Yahoo News
Thursday June 19, 07:02 PM
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe police have
arrested one newly elected opposition
lawmaker and placed six others on a
wanted list, state media said Thursday,
amid signs of a crackdown ahead of
next week's presidential election.
Shuwa Mudiwa, who won his seat for the
Movement for Democratic Change IN
March elections, was arrested on Wednesday
for the alleged kidnapping of a
13-year-old girl earlier this month, the
Herald newspaper reported.
"He was arrested this afternoon in Harare and
is still in custody. He will
appear in court soon," police spokesman Wayne
Bvudzijena told the government
mouthpiece.
The six other
newly-elected MPs are wanted on accusations of murder, public
violence and
malicious damage to property.
Meanwhile, 11 suspected MDC activists, aged
between 22 and 43 years, were
arrested in the northern town of Chinhoyi on
Wednesday for allegedly
removing and defacing President Robert Mugabe's
campaign posters, the paper
said.
The MDC has warned of a crackdown
ahead of the vote, with its number two
leader Tendai Biti facing a treason
charge and being held in prison.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who
faces Mugabe in the June 27
run-off, has been detained five times as he has
sought to campaign.
Mugabe blames the opposition for mounting violence
before the election and
has threatened to arrest the MDC leadership. The UN
has said that the
president's supporters were to blame for the bulk of the
violence.
Tsvangirai has said 66 MDC supporters have been killed in the
lead up to the
vote in a campaign of intimidation.
Mugabe's ruling
party lost its parliamentary majority for the first time
since independence
in 1980 in the March 29 first round poll.
The Zimbabwean
Thursday, 19
June 2008 06:20
ANOTHER MDC ACTIVIST DIES
As political
violence escalates in full view of election observers
Sofia
Chingozho (65), a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
activist, today died
from injuries sustained during politically motivated
violence in Buhera
North on June 8.
Chingozho was attending a funeral in her rural
home with some
relatives when a group of gun-wielding youth descended on the
homestead and
picked out those members of the family who had come from
Harare. The youth
picked out five people; three of Chingozho's children and
an uncle whom they
started beating.
The five were made to dig
holes in the dry ground with their bare
hands so that they could spit in
them and vow never to vote for MDC again.
According to the uncle, whose name
we withheld for security reasons, all
this harassment happened whiles they
were being beaten with sticks in the
back by the. All five sustained
injuries and Chingozho had to be taken to
hospital where she was admitted
until the time of her death.
Two of her children and the uncle are
back at work in Harare, while
her daughter, Sarah Chingozho who is a teacher
at a local school, is still
recovering from home.
With more
than 2000 people having been beaten by the state sponsored
violence and the
death toll still rising, the impending runoff election is
bad news for the
people of Zimbabwe. The level of violence is increasing
both in scale and
intensity and there is little evidence that the presence
of election
observers is abating the situation. The presence of foreign
observers has
failed to restore confidence in the Zimbabwean electorate
since the violence
is being done in their full glare.
Restoration of Human Rights is
concerned with the recent statements of
Robert Mugabe where he literally
threatened war on opposition if the people
of Zimbabwe vote Morgan
Tsvangirai into power next week on 27 June. It is an
apparent attack on the
very principles of democracy and compromises the
ability of the electorate
to vote freely.
Thursday, 19 June 2008 04:17
UK
|
Zimbabwe's public broadcaster ZBC has said it will no longer carry campaign adverts from the opposition party ahead of next week's presidential election. The Movement for Democratic Change said it would appeal against the decision. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa defended the move saying international coverage favoured the MDC and never reported the ruling Zanu-PF's position. Earlier, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern over the political violence in Zimbabwe. Adding his voice to growing international concern, he said the violence in Zimbabwe could undermine the outcome of the 27 June run-off vote. "Violence, intimidation and the arrest of opposition leaders are not conducive to credible elections," he told the UN General Assembly in New York. Mbeki talks US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to chair an informal UN Security Council meeting on Zimbabwe later on Thursday, in an attempt to maintain international political pressure.
Meanwhile, South African President Thabo Mbeki has continued his efforts to mediate between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. He held separate talks with both presidential candidates as pressure mounted on Mr Mugabe to curtail political violence ahead of the poll, but released no statement on the talks. The MDC has criticised Mr Mbeki's policy of so-called quiet diplomacy for failing to hold Mr Mugabe to account. Official results show Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), won the first round of the presidential election in March but not with enough votes for a clear victory.
A senior UN official, Haile Menkerios, has met President Mugabe to discuss the political stand-off and what the UN says is the increased suffering of an already vulnerable population. The UN is prepared to pay to fund election monitors to oversee the run-off vote. South Africa is opposed to the Security Council having too much involvement, the BBC's Laura Trevelyan reports from the UN. Pretoria argues that it is not for the council to resolve disputed elections. Growing urgency Earlier, an African poll observer warned that he would not endorse the vote if current levels of violence continued.
Marwick Khumalo, head of the Pan-African Parliamentary observers, told the BBC his team had received horrendous reports of attacks and that the political environment was not conducive to a free poll. But with the vote just days away, there is a growing sense of urgency with political violence beginning to spread from the countryside to the towns, says the BBC's Peter Biles in Johannesburg. Mr Mugabe has been waging a fierce campaign to extend his 28-year rule since Mr Tsvangirai failed to win enough votes to score an outright victory in March's disputed first round. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has called for an international peacekeeping force to be deployed in Zimbabwe to ensure a free and fair vote. "It is time for the leaders of Africa to say to President Mugabe that the people of Zimbabwe deserve a free and fair election," he said. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he has
spoken to the leader of South Africa's governing African National Congress,
Jacob Zuma, about the possibility of deploying 1,000 election observers from the
ANC. |
Mail on Sunday
By Daily Mail
Reporter
Last updated at 1:20 AM on 19th June 2008
The blindfolded
body of Harare's mayor has been found just hours after she
was kidnapped
with her four-year-old son by armed men connected to Robert
Mugabe.
Abigail Chiroto, 27, is the most high profile victim whose
life has been
claimed by Robert Mugabe's desperate campaign of terror to
cling to power in
Zimbabwe.
Ms Chiroto was kidnapped by armed men who
then petrol bombed the house she
shared with her husband, Emmanuel Chiroto,
who was recently elected mayor of
Harare and a member of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change.
The cause of death has not yet been
revealed.
The discovery of her body close to the couple's house north of
Harare came
as South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, arrived for talks with
President
Robert Mugabe.
He has been criticised for failing to
publicly attack the Zimbabwe president
amid the numerous reports of
atrocities carried out by his henchmen in the
run-up to the second round of
the presidential election on Friday next week.
The death of Mrs Chiroto
follows at least 60 political murders which have
been recorded since the
presidential election's first round in March.
Thugs employed by Mr
Mugabe's Zanu-PF movement are suspected of carrying out
the vast majority of
the attacks.
Mr Chiroto,43, has spoken out over his wife's
murder.
'I knew when I heard that a woman's body had been found that it
was her.
