic Change, bringing the
opposition party's
network of activists to the verge of oblivion. By
election day, more than 80
opposition supporters were dead, hundreds were
missing, thousands were
injured and hundreds of thousands were homeless.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the
party's leader, dropped out of the contest and took
refuge in the Dutch
Embassy.
This account reveals previously undisclosed details of the
strategy behind
the campaign as it was conceived and executed by Mugabe and
his top
advisers, who from that first meeting through the final vote
appeared to
hold decisive influence over the president.
The
Washington Post was given access to the written record by a participant
of
several private meetings attended by Mugabe in the period between the
first
round of voting and the runoff election. The notes were corroborated
by
witnesses to the internal debates. Many of the people interviewed,
including
members of Mugabe's inner circle, spoke on the condition of
anonymity for
fear of government retribution. Much of the reporting for this
article was
conducted by a Zimbabwean reporter for The Post whose name is
being withheld
for security reasons.
What emerges from these accounts is a ruling inner
circle that debated only
in passing the consequences of the political
violence on the country and on
international opinion. Mugabe and his
advisers also showed little concern in
these meetings for the most basic
rules of democracy that have taken hold in
some other African nations born
from anti-colonial independence movements.
Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe
African National Union-Patriotic Front, took
power in 1980 after a
protracted guerrilla war. The notes and interviews
make clear that its
military supporters, who stood to lose wealth and
influence if Mugabe bowed
out, were not prepared to relinquish their
authority simply because voters
checked Tsvangirai's name on the ballots.
"The small piece of paper
cannot take the country," Solomon Mujuru, the
former guerrilla commander who
once headed Zimbabwe's military, told the
party's ruling politburo on April
4, according to notes of the meeting and
interviews with some of those who
attended.
'Professional Killers'
The plan's first phase
unfolded the week after the high-level meeting, as
Mugabe supporters began
erecting 2,000 party compounds across the country
that would serve as bases
for the party militias.
At first, the beatings with whips, striking with
sticks, torture and other
forms of intimidation appeared consistent with the
country's past political
violence. Little of it was fatal.
That
changed May 5 in the remote farming village of Chaona, located 65 miles
north of the capital, Harare. The village of dirt streets had voted for
Tsvangirai in the election's first round after decades of supporting
Mugabe.
On the evening of May 5 -- three days after Mugabe's government
finally
released the official results of the March 29 election -- 200 Mugabe
supporters rampaged through its streets. By the time the militia finished,
seven people were dead and the injured bore the hallmarks of a new kind of
political violence.
Women were stripped and beaten so viciously that
whole sections of flesh
fell away from their buttocks. Many had to lie
facedown in hospital beds
during weeks of recovery. Men's genitals became
targets. The official
postmortem report on Chaona opposition activist Aleck
Chiriseri listed
crushed genitals among the causes of death. Other men died
the same way.
At the funerals for Chiriseri and the others, opposition
activists noted the
gruesome condition of the corpses. Some in the crowds
believed soldiers
trained in torture were behind the killings, not the more
improvisational
ruling-party youth or liberation war veterans who
traditionally served as
Mugabe's enforcers.
"This is what alerted me
that now we are dealing with professional killers,"
said Shepherd Mushonga,
a top opposition leader for Mashonaland Central
province, which includes
Chaona.
Mushonga, a lawyer whose unlined face makes him look much younger
than his
48 years, won a seat in parliament in the March vote on the
strength of a
village-by-village organization that Tsvangirai's party had
worked hard to
assemble in rural Mashonaland.
After Chaona, Mushonga
turned that organization into a defense force for his
own village, Kodzwa.
Three dozen opposition activists, mostly men in their
20s and 30s, took
shifts patrolling the village at night. The men armed
themselves with
sticks, shovels and axes small enough to slip into their
pants pockets,
Mushonga said.
The same militias that attacked Chaona worked their way
gradually south
through the rural district of Chiweshe, hitting Jingamvura,
Bobo and, in the
predawn hours of May 28, Kodzwa, where about 200 families
live between two
rivers.
When about 25 ruling-party militia members
attempted to enter the village
along its two dirt roads, Mushonga said, his
patrols blew whistles, a
prearranged signal for women, children and the
elderly to flee south across
one of the rivers to the relative safety of a
neighboring village.
Over the next few hours, the two rival groups moved
through Kodzwa's dark
streets. Shortly after dawn, Mushonga's 46-year-old
brother, Leonard, and
about 10 other opposition activists cornered five of
the ruling-party
militia members. One of the militia members was armed with
a bayonet,
another a traditional club known as a knobkerrie.
In the
scuffle, Leonard Mushonga and his group prevailed, beating the five
intruders severely. But he said that this small, rare victory revealed
evidence that elements of the army had been deployed against
them.
One of the ruling-party men, Leonard Mushonga said, carried a
military
identification badge. In a police report on the incident, which led
to the
arrest of 26 opposition activists, the soldier was identified as
Zacks
Kanhukamwe, 47, a member of the Zimbabwe National Army. A second man,
Petros
Nyguwa, 45, was listed as a sergeant in the army.
He was also
listed as a member of Mugabe's presidential guard.
Terror Brings
Results
The death toll mounted through May, and almost all of the
fatalities were
opposition activists. Tsvangirai's personal advance man,
Tonderai Ndira, 32,
was abducted and killed. Police in riot gear raided
opposition headquarters
in Harare, arresting hundreds of families that had
taken refuge there.
Even some of Mugabe's stalwarts grew uneasy, records
of the meetings show.
