Zim Online
Wednesday 14 March 2007
By Farisai Gonye and Brian
Ncube
HARARE - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is considering a tough
security
plan that could see the troubled southern African country placed
under a
state of emergency within the coming month, ZimOnline has
learnt.
Zimbabwe is on a knife-edge following violent protests by the
main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party and civic groups
over
the past month that have left at least one person dead.
The
political tensions rose a gear up last weekend with the arrest of
opposition
leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara as well as
National
Constitutional Assembly chairman Lovemore Madhuku.
Tsvangirai and Madhuku
and several other leaders were heavily assaulted
while in police custody
after they called a prayer rally in Highfield suburb
in defiance of a police
ban on rallies and demonstrations imposed last
month.
At a meeting
attended at Mugabe's Munhumutapa offices in Harare on Thursday,
Mugabe is
said to have pushed for the immediate declaration of a state of
emergency
that would give the state extra powers to effect mass jailing of
Mugabe's
opponents.
Mugabe was however dissuaded from taking that route by his
security chiefs
who felt the action would be too drastic and would send the
wrong signals to
the international community.
"The meeting agreed
that the situation on the ground was very volatile and
now demanded stern
measures to control. CIO director-general (Happyton
Bonyongwe) agreed with
Mugabe and suggested that the best way to redress the
volatile situation
would be through declaration of a state of emergency.
"Bonyongwe said
such a move would scare the public and make them stay away
from active show
of anger towards the state," said an intelligence source.
Defence forces
chief Constantine Chiwenga, Air Force of Zimbabwe boss
Perence Shiri, army
commander Phillip Sibanda, Defence Minister Sydney
Sekeramayi, Home Affairs
Minister Kembo Mohadi and Vice President Joseph
Msika all attended the
meeting that stretched well into the night.
But the security ministers
are said to have told Mugabe to use "maximum
force without officially
declaring a state of emergency" saying Zimbabwe
would be viewed as unstable
even by fellow African countries if it declared
a state of
emergency.
Mugabe however insisted that a state of emergency remained an
option and
would monitor the situation for a month before deciding the next
course of
action.
At the same meeting, Mugabe appointed State
Security Minister and trusted
confidante Didymus Mutasa to oversee an
elaborate security plan designed to
counter opposition protests against his
rule.
Under the plan, the army and the police would with immediate effect
establish an active reserve force to deal with imminent opposition
protests.
"Part of it (the security plan) would see the boosting of
police and
military numbers through the immediate injection of manpower.
Mugabe has
made Mutasa his point man on this," said a
source.
Contacted for comment on Tuesday, Mutasa did not deny the
security plan only
saying: ""As security minister obviously my main concern
would be to ensure
that security prevails.
"Measures would be taken
at appropriate times in response to appropriate
situations. One thing for
suse, we will use any instrument necessary to
maintain peace and security.
We don't want to be another Somalia."
The new security plan is separate
from the already existing Joint Operations
Command that groups together
security chiefs from the army, intelligence and
the police.
"Mutasa
will be liaising with security bosses and briefing Mugabe on a daily
basis,"
said a source.
Mohadi refused to comment on the matter.
"I do not
know what you are talking about. Who told you about such a
meeting? Leave me
alone," he said before switching off his phone.
There are fears within
the government that current opposition protests could
easily turn into
full-fledged rebellion against Mugabe who is blamed for
plunging the
southern African country into an unprecedented economic
turmoil. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 14 March
2007
By Batsirai Muranje
HARARE - He sauntered
into court at exactly 1345hrs. He could hardly see
because his face was
heavily swollen, his half-shaved head clearly showing
the eight stitches
which armed ZANU PF thugs inflicted on his head during
Sunday's brutal
attacks.
As soon as a visibly bruised Morgan Tsvangirai entered Courtroom
Six,
leading a long queue of political and civic leaders, several people
wept
loudly. Another broke into a church song before police ordered the
courtroom
to be quiet.
A member of the Tsvangirai camp's national
executive, Ian Makone, who was
himself brutalised by the police during a
workers' union demonstration last
year, broke down at the sight of
Tsvangirai and had to be hurriedly led out
of court.
Silence gripped
the courtroom as the 46 arrested activists found their place
among the
chairs. It looked more of a hospital ward that a courtroom. In
fact, the
whole bruised lot deserved to be in hospital and not in a
courtroom.
Those who were seriously injured included Tsvangirai, the
National
Constitutional Assembly chairman Lovemore Madhuku, the MDC's deputy
national
treasurer, Elton Mangoma and deputy secretary for international
affairs
Grace Kwinje.
The usually "alive" Nelson Chamisa, the MDC's
spokesman, stood quietly in
the corner, all the energy and verve apparently
gone after two days of
detention in the grimy cells.
Sekai Holland,
usually talkative, remained mum even as fellow female
activists mobbed her
as she feebly acknowledged their greetings and words of
encouragement.
