Yahoo News
by Godfrey Marawanyika Sun Mar 18, 11:51 AM ET
HARARE (AFP)
- Zimbabwe's security forces have stopped an opposition
activist from
leaving the country at Harare airport and beat him up badly in
an ongoing
crackdown on dissent, his colleagues reported Sunday.
The attack on
Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC),
was the fourth time a member of the opposition was prevented
from travelling
abroad at the weekend.
"He was badly beaten this morning whilst he was on his
way to the airport by
security agents," said William Bango, a spokesman for
MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Chamisa had been due to fly out of
Harare International Airport to Belgium
for a meeting amid mounting
criticism across Africa and abroad of action by
President Robert Mugabe's
government against opposition activists.
Police also descended on
Chamisa's constituency, where there was a tense
atmosphere Sunday, and
ordered that shops and churches there be closed, said
Bango.
"Chamisa
was going to Brussels where he would have interacted with powerful
decision
makers in the EU and would have met powerful media barons and would
have
made a very strong case against the goings on in Zimbabwe," University
of
Zimbabwe political analyst Eldred Masunungure told AFP.
Arthur Mutambara,
leader of a breakaway faction of the MDC, was rearrested
on Saturday at
Harare International Airport and charged with inciting public
violence, his
lawyer Harrison Nkomo told AFP on Sunday.
Also barred from leaving were
activists Grace Kwinje and Sekai Holland, who
wanted to go to neighbouring
South Africa for medical attention after being
beaten by security forces on
March 11.
Their lawyer, Aleck Muchadehama, told AFP security agents
confiscated their
passports Saturday and demanded clearance from the health
ministry as the
two were being airlifted from Harare.
Rashweat
Mukundu, a media committee member of the Save Zimbabwe coalition,
said:
"This is an attempt in stopping the world from seeing what exactly the
brutality is that was subjected on the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
and other civic activists."
"This is a violation of freedom of
movement rights, violation of freedom of
association. This also marks a
turning point in the political situation in
Zimbabwe," Mukundu told AFP.
"The government is now behaving like a rebel
group of some sort."
His
comments echoed those of the main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in
a
telephone interview Sunday with the BBC.
"Things are bad but I think this
crisis has reached a tipping point and we
could be seeing the beginning of
the end of this dictatorship," Tsvangirai
said, adding that the attack on
Chamisa was "a pattern which is increasing
in intensity and I think that
this is a very serious situation."
On Saturday, the African Union issued
its strongest rebuke yet when it
called on Zimbabwe to respect human rights
and democratic principles during
the political crisis engulfing the
country.
African Union commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare said Mugabe's
government
must have "respect for human rights and democratic principles in
Zimbabwe,"
the pan-African body said in a statement.
For Mukundu,
this was not enough.
"The AU has always been reactive and waited for the
last minute to resolve
serious issues," he said.
"To me the
Zimbabwean situation has reached a stage where the weight of
African Union,
the weight of Southern African Development Community, the
weight of the
whole world must be brought to bear on the Zimbabwean
government so that it
can make concrete reforms."
Mugabe has brushed aside the international
condemnation first sparked by
images of a badly beaten Tsvangirai. Western
governments could "go hang", he
said, accusing the opposition of waging a
violent campaign against him.
Elphus Mukonoweshuro, a lecturer in
political science at the University of
Zimbabwe, said moral statements and
condemnation would not succeed.
"If the AU is to maintain its credibility
as a continental body it must take
steps to ensure that the crisis in
Zimbabwe is resolved," he said.
Forbes.com
Associated Press
03.18.07, 6:47 AM ET
Zimbabwe is facing a critical moment that could see
the end of the
dictatorship of President Robert Mugabe, the leader of the
country's main
opposition said Sunday.
Speaking by telephone from
Harare, Morgan Tsvangirai said he was recovering
from injuries allegedly
inflicted by police during a March 11 protest
gathering. Photographs of his
battered face were printed in newspapers
around the world, drawing more
attention to the situation in the southern
African country.
"Things
are bad," Tsvangirai told the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Sunday AM
program, "but I think that this crisis has reached a tipping point, and we
could see the beginning of the end of this dictatorship in whatever
form."
Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change, was among
scores of
activists injured as police cracked down on an opposition meeting
in the
Harare township of Highfield. One activist was shot and killed.
Zimbabwean
police used tear gas, water cannons and live ammunition and beat
activists
during and after arrests, according to opposition
members.
Tsvangirai's supporters have vowed to drive Mugabe from office
with a
campaign of civil disobedience.
Mugabe's critics at home and
abroad accuse him of repression and corruption
and blame him for acute food
shortages and the world's highest rate of
inflation. The recent violence
heightened growing tensions in urban
strongholds of the opposition, and
renewed questions about how long the
83-year-old can maintain his tight grip
on power.
Tsvangirai also criticized South Africa for its role in the
crisis. Calling
the country a "critical player," he said South Africa "could
have been more
strong," and urged continued pressure from both the African
Union and the
international community, as well as individual nations such as
the United
States.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has said quiet
diplomacy is preferable
to public condemnation, but Western governments have
condemned the violence.
The U.S. is threatening to strengthen sanctions, and
last month the European
Union renewed targeted sanctions, including asset
freezes and a travel ban
on Mugabe and more than 100 of his top
associates.
