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U.S. Warns Americans to Avoid Zimbabwe
Wed Mar
16
WASHINGTON - The State Department cited Zimbabwe's history of
violence
before elections in warning Americans on Wednesday that they risk
harm if
they travel to the country while it experiences political and
economic
turmoil.
It issued a travel warning to "update
information on security issues
relating to elections and demonstrations."
Parliamentary elections are
scheduled March 31.
President Robert
Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since the end of
white-minority rule in 1980,
has cracked down increasingly on dissent. He
has had opposition leaders
arrested, packed the courts with sympathetic
judges and shuttered critical
newspapers.
"Zimbabwe's economy is in a protracted state of decline,
with extremely high
rates of unemployment and inflation," said the State
Department travel
warning, which spoke of shortages of food and fuel and a
significant
increase in crime.
Because of the dwindling fuel
supply, it said, some tourist facilities have
closed on short
notice.
"In the past, there have been incidents of violence in
periods leading up to
and following major elections," the warning said.
"Reports of violent
incidents are running well below levels prior to
previous elections, but the
possibility of increased violence before
elections, including parliamentary
elections scheduled for March 2005,
cannot be excluded."
It advised Americans to avoid political rallies
and other events that might
spark political sensitivities. "Avoid commercial
farms, especially those
occupied by settlers or so-called 'war veterans,'
who are typically young
government supporters acting with impunity outside
the law," the warning
said.
Business Day
Posted to the web on: 17 March 2005
New reports damn
Zimbabwe graft, judicial tampering
Jonathan
Katzenellenbogen
International Affairs Editor
ENDEMIC
corruption and political interference in the judiciary in Zimbabwe
are
worsening, two recent reports say.
Transparency International, the
Berlin-based nongovernmental organisation
that fights corruption, says in a
report released yesterday that graft in
Zimbabwe "has drastically increased
over the past year", and is a leading
cause of the country's economic
decline.
A report released on Sunday by the International Council of
Advocates and
Barristers says the judicial system in the country "has become
profoundly
compromised over the past four years", largely due to judges
doing the
bidding of the ruling Zanu (PF) party.
In its Global
Corruption Report 2005, Transparency says "hyperinflationary
pressures,
foreign exchange shortages, the proliferation of black markets
for basic
items and rising poverty levels are in part the symptoms of
corrupt business
practices".
It says that "poverty and corruption are largely the result
of financial and
political mismanagement".
"Everyone from every
section of society" is involved in corruption
"voluntarily or involuntarily,
actively or passively", says the report. Most
people, it says, have little
choice but to buy goods or foreign exchange on
the black
market.
Transparency's report says the unveiling of a new monetary policy
by the
country's central bank governor, Gideon Gono, last year could be a
turning
point in addressing corruption in the banking system.
The
report calls the passage of the Bank Use and Suppression of Money
Laundering
Act a fundamentally positive step but says the process of
nominating a
financial intelligence unit could cause conflicts of interest
as the
minister responsible for the enforcement of the act is a political
appointee.
The report of the international advocates council says:
"The appointment of
the higher judiciary in Zimbabwe is subject to political
interference."
It says Zanu (PF) enforces "the removal of judges whose
independence
represents an impediment to government policy or other action",
and
political cases are heard by judges seen to be sympathetic to the
government.
Business Day
Posted to the web on: 17 March 2005
Unions barred from
elections
THE Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions is the latest in a
series of groups
barred from officially observing its country's
parliamentary elections.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the
labour federation's application
to monitor the March 31 vote was rejected as
it was "partisan and political",
according to a statement from the union
group.
Chinamasa also accused the group of regularly attending British
Labour Party
conferences and calling for sanctions against Zimbabwe,
according to the
statement.
Meanwhile, a protest by Zimbabweans
and members of South African union
federation Cosatu at the Zimbabwean
embassy in Pretoria fizzled out
yesterday.
About 40
Zimbabweans from the Movement for Democratic Change Support Group
and
Concerned Zimbabweans Abroad joined a handful of Cosatu
supporters.
Cosatu intends staging a march to the embassy next
Wednesday, and a picket
on the Beit Bridge border post a week later.
Sapa-AP
The Star
Mdladlana slammed over Zim mission
March 17,
2005
By Sapa and Basildon Peta
The Democratic Alliance
has criticised the leader of the South African
government's observer mission
to Zimbabwe's elections, Labour Minister
Membathisi Mdladlana, saying his
conduct since arriving in Zimbabwe was
"reprehensible".
