The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.
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IOL

Burning Harare ride is the stuff of movies

      June 04 2003 at 01:35AM

      By Hans Pienaar

A Zimbabwean opposition activist on Tuesday described a wild drive through
several red traffic lights in Harare during which he tried to shake off an
assailant who was clinging to his bakkie and trying to set it alight.

Movement for Democratic Change member Topper Whitehead told the Independent
Foreign Service from Harare that his wife, Laurinda, was filming a man being
manhandled in the city centre on Monday.

He decided to circle a traffic island, but after a group of "extremely
aggressive" people tried to stop the filming, he sped off in his bakkie.

When he stopped at a red traffic light, two vehicles pulled up behind them
and two men jumped on to the back of the bakkie and began "banging with
their fists on the roof of the cab".

      'He then unscrewed the cap of the auxiliary fuel tank which caused the
diesel to splash out'
"I turned sharply left into Central Avenue and one of our assailants fell
off the vehicle," said Whitehead.

He tried to shake off the second assailant but was unable to. His wife kept
on filming the man, who tried to stab her through the back window with a
bayonet.

"He then unscrewed the cap of the auxiliary fuel tank which caused the
diesel to splash out over the tarpaulin and other parts of the vehicle. He
shouted that if we did not give him the camera he would burn the vehicle. He
started to search his pockets for matches.

"In desperation my wife pulled out a small pen knife which she keeps in her
handbag and tried to prevent him from lighting a match by stabbing with the
knife towards his legs through the rear window which she opened."

Whitehead phoned a friend on his cellphone asking him to stand ready to pull
off the man when he arrived at his house. But when he stopped the man jumped
off and ran away.

Whitehead said he tried to lay a charge at the Avondale police station,
showing the police frame-grabs from the film. But the police refused to take
a statement, saying they had no stationery. - Independent Foreign Service
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Business Day

Violent crackdown by Mugabe slated by G-8

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AS ZIMBABWEAN security forces continued a violent crackdown on the second
day of nationwide demonstration and a stayaway, SA maintained its quiet
diplomacy, restricting itself to urging the parties to talk.

Its long-arm approach to the Zimbabwe crisis contrasted starkly with
forthright condemnations of President Robert Mugabe's crackdown on his
political opponents by the Group of Eight (G-8) and the European Union (EU),
which called on Harare not to use violence against its own people.

The G-8 leaders went on to appeal to the Zimbabwean government to respect
the right of peaceful protest.

They also signalled that they would not become directly involved in
diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe and would leave this in
the hands of African countries.

The G-8 statement said the leaders welcomed the efforts of African countries
in promoting a peaceful resolution to the crisis, in line with the
principles of New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad). This
differed from

what Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had earlier said would be a
call in the G-8 chair's summary on the five Nepad sponsors SA, Algeria,
Egypt, Nigeria and Senegal to help resolve the crisis.

The G-8 mention of Zimbabwe was one of a number of regional issues the
leaders dealt with that also included Iraq and North Korea. But its very
mention does highlight the increased attention that the group is paying to
the issue and could signal that if the situation drags on they could
exercise more outright pressure for a resolution.

SA's foreign affairs department spokesman, Ronnie Mamoepa, said: "We are
convinced more than ever before that there is no substitute for dialogue
between Zanu (PF) and the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change), and that
they alone can assist to move Zimbabwe towards national reconciliation.

"We stand ready to assist them in this endeavour."

Zanu (PF) broke off talks with the MDC last year after it mounted a legal
challenge to the results of last year's presidential elections.

President Robert Mugabe continues to insist that the opposition recognise
him as a legitimate leader before talks can be resumed.

Mamoepa said that "acting in the best interests of the country, we will
continue our actions, as part of regional efforts, to assist the people of
Zimbabwe in this regard".

The three countries directly involved in a search for a settlement, SA,
Nigeria and Malawi, have not yet made clear what their next step will be in
trying to bring about an interparty dialogue.

SA has previously called on Mugabe's government to respect the right of
democratic protest.

Yesterday the EU called on Zimbabwe's government and opposition to abstain
from violence during a week of antigovernment protests. "The EU urges the
MDC and civil society to ensure that any protests are indeed carried out
peacefully," the bloc's Greek presidency said in another statement.

"It also calls on the government of Zimbabwe to desist from any violence and
respect the rights of its citizens to demonstrate and express their views
peacefully."

The statement warned Zimbabwe not to repeat the violent response with which
it met an earlier opposition-sponsored strike in March. "The excessive use
of force which characterised its response to the stayaway of March 18-19
should in no case be repeated," the statement said.

United Nations spokesman Fred Eckhard has said Secretary- General Kofi Annan
was following the situation in Zimbabwe and was "concerned about reports of
the possibility of further violence". With Sapa-AFP-AP

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Business Day

Harare worries Dos Santos

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gaborone Correspondent

ANGOLAN President Jose Eduardo dos Santos expressed concern yesterday about
the deteriorating situations in the Democratic Republic of Congo and
Zimbabwe.

He began his first state visit to Botswana since coming to power in 1979
yesterday. "We are concerned about the conflict in Congo and we believe the
transitional government should be set up as soon as possible," he said.

Hopes of setting up a transitional government in the vast central African
state were dashed last week when scores of civilians were killed and a key
rebel group said that it rejected the transitional government.

Dos Santos expressed his concern about events in Zimbabwe.

He said that southern African states were feeling the repercussions from the
"differences" between President Robert Mugabe's government and the
opposition in that country.
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African Leaders Must 'Rescue' Zimbabwe, Says Harare Mayor


allAfrica.com

INTERVIEW
June 4, 2003
Posted to the web June 4, 2003

Charles Cobb Jr.
Washington, DC

Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe has become an opposition stronghold, electing in March 2002 from the ranks of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) the city's Executive Mayor and most of the city council.

Almost immediately after that election, a power struggle between Minister of Local Government, Ignatius Chombo, and Harare's new MDC Mayor, Elias Mudzuri, a civil engineer by profession, ensued. Zanu-PF department heads were fired by Mudzuri. Chombo blocked badly needed funds for local improvements and development. Last March, young Zanu-PF supporters toyi-toyi'd around Town House - Harare's city hall - chanting: "Mudzuri should be beaten up, he must be killed and he must be removed."

A month later, Mudzuri was suspended from his post by Chombo who alleged misconduct on the part of Mudzuri. But despite the suspension, Mudzuri has insisted that he was still entitled to hold civic and council meetings in the municipality. Chombo has made an "urgent application" to the High Court to bar Mudzuri from executing council duties while under suspension. So far, the court has made no judgement.

All of this has been unfolding against the backdrop of a worsening political and economic conditions in Harare and across Zimbabwe. Monday, a week of planned protests across Zimbabwe began and an MDC news release,at the end of the day reported that members of the army and police had opened fire on peaceful demonstrators in the Highfields district of Harare. MDC leaders vow to continue with the protests.

Mudzuri has been in the States during these protests, "resting a bit" he says, and also trying to raise some money for the MDC; "we are broke," he says. He is awaiting the June 5th start of the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting that will be held in Denver this year. Although this will be the 71st meeting of the U.S. conference, the 2nd International Conference of Mayors will be going on concurrently. AllAfrica.com's Charles Cobb Jr. spoke with Mudzuri before he left for Denver. Excerpts:

You were suspended as Mayor last April and the man who suspended you, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing [Ignatius Chombo], has asked the High Court to bar you from executing your duties as Mayor. Are you still the Mayor of Harare in any real sense?

Until the courts decide, I am the mayor even though I have been suspended. But I have not accepted the suspension, on the basis that it is illegal to follow illegal orders from the Minister. I strongly believe that the government is just playing politics.

But can you now walk into your office, pick up the telephone and tell an agency, 'This is the Mayor...'

I did that but the police came after me. They literally removed me from office. Maybe after this court gives a verdict we can see how we will proceed. The minister went to court to enforce his suspension. It has been heard but there is no verdict yet.

They want to assess whether I am suitable or not. The minister didn't do that. he simply said, 'Go away.' This was a political move agreed to at cabinet levels: "Just throw him out and see what they will do."

