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

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"No man can put a chain around the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck." - Frederick Douglass

Thabo Mbeki insists that the peer review mechanism he advocates through NEPAD must be voluntary. Does anyone need further proof of this man's deception?
Olesugun Obassanjo blocked a UN resolution to investigate allegations of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. Is there a limit to hypocrisy?

NO TO NEPAD UNTILL ITS ARCHITECTS DEMONSTRATE GENUINE COMMITMENT TO GLOBAL STANDARDS OF DEMOCRACY! WE, THE AFRICAN PEOPLE,  WILL BE INSULTED AND ABUSED NO MORE...

Albert Gumbo
Wednesday, June 19, 2002 2:25 PM
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Daily News In the eye of the storm

6/20/02 11:05:12 AM (GMT +2)
 

Eddie Cross

Story: IF you have ever been in a real hurricane, the eerie feeling when a sudden silence and quiet descends in the midst of it all can be quite disconcerting. Sometimes it feels a bit like that here.

The economy is spiralling downwards (minus 12 percent this year – the third year in a row of declines in total output), food stocks are zero and we will shortly face famine for the first time in our history.

The political crisis intensifies every day with threats and worse from the government against all its perceived enemies: the private Press, the opposition, the independent businessperson. Even a death threat against yourself from the military.

If you have had your eyes on the storm all around you, if you suddenly find yourself in the centre of it all and there is peace and quiet, it all seems unreal. But is it?

This past weekend I had to make up a double bunker bed for a grandchild. My son and his wife are expecting their third child and a bedroom had to be vacated to make way for the new baby. The two girls they already have are moving in together and a bed was needed.

I had cut a large cypress tree down in the garden a year ago and put that through a local sawmill, dried the timber myself and then had a local co-operative make up several items for the house.

The double-decked bed was one of those items. The timber was hard and smooth and has made three items for the family that will last a lifetime. We took the bed up to Harare and when there the family went out for a picnic at the Botanical Gardens.

It was a beautiful day: clear blue skies, cool and the gardens were in prime condition. We romped with the children and had a wonderful meal together. There is something very special about a granddaughter.

I think these two are the cutest little things this side of Philadelphia. It’s all about family and belonging to each other. Lying on the grass with the two children astride my chest, you really wonder: is this the centre of a storm, which will engulf us all in a short while?

Or is it a part of the storm that we can all endure for a short interlude before we go back into the fight to stay alive and to ensure they have a future free of the fear that we have had to live under for the past three years?

Life in Zimbabwe is not all violence and hunger and many of us do live in the centre of the storm that rages about us largely unaffected and enjoying very normal lives with family and friends.

We had some late rain the other day – 110 mm – in this part of the world, which is normally very dry. This triggered a flush of late season grass growth, which the cattle and wild life are now enjoying.

The impact on the garden was spectacular and the Musasa trees have had an early flush of new leaves. Just after the rains I was driving back to Bulawayo from the Lowveld and the storm was just receding.

It was about 5 o’clock in the afternoon and the sun shone through the clouds, bathing the whole veld with that very special light at the end of the day in Africa.

I thought, this is what it is going to be like when this storm is over – cool, clear skies, a vista where you can see forever across the empty bushveld and the promise of green grass for the winter.

For many living here, sometimes we lose our perspective while the storm rages. All we see is the rushing wind, the trees bending and the rain pouring down.

Storms are necessary, or we could not live and grow what we need. They also come to an end and then we have that smell of the freshly watered soil and the promise of better days with sunshine.

It is vital we do not lose that perspective, because it’s always true and we can depend on time delivering that experience to us – just like the joy of having grandchildren who think it’s fun to sit on your chest in the sun.

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Daily News
Rising trade in endangered species 
 
6/20/02 10:45:39 AM (GMT +2)
 
 
 
GENEVA – The secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has five months to decide on 54 proposals submitted by member governments aimed at easing prohibitions and controls on trade in threatened plant and animal species. The initiatives would relax restrictions on trade in mahogany, toothfish, whales, elephants, turtles and vicuñas. CITES must decide whether to accept, reject or modify the initiatives at the 3 to 15 November conference of its 158 member states in Santiago, Chile.
 
 
 
Illegal trade in endangered species, which CITES was set up to combat, brings traffickers profits of up to 800 percent, environmental groups reported on Monday in London. Two international organisations, Traffic and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) will present the results of a technical assessment to the governments and civil society organisations that will take part in the Santiago conference in November. The groups’ recommendations will be drafted with the assistance of a team of expert advisers and released on 13 September, said IUCN press officer Xenya Cherny. The IUCN brings together representatives of states, government agencies and non-governmental organisations.
 
For its part, the CITES secretariat will issue its observations on the government proposals for new trade rules in July.
The convention’s lists, or appendices, are revised every two-and-a-half years. Appendix I bans all trade in around 900 endangered species. Appendix II regulates trade in 4 000 animal and 20 000 plant species through a system of permits.
A proposal submitted by Australia, to include two species of Chilean sea bass, or toothfish, in Appendix II, would lead to an overlapping of the jurisdiction of CITES and that of regional fishing agreements and of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
 
If Australia’s request is approved, CITES would begin to participate in the regulation of stocks of fish with great commercial value, said Michael Williams, spokesman for the convention’s secretariat. FAO and regional fishing agreements
generally focus on yields, exploitation and changes taking place in the fishing industry, while CITES is concerned with
environmental aspects linked to the protection of species. The conference in Santiago will also discuss the situation of the African elephant.
 
