GENEVA, June 26 (Reuters) - The United Nations asked donors on Tuesday to set
aside their reservations about Zimbabwe's governance and provide funds to help
increasingly desperate children in the southern African country.
UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau said the U.N. children's agency has
received only 30 percent of the $14 million it needs for health, education,
nutrition and other projects this year in Zimbabwe, where drought stands to
worsen a deep economic crisis.
"We need money to be able to provide help," she told reporters in Geneva.
"Because of the human rights situation there, lots of donors are resistant to
give money. But the situation on the ground, particularly for children, is
dramatic."
The IMF and other key Western donors, including the World Bank, suspended
financial aid to Zimbabwe more than six years ago over President Robert Mugabe's
policies including the seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to new
black farmers.
Poor harvests this year, attributed to drought as well as insufficient
fertiliser and fuel, have worsened poverty in the country where UNICEF said
inflation has reached 4,530 percent, making basic goods unaffordable to
many.
International aid groups have said more than one third of Zimbabwe's 13.1
million people will require food aid by the start of next year.
Mugabe, sole ruler of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, blames his
country's economic problems on sabotage by Western powers. Britain, the United
States and other Western nations deny that they have waged economic war against
Mugabe, saying they are trying to support democracy in the country.
More than 500 Zimbabwean exiles packed into the unlikely setting of the
Lewsey Community Centre in Luton. They wore T-shirts proclaiming “Free Zimbabwe”
and “Mugabe Must Go”. They roared support when Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwe
opposition leader, arrived to address them. They long for the end of Robert
Mugabe’s hated regime. The paradox is that they are actually propping it up.
Everyone The Times approached at the rally last Saturday was sending money to
desperate relatives in Zimbabwe. Most were scrimping and saving to remit £50,
£100 or £200 each month. Some were doing two jobs to prevent their families in
Harare or Bulawayo from starving. Some were single-handedly supporting a dozen
or more dependents.
Between three and four million people – a quarter of Zimbabwe’s population –
have left the country as its economy has collapsed. Half of Zimbabwe’s
households now depend on their remittances, according to a survey by Global
Poverty Research. Of those exiles at least 500,000 are thought to be living in
Britain, more than in any other country except South Africa. They remit more
than any other country – upward of £25 million each month by some estimates.
It is money that saves their families from starving, but it also relieves the
worst of Zimbabwe’s suffering and frees up hard currency for the regime. “It’s
doing a wonderful job of propping up Mugabe,” said John Robertson, a Harare
economist. Without it “families would be much hungrier and much angrier”.
With 80 per cent of their compatriots unemployed, and even those with jobs
having their salaries rendered worthless by an inflation rate of 4,500 per cent,
the Zimbabweans at the Luton rally argued – entirely reasonably – that they had
no alternative.
“You don’t want to prop up the regime but you have no choice,” said Tafadzwa
Kays, 25, a computer science student at the University of Leicester who works as
a cleaner or waiter by night.
Wilf Mbanga, editor of The Zimbabwean newspaper, which is published in
Britain, explained the predicament. “They know in their hearts that it helps
Mugabe, but the overriding thing is that you can’t sit there and watch your
mother dying of hunger when you can send money home.”
Published: June 26 2007 21:13 | Last updated: June 26 2007 21:13
A group of dispossessed Dutch farmers has launched a novel compensation claim
against Zimbabwe after their farms were seized in a series of violent land
invasions they say were backed by Robert Mugabe’s government.
The lawsuit has been launched at the International Centre for Settlement of
Investment Disputes (ICSID), an arbitration tribunal housed at the World Bank in
Washington. It underlines the potential for private litigants to sue governments
for compensation in politically explosive areas using official bilateral
investment treaties.
The 14 Dutch nationals have taken advantage of an investment treaty between
Zimbabwe and the Netherlands that enables them to bypass Zimbabwean courts.
The farmers allege that Mr Mugabe’s government breached its international law
obligations by failing to provide adequate police protection for Dutch property
owners in Zimbabwe between 2000 and 2002 and by actively supporting a series of
violent land invasions that led to their farms being abandoned. They add that
the Zimbabwean government subjected them to unlawful racial discrimination by
targeting white farmers.
“Dutch investors who lived on and nurtured these farms were entitled to
protection under the treaty and are entitled to compensation for the loss of
their property,” said Charles O. Verrill from the law firm Wiley Rein, the lead
counsel for the farmers.
“We have video of people being forced out of their houses by war veterans – a
group that was organised and supported by the government,” he said. “To me,
that’s not providing the ‘full protection and security’ that the investment
treaty requires.”
The Dutch farmers bred cattle and produced tobacco, flowers, maize, coffee
and soybeans. They are each seeking around $1m for loss of property and
agricultural equipment. The case is the first against Zimbabwe at ICSID.
Zimbabwe’s deputy ambassador to the US, Gideon Gapare, said Zimbabwe was
“fully co-operating” with the proceedings but declined to comment on the merits
of the case.
Zimbabwe has until July 6 to file a preliminary defence, as well as any
objections to the jurisdiction of the arbitration tribunal which has been
convened to hear the dispute. Hearings are scheduled for late October.
The case follows several politically contentious international investment
disputes, including a compensation claim by three Italian mining companies
against the South African government for expropriating their mineral rights, a
case linked to South Africa’s black economic empowerment laws.
A first hearing in the Zimbabwe case was held in December 2006 in Paris, a
site selected by the parties as a neutral venue. Zimbabwe’s attorney-general,
Sobuza Gula-Ndebele, was blocked from attending that meeting by EU-wide travel
restrictions on leading figures in Mr Mugabe’s administration.