Vice President Joice Mujuru, wife of former
guerrilla commander Solomon
Mujuru and a woman whose ferocity during the
guerrilla war of the 1970s
earned her the nickname Spill Blood, warned the
ruling party's politburo in
a May 14 meeting that the violence might
backfire. Notes from that and other
meetings, as well as interviews with
participants, make clear that she was
overruled repeatedly by Chiwenga, the
military head, and by former security
chief Emerson
Mnangagwa.
Mnangagwa, 61, earned his nickname in the mid-1980s overseeing
the so-called
Gukurahundi, when a North Korea-trained army brigade
slaughtered thousands
of people in a southwestern region where Mugabe was
unpopular. From then on,
Mnangagwa was known as the Butcher of
Matabeleland.
The ruling party turned to Mnangagwa to manage Mugabe's
runoff campaign
after first-round results, delayed for five weeks, showed
Tsvangirai winning
but not with the majority needed to avoid a second
round.
The opposition, however, had won a clear parliamentary
majority.
In private briefings to Mugabe's politburo, Mnangagwa expressed
growing
confidence that the violence was doing its job, according to records
of the
meetings. After Joice Mujuru raised concerns about the brutality in
the May
14 meeting, Mnangagwa said only, "Next agenda item," according to
written
notes and a party official who witnessed the exchange.
At a
June 12 politburo meeting at party headquarters, Mnangagwa delivered
another
upbeat report.
According to one participant, he told the group that
growing numbers of
opposition activists in Mashonaland Central, Matabeleland
North and parts of
Masvingo province had been coerced into publicly
renouncing their ties with
Tsvangirai. Such events were usually held in the
middle of the night, and
featured the burning of opposition party cards and
other regalia.
Talk within the ruling party began predicting a landslide
victory in the
runoff vote, less than three weeks away.
Mugabe's
demeanor also brightened, said some of those who attended the
meeting.
Before it began, he joked with both Mnangagwa and Joice Mujuru.
It was
the first time since the March vote, one party official recalled,
that
Mugabe laughed in public.
'Nothing to Go Back To'
The
opposition's resistance in Chiweshe gradually withered under
intensifying
attacks by ruling-party militias. After the stalemate in
Kodzwa, the
militias continued moving south in June, finally reaching
Manomano in the
region's southwestern corner.
The opposition leader in Manomano was Gibbs
Chironga, 44, who had won a seat
in the local council as part of
Tsvangirai's first-round landslide in the
area. The Chirongas were
shopkeepers with a busy store in Manomano. To
defend that store, they kept a
pair of shotguns on hand.
On June 20, a week before the runoff election,
Mugabe's militias arrived in
Manomano with an arsenal that had grown
increasingly advanced as the vote
approached.
Some carried AK-47
assault rifles, which are standard issue for Zimbabwe's
army. For the attack
on Manomano, witnesses counted six of the weapons.
About 150 militia
members, some carrying the rifles, circled the Chironga
family home. Gibbs
Chironga fired warning shots from his shotgun, relatives
and other witnesses
recalled. Yet the militiamen kept coming. They broke
open the ceiling with a
barrage of rocks, then used hammers to batter down
the walls.
When
Gibbs Chironga emerged, a militia member shot him with an AK-47, said
Hilton
Chironga, his 41-year-old brother, who was wounded by gunfire. Gibbs
died
soon after.
His brother, sister and mother were beaten, then handcuffed
and forced to
drink a herbicide that burned their mouths and faces,
relatives said.
Both Hilton Chironga and his 76-year-old mother, Nelia
Chironga, were taken
to the hospital in Harare, barely able to eat or speak.
The whereabouts of
Gibbs Chironga's sister remain unknown. The family home
was burned to the
ground.
"There's nothing to go back to at home,"
Hilton Chironga said softly, a
bandage covering the wounds on his face and a
pair of feeding tubes snaking
into his nostrils.
"Even if I go back,
they'll finish me off. That is what they want," he said.
Two days later,
as Mugabe's militias intensified their attacks, Tsvangirai
dropped out of
the race.
Groups of ruling-party youths took over a field on the western
edge of
downtown Harare where he was attempting to have a rally, and soon
after, he
announced that the government's campaign of violence had made it
impossible
for him to continue. Privately, opposition officials said the
party
organization had been so damaged that they had no hope of winning the
runoff
vote.
On election day, Mugabe's militias drove voters to the
polls and tracked
through ballot serial numbers those who refused to vote or
who cast ballots
for Tsvangirai despite his boycott.
The 84-year-old
leader took the oath of office two days later, for a sixth
time. He waved a
Bible in the air and exchanged congratulatory handshakes
with Chiwenga,
whose reelection plan he had adopted more than two months
before, and the
rest of his military leaders.
About the same time, a 29-year-old survivor
of the first assault in Chaona,
Patrick Mapondera, emerged from the
hospital. His wife, who had also been
badly beaten, was recovering from skin
grafts to her buttocks. She could sit
again.
Mapondera had been the
opposition chairman for Chaona and several
surrounding villages. If and when
the couple returns home, he said, he does
not expect to take up his job
again.
"They've destroyed everything," he said.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com
July 5, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe on Friday launched a
blistering attack
against MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and regional observer
missions that
have condemned his fraudulent re-election.
Speaking to
a crowd apparently commandeered to the Harare International
Airport soon
after his return from the African Union summit in Sharm
el-Sheikh, Egypt ,
Mugabe boasted that his re-election had been endorsed by
the majority of
African leaders.
"It was just four countries that said we will not accept
the results of our
June 27 election," Mugabe said. "SADC made an
unequivocal statement that
they accept our results. These four countries
were saying they would only
accept results from the March 29 elections. I
told them that will never,
never, ever happen."