Kwinje had almost half of her right ear severed off
while her hands were a
deep purple from the savage assaults at the hands of
crack commandos in
police attire during her detention at Braeside police
station.
"They came for me. They were about four of them and they asked
what kind of
woman I was who could not stay at home and cook instead of
being involved in
politics.
"They assaulted me in my cell and left me
for dead. When I woke up, I could
hardly see and talk but at least I was
alive," Kwinje told ZimOnline as she
nibbled her obviously painful
ear.
"A cellmate, an elderly woman who appeared to be a staunch
Christian, then
took me in her arms and started singing a hymn. I slept in
her arms that
Sunday night."
Tsvangirai could only manage to mumble a
few words to the crowd, which
included his wife Susan, which mobbed him as
people waited for the trial to
begin.
"Let us all be strong. We will
get there. One can never subjugate the
collective spirit of the people
forever. We shall be strong," he said,
before he slumped on the
stoep.
Tsvangirai and his fellow political and civic detainees were all
arrested
last Sunday in Highfield after the police violently crushed a
prayer meeting
organised by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, a coalition of
political and civic
groups demanding political change in
Zimbabwe.
Police shot and killed an MDC activist during the violent
crackdown on the
prayer meeting.
The detainees were all brutally
assaulted at Machipisa police station, where
they were detained without
charge and denied access to legal and medical
assistance.
Tsvangirai,
who appeared to be the police's most prized possession,
reportedly lost
consciousness three times during the savage attacks which
witnesses say
lasted for about two hours.
It was indeed a somber moment that will
remain etched in the minds of the
500-strong crowd the thronged the
courtroom to hear the verdict for
Tsvangirai, Arhur Mutambara, the leader of
the other faction of the MDC, and
several senior opposition leaders and
civic activists.
Armed riot police, in full combat, stood guard both in
the courtroom and
outside.
Madhuku was visibly in pain, with his
right hand in a sling and his head
severely bandaged. Tsvangirai collapsed
on the prison stoep and had to be
helped to a sitting position by Mutambara.
It was a rare show of the "prison
unity" of the two leaders of the different
factions of the same party.
It appeared most of the opposition supporters
wished the solidarity and the
unity of their leaders in court yesterday
could be transferred outside the
courtroom and the prison walls.
They
appeared to say the two would do the nation a lot of good if they could
forge a formidable unit outside the courtroom by making sure there is one
united MDC.
Twice, Tsvangirai failed to sit up. Twice, Mutambara, who
appeared not to
have been seriously assaulted, helped him, patting his
shoulder for
encouragement.
More than twice, the two exchanged
whispers and ended up smiling and shaking
hands.
If only it could be
more than a courtroom gesture, the smiles from onlookers
in the courtroom
seemed to suggest.
Then the Zimbabwean justice system exposed itself once
more to the world.
For more than two hours, we all waited for the remand
hearing, hoping to
hear what crime these political civic and political
leaders had committed.
For more than two hours, nothing happened.
No
court official or magistrate turned up to kick off the hearing.
Then
Advocate Eric Matinenga, representing Tsvangirai and his colleagues,
stood
and told the courtroom that all the court officials had fled their
chambers.
There was no one to hear the case.
This was clearly in contempt of court.
On Monday night, High Court Judge
Chinembiri Bhunu had ruled that all the
arrested people should have access
to legal and medical assistance, failure
of which the State had to produce
all the detainees at 8am the following
morning.
The police neither gave the detainees access to medication and
legal
assistance, nor did they bring them before Bhunu by 8am as
ordered.
Bhunu had also ordered that they should be brought before a
magistrate
before 12pm, but they only turned up at 1345hrs. Another case of
contempt of
court.
Then there was no trial magistrate. Again, another
case of contempt of
court.
Welcome to Zimbabwe, where the wheels of
justice move so slowly that the
snail will be green with envy!
As the
bemused people in the courtroom wondered what would happen next, six
armed
riot policemen, President Robert Mugabe's dogs of war, viciously
charged
into the courtroom and ordered everyone to leave except the accused.
The
defence lawyers and the entire courtroom stood their ground and refused
to
budge. But the police had another ace up their sleeve. They simply left
the
courtroom and left Tsvangirai and his colleagues as well as the packed
courtroom to stay in the cramped courtroom for another two
hours!
After deliberations between the lawyers and the police, police
vans appeared
outside the courtroom.
The detainees were all whisked
away for medical treatment. Hundreds of
people outside the courtroom stood
in awe as the police vehicles drove off
with their prized
possessions.
They all seemed to be wondering if these brutal policemen
were really taking
them to hospital or to the gallows. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 14 March
2007
By Farisai Gonye
HARARE -
A crack Commando unit based at the army's Cranborne Barracks
in Harare was
responsible for the brutal torture of Morgan Tsvangirai and
other opposition
leaders on Sunday, according to a police officer who
witnessed the
assault.