From The Sunday Independent (SA), 18 March
Fiona Forde and Edwin Naidu
From her
hospital bed in Harare, Grace Kwinje, the MDC deputy-secretary for
international affairs, told us of the beatings she received from the
Zimbabwean police last Sunday, the torture a day later by members of
military intelligence and the emotional trauma that has since set in. The
ordeal came after her arrest at last Sunday's public demonstrations in
Harare. "I have never been so afraid," said the 30-year-old woman. "It has
never been this bad before. Never. They came at me with batons, belts,
anything that would inflict pain. They kicked me so hard. The beat me.
Whenever they would stop, I would just hold my breath, hoping that was the
end of it. But then someone else would come into the cell and take over.
Shortly after midnight, I was taken out of Highfield Police Station. But by
that stage, I couldn't comprehend what was going on. I was almost
unconscious."
She woke up at some point on Monday in Braeside
police station and
immediately began to fear the worst. She was alone, not a
fellow comrade in
sight. Her fears were confirmed when two military
intelligence members came
knocking on her cell door. "I can't describe to
you what happened there. I
was kicked around the room. I was beaten with
belts. They kept going for my
head. Then I started to collapse. There's no
point in me trying to describe
it to you, because there are no words for
this." By the time the thugs had
finished, Kwinje was lying in a heap in the
corner of the cell, where her
lawyers found her on Tuesday morning. The
mother-of-three had suffered
severe head injuries and is left with a swollen
brain today. Her hearing is
affected by the beatings she received to the
right side of her head. The
lobe of her right ear was so badly torn that she
had most of it removed by
surgeons later in the week.
"I'm on a
lot of medication now which eases the pain, but it's the emotional
side that
I can't control. The psychological damage is not good. I can't be
by myself.
My family sits with me around the clock. I just feel so
traumatised." The
doctors attending to her recommended that she go to a
quiet place to
convalesce. Douglas Gwatidzo, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe
Association of
Doctors for Human Rights, said he treated a number of the 64
people who were
brought to the hospital in Harare on Tuesday, including
Morgan Tsvangirai,
the MDC leader. "Most of them were thoroughly beaten up
and had soft-tissue
injuries. mainly on the buttocks and thighs. Some had
broken arms and
ankles. I treated Tsvangirai myself when he came in. He was
in poor
shape."He said doctors belonging to the association would document
the
injuries in an article for the South African Medical Journal.
"Naturally,
because of the work we are doing, one wonders whether we would
be next, but
my conscience is my guiding principle. I am only documenting
what I am
seeing - fear should be in those inflicting pain," he said.
Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2007 8:38 PM
Subject: Update On The Arrest Of The MDC
President Mutambara
12.30 pm Sunday 18th update - President Mutambara
is still in Harare Central
cells, however he has not been tortured! His
lawyer has access to him, and
he is ok.
Meanwhile Chamisa was attacked by
a group of unidentified men at the airport
this morning as he was on his way
to the EU-ACP meeting, and severely
injured on the head - he is back in
hospital in
Harare.
Trudy
.................................................
MDC
Press Statement
17 March 2007
Update on The Arrest Of The MDC
President Mutambara
Following the statement that we released this
afternoon, we hereby advise
that we have since established that the MDC
President Professor Arthur
Mutambara who was arrested by the Zimbabwe
Republic Police at Harare
International Airport on his way to South Africa
to visit his wife as he
regularly does every week or every fort night, is
being held at Harare
Central Police station on the same allegations that he
was previously
arrested for on Sunday 11 March 2007.We are made to believe
that the
allegations/charge that is being leveled against him and the
colleagues he
was arrested with on Sunday 11 March 2007 is that he incited
MDC supporters
to commit acts of violence on the same day.
It will be
recalled that there is an operative High Court Order issued by
Justice
Bhunu, which directed that unless the MDC President together with
those he
was arrested with were produced before a magistrate before midday
on 13
March 2007 and charged, he together with the colleagues he was
arrested with
were to be released from police custody.
He together with his colleagues
were neither brought before the magistrate
before midday on 13 March 2007
nor charged as a result of which failure he
together with his colleagues
were obliged to be released. In the
circumstances the arrest of the MDC
President flies in the face of the
effect and spirit of the High Court
Order. Once again we see the regime
acting in defiance and contempt of Court
Orders.
We reiterate that the high handed use of force and the
deliberate arrests of
people at the weekend to maximize the abuse of law is
the hallmark of a
dictatorship which is scared of the people.
We
demand the immediate release of the MDC President
Welshman
Ncube
Secretary General
The Australian
R.W. Johnson and
Laura Thomas
March 19, 2007
AMID mounting signs of social unrest, the
former head of Zimbabwe's army has
embarked on a charm offensive among
foreign ambassadors in Harare,
convincing President Robert Mugabe that he is
plotting a coup.
Solomon Mujuru, whose wife Joice is Zimbabwe's
Vice-President, has met the
British, French and US ambassadors, provoking
fury from Mr Mugabe, who now
believes leading players in his own Zanu-PF
party are scheming to overthrow
him.
In an unprecedented attack on senior
party figures, Mr Mugabe claimed at the
weekend that there was "an insidious
dimension where ambitious leaders have
been cutting deals with the British
and Americans".