But after intervention by the secretary-general of ICSID, the French foreign
ministry has offered assurances that it will provide visas so Zimbabwean
officials can take part in future hearings on French soil.
A handful of countries, including Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and
Denmark, have investment protection treaties with Zimbabwe. A treaty with the UK
– which boasted the largest number of nationals farming in Zimbabwe – was never
ratified.
“There are other potential claimants from Switzerland, from Germany, and the
Netherlands who may be in a position to assert [further] claims,” Mr Verrill
said.
Agric Africa, a UK-based group that has helped co-ordinate the Dutch farmers’
arbitration claim, has received a small grant from the Open Society Initiative
for Southern Africa, a non-profit organisation established by the financier and
philanthropist George Soros.
HARARE-Zimbabwe will transfer control of all companies, including
foreign-owned banks and some mining operations, to locals if a planned
empowerment bill is passed, a government minister said on Tuesday. The
move is likely to deepen the country's economic turmoil and could give
President Robert Mugabe an opportunity to enrich his supporters and
consolidate ranks ahead of general elections next year, analysts
say. "The bill refers to both public and private companies and yes, this
includes mining companies and banks, which will be impacted like everyone
else," Minister of State for Indigenisation and Empowerment Paul Mangwana
told Reuters. Foreign banks with operations in Zimbabwe include units of
Britain's Barclays and Standard Chartered and South Africa's Standard
Bank. Analysts said the new law was unlikely to have a major impact outside
the mining sector, as most of Zimbabwe's economy was already in local hands
and many foreign companies, which once operated in the country, have already
left. But they said the remaining foreign firms were instrumental in
transferring new technology to Zimbabwe and had kept foreign currency
trickling in from parent companies after donors such as the International
Monetary Fund stopped lending to Harare. Zimbabwe has seen a sharp fall
in investor confidence as the country struggles with the world's highest
inflation rate, a recession now in its eighth year and Mugabe's
controversial economic policies which critics blame for severe shortages of
food, fuel and foreign currency. The economic crisis and alleged human rights
abuses have heightened political tensions and drawn international criticism
of the 83-year-old leader. But he remains defiant, denying he is at fault
and accusing the opposition and Western nations of plotting to oust
him. Economic Death Knell? Parliament is expected to approve the
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill, which stipulates that no
company restructuring, merger or acquisition would be approved unless 51
percent of the business goes to indigenous Zimbabweans. The bill defines
indigenous Zimbabweans as anyone who was disadvantaged by unfair
discrimination on the grounds of race before the former white-ruled Rhodesia
won independence in 1980. Standard Chartered said it had no comment on the
bill, while Barclays said it was assessing the situation. "It is early
days and the proposed law may not become law or may alter in part. It would
therefore be premature for Barclays to comment further at this stage,"
Barclays spokeswoman Laura Vergani said in London. Analysts have said the
bill is likely to unsettle investors and hurt the economy, still wounded
from Mugabe's earlier move to seize white-owned farms to give to landless
blacks. "This is another move that sends negative signals to potential and
existing investors, particularly in sectors, like mining, where investment
decisions are made over a long horizon," said Best Doroh, principal
economist at banking group ZB Financial Holdings. Fund manager Sheunesu
Juru warned that the proposed localisation of ownership could take a similar
course as the land seizure drive, which critics say has largely benefited
Mugabe's allies and hurt agricultural productivity. "That could be the
death knell for the economy," Juru said. "It does appear as though certain
influential individuals have targeted particular firms, especially in the
mining sector." Although the empowerment bill includes mining companies,
Mines Minister Amos Midzi said earlier this month that special consideration
may be given to miners already operating in the country, such as Impala
Platinum and Rio Tinto. Mugabe has said there are nearly 300 British
companies and several South African businesses operating in Zimbabwe, a
regional breadbasket before Mugabe's drive to seize land from whites to
resettle landless blacks.
Zimbabwe: Discussion Silent On Common Man Interests
Zimbabwe: Discussion Silent On Common Man Interests
New Zimbabwe
(London) OPINION 26 June 2007 Posted to the web 26 June 2007 Kuthula
Matshazi
THE World Debate programme screened by the British Broadcasting
Corporation from Cape Town, South Africa, provided an opportunity once again to
hear from some Zimbabweans who aspire to lead in the widely acclaimed "post
Mugabe era". Whilst watching it, I made a Shylock-like bet with my friend
that if the forum, during their discussion, ever mentioned social justice issues
such as empowerment of the common man to effectively participate in the economy,
then I offer my finger to be cut off.