The police officer, who is based at Machipisa Police
Station in
Highfield suburb, said Tsvangirai and the other opposition
leaders were
tortured for close to two hours by drugged soldiers disguised
as police
officers.
In an interview with ZimOnline on Tuesday,
the police officer who
cannot be named for security reasons, said: "I have
been in the police force
for three years, and I have been involved in the
assault of suspects.
"But what I saw on Sunday was not assault. It
was attempted murder,
especially on Tsvangirai, Madhuku and Kwinjeh (Grace,
the MDC deputy
secretary for international affairs)"
Tsvangirai
fainted three times during the murderous assault.
In a harrowing
narration of what transpired behind the police walls to
our correspondent in
Harare, the police officer, speaking in hushed tones,
said 12 Commandoes
from Cranborne Barracks were responsible for the assault.
Even
police officers were unnerved by the seriousness and brutality of
the
assault.
"They (soldiers) were dressed in police uniform and had
bloodshot
eyes. They told us they were police officers, but I managed to
identify them
as Commandoes because of the green army belts they were
wearing on top of
the uniforms.
"Only commandoes wear those.
One of them announced that they had
smoked a special grade of marijuana for
the special mission. I witnessed the
whole incident. Police officers from
Machipisa were not involved. We were
stunned at the
ruthlessness.
"They were shouting and telling Tsvangirai that they
could kill him on
that night and nothing would happen to them," said the
officer.
The police officer said the beatings started at 11.45pm
and lasted for
more than two hours.
"Tsvangirai was the first
to be attacked. They said they wanted to
show the others that they meant
business. Tsvangirai's colleagues openly
wept as their leader was being
beaten.
"I think they were feeling for Tsvangirai as well as
pondering their
own fate," he said.
Using sjamboks, army belts
and gun butts, the soldiers severely
attacked Tsvangirai until he passed
out, said the police officer.
"The soldiers then shifted attention
to the remaining suspects, as
one of the soldiers poured cold water all over
Tsvangirai to resuscitate
him. They came to the women, and identified Grace
Kwinjeh and Sekai Holland.
"The male soldiers began beating the
two, while their female
colleagues concentrated on Madhuku. The rest were
watching, awaiting their
turn.
"When Tsvangirai regained
consciousness, one of them shouted: 'Look
their boss is ready for more
action', and they all pounced on him again
until he passed out for the
second time.
"Tsvangirai regained consciousness again at around
1:30 am. One
vicious woman was left to work on him. She removed an army belt
from her
waist and used it to assault Tsvangirai until he passed out
again.
"I thought he was dead but she appeared unmoved. She simply
moved to
join her colleagues who were now indiscriminately beating the other
suspects.
"Mutambara was assaulted but not as severely as
Tsvangirai, Madhuku
and Kwinjeh."
One disabled MDC supporter
who was also detained together with
Tsvangirai and other leaders was so
severely assaulted that he begged the
soldiers to finish him
off.
"The guy was a sorry sight," he said.
Pleas by
the MDC leaders to stop beating the disabled man fell on deaf
ears with one
woman soldier retorting that it (beating) would teach him to
live without
challenging President Mugabe's authority.
In the early hours of
Monday, Tsvangirai and his colleagues, all
blindfolded, were bundled into a
police truck and dropped at different
police stations for detention, while
an army truck pulled up and picked the
soldiers, according to the police
source. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 14 March 2007
By
Sebastian Nyamhangambiri and Thabani Mlilo
HARARE - The remand hearing
for Morgan Tsvangirai and several other
opposition and civic leaders failed
to take place on Tuesday in clear
defiance of a High Court order demanding
the release of detained opposition
officials.
Tsvangirai and 48 other
opposition and civic leaders were still in police
custody yesterday despite
a High Court ruling on Monday ordering the police
to bring them to court at
8am yesterday or release them from custody.
The police however defied the
court order issued by Justice Chinembiri Bhunu
bringing the opposition
officials to court well after midday on Tuesday.
But court proceeding
could not begin as the opposition's defence lawyers
haggled with state
prosecutors demanding that their clients be allowed to
first seek medical
attention before the case could be heard.
There was tension outside court
as the police tried to prevent a restive
crowd of about 300 people from
entering the court.
Inside the court, people openly wept as a badly
bruised Tsvangirai, flanked
by Arthur Mutambara and Lovemore Madhuku led 48
other MDC and civic leaders
into court.
Tsvangirai looked exhausted
and kept his head low as he sat in court.
His right eye was swollen while
the other one looked bloodshot. Part of his
hair was shaved off revealing a
deep gash on the head.
Lovemore Madhuku, the chairperson of the National
Constitutional Assembly
pressure group, had his head bandaged.
But
the hearing failed to kick off as the lawyers and the prosecution
haggled
over matters of procedure.