He said: "The whole succession debate has given
imperialism hope for
re-entry.
"Since when have the British, the
Americans, been friends of Zanu-PF?"
Attacking the "monkey games" he
alleged foreign diplomats were playing in
support of the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change, Mr Mugabe
threatened to expel them.
But
observers believe he is far more worried about the dangers from within
his
party. In particular, he is concerned that the armed forces still seem
loyal
to the retired General Mujuru, whose contacts with foreign diplomats
signify
his ambition.
Sources close to the Foreign Office in London confirmed
that Britain would
be willing to work with any post-Mugabe leader to help
restore both the
economy and democracy in Zimbabwe.
The dramatic
collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar - which has fallen from $Z9000
to the US
dollar to $Z17,500 at its unofficial rate in the past five days -
is another
sign of Mr Mugabe's waning authority.
Harare residents awoke at the
weekend to find that the price of petrol had
risen overnight from $Z9000 to
$Z15,000 a litre, denoting a wholesale flight
out of the currency as traders
realised that the local dollar might be worth
nothing if civil order broke
down.
Nearly all the city's police have been drafted into huge
high-density
shacklands on its periphery. These suburbs have been driven to
the edge of
revolt by starvation, unemployment, AIDS and violent
repression.
In Highfield township, an MDC stronghold where Morgan
Tsvangirai, the party
leader, was brutally beaten after police broke up an
opposition prayer
meeting last Monday, the question on everyone's lips was
whether this brave
protest would mark the beginning of the end for Mr
Mugabe's 27-year rule.
Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and other
police chiefs have begun to
worry about their personal safety after firebomb
attacks on police housing.
A Mugabe confidant, he was seen loading up on
Tuesday at a Harare gunshop
with 250 pistol bullets and 400 shotgun
cartridges for his private use.
Contingency plans are ready to move out
700 Australians and as many of the
15,000 British passport holders who
choose to leave and to rush in foreign
aid as soon as the regime crumbles.
British Special forces are reported to
have reconnoitred escape
routes.
If trouble comes, the main aim of the police will be to prevent
angry mobs
from marching on the presidential palace and the luxurious homes
of the
Zanu-PF party elite. With inflation officially up to 1729 per cent
last
month, there are plentiful reasons for the elite to be
nervous.
When Mr Mugabe visited his sister Sabina in the Avenues Clinic
on Wednesday,
he found that she had been placed in a ward near Grace
Kwinjeh, an
opposition activist who had been so badly beaten by police that
her right
ear was nearly severed from her head. Mr Mugabe simply ignored
her.
With scant information in the state-controlled media, mobile phone
networks
jammed last week as people scrambled for news of the beatings,
while nightly
power cuts plunged much of the city into darkness.
The
pictures of beaten opposition leaders are still unseen in Zimbabwe. Mr
Mugabe showed his contempt for the international response when he said his
critics could "go hang".
The flashpoint for a fresh confrontation may
prove to be the burial of Gift
Tandare, an MDC activist and married father
of three who was shot dead by
police on his way to last Monday's meeting.
Party officials wanted a
high-profile funeral for him in Harare, but the
police, fearing unrest,
refused to release the body to his family.
A
government spokesman at the weekend confirmed that Tandare had been buried
in secret. His family was forbidden to attend. A presidential spokesman said
it would have been a "defilement" to give up any land for the burial of "the
dead thug's remains".
Police barricaded roads near his home as
hundreds of mourners tried to
gather with his young wife in the Shona
tradition.
At least 116 MDC activists were still in police detention and
the entire
party executive in the Midlands town of Kwekwe has been tortured
in police
cells.
But even if the MDC musters its full strength and
rival factions unite, it
is difficult to see the opposition toppling the
regime if the police and
army remain loyal. The main threat to Mr Mugabe may
prove to be from within
Zanu-PF, as Joice Mujuru, the 52-year-old
Vice-President, battles for power
with Emmerson Mnangagwa, 65, the Rural
Housing Minister.
Ms Mujuru, a guerilla commander in the war against Ian
Smith, claims to have
single-handedly shot down an army helicopter with her
AK-47. Her husband,
the former guerilla leader and the army's boss for 10
years after
independence, is one of the richest men in the country. "I
didn't fight the
liberation war to end up a poor man," he once
declared.
Both Ms Mujuru and Mr Mnangagwa, the much-feared former head of the
Central
Intelligence Organisation, are in effect warlords, one supported by
the
armed forces, the other by the secret police.
Mr Mugabe fell out
with Ms Mujuru last year when he tried topostpone
elections from 2008 to
2010. The Mujuru faction blocked him.
Mr Mugabe switched his support to
Mr Mnangagwa and now says that, at 83, he
wants to stand for president again
next year. But he may have a good reason
to back Mr Mnangagwa, who earned a
fearsome reputation for atrocities in
Matabeleland in the 1980s and would be
more likely to shield Mr Mugabe in
retirement from the possibility of a
trial for crimes against humanity.
Relations between Mr Mugabe and the
Mujuru camp have never been worse, and
it is clear that virtually the whole
of the army high command sides with the
Vice-President, making it unwise for
Mr Mugabe to push too hard.
"The fact that the Mujuru faction has the
full endorsement of the army makes
the prospect of a coup very real," said a
senior civil servant.
