National Post, Canada
U.S., U.K.
Move
Steven Edwards, Canwest News Service Published: Tuesday, June 24,
2008
UNITED NATIONS - The United States and Britain pushed at the
United Nations
yesterday for Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwean opposition
leader, to be
recognized as president in the absence of a fair run-off
election.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, warned going ahead with
Friday's vote
in the current climate would only "produce a result that
cannot be
credible."
Against strong opposition from South Africa, the
United States and Britain
drafted a statement for the UN Security Council
that would effectively call
for Mr. Tsvangirai to be declared president if
violence continues to render
the runoff poll a sham.
"Until there is
a clearly free and fair second round of the presidential
election, the only
legitimate basis for a government of Zimbabwe is the
outcome off the 29
March 2008 election," the draft said.
The results of the election were
delayed for more than a month, with some
electoral officials claiming Mr.
Mugabe had been a victim of fraud.
After a recount, the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission announced on May 2 Mr.
Tsvangirai won 47.9% of the vote
to Mr. Mugabe's 43.2%, not enough to avoid
a run-off. This gave Mr. Mugabe,
in power for 28 years, a second chance to
prevail.
He has since
unleashed a wave of state-sanctioned kidnappings and killings
aimed, say
international observer groups, at dissuading opposition
supporters from
voting.
Mr. Tsvangirai withdrew from the poll on Sunday, saying he could
neither
"participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election
process," nor
ask his voters to risk their lives.
Yesterday, Mr. Ban
avoided aligning himself with the U. S.-British call for
the March 29 poll
to be declared a basis for the effective conditional
transfer of power to
Mr. Tsvangirai.
Although he said he was "distressed" by the level of
violence in the
country, and he understood the MDC leader's decision to
withdraw from
Friday's ballot, he added he preferred to wait for the finding
of all 15
members of the Security Council on the issue.
But Mr. Ban
also spoke out against a movement -- led by South Africa inside
the Security
Council -- arguing the Zimbabwe crisis is principally an
internal matter
that the council, whose mandate is to consider events that
threaten
international peace and stability, should leave off its agenda.
However,
the UN head argued effectively South Africa was wrong.
"What happens in
Zimbabwe has importance well beyond that country's
borders," he said. "The
region's political and economic security are at
stake as is the very
institution of elections in Africa."
Mr. Tsvangirai was until recently in
self-imposed exile in South Africa,
where he fled for his safety. His
announcement to withdraw from Friday's
election appears to have been equally
designed to push African leaders to
take a stand.
http://zimbabwemetro.com/
By Investigations Unit ⋅ © zimbabwemetro.com ⋅
June 23, 2008 ⋅
Metro has received unconfirmed reports from two sources
that three members
of the Joint Operations Command (JOC) visited
incarcerated Movement for
Democratic Change(MDC) Secretary General, Tendai
Biti,MDC-Harare East.,in
remand prison.
Our sources reportedly saw
Constantine Chiwenga,Augustine Chihuri and
Paradzayi Zimondi at Matapi
Police Station in Mbare at 3 O’clock Monday
morning.
This story will
continue to be updated as details become available.
Please if you have
any tips on this story and others
email,harare@zimbabwemetro.com or call
1202 684 6621 and leave a message we
will call you back.
http://zimbabwemetro.com/
By Staff ⋅ © zimbabwemetro.com ⋅ June 23, 2008
⋅
The MDC MP for Nkayi South, Abednico Bhebhe and Sen. Robert Rabson
Makhula,MDC-Nkayi., have been arrested.
Bhebhe and Makhula were
arrested at Nkayi Police Station when they went to
report a political
violence case.
Police immediately told them that a South African car they
were driving was
not properly registered.
The vehicle was
impounded.
Early this month police impounded the MDC leader’s South
African registered
BMX X5 and villagers in Lupane say police are now using
it for their
errands.
To date 4 MDC campaign vehicles are still being
held by the police in
Hwange. The MDC Youth department’s car that was
impounded more than 3 weeks
ago is still at Jambezi police station and
villagers say the vehicle has
been vandalized and the wheels taken off.
Another vehicle has vanished,it
was seen on the week-end at Hwange it has
been seen being driven around by
police. 2 Other MDC vehicles are also being
held by police in Binga.
The MDC MP for Nkulumane , Thamsanqa Mahlangu,
is battling for his life in
an intensive care unit in a Harare hospital
after he was severely assaulted
by Zanu PF militia on Sunday. Mahlangu is
also the MDC National Youth
Chairman.
Violence is escalating unabated
even after the MDC has withdrawn from the
runoff.
The MDC Councillor
Mwebe of Pashu in Binga was abducted by ZANU PF militia
in the morning on
his way to addressing a meeting. Also in Binga MDC
councillor Fanuel
Siamdimba was arrested yesterday on unspecified charges.
Yesterday, Joram
Mpofu , the MDC’s chief election agent for Tosi
Sansole,MDC-Hwange East.,
was also picked up by the ZANU PF militia and CIO
in Hwange townand
beaten.
This morning in Hwange armed men in a pick-up arrived at Hwange
secondary
school looking for an MDC councillor Winnie Ncube who is a teacher
there.
When they were told she was not there they said they would like to
leave her
a message and said “in fact we should just shoot you, that will be
the
message”. They left the school leaving everyone feeling very
intimidated.
http://zimbabwemetro.com/
By Norbert Jacobs ⋅ ©
zimbabwemetro.com ⋅ June 23, 2008 ⋅
Tanzania’s president, Jakaya Kikwete, has
become the first African president
to raise the issue of military
intervention in Zimbabwe if the government
crackdown on the Movement for
Democratic Change(MDC) worsens.
“We will certainly consider it (Miltary
intervetion)if asked,” said Kikwete
“If we get there, to a point where
military action is needed, if it’s a
multilateral project, then we’ll do it.
At the moment we do not think that
will be necessary’
Tanzanian
People’s Defense Force is made up of close to 30 000.The manpower
available
for military service is a combined 14 387 010 two times Zimbabwe ’s
manpower
available for military service which stands at 5 464 100.
This comes as
the U.N. Security Council issued a unanimous statement on
Monday that a free
and fair presidential election run-off in Zimbabwe was
impossible because of
violence and restrictions on the opposition.
The adoption of the
non-binding statement by the Security Council, which
comprises China France,
Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, United
States,Belgium,Indonesia,South Africa,
Burkina Faso,Italy,Viet Nam,Costa
Rica,Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,Croatia and
Panama was its first formal action
on the crisis in the southern African
country.
Before the 15-nation
Security Council adopted the statement, U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
said: “There has been too much violence and
too much intimidation. A vote
held in these conditions would lack all
legitimacy.”
Daily News, Los Angeles
By Bridget Johnson, Columnist
Article Last Updated: 06/23/2008
07:42:44 PM PDT
WHEN human-rights activist Monique Mujawamariya was
smuggled out of Kigali
in the early days of 1994's Rwandan genocide, she
made a beeline for the
United States. After all, who better to tell about
the machete-wielding
horror befalling her nation? Who better to ask for
help?
Instead, Mujawamariya found out where Africa ranks on the
foreign-policy
totem pole - genocide be damned.
"A congressional
official responsible for Africa gave me an explanation
which was
discouraging but also enlightening," Mujawamariya said in the
"Frontline"
documentary "Ghosts of Rwanda."
"He said, `Listen, Monique, the United
States has no friends. The United
States has interests. And in the United
States, there is no interest in
Rwanda."'