DA
spokesperson Joe Seremane said: "He has unequivocally declared that
everything is set for a free and fair election in Zimbabwe before his
observer mission has even had a chance to assess the situation
properly.
"He has also gone out of his way to shut down any
critical opposition
voices, even among observer missions separate from his
own."
At a meeting of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches on Tuesday,
DA MP
Dianne Kohler-Barnard was prevented from asking questions by
Mdladlana, who
told her: "I don't know you."
Kohler-Barnard
is part of the official Southern African Development
Community
delegation.
"Mdladlana's upbeat assessment of the election is also
at odds with
reports from our observers ... of extremely worrying signs
ahead of the
elections," said Seremane.
MDC spokesperson Paul
Themba Nyathi said Madladlana was simply a
"useless politician". His
statement saying the new Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) was
representative as it had been appointed with the input
of the MDC, was "very
silly".
Nyathi said Madladlana missed the critical point that the
ZEC had no
capacity to run the elections, having been installed only a few
weeks ago.
Zim Online
MDC demands apology, AU observers still on the way
Thur 17
March 2005
HARARE - Zimbabwe's opposition yesterday resolved not to
co-operate
with all three observer missions from South Africa unless
Pretoria's chief
observer, Membathisi Mdladlana, withdrew claims that the
country's March 31
election will be free and fair.
Opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party shadow foreign
affairs minister
Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga told ZimOnline that the MDC
yesterday wrote
to the South African missions advising them that save for an
apology or
withdrawal of Mdladlana's statements, the opposition party was
not going to
meet them.
She said: "We have written to the South African
missions. We believe
they have formulated an opinion. They must come clean
to us, to tell us
where they stand. We are questioning their
credibility.
"Also the statements around the exclusion of the SADC
Parliamentary
Forum are of great concern to us given that the SADC forum
observed the
South African election. Why should Zimbabwe deserve less? It
boggles the
mind," she added, referring to statements by the South African
government
last week that the regional forum had no right to observer the
Zimbabwe
poll.
Pretoria spoke after Harare barred
the forum from observing the
upcoming election in what analyst said was a
vindictive move to punish the
regional parliamentary body for differing with
other African observer
missions three years ago by condemning President
Robert Mugabe's 2002
re-election. There are three South African election
observer missions in
Zimbabwe, one from President Thabo Mbeki's ruling
African National Congress
party, another from the South African Parliament
and the third one sent by
the South African government with Mdladlana as its
head.
Mdladlana, who is South Africa's Labour Minister, angered the
MDC by
claiming earlier this week that conditions in Zimbabwe were conducive
for a
free and fair poll at the month-end.
South African Home
Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula will lead
a Southern African
Development Community (SADC) observer delegation to the
Zimbabwe polls. The
MDC said it will co-operate with the regional mission.
It was not
possible to get comment from Mdladlana and leaders of the
two other South
African missions yesterday on the latest move by the MDC.
The mission
leaders were said to be busy attending meetings.
Meanwhile, the
Africa Union (AU) will be sending about 10 observers to
the Zimbabwe poll on
March 25, just six days before balloting.
A union official told the
Press yesterday that the observers, to be
drawn from the AU's advisory
legislature and electoral commissions from
various member states, were being
sent at the invitation of Harare.
The AU official, who did not want
to be named, said the AU observers
were going to help Zimbabwe "hold
transparent and fair elections" and would
prepare a report for the
union.
The 53-member AU is among 13 international organisations and
32
countries invited by Harare to witness the election. Like the SADC
Parliamentary Forum, Western countries were barred from the poll after
criticising Mugabe's failure to uphold democracy in the past.
Zimbabwe's poll, which is being held under intense international
scrutiny
amid deep concerns the poll will not be free and fair, is seen as a
stern
test of whether Mbeki and other SADC leaders will hold Mugabe to a
regional
protocol on elections agreed by the bloc last August in a bid to
engender
democracy in the region. The MDC says Mugabe has not complied with
the
protocol and that he has only implemented piecemeal electoral law
reforms to
hoodwink SADC leaders and the international community that the
upcoming poll
was in accordance with regional election guidelines. Mugabe
and his
government deny the charge. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
MDC wants electoral law overhauled
Thur 17 March 2005
HARARE - Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
party is demanding an overhaul of the country's new electoral laws in the
High Court ahead of the March 31 election.
The new laws were
last year bulldozed through Parliament by the
government which said they
were meant to bring Zimbabwe in line with
Southern African Development
Community (SADC) guidelines on free and fair
elections. But the MDC says the
electoral laws fall woefully short in
democratising Zimbabwe's political
turf.