One critical question is which way South Africa
will lean. The ruling
African National Congress contented itself with a
statement referring to
"the alleged mistreatment of opposition leaders in
police custody", urging
that "these allegations be thoroughly
investigated".
Were President Thabo Mbeki to cut off credit or prevent
fuel flowing into
Zimbabwe, he could bring Mr Mugabe to his knees, but his
policy is one of
laissez-faire. Mr Mbeki has, however, made it clear that he
would like to
see Mr Mnangagwa succeed.
The final factor in this
witches' brew is the state of the police and the
army. The lower ranks, in
both cases, are in a woeful state - ill paid,
often hungry and, in the case
of the police, increasingly fearful of popular
anger. Hundreds of soldiers
have deserted.
Mr Mugabe's own presidential guard was given a thorough
shake-up in January
after a dispute over pay escalated into a mysterious
incident in which shots
were fired. According to usually well-informed
sources, 22 men were
executed.
An open mutiny from the armed forces
is unlikely, but the conditions make it
easy for dissidents in the high
command to manipulate the men below them.
Meanwhile, the townships
tremble with anger.
The Sunday Times
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
(18/03/07)
EDITED TRANSCRIPT:
FOREIGN SECRETARY DISCUSSES ZIMBABWE ON BBC
POLITICS SHOW, SUNDAY 18 MARCH
2007
INTERVIEWER:
I just want to talk about the
situation in Zimbabwe. You've condemned
the treatment meted out to Morgan
Tsvangirai. Is there anything that we can
do?
FOREIGN
SECRETARY:
Well we are pressing very hard for action to be taken in
the UN Human
Rights Council. This is a new body fairly recently set up. This
is one of
its first major tests and there's....there's general agreement
that that is
the right place to call for action against the government of
Robert Mugabe
and so that is what we're doing. Also we are trying to gather
information
about the people who are personally responsible for the....the
beatings and
what is described in Zimbabwe as the torture that was inflicted
on the
opposition leader and some of his supporters in order to make sure
that
those people personally are on the list of people who are, you know,
being
targeted by the international community and also of course we'll be
talking
to other EU colleagues about how we can strengthen the EU's targeted
ban.
INTERVIEWER:
Do you hold Robert Mugabe
responsible?
FOREIGN SECRETARY:
One can only hold him
responsible. He is in charge of the government.
He has made it very clear
that this is a deliberate act of policy on the
part of the government of
Zimbabwe and that he is indifferent to the real I
think horror that is felt
right across the international community.
INTERVIEWER:
He said "go hang" didn't he to you and to other western leaders?
FOREIGN SECRETARY:
I believe that is certainly what he has said,
yes.
INTERVIEWER:
And therefore don't you think that
there's a possibility that you are
seen as the old colonial power and
therefore somehow it will sort of
solidify support in his country by taking
a tough line against you know
British condemnation?
FOREIGN
SECRETARY:
Well it's not only we who have condemned what is
happening. One of the
cards that he has played repeatedly and unfortunately
very successfully is
to pretend that this is somehow just a dispute between
him and the United
Kingdom. It's not. It's true that the United Kingdom is
one of the biggest
donors to the people of Zimbabwe and that we are helping
to keep a lot of
people alive, keep body and soul together who otherwise
would die because of
the neglect and incompetence of the regime in Zimbabwe.
What is not true is
either that Britain is the only country in the world
that is desperately
concerned at the plight of the Zimbabwean people and the
way in which this
recent behaviour is showing diminution of their freedom,
that it's not true.
Everyone is concerned and, you know, I do urge.....it's
one of the reasons
why we in the British government try to approach the
issue in a way which
doesn't give him the excuse to pretend it's all just
about the relationship
between him and us because that way it's the people
of Zimbabwe who'll
continue suffer.
SABC
March 18,
2007, 18:45
Lawyers for two veteran Zimbabwe opposition activists, who
were denied
passage to South Africa, have brought an urgent application for
the
immediate release of their passports.
Last night intelligence
officers prevented Sekai Holland and Grace Kwinjeh,
the Brussels
representative for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
from travelling
to Johannesburg for medical care. The two sustained injuries
after police
crushed an opposition prayer rally last weekend.
They are now being kept
under police guard at a clinic in Harare. No formal
charges have been
brought against them.
Meanwhile, doctors in Harare say Nelson Chamisa,
the MDC spokesperson, is
suspected to have a broken skull after he was
severely beaten this morning.
Chamisa was on his way to a meeting in Belgium
when he was attacked by
unidentified men on his way to the
airport.
MDC demand member's corpse
Lawyers representing the MDC have
filed a high court application seeking
government to return the corpse of
their slain member. Gift Tandare was
gunned down last
weekend.
Lawyers say the government had no legal basis to demand
Tandare's corpse.
Yesterday law enforcement agencies took away Tandare's
body from Dove, a
local funeral parlour in Harare. Unconfirmed reports say
they took him to
his rural home in Mount Darwin.
Morgan Tsvangirai,
the MDC president - recuperating following last week's
beatings - was to
lead the funeral proceedings tomorrow.
Political analysts say
government's decision to seize the body is aimed at
averting an MDC
gathering that will ultimately trigger uprisings.