'But I had to wait till my brother went to identify her at the
Parirenyatwa
Hospital mortuary this morning. Of course it was her. The
blindfold is still
on.'
The couple's four-year-old son, Ashley, was
released unharmed late last
night.
Mrs Chiroto's death mirrors others
investigated by the observer mission from
the Pan-African Parliament, whose
leader, Marwick Khumalo, said yesterday
that 'certain elements are
indicating that there will be war'.
He described one particularly grisly
death involving the wife of a local
opposition leader, apparently at the
hands of Mugabe's supporters.
Mr Khumalo said his observers had seen
the grave of a woman "who was chopped
up".
Los Angeles Times
The German firm, which is an important contractor for the
U.S. government,
provides key support to the brutal regime of Robert
Mugabe.
By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 19,
2008
WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials will not take any action against a German
firm
that is providing key support to Zimbabwe's brutal regime and is also
an
important contractor to the American government, a Western diplomat
said.
The firm, Giesecke & Devrient, is printing trillions of
Zimbabwe dollars
that the government of President Robert Mugabe is using to
try to prop up
the country's collapsing economy, but also to pay off
supporters and
suppress its political opposition.
U.S. officials have
regularly denounced the regime, which Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice
has called an "outpost of tyranny," and have been weighing
new ways to bring
pressure on it. But according to the Western diplomat,
U.S. officials have
decided against sanctioning the firm because of its role
in supplying secure
identification documents and bank notes.
"The issue has been raised
within the State Department and other agencies
but there was a decision not
to do anything," the diplomat said. "This
company is important to the U.S.
government."
John Rankin, a spokesman for the Treasury Department, which
is the lead
agency on issues of economic sanctions, said the department does
not discuss
sanctions it is considering.
Another U.S. official, who
spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing
internal deliberations, said
American officials have engaged in
"brainstorming" on how to increase
pressure on Mugabe's regime, but are not
considering any penalties that
would apply to Giesecke & Devrient.
The United States and other world
powers have been pressing Mugabe, who has
been accused of holding power
through fraud and intimidation, to allow fair
elections. But with a
presidential runoff election scheduled June 27,
international human rights
observers say the regime continues to use
widespread violence to try to
ensure its victory.
Giesecke & Devrient, a Munich-based firm with
revenue of about $2 billion a
year, is the world's second-largest printer of
bank notes, with offices in
53 countries. The company's office in Dulles,
Va., supplies the federal
government under a contract worth
$381,200.
In Zimbabwe, the firm provides bank notes for half the nation's
currency.
With the country's inflation at 2,000,000%, the regime keeps its
presses
running constantly at its plants outside Harare, the
capital.
Some experts contend that the mass printing has destroyed food
markets, made
ordinary business investment impossible, and contributed to
hunger and
disease in the economically devastated country.
At the
same time, the currency was used to provide bonuses to the army and
to some
unions in an attempt to ensure their loyalty to the government.
Officials
at Giesecke & Devrient's U.S. office didn't respond to a request
for
comment. Though the government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel also
has
complained about the Zimbabwe regime, German officials have said they
have
no grounds on which to impose sanctions on the company.
The United States
has had a minimal economic relationship with Zimbabwe,
which means that it
has little leverage with the government. Because the
firm is based in the
territory of an important American ally, any decision
to pressure or
sanction it would be diplomatically sensitive, and would
require discussions
with German officials.
In addition, economic sanctions can harm Zimbabwe
citizens as well as the
government.
U.S. officials have applied
sanctions aimed at Mugabe and more than 100
members of Mugabe's party,
ZANU-PF. The sanctions limit travel and freeze
assets under U.S. control,
and bar U.S. firms from doing business with them.
U.S. officials have not
imposed broader economic sanctions, which could
prohibit U.S. firms from
doing business with Zimbabwean firms.
paul.richter@latimes.com
A
Times staff writer in Mozambique contributed to this report.
The Spectator
Peter
Oborne
Wednesday, 18th June 2008
Robert Mugabe is murdering, starving
and brutalising his people in the
run-up to the presidential elections next
week, says Peter Oborne. We should
act now to prevent civil war and ethnic
cleansing
Ten years ago the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan set out a new
international doctrine. Annan declared that the world was looking forward to
what he called 'a new century of human rights'.
For the United
Nations, declared Annan, this meant an entirely new way of
doing things. 'No
government,' he declared, 'has the right to hide behind
national sovereignty
in order to violate the human rights or fundamental
freedoms of its
peoples.
'Whether a person belongs to the minority or the majority, that
person's
human rights and fundamental freedoms are sacred.'
This
statement was revolutionary. Inter-national relations, since the Peace
of
Westphalia in 1648, have been conducted on the basis of formal respect
for
national boundaries. Annan, responding to globalisation and prompted
perhaps
by Tony Blair, was asserting that these borders should no longer be
immune
and that intervention was always appropriate when governments waged
warfare
against their own citizens.
Kofi Annan expressed the spirit of the age,
or so it seemed. Humanitarian
intervention was the great fin de siècle
theme. In Kosovo and East Timor
this doctrine was used to justify
cross-border excursions to confront brutal
actions by repressive regimes.
Even where more self-interested motives were
at work, as in Iraq, it was
still used as the overriding vindication for
invasion.
But there are
now overwhelming signs that the 'responsibility to protect',
as Kofi Annan's
doctrine has come to be known within the United Nations, has
ceased to
apply. Within the past few months there have been two terrible
cases which
cry out for exactly the kind of action for which Annan called so
eloquently.
The first of these is Burma, where the military junta has
failed to come to
the aid of its own people in the wake of natural
catastrophe, and refused
the help of outsiders as well. This murderous
stance has been greeted with
quite remarkable equanimity by the
international community, including the
once trigger-happy Bush
administration. It is estimated that tens of
thousands of Burmese have died
as a result, victims of their own government.
The second case is
Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe's thugs have been permitted
to act with total
impunity ever since Morgan Tsvangirai's election triumph
in late March.
Large parts of Eastern Zimbabwe, in particular Mashonaland
(though the
violence is now spreading), now recall Darfur when the genocide
began five
years ago. There are the same burning and empty villages, the
same climate
of fear, while the language of genocide is being explicitly
used by
ministers.
Large bands of state-sponsored militias, paid and protected by
the Zanu-PF
regime, move without hindrance from area to area, killing,
burning and
torturing as they go. As with the Janjaweed in Sudan, Mugabe's
so-called
'green bombers' are licensed to target all political opposition to
the
government, however tangential. In Darfur there was an ethnic or racial
basis to the killing, whereas in Zimbabwe Mugabe (at this stage) is
exclusively targeting members of the opposition party, the Movement for
Democratic Change. Ministers refer to the MDC opposition as 'vermin' or
'cockroaches', and publicly contemplate their eradication.
Mugabe is
not simply using violence as a method of control. International
aid agencies
have been cleaned out of Zimbabwe as well. This is partly so
that there will
be as few witnesses as possible to the carnage, and partly
to prevent food
and other forms of humanitarian assistance reaching MDC
supporters. Zanu-PF
cards are now required to acquire the national diet of
mealie meal in many
areas: those who do not possess this kind of
identification now face
starvation.