In an application filed at the High Court yesterday, the
opposition
party is demanding that all structures set up by the Zimbabwe
Electoral
Commission (ZEC), established under the new laws and tasked with
running
elections in Zimbabwe, be declared "null and void."
Harare advocate Adrian de Bourbon, who is representing the MDC, said:
"The
elections will be run, as in the past, by a clique of ZANU PF officials
who
cannot be trusted to run a free and fair poll."
The MDC says the
ZEC, whose commissioners were appointed by President
Robert Mugabe in
January, lacks sufficient clout to make independent
decisions.
The ZEC is headed by a High Court Judge George Chiweshe, who is a
former
army colonel. Chiweshe also headed the Delimitation Commission that
redrew
the country's voting constituencies, chopping off three
constituencies from
the opposition supporting areas and awarding them to
regions where ZANU PF
enjoys more support.
The MDC says Mugabe has militarised key
electoral bodies to secure
victory at the polls.
The MDC also
charges that most of the officials manning the ZEC were
not appointed in
time and are nominally employed by the election body in
violation of the
electoral law.
ZEC officials could not be reached for comment. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Mercenaries fight for freedom at Supreme Court
Thur 17
March 2005
HARARE - The 62, mostly South African mercenaries, yesterday
filed
opposing papers at Zimbabwe Supreme Court against an application by
the
country's Attorney General Sobuza Gula-Ndebele seeking to keep them in
jail.
In papers filed at court, the mercenaries' lawyer Julia Woods
argued
that there were no grounds to prevent her clients from having a
portion of
their sentences suspended for good behavior as was ordered by the
High
Court.
She further argued that whether there is any
purpose served by
suspending part of the sentence of jailed foreigners
because of good
behaviour was "not a matter of law but one of fact, which
must be determined
according to the circumstances of the particular
case."
"The applicant is obviously not contending that the
suspension of a
portion of the sentence imposed on the respondents is
incompetent in law as
he is seeking leave to appeal and the sole ground of
appeal is that no
purpose is served in suspending a portion of a sentence
imposed on a
foreigner on condition of good behaviour," Woods
said.
The mercenaries, jailed last year after being arrested at
Harare
International Airport allegedly en route to Equatorial Guinea to
topple that
country's President Teodoro Nguema Mbasogo, were preparing to
return home
last week after receiving a four month reduction of their
sentences from the
High Court.
However, Gula-Ndebele filed a
last-minute application for leave to
appeal against the reduction in the
Supreme Court, the country's highest
court. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
FEATURE: Trying to fight a free and fair election in
Zimbabwe
Thur 17 March 2005
WHEN Livingstone paddled up the Zambezi
river 120 years ago, it was known
to the people here as Musi Oa Tunya, "The
Smoke That Thunders". Victoria
Falls is among the largest and arguably the
most spectacular waterfalls in
the world. Millions of gallons of fresh water
plunge into the Zambezi basin,
forming a roaring white dividing line between
Zambia and Zimbabwe.
On the one side stands the Zambian town of
Livingstone, a permanent
tribute to the great explorer, that is now a
thriving tourist centre with
thousands of visitors packing out luxury lodges
and hotels.
Across the white water is Victoria Falls. Once the
thriving heart of
Zimbabwe's tourism industry, it is now a ghost town. The
smoke still
thunders, but fewer people come here to witness this hypnotising
spectacle
in a country that is two weeks away from general elections and
teetering on
the brink of its own precipice, facing a fall into isolation,
poverty and
violence.
Under President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe
has slumped to last place in
the Economist Global quality-of-life index. The
farm seizure policy launched
four years ago, giving Mugabe supporters
formerly white-owned farms, has
decimated agricultural output, caused famine
and sent the country into
economic meltdown. He rules over the
fastest-shrinking economy in the world,
300 percent inflation and 80 percent
unemployment.
Under free and fair elections, a government that has
presided over
this descent into chaos could expect to be resoundingly beaten
at the ballot
box. But there is little that is free and fair in today's
Zimbabwe.
That was the verdict of Amnesty International, who said
in a report
yesterday that human rights violations meant that free elections
were now
"impossible". Critics of the regime are expelled, imprisoned or
terrorised.
But the saddest indictment of the tourism crisis comes
from Sheila,
originally from the capital Harare, who now works when she can
doing facials
and massages in the health spas at near empty
hotels.