Several countries in southern Africa are seeking authorisation to make a one-time sale of existing legal ivory stocks, to be followed by the establishment of annual quotas. CITES, which banned ivory sales for eight years, permitted Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to make a one-off sale of legal raw ivory stocks in 1997. Botswana is now asking to be allowed to make a one-time sale of 20 000 kilos and to be assigned an annual quota of 4 000 kilos, Namibia 10 000 kilos now and an annual quota of 2 000 kilos, South Africa 30 000 kilos and a quota of 2 000 kilos, and Zimbabwe 10 000 kilos and an annual quota of 5 000 kilos. In addition, Zambia, wants to sell 17 000 kilos.
 
India and Kenya, however, want all populations of African elephants to be transferred to Appendix I. Facing off in the debate on the protection of elephants are those who argue that local communities would benefit from the income from ivory sales, and those who are worried that authorising any exports would fuel poaching. Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, meanwhile, want to be allowed to sell more wool from the vicuña, a wild member of the Camelidae family that lives in the Andes at altitudes of between 3 000 and 5 000 metres.
 
The population of vicuñas in Latin America increased from 82 539 in 1981 to 227 201 in 2001, thanks to policies aimed at protecting the species. The total number of vicuñas in Argentina climbed from 8 155 to 33 414, in Bolivia from 4 493 to 56 383, in Chile from 7 990 to 16 899, in Ecuador from none to 1 827, and in Peru from 61 896 to 118 678. Cuba wants the hawksbill turtle to be transferred from Appendix I to Appendix II, which would allow it to sell stocks of around 7 800 kilos of shells accumulated as part of a conservation and management programme carried out by the Cuban government from 1993 to 2002.
 
Meanwhile, a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Traffic warned of the increase in trafficking of wildlife by organisations dedicated to other illegal activities, such as drug trafficking cartels and the so-called Russian mafia.
“Organised crime groups get involved in the most lucrative areas of illegal wildlife trade, such as caviar smuggling,” using routes established for the trafficking of people, small weapons and illegal drugs, they said. In Britain, 50 percent of those prosecuted for trafficking wild species already had criminal records, the report noted. “In Brazil, recent estimates suggest that up to 40 per cent of illegal drug shipments are combined with wildlife,” the groups added.
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Daily News
Commonwealth seeks to tackle political impasse, starvation in Zimbabwe 
 
6/20/02 10:21:13 AM (GMT +2)
 
 
 
DAR ES SALAAM – Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said on Tuesday Zimbabwe’s efforts to solve its internal political problems had stalled and it was up to a three-nation Commonwealth task force to address the situation.
 
 
 
“The Zimbabwean political problem still remains,” McKinnon told reporters after meeting President Benjamin Mkapa on a visit to Tanzania.
 
“It is also recognised that the reconciliation process between the two main parties has not resumed as wished.”
 
He was referring to stalled efforts between the ruling Zanu PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) aimed at restoring peace and economic stability in the country after controversial presidential election in March.
 
The Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe for a year on 19 March after the group’s observers and the opposition reported serious flaws in President Mugabe’s re-election.
 
The decision was recommended by a Commonwealth task force that is in charge of Zimbabwe policy: the so-called troika of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
 
Mugabe was declared the winner of the election. Reconciliation talks began between the two parties, but Zanu PF later suspended the discussions until the country’s courts rule on an MDC challenge to the result.
 
McKinnon said the political situation not withstanding, the country required humanitarian aid to assist thousands of Zimbabweans facing starvation.
 
“The drought and the famine are something we have to address on another track completely,” he said.”Despite the fact that Zimbabwe is somewhat offside with different donor countries, sometimes you have to put such differences aside.
 
We are talking about a lot of people needing a lot of food and the more support that can be given, so much the better.”
 
About half of Zimbabwe’s 12 million people are starving and the food shortages have been compounded by political turmoil following the chaotic land resettlement exercise. – Reuter
 
 
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Daily News
Lower Gweru councillors implicated in maize scandal 
 
6/20/02 10:40:54 AM (GMT +2)
 
 
From Our Correspondent in Gweru
 
Three Zanu PF councillors in Lower Gweru were last week implicated in a $600 000 drought relief maize scandal after they allegedly diverted 200 bags of maize intended for starving villagers and resold it on the black market.
 
 
 
The three were briefly detained at Maboleni police post but were released without charge, much to the chagrin of villagers in Nkawana, Lower Gweru Mission and Nyama wards.
 
The councillors represent the three wards. The alleged racket, according to villagers, involved 200 bags of maize with a parallel market value of $600 000.
 
It is alleged that villagers who failed to produce Zanu PF cards had their maize allocation resold at $3 000 a bag by the councillors.
 
The Grain Marketing Board’s (GMB) selling price is $1 060 a bag. Each family is entitled to a bag of maize per month under the government’s drought relief programme.
 
More than 200 people had their maize allocation withdrawn last month after they failed to produce Zanu PF party membership cards, said the villagers.
 
An angry John Ntini said: “These councillors are starving us so that they coerce us to vote for them in the forthcoming rural council elections.
 
“However, we will not do that because everyone is suffering and fed up with what they are doing.”
 
“How can a Zanu PF party card be used to determine who gets maize?” Renson Gasela, the MP for Gweru Rural (MDC) said his party offices was inundated with party supporters complaining they were denied maize by GMB officials and councillors.
 
“We have even submitted these reports to the governor’s office”, Gasela said.
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Daily News
Brutalised . . . 
 