Wearing a three-piece
suit, he addressed 8,000 subdued supporters at a
carefully staged rally at
the airport comprising mainly vendors who had been
dragooned from Mbare
Msika.
His speech will have done little to stem the growing campaign to
impose
United Nations sanctions against his regime, amid reports the UN
Security
Council was meeting next week to ratify the
decision.
Mugabe's grandstanding also did little to alleviate worldwide
concerns over
the atrocities being reported from his country.
To
chants of "Down with the British" and "Down with the whites", Mugabe
turned
on Britain and its Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.
He accused Britain of
bankrolling regional observer missions that condemned
his re-election as
fraudulent. He did not categorically state which missions
he was referring
to, but both the SADC and the Pan African Parliament
observer missions have
described the June 27 poll as flawed.
"Some observer missions had been
given money from Western countries to
rubbish our elections," Mugabe said.
"Even though we know we held free and
free elections, they rejected them as
flawed in an attempt to placate their
handlers. The polling was largely
peaceful even though we accept that there
were isolated incidents of
violence here and there in the run up to the
poll."
Mugabe paid
tribute to SADC leaders for standing by him and said he hoped
the regional
bloc continues to mediate over the crisis in Zimbabwe .
Mugabe said the
British and US governments had decided to take him on
through the MDC. He
alleged that Tsvangirai only returned to Zimbabwe from
self-imposed exile
after receiving instructions from the US ambassador James
McGee.
"He
came back running from self-imposed exile after he was recalled by his
baas,
the US ambassador," Mugabe said. "Soon after his return, we heard that
he
had fled his home, leaving his wife behind, to go and take refuge in the
Dutch embassy. Why did he do that? He was running away from his
shadow.
"There was no threat whatsoever. The next thing we heard was that
he was
staying there permanently and he doesn't want to go back home. Why
did he
flee to whites? Why didn't he go to African embassies? It clearly
shows who
his handlers are."
Mugabe's half-hour speech at the airport
was peppered with racial insults
directed at Tsvangirai, whom he oft accused
of being a British stooge.
"Tsvangirai has decided he must be white," he
said. "How can we have blacks
who masquerade as whites? We went to war; we
went to prison; we have
suffered over the years but we are not afraid of the
struggle. We will not
run away. You can count on us to fight."
Mugabe
said it was incumbent on the MDC to open channels of communication
with
him,
"But said they must first shake off their western puppet leash," he
said.
"We are in a state of political war. We are in a war to defend our
rights
and the interests of our people."
Mugabe's Government is
facing the worst diplomatic crisis in its relations
with the developed world
since Zimbabwe achieved independence in 1980.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com
July 5, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - Zimbabwe's central bank has dismissed the halt in
shipments of
paper used to print bank notes by a German firm, saying the
action will have
no serious impact on the economy.
The central bank's
assertions were immediately rubbished by economists, who
accused the Reserve
Bank governor Gideon Gono, of putting up a brave face
amid serious problems
that could shatter Zimbabwe's economy.
Boasting that the Zimbabwe
government was an expert in sanctions busting,
Gono said there was no need
to panic. He said proactive and appropriate
measures and strategies had
already been put in place.
"Following the widely publicised termination
of bank note paper supplies to
Fidelity Printers (Pvt) Ltd, by Giesecke
& Devrient of Germany, the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe wishes to advise and
assure the nation that this
development will not disrupt the smooth flow of
business," Gono said in a
statement to The Zimbabwe Times.
"To this
end, therefore, the banking and transacting public should go about
their
business in the usual manner, as the above-mentioned development will
not
have any impact on the economy."
But leading economist, Eric Bloch said
the action had the potential for
"critical consequences" for the RBZ,
despite spirited denials by Gono.
Bloch, who sits on the RBZ advisory
board, said the major suppliers of
banknote paper were countries hostile to
Zimbabwe, that is, Germany,
Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United
States.
"I don't see them doing business with us," he said. "It means we
will have
to use sub-standard paper.
"The problem is that, it will be
vulnerable to counterfeit and this has
devastating economic
consequences."
The German firm, which has supplied bank note paper to the
RBZ subsidiary,
Fidelity Printers for the past 40 years, announced on
Tuesday that it was
stopping deliveries of bank note paper to the RBZ with
immediate effect.
It said the decision had been taken in response to an
official request from
the German government and calls for international
sanctions by the European
Union and United Nations.
"Our decision is
a reaction to the political tension in Zimbabwe , which is
mounting
significantly rather than easing as expected, and takes account of
the
critical evaluation by the international community, German government
and
general public," chief executive Karsten Ottenberg said in a
statement.
Demand for cash in Zimbabwe is far outstripping supply, as a
ruined economy
drives skyrocketing hyperinflation.
Prices rose
165,000 percent in February, according to government figures,
but
independent experts say the real inflation rate is closer to 9 million
percent.
Gono insisted that the termination of supplies would not
disrupt the smooth
operation of business, as hundreds of desperate
depositors jostled for cash
in banking halls across the city.
"This
certainly has critical consequences no matter how much we might want
to
downplay it," Bloch said.
SABC
July 05,
2008, 07:30
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is
expected to hold
demonstrations at the Beit Bridge border post between South
Africa and
Zimbabwe in protest against President Robert Mugabe's
government.
Union spokesperson Jan Tsiane says the demonstration and
border blockading
is part of showing solidarity with the people of
Zimbabwe.
Cosatu wants the African Union (AU), Southern African
Development Community
(SADC) and the international community to condemn the
human rights
violations in Zimbabwe, the illegitimate presidential run-off
election and
the censorship of the media.