Luckily for me, and as I expected,
nothing of that sort was ever mentioned. But before I proceed, I must clarify
what I mean by effective participation of the common man in the economy. I refer
to a situation where ordinary Zimbabweans create a national economy through
ownership of the means of production and accessing opportunities as well as
directly benefiting from the wealth produced by the economy. This ownership
of the means of production can take the many complexes of socially, politically
and financially engineered structures present in economics and business. But at
the end of the day we need to see a national economy dominated by the majority
of Zimbabweans and serving their interests and not that of a few. Mozambique
and Zambia have been growing their economies at an average five percent per
annum over the past five years and yet there is little to show in terms of
meaningful uplifting of people from their poverty. In the 2006 Human Development
Index rankings of the United Nations Development Programme, they trail Zimbabwe,
which has been experiencing a rapid slide since 2001. Another country
suffering a similar fate as Zambia and Mozambique is Tanzania which is placed
below Zimbabwe on number 162 of 177 countries on the human development index
rankings, yet they have many of the preconditions required by neoliberal models
of development to supposedly prosper -- such as good governance, stability and
the will to engage in the Fishmonger type economic structural adjustment
programme. These countries are in fact, under the International Monetary
Fund's structural adjustment programme. Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique occupy
numbers 151, 165 and 168 respectively. Zambia though has moved one step up with
Mozambique remaining at the same position while Tanzania has moved two steps up
since 2005. Despite sustained economic growth, it appears that the results
for the ordinary Mozambicans has been modest at best. It would be interesting to
watch, over the medium to long term how the fortunes of these countries would
unwind. But one might argue that these countries are not reaping benefits of
sustained economic growths as much as their foreign investors. But back to
the Cape Town meeting. Opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Arthur
Mutambara spoke with passion of his vision for Zimbabwe. He said he wanted to
see a Zimbabwe with very high ambitions and not just modest aims such as only
achieving economic stability. He said he wants to see a rise in the country's
gross domestic product - the amount of goods and services produced in an economy
in a given period. The problem is that he did not tell us how the increase in
the GDP would translate to better lives for ordinary Zimbabweans. GDP scarcely
tells us how these goods or money earned would be redistributed. For all we know
the goods could be destined for external markets whose revenues would be
invested abroad and not in Zimbabwe.
Mutambara did not tell his audience
under what structure this GDP would be produced. From his past pronouncements,
he has always favoured the neoliberal based global economy structure. But he has
said little or nothing on how he is going to tame the long standing problems of
farm subsidies, lack of desire to support primary commodity prices, and of
course create a free and fair trading system, just to mention a few of the
litany of long standing problems of the neoliberal based international economic
system. Just after the Cape Town interviews, we got reports that he Doha trade
talks had collapsed. These problems stand to directly challenge Mutambara's
grand ambitions and yet we hear little of that addressed. More importantly,
Mutambara has failed to allay our fears of the intentions of the Fishmonger
thugs who want to make the land reform reversible as a prerequisite for
international financial assistance. How would Mutambara reconcile the need to
strengthen and even consolidate the land reforms on the one hand and
surrendering to the demands of the Fishmongers who state that "land reforms"
(read land reforms reversal) are part of broad prerequisites needed for the
resumption of financial support for Zimbabwe, on the other? Another myth that
is tied to Mutambara's economic recovery model is to romanticise the South
Korean economic recovery and parade it as the epitome of success of economic
structural adjustment programmes. But all these people who articulate this point
fail to tell us that South Korea was deliberately given support as a means of
protecting the geopolitical strategic interests of the United States against the
perceived communist influence in that part of the region.
On The
World Debate, John Page, the World Bank Chief Economist for the Africa region
brought up the South Korean myth and suggested that Zimbabwe could be raised
from its current state to dizzy heights. Well, we remain to have our scepticism
proved wrong. Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited's Anthony Mandiwanza made a sound
contribution. He said Zimbabwe should address the underlying reasons for the
erosion of the middle class, which mainly lie on the issue of social justice. He
said that while a few people were "ultra rich", many were in abject
poverty.
Mandiwanza, decried the difficulty, in many instances, of these
"ultra rich" individuals to account for their wealth. Apparently, he was
questioning how some of us, amid an economic depression could accrue such amount
of exponential wealth whereby a small number of people are filthy rich. It seems
that Mandiwanza is disapproving of the cancerous nature of corruption that has
pervaded our nation. The European Union representative stood up to suggest
that they had not placed any economic sanctions on Zimbabwe but restrictions on
certain government officials. According to Donald Losman, in his book titled
International Economic Sanctions: The Cases of Cuba, Israel and Rhodesia,
economic sanctions are penalties inflicted upon one or more states by one or
more others, generally to coerce the target nation(s) to comply with certain
norms that the boycott initiators deem proper or necessary. The forms that
economic sanctions take also include interfering or restricting the movement of
people, restriction of capital flows and withholding wealth in the boycotting
countries. Patterson Timba of ReNaissance Financial Holdings argued that even if
we suppose that the EU did not apply the economic sanctions as the EU suggested,
it had ultimately caused the boycott of many companies by the Western banks that
cite political risk as the factor not to extend lines of credit to them.
Disturbing lines of credit and starving the Zimbabwe government of international
financial assistance has been the "targeted" nature of the EU economic sanctions
on Zimbabwe. This brings my second definition into consideration, which also
describes economic sanctions.
Writing in the American Journal of
Political Science, Yale University assistant professor Nikolay Marinov's essay
titled Do Economic Sanctions Destabilize Country Leaders?, defines economic
sanctions as "government-inspired restrictions on customary trade or aid
relations, designed to promote political objectives". The reasons the EU gave as
evidence that they did not apply economic sanctions were in fact evidence
against them that they have indeed applied economic sanctions because
restricting movements of people is considered economic sanctions. By failing
to articulate the red hot ambitions of the ordinary people to own and benefit
from their resources, Mutambara once again failed to show us how if, as the
leader of Zimbabwe, he is going to empower us so that, as Mandiwanza said, we
could be able to participate in the economy just like the rest of the ultra rich
individuals. Kuthula Matshazi is a Zimbabwean journalist and presenter of a
current affairs programme, African Perspective on CHRY radio station in Toronto
Women protest over soaring cost of living in Zimbabwe
the zimbabwean
(26-06-07) BULAWAYO: NATIONAL Constitutional Assembly (NCA) women
activists on Tuesday morning took to the streets in Zimbabwe's second largest
city-Bulawayo protesting over the souring costs of sanitary pads-forcing many to
use newspapers and risk infection.