They even took my keys for the official car and up to now I haven't gotten them back.

What was at issue between you and the minister, or you and the national government?

I am the mayor who was elected by over a million people in Harare and I've been running [city] council affairs in a very transparent and accountable manner, but the minister has been interfering with the work, trying to make sure that I don't perform as much as I am supposed to. Since I got in he has always aimed to remove me.

Why?

Because of lack of tolerance by Zanu-PF; it doesn't tolerate opposition views. Out of 45 councilors [in Harare] 44 are MDC; only one is Zanu-PF. And the Mayor is MDC. The council has been reasonably successful. We are getting all the handshakes from the public who say, "You are doing well under very difficult circumstances." The minister ran that council for three years and he did nothing substantial that people were appreciating. I am an engineer. I know the core business of the council. I worked for the council before and I have been undoing all the corruption which has been greasing the hands of the ruling party members.

Right now, Harare is being rocked by protests or strikes that the MDC has called. Some 150 people, including most of the MDC leadership was arrested Tuesday. Will you talk about this at two levels: first as the mayor of the city in which these strikes are taking place, with protestors faced with bullets and tear gas and thousands saying away from work and business even if they are not in the streets. And secondly, as an MDC leader; How worried are you that this crackdown might break the back of the MDC?

The people of Harare have really suffered. Since they started electing the MDC into office, the government has never forgiven them. They have had no mealie meal which is the basic food to make sadza [cornmeal porridge]. We have not been given borrowing power by the government. We have not been given adequate foreign currency by the government. There is literally nothing the government has done to assist us.

So, the Harare people have nothing to lose by going to the streets. Actually it's a demonstration to say the government is not treating them as normal human beings. They have not been allowed their democratic right to choose their leadership. And when they exercise their democratic rights the government has been arresting as many as possible at every opportunity. I have been arrested as their mayor in December! They have stopped me from attending some of their national events where the mayor should be present. The government has been intolerant. So the only voice they have is to demonstrate. I wouldn't call it a strike; it's a demonstration to show that the government is no longer for them. The health system has collapsed. There is no money in the banks. There is no food in the shops. There is no sugar.

Almost everything is not there, which means that the government has seriously failed and the people are now saying, "Enough is enough!"

Let's have a scenario where we can have free and fair elections being held with an interim body that can supervise proper elections within the system. It won't be local; it must be worked out by African leaders. African leaders must rescue Zimbabwe because although Zimbabweans have to solve their own problems they are crying out to the world by moving into the streets and the streets are infested by army guys beating up people into submission, threatening them with guns, while the world is just looking and watching to see what will happen next.

African leaders have been trying to involve themselves with Zimbabwe. They have been suggesting a kind of transitional government made up of MDC and Zanu-PF which the MDC doesn't like. They are suggesting that Mugabe should step down, the vice president should move up and manage a transition leading to election for a brand new government. What's wrong with that plan?

It is not so easy for the MDC to accept because it has been fighting for elections under very difficult conditions. The government has got control over the police and some other guys who have been involved in rigging elections. So, whatever transitional authority where you engage the system intact would not help us because they would do the same thing they have done in previous elections. This is why MDC is saying we need a neutral body which doesn't help the authority of Mugabe over the army and the police. Because this is where the problem is. The country has become a police state and the MDC would be just a shadow under Mugabe. So they need a neutral sort of body, a caretaker government if possible.

I assume in terms of that caretaker government you see Mugabe out of the political picture entirely.

So that he has no control over the arms that have repressed us. As long as he is in the picture he is likely to instruct these guys to 'stop this' or 'do that' and these guys will respond because that is what they are used to.

How likely is this -- getting a caretaker government followed by an actual new election, or do you worry that Zimbabwe in general and Harare in particular will slide into chaos?

We don't want chaos! If Mugabe and his people were more tolerant, and interested in allowing any other body to take part in the political system they would have tolerated these elections [which put us into office in Harare] but they have refused. Somebody has to act to make sure that tolerance comes into play. And we are trying to look at Thabo Mbeki as President of South Africa. He is a giant in terms of [our] country, just like [former Rhodesian Prime Minister] Ian Smith was brought into line by South Africa. When Smith ended up at the negotiating table it was South Africa that had played a big role [in getting him there].

And South Africa needs to play a big role today. Thabo Mbeki must look at Zimbabwe as a crisis scenario rather than say, "that's the opposition, I'll only deal with government." We are expecting him to ask, "What is it that is causing all of these Zimbabweans to run away from Zimbabwe?" Within three years, how many are in South Africa? How many are in Botswana?

So you don't feel that Thabo Mbeki is putting enough pressure on Mugabe or the Zimbabwe government?

I wouldn't use the word pressure. I would call it engaging Mugabe, saying, "what are you achieving by this?" Because he [Mbeki] is sustaining him [Mugabe] on borrowed time. If Mbeki says, "let's get the truth," he will come up and say, "Mugabe, my brother, I'm here to help you sort out your problems." What has happened is sort of the opposite: let it languish until [the allegations are] proven about the government.

Tsvangirai has challenged the legitimacy of the last election. The reason we went to court is not that we trust the courts, but we want to show what has been going on to the world. That is the only platform that the MDC has. We know that we will not get any sort of judgement [in our favor] but if we can expose what has been happening, then the world can know exactly what we went through in the elections.

Speaking of courts, how worrying are the treason charges against Tsvangirai currently being heard in court?

It will continue. You can see that putting treason charges on every opposition leader is a trait of Mugabe's regime. Joshua Nkomo had treason charges placed on him; he had to run away in a dress last time. Ndabaningi Sithole ended up with treason charges accusing him of hiding some arms under a bridge. And today, Morgan Tsvangirai is going through the same thing. I don't think the MDC is thinking of using any violent means for change. It is trying to engage the government to commit to democratic principle, which it [the government] has refused to practice. Mugabe has declared that he is the only sovereign of Zimbabwe. And we are saying no! We are the sovereigns of Zimbabwe. But we are not allowed a voice on television. We are not allowed a voice on radio. We are not allowed a voice in the public arena. So where will we talk? And this is where we are saying that South Africa and the SADC (South African Development Community) region must look at this thing and ask, "Why must the opposition always be in prison?"

Mugabe calls us puppets. Is he considering the whole of Harare "puppets"? Why are they electing [us]? They cannot all be puppets. It is a view that Mugabe has managed to project. He has played the color card well. If we want to go for elections then we must allow people to say what they are supposed to say and elect people they want to elect without beating them into submission, without putting them in jail cells every time, without creating war cabinets for war against the people. Democracy. If we want chiefs then we should go to chiefdoms.

Right now we have lost more than three million people. Are they running away from good governance? A million Zimbabweans are in London. they are afraid of this administration, and what is Africa doing to stop this madness [in Zimbabwe]?

There is fairly significant disagreement with Mugabe's policies inside Zanu-PF. But no significant challenge to Mugabe from inside. Why not?

The fact is that these opinions are not surfacing and that we can only suspect that they are there, shows that [Zanu-PF members] are afraid of Mugabe. As long as that is true they will just keep their disagreements within themselves. This is further illustration of the fact that Mugabe must step down before we can do anything. Dissenting voices in Zanu-PF will not be able to raise up.

It's difficult to understand Mugabe. Is this a new Mugabe that we are looking at or is this a Mugabe that has always been there? We have Mugabe, on the one hand, one of the heroes of southern African liberation and on the other, the Mugabe who seems to be a tyrant clinging to power for 30 years.

Even in biblical terms, "The Lord anointeth leaders but they failed along they way." Show me a single policy that Mugabe has given in the past few months that shows that he is interested in developing the economy or the country. There is not a single one. He has talked about land and the land has been given away but there is no food. No one has been able to farm. There is no seed to do the farming in the shops. The time he has been in power is too long. Power has corrupted him absolutely. That is all I can say. It is now for historians to analyze.

What do you predict for Zimbabwe? Most immediately for this strike, and in the longer term, for the country.