"The tourists are not coming. We don't know what to do,"
she says
weeping. "I sit here for hours doing nothing and my husband is not
working.
My children are not starving yet but they are hungry. All we can
buy is some
bread and a little sadza [maize meal]."
Chris, a
guide at the falls, hopes that the election will bring
change. "I just wish
this election would be over. "All we can really afford
is bread. The price
is controlled at Z$3 500 [30p] but where I live on the
outskirts, the
shopkeepers always play games with the price. Maybe when the
election is
over, the tourists will return, and we can make some money," he
says.
The highway heading south from Victoria Falls to Bulawayo
is empty of
traffic and the 36C sun beats relentlessly down from a cloudless
sky. It
seems strangely deserted for a country in the throes of a critical
election
campaign.
Matabeleland is on its knees, the
traditional stronghold of the
opposition party has been starved of petrol
supplies by Mr Mugabe's ruling
Zanu-PF party.
Every few miles
or so you are jolted by the spectre of skeletal arms
reaching into the road
from the verge of the baking Tarmac. Some of the
gaunt hands proffer a
single driedcorn cob, some a piece of honeycomb. The
arms reach out from the
scant shade of the trees. The starved bodies
generally belong to women or
children.
The anger can be felt by listening to the many
hitchhikers, who unable
to afford buses, try to move more cheaply from place
to place.
"It's bad, bad, bad," says a young man called Lovemore.
"There is no
rain, we are hungry, and next year this time we are going to be
really
starving and dying, not just hungry."
No matter what the
government propaganda says, Zimbabwe is ravaged by
drought, the agricultural
sector has unravelled, and the rural people,
especially, are hungry. There
have been no proper rains since December - a
subject that is on the parched
lips of most of the people.
Like the petrol which never gets
delivered to opposition areas, the
food aid that has poured into Zimbabwe
from the World Food Programme in the
last two years never seems to reach Mr
Mugabe's opponents.
With the car's engine seemingly running on
fumes, the vision of a
filling station appears on the horizon.
Manning the pumps are Roy and Andrew, brothers, who at first sight
seem like
white South African caricatures. Sporting shovel-blade beards and
khakis -
looking to all the world like paid-up members of the Afrikaner
Weerstandsbeweging, the AWB, of fascist fame. In fact, they were both born
in Zimbabwe. Their father, an Englishman, settled there, buying a small farm
and cattle ranch, in about 1948. They kept the ranch with about 50 head of
cattle after their father died, until about two years ago, when it was taken
to be settled by veterans of the struggle against white rule.
Neither are bitter over the loss. "Why should anyone pay for something
that
belonged to their people in the first place?" says Roy.
"I don't
have any argument with that stuff, I genuinely don't," he
continued. "What
breaks my heart is that nothing, absolutely nothing, is
being done with the
land. I'm telling you the grazing [grass] is standing
lovely and high in
this part of the country - but it's all going to waste."
And so the brothers
spend their days tending to their small shop and
butchery, selling what they
can to the rickety buses of black travellers
going to and from Bulawayo and
Harare, and places further afield.
Further along the road in the
drab entrance to the village of Lupane,
it seems hard to credit that this
was once the capital of Northern
Matabeleland.
It is home to
Njabiliso "JJ" Mguni, who will contest the election for
the main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change. It is not wise to be too
direct about where
you are going in Lupane and a few carefully chosen words
with a hitchhiker
outside the town is the best way to find out whether JJ is
at
home.
No one needs to tell the people of Lupane how dangerous it
can be to
stand up to Mr Mugabe. In the two years between 1982 and 1984 as
many as
50,000 people died in a vicious pogrom, dubbed euphemistically by Mr
Mugabe
himself as the Gukuruhundi: "The rain that washes away the chaff
before the
spring rains." The rain fell in the form of the notorious
Korean-trained 5th
Brigade. People were forced to dig their own graves and
shot, or bodies were
tossed into disused mines. Later the victims were
herded into camps to be
tortured and killed.
Their commander is
now Perence Shiri, the chief of the Zimbabwean air
force. He took his orders
from Emmerson Mnangagwa, then head of state
security, now speaker of
parliament. Official figures put the death toll for
dissidents - those that
opposed Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party at 20,000. Locals
say the real figure is
more than twice that. One of the worst atrocities,
the massacre of 62 men,
women and children, was in 1983 at the (now dry)
Cewala river in
Lupane.