Over 100 women activists-waving
placards and denouncing President Robert Mugabe-demonstrated outside offices
that house state propaganda papers-The Chronicle and the Sunday News
respectively.
They swiftly dispersed before heavily armed riot police
could disembark from their trucks and vans that had been 'stopped at red
robots.' There were no arrests.
Regional gender chairperson of the NCA,
Sidumiso Moyo told the agency after the protests: "We wanted to send a message
to the government that women have been worst affected by the economic crises.
"…They can no longer afford basic necessary sanitary pads forcing them
to recycle pieces of cloth and uses newspapers thereby risking infection." A
survey in the city revealed that sanitary pads are selling for $500 000.
Recently, state security agencies seized a consignment of donated
sanitary pads meant for distribution to farmworkers in Zimbabwe's farming areas
who could no longer afford them due to their souring costs.
The
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) had given the General Agricultural and
Plantation Workers' Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) its allocation of the pads
sourced with the help of international partners.
On seizure, the
farmworkers were told that the pads had been poisoned by former white commercial
farmers, which is a blatant lie as the ZCTU, with the help of international
partners and friends sourced for the sanitary ware- CAJ News.
(26-06-07) Brendon
Tulani HARARE -The Home Affairs ministry has failed to account for $8.6
billion ($8.6 million revalued) in advances to senior police oficers and other
junior members for the past three years. This has raised suspicion from the
Comptroller and Auditor General and members of a parliamentary probe that the
money could have been misappropriated by senior offficers. The report made
available to parliamentarians on the committe raps shoddy accounting practices
on a number of funds To mask the anomally, ministry officials reconfigured
the block grant to a Police Procurement Fund without Treasury approval. The
police Procurement Fund (PPF) has never been opertional since inception in
December 2004 'We understand from the Comptroller and Auditor General report
that there are people who defrauded the fund, chairman of the Parlimanetary
committee on Home Affairs and Defence and opposition MP Trudy Stevenson told a
parliamentary hearing probing the issue. But Home Affairs secretary, Mike
Matshiya pleaded with the committee for 'a better appreciation of the
situation.. '' These are matters of deviation that may have been
circumstantial. The block grant could have been clogged by other advances,'
Matshiya said. He blamed an acute shortage of trained manpower due to an
exodus of experienced staff, citing worsening conditions of service. The
difficulties in reconciling the advances appears to confirm reports, denied by
the government, that there has been mass exodus from the police force owing to
low salaries and other conditions of service over the past three year. The
period coincides with that when police have carried out repressive measures
against citizens and opposition groups. Unconvinced by the explanation,
Masvingo Senator Dzikamayi Mavhaire wondered at irony of the situation in the
Home Affairs ministry: ''You seem to have staff to spend public funds but not
enough to account for it properly,' he querried. 'Do not let your
explanations raise our suspicions further.' Home affairs ministry officials
particularly those from the police administration blamed a computer platform
they were using for their failure to balance their books and reconciling
receipts from various stations. 'We are contuining with recovery of those
advances in liason with the Pension Office though the exrcise is painfully slow
because of difficulties in tracing those that have lready left the force. In
February this year, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri lied under oath when
he told another parliamentary committee that none of the 400 vehicles the place
has placed on order with vehicle mnufacturers had been delivered. Matshiya
and other officials contradicted their boss when they told a follow-up meeting
on the committee that only 127 vehicles out of the total ordered were still
outstanding.
Zimbabwe Statement on the arrest of its Regional Chairperson
the zimbabwean
MISA-
(26-06-07)
MISA-Zimbabwe has learnt with great shock and dismay of the arrest of
MISA Regional Chairperson and freelance journalist Thabo Thakalekola on charges
of treason by the Lesotho Mounted Police Department. Thakalekola, was
arrested on 22 June 2007 by the Lesotho Mounted Police’s criminal investigation
department soon after completing his morning Rise and Shine radio broadcast on
Harvest FM radio. Thakalekola’s arrest follows his reading on air of a
letter which sought to persuade the Commissioner of Police to arrest the Prime
Minister of Lesotho, his entire Cabinet and Principal Secretaries and the
ruling elite accused of a string of corrupt practices. He had been given the
letter by members of the Lesotho Defence Forces. CID officials took
Thakalekola into custody and demanded that he reveal the names of the people who
gave him the letter. When MISA Lesotho visited him just after his arrest on 22
June 2007 he refused to disclose his sources “because I am not obliged to reveal
my sources as a journalist.” MISA-Zimbabwe commends and applauds the
Regional Chairperson for refusing to be intimidated and sticking to the cardinal
rules of the profession by declining to disclose the sources of the contents of
the letter. His professionalism should serve to inspire journalists
throughout the southern African region who operate in similarly repressive
environments on the need to respect and adhere to the ethics of the
profession. ENDS For any questions, queries or comments, please
contact: Media Institute of Southern Africa - Zimbabwe 84 McChlery
Drive Eastlea P.O Box HR 8113 Harare Zimbabwe Tel/Fax: 263 4
776165 / 746838 Cell: 263 11 602 448
misa@misazim.co.zw www.misazim.co.zw
ZIMBABWEAN civic societies and Human Rights NGO Forum in South Africa