Whatever Mugabe wants to do is not sustainable. All the leaders who are protecting him will discover that it is not sustainable. Zimbabweans are tired; they don't want him anymore. Mugabe and Zanu-PF must gear themselves to be in the opposition for a while.

We must learn to come out of government by election not to remain in power by force. I think Zimbabwe will be a unique place because so far it has demonstrated that people are [determined] to have a proper democracy by putting in the opposition in such numbers. If this world looked at it and encouraged it you would see that Africa would change, starting with Zimbabwe, allowing different voices to say what they can say, and be elected. Even if they are fools they should be elected, if that's what the people want, then they can elect a fool. Next time they won't elect a fool.

Will Mugabe step down?

He will but he needs enough pressure from the regional leaders because the Zimbabweans themselves have given him enough pressure.

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4 June 2003
MDC Alert
 
An MDC activist, Tichaona Kaguru, died at Parirenyatwa Hospital after he and Sydney Maranhanga, an MDC councillor from Mbare (Harare), were abducted from Councillor Mazaranhanga's home. They were subsequently brutally assaulted and tortured by army and police officers The two were left for dead near the site of the Circle Cement Company in Mabvuku. They were picked up by supporters yesterday morning and rushed to Parirenyatwa Hospital, where Kaguru died yesterday afternoon. Councillor Mazaranhanga has been released from hospital.
 
Reports have also been received that last night police and army officers attacked the homes of several Harare councillors in Glen View, Dzivarasekwa and Mbare West, beating up anyone who was at home. More details to follow.
 
The MDC unreservedly condemns such acts of violence by the police and army, especially after the Minister of Homes Affairs promised that the police would not interfere with peaceful marches. The fact that the army and police officers are moving around picking up people from their homes and assaulting them demonstrates beyond doubt that the Mugabe regime has an agenda that is absolutely divorced from maintaining law and order.
 
 
MDC Information and Publicity Department
 
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Opposition claims Zimbabwe strike protest a success


From Michael Hartnack in Harare


Zimbabwe's opposition claimed almost total success for its national
stay-away from work yesterday, despite President Mugabe's threat to seize
businesses that failed to open and to deport expatriates who sent workers
home. Several thousand self-styled guerrilla war veterans fanned out from
the ruling Zanu PF party headquarters to break up any gathering that might
turn into a march against the 23-year rule of Mr Mugabe, 79. In the poor
black townships, helicopter gunships and tanks were deployed alongside army
patrols to prevent "mass action" called by Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). In the predominantly black
middle-class Warren Hills suburb on Harare's western outskirts,
schoolchildren were caught in a bombardment of teargas shells unleashed by
jumpy police units, underlining the danger of bloodshed in a volatile
situation. "Choked children were running all over the place in the resultant
chaos," an MDC spokesman said. In the Midlands town of Kwekwe, ruling party
militants were said to be systematically evicting suspected opposition
supporters from their homes, a tactic of Mr Mugabe's youth brigades at
elections since independence in 1980. It is mid-winter, with sub-zero night
temperatures.


Both sides traded accusations of killings, which could not be independently
verified. State radio claimed an unnamed man was stoned to death by the MDC
on Monday for trying to go to work. The MDC backtracked on allegations that
two of its supporters were shot dead in Harare on Monday, giving details of
only one, wounded in the foot. Guests confirmed that on Monday Zanu PF
militants beat up a man on the steps of the five-star Meikles Hotel after
failing to force their way in, vowing: "We've come to get the British." The
Government continues to claim that the five-day opposition protest has been
manipulated by Britain to frustrate Mr Mugabe's "fast track" seizure of
5,000 white farms. Amid the tension, hilarity rippled through Harare's
diplomatic community when a cartoon in the state-controlled Herald purported
to depict Sophie Honey, 30, a second secretary at the British High
Commission, "running the show" for the MDC. Previous cartoons have vilified
Sir Brian Donnelly, the High Commissioner, and his wife, Julia. Near the
Meikles, black passers-by were forced to lie on the pavement on Monday, then
whipped and kicked. So were students at the University of Zimbabwe campus.
The MDC has warned the 30,000 white community to stay out of sight.


Mr Tsvangirai, who went to the High Court for a further day of hearings in
his treason trial, vowed to press on with the action. He said: "By the end
of the week Zimbabweans will have driven the message home to Mugabe that
they are fed up with the state of affairs in this country." Joseph Musakwa,
for the prosecution, said that the state had been magnanimous not to cancel
bail after Mr Tsvangirai was briefly detained on Monday. Judge Paddington
Garwe may rule today on pleas to tighten bail conditions, banning Mr
Tsvangirai from directing the strike or making "inflammatory" statements.
George Bizos, QC, for the defence, protested that this was "an inadmissible
way to gag" the veteran union leader. The MDC said that at least 45 more of
its officials had been rounded up since 154 were arrested on Monday, in a
crackdown by security police.

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From ZWNEWS, 4 June


Students hospitalised


Some 20 University of Zimbabwe students were hospitalised Monday, badly
injured by police. Riot police also did considerable damage to the
university hostels, kicking and smashing open any locked doors, a witness
said. Police burst into a property owned by the Catholic church near the
university campus and dragged away six students who had sought asylum there.
At a religious service Monday evening, students described the police
brutality. Several women students said riot police trampled on their feet
and beat them around the head. One young woman was kicked in the head. Also
on Monday, witnesses on the campus said riot police tied together by their
hands eight students, and marched them up a road inside the campus, beating
them viciously with batons. Witnesses saw a student being kicked by police
and individual students being marched by police along the same road toward
an entrance on Mount Pleasant Drive. Earlier on Monday, students preparing
to march to the city centre were dispersed with the help of an army
helicopter, which hovered above the campus. Three students were seen being
beaten in front of the University's Great Hall, in front of which was parked
one of the Israeli-made crowd-control vehicles purchased last year by the
riot police. Riot police have in the past violently suppressed student
protests at the campus in the Harare suburb of Mount Pleasant.
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CHURCH SERVICE

FOR

JUSTICE AND PEACE

 

ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL

LOBENGULA STREET

 

FRIDAY 6 JUNE 2003

2PM

 

SPEAKER:ARCHBISHOP PIUS NCUBE

And Other Christian leaders

 

Come all and pray for your country

 

Christians Together for Justice and Peace

 

 

This Bulawayo meeting is confirmed.  Please publicise over the next few days over your station

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Please note that I have deliberately removed the identity of the author of this report for obvious reasons.

I have just returned from the Avenues Clinic where I saw with my own eyes, the horrendous evidence of the use of brutal force that the ZANU PF government, military, police and militia forces have employed in mostly unprovoked situations. The Avenues Clinic's Out Patients ward is full of victims of Mugabe's retribution. MDC activists, young women, young men, older men and women are either walking in the foyer of the admission ward, sleeping or seated on the benches of the Outpatients department of the hospital in severe pain owing to severe injuries sustained as a result of beatings, toture and haraasment committed by these government forces.

COMMENT:  These actions, of ZANU PF organized gangs of soldiers, policemen and vigilante groups are retributive actions by a government that uses brutal force in response to any expression of constitutional guaranteed rights by Zimbabweans. Contrary to government propaganda, the success of the mass action in the last two days, has created panic among government circles. They intimidated people, send armored tanks into township, intimidated shop owners and business people frocing them to open, issued threats and ulitmatums to commuter omnibus operators and presented "business as usual" propaganda on radio and TV, but could not break the spirit of the people on the first two days.  They have chosen to conduct night raids on citizens violently beating up , harassing and torturing activists, leaders,  torturing ordinary men, women, children and communities suspected to be supporting the mass action and its organizers.  The idea is to send a message to street level leaders of this Mass Action that the government will deal with elements challenging its dictatorship.   It is these night raids that are forcing people to leave their residential areas and wonder in the city and other industrial sites to demonstrate that they are complying withteh order to"go to work" although most companies have taken the decision to close for the rest of the week.   While the volume of people in the city increased today compared to yesterday, most shops were closed and those who opened were already closed by the beginning of the afternoon. 