Amnesty International (AI)
Date: 04 Jul 2008
On Saturday 12 July 2008, following a
call by CIVICUS: World Alliance For
Citizen Participation, Amnesty
International and the Global Call for Action
Against Poverty (GCAP),
citizens of Africa will unite to express their
solidarity with the people of
Zimbabwe who are suffering persistent
violations of their rights. Saturday
represents the launch of a Pan-African
Campaign of Solidarity for Zimbabwe,
and will be followed by events
continent-wide.
The widespread
killings, torture and intimidation of the political
opposition that
characterised the presidential election run-off on June 27
cannot be
condoned under any circumstances. 'By flagrantly and consistently
violating
the values upon which present day Africa is premised, Mr Mugabe
has done
great disservice to the people of Zimbabwe and the continent. We
believe it
is the responsibility of all Africans to urgently put a stop to
Mr Mugabe's
anti-democratic activities' said Kumi Naidoo Honorary President
of
CIVICUS.
'The widespread killings, torture and assault of perceived
opposition
supporters must come to an end in Zimbabwe. Concrete action is
long overdue
and African leaders must end their silent acquiescence,' said
Irene Khan,
Secretary General of Amnesty International.
In this hour
of crisis, the people of Africa stand together with the people
of Zimbabwe.
'We urge African leaders to call for space to be opened up so
that civil
society can play a role in tackling Zimbabwe's current crisis -
we are
needed now more than ever as millions of people face hunger through
growing
food insecurity brought on by mis-governance.' said Adelaide Sosseh,
GCAP
Co-chair based in The Gambia.
Saturday's Pan-African events will express
the concern of people
continent-wide for the situation in Zimbabwe, and
demonstrate the unity with
which Africans stand against the violations
committed against Zimbabwe's
people. It represents the beginning of an
Africa-wide campaign at the
grassroots level, allowing African voices to
speak out about injustice in
Zimbabwe.
Note to Editors:
There
are a growing number of African voices speaking out against the
suffering in
Zimbabwe and demanding action from the African Union, the
Southern African
Development Community and individual African governments.
The types of
action that they are calling for include:
Appointment of an independent
commission of inquiry to look into the recent
human rights violations and
abuses
Posting of human rights monitors to report on the current
situation
Urge a solution to the present political crisis and deep
divisions amongst
the people of Zimbabwe in the spirit of reconciliation and
dialogue
Restoration of the independence of the judiciary and
accountability of
security forces and law enforcement agencies
There
will be a range of activities taking place across the African
continent on
Saturday 12 July 2008, organised by local civil society
organisations and
concerned citizens. The expressions of solidarity that
they will be making
include:
Organising vigils outside the Zimbabwean
embassies
Assembling outside government buildings or Houses of Parliament
urging
national governments to play a more active role on
Zimbabwe
Meetings with heads of state, parliamentarians or local
governments to urge
action on Zimbabwe
Publishing articles or letters
in the national or local press on violations
of human and people's rights in
Zimbabwe Organising press conferences with
civil society representatives,
government representatives and other experts
on Zimbabwe Issuing a press
releases urging action on Zimbabwe
Directing people to sign a petition or
take an e-action
Presenting memorandums or submissions to the African
Union, Southern African
Development Community and national
governments
CIVICUS statement on Zimbabwe:
http://www.civicus.org/new/media/CIVICUS-Zimbabwe-Statement.pdf
Amnesty
International statement on Zimbabwe:
http://www.amnesty.org/
GCAP statement
on Zimbabwe:
http://www.whiteband.org/media/press-info/au-summit-egypt-the-chance-for...
For
further information, please contact:
For CIVICUS:
Anupama Selvam
anupama.selvam@civicus.org
+27
11 833 5959 ext. 107
For GCAP:
International
Joe
Donlin
Officer
joe.donlin@civicus.org
For media
queries:
Nastasya Tay
nastasya.tay@civicus.org
+27 73
266 0493
For Amnesty International:
On Call Press Officer
+ 44 0777
847 2126
Africa News, Netherlands
Posted on Saturday 5 July 2008 - 08:20
Mugadza Munyaradzi, AfricaNews
reporter in Harare, Zimbabwe
Former Ethiopian leader Haile Mengistu
breathed a sigh of relief last
Friday after president Robert Mugabe was
declared winner in the presidential
election which the opposition MDC
withdrew from the discredited elections.
The "Butcher of Ethiopia" as
he is affectionately known was sentenced to
death by his country's Supreme
Court in May for crimes against humanity.
The former dictator has
enjoyed a comfortable life in Zimbabwe under
President Mugabe's powers since
he fled from the Ethiopian capital Addis
Ababa in 1991 following
ouster.
President Mugabe and his troops said before the presidential
run off that
the former dictator would remain a special guest to Zimbabwe if
they win the
historic presidential run off on June 27.
The
opposition MDC however had said if the people of Zimbabwe were allowed
to
exercise their right to vote in a free and fair election and won the
presidential election, Mengistu would be extradited to his country and faces
the full wrath of the law.
The MDC said then that dictators such as
Mengistu were not welcome to
Zimbabwe adding that they want justice to be
delivered to the victims and to
the perpetrators so that there is
restoration.
The death sentence was delivered after the prosecution
appealed against a
life term imposed on Mengistu in January last year after
he was found guilty
of genocide during his 17year term in office.
Mengistu and his senior members were found guilty after a 12 year trial
which ruled that Mengistu's government was responsible for the deaths of 2
000 people and the torture of at least 2 400.
Mengistu's future had
been hinched on Zimbabwe's presidential runoff.