Instead, Washington pressed
forward with a "compromise" to withdraw 90
percent of peacekeepers from the
country. Before the world would come to
grips with the gravity of its
dithering, 800,000 Rwandans were dead.
And now, the world must face
what's happening in Zimbabwe.
Since the country gained independence from
its white-minority rulers in
1980, Mugabe has been the self-appointed - "God
appointed," according to
Bobby himself - autocrat who has driven Zimbabwe
into the ground with the
single-minded focus of removing all land from white
farmers and viciously
stifling dissent. Unemployment hangs around 80
percent, an estimated quarter
of the population is infected with HIV, and
hyperinflation is so severe that
one
U.S. dollar equals more than 7
billion Zimbabwean dollars.
Torture, kidnappings, arbitrary arrests, rape and
murder are all synonymous
with the rule of Mugabe. Those who dare to oppose
Mugabe are savagely
beaten, or worse.
But one man, Morgan Tsvangirai,
has stood up to Mugabe - and along with
Tsvangirai, the common man who is
tired of the fear and intimidation. And
that is what makes the Movement for
Democratic Change a grass-roots
phenomenon - not, as Mugabe likes to
contend, an American or British
post-colonial creation.
But in the
farce known as this year's presidential elections in Zimbabwe,
each outrage
has been supplanted by an even greater one. First, Tsvangirai
supposedly
didn't win enough votes in the first round of voting March 29 to
beat Mugabe
outright. This after the government delayed the release of vote
totals for
days after the election, just enough time to massage what wasn't
rigged in
the first place.
And then it only got worse. Tsvangirai's return to
Zimbabwe was delayed by
an assassination plot. The man who revealed the
plot, MDC No. 2 Tendai Biti,
faces charges of treason and a possible death
penalty. Since the first round
of voting, the MDC counts more than 70
supporters killed; inside government
sources put the figure even higher. The
27-year-old wife of Harare's new
mayor, an MDC member, was kidnapped last
week and bludgeoned to death with
rocks and iron bars. The government turned
away international food aid after
swearing it was tainted by ulterior
humanitarian motives of Western nations.
The MDC didn't lack the will to
go on, but the party was certainly mindful
of Mugabe's threat of full-scale
bloodshed perpetrated by his "war veterans"
militia should he lose the
runoff vote.
With Mugabe vowing not to honor an election loss, and the
international
community dithering as always in the face of the newest
bloodletting and
intimidation, the MDC backed out of the runoff election.
Mugabe's ruling
party, the Zanu-PF, did its best to influence the decision
by blockading the
site of the MDC's main campaign rally Sunday.
The
U.N. issued a statement afterward calling the MDC's pullout "a deeply
distressing development that does not bode well for the future of democracy
in Zimbabwe," but harassment of the opposition is nothing new; it's just
that no opposition has heretofore posed such a threat to the Mugabe
regime.
Mugabe, said Tsvangirai in announcing his decision, has "declared
war by
saying that the bullet has replaced the ballot," and thus proceeding
with
simple democratic processes put everyday Zimbabweans in too much
danger.
"We now urge SADC (South African Development Community), the AU
(African
Union) and the United Nations to intervene and stop the genocide,"
Tsvangirai told reporters.
As he called on the world Monday to not
recognize Mugabe's rule (that means
you, South Africa!), marked man
Tsvangirai was forced to take refuge at the
Dutch embassy in
Harare.
As Rwanda was not America's burden alone, so must the rest of the
world
reflect on how the ball was dropped back in 1994, and decide how they
could
prevent wholesale bloodshed waged by a crudely armed regime and a
humanitarian catastrophe from happening again.
Because Mugabe is not
done, by far, with the MDC.
Bridget Johnson is a columnist at the Daily
News.
SBS, Australia
Tuesday, 24 June,
2008
SBS senior correspondent Brian Thomson has been speaking to an
opposition
activist who was brutally assaulted in the election-related
violence and to
a lawyer who knows only too well what the victims are going
through.
Patson Muramoga is just one of the latest opposition activists
to flee to
South Africa after being beaten senseless by thugs from
Zimbabwe's ruling
party.
Recounting his experiences brings tears to
eyes. His wounds are as fresh as
his emotions are raw.
His crime is
to be a youth organiser for the movement for democratic change.
"They
attacked me with an axe.They started to beat me on my head then they
beat me
in this right hand and it was broken already," Patson said.
Patson
carries the xrays of the injuries to his hand with him. They show the
hook
the perpetrators lodged into it.
He has a visa to remain in south africa
for just one more day and he has no
money to renew it.
"If I go back
to Zimbabwe they will kill me, because most of the guys are
killed. Right
now I don't have a house because when I was in Harare they
burnt it
down".
Patson's wife is 8 months pregnant, she remains in Zimbabwe but he
knows
nothing of her fate.
His story is all too familiar to human
rights lawyer, Gabriel Shumba.
At his office in Pretoria he documents
cases of abuses in Zimbabwe.
The stories he hears bring back painful
memories.
"Before i fled I was arrested 14 times," he
said.
Gabriel is also Zimbabwean.
He used to represent members of
the opposition and for his efforts he almost
paid with his
life.
"They stripped me naked..."
Gabriel says he was hung upside
down and beaten mercelessly, but there was
worse to come.
" I was so
assaulted..."
At the end of the torture session Gabriel found himself
sitting in a pool of
his own blood urine and excrement.
His torturers
forced him to eat it.
"It was really a nightmare and my crime was simply
to practice human rights
law in my country", he said.
Both men are
angry at the regime's claims that violence against the
opposition has been
overstated.
"These people they are liars. Mugabe is a liar, Mugabe is a
thug," Gabrile
said.
Gabriel hopes that one day he will be able to
bring the perpetrators to
justice.
But for the time being all he can
do is gather the evidence and wait for a
change in government.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: June 24,
2008
CANBERRA, Australia: New Zealand's Parliament voted
unanimously Tuesday to
condemn atrocities and violence in Zimbabwe, blaming
President Robert
Mugabe's regime, while Australia's foreign minister
welcomed growing
criticism of Mugabe by other African leaders.
"We
welcome very much that there now appears to be a growing chorus from the
African states that the campaign of intimidation and violence in Zimbabwe
has to cease," Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said.
"The
brutal Mugabe regime has no electoral or democratic legitimacy so far
as
Zimbabwe is concerned," Smith told Parliament.
Both Australia and New
Zealand have been calling on countries in the
Southern African Development
Community and the African Union to pressure
Mugabe to hold fair
elections.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai announced on
Sunday that he has
withdrawn from a presidential run-off election on Friday
because of the
violence.
Smith said he agreed with statements
from the United Nations that Friday's
poll would not be fair and should be
postponed.
New Zealand's Parliament, meanwhile, voted unanimously to
express outrage
that violence and intimidation in Zimbabwe had led to
Tsvangirai's
withdrawal and called on Mugabe "to step down for the good of
his country."
"The next few days are crucial. We look to African leaders,
including
President (Thabo) Mbeki of South Africa, to engage with
strengthened resolve
in efforts to close this crisis," Foreign Minister
Winston Peters told
Parliament.
Business Day
24 June 2008
Luphert
Chilwane
THE move by Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) to
pull out of Friday's election runoff was hailed as an informed
decision by
speakers at the release of the Observatory for the Protection of
Human
Rights Defenders' 2007 annual report in Johannesburg
yesterday.