In an attempt to stop the outside world hearing about
Zimbabwe's dark
descent into chaos, foreign journalists are rarely given
official permission
to tour the vast hinterlands. Those caught posing as
tourists face up to two
years in prison. Coming off the main road into town
the first building that
comes into view is the Zanu-PF headquarters. Outside
are four large men
leaning against a black four-wheel drive.
By
the time the MDC office is reached on the other side of town the
black
vehicle has become a fixture in the rear view mirror, carving its own
lines
in the soft grey sand of Lupane's narrow thoroughfares. Mr Mguni is
not
home, he has gone toBulawayo further south, but he arranges to meet on
the
outskirts of town later that evening.
Entering Bulawayo at night is
an eerie experience. With no money to
replace the bulbs in the street lamps,
the roads take on a sinister edge in
the half light. After settling in a
nearby restaurant, Mr Mguni, with his
optimism at a positive outcome in the
elections and his despair at the state
of the nation is an odd blend of
cheer and darkness.
"Look what a mess this place is, it has gone
down the tubes. I don't
know how it can be restored."
Despite
this blast of realism he is convinced that by 9pm on 31 March
the MDC will
be celebrating a victory. But he readily concedes that there
are many ways
in which the Zanu-PF can rig the election. Their past methods
have included
fiddling the voters' roll and using food and the local headmen
(in rural
areas, such as Lupane) as tools to ensure voter compliance.
Like
everyone else, he is clinging to Zanu-PF's pledge to eschew
violence in the
forthcoming elections. After standing at a May by-election,
Mr Mguni was
forced to quit his job as a teacher working with disabled
children. Without
work he is broke and forced to depend on the support
groups set up by the
MDC to aid its candidates. Many of these groups include
white Zimbabwean
members, a fact that has been used by Mr Mugabe supporters
to level the
charge that they are serving "colonial masters".
Mr Mguni is
unapologetic about this, saying his party does not have a
racism problem.
"We are not racists. We are not trying to chase white people
out of this
country."
The black and white row pales in comparison with the
potential abuse
of electoral law that stipulates that if a candidate for a
particular
constituency should, for whatever reason, be unable to stand,
then the
opposing candidate must run unopposed.
"So I suppose,"
says Mr Mguni rather off-handedly, "that it could be
in the interests of
Zanu-PF to kidnap and kill members of the opposition.
That might still
happen."
The spectre of violence is never far away during the
election campaign
as Robert Madzinga discovered last week. He was shopping
with his wife,
wearing an MDC T-shirt when he was set on by a mob of Zanu-PF
supporters.
According to reports from Care International, he was
beaten to the
ground with sticks and bled to death from an axe wound to his
neck. The same
mob then sought out his home, which they burnt to the ground,
destroying all
of the family's belongings.
Opposition
supporters have now been forbidden from campaigning in
Domboshawa, and Mr
Madzinga's family has fled the town for fear of their
lives.
In
this climate, Mr Mguni usually travels with a minder, who was due
after
dinner to take him home to Lupane. But the man was caught handing out
MDC
pamphlets, which are also banned under the electoral law, and only
narrowly
escaped arrest. He has now fled the city. The aspiring MP, two
weeks from
what could be the biggest day of his life, is left penniless in
the dark
city, wondering how he is going to get home.
Back in the brilliant
daylight, hundreds of miles east, on the
approach to the country's most
impressive archaeological site, the looming
granite tower of Great Zimbabwe
is astounding. This consists of a giant hill
complex - where the kings of
the then Nemanwa people lived. These are the
kings that Mugabe claims as his
forebears.
The dark tower has assumed an iconic importance as the
birthplace of
the nation. It has also been pilfered as the new symbol for
the Zanu-PF
party, replacing the Zimbabwe bird that used to adorn their coat
of arms.
Terry, a beautiful young guide who makes her living on the
tough climb
to the top, is typical of the generation born after the struggle
for
independence that ended white-dominated rule and brought Mr Mugabe to
power.
Despite education, youth and beauty, she is going
nowhere.
"All I want to do is see the world. But I earn Z$1 500 000
[£129] a
month. There is no way that I am going to be able to get out of
here."
More than two decades after taking power, Mr Mugabe still
rules from
his palace 200 miles to the north, but not even the children of
his
revolution look to Harare with any hope for the future. "I don't care
much
about the election," says Terry. "I just wish there were a way that I
could
make my dreams come true." - Independent Newspapers Group
Mail and Guardian
Fair poll in Zimbabwe
'impossible'
17 March 2005
08:02
State torture and violence in Zimbabwe makes it
impossible to
have free and fair elections on March 31, says a report
released on
Thursday.