Clearly, the regime has lost the battle of minds and souls of the people. They are sowing seeds of vengeance among the young people of this country and stretching people to the limit. Several of the youths who were brutalized have feelings of extreme vengeance even as they languish in their pain. Those tortured expresse their hatred of ZANU PF even more than before while more and more people, victims and even health workers were expressing this hatred of a regime that is literally driving the people to levels were real conflict is possible.  Meanwhile, hundreds of people arrested on Monday and Tuesday are still detained in various police stations.  Prominent MDC MP, Tendai Biti and several other youths who were arrested in the city center on Monday are still in police custody. They are supposed to appear in Court this afternoon. I understand that Tendai is being charged under a Section of the POSA which criminalizes "attempting to overthrow a constitutionally guaranteed government". He was arrested while walking on Nelson Mandela Avenue , and this is being interpreted as attempting to "overthrow a constitutionally elected government". 

Finally, it is discernible that the ZANU PF government has lunched a three pronged strategy as a response to  this mass action as they fight for their own survival. The first,  is a massive and malicious propaganda campaign through the state controlled media.  They are churning out loads of falsehoods in order to paint a certain picture  of normalcy during this mass action, demonizing the MDC and its leadership as much as they can.  The second, is the brutal use of unmitigated force and violence  coordinated by ZANU PF through the arms of government namely police, army and CIO.  The Border Gezi militia have been rounded up from the camps dotted throughout the country and unleashed on the populace, where they are committing heinous crimes against humanity.  The police will then "arrest" any one who resists and lay charges under POSA.  The third,  is the attack on the MDC leadership. They are keeping Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube and other key leaders of the MDC totally locked up in the Courts, varying bail conditions in order to tighten their hold on these leaders, assaulting, attackking and arresting and beating up others like Mushorirwa, Madzore and other MPs who were attacked and injured, on Monday and Tuesday, keeping  some of them detained beyond the statutory limit of 48 hours, create a leadership vacuum by breaking communication with the masses and hopefully kill off the mass action spirit.   The truth of the matter is that they can succeed in doing so, but wil uinfortunately for them,  also succeed in pitting the government totatlly against the people.

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Harare

 

 Private Boarding School raided by war vets in Norton

 

Lilfordia School, a private primary boarding school situated in a farming area just outside of Harare, was raided by war veterans at 1.30pm today. 

 

This gang of approximately twenty state sponsored thugs is led by a woman, Comrade Yondo, the local leader of the war vets and ZanuPF representative.  She claims that since the school was closed they are MDC supporters.  She has declared the school a government school now.

 

The school was not actually closed, the teaching body was all present when the war vets arrived and were quickly sent home by the Head.  The parents had decided not to send their children back to board until they were assured of their children’s safety. 

 

An e mail had been sent out to the parents this morning that the pupils (aged between 6 and 12 years) should return to school this afternoon.   A delegation of teachers was sent to the top of the road to prevent any children coming in after the invasion by ZANU PF thugs.

 

The school’s groundstaff and labour force are currently being held by the war vets who have forced them into the parking lot to chant ZanuPF slogans.

 

Victims of beatings victimised again

 

10.30am - A volunteer from a human rights organization took affidavits from approximately 10 of 30 men and women who were beaten last night.  These affidavits and photographs cannot be taken inside the hospital, so the volunteers have to sit in the parking lot to record these atrocities. 

 

The job was not finished as their work was interrupted by a visit from a CIO operative, who had noted the car registration numbers of the volunteers and called in his henchmen to stop their work.

 

The MDC youth and supporters, not all activists, were visited at their homes last night and in the early hours of this morning by groups of approximately ten to twenty militia per group, dressed in camouflage, carrying batons and AK 47 rifles. 

 

The sleeping victims were pulled from their beds and viciously beaten and accused of taking money from foreigners for participating in the mass action.

 

The wounded civilians made their way to the hospital for treatment where the affidavits were being taken.  Some twenty hurt people still not attended to were ejected from the hospital, ordered to sit and wait outside for treatment.  The human rights activists were advised to leave the area immediately.

 

More and more reports of beatings are coming in, the ZanuPF regime is desperately trying to quell the hugely supported mass action through their only means of persuading Zimbabweans – brute force.

 

Bulawayo

 

Archbishop Pius Ncube champions Justice and Peace.

 

A church service for “Justice and Peace” has been called for Friday 6 June at 2pm to take place at the Catholic cathedral, St Mary’s.  The main speaker will be Archbishop Pius Ncube and he will be joined by various other church leaders.  This call to pray for peace in Zimbabwe has been made  by Christians together for justice and peace.

 

Despite many shops opening in Bulawayo this morning, by lunch time, once again most of these had closed.  Reports are still pouring in of shop owners being forced to reopen by agents of the state.

 

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4 June 2003
Tichaona Kaguru murdered by the army and police.

MDC activist Tichona Kaguru (33) is confirmed dead after being abducted and brutally tortured by the ZRP and members of the Zimbabwe National Army, allegedly led by one Marange, officer-in-charge of Mbare. Kaguru was abducted with Sydney Mazaranhanga at the house of Mazaranhanga who is the Councillor for MDC in Mbare at around 4pm yesterday.

Mazaranhanga, who narrated the ordeal that the two went through, confirmed this. An army truck and a police truck arrived at the house and they searched the whole house alleging that a meeting was being held at this house. When they failed to find anyone they abducted Mazaranhanga and his nephew Tichaona Kaguru and threw them into the army truck and started assaulting them. They assaulted them with batons, wires and booted feet all over their bodies and heads. As this was happening the truck was driving towards Chikurubi and they stopped near a bush in Mabvuku where some sewage pipes had burst. The two were made to roll over in the sewage.

They were further assaulted and then threatened with death if they ever revealed their ordeal, as this would tarnish the image of the police force and the Government of Zimbabwe. Kaguru was very weak and could hardly walk and so Mazaranhanga went to seek help. He managed to get a vehicle from Circle Cement, which took the two to Chikurubi Clinic. All the staff there refused to attend the two saying that the clinic only catered for the police. They insisted that they had to call an ambulance. The two waited for an ambulance for over two hours. When it finally came Kaguru was pronounced dead. His body was taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital. Mazaranhanga was also treated at Parirenyatwa and discharged this morning.

This brutality in which innocent Zimbabweans are abducted from their homes and brutally murdered by the police and members of the National Army proves that Zimbabweans are living in an era of barbarism that is sanctioned by an illegitimate regime. The freedom that the people won in 1980 has effectively been taken away. Not only has this regime failed to provide food and jobs for the people of Zimbabwe, it goes to their homes to take away precious lives and beloved breadwinners of families. Kaguru leaves behind a wife and three children.

Last month Tonderai Machiridza was taken from his home and tortured to death at St Mary’s Police Station. Steven Tonera also died in Ruwa as a result of torture by state agents in Ruwa.

This death will not deter us. Instead it will inspire the people of Zimbabwe to strengthen their resolve in demanding freedom, justice and accountability.

Sadly we know that this will not happen under the illegitimate Mugabe regime. We know that the perpetrators of this crime will walk free while Kaguru’s family and all the people of Zimbabwe mourn yet another precious life.
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Zimbabwean opposition dreams to take over power: VP

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

      Xinhuanet 2003-06-05 01:56:29

      HARARE, June 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Zimbabwean Vice President Simon
Muzenda said here on Wednesday the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) is misleading people to think it will takeover power if President
Robert Mugabe leaves office.

      Muzenda was speaking for the first time on the five-day mass protest
called by the MDC this week to remove Mugabe from power.

      "They talk of removing President Mugabe, yet I am still
alive,"Muzenda told members of farmers' organizations, "It appears they do
not know that Vice President Muzenda is there."

      The street protests called by the MDC have flopped with the
situation returning to normal in the country's major centers by Wednesday.

      Muzenda said the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was dreaming if the
thought he could remove Mugabe through street protests.

      "A person sleeps at his home and dreams that President Mugabe will
be out of State House by tomorrow," he said.

      "There are a lot of people who dream, but you can not dream of
removing the president just like that," he said.