Pansy Tlakula, SA's Independent Electoral
Commission chairwoman
and a member of the African Commission on Human and
Peoples' Rights,
described the situation in Zimbabwe as not meeting the
standards for free
and fair elections.
"As an
electoral practitioner myself, the current atmosphere in
Zimbabwe is not
conducive for free and fair elections. It would be difficult
to operate in
that kind of an environment," Tlakula said.
Harrison
Nkomo, a human rights defender and lawyer from
Zimbabwe, who suffered
persecution himself and is out on bail , said the
situation in Zimbabwe was
very bad as both national and international
observers, journalists and
humanitarian organisations were being attacked by
Zanu (PF)
loyalists.
He said the MDC has been very patient
throughout and persisted
in contesting the elections regardless of the many
deaths being reported.
"The move by the MDC to pull out
of the election runoff is well
informed. This is the best political decision
Morgan (Tsvangirai) has ever
made in his political career," he
said.
The pull-out, according to Arnold Tsunga, the
vice-president of
the International Federation for Human Rights and member
of the Zimbabwe
Human Rights Association, would make President Robert Mugabe
even more of an
illegitimate leader, without the participation of Tsvangirai
in the contest.
"Zanu (PF) is using mass starvation and
violence to manipulate
and make people comply with their political
agenda."
He said the political situation was fertile for
anything,
including a civil war.
The report shows
that human rights defenders - anyone involved
in the promotion and
protection of human rights - were subjected to
repressive laws and violent
attacks.
The continuing illegal arrests and assault of
journalists, human
rights activists and the obstruction of humanitarian
organisations in
Zimbabwe were given as examples.
Tlakula said freedom of expression and information was the very
basis on
which strong democracies could be built, "and there could be no
independent
and fair elections without a free media".
She said the
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights ,
as far back as 2002, had
made recommendations on various aspects of human
rights in
Zimbabwe.
"Although there is a challenge in SADC
(Southern African
Development Community) countries, over years there has
been great progress
and development."
She said the
only hope of addressing the challenges was with the
establishment of an
African court on human and people s' rights.
Tsunga said
countries such as Zimbabwe, Cameroon and the
Democratic Republic of Congo
were known for their persecution of human
rights
defenders.
Business Day
24 June 2008
Wilson
Johwa
Political
Correspondent
SIMBA Makoni was always going to be at the forefront of
Zimbabwean politics.
Yet, depending on who you speak to, he is worshipped as
the charismatic
politician cut out for the job of saving Zimbabwe or
criticised as the
spoiler bent on undermining a victory for Morgan
Tsvangirai, leader of the
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
Before the March elections, he had a big presence in SA, with his
campaign
often advertised in SA's media.
Makoni's participation
in the March 29 presidential election earned him 8,3%
of the votes, costing
Tsvangirai the clear-cut lead he needed to avert a
runoff.
With
polarisation between Zanu (PF) and MDC, Makoni could have been the
kingmaker, helping the two sides reach a power-sharing
agreement.
The 58-year-old appears fully conscious of his likely
role in the political
gridlock in which Zanu (PF) and the military have no
desire to hand power to
anyone except one of their own.
Similarly,
the MDC would not accept a Zanu (PF) victory.
"Soon after the March 29
polling, some of us started canvassing that leaders
immediately engage each
other towards an accommodation," Makoni said in
Johannesburg last
week.
"We pleaded that we should not wait until there were bodies to
bury.
Regrettably, we are already too late."
A struggle
background, a PhD obtained from a British institution and his
appointment as
deputy agriculture minister at the unlikely age of 30, give
Makoni unmatched
credentials, helped by his moderate, well-cultivated
persona. The
similarities with President Robert Mugabe are stark.
"He is the nearest
to what Mugabe used to be," says University of Zimbabwe
political science
lecturer John Makumbe.
Makoni seems to appeal to those in the black
middle class opposed to Mugabe
yet also uncomfortable about Tsvangirai's
liberalism.
Makumbe describes Makoni as a schemer pushing for a
government of national
unity, hoping to be included in it.
"He's a
thoroughly great guy, but I think he's really trying to short-change
both
guys (Mugabe and Tsvangirai) and benefit himself," he says.
When
Makoni was executive secretary of the Southern African Development
Community
in the mid-1980s, talk was the foreign appointment would shield
the likely
heir from Zanu (PF)'s more ruthless presidential hopefuls.
So too was his
deployment at state-controlled Zimpapers, when the media
company had some of
its best years.
His appointment as finance minister seemed to signal
his rising star. But he
quit after an apparent fallout with Mugabe over
Mugabe's aversion to
economic reform, which enhanced Makoni's reputation for
independent-mindedness.
Makoni says his Mavambo-Kusile-Dawn
movement, launched in February, is
motivated by a desire to save the
country. Yet some are suspicious of his
middle-ground approach to politics,
particularly his reluctance to endorse
Tsvangirai.
"Simba is a
product of Zanu (PF)'s internal succession battles and lack of
renewal
policies rather than emerging from the broad masses," says a
Harare-based
commentator.
Makoni's bid for office could best be described as stirring
but not shaking
the Zanu (PF) establishment.
Even then, some of his
reformist backers still in the ruling party are seen
as having lost ground
to the rival faction headed by Rural Housing Minister
Emmerson
Mnangagwa.
But with Mugabe still in the running, Makumbe believes that
most in the
senior leadership will not take any chances on backing Makoni
because they
will still wish to benefit from Mugabe's
largesse.
Brian Raftopoulos, an Institute for Justice and
Reconciliation researcher,
says Makoni's movement would advance Zimbabwe's
position only if he
acknowledged the results of the March 29 elections and
accorded respect to
Tsvangirai's performance.
Moneyweb
Mandy de Waal
digs into a Mugabe contract Caxton turned away - but Naspers
grabbed for a
subsidiary part funded by the Gates Foundation.
Mandy de Waal*
24 Jun
2008 07:12
As Naspers prepared to release its financial results this week
a small story
skidded under South Africa's media lens and fell through the
grates. The
story was about one of Naspers' subsidiaries, Paarl Web, which
printed
millions of rands worth of electioneering pamphlets for Robert
Mugabe's
ZanuPF party.
Business Day ran a minor snippet on the story
in its "The Insider" column in
which it says that the print job was
originally destined for CTP Caxton,
which passed up on the deal after
Chairman Fredrick van zyl Slabbert,
threatened to resign if the printer went
ahead. This after it had already
received a R3m deposit from the Zimbabwean
Central Bank.
A similar story ran in the international media a week back
which focused on
WPP subsidiary, Imago Y&R, recreating Robert Mugabe's
election campaign. One
of the largest ad agencies in the world, WPP
expressed outrage when it heard
the news with CEO Sir Martin Sorrell
ordering the immediate divestiture of
the 25% share held in the Zimbabwean
based subsidiary. At the time
spokesperson Bernard Barnett of Y&R was
quoted in the London Times saying:
"This is a disgraceful regime and we want
no connection between Y&R and it."
Back in South Africa, the market
anticipates good numbers from Naspers
Limited (JSE: NPN) (LSE: NPSN) when it
announces its results at 09h00
tomorrow (Wednesday 25 June 2008). According
to a trading statement issued
by the group, earnings per share is expected
to be between 35% and 45%
higher, with headline earnings forecast up between
20% and 30%.
The Cape Town based multinational media company enjoys
global reach with
operations that span sub-Saharan Africa, China, Russia,
central and eastern
Europe, the Netherlands, Brazil, the United States and
Thailand. One would
think that a scandal that links Napers' brand to Robert
Mugabe would reach
the highest echelons, capturing the attention of top
leadership eager to
protect the global reputation of the firm.