Tsvangirai's win in the
March 29 presidential election had spelt disaster
for him but later smiled
at President Mugabe's bloody campaign which gave
him the illegitimate
victory in the June 27 elections.
China Post
Saturday, July 5, 2008
By John J. Metzler, Special to The China Post
THE
HAGUE -- Comrade Robert Mugabe has been re-anointed as President of
Zimbabwe
amid the preposterous charade of an election marred by violence,
intimidation and fraud. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the harassed
opposition, took refuge in the Netherlands Embassy in Harare, and the
international community, including many democratic African states, are
rightly aghast over this ludicrous political sham in Zimbabwe. Now
what?
The United Nations Security Council issued a presidential
statement, but not
a resolution, condemning the "election," the Organization
of African Union
(OAU) chided Zimbabwe, and human rights organizations
remain outraged at
this unfolding disaster. Speaking at an OAU Summit, the
U.N.'s
Under-secretary General Rose Migiro stated "This is a moment of truth
for
regional leaders. . .the secretary-general urges your excellencies to
mobilize support for a negotiated solution." She stressed "This is the
single greatest challenge to regional stability in southern Africa." Ms.
Migiro, herself a Tanzanian, expressed the U.N.'s regret that the election
had been allowed to go ahead despite the violence. France's Foreign Minister
Bernard Kouchner called the election a "farce."
Widespread Western
criticism of the sham vote was rebutted by one of
Mugabe's thugs saying the
West "Can go hang a thousand times." The dictator
and his cronies have long
lambasted the West, especially Britain, the former
colonial power, for its
continuing concerns over the political and human
rights situation in
Zimbabwe. Last autumn, I witnessed Mugabe deliver a
ranting diatribe before
the U.N. General Assembly blasting both the British
and the United
States.
Back in March, Zimbabwean presidential and parliamentary
elections saw
longtime dictator Mugabe facing Morgan Tsvangirai of the
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC). Despite his best efforts at electoral
fraud,
Mugabe's Patriotic Front party narrowly lost to the opposition. So
Comrade
President simply annulled the results and set a re-match. Due to
violent
intimidation of MDC voters (beatings, burnings, killings) the
opposition
boycotted the contest and Mugabe won a tainted "landslide" and
his sixth
term as President.
Having ruled this once prosperous land
formerly known as Rhodesia, Comrade
President Mugabe can point to a number
of achievements; he has turned an
agricultural breadbasket country into a
pitiful basket case and Third World
thugracy. Starvation is rife, millions
live on U.N. food aid, and farms have
been seized by government goon squads.
HIV/AIDS stalks the land. More than
600,000 people have been bulldozed from
their homes. Unemployment is over 80
percent, inflation has gone from over a
million percent earlier this year to
two million percent!! Oh, for the days
just a year ago when inflation was a
mere 6,000 percent.
Exports are
booming though. Over two million Zimbabweans and more likely
three million
have fled to neighboring countries, especially South Africa,
to escape the
Mugabe-made-catastrophe. The situation evokes Josef Conrad's
novel "The
Heart of Darkness."
Western talk about economic sanctions is meaningless
for many reasons. Such
moves would only impoverish the impoverished even
more. So-called targeted
sanctions on regime bigwigs or weapons are
marginally better, but again will
not bring major change. The threat to
Mugabe (now 84) and his goons coming
before the International Criminal Court
(ICC) in the Hague for crimes
against humanity, is a looming
shadow.
Still, the real answer lies in South Africa, the regional
powerhouse which
borders Zimbabwe to the south and remains its major conduit
for supplies and
trade. Though the Pretoria government has been very
equivocal in its
criticism and pressure on Mugabe, South Africa must realize
that it is in
its own national interest not to have a failed state on its
frontier. The
refugee flow has already caused serious domestic problems in
South Africa,
and ongoing political instability will only cause more
negative impacts.
Despite the usual polite palaver about African solidarity,
Pretoria must
squarely see the Mugabe regime not as an erring brother
African state, but
as a malignant political and economic cancer to the
African subcontinent
with its effects spreading to neighboring countries
such as Botswana and
Mozambique.
For the world community the best
sanctions on Zimbabwe must be focused
political ostracism of an odious
regime which so craves legitimacy. Since
gaining power in 1980, Mugabe has
poised himself as a socialist "liberation
hero." Being barred from the
international community, starting with the
European Union, the United
Nations, and international sporting events will
have an effect
too.
Zimbabwe's rulers have chosen a path into the heart of darkness;
they must
expect the consequences of their earned isolation.
John J.
Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and
defense
issues. He can be reached at jjmcolumn@att.net
This is Hertfordshire
By Suruchi
Sharma
A TEAM of Zimbabwean journalists based in Hertsmere have pledged
to continue
their fight to send news to people in their homeland after the
re- election
of Robert Mugabe.
SW Radio Africa has broadcasted from a
studio in the borough to Zimbabwe
over short-wave transmission and the
internet since December 2001.
It is the only such radio station in this
country transmitting to the
region.
advertisement
Mr Mugabe,
84, was sworn in as president for a sixth term on Sunday, after
months of
speculation over the election result, which has sparked violence
in the
country.
He has in the past made it increasingly difficult for the
station to
broadcast by jamming radio transmission into major cities,
including the
capital Harare.
But in an effort to continue offering a
full news service to the people of
Zimbabwe, in March 2007, the station
launched a text messaging news delivery
service via the mobile phone
network.
The station's founder, Gerry Jackson, was born in Kent but spent
most of her
life living in Africa.
She said: "We'll just keep on
doing what we do best - making sure
Zimbabweans have access to news and
information, despite Mugabe's
determination to block the media."
Ms
Jackson believes she would have been able to return to the country if
opposition party leader Morgan Tsvangirai had been elected.