6/20/02 10:55:56 AM (GMT +2)
 
 
 
DAILY News staffers, reporter Guthrie Munyuki, photographer Urginia Mauluka and driver Shadreck Mukwecheni, who were arrested on Sunday in a riot police swoop on an MDC meeting to commemorate International Youth Day, were taken to Harare Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday together with 84 others, to answer to charges of alleged public violence.
 
 
 
The accused persons, some of then nursing serious injuries sustained in alleged police beatings, were a sorry sight after spending nearly two days in police cells at Harare Central Police Station. Also among the accused was Munyaradzi Gwisai, the Member of Parliament for Highfield constituency, who was reportedly seriously assaulted by the police. Daily News photographer, Aaron Ufumeli was on hand at the Harare Magistrates’ Court to take the pictures that follow.
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Daily News
Arrested MDC supporters accuse police of torture 
 
6/20/02 10:53:08 AM (GMT +2)
 
 
By Pedzisayi Ruhanya Chief Reporter
 
Several MDC supporters arrested by the police on Sunday, said on Tuesday they were tortured by Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) officers at Harare Central Police Station. Three Daily News staffers were also brutally assaulted before they were arrested on Sunday, as they went to cover the International Youth Day meeting of the MDC. Guthrie Munyuki, a reporter, Urginia Mauluka, a photographer, and driver Shadreck Mukwecheni had swellings on parts of their bodies from the beatings.
 
 
 
Munyuki’s right hand sustained torn tissues – not a fracture as earlier feared. The police denied him access to medical attention. Mauluka said her right ear could have been damaged after she was assaulted with a baton. “They attacked me with batons and clenched fists,” she said. “I feel pain on most parts of my body. The police accused us of covering the MDC meeting. They destroyed my digital camera.” Mukwecheni said his buttocks were swollen from the beatings while his left hand sustained an injury.
 
Groups of about 30 detainees were thrown into a single cell designed to hold six people. Among those arrested when the riot police stormed into the offices of the MDC in Harare were two pregnant women who complained they were wrongfully arrested and detained, because they were not MDC members. Stewart Mukoyi, an MDC activist, said he was taken to hospital in Harare on Monday night where a doctor confirmed his backbone had been injured from the beatings. He was struggling to walk and speak on Tuesday. “As you can see, my backbone is injured. I was thoroughly assaulted with batons by the riot police,” Mukoyi said.
 
Charles Marima, the councillor for Kuwadzana’s Ward 37, said he was taken from the cells on Sunday night, with three others, blindfolded by a CIO agent and beaten up. “We were taken into the basement where we were assaulted by CIO agents while blindfolded and later taken back to the cells. “They accused us of organising a march in the city. I denied the allegations,” Marima said. Munyaradzi Gwisai, the MP for Highfield, was another victim of the brutal assaults by the arresting police. He said they only stopped beating him when they arrived at the police station. “However they treat us, this regime must know that the struggle against the abuse of our rights will continue,” said Gwisai. “We will not rest until we attain all our fundamental freedoms.” More than 70 MDC activists were arrested as they tried to organise a meeting to mark the International Youth Day. They are charged with contravening a section of the draconian Public Order and Security Act.
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Daily News
Clinic closed as nurses flee terror 
 
6/20/02 10:24:14 AM (GMT +2)
 
 
From Energy Bara in Masvingo
 
NYAGAMBU clinic in Zaka was on Tuesday temporarily closed after nurses were chased away by suspected Zanu PF supporters as a fresh wave of political violence sweeps across the district.
 
 
 
Leading the terror campaign is a war veteran identified as Vaina Rukwava, who has ordered all civil servants suspected of being supporters of the opposition MDC to leave the area ahead of rural district council elections scheduled for August and September this year.
 
On Monday, a group of suspected Zanu PF supporters descended on the clinic and ordered all nursing staff to leave.
 
The suspected war veterans accused the victims of denying some patients treatment because they allegedly belong to the ruling party.
 
Fearing for their lives, the nurses fled, prompting the temporary closure of the clinic. One of the victims, who refused to be named, said: “The level of victimisation is very high and the affected people are no longer safe.”
 
He said the war veterans had compiled a list of names of people they suspected to be MDC supporters. The clinic offers medical services to people from Nhema, Rusere, Padare and Nyagambu villages.
 
The Masvingo provincial medical director, Tapuwa Magure, through his secretary yesterday said he would only respond to written questions.
 
In a related development, some teachers from Museki and Nhema primary schools have also been ordered to leave the area. Obert Mujuru, the Masvingo regional director for education, refused to comment.
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Daily News
MP arrested for allegedly addressing cancelled rally 
 
6/20/02 11:05:27 AM (GMT +2)
 
 
From Chris Gande in Bulawayo
 
ABEDNICO Bhebhe, the Nkayi MP, spent the night in police cells in Bulawayo on Sunday after he was arrested for allegedly addressing an illegal rally. Bhebhe was released on Monday morning without being charged. He was arrested at Bulawayo Central Police Station while visiting another MDC MP, Thokozani Khuphe who had been arrested earlier on the same day.
 
 
 
The police accused Bhebhe of having addressed an International Youth Day rally meant to mark the 16 June 1976 Soweto Uprising.
 
It turned out that Bhebhe was at a funeral at the time that he was alleged to have addressed the rally. Bhebhe said he received a call from Khuphe that she and three other MDC leaders, Gertrude Mthombeni, a national executive member, Linda Mathuthuka, and Dumiso Mbambo, had been detained by the police. “I was at a football match when I received the call,” said Bhebhe.
 