My
first call to get conformation of the story was to Naspers' head of
Investor
Relations Meloy Horn who informed me she was unaware of the story
but would
investigate and revert back to me within an hour.
Seven hours later she
would not confirm whether Paarl Media did in fact
print the ZanuPF
pamphlets, nor would she confirm that Paarl Media is a
subsidiary of
Naspers. She advised that the story: "Was not a head office
issue" and that
I would need to speak to Stephen van der Walt, Paarl Media's
CEO.
His
cellphone was off so I called his office where I was advised to speak to
Paarl Media's Gauteng division, Paarl Web. The product of a BEE partnership
between Paarl Media Group and loveLife!'s Kurisani Investments, Paarl Web's
stakeholders include the US-based Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the
South African Government, while the printer's BEE partners receive their
major funding from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Bill & Melinda
Gates
Foundation.
At Paarl Web I first spoke to Press Manager Kevin
Wright who issued a terse
"no comment" and put the phone down on me. This
was followed by a call to
Jandré de Milander, MD of Paarl Web who advised me
that the job was briefed
to them by an existing South African client and
that they were paid in South
African rands for the job.
He refused to
name his client citing that he had signed a confidentiality
agreement. When
asked what he felt about Paarl Web doing work for Mugabe's
regime he
answered: "It is irrelevant what my feelings now are. This has
nothing to do
with you. Is ZanuPF a terrorist organization? Why shouldn't we
do business
with them? I have nothing further to say to you. I can't give
you any
further comment."
Finally I spoke to Stephen van der Walt, CEO of the
Paarl Media Group who
asked that I strike all previous comments from the
record, as those
contacted were not part of the communications
team.
Van der Walt confirmed that the print job had been given to them by
an
existing client. That an up front deposit was requested as the job
exceeded
the client's credit limit with Paarl Media. Van der Walt maintains
that the
quoting and the briefing on the job were done blind without the
sales person
or production team viewing the material in question. He went on
to say that
the job was then slotted into their digital production process
without
anyone seeing what the job was.
"I want to state
categorically that we did not know at all that it was a
ZanuPF job. It was
printed inadvertently at Paarl Gauteng, which is part of
our group. We had
no interface with ZanuPF, we never received payment from
ZanuPF and we have
no relationship with anyone from ZanuPF. Mugabe's party
placed the order,
provided for it and paid for it through a South African
company which is our
client," said van der Walt.
Van der Walt went on to explain that the only
screening policy the printing
group has is against pornography which is
easily identifiable. He refused to
name the client but stated he would try
and raise the client, to get their
permission to be named or interviewed. At
the time of going to press this
information was yet forthcoming. When asked
whether his group would do
business with this client again he stated: "It
would be doubtful under these
circumstances. It is unlikely that we will be
doing business with them
again."
While this story missed local
headlines, there were other stories that
didn't. They include Mugabe
stepping up violence, Morgan Tsvangirai seeking
refuge in the Dutch Embassy
in Harare following his withdrawal from the
run-off elections, ZanuPF youth
militia attacking MDC supporters, together
with daily stories of the murder,
torture, rape and abduction of ZanuPF
opposition. This as Mugabe's
stranglehold 28-year rule shrinks the
Zimbabwean economy for 10th year and
inflation reaches 355 000 percent.
When it is all over for Zimbabwe and
the terrible losses are counted, one
wonders whether there will be an
international tribunal or court of law that
will hold those who buoyed
Mugabe's rule accountable for contributing to his
reign of terror. Whether
there will be a forensic investigation into the
trail of blood money that
has links Mugabe to companies willing to make a
quick buck from his violent
rule. And, whether a tribunal would consider
ignorance as a justifiable
defence.
a.. A former broadcast journalist Mandy de Waal spent twenty
years in
branding marketing before returning to her first love, journalism.
Read
Artificial Intelligence, her blog on new media, current affairs and
business
at: http://mdw.typepad.com/
Business Day
24 June 2008
IT
IS hard to see what else Morgan Tsvangirai could have done. It was clear
that the junta running Zimbabwe wouldn't allow him to be declared the winner
of this week's presidential election. His candidature risked bestowing a
semblance of legitimacy on the whole wretched business; and in the mean
time, it was intensifying the violence: Zanu (PF) gangs were assaulting
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidates and displacing their
voters.
Unlike many African opposition movements, the MDC has tried
to stick to
nonviolence. Seventy of Tsvangirai's party members have been
killed, and
thousands of supporters terrorised but, so far, he has not
authorised the
arming of militias. His hope is that international pressure
might force
democracy on Zimbabwe without a civil war. Yesterday, he
repeated his plea
for the outside world to facilitate peaceful
change.
Whether this happens depends largely on the ruling African
National
Congress - just as it fell to their white predecessors to bring
down Ian
Smith. President Thabo Mbeki and his ministers should ponder that
parallel.
Then, as now, a minority regime in Rhodesia was prepared to plunge
the
country into bloodshed rather than relinquish power.
Then, as
now, it was condemned by almost the entire world - except SA. But
SA's
rulers came to look beyond their ideological links and act in the wider
interests of humanity.
If SA shows a similar magnanimity today,
Zimbabwe might yet become a stable
and prosperous neighbour. If not,
full-scale conflict will be inevitable.
Zanu (PF) was founded in the belief
that, when there is no democracy, armed
resistance is justified. It may soon
find itself on the receiving end of
that doctrine. London, June 23.
Jamaica Observer
Editorial
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
We must express
our disappointment in the decision of Mr Morgan Tsvangirai,
the leader of
the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), to pull
out of
Zimbabwe's presidential run-off election scheduled for this Friday.
For
we had hoped that Mr Tsvangirai would have endured the state-sponsored
intimidation and violence being unleashed on his supporters and himself to
contest the vote. Even though we had strongly suspected that the results
would have been rigged in favour of President Robert Mugabe, the man who has
now become Africa's biggest despot and who has finally been openly described
by some of that continent's other leaders as an embarrassment.
We
fear that the current United Nations Security Council debate on the
crisis
in Zimbabwe may amount to too little too late. For Mr Mugabe has,
over the
past three years, and increasingly so in recent months, made no
secret of
his shameless disregard for democracy.
Just last week, in an address to
business people in Bulawayo, he was
reported as saying that the MDC will
never ever be allowed to rule Zimbabwe.
"Only God who appointed me will
remove me - not the MDC, not the British,"
he bellowed.
Later, at a
rally in that same city, he was quoted as telling supporters:
"We will never
allow an event like an election to reverse our independence,
our
sovereignty, our sweat and all that we fought for ... all that our
comrades
died fighting for."
Up to that point, the international community, except
for Britain, largely
sat by and watched the atrocities of the Mugabe regime
as it cracked down on
dissent, muzzled the press, destroyed a once thriving
economy, bulldozed
people's homes, rigged elections, and used food as a
weapon against
opponents of the Government.
We are particularly
bothered by the continued silence of Caricom on the
disgraceful events in
Zimbabwe, particularly given the history of this
region's relations with
that country and the support we gave to its struggle
for freedom from
apartheid.
We refuse to believe that Caricom leaders simply have no
interest in
ensuring that democracy is preserved and respected in Zimbabwe.
Neither do
not expect that they are waiting until they are all gathered at
their heads
of government conference in Antigua next month to actually break
their
strange silence on this issue.