Mugabe has become the figurehead for a military junta, many
of whom have
blood on their hands from the genocide carried out in
Matabeleland in the
early 1980s, where 20,000 died. The election defeat last
March posed Zanu-PF
with by far the largest crisis since the Matabeleland
killings, and they are
responding in exactly the same way.
Thus far
the death toll is hard to compute. Official records speak of 70
deaths,
which is horrible enough, but the true figure is certainly far more
than
that. There are reports now of bodies being shoved down mineshafts, as
they
were in the early Eighties. Others are placed by the police in
aluminium
coffins and dropped into lakes and rivers.
Thousands of people have
disappeared, no one knows where. Tens of thousands
of Zimbabweans have been
forced out of their homes, while hundreds of
thousands have fled the country
in search of jobs, food, or for their own
protection. Mainly these exiles
end up in South Africa, where their presence
gives rise to resentment and
has recently fanned into violence and is
starting to threaten the stability
and prosperity of the region.
Meanwhile Robert Mugabe has ignored the
result of the elections last March.
The victorious MDC MPs, who
theoretically enjoy a majority in parliament,
have not been sworn in. Indeed
many of them are in hiding or detained facing
trumped-up charges. There is
no legal government. Robert Mugabe has
explicitly rejected democracy,
declaring at a funeral last Sunday he is not
prepared to cede control on
account of anything so insubstantial as a ballot
paper.
This posture
creates a problem for the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change. Ever
since its inception nearly ten years ago, the MDC has
consistently stood for
non-violence. It has refused to take to the bush or
to resort to the
guerrilla campaigns favoured by traditional African
liberation movements.
Like the monks in conflict with the Burmese junta, the
MDC's struggle has
been moral, democratic, firmly based in civil society and
based on Mahatma
Gandhi's teachings about non-violence.
These principles - never
controversial within the ranks of the MDC - have
been breaking down here and
there over the past few weeks, though only in
the face of the most grotesque
provocation. Reports are beginning to trickle
through of pockets of MDC
resistance to the Zanu-PF militias, and reprisals
too.
Mugabe's
statement that he will not accept any election result bar victory
effectively gives the opposition the choice of mute surrender or armed
resistance. My feeling is that Robert Mugabe, and some of his allies, would
welcome the latter path. It would give them the excuse they need for
launching a full-scale campaign of bloodshed, completing the unfinished
business of the early 1980s, and establishing a one-party state. That is why
many observers now fear that Zimbabwe will soon start to move towards the
horror of civil war and ethnic cleansing.
And yet the United Nations
has reacted with insouciance, taking Mugabe's
side rather than the
terrorised opposition's. Amazing to report, when the
Security Council met
last Thursday the word 'Zimbabwe' did not even appear
on the formal agenda.
The problem was discussed, at the request of the
United Kingdom, but only
under the general rubric 'other matters'. This
omission was very important:
Zimbabwe standing alone on the agenda would
have opened up the issue to
formal discussion and - who knows? - action!
But even this very limited
acknowledgement that some kind of problem existed
was severely constrained.
The United Nations will not accept that there is a
political problem. This
means that all discussion within the Security
Council last Thursday, say
diplomatic sources, was limited to a brief and
abstract survey of
'humanitarian' issues.
These exceptionally narrow parameters render
discussion meaningless. The
humanitarian problem faced by Zimbabwe has been
deliberately brought about
by the Mugabe regime, above all through the use
of food deprivation as a
weapon to punish political opponents. The Security
Council was unable to
acknowledge this, however, let alone contemplate the
reign of terror which
has now extended into the towns. Meanwhile the United
Nations continues to
fete Robert Mugabe as head of state, most recently when
he and his large
entourage visited the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation
summit in Rome.
With the United Nations washing its hands of the
situation, a great deal of
responsibility falls on regional groups. But
these are all but useless. The
Southern African Development Community, for
example, is supposed to be
ensuring free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. In
practice, its so-called
independent election observers have in most cases
taken no interest in
recording Mugabe's reign of terror.
This should
be regarded as no surprise at all, since the election observers
were chosen
by Mugabe and include representatives from sympathetic and
equally
repressive regimes like Libya and Sudan. Head of the observer
mission for
the elections on 29 March was the foreign minister of Angola, a
one-party
state where elections have not been held for more than 15 years.
The
Economic Community of West African States is no better. It has appointed
General Gowon who seized power in Nigeria from a coalition government to
head its mission monitoring the Zimbabwean election.
So Robert Mugabe
has international sanction for his barbarism. The Chinese
government -
shortly to bask in the warm glow of the 2008 Olympics - is at
liberty to
supply AK-47s and rocket launchers and munitions to Zimbabwe. The
Munich-based company Giesecke & Devrient continues to supply,
unhindered,
truckloads of large denomination banknotes. This enables Mugabe
to bribe his
army, police force and irregular militias but only accelerates
the total
collapse of the economy. Charles Davy, potential father-in-law to
Prince
Harry, continues to maintain a close business relationship with very
serious
members of the Zanu-PF regime without censure.
Some
individuals have been prepared to speak out. Levy Patrick Mwanawasa,
president of Zambia, has bravely broken with the cult of omerta which has
overcome so many African and international rulers. Botswana received Morgan
Tsvangirai with the full military honours appropriate to a national leader
when he fled across the border in the early hours of the morning in fear for
his life just after the March election. No praise is too high for the US
ambassador in Harare, James McGee, who has made a series of provocative
visits to rural Mashonaland, witnessing for himself the atrocity sites, and
braving dangerous confrontations with Zanu thugs. Gordon Brown and the
foreign secretary David Miliband have both been assiduous.
Zimbabwe
is a perfect test case for the new United Nations doctrine of
'responsibility to protect'. There should be peacekeepers, international
monitors, a roar of urgent condemnation. The United Nations, led by its
feeble Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has made its choice. It has gone down
the path of collaboration with Robert Mugabe's illegal government as it
launches war on its own people. It is important to try and understand why it
has decided to hide behind national sovereignty. It has become conventional
to single out the legacy of the Iraq invasion as the main reason for the
failure of the international community to engage in the dark places of the
world like Darfur, Burma and Zimbabwe. There is some truth in this. But
other factors are at work.
Mugabe has allies who need him to succeed.
Russia and South Africa are on
his side. So is China, and scores of other
states which fear the ballot box.
That Chinese gun shipment, say Mugabe's
spokesman, has arrived, and its
effects are already being felt. The latest
reports from Mashonaland state
the rampaging militias are no longer equipped
only with iron bars. They have
brand new AK-47s, and are ready to use them.
These well-armed militias, and
their commanders, are fully protected from
the consequences of their actions
by the United Nations Security Council.
The case of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe
may come to be seen as a terrible
portent of the looming new world order,
and Kofi Annan's prediction of 'a
new century of human rights' possess a
grotesque meaning he could hardly
have dreamt of at the time.
Peter Oborne is political columnist of the
Daily Mail.