“I later went to Bulawayo Central Police Station and when I asked to see the four ladies, police told me they had been looking for me,” he said. He was then thrown into the cells while the four women were later released. Bhebhe said he had only been listed as one of the speakers at the aborted rally. Thamsanqa Ncube, the MDC provincial youth chairman, said they had notified the police of their intention to hold the commemoration. They only received a response from the police last Friday.
 
In their response police said: “This office is unable to sanction the youth festival due to lack of adequate resources. Our personnel have already been committed elsewhere.” But dozens of police officers and soldiers turned up at the venue of the rally. “The festival was not a political rally,” said Bhebhe. “We wanted youths from various political parties to take part in the festival.” Last year the day was observed without incident.
 
Khuphe and the other women on Monday appeared before a Bulawayo magistrate, Elizabeth Rutsate and were remanded out of custody on $1 000 each. They were charged with “addressing a gathering, conducive to riot and disorder” under the Public
Order and Security Act Section 19. They will appear in court on 1 July.
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Daily News
Think-tank warns of looming internal conflict 
 
6/20/02 10:54:39 AM (GMT +2)
 
 
By Nyasha Nyakunu Deputy News Editor
 
Zimbabwe is on the threshold of serious internal conflict as threats of popular mass action against President Robert Mugabe’s government loom on the horizon, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels-based think-tank.
In a 32-page dossier on the unfolding crisis, ICG, says: “As the opposition considers mass protests, the prospect of serious internal conflict is becoming imminent with grave implications for the stability of the wider southern African region.” The ICG, a multi-national organisation committed to assisting the international community to anticipate, understand and act to prevent and contain conflict, however warns the MDC of playing into the hands of the ruling Zanu PF.
 
 
 
“Since President Mugabe and his Zanu PF party stole the presidential election . . . Zimbabwe’s situation has become progressively worse. There is further violence against the political opposition, greater repression of the media, increasing economic desperation, and, most dangerous of all, less patience that constructive change can come through normal political channels,” says the ICG report. Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader has warned that popular uprising to force a rerun of the disputed presidential election won by Mugabe was inevitable especially at a time when the country is facing its worst food shortages.
 
“Every indication is that this would produce a sharp Zanu PF response that would set off a cycle of much more serious domestic conflict, refugees across borders and further economic decline. “In these circumstances, it is vital for the international community to focus its efforts with renewed urgency on defusing the immediate crisis,” says the ICG report.
The ICG noted that South Africa and Nigeria which brokered the abortive talks between Zanu PF and MDC, had “considerable leverage” to push the ruling party to improve the negotiating environment by ending the widespread violence for which it is responsible. The ICG report recommends that South Africa and Nigeria should adopt a more assertive stance on Harare, and be prepared to end diplomatic support for Mugabe if Zanu PF does not cease violence and to isolate in Africa, whichever side negotiates in bad faith.
 
The report comes at time when the government has launched repressive crackdowns on MDC activities which have seen hundreds of opposition supporters being arrested. On Sunday the riot police brutally assaulted and arrested 85 people mostly supporters of the MDC attending a rally in central Harare. Three Daily News staffers, Guthrie Munyuki, Urginia Mauluka and Shadreck Mukwecheni, were caught in the fray when the riot policemen armed with AK rifles, baton sticks, and tear gas canisters, descended on two unsuspecting crowds in Africa Unity Square and Number 8 Mbuya Nehanda Street, the MDC provincial offices.
 
Nearly 170 MDC supporters were beaten up and arrested in Birchenough Bridge, Chipinge North, last Thursday after attending their party’s gathering in the area. Against that backdrop, the ICG criticised the international community for being passive and warned time may be “running out rapidly” to prevent serious bloodshed that could lead to major conflict in the country. The ICG recommends among other measures engaging Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan president and close ally of Mugabe, to end material support that reinforces the Zanu PF leader’s intransigence.
 
The European Union and the United States were also urged to investigate and expose assets held by Zanu PF officials abroad.
In the same vein, the New Partnership for Africa’s development initiative to integrate the continent into the world economy, should be linked to more vigorous efforts by African governments to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis. “Zimbabwe’s friends, beginning with its immediate neighbours, but extending throughout the continent and to the powerful states of the EU and the US, need to use the political and economic tools at their disposal – persuasion, pressures, and inducements – and focus them narrowly to reverse the direction events are taking.
 
“Specifically, they need to get Zanu PF and the MDC away from the streets, back to the table, and into serious negotiations about how to restructure the political system and produce new elections under suitable guarantees and within a reasonable time period,” recommends the report.
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Daily News
Tension grips UZ campus 
 
6/20/02 10:25:44 AM (GMT +2)
 
 
Staff Reporter
 
TENSION has gripped the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) after a group of armed policemen stormed the campus on Tuesday and foiled fresh elections for a new president of the Students’ Executive Council (SEC).
 
 
 
Students said yesterday there was now an uneasy atmosphere on campus, as armed policemen, some in plainclothes, continued to mill around.
 
The policemen allegedly stormed into a hall where the students were holding the elections and took away most of the ballot material.
 
They arrested, at gunpoint, nine student leaders, including Nkululeko Sibanda, the president of the Zimbabwe National Students’ Union, who was conducting the elections.
 
The arrested students were released yesterday morning without charges being preferred against them.
 
The elections followed a vote of no confidence in the former president of the SEC, Emmanuel Nyambuya, whom the students accused of siding with the university administration.
 
Nyambuya was voted into office in April but the Students’ Representative Assembly, the regulatory body of the SEC, passed a vote of no confidence in him three weeks ago.
 
During voting on Tuesday, when the police stormed the campus and allegedly took away some of the voting material, the students had already elected Denford Damba, a Social Science student, as their president.
 