The Australian
Cath Hart
March
19, 2007
JOHN Howard will push for a tightening of diplomatic sanctions
against
Zimbabwe following days of brutality against opposition activists in
the
southern African nation.
In his weekly radio message, the Prime
Minister also condemned Zimbabwe's
neighbours for failing to prevent the
once-prosperous nation's slide into
economic and democratic ruin.
"One of
the major reasons why Robert Mugabe has remained in power and
presided over
the terrible destruction of his country is that neighbouring
countries,
particularly South Africa, have failed to exert the pressure they
could have
brought to bear," Mr Howard said.
"The reality is that only the leaders
of these African countries enjoy the
historic leverage to sway Mugabe.
Nothing short of his peaceful departure
from office can offer hope to this
tragic country."
Australia has imposed progressively strengthened travel
bans and financial
sanctions against Mr Mugabe's regime since
2002.
Mr Howard said Australia would work with the international
community to
formulate a response to the escalating tensions.
"We'll
also be working with other concerned countries to place greater
pressure on
the Zimbabwean leadership, including by allowing the situation
to be
considered by the UN and its Human Rights Council," he said.
Mr Howard
said Australians were appalled by the "barbaric actions of the
Zimbabwean
Government in violently suppressing the activities of their
political
opponents".
"Australia calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to respect the
rule of law
and the civil and political rights of its citizens; to cease its
violations
of international law and to return Zimbabwe to the fold of
civilised
nations," he said.
Labor's foreign affairs spokesman,
Robert McClelland, said the Australian
cricket team should boycott three
one-day internationals scheduled for
September in Zimbabwe and join a
sporting embargo similar to the one that
helped end apartheid in South
Africa.
"It's worth talking with them (Cricket Australia) and saying: is
it
something they really want to do given what is an outrageous abuse of our
principles in Zimbabwe?" he said. "They make the decision but I think we're
entitled to say, 'Is this a good thing, visiting Zimbabwe?'."
Former
Zimbabwean cricket captain Andy Flower has called for a sporting
boycott.
The Government is revising its consular contingency plans in
Zimbabwe but
has no immediate plans to evacuate Australians, a Department of
Foreign
Affairs and Trade spokesman said.
Christian Science Monitor
from the March 19, 2007 edition
Pressure is mounting on Robert Mugabe's regime
after opposition leaders were
brutally beaten last week.
By Scott Baldauf
| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA -
The deepening crisis in Zimbabwe, where
President Robert Mugabe's security
forces arrested and severely beat
opposition leaders last week, seems to be
finally pushing its African
neighbors away from "quiet diplomacy" into tepid
protest.
Over the weekend, the African Union joined the US, Britain, and
the United
Nations in criticizing the government crackdown, and called on
Zimbabwe to
respect human rights. And in South Africa, there are splits
within the
ruling African National Congress (ANC) party about whether quiet
diplomacy
actually works. Archbishop Desmond Tutu said African leaders
should "hang
[their] heads in shame" for not speaking out more forcefully
against Mr.
Mugabe.
"We call upon the governments of South Africa and
the rest of the continent
to condemn the Zimbabwe government, demand the
immediate release of those
arrested, and the restoration of human rights,"
said Patrick Craven,
spokesman of the Confederation of South African Trade
Unions, a key base of
support for the ANC. Mr. Craven called the
government's response thus far
"shamefully weak."
As Zimbabwe's
economy goes into a free fall, and its security forces clamp
down on
dissent, African leaders are breaking the taboo against criticizing
Mugabe,
who is still seen as a liberation hero for having led the struggle
to free
his country from white rule in the 1960s and 70s. Some analysts say
that
this change in attitude, together with growing Western pressure, could
signal the beginning of the end for Mugabe's regime if the opposition
sustains a vigorous protest campaign. Others say that if Zimbabwe has indeed
reached a turning point, it may have more to do with machinations within
Mugabe's own party, rather than any international pressure or domestic
protests.
Signs of Zimbabwe's implosion
Already the signs of
implosion are obvious. Inflation rates are pushing up
to 1,700 percent and
most Zimbabweans are living by barter. Food production
has dropped,
hospitals are declining, and the average life expectancy of a
Zimbabwean
woman, at 35, is now the lowest in the world.
"I can assure Robert Mugabe
that this is the end game," said Arthur
Mutambara, leader of a faction
within Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) according to Britain's Guardian
newspaper. "We are going to do it by
democratic means, by being beaten up
and by being arrested - but we are
going to do it."
But it's too early to tell whether Mugabe's regime will
collapse, and many
experts say the defining blow will come from within
Mugabe's own ruling
ZANU-PF party, with a raging succession battle between
two possible heirs.
For now, Mugabe's hold over the Zimbabwean military,
police, and
intelligence services remains strong. Most of his cabinet, and
both of his
two probable successors - Vice President Joyce Mujuru and Gen.
Emmerson
Mnangagwa, the rural housing minister - have ties to the Zimbabwean
military.
Ms. Mujuru's husband, Gen. Solomon Mujuru, reportedly has
contacted British,
French, and US envoys in recent weeks, causing Mugabe to
warn of a possible
internal coup attempt.
There is "an insidious
dimension where ambitious leaders have been cutting
deals with the British
and Americans," Mr. Mugabe said on Friday. He also
said Western critics of
his crackdown "can go hang."