Harare magistrate Guvamombe, who was supposed
to preside over the case, only
appeared at the court around 1630 saying he
was now ready to preside over
the case.
At around 6pm last night, the
defence lawyers walked out court accusing the
state of acting in bad
faith.
"I have never heard anything of that sort. This is against the
spirit of the
High Court order which said the accused must have been
released by midday,"
said Matinenga.
"We are likely to go to the High
Court to get a discharge order so that they
are discharged from the clinic,"
he added.
One of the accused collapsed in court forcing Florence Ziyambi
from the
Attorney General's office to halt proceedings.
An emergency
medical services company was called to ferry the accused to a
private
hospital in Harare.
Tsvangirai briefly addressed the media before he was
taken to hospital for
treatment vowing to press ahead with plans to confront
President Robert
Mugabe's government.
"It was a horrible attack but
the struggle continues," he said briefly.
Mutambara, who heads a rival
faction of the MDC, said: "We are going to
continue fighting. Mugabe is a
criminal. We will continue to defy all
draconian laws."
United States
ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell, speaking outside the
court said:
"It is quite clear that they were badly assaulted. The objective
was to
break them down. But the regime failed because their fighting spirit
is
still very high."
Britain's ambassador, Andrew Pocock, described the
beating of Tsvangirai and
other MDC leaders as a "ghastly"
attack.
"The situation looks pretty ghastly as they were badly beaten.
Tendai (Biti)
was beaten on the buttocks and legs. In fact this is worse
than the
September (2006) assault on ZCTU (Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union)
leaders," he said.
"It is quite clear that the government is under
pressure. If the objective
was to subdue them then it has failed because
they have not lost any of
their spirit. This was obviously intended to
frustrate them. Lovemore
(Madhuku) looks bouyant, Tendai (Biti) looks
cheerful," he said. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 14 March
2007
By Larry Valleta
JOHANNESBURG - The South African government last night ended its
"curious
silence" on President Robert Mugabe's brutality as it urged Harare
to
respect the rule of law and the rights of all Zimbabweans as
international
pressure mounted on Harare.
President Thabo Mbeki's government had
come under heavy criticism for
maintaining what critics described as a very
"curious silence" on Zimbabwe
after Movement for Democratic change (MDC)
leader Morgan Tsvangirai and
scores of other party activists were arrested
and brutally tortured by the
police and army.
Spokesman for
South Africa 's Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA),
Ronnie Mamoepa, had
enraged many when he issued a terse statement earlier in
the day saying
South Africa had "noted" the developments in Zimbabwe.
Mamoepa's
statement drew sharp criticism from the Congress of South
African Trade
Unions (COSATU) which said: "Such a response is disgraceful,
in the face of
such massive attacks on democracy and human rights,
especially coming from
those who owed so much to international solidarity
when South Africans were
fighting for democracy and human rights against the
apartheid
regime."
As international criticism of Mugabe's regime continued to
pour in
yesterday, South Africa's deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad then
issued a
more detailed and substantive statement.
"South Africa
expresses its concerns about these reports as well as
the deteriorating
political and economic situation in Zimbabwe. In this
regard, we are of the
view that the current difficulties are symptomatic of
the broader political
and economic challenges facing Zimbabwe " said Pahad.
"Accordingly,
South Africa has consistently maintained and moved from
the premise that
only dialogue among the main political protagonists can
help bring about a
lasting solution to the current political and economic
challenges facing
Zimbabwe."
The statement urged Mugabe's government "to ensure that
the rule of
law including respect for rights of all Zimbabweans and leaders
of various
political parties is respected".
It also urged
leaders of the opposition to work towards a "climate
that is conducive to
finding a lasting solution to the current challenges
faced by the people of
Zimbabwe."
Although a bit detailed, the South African statement
nonetheless
maintained a very mild tone compared to condemnations of Mugabe
from other
international leaders.
The harshest criticism for
Mugabe came from US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice who branded Mugabe's
regime "ruthless and repressive".
"The world community again has
been shown that the regime of Robert
Mugabe is ruthless and repressive and
creates only suffering for the people
of Zimbabwe," Rice said in a
statement.
Rice said the US government held Mugabe directly
responsible for the
"safety and well-being" of Tsvangirai and other detained
officials.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also sharply criticised
the Zimbabwe
government saying that its actions "violate the basic
democratic right of
citizens to engage in peaceful assembly," while the UN
High Commissioner for
Human Rights, Louise Arbour, called for a full
investigation.
"This form of repression and intimidation of a
peaceful assembly is
unacceptable, and the loss of life makes this even more
disturbing," Arbour
said.
Statements of condemnation also came
from the governments of Germany,
Canada, Spain and Britain, among
others.
Even France, whose role in Africa is often controversial
due to its
backing of repressive regimes, condemned the
arrests.