      The third day of the five-day Zimbabwe opposition MDC mass protests
to remove President Mugabe from power passed on Wednesdaywithout any street
marches.

      Zimbabweans continued with their duties as usual and there was
nothing to show the protests that were supposed to start on Mondayhad taken
off.

      Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka said the general situation inthe
whole country was quiet with shops, schools, banks and businesses opened,
allowing people to go about their daily chores.

      He said law enforcement agents remained on the ground to ensurehuman
and property safety.

      At least 320 have been arrested since Monday for trying to cause
disorder and would be charged under the Public and Order Security Act.
Enditem
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SABC

            Who has been pushed now, asks Mugabe
            June 04, 2003, 18:30




            Zimbabwe's capital Harare is slowly getting back to normal as
mass action called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
showed signs of losing momentum. More than 200 opposition leaders and
supporters have been arrested since Monday for their role in organising the
anti-government action.

            Business activity was slowly regaining pace in central Harare
and the industrial sites with an estimated 40% of businesses opening as
government used all in its power from military to legal options to thwart
the strike.

            In an exclusive interview with the SABC in Harare today, Mugabe
said there was no way the MDC was going to remove his government by force.
Mugabe said the MDC had been rejecting advice from Thabo Mbeki, the South
African President, and Olusegun Obasanjo, the Nigerian leader, not to engage
in acts of violence to overthrow the government.

            The opposition is convinced more people could have turned onto
the streets had the government not unleashed the police and the army which
are maintaining a heavy presence on the capital's roads and high density
suburbs. Mugabe regrets the measures, but says they are necessary to keep
the peace.

            The mass action is scheduled to end Friday, but midway through
Mugabe is still comfortably in charge.
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SABC

            Senior MDC activist arrested in Harare
            June 04, 2003, 16:45


            A Zimbabwean human rights activist, who is regarded as the
number two in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has been
arrested in Harare. Tendai Bithi, a well-known Zimbabwean human rights
lawyer, was apprehended together with scores of other MDC supporters.

            Terry Bell, a Cape Town freelance journalist, says Bithi was
initially charged under the Public Information Act.

            Today is the third day of a five-day strike called by the MDC
and other opposition groups. Businesses are gradually re-opening, but
witnesses say soldiers have been going door to door ordering them to do so.
The government earlier threatened to withdraw their licences if they
remained closed during the strike.
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IOL



        Homesick Zim exiles long for Mugabe to go

            June 04 2003 at 04:14AM



      By Ndivhuwo Khangale

      Whenever Zimbabwean dissident Philemon Moyo and his wife Cassandra
Ncube hear from their deeply troubled homeland, they despair.

      The couple, who now live in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, had to leave their
two children with Ncube's family in Zimbabwe when they fled in fear of their
lives.

      They said the situation had made it difficult for them to live there
as members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

            'Most of us supporters were tortured and had to flee'
      "We really would have loved to work for our country and contribute to
the economy for the benefit of our children and everyone. We settled here
after the war veterans burned our home and threatened our lives," said Moyo,
sitting on his bed in a flat they share with three other families.

      Moyo said he lost his job in Zimbabwe when he came to South Africa. He
is now unemployed and survives by delivering goods for people using his car.

      "If (Zimbabwean President Robert) Mugabe can step down, I would not
hesitate to go home the same day. I do miss home, but I can't go there when
there is that political turmoil.

      "Most of us (MDC) supporters were tortured and had to flee.

      "Mugabe knows that if the MDC can govern the country, he would go to
jail for his crimes."

      Ncube was more concerned about Zimbabwean women and children, who
faced the same problems of rape and abuse they had fled from in their
homeland, and were more at risk in other countries because families often
were split up.

      "Most of the families were broken up when their spouses fled to other
countries for better lives," she said.

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BBC

      Action divides Zimbabwe press



      As this week's anti-government protests and strikes continue in
Zimbabwe, the press is split predictably along political lines.

      While pro-government newspapers excoriate the opposition, accusing it
of being a puppet of foreign interests, those backing the Movement for
Democratic Change call for an end to repression and the removal of President
Robert Mugabe.

      The following are quotes from today's editions of the two main
dailies, the opposition Daily News and the pro-government Herald, as well as
from the most recent issues of the Zimbabwe Independent, a weekly critical
of the government, and the pro-government Sunday Mirror.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------

      For a long time since the year 2000, when this country entered its
darkest chapter, we have been saying "enough is enough". We have said it at
rallies, meetings, conferences and seminars. We have said it through
banners, pamphlets and flyers. And it is now three years on and still it
seems it is not enough yet. We are still saying "enough is enough".

      Daily News



--------------------------------------------------------------------------


      Looking at the Zimbabwean scenario, the most frightening thing at the
present moment is not the rape, torture, detentions and harassment. It is
the silence of the majority in the face of an unprecedented dictatorship in
the history of this country. It is the "grumbling in our bedrooms" type of
protests that cannot change anything in this country and that gives the lie
that everything is all right... We have nothing to lose but the shackles and
fetters of this tyranny.

      Clifford Mazodze in Daily News



--------------------------------------------------------------------------


      In this final showdown, it is imperative for [opposition leader
Morgan] Tsvangirai... to directly send a message to the army and police. He
must urge them to disobey an illegitimate government and protect the people,
especially now when the whirlwind of change is promising the dawn of a new
era of accountability, the rule of law and good governance.

      WeMhazi in Daily News



--------------------------------------------------------------------------


      After both sides have flexed their muscles, it looks increasingly
likely that both could yet return to where they should have started from:
the negotiating table... In the aftermath of the nationwide shutdown, maybe
a fresh effort to try to bring the opposing sides to the negotiating table
could be made again, because the window for bringing sanity and durable
peace to Zimbabwe is closing fast.

      Daily News



--------------------------------------------------------------------------


      There is a palpable fear of challenging Mugabe as leader of the
party... Observers say Mugabe is keen to retire but faces roadblocks mounted
by those in his party who benefited from his system of patronage and are not
certain about their future. Mugabe is no longer his own man. He is under
siege from those who committed heinous crimes... For all practical purposes
the only national issue for which Zanu-PF needs Mugabe is to deal with the
MDC. On all other issues he is simply lost. To his captors all we can say
is, in the name of God let the man go.

      Zimbabwe Independent



--------------------------------------------------------------------------


      The British Government has exposed its hidden hand behind the ongoing
mass action organised by its various fronts.

      The Herald



--------------------------------------------------------------------------


      Monday marked the beginning of what MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and
his Western handlers hoped would be a week of mass demonstrations tailored
to topple the democratically elected government of President Robert Mugabe.
Well, that did not happen and once again Tsvangirai was left with egg on the
face. His Western handlers, who we understand poured billions of dollars
into the futile exercise, must be particularly red in the face... The
inability of the British and their local kith and kin to learn from
experience never ceases to amaze us. Their amnesia is so acute that it makes
them look absolutely ridiculous.

      The Herald



--------------------------------------------------------------------------


      The imperialists want to recolonise Third World countries by using
"remote control". The so-called opposition parties and leaders are used to
destroy their own countries by claiming to be democratic in their political
activities. In the real sense, they are stooges or puppets of the West...
Western governments are happy to see conflicts in developing countries.

      Dr John Shumba Mvundura, Zimbabwean Ambassador to Libya, in The Herald



--------------------------------------------------------------------------


      It is our view that the final push will not succeed in pushing the
incumbent government and its leader from power. But it is also our firm
belief that the MDC has a chance to meaningfully contribute to the
resolution of the country's political and economic crisis. It can only do so
by pushing fundamental issues on the table and not by exacerbating the
impasse through the pursuit of zero-sum tactics that seek to obfuscate them.

      Sunday Mirror



--------------------------------------------------------------------------


      BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and
translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the
Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
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oneworld.net

June 3, 2003

African American Letter to President Robert Mugabe Condemns Political
Repression in Zimbabwe

Black Trade Union Officials, Africa Advocacy Groups and Church organizations
call for African diplomatic intervention and an unconditional dialogue among
Zimbabweans to create a transition to democratic rights for all


Tuesday, June 3, 2003 (Washington, DC) - Progressive leaders among leading
African American organizations, trade unions, church and advocacy groups
today released an open letter to Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, to
oppose the political repression underway in that country.