IOL
June 19
2008 at 06:53AM
By Hans Pienaar and Xolani Mbanjwa
The
continued detention of Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and one of its representatives in
regional
mediation, topped the agenda during President Thabo Mbeki's meeting
with
President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday.
Also discussed was a possible
meeting between Mugabe and Morgan
Tsvangirai, the frontrunner in the
presidential election, of which the
second round is to be held on June 27,
sources said.
Confirmation of the agenda could not be obtained on
Wednesday from
Mbeki's spokesperson, Mukoni Ratshitanga.
Mbeki
on Tuesday cancelled a visit to Sudan, flying instead to
Zimbabwe where
Mugabe was campaigning to increase his 43 percent share of
the vote in the
March 29 first round, held concurrently with local,
parliamentary and senate
elections.
Biti was on Wednesday brought to court in leg irons, but
the hearing
was abandoned because a power failure prevented recording
machines from
working. He was expected to be charged with treason - which
could earn him
the death penalty - and other counts at another hearing set
for on Thursday,
his lawyer said.
Mbeki arrived first at a
Bulawayo hotel on Wednesday, followed by
Mugabe. Earlier, Foreign Affairs
spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the visit
was part of the "Southern African
Development Community-mandated
facilitation process in Zimbabwe to assist
the people of Zimbabwe in dealing
with their current political
situation".
The meeting came as ANC president Jacob Zuma said he
was greatly
worried by the detention of the opposition's leadership. "We'd
be lucky if
we had free and fair elections in Zimbabwe...it's what the
people of
Zimbabwe want, and they should be given that
opportunity."
This article was originally published on page 1 of
The Star on June
19, 2008
SABC
June 19, 2008, 06:15
No
statement has been issued on talks between President Thabo Mbeki and his
Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe. Mbeki met Mugabe in Bulawayo last
night amid growing signs of international impatience with the Zimbabwean
leader over a violent run-off election crisis.
Mugabe faces a
presidential election run-off on June 27 against Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai. During his visit
yesterday, Mbeki
also met with Tsvangirai. Yesterday, the World Council of
Churches (WCC)
called for United Nations (UN) action to put an end to
"atrocities"
committed by the Zimbabwe authorities ahead of June 27 run-off
presidential
elections.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, WCC
General-Secretary
Samuel Kobia of Kenya said his organisation was "dismayed
at news of the
brutality meted out by police and other government forces" in
Zimbabwe.
Kobia said the WCC, which groups Protestant and Orthodox churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, "calls
for an end to atrocities in Zimbabwe".
"Harassment, beatings, arrests
and ransacking of property have already
extended into the churches as well
as agencies of civil society," the WCC
letter declared. Meanwhile, the
Zimbabwean, public broadcaster, ZBC, has
announced that it will no longer
carry campaign adverts from the opposition
MDC ahead of next week's
presidential run-off election.
The MDC says it will appeal against the
decision in court, but Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa says international
media coverage of the campaign
always favours the opposition and never
reports the position of the ruling
Zanu-PF. - additional reporting by
Reuters
iafrica.com
Article By:
Thu, 19 Jun 2008
07:56
The African National Congress will send 29 observers as part of the
400-strong Sadc observer mission to the Zimbabwean run-off elections, the
party said on Wednesday.
"The ANC's contribution to this mission
includes 14 Members of Parliament
and 15 others," said spokesperson Jessie
Duarte.
"The ANC remains committed to contributing in whatever way it
can, within
the ambit of multilateral institutions like Sadc, towards a
successful and
credible run-off election," she said.
Sapa
IOL
June 18 2008
at 04:25PM
ANC President Jacob Zuma said on Wednesday he did not
think Zimbabwe's
forthcoming presidential election would be free, a party
spokesperson
confirmed.
Asked whether the run-off poll would be
fair, Zuma reportedly said: "I
don't think so. I think we'll be lucky if we
have a free election."
African National Congress spokesperson Steyn
Speed said Zuma made the
remarks at Leadership magazine's "Tomorrow's
Leaders" convention in
Pretoria.
Zuma has already stated that
the ANC is "alarmed and anxious" about
reports of violence emanating from
Zimbabwe.
"If these are accurate, the violence surely puts enormous
strain on
the preparations for the presidential election run-off that should
be held
towards the end of this month," he said in a speech prepared for
delivery in
India.
President Thabo Mbeki travelled to
Zimbabwe's Bulawayo on Wednesday
for talks with Robert Mugabe who is hoping
to be returned as president
during the June 27 election run
off.
Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa did not have
details of
the meeting by mid-afternoon and Mbeki's spokesperson was not
immediately
available.
Earlier, Mamoepa said Mbeki's visit was
part of the "Southern African
Development Community-mandated facilitation
process in Zimbabwe to assist
the people of Zimbabwe in dealing with their
current political situation". -
Sapa
The Sowetan
19 June 2008
Sowetan
says:
For all its problems and spectacular bungles, the ANC is at least
getting
one thing right.
Its increasingly tough
stance against the dictatorial Robert Mugabe and his
Zanu-PF cronies is a
welcome break from Thabo Mbeki's ineffectual
lovey-dovey
approach.
Despite his legendary mistakes, ANC president Jacob Zuma should
be commended
for increasingly speaking out against MAD BOB.
As Zuma
and the world say, prospects for a free and fair election in
Zimbabwe are
nil.
Let us hope Mbeki will be able to talk sense to the obstinate
Mugabe during
his latest mission - even at this late hour.
VOA
By Peter Clottey
Washington, D.C.
19
June 2008
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will
chair a meeting of the UN
Security Council today on the crisis in Zimbabwe.
Some Zimbabweans have
reportedly welcomed the meeting, eight days ahead of a
widely criticized
presidential election run-off, hoping it would put
pressure on incumbent
President Robert Mugabe to end a wave of violence. The
Security Council
meeting comes after a UN special envoy met with President
Mugabe on Tuesday
to find ways of ending violence and ensure a free and fair
vote. Sydney
Masamvu is a Zimbabwean with the International Crisis Group in
South Africa.
From Pretoria, he tells VOA English to Africa reporter Peter
Clottey that
the meeting would put pressure on the Southern African
Development Community
(SADC) to be proactive in the Zimbabwe
situation.
"I think it is a very important gathering. The very fact that
it is informal
is neither here nor there. But that the very fact that it
brings to the fore
of the key players on the international stage the crisis
in Zimbabwe, and
coming a week before the election is actually a very
important gathering.
And it will highlight the relevant actors from the
African continent and
from the west, the situation in Zimbabwe, and try to
put into perspective
and build an international consensus on the way forward
regarding Zimbabwe,"
Masamvu pointed out.
He said many Zimbabweans
are looking for a positive outcome to today's UN
meeting in New
York.
"It is a very important development coming against the background
of the
deteriorating political situation in Zimbabwe in the run up to the
election.
And I think Secretary Rice should actually spell out the concerns
of the US
government, as well as the need for international actors not to
work at
cross-purpose in order to resolve this deepening crisis in
Zimbabwe," he
said.
Masamvu said the prestige of having the US
Secretary of State chairing a
meeting the over Zimbabwe would add clout to
its outcome and put more
pressure on the Harare government.