The acting president, Tafadzwa Machirori, yesterday confirmed the tense situation at the UZ, where he said the police had taken a leading role in creating a uneasy atmosphere.
 
“There is nothing wrong in students holding elections on campus, so we clearly wonder whether that has anything to do with the police,” he said.
 
The students, who are in the middle of examinations, described as disturbing the unusually high presence of the police on the campus.
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Rusbridger urges papers to boycott Mugabe's fees
 
Jean Morgan
 
Posted 20 June 2002 00:00 GMT
 

 
Rusbridger, left, has called for a media boycott of Mugabe's charges
 
Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has called for a total Western media boycott of the Zimbabwe Government’s plan to bring in charges for reporting the country’s affairs.
 
This week’s report of the announcement by President Robert Mugabe’s Government that newspapers and broadcasters, freelances and agencies will have to pay a sizeable fee to be registered and accredited under new media laws has produced diverse reactions from the UK press.
 
The Government’s proposals go further, saying that Zimbabwean and international media organisations will also have to disclose detailed financial information and pay 0.5 per cent of the audited annual gross turnover of their local operations to a state-controlled media fund.
 
For freelances, the charge comes high, about £1,000 - which they are not guaranteed to get back if they are refused registration. A number of news organisations use Harare-based nationals as freelance correspondents.
 
Rusbridger said: “We ought to have an agreed boycott by all the papers not to pay at all. All Western newspapers and broadcast media should simply refuse to pay this weird form of tax. I would hope we can go to the International Press Institute and get an agreed international position where we just refuse to pay it.”
 
Leonard Doyle, foreign editor of The Independent, has said the paper will not pay but will “operate under the radar”.
 
Doyle said: “We have previously ignored Mugabe’s decrees. Our correspondent, Basildon Peta, is in exile from Zimbabwe and he is now accredited in South Africa as our regional correspondent. He is deeply plugged in across Zimbabwean society so he can report rather well from a distance. And we would send people in “under the radar” as we did last time round.
 
“We are not paying the charge. It doesn’t matter to us and we wouldn’t even get the application form.”
 
The Times is also thought highly unlikely to pay any charges but would not comment.
 
But at The Daily Telegraph, deputy foreign editor Francis Harris is taking a more pragmatic view. While not knowing yet whether the Telegraph would pay for accreditation for its correspondent Peta Thorneycroft, who has already been held in jail under the new laws, Harris said: “We pay in a number of countries to get our journalist registered so the principle is not necessarily objectionable - it’s the sum. It is just an awful lot of money but it costs us an awful lot of money to operate in an awful lot of places. The sum is so large it is obviously designed to drive out freelances who don’t have the backing of a news organisation. There can be no other sensible reason for charging such a sum of money.
 
“It is yet another sign that the Zimbabwean Government is terrified of allowing free and fair reporting of events inside the country and is doing everything in its power to make the life of news reporters extremely difficult. It’s depressing and repetitive but we just continue trying to report regardless.” Bosses of the major broadcast news organisations are believed to be holding private talks to discuss a joint approach to the proposed charges.
 
l The trial of Guardian correspondent Andrew Meldrum in Zimbabwe, for publishing a falsehood, has been adjourned for three weeks for the magistrate to consider a defence request to dismiss the charge.
 
On Tuesday three journalists, Daily News reporter Guthrie Munyuki, photographer Urginia Mauleke and freelance Newton Spicer, were charged with breaking the country’s security laws.
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Holyrood fears over stone link to Mugabe

By IAN SWANSON Scottish Political Editor

SIR DAVID STEEL was today challenged over fears that the Scottish Parliament could be aiding Robert Mugabe’s government in Zimbabwe by using granite from his country to clad the new building at Holyrood.

Tory finance spokesman David Davidson said it would tarnish the parliament if it was found that it was being built with material from a regime with such a bad human rights record.

He has tabled a question, asking Sir David, as Presiding Officer, whether any black granite being supplied for the new building is sourced from Zimbabwe and, if so, why Scottish material was not considered instead.

The cladding involves 9500 square metres of pale granite from Kemnay quarry in Aberdeenshire and a further 3800 square metres of black granite, which parliament officials say is coming from South Africa.

Caithness stone was considered instead and when that was rejected as unsuitable, the Scottish stone industry suggested whinstone, which is readily available in Scotland.

But instead the parliament opted for black granite, which is often used for headstones in cemeteries.

Today architectural writer David Black, author of a book on the Holyrood project, said he had been unable to establish the exact source for the black granite.

But he said: "I feel very confident this material is from Zimbabwe.

"The mountains there produce this wonderful black granite. It is high-quality durable material. Half the traffic on the roads in Zimbabwe is trucks with these big blocks of granite. It’s a product they are well known for and it is a big earner for Mugabe."

Mr Black said the stone industry was notorious for "bounced exports" where the original source of material was difficult to pin down.

He said: "They will fall over backwards to avoid it being from Zimbabwe, saying the paperwork shows it’s from South Africa, but there can easily be a stage further back.

"It is likely to be a broker in South Africa who is getting them a good price and the chances are it is quarried in Zimbabwe."

Mr Davidson said he had tabled his question in a bid to settle the issue.

He said: "A lot of black granite in Scotland does come from Zimbabwe and it is one of the export lines for Mugabe.

"If it’s true this is coming from Zimbabwe, it is fuelling his coffers. Do we really want the Scottish Parliament to be tarnished with that sort of connection?