Highlighting long historical ties to the independence movements of Zimbabwe,
the signators described the current crackdown on political opposition as,
"in complete contradiction of the values and principles that were both the
foundation of your liberation struggle and of our solidarity with that
struggle."

The letter to Mugabe follows a process over the past several months where
progressive African Americans have held a series of meetings with
representatives of the Zimbabwean government and of Zimbabwean civil society
both here in the U.S. and in Zimbabwe. The group concluded that it is time
that African American progressives make a public statement on the
deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe that so negatively affects the people of
that proud country with whom the signatories have stood in solidarity for
many decades.

Africa Action executive director, Salih Booker, said today that "We have a
responsibility to our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe to state clearly
where we stand. And we stand for human rights and against the repression of
the Mugabe regime directed against Zimbabwe's African majority."

The full text of the letter and the list of signatories are below.

####
June 3, 2003

OPEN LETTER TO ZIMBABWEAN PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE

Dear President Mugabe,


We are writing today to implore you to seek a peaceful and just solution to
your country's escalating national crisis. Those signed below are Americans
of Africa descent - many of them representing major organizations of civil
society in the United States - who have worked for decades to support the
liberation movements of Africa and the governments that followed
independence which promoted and protected the interests of all of their
nation's people. We form part of an honorable tradition of progressive
solidarity with the struggles for decolonization, and against apartheid and
imperialism in Africa.

We have strong historical ties to the liberation movements in Zimbabwe,
which included material and political support, as well as opposition to U.S.
government policies that supported white minority rule. In independent
Zimbabwe we have sought to maintain progressive ties with the political
party and government that arose from the freedom struggle. At the same time
our progressive ties have grown with institutions of civil society,
especially the labor movement, women's organizations, faith communities,
human rights organizations, students, the independent media and progressive
intellectuals. In Zimbabwe today, all of our relations and our deep empathy
and understanding of events there require that we stand in solidarity with
those feeling the pain and suffering caused by the abuse of their rights,
violence and intolerance, economic deprivation and hunger, and landlessness
and discrimination.

We do not need to recount here the details of the increasing intolerant,
repressive and violent policies of your government over the past 3 years,
nor the devastating consequences of those policies. The use of repressive
legislation does not, in our respectful view, render such actions
justifiable or moral, because of their presumed "legality". We represent a
long tradition of opposition to unjust laws. We have previously expressed to
your representative in Washington, DC, our humanitarian concerns about the
impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Zimbabwe as well as that of the famine
triggered by the recent southern African drought and exacerbated by the
economic policies and food distribution practices of your government. We
have shared our concerns that land redistribution in Zimbabwe be used to
fight the poverty of the majority and not to promote the narrow interests of
another minority. But most of all, we have communicated clearly that we view
the political repression underway in Zimbabwe as intolerable and in complete
contradiction of the values and principles that were both the foundation of
your liberation struggle and of our solidarity with that struggle.

Today, Mr. President we call upon yourself and those among the ruling party
who truly value democracy, and wish to protect the future of all of
Zimbabwe's citizens to take extraordinary steps to end your country's
political crisis and place it upon a path toward peace. We ask that you
initiate an unconditional dialogue with the political opposition in Zimbabwe
and representatives of civil society aimed at ending this impasse. We call
upon you to seek the diplomatic intervention of appropriately concerned
African states and institutions, particularly South Africa and Nigeria, and
SADC and the African Union, to assist in the mediation of Zimbabwe's civil
conflict.

Mr. President, the non-violent civil disobedience that is growing in your
country - such as that which took place on Mother's day in Bulawayo - is
increasingly met with police brutality and excessive force. Such trends in
the abuse of human rights are not only unacceptable, they are threats to
your country's stability and they are undermining the economic and political
development your people desire and deserve. We believe that a peaceful
solution is possible for Zimbabwe if you find a way to work with others in
and outside of your government to create an effective process for a
transition to a more broadly supported government upholding the democratic
rights of all.

Sincerely yours in struggle,

William Lucy, President, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists


Willie Baker, Executive Vice President, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists


Salih Booker, Executive Director, Africa Action


Bill Fletcher, Jr., President, TransAfrica Forum


Horace G. Dawson Jr., Director Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center,
Howard University


Patricia Ann Ford, Executive Vice President, Service Employees International
Union (SEIU)


Julianne Malveaux, TransAfrica Forum Board Member


Rev Justus Y. Reeves, Executive Director Missions Ministry, Progressive
National Baptist Convention


Coordinating Committee, Black Radical Congress

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Tatchell urges South Africa to switch off Zimbabwe electricity
      Gay.com UK
      Wednesday 4 June, 2003 12:12 | More from this date | Today's headlines




            PROMOTION
      Gay human rights activist Peter Tatchell and Labour MEP Michael
Cashman are to meet with the South African High Commissioner to the UK,
Lindiwe Mabuza, in an attempt urge the country's government to cut its
electricity supplies to Zimbabwe.

      Tatchell and Cashman believe that such a measure would help add
pressure on Zimbabwe's President Mugabe to restore democracy and end his
human rights violations.

      The pair say they will remind the High Commissioner at the meeting on
Friday that during the apartheid era, the ANC urged the international
community to exert economic pressure against the then racist South African
government.

      "The demise of the apartheid regime was aided by economic sanctions,"
said Mr Tatchell.

      "The South African government should use its economic leverage to
support the struggle for democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe, in the same
way that other countries helped pressure the apartheid government of FW de
Klerk to agree to black majority rule."

      Mr Cashman, a member of the European Parliament, is being enlisted to
lobby the European Union to compensate South Africa for any loss of revenue
caused by halting power supplies to Zimbabwe.

      "South Africa cannot be expected to bear the financial burden of
cutting off the power to Zimbabwe. It is a international responsibility and
rich member states of the EU should agree to cover any financial losses
suffered by South Africa," said Mr Tatchell.

      Zimbabwe depends on South Africa as a major power supplier. Without
electricity from South Africa, economic meltdown would follow and the Mugabe
regime would collapse within weeks. Already, there are regular power cuts
that cause havoc to the Zimbabwe economy. Many factories are operating at
only half capacity.

      The curtailment of electricity from South Africa would cause massive
disruption but would not be sufficient to jeopardise water supplies, medical
care and other essential services.

      Hopefully, the mere threat by South Africa to cut power supplies would
be sufficient to force Mugabe to the negotiating table or to prompt a coup
against him.

      The new campaign, Switch off Mugabe's Power, is being organised by
Tatchell, who says he has the backing of opposition activists inside
Zimbabwe and of Zimbabwean exiles and refugees in Britain and South Africa.
Concerned Zimbabweans Abroad, the main Zimbabwean exile group, which is
based in Johannesburg, is planning protests to support the Switch Off
Mugabe's Power campaign.

      "When South Africa threatened to switch off Rhodesia's power in the
late 1970s, it forced Ian Smith's white minority government to agree to
black majority rule," said Mr Tatchell.

      "The mere threat to cut the electricity supply worked then, and it can
work now. President Mbeki's government has the power to force the Mugabe
regime to halt its human rights violations and to restore democracy."

      Zimbabwe currently owes South Africa at least $US16 million for power
imports, and this debt is rising rapidly as Zimbabwe defaults on payments.

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Reuters

Strike cripples Zimbabwe for third day


      June 04 2003 at 11:51AM



By Stella Mapenzauswa

Harare - A strike called by Zimbabwe's main opposition against President
Robert Mugabe kept most banks, businesses and factories shut for a third day
on Wednesday despite official threats to punish companies that fail to open.

Police maintained tight security in Harare two days after they used tear
gas, clubs and warning shots to disperse thousands of opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) protesters trying to hold marches around the
country.

State radio reported that the government was auditing which businesses were
closed on Wednesday, and would begin procedures to strip them of their
licences.

Nevertheless, most shops and factories in Harare kept their doors shut,
while only a handful of banks were open.