But while Western governments railed against Mugabe, a
majority of
Zimbabwe's neighbouring countries opted to remain on the
sidelines and did
not say anything substantive with the exception of Zambia
whose president
Levy Mwanawasa said his government was "deeply concerned"
about the problems
in Zimbabwe.
Mwanawasa however urged
Zimbabweans to resolve their own problems. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 14 March 2007
By
Tsungayi Murandu
HARARE - Zimbabwe's tottering economy cannot afford a
further six years
under President Robert Mugabe whose plans to seek
re-election in 2008 could
widen the existing fissures within the ruling
party, an international
economic think-tank has warned.
The Economist
Intelligence Unit (EIU) said in a report released on Monday
that there is a
growing realisation among top ZANU PF party supporters that
the economy
could not take further beating from Mugabe's policies.
The 83-year-old
Zimbabwean leader has indicated that he would stand for
re-election if he
was chosen as the ruling ZANU PF party's presidential
candidate in polls
scheduled for 2008.
"This threat is likely to concentrate the minds of
the power-brokers within
ZANU PF, conscious that the economy simply cannot
afford another six years
of a Mugabe presidency," said the London-based
think-tank.
The EIU warned that time was fast running out for Mugabe
whose government
seems to be in a state of denial when it is losing control
of the country.
With world record inflation of 1 730 percent and an
unstable exchange rate,
the EIU said that the writing was on the wall for a
regime that over the
past few months has shown signs of political and
economic disarray.
Mugabe's succession issue has threatened to tear the
ruling party apart,
with the infighting spilling to the control of the
economy where a dog fight
has emerged between the camps supporting the two
main rivals - Vice
President Joice Mujuru and Rural Amenities Minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Because there is no consensus on a successor to
Mugabe, the ruling ZANU PF
party floated a plan to postpone the presidential
poll until 2010, when it
would be "harmonised" with parliamentary elections
scheduled for that year.
Mujuru and Mnangagwa have, however, come out
against the plan, a development
the EIU said might have prompted the
long-serving Zimbabwean leader to seek
reelection in 2008.
If he
stands for office and wins, he would theoretically stay in office
until 2014
and his 90th birthday.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono and
State Security Minister
Didymus Mutasa have admitted that Harare's
much-vaunted land-resettlement
programme has not been a success and that the
current season's crop of the
staple maize would be a mere 600 000 tonnes or
one-third of annual
consumption.
The government has been forced to
appeal to the United Nations' World Food
Programme for US$250 million in
food aid. - ZimOnline
The Times
March 14, 2007
Jan
Raath in Harare
The leader of Zimbabwe's Opposition yesterday left court for
hospital
treatment on injuries inflicted in police custody, vowing to
continue his
campaign against President Mugabe.
Morgan Tsvangirai,
who heads the biggest faction of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC),
had severe lacerations to his head with possible
internal damage, a
suspected fractured hand and deep bruising all over his
body.
It was
the first time that he had been seen since he was arrested on Sunday
after
defying a national ban on political rallies. As he came down the steps
of
Harare Magistrates' Court with his checked shirt torn open in the front,
a
young man in the crowd began defiantly singing, God Bless Africa, Southern
Africa's hymn to freedom. Others joined in, fervently. A woman beside me
sobbed in rage as she sang.
The full scale of the police violence
became apparent as one by one, 50
opposition leaders and supporters winced
down the court steps to be ferried
to hospital in a shuttle of seven
ambulances.
The first was a young man on a stretcher. The rest followed
on crutches,
helped down by ambulance attendants, supporting each other. At
least one had
bloodstained trousers; some were barefoot.
About 300
onlookers, pushed back by riot police, watched, shocked into a
silence
broken occasionally by angry muttering. Florence Ziyambi, a state
lawyer,
ordered all those requiring treatment to the ambulances.
Human rights
groups have protested that Mr Tsvangirai and others had been
tortured in
police custody and his treatment has been condemned by Western
countries.
But most of Zimbabwe's neighbours were either silent or muted in
their
concern. South Africa urged the Government to "ensure respect for
human
rights and leaders of various parties".
Sunday's action after what the
Opposition declared a "prayer meeting" was
the second time in three weeks
that police had descended on MDC supporters
with unrestrained ferocity. One,
Gift Tandare, was shot dead at close range
in the chest. Scores more were
injured and Highfields was sealed off for two
days.
The 50 who
appeared in court yesterday, mostly picked out as leaders, were
taken to
befouled police cells around the city and assaulted systematically.
They
were refused access to lawyers and medical attention, according to
supporters.
Relatives who had snatches of conversations in the court
said that they told
of being forced to lie face down and being beaten again
and again over the
past three days, in the streets, in police stations, with
rubber truncheons
and long wooden batons, and kicked.
"Yes, you will
be beaten up for sure," President Mugabe told trade union
demonstrators in
September.
Since he gave that warning, he has faced a sudden and
unexpected tide of
defiance and anger over the relentless impoverishment
brought on by
inflation - now 1,700 per cent - after the past seven years of
lawlessness
and economic mismanagement.