on Tuesday called on perpetrators of sate-sponsored political torture on
opposition and civic society activists in Zimbabwe to be punished and the matter
to be on the political radar of current negotiations between Zanu-PF and
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to resolve the political and
economic catastrophe in Zimbabwe. The call was made on International
Torturer Day seminar held in Johannesburg in support of torture victims in
Zimbabwe organized by Zimbabwe Torture Victims Project (ZTVP) and Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition to reflect the plights of torture victims and dramatic
increase in the incidence of torture in Zimbabwe since 2000. Speaking at the
seminar, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition-South Africa office media Manager Elinor
Sisulu said torturers in Zimbabwe should be held accountable for their evils and
urged for the matter to be involved on the current negotiations between Zanu-PF
and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). "Zimbabweans are no
strangers to sate-sponsored violence and torture. Zimbabwean history is
characterized by abuses and violence both in the post colonial period and the
post-colonial period. A culture of impunity and lack of accountability has
shielded many from liability and Zimbabwean torture victims are wondering
whether their desire to hold the torturers accountably will be sacrificed once
again as part of a negotiated political deal", Sisulu said. ZTVP projects
officer Francis Spencer called on South Africa and international community to
intervene in holding the perpetrators of gross human rights violations
accountable. "We know that violence and torture has taken place in Zimbabwe
and that it continues to take place with impunity, our demand is for South
Africa and the international community to come in holding the perpetrator
accountable. Today we call for an end to the repression and torture in Zimbabwe
we need a plane of action that involves constructive dialogue between all
stakeholders and civic society within Zimbabwe and diaspora to bring an end to
destruction of a country and its people. Victims of High profiled murder on
the Cain Nkala murder case Gilbert Moyo; Remember Moyo; Sazini Mpofu; Khethani
Sibanda attended the seminar. Speaking at the seminar Sazini Mpofu accused
solders and police in Zimbabwe for perpetrating torture and failing protect
citizens. "The most worrying issue is that our police and solders in Zimbabwe
who should protect the citizens are the ones who are now increasingly
victimizing and torturing people. They are perpetrating torture and standing as
witness on Zanu-PF and government stage managed cases against opposition civic
society activists", Mpofu said.
Zimbabwe: Citizens to Mark UN Torture Day in Johannesburg & London
SW
Radio Africa (London) 26 June 2007 Posted to the web 26 June
2007 Tererai Karimakwenda
June 26 is a day recognized by the United
Nations as the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, and this year
Zimbabweans have organized commemorative events in Johannesburg and London. 2007
saw an increase in the number of torture victims in Zimbabwe after the
government banned a prayer session in March and arrested opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai. The world saw images of how badly beaten and tortured he was.
And since then, hundreds of pro-democracy activists have been abducted and
tortured. In London, a UN Torture Day service of solidarity will be held at
St. Paul's Church in Covent Garden. It is sponsored by several organizations
including the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum,
Amnesty International,
Redress, International Bar Association, International Rehabilitation Council for
Victims of Torture and the Zimbabwe Association. Carla Ferstman from Redress
said these church services are to commemorate not only victims of torture who
died, but those who survived and need healing. She explained that acts
considered torture are not just the physical and psychological acts can be
considered torture. The act simply needs to have a serious impact on the
individual being victimized. The London service will end with a procession to
Zimbabwe House where flowers will be laid in memory of those who have
died. The Johannesburg service is being organized by the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition South Africa team, along with the Zimbabwe Torture Victims Survivor
Project. Khetani Sibanda from Crisis is encouraging people to attend, saying
there would be presentations based on research done by the Survivors Project.
There will also be a video highlighting the experiences of women who were
subjected to torture by state agents. Sibanda told us there has been an increase
in the number Zimbabweans crossing into South Africa since the government
intensified it's terror campaign against perceived enemies in March. He said
most of those who have suffered this year have been women.
Zimbabwe: Lean Harvests Spell Disaster For Hungry Families
Global info
By Davison Makanga
HARARE, Zimbabwe, Jun. 25, 2007 (IPS/GIN) -- More than a third of
Zimbabwe’s population will be in dire need of food aid by early 2008, due to
poor harvests and economic decline. Critics are blaming the government’s
poor planning for the country’s escalating food crisis. Zimbabwe has suffered
poor harvests since the government started its chaotic land reform program in
2000. For a number of years, the ministry of agriculture’s predictions of a
‘‘bumper harvest’’ have come to naught. The Food and Agriculture
Organization and the World Food Program have said that more than 2.1 million
Zimbabweans in both rural and urban areas will be in dire need of food aid in
the third quarter of this year. That figure is set to escalate to 4.1 million by
early 2008. “Zimbabwe’s looming food crisis is the result of another poor
harvest, exacerbated by the country’s unprecedented economic decline, extremely
high unemployment, and the impact of HIV/AIDS,’’ said Amir Abdulla, the World
Food Program’s regional director for Southern Africa. The food organizations
estimate a 44 percent decline in tonnage from last year’s harvest to this year.