As for the beating of MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai and others, Mugabe was
unrepentant. "If they [protest] again, we
will bash them again," he said.
Mugabe labels protesters
'terrorists'
Mugabe's strident public utterances have fueled tensions. On
Saturday, he
accused the opposition of terrorist attacks. "Scores of
innocent people
going about their legitimate business have fallen prey to
terrorist attacks
that are part of the desperate and illegal plot to
unconstitutionally change
the government of the country," he said, in
comments carried by the official
Sunday Mail.
While many Zimbabweans
point to such statements, and his shifting of
political heirs from Mujuru to
Mnangagwa, as signs that Mugabe is finished,
if not unhinged, others say
that Mugabe remains firmly in control.
"Mugabe knows that the unifying
factor that has kept people loyal is to have
elections, and if they have
elections in 2008, the ZANU-PF will consolidate
around Mugabe, against the
MDC," says Chris Maroleng, a leading expert on
Zimbabwe at the Institute for
Strategic Studies in Tshwane, South Africa.
"This violence is a cyclical
thing," says Mr. Maroleng. "Maybe a year out,
he starts to arrest or harass
the opposition, and maybe four months away
from the election, he can ease up
on them, but by then the damage is done.
What we are seeing is the
preparations for the elections of 2008."
In the streets of Zimbabwe's
capital, Harare, a tense calm prevails.
Official media reports suggested
that a state of emergency might be
declared. But in townships like Glen
View, an unofficial state of emergency
already exists, with residents being
assaulted by police. Even on First
Street, Harare's main shopping street of
department stores, cafes, and
boutiques, riot police were spotted this past
week carrying batons, teargas,
and firearms.
In South Africa,
pressure for the country to step up criticism of Mugabe is
pushing
government officials into a defensive mode. "We have constantly
maintained
that the solutions to the problems of Zimbabwe will be resolved
by the
people of Zimbabwe," said South African Foreign Affairs Department
spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.
Yet the MDC's spokesman in South Africa,
Kumbulani Sibanda, still holds out
hope that South African President Thabo
Mbeki will finally speak out against
Mugabe. "[Mbeki] is out of the country
at the moment, and he hasn't spoken
about it yet. Maybe [ANC leaders] are
waiting for the president to return
before they decide to say something
new."
. A reporter who could not be named for security reasons
contributed from
Harare, Zimbabwe.
With hot news coming in from
Zimbabwe while the Vigil was underway we felt a
bit like a news service,
relaying information to the BBC and others. It is
no secret that one of our
supporters is Grace Kwinjeh's sister so we knew
immediately when the police
stopped Grace and Sekai Holland from flying to
South Africa for treatment of
the injuries they received in custody. Other
informed sources phoned to
tell us about the CIO hijacking of the body of
Gift Tandare, the MDC
activist shot dead last Sunday by the police. We
regard it as part of our
job to keep the media informed about what is going
on in Zimbabwe and have
had a very successful week doing this. Coverage of
Zimbabwe in the British
media has been enormous and most outlets also
reported Wednesday 's
demonstration outside the Embassy.
Being St Patrick's Day, as well as the
final day of the Six Nations rugby
tournament, there was a high-spirited
feeling in London, but the Vigil
sobered up people passing along the Strand
with our graphic pictures of a
beaten-up Morgan Tsvangirai, Sekai and Grace.
Many people who stopped to
sign our petition expressed disgust at the
failure of African countries to
condemn Mugabe's criminality.
Our
supporters in Free-Zim Youth are to stage a demonstration outside the
South
African High Commission in London from 1 - 3 pm on Wednesday to bring
this
disquiet home to South Africa on the anniversary of the Sharpeville
Massacre. They point out that, just as Gift Tandare was shot
indiscriminately, so the people in Sharpeville died. The massacre signalled
the start of armed resistance in South Africa and prompted world-wide
condemnation of the Pretoria government. Readers might like to look at the
weblink we put on the last diary item
(http://www.reuters.com/news/video/videoStory?videoId=23516)
showing how
Free-Zim Youth embarrassed the President of the African Union
speaking in
London.
Great to welcome lots of new supporters drawn
back into action by this week's
horrific events. Among them were several
children - including Zizi, baby
son of Vigil co-ordinator Dumi and his wife
Gugu. We hope to bring news
soon of more new vigils, but for the moment,
let us welcome Belfast who are
to stage their first Vigil next Saturday -
see below for details.
For this week's Vigil pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR
THE RECORD: 72 signed the register.
FOR YOUR DIARY:
- Monday,
19th March, 7.30 pm. Central London Zimbabwe Forum. The
speaker is Geoff
Hill, South Africa correspondent for the Washington Times
and author of
"Battle for Zimbabwe" and "What Happens after Mugabe". Our
usual venue is
not available to us. We will meet on the first floor - main
bar, Strand
Continental Hotel, 143 The Strand, WC2R 15A. From the Vigil a
10-minute
walk away from Trafalgar Square after Waterloo Bridge but before
Somerset
House. Nearest underground: Temple (District and Circle lines) and
Holborn
(Piccadilly and Central lines).
- Wednesday, 21st March, 1 - 3 pm -
join Free-Zim Youth's protest
outside South Africa House, Trafalgar Square,
London WC2N 5DP on the 47th
anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre in South
Africa.