Some commuter transport operators put their vehicles back on the roads,
albeit in small numbers.

The situation was similar in the country's second city of Bulawayo, where
witnesses said officials forced some banks to open - despite the fact they
had little cash to dispense.

"But most shops are closed. I would say only 10 percent of the city is
working," said one Bulawayo resident.

Harare's High Court was expected to continue hearing a bid by state lawyers
to muzzle MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai as his supporters vowed to push ahead
with protests that the government describes as an illegal attempt to topple
Mugabe.

Prosecutors want the High Court to tighten bail conditions on Tsvangirai and
two other senior MDC leaders - all currently on trial for allegedly plotting
to kill Mugabe - by barring them from "inciting the public to engage in
unlawful activities and illegal demonstrations".

Defence lawyers argued on Tuesday that the government is effectively seeking
a gag order which would give it an unfair political advantage over the
opposition.

Tsvangirai is legally challenging Mugabe's victory in 2002 presidential
elections, which both the opposition and several Western countries say were
fraught with poll irregularities.

The MDC launched the protests and work boycotts on Monday as a "final push"
to oust the 79-year-old leader, in power since independence from Britain in
1980, on the grounds that his mismanagement has left Zimbabwe's economy in
tatters.

The MDC said it had received reports that police and army officers attacked
the homes of several of its councillors in Harare on Tuesday night, beating
up occupants.

Police were not immediately available for comment.
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Some personal accounts

Email from Zim:

I've just received an SMS from a friend who lectures at the
University of Zimbabwe:

"3 students killed and dozens injured at the UZ during a midnight raid"

Will send any other details if/when I get any.
-------

From a contributor who wishes to remain anonymous:
 
ARE YOU AWARE that one reason we are short of cash is because people are going out into the mining areas at night with their sedan car boots stuffed with cash notes for buying gold for private deals?
 
HOW DO YOU feel when you hear that the people who are maiking huge amounts of money out of trading forex are now making more by selling back their huge amounts of money back to the banks at $700 for $500.

-------
From someone working for USAid
-
Hi there
Apparently a group of "you know who" just went to the Avenues Clinic to
harass people visiting the injured or the injured themselves. One of our
staff was there and had to escape saying he was a doctor. The amount of
injured people there is just hard to believe.  Awful ...
-----
Perhaps you could write to TWA (Tim Wooten Auctioneers) asking if it is totally necessary to have house and car sales this week, selling amongst other things, 'painted ostrich eggs' and 'good ceramics' when approx 500 have been arrested and many more others shot and wounded....including a pregnant woman etc. etc. etc.  I can't e mail them because they know me ...  By the way, most of Chisipite and Kamfinsa are open today - what are we going to do about this?
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News24
West's 'hypocrisy' slammed
04/06/2003 18:51  - (SA)


Harare - The Zimbabwe government on Wednesday accused Western governments of
hypocrisy, alleging they were supporting acts of "hooliganism" by the
opposition while criticising the government for trying to enforce the law.

Foreign Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge told 65 foreign diplomats based in
Zimbabwe that the authorities had been justified in using force to quash a
series of anti-government marches which began on Monday, insisting the
protests were illegal.

Mudenge said the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had
"willfully decided to ignore" a court order which the government had
obtained at the weekend to ban the planned five-day mass strike and street
demonstrations, aimed at ousting President Robert Mugabe from power.

He said the government would have failed in its duty to uphold the rule of
law if it had stood by and watched the MDC defy the court ruling.

"It is therefore disturbing that some Western governments have supported the
MDC's lawlessness and hooliganism by criticising the government for
upholding the rule of law," he said.

"This exposes the hypocrisy and double standards of these external
financiers and handlers of the MDC."

He lashed out at the recent Group of Eight summit of powerful nations for
voicing concern on Tuesday over the violent crackdown by state authorities
against opposition activists in Zimbabwe.

Double standards

"It is regrettable that the G8 summit has seen it fit to criticise the
government's efforts to maintain law and order while deliberately ignoring
the illegal act of the MDC and the many incidents of violence perpetrated by
the opposition in its attempts to overthrow a legally constituted government
by violent means," Mudenge said.

Scores of MDC supporters and university students have been assaulted and two
have been shot and injured in clashes with security forces since the start
of the opposition-led protests.

The MDC said security officials had been raiding the homes of some of its
officials and indiscriminately assaulting the occupants.

Mudenge said the country's security forces had "shown professionalism and
alertness in a provocative situation" and would not allow Mugabe to be
removed from power by force.

"Let no one suffer from any illusions that the people of Zimbabwe, as well
as the forces of law and order, will ever tolerate the removal of a legally
elected government by force. That will not happen," he told the diplomats.

He went on to say Zimbabwe was ready to normalise relations with any country
"interested to co-operate with us".

Relations between Zimbabwe and former colonial power Britain have soured
because of their disagreements over Mugabe's controversial land reform
programme and Harare has accused Britain of bank-rolling the MDC.
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BBC
 
Zimbabwe protests diary
Students throwing stones at the police
Students threw stones to keep police at bay (Pic: Zvakwana)
A student activist with Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change writes a diary for BBC News Online of the week-long protests intended to drive President Robert Mugabe out of power.

Wednesday 4 June

1400: Some students are returning to check what is happening on campus - there is very little activity.

The students union leadership and activist committees are to hold review meetings today and agree on the course to take tomorrow.

No lectures are taking place and vehicle and public movement is limited in the campus.

The authorities are still denying or withholding information if there is anyone who had died. 1100: The situation remains calm with whistle-blowing over the campus.

There are no lectures.

The police, CIO (secret police) and military intelligence officials have been interrogating students about a list of hunted activists.

Tuesday 3 June

There is a heavy presence of plainclothes police and intelligence officers.

Students hit by tear gas
The police responded with tear gas

Hundreds of students, especially women, have vacated university going home.

Thousands of students mill around campus blowing whistles.

There are no lectures the whole day.

Monday 2 June

1800: Student union leaders inform us that more than 40 students have been admitted at Parirenyatwa hospital.

One is in the intensive care unit, activists report that three students are feared dead.

ZIMBABWE CRISIS
Eight million need food aid
Shortages of petrol, bread, sugar
Inflation over 200%
Opposition complains of persecution
They reject last year's elections

Protests in pictures
A tattered economy

Police, hospital officials and university authorities deny any knowledge about that.

1300 until evening: Police fire tear gas canisters straight into halls of residences to flush out students and then beat them up.

1215: Police increase reinforcements, they bring in two water cannon to disrupt another student gathering.

Armed soldiers fire live ammunition into the air.

Soldiers backed by police, CIO and local security begin door-to-door searches for known MDC activists and student leaders.

1200: An army helicopter flies overhead, sending students into panic and running in different directions.

Students called again to regroup, there are 120 student marshals who are controlling the students and telling them how to march.

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1100-1200: Students march and are blocked by police who start firing tear gas canisters, blank shots, stun grenades and live ammunition into the air.

Students manage to overcome the police, who call for reinforcements.

0930-1030: Up to 9,000 students gather outside the Students' Union buildings, singing and blowing whistles.

Student leaders and ex-student leaders address the students who unanimously vote to participate in the march to State House (President Mugabe's residence).

Students then agree to start the march towards town, heading to meet others on their way to State House.

The union votes to suspend all lectures for the whole week.

0800: Students begin toyi-toying (militaristic jogging on the spot while chanting) and singing anti-Mugabe songs.

The students' council had notified students of a general meeting to decide how students were going to contribute in the action for national survival.


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Police Hit Hard At Protestors



Business Day (Johannesburg)

June 4, 2003
Posted to the web June 4, 2003

Dumisani Muleya And Sarah Hudelston
Johannesburg

Zimbabwean police fired tear gas into classrooms to flush out a frightened
group of people seeking refuge at Warren Park Primary School in Harare
yesterday morning.

Police descended on the group queuing to buy newspapers, who fled to hide in
the school. Witnesses said choking children and adults ran into the road to
escape the tear gas.