‘‘This year’s crisis is partly caused by the drought, but we cannot deny the
fact that the economic crisis and poor planning are the major causes,’’ said
Vincent Gwaradzimba, secretary for agriculture in the opposition political party
the Movement for Democratic Change. At the height of the 2006-2007 cropping
season, the government caused problems by purchasing substandard fertilizer from
South Africa. The fertilizer fiasco not only cost the treasury but also affected
the harvest. Perennial drought regions such as Matabeleland South,
Matabeleland North, Midlands, Manicaland and Masvingo are entering a crisis
situation because many families have harvested nothing and could run out of food
as early as next month. ‘‘It is not even true to say that we will only start
starving by July. The facts on the ground show that there is no food in the
granaries. Pupils are staying away from school because of this,’’ a primary
school teacher in Masvingo province said. ‘‘We only received maize two weeks
ago when ZANU PF was campaigning for a parliamentary by-election,’’ the teacher
added, asking to remain anonymous. Moreover, some senior government
officials are reportedly threatening relief agencies. Manicaland province
governor Tineyi Chigudu was quoted as lashing out at the World Food Program’s
implementing partners for working “in cahoots” with the Movement for Democratic
Change. In Matebeleland South, ruling ZANU PF Member of Parliament Abednigo
Ncube threatened to close World Vision Zimbabwe, an international Christian
relief organization that provides food aid. Ironically, these are provinces
hardest hit by food shortages. The accusations have led the National
Association of Nongovernmental Organizations to again refute ZANU PF members’
allegations that it is pursuing the Movement for Democratic Change’s agenda.
‘‘To the best of our knowledge, there are no nongovernmental organizations
that seek to buttress opposition politics. NGOs are there to implement
government plans to develop communities,’’ said Fambai Ngirande of the NGO
association. President Robert Mugabe announced that the government will
institute a mechanization program aimed at providing agricultural equipment to
promising new farmers, regardless of political affiliation. ‘‘It is a
national event ... the realization is important that there must be occasions
when we must be together. After all, we eat together,’’ Mugabe was quoted as
saying in the state media. Experts from the Food and Agriculture
Organization and the World Food Program’s Crop and Food Supply Assessment
Mission have cautioned that urban areas are equally affected by the food crisis.
They estimate that roughly 1 million people in urban areas will face food
shortages over the coming months and could need food assistance. The
government of Zimbabwe has entered into a contract to receive 400,000 tons of
maize from Malawi and is expected to import a further 239,000 tons of wheat and
rice. Another estimated 61,000 metric tons of maize could be brought into
the country through informal cross-border trade and remittances in kind,
especially from South Africa. This leaves a gap of 352,000 tons of cereals to be
met by food aid. Meanwhile, the climate change office in the ministry of
environment and tourism has pointed to global warming as being the cause of
erratic climate trends in Zimbabwe. Washington Zhakata, the coordinator of the
office, said a number of factors linked to global warming are affecting the
country. ‘‘We have realized that of late [that] there is less rainfall and
more drought, so we are going to be affected by this trend,’’ Zhakata said.
.HEADLINE ZIMBABWE: UNICEF WORKS WITH HEALTH MINISTRY TO FIGHT POLIO
.TEXT By Tonderai Kwidini HARARE, Zimbabwe, Jun. 25, 2007 (IPS/GIN)
-- Zimbabwean health providers vaccinated roughly 2 million children against
polio earlier this month, in a campaign jointly implemented by UNICEF and the
country’s ministry of health and child welfare. The weeklong effort was part
of an ongoing national immunization campaign against polio. Parents took their
children to centers around the country to receive the vaccinations. Richard
Chirewa, who survived polio as a child, said he is glad that something is being
done to eliminate the disease. Chirewa’s hunched posture makes him look older
than his 30 years. He is a resident of Kambuzuma, a dusty and poor Harare suburb
where he survives as a street vendor. He has spent the last 10 years of his
life selling sweets and cigarettes on a street corner. He said he cannot do any
physically challenging job because of his physical disabilities. He became
paralyzed as a child because he was not vaccinated for polio after birth.
‘‘My mother died just after I was born and I had no one to take care of me
until I was taken to Jairos Jiri, where they tried to treat me for polio,’’
Chirewa said. Jairos Jiri is a Zimbabwean organization that takes care of
disabled people. You only need to spend a little bit of time with Chirewa to
notice his strong determination. His eyes are bright with enthusiasm and
confidence when he talks about doing business. His friends call him “boss.”
“I was not immunized because immunization was not available to all families
when I was 4 years old,” he said. “I would be willing to be involved in the
immunization campaign to ensure that children are immunized because there is no
cure for polio. Once you are paralyzed, that’s it,’’ he said. UNICEF's head
of health in Zimbabwe, Colleta Kibassa, said the nationwide vaccination
campaigns “are the single most important support toward reducing child illnesses
and deaths in Zimbabwe” right now. During this month’s drive, children were
not only immunized against polio but also against diseases such as tuberculosis,
measles, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and hepatitis B. They also received
vitamin A supplements. Apart from Zimbabwe, an increase has been reported in
polio cases in neighboring countries such as Botswana and Namibia. ‘‘The
campaign in Zimbabwe is on track to meet its bold targets and is vital for child
survival amid the challenges facing Zimbabwe today,’’ UNICEF country
representative Festo Kavishe said in a statement. Although Zimbabwe was declared
to be polio-free in 1999, the country is presently going through difficult
economic times. The vaccination campaign has come at a critical time because
families in Zimbabwe are under increasing pressure from the record high
inflation, unemployment and AIDS orphan numbers. The health system has virtually
collapsed because of the lack of medicines and the flight of health
practitioners to other countries. This month’s effort targeted parts of the
country where health facilities are not easily accessible and was aimed at all
children under the age of 5. They received the first round of polio vaccinations
in a two-phase campaign. Funds from the United Kingdom’s Department for
International Development, Canada's International Development Agency and the
government of Ireland made the roll-out possible. About $1 million was spent
on vaccines, logistics and payment of staff. A host of health workers
volunteered and received training and other support from UNICEF and the ministry
of health and child welfare. During the immunization campaign, long winding
lines formed at various schools, shops and churches, which were all turned into
public health facilities. Because of this and other campaigns, vitamin A
coverage has been boosted from less than 10 percent in 2005 to more than 80
percent today, according to the ministry of health and child welfare. Overall
immunization coverage, which had dropped by almost 50 percent, has once again
reached more than 70 percent. Much of this success is due to the hard work
of neighborhood health committees and religious and traditional leaders who have
been at the forefront of encouraging mothers to bring their children for
vaccination. ‘‘Our aim must remain to reach all of Zimbabwe's children,"
Kibassa said. UNICEF, with help from the U.K. and Japan, has also been
providing support to the Zimbabwe Expanded program on Immunization. The
children’s organization has helped to procure vaccines, secure cooling equipment
for vaccine storage and provide technical support to the health workers.