Alan Bruce of Fyfe Glenrock, the Scottish company with the granite contract for the parliament, said it normally imported black granite direct from South Africa, but because of the tight timescale for this project, it had bought the stone from a stockyard in Italy.

But Mr Bruce said it had provided main contractors Bovis with paperwork to show where the stone came from.

"Yes, someone somewhere along the line could have swapped the material, but I don’t think it’s very likely," he said. "Everyone is aware of the sensitivity of it coming from China or India or Zimbabwe or wherever."

Another stone industry insider said the only definite way to resolve the issue of the granite’s origins was to carry out a chemical analysis.

A Scottish Parliament spokesman insisted the black granite for the new building came from a known and identifiable quarry in South Africa and none of it came from Zimbabwe.

He said: "All of it is traceable and I am assured there is no question any of it came from any other quarry."

He added that the South African stone was nearly 20 per cent cheaper.
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Uncertainty As Deadline Looms For Farm Acquisitions
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
June 20, 2002
Posted to the web June 20, 2002
Johannesburg

Zimbabwe's farm owners and farmworkers are in the grip of uncertainty as the
government's deadline approaches for the country's mainly white commercial
farmers to down tools and leave their land.
From 25 June the first wave of farmers whose land has been earmarked for
acquisition will, by law, have to stop farming. They will then have 45 days
to wind up their affairs and leave the property.
As the hours tick closer, farmers and farmworkers face an uncertain future
in a country where up to six million people already face the spectre of not
having enough food to last until the next harvest.
Clemence Fungai, of Zimbabwe's General Agricultural and Plantation Workers
Union, said: "We are in a quandary - we don't know what is going to happen,
how we are going to be affected. We have to wait and see. If [farmowners]
can't farm, farmworkers' employment will be terminated there and then."
Fungai said that though the law was clear on when farmers had to stop
working, and made provision for a fine or a jail term for those who flouted
the law, it was not clear if farmworkers would be allowed to continue
working without censure.
He said that in addition to the uncertainty over work, farm schools would
close.
For many children, a farm school is their only source of education. If their
parents are unemployed they won't have money to attend other schools.
Fungai spoke to IRIN during a break at a meeting with the Agricultural
Labour Bureau (ALB) where compensation for farmers and farmworkers was being
discussed.
ALB spokesman Ewen Rodger said not many farmers had received compensation
from the government yet, and so were unable to pay their workers anything
when they were forced to stop farming.
"The compensation package [determined by government] is costly for farmers
so most can't pay it from their own resources," he said.
Estimates of the number of people who will be affected by the acquisiton
notices vary. Rodger estimated that about 150,000 farmworkers, each with a
family of five, could be affected by the first wave. As this was the
traditional "off season", the figure was slightly lower than normal.
Tim Neill, director of the Zimbabwe Community Development Trust (ZCDT), said
a study was currently underway to determine how many farmers had been served
the Section 8 notice and how many farmworkers would be affected.
"We are running advertisements in newspapers asking for Section 8 farmers to
contact us to find out what is happening. We don't yet know how many people
will be affected but there is an upper limit of two million people. After
June 25 we will know."
Most farmers were still deciding whether to disobey the order to stop
farming in three months' time, and risk a fine and possible jail sentence,
or to just leave.
At a workshop in May, AFP reported Lands Minister Joseph Made as saying the
government had so far taken 7.4 million hectares of land and divided it
among 210,520 black families for small-scale farming.
Another 54,000 people had applied for land under a scheme aimed at taking
entire commercial farms and giving them to black owners, but only 13,000 had
so far been allocated farms, Made was quoted as saying.
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Daily News

      WAN appeals to Mugabe to stop Meldrum trial

      6/20/02 11:02:55 AM (GMT +2)


      Staff Reporter

      The Paris-based World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and World
Editors' Forum have appealed to President Mugabe to end the trial of the
Harare-based American journalist Andrew Meldrum, and to repeal the country's
restrictive Press legislation.




      In a letter to Mugabe, who won another six year term as president in a
controversial and violence-marred election in March, the two media
organisations said the prosecution of Meldrum, who works for the British
newspaper The Guardian, "constitutes a clear breach of his right to freedom
of expression".

      The letter said in part: "According to reports, Meldrum is charged
with 'abusing journalistic privilege by publishing falsehoods' under the
recently enacted Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Mr
Meldrum pleaded not guilty to knowingly publishing false information without
verifying the facts. The prosecution of Mr Meldrum is widely seen as a test
case for the new restrictive media law. If convicted, he could face up to
two years in prison or a fine of about US$1 800 (Z$99 000).

      "The story that led to the prosecution was published in The Guardian
in April. Mr Meldrum reported on an article that had appeared in the
Zimbabwean newspaper The Daily News, which claimed that a woman had been
decapitated in front of her children by supporters of the ruling Zanu PF.
The account was confirmed at the time by a man claiming to be the dead woman
's husband and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
"However, doubts have since been raised about the credibility of the husband
and the MDC has admitted to possibly having been tricked.

      "We respectfully remind you that even if the published story proves to
be ungrounded, the criminal prosecution of Mr Meldrum constitutes a clear
breach of his right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by
numerous international agreements, including the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states: "Everyone has the right
to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to
hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers.

      "We respectfully call on you to do everything possible to ensure that
that all charges against Mr Meldrum and 12 other journalists arrested under
the new media law are dropped. We urge you to ensure that the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act is quickly repealed and that in
future, your country fully respects international standards of freedom of
expression."