Mr Mugabe, 83, who has been
in power since independence in 1980, appears
vulnerable as never before,
according to political analysts, and has cracked
down with characteristic
savagery.
The proceedings yesterday came only after police had defied two
court orders
for the 50 to be granted access to medical
attention.
"Tsvangirai really asked for the trouble in which he finds
himself," said
Nathan Shamuyarira, the ruling Zanu (PF) party's spokesman.
He said that the
reports of assault were "an overexaggeration", and added:
"Prisoners are
allowed access to medical and legal services. We have
observed all the laws
a nation should observe."
"It was pretty damn
barbaric," said Andrew Pocock, the British Ambassador
who watched
proceedings in the court. "But if the objective was to cow the
MDC, I don't
think they have done it. There is a lot of spirit, and they
will need
it."
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
13 March
2007
Civic groups have vowed to launch protests over the
arrest and alleged
beating and torture of leaders of the political and civil
opposition in the
wake of Sunday's abortive prayer meeting in Highfield,
where police shot and
killed an activist.
Students have mobilized in
support of the arrested opposition officials and
members. Several leaders of
the Zimbabwe National Students Union were
arrested in Harare at the
University of Zimbabwe when they tried to organize
a street
march.
Hundreds of Zimbabweans in exile showed up for a demonstration at
the
Zimbabwean consulate in Johannesburg to protest the arrests and reported
beatings.
Johannesburg-based regional representative Pastor Emmanuel
Hlabangana of the
Save Zimbabwe Campaign, speaking on behalf of the Zimbabwe
opposition
umbrella organization, told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's
Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that demonstrations are in the works to step up
pressure on the
government.
The Guardian
Mugabe's repression in Zimbabwe mirrors the
brutality of apartheid South
Africa - but with an international community
passive and supine.
Comment by Peter Tatchell
The scenes of
violent state repression in Zimbabwe this week are tragically
reminiscent of
another time and place. Machine-gun toting armoured personnel
carriers swamp
the black townships. Police and soldiers fire tear gas and
live rounds,
shooting at least one protester dead. They beat others with
rifle butts,
clubs and whips. Hundreds have been hauled off to interrogation
centres
where they are, right now, being beaten and tortured.
We have seen such
images many times before - during the apartheid era, in
neighbouring South
Africa. The brutality may be similar, but that is where
the comparison ends.
In Zimbabwe, it is a black minority that is terrorising
the black majority.
The tyranny isn't racial; it's political. But it is
still tyranny - and on a
monumental scale. Comparisons with the savagery of
PW Botha's repression in
the 1980s are, if anything, understatements.
President Mugabe's regime no
longer cares about Zimbabwean or international
public opinion. It cares only
about clinging on to power and maintaining the
looted wealth and privileges
of the ZANU-PF kleptocratic elite.
State repression knows no bounds, as
evidenced by the bare-faced police
battery of the opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai, which required him to
have hospital treatment for head injuries.
Dozens of other opposition
leaders have been beaten and
tortured.
This is nothing new. Mugabe has murdered more black Africans
than the evil
South African apartheid regime did. In just one region of
Zimbabwe, in just
one decade - in Matabeleland in the 1980s - his army
slaughtered an
estimated 20,000 civilians. This is the equivalent of a
Sharpeville massacre
every day for more than nine months.
The world
was outraged by Sharpeville, but not by Matabeleland. Why the
double
standards? A black state murdering black citizens does not,
apparently,
merit the same outrage as a white state murdering black
citizens. I call
that racism.
Over recent years, thousands of Zimbabwean opposition
activists have been
kidnapped, detained without trial, tortured and raped.
You heard correct.
Raped! Mugabe's most pathological storm troopers use
sexual violence as a
weapon of war. They rape both female and male political
detainees, in a bid
to humiliate and psychologically break
them.
Hundreds of opposition supporters have disappeared or been
murdered. Nearly
all the victims are black. Human rights groups like the
Amani Trust, which
used to monitor and publicise these abuses, have folded
because of
state-sanctioned harassment and intimidation. At least 2 million
Zimbabweans
have fled to neighbouring South Africa to escape the
terror.
Mugabe and his thugs no longer care about Zimbabwean or
international public
opinion. They are now ruling by brute force, in the
full knowledge that the
African Union and the United Nations will do
nothing. White racist
oppression stirs the international community to
action, as we saw during the
apartheid era. But black-on-black "fascism"
produces only indifference.
Mugabe is skilfully exploiting these ethical
double standards to get away
with the destruction of a whole
nation.
Zimbabwe's inflation rate is over 1,700%. Unemployment is 80%.