True, the Jamaican Government
has voiced concern about the state of affairs
in Zimbabwe. However, the
collective voice of the region, we believe, would
have made a stronger
statement, and one which should let Mr Mugabe know in
no uncertain terms
that his actions are highly unacceptable and that he is
no longer welcome in
this region.
For as Mr Ban Ki-Moon, the secretary-general of the United
Nations, said
yesterday, Zimbabwe's problems pose a grave threat to
international peace
and security.
Given his track record, we expect
that Mr Mugabe will scoff at yesterday's
draft statement out of the Security
Council demanding the recognition of the
March 29 election results until
there is a clearly free and fair second
round of the presidential
election.
If, as we suspect, he disregards the UN, he will only isolate
his country,
and the people of Zimbabwe will suffer even more hardships. But
then again,
that has never seemed to have concerned Mr Mugabe.
Business Day
24 June 2008
Karima
Brown
HOW
President Thabo Mbeki or any of his mandarins involved in the tragic
events
in Zimbabwe can remain hopeful that a viable settlement can still be
found
at this late stage truly boggles the mind.
More disturbing is the
fact that this misplaced hope also exposes
fundamental flaws in the South
African government's understanding and
approach not only to the crises in
that country, but also to how the
democratic process needs to be deepened
and who should be at the centre of
change there.
Since their
defeat in the elections preceding this Friday's sham
presidential runoff
vote, Robert Mugabe and the ruling Zanu (PF) have simply
reverted to type. A
systematic campaign of terror and torture has all but
reversed the gains
that were the unintended consequences of electoral
reforms ushered in as
part of measures that the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) put
in place to ensure a degree of respectability in a
deeply flawed electoral
process.
As matters stand in Zimbabwe, it is clear that any semblance
of a democratic
process to determine who governs that country has been
perverted. The
decision on the part of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) to withdraw
from the runoff hardly comes as a surprise and rips the
carpet from under
those who still wrongly argue for some sort of government
of national unity.
It is instructive to note the language used by the South
Africans involved
in the behind-the-scenes manoeuvring. Mbeki, who met both
Mugabe and Morgan
Tsvangirai last week, said: "From our point of view the
leadership of
Zimbabwe should get together and find a solution to the
challenges that face
Zimbabwe." On the face of things, there can be nothing
wrong with this
statement. But it ignores that it is the Zimbabwean people,
and not its
political leadership, who should be at the centre of the
process. The
distinction between the political leadership and the people
broadly is not
simply an academic point or a matter of semantics. Especially
not when one
unpacks the historical context of Zimbabwe's liberation from
colonialism and
its struggle to rid itself of a kleptocracy headed by a
former liberation
movement that has turned on its own people.
The
Zimbabwean people have spoken through the ballot more than once. Each
time
their message was clear. Which is why the South African government's
insistence on some sort of government of national unity between Zanu (PF)
and the MDC is misplaced and out of step with the democratic decisions taken
by the Zimbabweans themselves. Yet Mbeki and his advisers continue to press
the case for Zanu (PF)'s inclusion in a future government. No wonder Mugabe
believes only God can remove him from power. This twisted logic is no doubt
informed by Mbeki and Mugabe's shared notion of vanguardist and forced
hegemony and their belief that leaders are anointed, rather than elected. In
truth, Mugabe and Zanu (PF) have long lost the right to be called liberator
or liberation movement.
In April this year, the South African
Communist Party succinctly described
what ails Zimbabwe in its publication,
Umsebenzi Online: "The principal
cause of the deteriorating situation in
Zimbabwe is that of a degenerating
national liberation movement, which once
fought a heroic struggle, but is
now paying the price of being trapped in
state power that is not buttressed
by the people's will." The party went on
to say that it was important that
SA and SADC "do not pander to the whims of
the Zimbabwean elites", and
should allow the realisation of democratic
aspirations of the poor people of
Zimbabwe. Failure would set a bad
precedent for the SADC region, if not
Africa as a whole.
As the
continent and the rest of the world holds its collective breath in
anticipation of what happens in Zimbabwe next, Mbeki and his advisers would
do well to note that unless the Zimbabwean people are instrumental in the
reshaping of Zimbabwe's political and economic future, democracy in Zimbabwe
will only end up being shortchanged. We dare not let that
happen.
.. Brown is political editor.
Business Day
24 June 2008
Greg
Mills
WITH
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) out of the presidential
election
runoff, not much can happen in Zimbabwe, failing decisive African
action,
except for things getting worse.
Without a legitimate government in
Harare, no recovery is possible. And
legitimacy is unlikely to be enhanced
by the creation of a government of
national unity without the MDC: few could
be fooled by a different facade on
the bones of the same government, even
one with apparently more acceptable
ex-Zanu (PF) figures, such as Simba
Makoni. This is less a "third way" than
a dead end.
For while one
can suspend or rig and election, one cannot suspend or rig an
economy.
Economic reform and rehabilitation for the masses will not happen
in the
circumstances. Inflation will likely continue at its stratospheric
levels,
and nearly all Zimbabweans will continue to get poorer. If MDC
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai had won this Friday, against all intimidation and
rigging odds,
there was some prospect of recovery . But he would have had to
focus his
limited time and direct donor resources to three key tasks.
First, to
stabilise the economy, probably by issuing a new currency, thereby
bringing
inflation under control. This would have required carefully managed
foreign
inflows.
The second task would have been to
re-establish the rule
of law, using his leadership and mandate to re-orient
the army to external
functions and police to the maintenance of law and
order - not repression -
and thereby reinstate the populace's confidence in
state institutions. This
would have been an initial step along the road to
depoliticising the civil
service.
Third - and most importantly - he would have had to
reinstate the productive
sectors of the economy, notably farming, on which
so much clearly depends.
This would have demanded getting together with the
farming and donor
community to work out a land reform strategy that is
orderly, fair and
geared towards sustainability. It would of course be
politically and
administratively difficult to turn back the clock to the
status quo before
Mugabe started his devastatingly costly land grab in
2000.
But it would be crucial to return skills and capital to the
land. New
farmers - not party hacks who have been given farms as political
pay-offs -
could be helped, perhaps through a national trust fund.
Dispossessed farmers
might be encouraged to return to share their skills
through a combination of
land restitution, financial compensation and
partnership with the new
farmers. And donors would have to be kept to their
earlier promises in this
sector, notably the British government. No doubt a
President Tsvangirai
would have a very difficult task ahead. But he would
have one big advantage.
He is not Robert Mugabe.
This scenario
might still take place, but apparently not this week. In the
interim, the
even more difficult short-term scenario has now happened - the
aborting of
the run-off election. This creates a major crisis for the
Southern African
Development Community (SADC) mediators, tainting their
efforts and standing,
and delaying the prospects of stability and recovery.
But they - and those
African democrats concerned about their continent's
credibility - do possess
a few other options.
First and foremost they will need to protect
Zimbabwean opposition leaders.
This may have to involve the deployment of
more than hotel-bound election
monitors.
They will need, second,
to signal collectively and definitively that Mugabe's
and Zanu (PF)'s
actions are beyond unacceptable. Words are unlikely to be
enough given
Harare's political autism: Zimbabwe's suspension from SADC and
the African
Union would cost Africa little, but could pay much through the
restoration
of a semblance of African credibility.
And then they should find ways
to get
the election process back on track. This is not about pathetic
attempts to
paper over serious abuses through governments of national
"unity" when this
is premised more on continental African than local
Zimbabwean needs.