She said:
"He appears to be committed to creating a free media environment
and when
the opposition won the March elections, we had a brief moment of
hope that
we would be returning home.
"Every Zimbabwean is very disappointed and
de-pressed because the situation
on the ground is so incredibly serious. At
least half of the population
faces death by starvation.
"Most people
in the country have seen a member of their family tortured or
beaten and the
whole population is very, very frightened."
Ms Jackson said because of
the radio station's busy schedule, its staff were
working every day,
including weekends and public holidays.
She said: "We are fielding an
absolute mass of information that is coming
through about the
crisis.
"The violence has been very disturbing, but it's all detailed and
we know
the names of those who are responsible.
"We do our best to
make sure this information is spread as widely as
possible.
"One day
we hope these people will be standing in front of the International
Criminal
Court.
"What is certain is that this is the end game for Mugabe. The
ruling party
is imploding and there is much in-fighting. It all depends how
long it
takes, but we aren't going anywhere and will continue to expose the
bad
people and make sure Zimbabweans are informed."
http://www.cathybuckle.com
5th July 2008
Dear Friends.
If any of us
thought the violence in Zimbabwe would cease with the bogus
election on June
17th then General Notice 85A/2008 Clemency Order No.1
should have disabused
us. The sight of bands of thugs roaming the streets of
Harare and other
cities had earlier aroused my suspicions. These youngsters
did not look like
the fanatical Gezi boys we have become accustomed to;
true, they were young
like the Gezi boys but they looked more like criminal
gangs, undisciplined,
ragged and thin. Then the light dawned and I
remembered that the newly
installed Robert Mugabe could once again use his
presidential powers to
grant an amnesty to prisoners, releasing them from
their stinking and
overcrowded cells. It is traditional following a
presidential election we
are told and the very next day after his
inauguration came General Notice
85A/2008.
Picture the scene; you are suddenly released into the sunlight
again;
freedom has come - but freedom to do what? Inflation is running at
over a
million %; you have no money, no food and no job. You do not even
have the
bus fare to take you home. As the prison gates close behind you,
there is a
certain 'someone' waiting who offers you what seems an absolute
fortune to
roam the streets and do exactly what you did before: make a lot
of noise,
beat up any passer-by but particularly known MDC activists and
sympathizers.
In normal times such behaviour would get you arrested and back
behind bars
but now you are under the Presidential amnesty; you are doing
his work for
him. What choice do you have? It is not because you care about
one party or
the other; the politics of the stomach is all you understand.
Morality is a
luxury in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. You see the ruling party's
election posters
proclaiming 'This is the final battle for control' and the
presidential
clenched fist tells you how this control will be maintained.
Not through
justice and honest negotiation but through rigged elections and
violence
which you are expected to carry out.
The Notice covers those
people arrested between March 29 and June 16 2008,
ie. from the first
election which the MDC won and right through to the day
before the sham
election which Mugabe claims to have won. 886 prisoners have
already been
released and a further 4998 are due for release this weekend. A
prison
official stated that no MDC prisoners would be released. 'They do not
qualify' he says. Unelected Minister for Justice, Patrick Chinamasa,
however, denies that it is only Zanu PF prisoners to be released but we all
know, the world knows, that violence is the only weapon Zanu PF has left and
the Amnesty will provide them with the foot soldiers they need to carry out
the 'Final Battle'. The aim is nothing less than the total destruction of
all opposition forces in the country.
These are indeed desperate
times in Zimbabwe. The pathetic AU raps Mugabe on
the knuckles and tells him
to go home and form a government of national
unity. His spokesman George
Charamba rages at foreign journalists who dare
to question Mugabe's
legitimacy accusing them of taking advantage of their
white skins(!) and the
Old Man himself, looking for all the world like a
cornered rat, says he is
as legitimate as Gordon Brown. He talks about the
demon in Downing Street -
well, it takes one to know one I guess!
Back at home, we see the
heartbreaking images of Mugabe's victims: the
crumpled face of a beautiful
black baby with both her legs in plaster; an
elderly white woman her face
covered in bruises, both arms shattered. They
dragged her along by her hair
she says. She saw the man holding a great
chunk of her hair in his hand and
in a final act of humiliation he urinated
on her head. What had she done,
the old woman to deserve this? She and her
husband and her son-in-law were
all beaten not for breaking any law but
because they had dared to contest
Mugabe's right to take their farm. As to
what the beautiful African child
had done, she has done nothing: her father
is an MDC activist. Like thousand
of others, that little child will bear the
scars for the rest of her
life.
What can Zimbabweans do to stop this madness? We have tried the
democratic
route and that failed. Mugabe saw to that. He is not going to
give in to
such trifles as crosses on ballot papers; to him the gun is
mightier than
the vote. Not even the condemnation of fellow African leaders
will stop him.
Only God can remove him he says and in front of the whole
world he swears
his oath of allegiance. With his hand on the christian holy
bible in a
ceremony presided over by his puppet Chief Justice, Mugabe
promises to
'serve the Zimbabwean people well and truly'.
And what do
Zimbabweans do? They shrug their shoulders and ask Toita sei?
What can we
do? Hapana zvokuita, Nothing to do! But there is! The hundreds
of courageous
MDC activists have proved it with their blood; the Woza women
have proved it
and suffered the consequences of their courageous stand.
Released finally
after six weeks in gaol, Jenni Williams and Magodonga
Mhlangu are examples
to us all of the resiliance of the human spirit. They
will not surrender to
their own oppression and neither should the Zimbabwean
people. Only they can
reclaim their country, no one else will do it for
them.