The budget
deficit is nearly half the country's GDP. About 3,500 Zimbabweans
die every
week from a combination of malnutrition, poverty and HIV/Aids,
which means
that more people are dying in Zimbabwe than in Darfur. A quarter
of all
Zimbabwean children (1.6 million) are orphans, which is the highest
proportion anywhere in the world. The United Nations has warned that 6
million Zimbabweans face starvation.
The response of the
international community to this inhumanity has been
feeble and ineffectual.
Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth did
nothing to weaken President
Mugabe's dictatorship. The EU travel ban is
lifted whenever the regime's top
officials apply to attend diplomatic
conferences; even though they often
make only fleeting appearances and spend
the rest of their time in Europe's
top cities wining and dining.
World leaders who rant against Mugabe's
barbarisms refuse to enforce
international human rights laws against him.
Under the UN Convention Against
Torture, any government could issue an
arrest warrant and seize Mugabe on
his overseas trips. He could be put on
trial in The Hague, as happened to
Slobodan Milosevic.
But when this
point is put to international leaders, they plead that, as a
serving head of
state, Mugabe has immunity from prosecution. What, then, is
the point of
having international human rights laws, if the chief abusers
are exempt and
cannot be prosecuted?
One of the most depressing aspects of the Zimbabwe
crisis is the failure of
South Africa to speak out. President Mbeki has
endorsed as free and fair a
succession of fraudulent elections. He has also
gone out of his way to
thwart international action against Zimbabwe, arguing
against external
pressure to promote democracy and human
rights.
Ironically, when he was a leader of the ANC's liberation
struggle, two
decades ago, Mbeki argued the exact opposite. He said the
world had a moral
duty to impose economic sanctions to undermine the
apartheid government. Why
is there a moral duty to challenge a white
tyranny, but not a black one? Are
black Zimbabwean lives worth less than the
lives of their South African
counterparts?
Despite having benefited
from an international solidarity campaign to win
black freedom, the ANC is
now refusing to show solidarity with the freedom
struggle of the people of
Zimbabwe. The ANC had a Freedom Charter for South
Africa. Don't Zimbabweans
deserve freedom, too - and shouldn't the ANC be
helping them win
it?
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
MDC activists arrested in Mutare
on Monday are still languishing in police
cells a day after they were picked
up just before an anti-government protest
in the eastern border
town.
Pishai Muchauraya the MDC spokesman for Manicaland said it took the
police
more than 30 hours to record cautioned statements from the activists
who
were now waiting to be taken to court.
He described conditions in
the cells as poor and not fit for a human being.
Each cell is holding up to
30 activists instead of the 10 it was built for.
Police also made no attempt
to provide food for those arrested. An SOS was
sent out to town and people
started bringing food into the prison.
Muchauraya spoke to us from the
cells. He said there were over 100 activists
who were arrested, including
children and women. He said they have not been
able to sleep or get any kind
of rest.
Lawyers representing the activists have worked all day to try to
get them to
court but are facing serious bureaucratic delays, blamed on the
police.
The detainees allege Officer-in-Charge of the station, Florence
Marume, has
been particularly harsh to them. She has allegedly been brutal
and openly
condemned the opposition MDC.
'I believe this is a
deliberate plot by the police, especially this Marume,
to keep us locked in
these filthy cells to break our backs-she will not
succeed,' Muchauraya
said.
Meanwhile Zimbabwe National Students Union leaders Promise
Mkwananzi and
Washington Katema were picked up by the police just before a
planned march
into the city from the University of Zimbabwe on
Tuesday.
Innocent Kasiyano, co-ordinator of the students Christian
movement of
Zimbabwe, said police pounced on the student leaders and others
as they were
marching along second street extension.
There were also
running battles between the students and the police.
Mkwananzi and Katema
were initially released but arrested after going to the
Magistrates' court
to attend court hearing of those arrested on Sunday. They
are now expected
to appear in court on Wednesday.
Zimbabwejournalists.com
13th Mar 2007 20:45 GMT
By Dennis
Rekayi
HARARE - Opposition MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai was taken to
hospital
under police guard earlier today with other pro-democracy activists
but the
detainees were taken back to court around 2130 hours.
It was
not immediately clear why the Zimbabwe government was taking the
political
leaders back to court during the night but a text message from an
opposition
official said they hoped they would be released after the
appearance.
"We hope that they are going to release them after all
the condemnation that
has come from the all over the world, even South
Africa has called on the
Zimbabwe government to observe the people's rights
though what we would have
wanted was an outright condemnation," said an
opposition activist last
night.
Other activists and MPs were not so
sure. They think Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) officers are in
charge of the operation together with
army intelligence
colleagues.
Trudy Stevenson, the Harare North MP said: "All detainees
from Sunday's
attempt to attend a Prayer Meeting in Highfield, Harare, were
taken by
"police", we doubt that the genuine ZRP are in control in this
operation.