Late yesterday police and troops were patrolling Harare on the second day of
a national strike against President Robert Mugabe as the Group of Eight
nations called for calm, the European Union urged Zimbabweans to abstain
from violence and the United Nations urged the state to respect the right to
protest.

Throughout Zimbabwe businesses were closed and armed police and troops
manned roadblocks. As the five-day mass action campaign, called by
opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and several unions,
continued most cities and towns were almost paralysed. Harare was hit worst.
Only government offices were open.

More than 150 MDC officials and supporters have been arrested. Yesterday
morning the MDC's central office in Harare said a group of 30 arrested in
Masvingo on Monday were being denied access to lawyers and food.

The MDC mayor of Masvingo, Engineer Chaimiti, said late yesterday that only
four of those arrested had been charged and were to appear in court.

The MDC said that in Kwekwe the police chief ordered the eviction of all MDC
supporters from the municipal area. Police denied this, saying they were
following a court order banning protest. In Gweru, where 46 were arrested.
Lawyer Reginald Chidawanyika said: "It is most frustrating. Most of my
clients are being forced to pay admission of guilt fines even before they
have been charged."

Human rights publication Sokwanele Enough is Enough said in its internet
newsletter that police and intelligence officers were visiting businessmen
at their homes around the country, and threatening them with steps like
cancellation of licences after they closed their businesses.

The MDC said 2500 Zanu (PF) militia were camping in the grounds of Zanu (PF)
headquarters in Harare. They were moving around Harare, "harassing people in
the streets. It seems they are working together with the police."

Attempts to contact police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena yesterday were
unsuccessful.

Economist John Robertson said mass action would harm the economy, but
political stalemate was the real problem. "Very little, if any, production
is taking place. The economy can't recover lost production, and that means
it will succumb to further implosion."

Economists said mass action combined with fuel and electricity shortages
would force many firms to close, reduce operations or retrench in the short
to medium term. Unemployment and poverty would worsen.
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Independent (UK)

Zimbabwean troops beat man to death in bid to end strike
By Basildon Peta Southern Africa Correspondent
05 June 2003


Zimbabwean soldiers beat an opposition supporter to death yesterday as a
government crackdown intensified on the third day of a national strike aimed
at toppling President Robert Mugabe.

Many Zimbabwean shops and businesses remained shut yesterday in defiance of
a threat from President Mugabe to seize businesses taking part in the
largest-ever protests against his rule. He is also threatening to expel
expatriate businessmen and workers who defy his orders to return to work.

The main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said
Mugabe agents yesterday raided a private hospital and abducted several of
its injured supporters who were awaiting treatment. The MDC said that an
opposition supporter, Tichaona Kaguru, died in hospital after being tortured
and assaulted by the soldiers putting down the anti-Mugabe protests.

Zimbabwean business leaders told The Independent that they had been given
orders to stop taking part in the week-long protest or risk losing their
investments.

They said expatriate businessmen and workers had been told their work
permits would be withdrawn and risked deportation if they continued to take
part in the strike which has paralysed Zimbabwe.

The MDC called the strike to force Mr Mugabe to either resign or negotiate a
settlement of the Zimbabwe crisis.

Harare businessmen said they had been told by Ministry of Industry and Trade
officials and officers from Mr Mugabe's spy agency, the Central Intelligence
Organisation, that the order for them to reopen had been issued by Mr Mugabe
himself. They were told they would pay a heavy price for heeding the MDC
strike call.

The businessmen said that although they had largely defied Mr Mugabe's
order, some of their frightened colleagues had started reopening and a few
parts of the industrial areas and some shops in Harare had started operating
yesterday afternoon, albeit with skeleton staff. This was largely because of
soldiers and youth militias who had patrolled the industrial areas forcing
any business owners they could find to open.

The businessmen said that they were not sure whether many more businesses
would reopen today or maintain their defiance of Mr Mugabe. "We are living
in a fascist state and sometimes it calls for pragmatism for survival ... We
are consulting," said one businessman.

Zimbabwe was closed on Monday and Tuesday and for the greater part of
yesterday as the country responded to the MDC's call to strike against Mr
Mugabe's rule.

Although people could not take to the streets in large numbers because of
the excessive use of force by the Mugabe regime, they further crippled
Zimbabwe's collapsing economy by heeding the opposition call not to work.

But eyewitnesses said there was pandemonium at the Avenues Clinic, the
largest private clinic to treat opposition supporters hurt in the
anti-Mugabe demonstrations. They said uniformed police entered the clinic
and asked people in the out-patients' ward and others standing near the
reception area to lie down. Many were savagely beaten. They said the police
officers also entered various private wards at the clinic and attacked
patients.

Edwin Mushoriwa, an opposition official who was seeking treatment at the
clinic, saw seven men and women being abducted and taken into vans waiting
outside.

Paul Themba Nyathi, an MDC spokesman, said the Avenues Clinic was being
targeted because it was treating opposition supporters. He said that the
whereabouts of those abducted from the hospital were still unknown.

The MDC largely refrains from sending its supporters to state hospitals and
clinics because of fears they might be killed there.

Staff at the clinic refused to comment on the incident but a diplomat who
was at the clinic said he had seen "hell".

A police spokesman said he had not yet received any report on the death of
the opposition supporter or on the incident at the clinic. The opposition
party said that it now feared the worst after hearing that Mr Mugabe has
ordered soldiers to move from door to door in the overcrowded townships and
to beat anyone who failed to report for work from today onwards.

The MDC claims that hundreds of its supporters have been severely beaten by
Mr Mugabe's soldiers and army during the protests. Stan Mudenge, the Foreign
minister, has reportedly justified the government action against the strike
by telling foreign diplomats based in Harare yesterday that no government
could tolerate any "illegal" protest.
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Financial Times

      Zimbabwe strike appears to 'crumble'
      By Tony Hawkins
      Published: June 4 2003 17:05 | Last Updated: June 4 2003 17:05


      Signs that the planned week-long protest designed to force Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe to step down was beginning to crumble became
apparent on Wednesday afternoon.


      Shops, banks and offices in Harare and its suburbs opened their doors,
but in the industrial sites most factories remained closed.

      There was a noticeable increase in the level of traffic on the roads,
including public transport whilst more schools opened.

      However, one businessman warned against concluding that the strike was
collapsing, saying his employees had said that protest action would be
"stepped up" ahead of the weekend.

      Harare city centre remained relatively quiet and tense, with policemen
dressed in smart new blue fatigues loitering on street corners. According to
passers by, these men were "BGs" youth militia from the Border Gezi camps
that have been drafted into the capital to boost security. Mr Border Gezi,
who died two years ago, was the Zanu-PF minister initially responsible for
the establishment of the pro-government militia.

      In Bulawayo, the country's second largest city, the strike appeared to
be holding, although there too there was some increase business activity.
One Bulawayo businessman estimated that some 10 per cent of businesses were
operating.

      Some businessmen said they had been "intimidated" into re-opening,
following threats by government ministers to cancel the business licenses of
firms that closed for the strike. But both Jimmy Sanders, the president of
the Zimbabwe National Chambers of Commerce and Anthony Mandiwanza, president
of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries said they had not heard of any
businesses being forced to open.

      In Bulawayo, the independent Daily News reported that banks and
building societies had been forced to open by the police. The newspaper gave
details of police vehicles and personnel involved in the campaign.

      Samuel Mbengegwi, Zimbabwe's industry minister said foreigners "were
given work permits to work, not to close"

      On Wednesday, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change reported
the second casualty of the mass action campaign. It said that a party
activist Tichaona Kaguru had died in hospital from injuries he sustained on
Monday night after he and an MDC councillor were "assaulted and tortured".
The two were apparently "left for dead and dumped" near Circle Cement plant
at Mabvuku, 10 miles from Harare. They were taken to hospital by
well-wishers on Tuesday.

      Earlier state media had reported that a Zanu-PF activist had been
stabbed and stoned to death by 50 MDC supporters.

      The MDC said "scores of people" had been injured and assaulted in
night raids by men in police and army uniforms. It said the injured had been
taken to a private clinic in Harare for treatment. Heavily armed police
raided the clinic at midday to question and arrest some of the injured
people, it added.

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