To achieve this, African mediators would have to
pull the levers to which
Zanu (PF) will be sensitive. International and
continental isolation is one.
A stipulation of international supervision of
central bank inflows and
outflows is another.
Outside powers that
are interested in change and recovery should involve
themselves in working
with their African partners to devise strategies to
this end. To attempt to
do so alone is likely only to inflame sensitivities,
not extinguish them.
This would not stop them also from ratcheting up the
pressure by encouraging
multinational businesses to withdraw or open their
books to
scrutiny.
Failing decisive action, the potential for widespread
violence in Zimbabwe
has never been greater. And its corrosive effects will
not stay at home but
will be felt throughout the region in a deteriorating
continental image,
burgeoning refugee flows, and a pernicious climate of
fear and hopelessness.
a.. Dr Mills heads the Johannesburg-based
Brenthurst Foundation.
Editorial of The New York Sun
June 24,
2008
When Secretary of State Rice was confronted with the latest news
from
Harare, the decision of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to withdraw
from
Friday's presidential election amid a wave of regime sponsored
violence, she
said, "The Mugabe regime cannot be considered legitimate in
the absence of a
runoff." The United Kingdom's foreign secretary, David
Miliband on the BBC
that day was even tougher. He said President Mugabe's
"claims to legitimacy
have absolutely no basis because if anyone has
legitimacy it's the people
who won the parliamentary elections and the
presidential elections in
March."
These words can be given meaning
only by action on the part of the community
of free nations to recognize Mr.
Tsvangirai as the elected, legitimate
leader of Zimbabwe. His Movement for
Democratic Change won the elections
held on March 29. Robert Mugabe quickly
moved to prevent the publishing of
the official vote count, called for a
re-vote, and unleashed the state's
military and police to detain, beat,
torture, and kill the political
opposition the dictator could not best in
the polls.
Recognizing Mr. Tsvangirai as the leader of Zimbabwe could be
accompanied by
the expulsion of Mr. Mugabe's diplomats from Turtle Bay to
their home
country. Ordinarily we'd suggest a dock at the Hague, but the
United Nations
tribunal is not an institution to which one wants to look for
justice.
Wouldn't it be something were Secretary General Ban to invite Mr.
Tsvangirai
to address the General Assembly. Or to see a group of Zimbabwe's
neighbors
convened to provide the opposition with the money, guns, and
diplomatic
cover that would be required to take back the elections Mr.
Mugabe has
stolen.
At this point, it's hard to imagine what is gained
by an American
administration, of either party, recognizing the current
regime in Harare or
hosting its diplomats in Washington. This kind of
diplomacy is not
unprecedented. In the late 1990s, Secretary Albright met
with the Kosovo
Albanian government, even as Slobodan Milosevic tried and
failed to cleanse
the Albanians from what he considered Serbian
territory.
In a phone conversation yesterday, John Prendergast, a former
Clinton
administration Africa hand and codirector of the Enough project
aimed at
ending genocide, said, "President Mugabe's actions inside Zimbabwe
over the
last seven years and particularly the last few months since the
elections
ought to result in a stripping of his recognition as the head of
state."
So far, the rest of the world is not quite there. The reaction
from the
United Nations has been a plea with Mr. Mugabe to delay the vote
scheduled
for June 27. Meanwhile, Mr. Tsvangirai has asked for asylum in the
Dutch
embassy as the police raid his party headquarters and one of his top
deputies sits in jail on charges of treason. He, too, is calling on the
world deny any recognition of the upcoming election in which his Movement
for Democratic Change can no longer participate. The better strategy would
be for the democratic powers to go further and recognize the results of the
March 29 elections. If the democracies cannot muster the courage to do this
for Zimbabwe, what hope will there be the next time a tyrant in Asia,
Africa, or the Middle East tries to counter with force the politics of his
opposition?
Business Day
24 June 2008
PRESIDENT
Thabo Mbeki is said by spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga to be "very,
very
encouraged" by the fact that Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change
has
not given up on the prospect of reaching a negotiated settlement with
the
totalitarian regime that refuses to relinquish control of the country.
It
is hard to understand what he finds so encouraging, especially since
Mbeki's
own failures as a diplomat, mediator and regional leader have played
no
small part in pushing Zimbabwe down the blind alley in which it now finds
itself. When the choice was between violent suppression of free political
activity followed by a rigged election, or handing victory to the Mugabe
dictatorship by refusing to participate, there is precious little to be
positive about.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been criticised for
waiting too long before
pulling out of Friday's scheduled presidential
runoff, thereby exposing his
supporters to unnecessary violence. Certainly,
it was clear from immediately
after the disputed first poll that President
Robert Mugabe intended using
the run off to reverse the setback caused by
the loss of Zanu (PF)'s
majority in Parliament.
However, as has been
pointed out repeatedly by this newspaper, the region's
habit of appeasing
Mugabe left Tsvangirai between a rock and a hard place.
With SA doing
everything in its power to protect Mugabe from international
pressure and
the Southern African Development Community content to put its
faith in
Mbeki's behind-the-scenes manoeuvring, the only alternative to a
highly
flawed democratic process was vague talk of a negotiated government
of
national unity.
Given Mugabe's track record of reneging on deals, his
open rejection of any
process that entails handing over power, and the
climate of fear that has
been created through his brutal use of militias to
intimidate and kill
opposition supporters, Tsvangirai can hardly be blamed
for being sc eptical.
Nor can he be blamed for refusing to put more of his
supporters' lives on
the line, especially since it was increasingly obvious
that the outcome of
the poll would be rigged.
Mbeki's refusal to
condemn Mugabe's brutal tactics, and his eagerness to
encourage a settlement
that subverts the will of the Zimbabwean people,
reveal a chilling cynicism
towards the viability of democracy as a system of
government in Africa.
Mugabe is on the verge of being rewarded for quite
literally sticking to his
guns; given the similar manner in which the
democratic process was
manipulated in Kenya recently to avoid further
bloodshed, this does not
augur well for the continent.
The only real, albeit faint, encouraging
signs are indications that regional
leaders are finally losing patience with
Mbeki, and that the broader
international community has reached the end of
its tether too. The United
Nations needs to play a more active role, along
with the African Union and
those regional leaders that have broken ranks
with Mugabe, to ensure that
whatever agreement is reached will eventually
lead to free and fair
elections.
Quiet diplomacy has been thoroughly
discredited, and SA risks being rendered
irrelevant if it continues to
insist on a softly-softly approach to Mugabe.
If Mbeki refuses to be part of
the solution by take a principled stand
against tyranny, he must not be
surprised if he is considered part of the
problem, and treated as such.
San Francisco Chronicle
Editorial
Monday, June
23, 2008
It didn't seem that things could get any worse in Zimbabwe,
but they have.
And that country's maniac despot, Robert Mugabe, seems intent
on finding out
just how much the people of Zimbabwe can bear before the sad,
inevitable
collapse.
Right now, the man who has dedicated 10 years of
his life to challenging
Mugabe's rule - Morgan Tsvangirai, who won the
presidency of Zimbabwe
according to election results in March - is hiding in
the Dutch Embassy,
afraid for his life. Mugabe's minions are traveling the
country, openly
butchering his supporters and poll workers. In a desperate
bid to motivate
the international community into action, Tsvangirai has
withdrawn from
standing in yet another presidential "runoff election" (sure
to be rigged
better this time) this week, leaving Mugabe as the only name on
the ballot.