"I think
in so far as those involved in the gathering would be forthright to
each
other, the bottom line is to actually appreciate the gravity of the
situation in Zimbabwe. And I think the very fact that is happening at the UN
level that alone is very important and also given that the UN envoy is in
Zimbabwe also on the ground actually shows that the spotlight is on Zimbabwe
as we head for this decisive run-off. But it is actually important that it
will put pressure not only on the Zimbabwe government, but also on the need
for regional leaders, especially SADC and other African continent heads, to
step up to the plate and try really to have an active and robust engagement
to resolve the crisis," Masamvu noted.
Masamvu said it was unlikely
Zimbabwe's neighbor South Africa would alter
its "quiet diplomacy" policies
toward Harare.
"Given the history of South Africa and the way it has
taken its quiet way to
deal with Zimbabwe issue, I don't expect much of a
deviation from the South
African line, except to say that they would still
argue that they are having
a hands off approach to the Zimbabwe issue and
the UN should defer to the
region, which is actually grappling with the
issue. So, really given the
South African approach to protect Zimbabwe at
any international turn, I don't
expect (South Africa's) Foreign Minister
Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to really
take a proactive and robust line to make
any meaningful disclosures, which
may actually deviate from President
Mbeki's quiet diplomacy policy," Masamvu
pointed out.
The Zimbabwean
Thursday, 19 June 2008
06:35
Wednesday 18 June 2008
1920hrs
President Morgan Tsvangirai and other leaders of the MDC met with the
United
Nations envoy, Mr. Haile Menkerios, in Harare today, Wednesday 18
June 2008.
In this meeting, the MDC and Mr. Menkarios discussed the
electoral
environment in general and, in particular, the banning of MDC
rallies, the
refusal by the Mugabe regime to grant MDC access to all state
media, the
continuous arrest and harassment of MDC leadership. The MDC also
provide Mr.
Menkerios with a detailed document on the violence the regime
has unleashed
on the people of Zimbabwe.
The security of MDC polling
agents was also discussed, in light of the
fact that the regime has warned
activists that if they agree to be polling
agents, they will be killed. The
MDC also expressed grave concern about
Mugabe's threats to go to war, his
dissemination of hate speech along tribal
and racial lines and his overt
attempt to polarise Zimbabwean society.
Discussions addressed the need
for a Government of National Healing to
be formed
by the MDC. The
MDC reiterateMDC meets UN envoy
Harare, Zimbabwe
Robert Mugabe, the increasingly belligerent and unstable 84-year-old Zimbabwean president, has a warning for those who might vote for Morgan Tsvangirai in next week's presidential runoff: "We fought for this country, and a lot of blood was shed," he told the state-controlled Herald newspaper here. "We are not going to give up our country because of a mere X. How can a ballpoint [pen] fight with a gun?"
Ismael Roldan |
Still, Zimbabwe's dictator is using every means at his disposal to assure that all the Xs go by his name. The surge of violence and voter intimidation in urban and rural areas is clearly being orchestrated by Mugabe's army. Torture camps, where people are "educated" on how to vote, are widely reported.
Yet many informed observers believe that Mugabe's thugs have not done enough to ensure victory on June 27. Mr. Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was the projected winner of a March 29 presidential election, but was denied the number of votes needed for an outright victory by ballot rigging.
The MDC might bring desperately needed change, as conditions in Zimbabwe are appalling. Inflation is running at a staggering three million percent annualized. Price controls mean there is little food in the shops, as input costs are far higher than possible sales revenues, although if you're paying with foreign currency food is available. Staple food items are distributed as a political weapon, and there is little fuel to transport produce privately.
Yet with starvation already killing untold numbers, the Mugabe regime has – incredibly – banned aid agencies from distributing aid and food. According to the United Nations, this puts at least two million Zimbabweans at greater risk of starvation, homelessness and disease.
According to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, "In recent weeks, under Robert Mugabe's increasingly desperate and criminal regime, Zimbabwe has seen 53 killings, 2,000 beatings and the displacement of 30,000 people and the arrests of opposition leaders." But according to residents here – such as Arthur Banda, 33, a trained electrician who's not had a salaried job in 30 months and trades his services for food – this is an underestimate. He says the death toll in recent weeks is well over 100, and climbing: "In the rural areas people just disappear."
When I visited here in 2005, most people thought Mugabe would be dead or at least out of power by now; locals speculated that a coup might be staged by Gen. Vitalis Zvinavashe, who was trained by North Korea's fifth brigade and oversaw much of the Matabele slaughter in the 1980s. Yet few talk of a coup today.
Conspiracy theories abound. Mr. Banda echoes some within the MDC when he claims that "Mugabe is no longer in charge." A group of generals may be controlling the violence with the aim of keeping him in power as their puppet. Says Mr. Banda: "Having killed 20,000 in Matabeleland in the 1980s, stolen farms in Zimbabwe, and diamonds in Congo [during a war Mugabe supported at significant cost to Zimbabweans], as well as the thousands displaced, hundreds raped and scores killed in the recent past, these generals fear losing control and facing charges of crimes against humanity."
Others say the generals want Mugabe as a puppet to placate neighboring governments. These governments still admire him as his country's first postcolonial leader, but have started to lose patience. Botswana and Zambia even made a rare complaint last week about the bogus treason charge thrown at Tendai Biti, the deputy leader of the MDC.
The U.N. has an envoy in Zimbabwe to demand a free and fair election, but locals want him to call for a U.N. peacekeeping force to be sent. Such a move will never happen unless supported by at least one Southern African country. And that will not happen while Mugabe remains president.
Meanwhile, Mr. Tsvangirai has been arrested several times in the past week, Mr. Biti is in jail, and their staff cannot campaign properly. The wounds – busted faces, broken legs and arms, burns from cigarettes and petrol, among many others – to the brave MDC supporters attempting to campaign are sickening to see. Few observers will be able to monitor the election – none from the European Union, the U.S. or any other nations likely to challenge the Mugabe regime. Independent journalists are generally harassed, beaten up or thrown out of the country.
The MDC has behaved admirably in the face of awful provocation, and party officials still cling to the hope that they can win the election. I see no such future. The MDC may win the June 27 vote, but they will not take power. Military intervention is required for that to happen. For while the U.S. and the UK make the right noises – and think creatively about sanctions against the regime – neither they nor the U.N. can do anything substantive without local African support.
South Africa has proven craven in this regard – President Thabo Mbeki made an unscheduled visit yesterday, but no one expects any action. The only hope lies with Botswana and Zambia, whose leaders have at least some backbone. They need to act and act soon, because Mugabe's generals will not budge unless forced. As Mugabe told the Herald newspaper recently, he would rather "die fighting" than be "ruled by an MDC government that is keen to sell the country's birthright."
It is time neighboring nations supported U.N. peacekeeping action in Zimbabwe. If they don't, the U.S. and the UK should reassess future investment, aid and trade to the entire region.