Commissioners running the City of Harare must be placed on the travel ban
list for their continued role in causing untold suffering to residents of
Harare. They have continued to fight against the citizens by defying judicial
rulings.
Those who must be banned from travelling to Europe and the
United States of America are: Sekesai Makwavarara (Chairperson),
Professor Jameson Kurasha (University of Zimbabwe lecturer), Sasha Jogi
(President of the Institute of Urban Planners), Alfred Tome, District
Administrator for Harare Musavaya Reza (Provincial Administrator for
Harare), Killian Mupingo (ZUPCO Board Member), Richard Mahachi
(architect in private practice), Sylvia Masango (a principal director in the
office of Vice President Joyce Mujuru), and Madzudzo Pawadyira (Civil
Protection Unit Director).
The main reason the Commissioners remain in
office despite court judgments is that these men and women are specifically
serving the interests of the ruling Zanu PF and are instrumental in the looting,
abuse and mismanagement of City of Harare resources through the manipulation of
tender procedures to favour those linked to the ruling party. For example,
Commissioner Sasha Jogi is contracted by the City of Harare as a planner on the
Newlands Bypass Project, a clear conflict of interest.
We appeal to
members of the public with personal information about these Commissioners
(email, mobile, landline and others) to contact CHRA by writing to us on
info@chra.co.zw/ chrainfo@zol.co.zw or call us on mobiles: 011 612 860, 011 443
578, 0912 924 151 and 011 612 811.
The time is now to end tyranny and
extravagant spending using or abusing our hard-earned resources as ratepayers of
Harare.
Be responsible; participate in this action of the masses by
contributing information and ideas that you have. Together we will win this
struggle.
Regards
Precious Shumba Information
Officer Combined Harare Residents' Association Mobile: 011 612 860 or 0912
869 294 Tel: 04-705114 Website: www.chra.co.zw
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 3:24 AM Subject: Sokwanele Newsletter :
Torture in Zimbabwe: the scars we share
Sokwanele - Enough is Enough - Zimbabwe PROMOTING
NON-VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE DEMOCRACY
Sokwanele Article: 26 June 2007 Today, 26 June, is the
International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. One day out of a year to
support the victims of torture is not enough in Zimbabwe. Every day should be a
day where we support those who have suffered this horrific form of abuse at the
hands of Mugabe and the Zanu PF regime. You may have heard the phrase
"winning hearts and minds" before, a political euphemism to describe a campaign
to win over restive populations, usually in military situations but sometimes
used during political campaigning too. The term is only as meaningful as the
intentions of the speaker, and critics would argue that it is often little more
than empty propaganda; nevertheless, "winning hearts and minds" is a useful
marker to use to differentiate between Zanu PF policies, and the policies of
some our neighbouring countries where human rights and democracy are
important. Look at the following quotes* made by Robert Mugabe over the years
of his stranglehold on power - are these the statements of a man who is
concerned with ‘winning over hearts and minds’? 1983 - in response to victims
in the Gukurahundi: "We have to deal with this problem quite ruthlessly.
Don’t cry if your relatives get killed in the process … Where men and women
provide food for the dissidents, when we get there we eradicate them. We don’t
differentiate when we fight, because we can’t tell who is a dissident and who is
not.” 2000: “Those who try to cause disunity among our people must watch
out because death will befall them…” 2002 - At a party conference in
Victoria Falls: “This is total war. We will have a central command centre.
This is war, it is not a game. You are all soldiers of ZANU (PF) for the people.