      The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper
industry, defends and promotes Press freedom worldwide.It represents 18 000
newspapers and its membership includes 71 national newspaper associations,
individual newspaper executives in 100 countries, 13 news agencies and nine
regional and worldwide Press groups.
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Daily News

      MDC officials' cars impounded

      6/20/02 10:44:24 AM (GMT +2)


      From Our Correspondent in Mutare

      MANICALAND police last week impounded four vehicles belonging to the
MDC including that of Leonard Chirowamhangu, the MP for Nyanga, suspecting
the cars were used to commit acts of post-election violence in the province.
Chirowamhangu's Nissan Hardbody was on Monday being held at Mutare Central
Police Station while the other three were at Chisumbanje Police Station.




      Of the three, one, a Mazda 626, belongs to James Mukwaya, the MDC's
provincial organising secretary, arrested last week for allegedly organising
an MDC indoor meeting at Mapari Resort, Bikita. Mukwaya was part of the 138
MDC members granted bail by a Chipinge magistrate on Monday. Pishai
Muchauraya, MDC's spokesman in Manicaland, said: "Chirowamhangu was stopped
by the police near Mutare Teachers' College and asked to disembark from his
car. Out of the blue, they said they suspected his vehicle was used in
violent acts in the province and impounded it. This is intolerable
harassment by the police. We have had enough. All this has to stop."

      Muchauraya said of the three impounded vehicles in Chipinge South, two
were stopped at Birchenough Bridge and the other at Chisumbanje. "This is
ridiculous," he said. "In Chisumbanje, the vehicles are under the watchful
eye of Assistant Inspector Chinyoka." Edmund Maingire, Manicaland's police
spokesman, could not be reached for comment. A policeman at Mutare Central
said: "We have also been trying to locate him, but we understand he is
operating from another building in the city. We are yet to establish his
contact number." Chirowamhangu's family has been subjected to post-election
violence allegedly perpetrated by war veterans and Zanu PF youths.

      His wife, Angeline, a teacher at Sedze Primary School, three weeks ago
asked the Zimbabwe Teachers' Association (Zimta) to assist her secure a
transfer from the school, after alleged persistent harassment by Zanu PF
cadres. Ngaaite Zimunya, Zimta's principal, confirmed receiving the report.
He said: "She cited politically motivated intimidation of her family and
herself as the reason for seeking the transfer."
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MSNBC

Trial of Zimbabwe journalist put back to July



HARARE, June 20 - A Harare court agreed to a prosecutor's request on
Thursday to defer the trial of a Zimbabwean journalist accused of publishing
''falsehoods'' under the country's tough new media laws.
       Lloyd Mudiwa, a reporter for the independent Daily News, has been
charged with writing a false story alleging that President Robert Mugabe's
supporters had beheaded a woman in a rural district last year.
       Mudiwa's trial was due to start on Thursday, but prosecutor Thabani
Mpofu asked the magistrates' court in Harare for a postponement to July 22
to allow the state to try Mudiwa, along with his editor, Geoff Nyarota, who
faces the same charges.
       The Daily News has said the beheading story was false and apologised.
Neither of the accused has yet been asked to plead.
       The government has adopted new media laws which critics say severely
curtail press freedom. Eleven journalists have been arrested for alleged
''abuse of journalistic privilege.''
       Mugabe signed the measures into law days after winning re-election in
March polls condemned by the opposition and some Western governments as
fraudulent.
       Andrew Meldrum, a U.S. journalist working for Britain's Guardian
newspaper in Zimbabwe, went on trial on June 12 on a charge of publishing
falsehoods after reproducing the Daily News story.
       Meldrum's trial was postponed on Tuesday to July 12 after his lawyer
asked the judge to dismiss the case, saying it was built on an unjust law
and that Zimbabwe was seeking to extend its laws outside the country.
       Meldrum, a 50-year-old native of Hudson, Ohio, has pleaded not
guilty. If convicted, he faces a heavy fine or up to two years in jail.
       The government says the false story was part of a Western-backed
campaign to damage Mugabe's image.
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MBENDI

      USAID names Weisenfeld new mission director for Zimbabwe
      Paul E. Weisenfeld was sworn in as the Mission Director for Zimbabwe
today at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Headquarters
in Washington, D.C., by Administrator Andrew S. Natsios.

      In Zimbabwe, USAID's program seeks to mitigate the HIV/AIDS crisis,
enhance citizens' participation in economic and political decision-making,
and expand economic opportunities for disadvantaged groups. USAID is
currently focused on alleviating the food security crisis in southern
Africa. While Zimbabwe was once a top agricultural exporter in Africa, the
crisis, attributed to a combination of failed government policies and
actions and a drought, is particularly severe there. To date, USAID has
provided nearly 43,000 metric tons of food to the nation at a value of over
$27 million.

      The new mission director joined USAID as an attorney in 1991. In 1995,
Weisenfeld served as the agency's resident legal adviser in South Africa for
four years. Prior to his assignment to Zimbabwe Weisenfeld served as legal
director for USAID's Egypt mission.

      Weisenfeld received a B.A. in political science from the Queens
College of the City University of New York and graduated from Harvard Law
School in 1987.


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Daily News

      Independent journalists vow

      6/20/02 10:56:57 AM (GMT +2)


      Staff Reporter

      INDEPENDENT Press journalists on Tuesday resolved not to seek
accreditation under the repressive Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA). At a meeting in Harare convened by the Independent
Journalists Association of Zimbabwe (IJAZ), the journalists unanimously
agreed to mount a legal challenge on the stipulation while simultaneously
defying the requirement to register under AIPPA, crafted by Information and
Publicity Minister, Jonathan Moyo.