Mr. Bate is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and co-author of "Tyranny and Disease: The Destruction of Health Care in Zimbabwe," published by Africa Fighting Malaria
http://www.hararetribune.com/
By Nathaniel Hatirebwi Masikati
Harare Tribune Contributor
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 22:27
opinion@hararetribune.com
History is replete with numerous examples of what happens to the
mighty when
they are confronted with the mightier. Several adages have been
coined to
describe and warn of consequences of such an eventuality yet time
and again
people perceived to be of normal to above average IQ are caught up
in the
pitfalls.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe who has been lavishly described
as “the most
intelligent African President” or “an academic icon,” would
under any
circumstance be expected to have heeded the lessons from history
that led to
powerful people ending up victims of their
subjects.
But no, Mugabe behaves as if he is some kind of immortal
who cannot be
faulted and shall not be criticised by anyone, anywhere and of
whatever
persuasion. His political history is littered with allegations of
opponent
extermination, violent manipulation and reckless disregard of
generally
accepted liberties of others unless they converge with his
liberty.
In short Mugabe is renowned as a political master of
shrewd tactics to
entrench his power and authority disguised as championing
for the liberties
of the oppressed.
That was the case in
Zimbabwe at least until the emergence of Morgan
Tsvangirai on the main
political scene in the country.
Backed by disgruntled workers and
deprived peasants Tsvangirai has
caused Mugabe numerous political nightmares
and attempts to contain him have
thus far failed to yield the desired
outcome for Mugabe.
Tsvangirai appears to be immune to Mugabe’s
every known tactic and
emerges stronger from each and every event planned to
neutralise him
socially, economically and politically.
This
resilience on his part has now set a stage where he is pitied
against Mugabe
in a contest for the highest public office in the country in
a Presidential
poll runoff planned for 27 June 2008.
The Presidential poll runoff
is widely believed to be a sham as it is
widely held that in the initial
election Tsvangirai outpolled Mugabe by an
absolute majority percentage
required of him to be declared duly elected
president of Zimbabwe but for
political gerrymandering by the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) and the
Security Chiefs in the country, motivated
by Mugabe in person he was
credited with a 47.8% victory margin that was
2.2% shy of the absolute
majority required in terms of the country’s
electoral laws for one to be
declared President elect of the country.
Be that as it may,
Tsvangirai who has vehemently protested this
seemingly obvious electoral
fraud has accepted to contest Mugabe in the
runoff poll that is mired in
violent political thuggery perpetrated by Zanu
PF militia coordinated and
led by senior Army, Police, Prisons and Central
Intelligence Organisation
officers.
For a while after Mugabe had broken the hearts of the
electorate by
causing a 5 week delay in announcement of the initial
Presidential election
outcome it appeared Mugabe was on course to be elected
President by default.
Thereafter when ZEC announced a result many
believed was cooked up at
the behest of Mugabe and the Security Commanders
who have without excerption
declared that they are members of the Zanu PF
Party that is sponsoring
Mugabe’s Presidential candidacy and Tsvangirai
rejected the results and
justification for the runoff, there was jubilation
in Zanu PF and gloom and
despair throughout the country given that Mugabe
who had only mustered 43%
of the popular vote was heading for the Presidency
by default despite his
unpopularity.
The despair and
despondency in the majority rekindled the
invincibility belief in Zanu PF
militia and the Security Commanders helped
by providing armed escort for
them to violently abuse the electorate and
intimidate Mugabe opponents from
even thinking a repeat visit to the polling
station in the unlikely event
Tsvangirai chose to enter the runoff
Presidential poll.
There was total belief in the Security Ministries leadership that the
orgy
of violent retributive onslaught would not only intimidate the
electorate
against Mugabe but its leadership would cower from the runoff and
bingo
Mugabe will be left uncontested and declared President. Tsvangirai’s 6
weeks
absence on a diplomatic offensive to garner international support
against
the unprocedural conclusion of the initial Presidential election was
ceased
upon by the military campaign strategists to reinforce their message
that
they will go to war if Mugabe was not re-elected and their elected
leaders
would be rendered helpless.
But the resilient Tsvangirai is never
known to be a quitter and he
returned to the country after exposing and
neutralising a planned
assassination attempt against him spearheaded by
militant sympathisers of
Zanu PF and securing guarantees from the
international community for his
well being. The euphoria about Mugabe being
declared President fizzled out
into nothing and Dr Simba Makoni a Zanu PF
Presidential candidate decoy was
roped in together with Emerson Mnangagwa,
Patrick Chinamasa and Bright
Matonga to join the Military campaign Mugabe
had initiated and give it some
form of Civilian outlook and
direction.
By then the violent campaign had spread out of the
control of Mugabe
and confusion and chaos reigned supreme. Mugabe whose age
and attendant
health issues are an extreme liability to his bid for
Presidency wants Dr
Makoni to pay him back for the many years he has devoted
to his political
nurturing and grooming by scuttling the runoff he is
absolutely sure he will
lose dismally if allowed to proceed as planned on 27
June 2008.
Even at this late hour Mugabe remains convinced that
Makoni can pull
something out of the bag and cause the abandonment of the
runoff and its
replacement with negotiations for a Government of National
Unity he leads.
But as the election date draws closer and there is no sign
that Tsvangirai’s
support has been decimated by the violent campaign and
instead its swelling
despite the violence Mugabe has become increasingly
worried.
Zanu PF as a party is conspicuous by its silence on the
Mugabe
campaign. Instead it is the Police, Army and ZEC spokespersons that
are
hogging the limelight. Mugabe the despot has been abandoned by his Party
structures and left in the open to dry. Vociferous supporters in the once
awesome War Veterans Association and the Dependable Youth and Women’s
Leagues of Zanu PF are watching violent campaign events in muted silence.
Meanwhile Tsvangirai’s campaign is on the role. Each attempt to stop or
hinder his campaign evolves into an unexpected publicity stunt for
Tsvangirai.
The refusal of permission for the
Tsvangirai to stage rallies for his
MDC supporters results in Court cases
the Police lose like Mugabe has
already lost part 1 of the presidential
election. The impounding of
Tsvangirai’s campaign vehicles unveils a novel
campaign bus idea and the
impounded car is reported as being abused by the
Police and Mugabe
campaigners dealing the campaign further unwanted negative
blows.
A public show of confidence on his grip on power
by attending the UN
Food Summit in Rome results in negative publicity about
Mugabe championing a
food provision campaign at a time he is suspending
international food aid to
supporters of Tsvangirai and he is embarrassingly
denied invitation to the
opening dinner. This was after wife Grace had made
the daft disclosure that
her despotic husband will not accept defeat with
grace on 27 June and will
only make way from the Presidency to a Zanu PF
challenger yet there is none
in his Party with the nerve to challenge for
that.
This was in direct contrast to the declaration by Mugabe’s
current
Chief Election strategist, Emerson Mnangagwa that in the “unlikely”
event
Mugabe lost the runoff as he did the 1st round he will accept the
result
something Mugabe is yet to confirm. Mugabe’s newly found campaign
spokesperson meanwhile is yapping on and on about the need for MDC to attend
to the removal of nonexistent sanctions against the country and demanding
that the Ruling Party in waiting be held accountable for the drafting of
ZIDERA, a USA Legislation aimed at coercing Mugabe’s junta to uphold Human
Rights to qualify for USA aid and support.