Meanwhile, Mugabe's supporters in the United Nations
(including South
Africa, a country that should really know better) are still
blocking any
serious efforts there. Clearly, the steady flood of Zimbabwean
refugees into
their own countries - and the social turmoil that has come
with them - isn't
enough of a threat for them to take a stand against this
Orwellian monster.
Their cowardice makes them culpable in the bloodshed
that's sure to follow,
when the people of Zimbabwe finally run Mugabe out of
office.
A revolution of some kind is likely, because Zimbabweans
increasingly have
nothing to eat and nothing to lose. After the sham
election, Mugabe will no
doubt isolate himself even further from the
populace, emerging only to issue
belligerent statement about how "only God"
will remove him from office, and
churning out press releases about his
wonderful deeds in a country where
industry is dead and inflation is over 1
million percent. Mugabe is 84 years
old, but shows no sign of loosening his
tyrannical grip on the country. The
only question is, how much damage will
he inflict on the way out?
The United States has been pushing to put
Zimbabwe on the United Nations
Security Council Agenda, and it must continue
that push - and encourage all
its allies to promote sanctions against the
country if necessary. Any action
taken against the hacker of Harare will be
better than none.
Financial Times
Published: June 24
2008 03:00 | Last updated: June 24 2008 03:00
There is now no doubt - if
any had remained - that Robert Mugabe will "win"
Friday's presidential
run-off in Zimbabwe. The withdrawal of Morgan
Tsvangirai, leader of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change,
guarantees that this brutal
dictator who has shamed Africa and bludgeoned
the political opposition to
death will stay in power. Mr Mugabe is waging a
horrific terror campaign
against his people and has stolen an election.
Zimbabwe's neighbours, led by
South Africa, have tolerated this tyranny for
too long. They should refuse
to recognise his re-election.
Mr Tsvangirai's decision to pull out of the
contest is unfortunate but
understandable. Many of the party's grassroots
supporters would have run the
risk of being killed by gangs of pro-Mugabe
thugs had they tried to monitor
polling stations. Nearly 90 are said to have
been killed already. That Mr
Tsvangirai himself was yesterday reported to
have sought refuge overnight in
the Dutch embassy suggests that worse is to
come.
Mr Mugabe is on the verge of a sham victory. He will use the result
of
Friday's rigged poll to try to claim legitimacy for his despotic rule.
The
violence he has orchestrated means he can claim nothing of the sort. The
election has ceased to have any value or meaning.
As the economic
crisis in Zimbabwe worsens, the rest of the world must not
stand by. There
is little point in Mr Tsvangirai setting up a government in
exile. It is to
the MDC's credit that Zimbabwe's neighbours have begun to
criticise Mr
Mugabe. African Union leaders should go further when they meet
this weekend.
They should suspend Zimbabwe from the AU and endorse Mr
Tsvangirai's call
for properly observed and supervised elections.
Thabo Mbeki, South
Africa's president, who has sought to resolve the crisis
with a Kenyan-style
national unity government, should accept he has failed.
There is no way any
western nation will send international aid to a regime
that has Mr Mugabe or
Zanu-PF at the helm. An MDC government that included a
small Zanu-PF
contingent would be an acceptable price for ending the
violence, but is
unlikely to happen.
The US and Europe must toughen sanctions against
Zimbabwe's leadership.
Travel curbs on senior Zanu-PF figures are in place.
The assets of
politicians and their suspected middlemen should be frozen and
the travel
ban extended to prevent their children studying in foreign
schools and
universities. Western financial institutions should be debarred
from
operating in Harare. Anger is not enough. The Mugabe regime should be
made
to suffer.
National Post, Canada
National Post
Published: Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Speaking to supporters on Sunday,
Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe said he
was confident his ZANU-PF party
would "romp to victory" in a presidential
runoff election on Friday. No
kidding. Having murdered more than 80
opposition politicians and supporters,
and beaten thousands more, since
March's first round of balloting, Mr.
Mugabe has all but eliminated everyone
who might defeat him. On the weekend,
his chief rival, Morgan Tsvangirai,
leader of the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), announced he would be
withdrawing from the race rather than
witness any more of his supporters
being killed, beaten or kidnapped.
Winning the presidency for the fifth time
now will be as difficult for Mr.
Mugabe as scoring an empty-net goal after
the other team has skated off to
their dressing room.
This is a travesty, and a preventable one, too. If
international
organizations such as the United Nations and the Commonwealth
had spoken up
sooner, it is doubtful Mr. Mugabe could have pulled off the
fraud that seems
destined to return him to office for another six
years.
Mr. Tsvangirai's MDC won a clear majority in March's parliamentary
vote. So
great was their triumph that not even Mr. Mugabe's handpicked
electoral
commission could paper over the win and declare MDC candidates to
have
captured a majority of seats.
And they tried.
Through
March and April, Zimbabwean officials attempted to rework the
results in two
dozen of the closest parliamentary races, but the task proved
too great. Not
even they were shameless enough to falsify the outcomes to
the degree needed
to award ZANU-PF the victory.
But the presidential race was much closer.
According to MDC scrutineers, Mr.
Tsvangirai captured just a fraction over
the 50%-plus-one needed to avoid a
runoff with Mr. Mugabe. That margin the
Zimbabwean electoral commission
could steal, and did.
For more than a
month, officials refused to release the results, then when
they did, they
made the improbable announcement that neither man had won a
clear majority,
and a second round of voting would be needed. This gave Mr.
Mugabe a second
chance to win, and his party launched a campaign of killing
and terror to
make sure they didn't lose again.
The regime has set loose roving bands
of armed thugs. Paramilitary troops
scour the streets looking for MDC
organizers, breaking up rallies and
tearing down their posters. On the
weekend, thousands of youth militia loyal
to President Mugabe attacked an
MDC rally in Harare, beating journalists and
forcing election observers to
flee.
Another gang routed 60 MDC supporters from the party's
headquarters,
arresting the teens and adults and forcing Mr. Tsvangirai to
take refuge in
the Dutch embassy in the Zimbabwean capital. A Zimbabwe
police spokesman
denied there had been a raid on MDC headquarters, then
explained that anyone
who had been removed from opposition election offices
had been taken away
for "health reasons."
British Foreign Office
Minister Lord Malloch-Brown said Mr. Mugabe's violent
tactics violated
Zimbabwe's constitution, so he could no longer be
considered the "legitimate
leader" of his country. But it was too little,
too late.
The world
needed to speak out in March after Mr. Mugabe had so clearly lost,
or in
April when bureaucrats loyal to him were refusing to release the
official
results, or when the campaign of intimidation began. But while the
UN,
Commonwealth and European Union all confessed their concern, none would
go
further than to say they hoped bloodshed could be avoided and that fair
elections would occur. The predictable outcome of these mealy-mouthed
pronouncements was that Mr. Mugabe was able to use bloodshed to steal yet
another presidential vote.
The Zimbabwean dictator has run his
country into the ground, destroying its
agriculture and bankrupting its
economy. One of the few wealthy,
self-sufficient countries in Africa has
become one of the most decrepit and
corrupt thanks to him.
Likely all
that was needed to end his repressive rule was a willingness by
the
international community to recognize Mr. Tsvangirai as the winner two
months
ago. But even that was too much for the likes of the politically
correct
denizens of the UN and other international organization. Now, as a
result of
their reluctance to identify Mr. Mugabe for what he is, the moment
to win
democracy in Zimbabwe may well have passed.