Yours in the
(continuing ) struggle. PH
Mail and Guardian
MANDY ROSSOUW AND JASON MOYO - Jul 05 2008 06:00
A
transitional government in Zimbabwe should be given two years to let the
dust settle before another round of elections can be held, the Angolan
government has advised the African Union (AU).
This week saw African
leaders take a tougher stance on Zimbabwean dictator
Robert Mugabe, who was
sworn in as the self-styled president after African
observers refused to
certify his election as free and fair.
Discussion about Zimbabwe arose at
the AU summit in Egypt's Sharm- El-Sheik
after a heated debate about the
concept of a single pan-African government.
"The mood was tense enough
after the discussion about the union government;
Zimbabwe just added to the
drama," said an official who attended the
meeting.
Leaders from
Nigeria, Liberia and Botswana refused to let Mugabe off the
hook and did not
mince their words.
Said the source: "They said to him: 'This is not even
just bad, the
situation is utterly grave and unacceptable.' They told him:
'You have
failed'."
Mugabe counter attacked by branding his critics
"Western stooges", but the
African leaders would have none of
it.
"'With your imperialist rhetoric you are not doing justice to the
will of
the Zimbabwean people,' he was told. But he didn't get the point,"
the
official said.
Leaders decided to break ranks with Mugabe because
of the threat of a split
in AU ranks. "Some states, like Botswana, are
saying suspend Mugabe, others
are encouraging him to sit down and
talk."
The AU communiqué after the summit called on Mugabe and the
Movement for
Democratic Change to enter talks to establish a government of
national
unity.
Mugabe's long-standing ally, Angola, also urged him
to pursue a unity
government, but warned the summit that new elections could
take place only
in two years.
The AU resolved that President Thabo
Mbeki's mediation efforts should
continue, but that the facilitation team
should work in Harare full time.
But in Zimbabwe positions are becoming
entrenched and the rhetoric is
escalating, creating doubt that a unity
government will ever be formed.
Officials on both sides see the issue of
who will lead a coalition
government as the biggest obstacle. They doubt
talks will take off in the
near future.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
seemed willing to parley earlier in the week,
with a party spokesperson
saying he was ready for negotiation.
But the MDC leader told reporters
that the AU had failed to recognise his
first-round win. He appeared
emboldened by a statement on Tuesday by the
European Union saying it would
back a unity government led only by him. The
EU pledged €250-million to a
new government, one report said.
"Any talks must be held on the basis of
that [March] election," Tsvangirai
said.
Zanu-PF, wary of damaging
what little African solidarity remains, has
officially stuck to the line
that it remains open to dialogue. But a senior
Mugabe loyalist told the Mail
& Guardian: "It is Tsvangirai who is desperate
to talk, not us. Mugabe
is in power, Tsvangirai is not."
Mugabe appeared conciliatory ahead of
the AU talks. Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga, deputy secretary general of
the other MDC faction,
said she had received two calls on Sunday -- from
Mugabe's office and
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa -- inviting her party
to Mugabe's
"inauguration".
Mugabe also invited Tsvangirai, but both
factions rebuffed him. In his
inauguration speech Mugabe said he was ready
for "serious discussions" with
the MDC.
The M&G was also told
that Tsvangirai had, through senior adviser Elton
Mangoma, sought to
establish contact with Zanu-PF.
Some support for talks remains in
opposition ranks. Welshman Ncube, key to
the Mbeki negotiations, called for
"an urgent meeting with all political
players" this week to set a dialogue
agenda.
And Nelson Chamisa, spokesperson for Tsvangirai's party, said on
Wednesday:
"We are open to a negotiated settlement."
But MDC
treasurer general Roy Bennett said at a meeting in Johannesburg this
week
that the MDC's conditions for talks centred on the deployment of
peacekeepers to disband Zanu-PF's torture and re-education camps.
In
a heated statement on Tuesday Tendai Biti, Tsvangirai's secretary
general,
angrily dared Mugabe to form a government on his own.
"It is now the firm
view of the MDC that those who claim they have got a
mandate to govern
should govern," he said.
Chinamasa, Zanu-PF's chief negotiator, said
before any agenda could be
agreed for the dialogue Tsvangirai should first
publicly denounce all
Western sanctions and declare that land reform was
irreversible.
"He must talk to us directly and not through foreign
interests."
Tsvangirai, meanwhile, is stepping up his bid to sideline
Mbeki, calling for
"another AU partner to come here and solve this
crisis".
At the Sharm-El-Sheikh meeting Ethiopia called for Mbeki to
"reach out for
help" and ask another mediator to join him.
But
officials revealed that, in a closed session at the AU summit, Mugabe
praised Mbeki's efforts in mediating talks resulting in constitutional
reforms. He rejected pressure for a wider African role.
Mugabe is
desperate to please his African peers, but is prepared to latch
onto any
sign of "Western interference" to drop the process, one official
admitted.
"The EU statement (backing Tsvangirai) would have been a godsend,"
the
official said.
The walking wounded
They keep pouring in at the Ruwa
Rehabilitation Centre, a government therapy
centre east of Harare, which has
become a sanctuary for hundreds of victims
of political violence.
In
the aftermath of despot Robert Mugabe's controversial "re-election"
rights
groups have reported a slight ebbing in attacks by his loyalists. But
people
are still arriving at the centre, a doctor told the Mail &
Guardian.
Most of the victims are from the northern Mashonaland provinces
and tell a
similar tale. They campaigned for the opposition MDC and are now
under
attack by militia members.
The MDC says nine of its supporters
have died since the run-off "election".
At the African Union Summit in
Egypt Mugabe denied Zanu-PF was responsible
for the violence gripping the
country.