The report by the anti-torture
group Redress criticises
President Robert Mugabe's government for failing to
arrest and try several
police and army officers suspected of torture. It
also says torture has been
inflicted on the political opposition "with
impunity" which has made the
population afraid of expressing its
dissatisfaction with the government.
The Redress report
supports the findings of Amnesty
International, which on Wednesday issued a
warning that the elections could
not be credible because of the Mugabe
government's "persistent, long-term
and systematic violations of human
rights."
The last parliamentary elections in June 2000 and
the
presidential election in March 2002 were widely condemned because of
state
violence and evidence of vote-rigging.
The United
States State Department cited Zimbabwe's history of
violence before
elections in warning Americans on Wednesday that they will
risk harm if they
travel to the country "in the midst of political and
economic
turmoil".
It issued a travel warning to "update information
on security
issues relating to elections and demonstrations." Parliamentary
elections
are scheduled for March 31.
President Robert
Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since the end of
white-minority rule in 1980,
has cracked down increasingly on dissent. He
has had opposition leaders
arrested, packed the courts with sympathetic
judges and shuttered critical
newspapers.
"Zimbabwe's economy is in a protracted state of
decline, with
extremely high rates of unemployment and inflation," said the
State
Department travel warning, which spoke of shortages of food and fuel
and a
significant increase in crime.
Because of the dwindling
fuel supply, it said, some tourist
facilities have closed on short
notice.
"In the past, there have been incidents of violence
in periods
leading up to and following major elections," the warning
said.
"Reports of violent incidents are running well below
levels
prior to previous elections, but the possibility of increased
violence
before elections, including parliamentary elections scheduled for
March
2005, cannot be excluded."
It advised Americans to
avoid political rallies and other events
that might spark political
sensitivities. "Avoid commercial farms,
especially those occupied by
settlers or so-called `war veterans,' who are
typically young government
supporters acting with impunity outside the law,"
the warning said. -
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005,
Sapa-AP
STOP FLAWED ZIMBABWE ELECTION
A call to stop the Flawed Zimbabwe Election is on. Zimbabweans in Exile in
UK say enough is enough and its fighting back time. We have been on the run
for too long. If issues like these are not dealt with now, from generation
to generation we shall be having the same problems. Human Rights activist
have thrown their weight in support of the rally which is to be held at
Camden Town Hall, in London at 4.00pm on 19 March
2005.
Zimbabweans all over the world are counting down the
Election Day as it
looms. It is two weeks before the controversial
elections takes place. A
rally organised by Zimbabweans in the UK to
protest against the human rights
atrocities, violence, repressive media
laws, voters roll which is in
shambles, the constitution, and the way the 81
year old dictator is
determined to hold on to power at all costs is
underway. We need to send a
clear message to Mr Mugabe that the current
situation is unacceptable. It
is oppressive, inhuman, degrading and
punishment for the entire Zimbabwean
people.
We also need to
ensure that the United Nations and the international
community do not
recognise this election. It is a disgrace a waste of time
and resources
and above all misleads the nation and the world.
Kay
Tenda
Washington Times
Warning Mugabe
The U.S. ambassador to
Zimbabwe warned the country's authoritarian
president that his government
will be under "intense international scrutiny"
during the March 31
legislative elections.
Ambassador Christopher Dell told the Voice of
America in an interview
this week that the government has already tilted the
campaign against the
opposition.
"These elections begin on an
unleveled playing field," he said. "The
government of Zimbabwe controls all
of the institutions involved in the
elections. They have set the rules. They
have set the terms of the debate."
Mr. Dell said the United States is
interested in seeing free and fair
elections, regardless of whether
President Robert Mugabe maintains control
of the legislature.
"We're
not interest in the 'who' of who is in power in Zimbabwe. We are
interested
in the 'how.' If genuinely free and fair elections are held, if
those
elections reflect the genuine will of the people of Zimbabwe, then we
will
respect their choice, no matter who is elected," Mr. Dell said.
However,
he added, Mr. Mugabe knows that the international community is
watching
closely.
"I believe the government and President Mugabe's political party
very
much understand that they are under intense international scrutiny
about the
conduct of these elections," Mr. Dell said.
The State
Department's latest human rights report accused Mr. Mugabe of
unleashing a
"government-sanctioned campaign of violence" against white
farmers after he
was re-elected in 2002. The political opposition was
subjected to
intimidation and violence in that campaign, the report said.