New York Times
Editorial
Published: June
24, 2008
Zimbabwe's presidential runoff election is still scheduled for
Friday. But
President Robert Mugabe has already stolen the vote.
For
months, Mr. Mugabe's henchmen have brutalized opposition politicians and
voters who dared to imagine an end to the dictatorship. On Sunday, Morgan
Tsvangirai - the opposition leader and winner of the first round - withdrew
from the runoff. That night, he also took refuge in the Dutch Embassy in
Zimbabwe's capital while police raided his party headquarters.
This
cannot continue. The United States, Zimbabwe's African neighbors and
the
rest of the international community must immediately press for a
postponement of the balloting.
And since Mr. Mugabe appears to have
lost all sense - he has now declared
that only God, not the voters, can
remove him from office - they must
pressure the generals who enable his
reign of terror to abandon Mr. Mugabe.
Since the first balloting in
March, at least 85 people have been killed,
thousands beaten - some with
iron bars - and thousands driven from their
homes. Mr. Tsvangirai was
detained five times and his party's chief
strategist is being held on
specious treason charges.
Western and African leaders have done little
but wring their hands. Finally,
late Monday, the United Nations Security
Council issued its first
condemnation of the violence sweeping Zimbabwe,
regretting that the
"campaign of violence and the restrictions on the
political opposition have
made it impossible for a free and fair election to
take place on 27 June."
It was unclear if the council retained an
important acknowledgment that was
in an early draft: "Until there is a
clearly free and fair second round of
the presidential election, the only
legitimate basis for a government of
Zimbabwe is the outcome of the 29 March
2008 election" - which Mr.
Tsvangirai won.
We fear it will take more
than words to save Zimbabwe. The international
community must back that up
with serious punishments for Mr. Mugabe's
generals and cronies. Mr. Mugabe
bought their loyalty with land and other
government largess. Only very
personal punishments - freezing their foreign
bank accounts and denying
visas - will make them recalculate their
self-interest.
We are also
waiting for South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, to act.
Instead of
defending Zimbabwe's people and their right to democratic change,
he has
shamefully chosen to protect Mr. Mugabe.
The United States, Europe and
African governments must all make clear that
if the runoff election is not
delayed - so that Mr. Tsvangirai can campaign
without the threat of violence
- they will no longer recognize Mr. Mugabe or
his government and will use
all their powers to punish and isolate them.
Washington Post
His campaign of terror will keep him
in power, barring an international
intervention.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008;
Page A16
ROBERT MUGABE'S campaign of terror against the people of
Zimbabwe is
succeeding. On Sunday, Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader
who defeated
him in the March 29 presidential election, withdrew from a
runoff election
that had been scheduled for Friday, citing the murder of 86
of his
supporters and the torture, beating or displacement of tens of
thousands of
others. Yesterday, Mr. Tsvangirai sought refuge in the Dutch
Embassy in
Harare; he has been repeatedly detained by police while
attempting to
campaign, and his deputy has been imprisoned on treason
charges. As a host
of world leaders affirmed, Mr. Tsvangirai's decision was
justified. But it
also opened the way for Mr. Mugabe to hold a rigged vote
and then award
himself another mandate as president.
Only concerted
and aggressive intervention by the United Nations and
Zimbabwe's neighbors
can now prevent this crime, brazenly carried out in
front of the world, from
going forward. Mr. Mugabe is betting there will be
no such action -- and the
record of the last three months backs him up.
While the United States and
Britain have repeatedly condemned Mr. Mugabe's
terror and have tried to
inspire action by the U.N. Security Council or the
Southern African
Development Community (SADC), they have been blocked by Mr.
Mugabe's allies
-- foremost among them Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's lame-duck
president.
Yesterday the Western leaders tried again. A strong
statement from Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice said Mr. Mugabe's regime
"cannot be considered
legitimate in the absence of a runoff." She also
demanded that it be "held
accountable" for failing to protect its own
people; under a new U.N.
doctrine, that could justify international
intervention. British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown proposed new sanctions.
Last night, the U.N. Security
Council passed a non-binding statement saying
that "the campaign of
violence" had made a free and fair election on June 27
impossible.
But Mr. Mugabe isn't listening, and there is no
indication that Mr. Mbeki
has tempered South Africa's obstructionism of
action, as opposed to
statements by the United Nations. Other southern
African leaders have begun
to speak out, including the presidents of Zambia
and Botswana. But without
the support of Mr. Mbeki, who has been the SADC's
designated mediator for
Zimbabwe, they can have only limited
influence.
Mr. Mbeki has appeared to be exploring the possibility of a
compromise that
would create a coalition government -- the formula adopted
in Kenya
following its tainted election this year. But there is no hope of
political
peace or economic recovery in Zimbabwe until Mr. Mugabe leaves
office. That
must remain the starting point of U.S. policy.
Business Day
24 June 2008
CRICKET
SA (CSA), has decided to suspend its bilateral agreements with the
Zimbabwe
Cricket Union (ZCU) until further notice.
This was announced by CSA
President Norman Arendse in a media release
yesterday.
"In light of
the worsening situation in Zimbabwe, CSA has reviewed its
position in
relation to Zimbabwe cricket.
"We have decided to suspend our bilateral
agreements with the Zimbabwe
Cricket Union until further notice.
"In
the past, CSA has defended Zimbabwe cricket against heavy odds, but the
general situation in Zimbabwe has now made this untenable.
"We will
continue to comply with the International Cricket Council's future
tours
programme regarding Zimbabwe, because we are bound to this programme
as a
full member of the ICC.
"However, CSA will suspend its bilateral
agreements with the ZCU, which
include development and administrative
programmes, and the participation of
Zimbabwe teams in CSA's domestic
competitions," the release said. Sapa
Reuters
Tue 24 Jun 2008, 5:59
GMT
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand steadied against the
dollar on
Tuesday and was seen under pressure from Zimbabwe developments
while dealers
will also turn their attention to local inflation data from
Wednesday.
Local stocks looked set to open in slightly positive
territory, with the
blue chip Top-40 September futures contract up 0.6
percent ahead of market
opening at 0700 GMT.
At 0645 GMT, the rand
stood at 8.0550 to the dollar, not far off its last
New York close of
8.0515.
Dealers said the rand could weaken further as concerns over
Zimbabwe raise
investor risk aversion.
"We are expecting to see
further rand weakness. We're looking at 8.12/dollar
and if we break that up
to 8.17 and 8.25, top side risk remains," said
Brigid Taylor, dealer at
RMB.
Zimbabwe's political future remains in limbo after opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change leader, Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of a
run-off
presidential election that was set for Friday.
Taylor said
the market would also be watching for local inflation data
releases on
Wednesday and Thursday and the U.S. Federal Reserve interest
rate decision
on Wednesday.
The CPIX consumer inflation for May is expected to surge to
a new 5-1/2 year
high of 10.8 percent year-on-year, after breaching the the
top end of a 3-6
percent target in April 2007.
South Africa's
government bond yields dipped.
The yield on the two-year bond dipped one
basis point to 11.655 percent and
that on the 2015 issue fell two basis
points to 10.60 percent.
Independent market watchers ETM said with CPIX
likely to peak around 12.5
percent in August, the central bank would be
justified in raising rates by
at least one more 50 basis
points.
"Whilst this has been largely priced in by the markets, an
adjustment of a
further 100 basis points in rate hikes has not".
The
central bank has raised rates by 5 percentage points to 12.0 percent
since
June 2006, in an effort to arrest inflation.