- Saturday, 24th March, 14.00 - 17.00 - the first Belfast
Vigil
outside the gates of City Hall. Their second Vigil will be on
Wednesday,
18th April, to mark Zimbabwean Independence Day.
-
Saturday, 31st March - 11 am - 3 pm. The Bristol Vigil meets under
the
covered way, just near the Watershed, Canon's Road, Harbourside.
Vigil
co-ordinator
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London,
takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross
violations of
human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil
which started in
October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored,
free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
News24
18/03/2007 12:26 -
(SA)
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has accused
the opposition
party of perpetrating terrorist attacks on innocent civilians
in a bid to
oust his government, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Mugabe,
83, has defiantly rejected a torrent of international condemnation
following
the beating of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and a number of
his
colleagues last week.
He says the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) is a violent
party sponsored by former colonial power Britain
and other Western allies.
Speaking at a ceremony to mark International
Women's Day in the capital
Harare on Saturday, Mugabe said the authorities
would brook no more lawless
behaviour from the MDC.
"We have given
too much room to mischief-makers and shameless stooges of the
West," Mugabe
was quoted as saying in the Sunday Mail.
"Scores of innocent people going
about their legitimate business have fallen
prey to terrorist attacks that
are part of the desperate and illegal plot to
unconstitutionally change the
government of the country," he added.
He was addressing government
ministers, MPs, religious groups and NGOs at a
belated ceremony to mark
International Women's Day under the theme: Ending
Impunity for Violence
Against Women.
As he spoke, two badly-beaten female members of the MDC
were denied
permission to leave the country to seek medical treatment in
neighbouring
South Africa, the opposition said.
Authorities at Harare
International Airport said Grace Kwinjeh and Sekai
Holland needed letters of
clearance from the health ministry before being
allowed to take a medical
air rescue flight to South Africa.
Meanwhile an opposition leader was
still in police custody on Sunday,
following his arrest at Harare
International Airport, his party said.
Arthur Mutambara, who leads a
breakaway faction of Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC,
was arrested on Saturday as he
tried to travel to neighbouring South Africa
to visit his wife.
He
was being held at Harare Central Police Station.
Mutambara was one of
dozens of opposition officials and civic rights
activists rounded up by
police last Sunday as they tried to hold a prayer
rally in Harare's
Highfield suburb.
Many of those detained - including party founding
president Tsvangirai -
were badly beaten in custody, provoking an
international outcry. A High
Court ordered their release earlier this
week.
Defence lawyer Beatrice Mutambara said Mutambara's arrest and
detention on
Saturday was a contemptuous, arrogant and malicious defiance of
the High
Court order.
"We are therefore proceeding to apply on an
urgent basis for the release of
our client from the unlawful detention," she
said in a letter to the officer
commanding law and order at Harare Central
Police Station, a copy of which
was seen by Deutsche Presse-Agentur
dpa.
Mutambara's MDC said in a statement late on Saturday that police
wanted to
charge their leader with inciting public violence.
From Angola Press, 18 March
Harare - The Zimbabwean government, under intense
international pressure for
reported human rights abuse, has turned to
diplomacy to try and sustain the
support of its wavering friends. The
country has been hammered after several
opposition and civic rights leaders
were arrested and severely beaten by
police last weekend for holding
unauthorised rallies. Some of the opposition
leaders, including President
Robert Mugabe`s main challenger Morgan
Tsvangirai, had to be hospitalised
for injuries from the assaults, while in
other related violence police shot
dead an anti-government protester. Images
of battered opposition leaders,
and burnt vehicles, galvanised international
revulsion against the Harare
government, including among traditional
Zimbabwean friends such as
neighbouring Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania
and Zambia. For the first
time, the country`s neighbours expressed concern
at the situation in the
country, and urged Zimbabwean authorities to be more
tolerant of dissent.
Tanzanian leader Jakaya Kikwete visited Harare Thursday
for urgent talks
with Mugabe. The harshest criticism of Zimbabwe has from
Europe and the US,
which are now planning to tighten their smart sanctions
on the
country.
But it was indications of wavering by traditional allies
that has prompted
Harare authorities to launch a diplomatic offensive. Late
Friday Foreign
Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi summoned ambassadors from the
regional
Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), other African
countries, the
Non-Aligned Movement, China and Russia for a
crisis-management briefing.
"You are our closet allies and therefore it is
right and proper that you get
information from us," he told the envoys. "You
are the ones we interact with
so its important that we share notes."
Officials said diplomats from
European countries would be invited next week
by Mumbengegwi for similar
briefings, although the authorities do not expect
much sympathy from them.
Mugabe, accusing Western ambassadors here of
fomenting and financing the
opposition`s campaigns of defiance, has even
threatened to expel the envoys.
IOL
March 18 2007
at 05:37PM
By Andrew Quinn
Cape Town - Zimbabwe's
economic collapse is likely to accelerate with
inflation topping 5 000
percent by year-end as President Robert Mugabe's
government loses control of
a crisis already rippling across Africa, a
senior IMF official said on
Sunday.
International Monetary Fund Africa Director Abdoulaye
Bio-Tchane said
Zimbabwe's government had shown little sign of coming to
grips with its
mounting economic problems, promising more hardships amid
sharply rising
political tensions.