      Thirty-five journalists attended the meeting, which was chaired by
IJAZ president Abel Mutsakani. Under the controversial and oppressive law,
media houses and journalists are required to register with a government
appointed Media Commission, which is chaired by Tafataona Mahoso, a
pro-government columnist heading the Department of Mass Communication at the
Harare Polytechnic.

      Journalists were supposed to have started registering on Sunday, a
move the journalists said was unconstitutional. AIPPA has been selectively
used to arrest independent journalists since its enactment in March this
year.
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Daily News

      ICFTU slams government for rights violations

      6/20/02 10:45:12 AM (GMT +2)


      Chief Reporter

      ZIMBABWE has been accused of killing and harassing trade unionists by
the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).



      In its annual survey on trade union rights violations, covering 132
countries, the ICFTU said Zimbabwe contributed three deaths to the 223 cases
of murdered or "disappeared" trade unionists last year, 14 more than in
2000.

      The report released on Tuesday said: "Similarly, on the African
continent, where there is a serious democratic deficit, the incipient war
between the public authorities and the unions has also led to many arrests,
intimidation and the loss of lives.

      "This has been the case in Zimbabwe where three strikers from a steel
firm were murdered. Swaziland is also in the running of the title of African
champion of anti-union repression."

      Last August, three workers of the Redcliff-based Zimbabwe Iron and
Steel Company, were shot dead when the police drove out striking workers
from the premises.

      A fourth worker, Elias Marwodzi died of pneumonia allegedly caused by
inhaling excessive amounts of tear gas smoke.

      The workers were demanding a 400 percent salary increase. Under the
draconian Public Order and Security Act, trade unions are not allowed to
organise protests without police authority.

      Recently the High Court intervened to stop the police from attending
meetings of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

      The ICFTU, representing 157 million workers in 255 affiliated
organisations in 148 countries, said 4 000 trade unionists were arrested, 1
000 injured and 10 000 sacked from their jobs.

      The organisation cited China as one of the worst countries in the
violation of trade union rights last year.

      It said: "The Chinese trade unionist, Yao Guisheng, sentenced to 15
years' forced labour based on totally false accusations, ended up losing his
mind after having been beaten and confined to a cell.

      "In China, any attempt to create a free trade union can be rewarded
with a huge prison sentences and even life imprisonment, interspersed with
unbearable conditions of detention."

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Daily News

      NGO says Zimbabwe crisis crucial to Nepad debate

      6/20/02 10:42:27 AM (GMT +2)


      Chief Reporter

      CRISIS in Zimbabwe, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has said
the Zimbabwean question should remain foremost in the New Partnership for
Africa's Development (Nepad) debate.



      The NGO groups together civic society organisations. In a resolution
this week, Crisis in Zimbabwe said such a debate would provide a litmus test
of the credibility of the programme, "given the prevailing crisis of
governance and legitimacy facing the country".

      The resolution was made on Tuesday at the end of a two-day
consultative workshop to consider a Zimbabwean position on Nepad.

      Nepad is a combination of South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki's
Millennium Partnership for African Recovery Programme and Senegal's
Abdoulaye Wade's Omega Plan.

      Kagoro said: "Delegates called upon the business community to finance
the widespread circulation of the Nepad document.

      They also called upon civil society's numerous sectors to take the
Nepad debate to the grassroots for the purposes of mobilising them and
making them aware of the programme.

      He said the delegates declared that the government should clearly
state its position on Nepad.

      Kagoro said that participants felt that Nepad constituted a serious
departure from participatory methods of policy formulation.

      "It is a document that was formulated by a few African heads of state.
"The process marginalised the peoples of Africa and thus represents a
top-down approach to policy formulation.

      "Furthermore, Nepad is a document crafted and intended specifically
for consumption by the West, namely the G8 group," he said.

      Kagoro said the delegates accused Nepad of ignoring the important
roles of women in the economy, thereby trivialising their actual and
potential contribution to Africa's future development.

      "The patronising tone that comes through in the loose, lip-service
reference paid to issues related to empowering women reflects an attitude of
a paternalistic leadership that is not really committed to improving the
condition of women," he said.

      Notwithstanding these weaknesses, Nepad was said to offer unique
opportunities for Zimbabwean citizens to engage the government and other
African governments on issues of political and economic governance and
gender equity in human development, the group resolved.

      Nepad seeks to target yearly investments of US$64 billion (Z$3 520
billion) from developed countries to revive ailing African economies.

Daily News

      Tongogara to observe World Refugee Day

      6/20/02 10:59:05 AM (GMT +2)


      From Our Correspondent in Mutare

      TONGOGARA refugee camp in Chipinge today joins the international
community in observing the United Nations World Refugee Day. Zimbabwe is
home to about 9 500 refugees mainly from Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Congo Republic, Somalia, Ethiopia, Liberia and Sierra
Leone.



      About 800 refugees are at Tongogara camp, with some engaged in
income-generating projects. John Adu of the United Nations High Commission
for Refugees head of office in Zimbabwe, said the theme for this year's
Refugee Day is "refugee woman".

      "The parallel themes are 'positive contributions of refugees' and 'a
shared responsibility'," he said. Adu said in any civilian exodus, women and
children made up an estimated 75 percent of a refugee population. At
Tongogara camp, some women refugees have managed to discard the refugee
stigma and are engaged in thriving income-generating projects.

      Sidate Kashamara from Burundi runs a thriving cotton-growing venture.
Other women run tuck shops. Adu said some of the activities lined up for the
World Refugee Day include drama, cultural displays, and soccer and netball
competitions. Government officials and representatives of non-governmental
organisations are expected to attend.

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