From the hospital, where they had been admitted on medical
grounds this
afternoon, they were taken back to the Magistrates Court this
evening at
around 9.30 pm local time. The Attorney General's Office has
indicated it is
not prepared to be involved in such un-procedural hearings,
therefore all
detainees are currently sitting in the court waiting for the
next step."
Her message was sent at 2257 local time.
The United
States is one of the countries that had demanded the immediate
release of
Tsvangirai and others who were arrested as the Zimbabwe
government crushed
attempts by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign to hold a prayer
meeting for
Zimbabwe.
A badly bruised and limping Tsvangirai, with some of his hair
missing due to
a head wound and a swollen eye that was almost closed,
appeared in court
Tuesday but was taken to hospital later to seek medical
treatement.
The Crisis in Zimbabwe coalition said all the detainees,
including Arthur
Mutambara and Lovemore Madhuku had also been taken to the
Avenues Clinic
under police guard.
"We suspect they might be released
tonight through the High Court but they
are still in detention. The hospital
is circled by armed police officers."
Several people including Grace
Kwinjeh and Sekai Holland were so severely
injured that they had to be taken
from court to the hospital in an
ambulance. The injured leaders and
activists had been sitting in the
courtroom for almost three hours because
the magistrate failed to turn up.
Commenting on the brutal beatings and
alleged torture, Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga of the Mutambara MDC
said:
"The MDC is deeply concerned about this deliberate delay. What we
know is
that the Cabinet is sitting right now and is it not far-fetched to
conclude
that the magistrates are unwilling to try the matter until they
have
received instructions from cabinet on how to deal with it."
The
European Union and the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban
Ki-Moon,
joined the U.S. today in condemning the crackdown on the activists.
In a
written statement, the United Nations human rights commissioner, Louise
Arbour, cited "shocking reports of police abuse" and called for an inquiry
by Zimbabwe's government into the violence.
The State Department
earlier had called the violence brutal and unwarranted.
Zimbabwe is yet
to respond to the international criticism but said it would
not fold its
hands Sunday as it alleged the opposition was out to cause
mayhem on the
streets by inciting people to be violent.
Police officers remained present in
Highfield as well as in the city's
center.
The heavy police presence
underscored the government's determination to
contain what many opposition
figures and analysts say is growing unrest in
the face of economic
collapse.
The court appearance by opposition leaders and activists today
came after
the government ignored an earlier order by the nation's High
Court to allow
lawyers and doctors to talk to and examine the imprisoned
activists.
Five people, including Zinasu student leaders Promise
Mukwanazi and
Washington Katema, were also arrested yesterday as opposition
supporters
sand "Ishe Komborera Africa" outside the courts. It was also
alleged that a
Crisis in Zimbabwe vehicle had been impounded by the police.
The student
leaders had been arrested earlier while trying to address
students. They
were then released, only to be arrested again at the
courts.
Zim Online
Wednesday 14 March 2007
By
Magugu Nyathi
JOHANNESBURG - At least 300 Zimbabweans on Tuesday
demonstrated at the
Zimbabwe Consulate in Johannesburg demanding the
immediate release of Morgan
Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and other civic
leaders who were arrested in
Harare last weekend.
The demonstration
was organised by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, a coalition
of churches,
labour, students and political parties that is fighting for
political change
in Zimbabwe.
Hussein Sibanda, one of the organisers of the protest, said
President Robert
Mugabe's government must immediately release the
detainees.
"We are very concerned about the developments taking place in
Zimbabwe. But
we believe that the crackdown will galvanise us to push for
political change
at home. We believe 2007 is a year for change in Zimbabwe,"
he said.
Nicholas Mukaronda, the co-ordinator of Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition South
Africa, said no amount of repression and brutality will stop
their demands
for a just and equitable society in Zimbabwe.
"We stand
in solidarity with our brothers and sisters back home who have
been
arrested, beaten, tortured and denied food while in police custody. We
demand that the Zimbabwean government release our brothers now," he
said.
Roy Bennett, an exiled senior official of the Tsvangirai-led
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party, said the crackdown showed that
Mugabe had
launched a full-scale assault on the rights of
Zimbabweans.
"All we are asking for is freedom to decide our own fate. We
demand that we
vote in 2008 under a new, democratic constitution. We are
standing in
solidarity with our colleagues in Harare," said
Bennett.
Tsvangirai, Mutambara, National Constitutional Assembly chairman
Lovemore
Madhuku and several other opposition and civic leaders were
arrested last
Sunday while on their way to a prayer rally at Zimbabwe
Grounds.
Tsvangirai and Madhuku were severely assaulted while in police
custody by
suspected army commandos.
ZANU PF spokesperson Nathan
Shamuyarira yesterday defended the assault of
Tsvangirai saying the
opposition leader invited trouble for himself in a bid
to capture
international headlines after he defied a police ban on rallies
and
demonstrations. The United States, the Congress of South African Trade
Unions have all condemned the brutal assault of Tsvangirai and the civic
leaders. - ZimOnline