Chinamasa failed to
get himself elected on the same mantra and it is
surprising how he thinks
such mantra will help Mugabe. He also ignores that
the Zimbabwe government
to which he was Justice Minister has in place
counter sanctions against the
USA and the EU that it strictly enforces but
none of the affected
governments has ever requested that Mugabe lifts those
sanctions. How has
the political domain that was exclusively pro Mugabe been
turned around to
be such a dangerous political minefield for Mugabe and his
hitherto dominant
Zanu PF Party? Simple analysis will show that it is
because Mugabe has
overstayed his welcome in both the Government and Zanu
PF. What goes around
comes around as the adage goes.
Secondly Mugabe has
lost touch of reality due to old age and an
overdose of power. He destroyed
the electorate’s homes, vandalised them and
neglected their protests with
disdain. He has waged Price Wars printed money
and declared that sanctions
are useless as he has trade links with the East
that have replaced
traditional partners in the West. He has selectively
applied laws in favour
of his supporters and rewarded them with powerful
positions in the Civil
Service and Parastatals and Local Authorities. Mugabe
has allowed his
cronies to get away with serious economic crimes yet he has
pursued a zero
tolerance on petty political crimes by his opponents. Mugabe
has failed to
translate the successful land acquisition into agricultural
productivity
from the farms and the country is hungry. His explanation that
sanctions are
to blame for the poor productivity of the farmlands does not
wash because
the electorate knows they were not allocated the land and they
cannot use it
because it is owned by well placed Mugabe cronies who are
holding onto it
speculatively.
Mugabe’s economic empowerment promises are difficult
to sell in this
election given his record of vindictive expropriations of
projects conceived
and run by his perceived or real enemies. Banks, Asset
Management companies,
Mines, PF ZAPU properties, MDC supporter urban
dwellings, White owned
commercial farms and anything worth expropriation has
in the past been
menacingly taken over by Mugabe and his Zanu PF
junta.
Many prominent businessmen are virtually exiled from
Zimbabwe at a
time when unemployment is above 80% and the electorate does
not and will
never understand why if Mugabe is the Economic Empowerment
champion he
claims he will be if re-elected.
Every
Zimbabwean in and outside the country has been turned into a
multi
billionaire yet very few seem contended with their monetary fortunes
which
they cannot translate into consumables that improve quality of life.
Mugabe
and his campaign team do not answer why billionaires would go hungry
in
their country by alleging sanctions are the cause.
The people
he wants to support his presidential application are not
concerned about the
cause of their economic predicament but rather its
solution. For Mugabe to
say Tsvangirai and his MDC must cause the lifting of
the sanctions causing
the problem is admission that he has no solution for
the problem causing the
suffering of the people he intends to lead to
prosperity.
Worse it is an admission that there is among Zimbabweans someone
capable of
remedying the problem but he will not be allowed to do so as a
leader but is
welcome to do so in support of Mugabe so that he gets the
credit.
The electorate has decided that this kind of self
serving political
chicanery will not be tolerated and if Mugabe’s Look East,
Print money,
Expropriate land, companies and mines and use military force,
violence and
selective law application will not deliver respite on economic
hardships
they face then it is time to try the alternative offered by
Tsvangirai and
his MDC.
Mugabe and his campaign team can
kill as many of us as he wishes,
expropriate as many of our projects as he
wants, deny us as much access to
information as he likes, destroy our homes
and properties at will, reject
our choice of leadership as he likes and
remain in office by force but all
that will not change our distaste for his
leadership and the hardships it
has brought upon us.
For 28
years we have agonised on finding a leader who would not talk
about our
empowerment and prosperity but would also guarantee it peacefully
and 27
June 2008 presents us the greatest opportunity to do something about
our
plight and we will.
Thanks to Mugabe’s flawed campaign strategy
we now know with absolute
certainty that only in Tsvangirai and the MDC at
present lies our key to
unlocking the cause of our suffering and we shall
mandate him to unlock it
not as Mugabe’s Deputy or Prime Minister but as
President with freedom to
act in our interest and be held accountable for
his actions should he fail
us as Mugabe has done.
That is
the principled stand that we will make about our leadership
current and in
future and we will place any leader who does not take heed of
our wishes in
the corner we have driven Mugabe into.
Cornered despots cannot
talk us into GNU’s or Junta regimes. They must
abide by our wishes and make
way for whoever we have chosen as their
replacement. Anything short of that
will not be acceptable and we will never
rest until we have achieved their
submission. ★-- Harare Tribune News
International Federation of Journalists
(Brussels)
PRESS RELEASE
18 June 2008
Posted to the web 19 June
2008
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) says that
local media and
reporters in Zimbabwe are facing official intimidation in
the countdown to
the country's Presidential election next week and it fears
an imminent raid
on the offices of the Zimbabwe Union of
Journalists.
The threats to the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) - the
only
independent national body covering journalists in all sectors of media
and
an IFJ affiliate - emerged today shortly after a report from an
international media mission to the country last week confirmed that
political violence in the country and intimidation of journalists and media
staff were casting a shadow over the run-up to the election.
"We
are deeply concerned that three foreign media staff are in detention and
that media support groups have come under official pressure," said Aidan
White, IFJ General Secretary. "Now we fear that the ZUJ is in the firing
line. It is important that the international community warns the government
of Robert Mugabe to keep its hands off media and allow journalists to report
freely."
Details of the mission from June 8 to 13 made up of the IFJ,
the Southern
Africa Editors' Forum, the Southern Africa Journalists
Association, the
Media Institute of Southern Africa and the Network of
African Freedom of
Expression Organisations (NAFEO) can be found here:
http://africa.ifj.org/en/articles/statement-of-the-zimbabwe-fact-finding-mission-of-african-media-organisations-13-june-2008-harare-zimbabwe
The
mission members say the harassment, arrests and threats against human
rights
defenders, including media and human rights lawyers, is growing.
Economic
challenges for media combined with the arrests, threats and
harassment means
some printed publications are barely surviving, while the
state media is
under the severe control of the party in power and is used as
an exclusive
campaign tool.
A simple media monitoring of the content of the state
owned newspapers and
broadcast news bulletins over the period of the mission
displayed biased
reporting embedded in hate-speech with the state media
contributing to the
heightening of political tensions.
"The situation
facing media could not be more dangerous," said White. "It's
important to
focus all our efforts in ensuring that journalists are allowed
to work
without further intimidation."
The IFJ represents over 600,000
journalists in 122 countries worldwide.
MORE INFORMATION:
For
further information, contact the IFJ Africa Office, tel: +221 33 842 01
43;
or the IFJ, International Press Center, Residence Palace 155, Rue de la
Loi
- Bloc C, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium, tel: +322 235 2200 / 2207, fax: +322
235
2219, e-mail: rachel.cohen@ifj.org,
Internet: +http://www.ifj.org
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Date: 19 Jun 2008
(Johannesburg, June 19, 2008) - The
South African government should
recognize that political repression and
economic deprivation have forced
Zimbabweans to flee their country and
immediately stop deporting them, Human
Rights Watch said in a report
released today. Human Rights Watch called on
the government to grant
Zimbabweans in South Africa temporary status and
work rights.