"He blamed it on the MDC, saying they started it," an East
African official
who attended the summit told the M&G. Mugabe also
insisted the violence had
subsided.Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights, a
group of independent doctors,
say its members treated about 2 000 people for
injuries sustained in
political violence in June alone, and more than 5 000
since February.
The doctors said: "Many victims of violence are failing
to access treatment
because of several restricting factors, including
limited freedom of
movement, no access to transport and poorly equipped
institutions."
Post-election attacks on farmers in the central Chegutu
district have been
reported.
Ben Freeth and Michael Campbell, two
farmers who head a farmers' union and
who are challenging land seizures in a
regional court, were brutally
attacked in their homes earlier this
week.
They were forced to sign documents declaring they were dropping the
court
case, the Justice for Agriculture group reported. Police spokesperson
Wayne
Bvudzijena said on Thursday that 16 people had been arrested for the
attacks, which he called "plainly criminal acts".
Mugabe unlikely to
be tried for war crimes
Dictator Robert Mugabe is unlikely to face
prosecution at the International
Criminal Court (ICC), despite a report in
The Times of London that Western
powers are considering hauling him before
the court for atrocities inflicted
on his opponents.
"He needs to
know he is moments away from an indictment," a diplomat
reportedly told the
newspaper.
Fears of ICC prosecutions are said to have fuelled the
reluctance of Mugabe
and his security chiefs to cede power. In 2006 he was
said to be close to
signing an agreement with the Movement for Democratic
Change, but pulled out
when former Liberian president Charles Taylor was
charged with war crimes at
the ICC.
However, international law
experts point out that Zimbabwe is not a
signatory to the court's founding
document, making it difficult for any
successor to Mugabe to take a case to
The Hague.
ICC public information coordinator Florence Olara confirmed
that Zimbabwe
has not signed the statute.
This also means that the
ICC could not on its own initiative decide to
investigate alleged crimes
against humanity by its leaders.
The DA wrote to United Nations Secretary
General Ban Ki-Moon last week to
establish a commission of inquiry to
investigate human rights abuses
perpetrated by Mugabe and the Zanu-PF
leadership.
The DA has asked Ban to refer the matter to the chief
prosecutor of the ICC
so that a criminal investigation can be
initiated.
Mugabe can only be referred to the ICC only by the UN Security
Council. But
such a move would almost certainly be opposed by Security
Council members
Russia, China and Zimbabwe's ally, South Africa. The most
recent case
referred by the Security Council to the ICC was that of Darfur.
Financial Times
Published: July 5 2008 03:00 | Last updated: July 5 2008
03:00
From Mr W.J.C. Rhys-Burgess.
Sir, Zimbabwe's constitutional
independence from the UK derives from the
Southern Rhodesia Act 1979, which
by virtue of section 1 (2) of that
enactment could legally be revoked by
Order in Council at any time.
Section 3 (1) (b) of the 1979 act also
empowers the Queen in parliament by
Order in Council to make provision for
or in connection with the government
of Zimbabwe "as appears to Her to be
necessary or expedient", especially in
consequence of any unconstitutional
action taken. President Robert Mugabe's
conduct is surely in the nature of
"unconstitutional action", which would
therefore legally justify invoking
such powers.
Section 3 (3) (a) of the 1979 act also includes the "power
to make laws for
the peace, order and good government of (Zimbabwe),
including laws having
extra-territorial operation", while section 3 (3) (c)
permits the suspension
or modification of "the operation of any enactment or
instrument in relation
to (Zimbabwe) or persons or things in any way
belonging to or connected with
(Zimbabwe)".
Clearly, therefore, the
UK government would be able to promulgate
legislation in exercise of its
powers under the 1979 legislation, which
would have the effect (at least
under English law) of restoring Zimbabwe to
the status of a British colony
with its subjects entitled to the protection
of the crown and thereby
legally permitting UK military intervention for the
purposes of restoring
democracy, good governance and the rule of law.
The irony of such a
proposition is of course that the UK government would be
highly unlikely to
do any such thing given the appalling outcome of its
interventions in Iraq
and Afghanistan. Yet the UK's obligations to the
people of Zimbabwe have
much greater legitimacy and, if the legal argument I
have advanced is for
any reason flawed, it is surely at least a lot stronger
than was the case of
the wholly unlawful invasion of Iraq.
W.J.C.
Rhys-Burgess,
Partner,
Schuman Cassin LLP,
Nottingham NG1 1JU, UK
Independent, Ireland
Friday July 04
2008
With the recent displays of violent authoritarian rule in Zimbabwe and
much
talk of international sanctions, I wish to make a number of
points.
Firstly, it is clear that regime change in Zimbabwe will not come
from
within.
Peaceful electoral reform will not take place as was
demonstrated by the
shameful tactics recently employed by Robert Mugabe's
government.
Neither will armed rebellion or popular revolution from
within overthrow the
ZANU-PF party as was demonstrated by the ability of the
minority white
government of Rhodesia to retain power despite having the
support of only
5pc of the nation's population.
Mugabe enjoys a
greater level of support (though still a minority) and has
total control of
all security forces which would allow to crush any such
movements.
Also the white minority government remained in power for
15 years despite
lack of official recognition and strict trade embargoes,
showing that any
notions of economic or political pressure on Mugabe are
idle talk.
Firstly, he has the support of many other corrupt African
states and,
secondly, such sanctions would not influence regime change but
merely
increase poverty in the state.
The only method which would be
certain to remove ZANU-PF from power is an
invasion by foreign
states.
Ciaran O Dubhthaigh
Kilmovee
Co Mayo