"It depends on how much the
people in the country can take,"
Bio-Tchane told Reuters in an
interview.
"The question is how far it could fall. The last four
years we've seen
GDP falling by more than 35 percent. Inflation is running
at more than 1 700
percent and our estimate is by the year's end it could
move even beyond 5
000 percent."
Bio-Tchane's
forecast came as Mugabe's government comes under rising
international
condemnation over a violent crackdown on the opposition this
week.
In response, the United States and other nations
threatened to tighten
sanctions against Mugabe and other senior Zimbabwean
officials.
Mugabe, 83, has warned against any "monkey games" by
those he called
the stooges of his Western critics and said police would now
be well armed
to deal with violence caused by the main opposition Movement
for Democratic
Change (MDC).
Bio-Tchane said Mugabe and
Zimbabwe Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono
appeared unable to stem the
economic slide, which has turned one of Africa's
most promising economies
into a basket case beset by frequent shortages of
food, fuel and foreign
exchange.
"It is one step forward, two steps back," he said, saying
Gono was
fuelling the crisis by expanding the already enormous fiscal
deficit to some
40 percent of GDP this year, printing floods of new cash and
subsidising
struggling state-run firms.
"They need to rein this
in," he said. "But obviously they need more
than that. You can't let the
economy function if people are not free to
operate, if their rights are not
secured, including human rights."
"You will always find a few
people who will benefit from this system,
so therefore it may continue. I
can't give a date when the whole thing will
stop or collapse. But it will
certainly continue falling. This will continue
impoverishing people, people
will continue losing their jobs, continue
losing their purchasing
power."
Bio-Tchane said Zimbabwe's woes were already felt across
Africa as
millions of economic refugees stream out of the country, mostly to
neighbouring South Africa, while economic growth is hampered by the loss of
regional trade and investment opportunities.
"It's holding the
sub-region back, and it is holding the whole Africa
region back," he said.
"This was a booming economy, this was a net exporter
of goods and services
in the past. Now exports are falling. It is a country
that is a net importer
today."
He added that it appeared some countries were helping to
bankroll
Mugabe through loans or other deals.
"We don't have
evidence of the sources, but clearly they are getting
some financing," he
said.
The IMF and other key Western donors, including the World
Bank,
suspended aid to Zimbabwe more than six years ago over Mugabe's
economic
policies that are blamed for the economic meltdown.
Western donors withdrew aid and other assistance, accusing Mugabe of
widespread human rights violations and for seizing white-owned farms, which
has turned the country from a regional bread basket to a nation barely able
to feed itself.
Despite the problems, Bio-Tchane said Zimbabwe
could quickly access
outside help once it made the necessary economic
reforms.
While the IMF in February maintained its suspension of
financial and
technical assistance to Zimbabwe, Bio-Tchane said efforts to
repay some $129
million in arrears to the fund had kept open its chances to
obtain immediate
international help.
"They could be quickly
eligible for technical assistance. And for
funds, I must say, in the case of
Zimbabwe it is really the political
commitments of the government that are
preventing everyone from
cooperating." - Reuters
The Guardian
A withdrawal of South Africa's support
for Robert Mugabe would be decisive.
But Thabo Mbeki seems unlikely to bring
himself to do it.
David Beresford
The appeals to South Africa to
"do something" about Zimbabwe are unlikely to
have much influence on
president Thabo Mbeki. Despite expressions of concern
emerging from Pretoria
- and clear embarrassment in other parts of Africa -
about the latest events
in Zimbabwe, there is nothing to indicate a change
in policy.
"The ANC is
concerned about the current situation in Zimbabwe, including
reports of the
alleged assault of opposition leaders while in police
custody," said an ANC
spokesman, Smuts Ngonyama, making it clear that his
party regarded the
situation as no more than that - reports of allegations.
"We further
reiterate our call to all stakeholders in Zimbabwe to continue
to seek
peaceful and inclusive solutions," he added, in words which indicate
that
any solution needs to be acceptable to president Robert Mugabe, a man
whose
readiness to use violence against his citizens is notorious.
The ability
of South Africa, strategically, to control Zimbabwe was
demonstrated back in
1976 when prime minister John Vorster, at the
instigation of US secretary of
state Henry Kissinger, pulled the plug on Ian
Smith. But if the goal is
achievable, Mbeki shows little taste for scoring
it.
When Mbeki
adopts a policy position that proves unpopular, over which he is
criticised,
he is quite capable of becoming obsessive about it. There is
Aids, of
course: Mbeki's determined espousal of the denialist cause is
something of a
touchstone to the man and his presidency.
Then there was his attendance
at Haiti's bicentenary celebrations (after a
donation of R10m towards
costs), which ended up in in gunfire and president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
going into exile in South Africa was one example. The
Haitian celebrations
were of Africa's first black liberation struggle, in
which Mbeki was
determined to take pride. Instead, it was a debacle.
And Zimbabwe? Well,
Mugabe, perhaps understanding Africa and Mbeki better
than most, has ever
been ready to blame whites for his country's
misfortunes. And, in that
context, Mbeki would be damned if he were to be
seen as the man who pulled
the plug on another African leader.
You can sign a petition to get rid of Mugabe here on the 10 Downing Street
website
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Mugabe/