The
119-page report, 'Neighbors in Need: Zimbabweans Seeking Refuge in South
Africa,' examines South Africa's decision to treat Zimbabweans merely as
voluntary economic migrants and its failure to respond effectively to stop
the human rights abuses and economic deprivation in Zimbabwe that cause
their flight and to address their needs in South Africa. Human Rights Watch
spoke to almost 100 Zimbabweans in South Africa about their
plight.
'South Africa faces a stark choice: it can break international
law by
deporting asylum seekers and ignore the harsh reality faced by
hundreds of
thousands of other Zimbabweans on its territory, or it can grant
them
temporary status and the right to work,' said Gerry Simpson, author of
the
report and refugee researcher at Human Rights Watch. 'Without fail,
Zimbabweans in South Africa spoke of the utter desperation they felt back
home. Most said they had no option but to turn to their South African
neighbors for help to survive, yet Pretoria's response is to call them
economic migrants and deport hundreds of thousands.'
The recent
arrival in South Africa of Zimbabweans fleeing political violence
is only
the latest wave of forced migration that includes tens of thousands
of
refugees who escaped mass forced evictions in 2005. Hundreds of thousands
more left to escape economic deprivation and systematic violation of core
social and economic rights caused by President Robert Mugabe's destruction
of the Zimbabwean economy during the past three years.
Human Rights
Watch's 'Neighbors in Need' presents the accounts of refugees
in South
Africa whose lives were ruined by the Zimbabwean government's
politically
motivated campaign of mass forced evictions in 2005, when it
bulldozed the
homes of 700,000 people and destroyed their livelihoods.
Possibly tens of
thousands of these people in South Africa have yet to be
recognized as
refugees.
Because of South Africa's dysfunctional asylum system, many
asylum seekers'
claims are not examined adequately and others are not able
to lodge their
claims at all. Because its deportation practices are also
arbitrary and
haphazard, many of the tens of thousands of Zimbabweans
registered as asylum
seekers in South Africa are at risk of refoulement, the
forcible return to
persecution in Zimbabwe, a fundamental breach of
international refugee law.
As a party to the refugee convention, South
Africa is bound by the principle
of non-refoulement, and may not send people
back to face persecution.
'The surest way for the government to end its
violation of international
refugee law is to end the deportation of all
Zimbabweans, including those
fleeing the current violence,' said Simpson.
'South Africa should adopt a
comprehensive policy that temporarily grants
them the right to remain and
work.'
The report says that regularizing
the status of Zimbabweans would also help
to protect them against
exploitation and violence in South Africa. Providing
temporary status would
also unburden South Africa's asylum system, now
clogged with thousands of
Zimbabwean claims. Work authorization would
encourage Zimbabweans to fend
for themselves and support their desperate
families at home. Ensuring that
Zimbabweans earn the minimum wage would also
help South Africans to compete
fairly with Zimbabwean for jobs, thus
lessening the resentments that ignite
xenophobic violence.
'Neighbors in Need' also presents the individual
stories of Zimbabweans
driven out of their country by the appalling
conditions caused by Mugabe's
destructive economic policies. Zimbabwe has
the world's highest rate of
inflation (100,000 percent); 83 percent of its
people live in poverty, 80
percent are unemployed, and 4.1 million depend on
food assistance, which
Mugabe's operatives withhold or manipulate for
political gain. Life
expectancy for women fell from 56 years in 1978 to 34
today; 66 percent of
the 350,000 Zimbabweans in need of lifesaving HIV/AIDS
drugs cannot access
them.
Most Zimbabweans enter and remain in South
Africa without documents and
therefore have no right to work and only
limited rights and access to help
such as health care. Many, such as people
living with HIV/AIDS, children,
and the elderly, are particularly vulnerable
and often face serious
obstacles in finding urgently needed
assistance.
'Zimbabweans arrive in South Africa destitute and vulnerable
and so they
remain,' said Simpson. 'They live in constant fear that the
police will
arrest and deport them, that employers will exploit them, and
that people on
the street will attack them.'
Human Rights Watch said
that by temporarily granting status to Zimbabweans,
the South African
government will send a clear message to its citizens that
those attacking
foreigners will be held accountable and that foreigners
should not be seen
as easy targets.
Human Rights Watch also urges South Africa to recognize
that the
Zimbabweans' presence underlines a failure of foreign policy - the
failure
to use South Africa's leverage to effectively address the brutal
human
rights violations and failed economic policies that have caused their
flight - and calls on South Africa to end its failed and discredited 'quiet
diplomacy' approach toward Mugabe.
'The South African government
needs a more effective strategy to promote
human rights and the rule of law
in Zimbabwe itself,' said Simpson. 'This is
not an alternative to
regularizing the status of Zimbabweans in South
Africa. It should
simultaneously address the cause of forced displacement in
Zimbabwe while
attending to the needs of its Zimbabwean neighbors in South
Africa.'
iafrica.com
SATIRE........ NOT TRUE
Article
By: www.hayibo.com
Wed, 18 Jun 2008
10:17
In a top-secret memo leaked to the media this morning, the CIA has
issued a
stern warning to would-be assassins not to target Zimbabwean despot
Robert
Mugabe. Describing Mugabe as "sniper-proof", the memo explained that
head-and-chest shots would have no effect on the 84-year-old Mugabe, as he
has neither a brain nor a heart.
On the contrary, said the memo, any
direct hits on his head or chest would
"only get the varmint riled
up".
Mugabe's personal physicians have maintained a strict policy of not
speaking
to the media, but it is understood that the elderly tyrant adheres
to a
stringent diet of omelets made from human stem cells harvested from
babies'
spinal columns, honey stolen from honey-badgers, and Red Bull energy
drinks
hijacked off trucks at the Beit Bridge border crossing.
They
have also historically refused to comment on persistent rumours that
both
Mugabe's brain and heart atrophied in the late 1990s and were
surgically
removed in a Cape Town clinic in 2001, along with a malignant
testicle found
growing in his larynx that had, according to surgeons, been
causing him to
"talk complete bollocks for years".
However, the CIA memo has all but
confirmed the rumours, adding that snipers
who attempted either a
head-or-heart-shot should be prepared for "a puff of
flannel, some cobwebs
flapping around the exit wound, and a faint smell of
sulphur".
The
memo went on to say that "conventional termination procedures" would
have to
be reassessed to "mesh with Mugabe's specific physiological and
supernatural
attributes", and that "more esoteric methods" would have to be
applied.
These included driving a wooden stake through his chest,
shooting him at
full moon with a silver bullet, exposing him to sunlight,
luring him into an
active volcano, sucking him into the void of space
through an airlock, or
feeding him pet treats manufactures in
China.
For more from SA's best satirical website, www.hayibo.com, please click
here.