When we come to your province we must see you are ready. When the time comes to
fire the bullet, the ballot, the trajectory of the gun must be
true.” 2006: “We hear others say we want to go into the streets to
demonstrate, to unseat a legitimately elected government. It will never happen
and we will never allow it. If a person now wants to invite his own death, let
him go ahead.” 2007 - Directly after the world had seen the evidence of
police brutality in the form of images of bruised and badly injured civic
leaders, an unrepentant Robert Mugabe uttered these ugly words: "Our arms of
Government, the police will act very vigorously and severely on those who go on
a defiance campaign. We hope they have learned a lesson. If they have not, then
they will get similar treatment." The combination of real violence combined
with public promises of more violence and threats of reprisals clearly reveal
that this regime is not at all interested in winning over the "hearts and minds"
of the population. On the contrary, torture, violence and mass intimidation are
carefully used, with calculated deliberation, to trample on the care and
consideration that Zimbabweans have for one other - to create divisions, to
fragment our society, to drive us apart and turn us against each other. Zanu
PF's tactics of force-feeding our nation a diet of lies, hate and fear is an
attempt to fill our hearts and minds with anxiety and dread, to use torture and
intimidation as a tool to control us. They want to bruise and damage our hearts;
they seek to scar and break our minds. There are many among us who have been
kicked and literally felt the hard boots of cruel thugs, or felt blows being
delivered with hatred on their bodies. Many who have suffered terrible physical
injuries and still struggle today to reclaim their minds from the awfulness of
their experiences. Those who haven't felt those blows may consider themselves
‘lucky’ to have not had the experience. But don't kid yourself: when the
Zanu PF government tortures a few amongst us, we all end up carrying the burden
of fear and we all share the scars of pain. The Mugabe regime understands this,
and deliberately builds seeks to maximize the effects of mass torture, riding
high on the symptoms they provoke in an entire nation of people. The UN
Convention Against Torture defines the term as follows: "Torture means any
act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is
intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a
third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third
person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or
coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any
kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or
with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in
an official capacity." So 'torture' includes deliberate state-sanctioned
verbal abuse, intimidation, threats of violence, promises of reprisals - all
delivered with the purpose of intimidation and coercion. This is Mugabe's
Zimbabwe: as a nation we are all subjected to regular threats of death, threats
of violence, and non-specific but all-encompassing promises of “wrath”, whatever
that may mean. All of this is mainlined directly into our private lives and
homes through our televisions, radios and newspapers, right to where our parents
and children can see and hear it too. The intimidation has no boundaries and
extends into every aspect of our lives: our need to source food, our need to buy
petrol, to run our businesses, to provide healthcare to the sick among us, to
educate our children. Every facet of our lives, what is important to us as
civilised human beings, has been infiltrated with the Zanu PF policy of violence
and verbal filth. The price that torture exacts on its victims is
considerable. A study** carried out by psychologists between two groups of
people - those who had never experienced torture, and those who had - found
clear evidence of significant consequences. As a person living in Zimbabwe, ask
yourself if you, or anyone you know, experiences symptoms like these (all of
these being symptoms extracted from the study results): nightmares; diminished
interest in previously enjoyed activities; restricted expectations; sleep
disturbance; irritability; concentration impairment; hyper vigilance; startled
reactions; living with a continued state of tension; avoidance of trauma and any
thoughts of causes of trauma; detachment from others. It simply isn't
possible for a nation of people to live unaffected by an atmosphere of pervasive
fear. Nor is it possible for a nation to avoid the reverberations of fear and
intimidation that occur when a few among us are singled out for deliberate
calculated violence and cruelty. When Mugabe’s police / army / green bombers /
war veterans torture some of our friends and colleagues, all of us end up with a
burden that feels slightly heavier, all of us inherit a little of the fear, all
of us feel a little more joy stolen from our lives, all of us sink a little
further into despair struggling with the knowledge that our children’s future
has become a little darker. Victor Frankl was a man who experienced and
witnessed the worst extremes of torture at the hands of the Nazis in the
Concentration Camps during WWII. He understood the price that torture exacted
from its victims, but he also recognised that humans have the capacity to
withstand atrocities in even the most awful circumstances. Frankl says it best
in his own words, and so we include here an extended quote: “The experiences
of camp life show that man does have a choice of action. There were enough
examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome,
irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of
independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical
stress. We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked
through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They
may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can
be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose
one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own
way. And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered
the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you
would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your
very self, your inner freedom; which determined whether or not you would become
the plaything of circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity to become moulded
into the form of the typical inmate. Seen from this point of view, the mental
reactions of the inmates of a concentration camp must seem more to us than the
mere expression of certain physical and sociological conditions. Even though
conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food and various mental stresses
may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final
analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the
result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone.
Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide
what shall become of him - mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human
dignity even in a concentration camp.” *** We all know that we are engaged in
a fight for big important principles: democracy, justice, human rights, freedom
and equality. But what we need to understand too, is that we are all engaged in
a fight for our “hearts” and our “minds”. This is a fight that party politics
can’t touch; we as individuals have to cling to our hearts and minds ourselves,
and it us up to us alone to stand strong in the face of fear and intimidation.
We also need to understand that, just as we all can’t help but inherit a
little of the burden of the victims pain, so we all have the power to choose to
lighten the burdens of others. We need to stand by those who have felt the
extreme range of violence, and we need to understand that by supporting them, we
support ourselves too because in doing so we are ‘fighting back’ and salvaging a
little bit of the humanity that the Mugabe regime tries so hard to strip from
us. 26 June 2007 is the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
This is our day, a day when we need to spend time reflecting on how we can
support those who have felt the worst extremes of torture, as well as supporting
ourselves through the side-effects of having our minds washed daily with putrid
abuse. We need to renew our commitment to our sense of humanity, our dignity,
our sense of personal purpose and pride. And we need to do this knowing that we
do so in the face of a deliberate calculated strategy that seeks to batter our
hearts and minds into submission. Ask yourselves today if you really want to
remain passive in the face of torture, or if you’d prefer to fight for your
hearts and minds and reclaim some of your freedom. As Frankl would say, ‘choose
your own attitude, choose your own way’. Only you can make that choice. * All
quotes taken from the May 2007 report by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum,
“Their words condemn them: The language of violence, intolerance and despotism
in Zimbabwe” ** AM J Psychiatry 1994; 151: 76-81
[http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/151/1/76] *** Taken from
Frankl’s book titled “Man’s Search for Meaning”
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