ABC Australia
Mugabe says he will quit in 2008, seeks
successor
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said in remarks published on
Saturday he
plans to retire when his term ends in 2008 and is looking for a
successor.
His remarks in an interview this week with Kenya's East
African Standard
newspaper appeared to quash speculation that he might step
down before his
term ends.
"I want to retire from politics. I have had
enough. I am also a writer and
would like to concentrate on writing after
this term of office is over," he
was quoted as saying.
"I have not
even completed this term. I have four more years and I am not so
young, you
know. I need to rest from politics and do something else
like
writing."
The East African Standard said Mugabe, 80, spoke to its
reporters in
Zimbabwe after he attended a gathering of traditional elders who
urged him
to hang on to power and seek re-election.
"I know why the
chiefs endorsed me," Mugabe said.
"It is because they know the
consequences the country will face in terms of
good and firm leadership
should I retire."
Mugabe was upbeat about his chances of finding a
suitable successor, the
newspaper reported.
"I don't think I will miss
[fail to find] a successor. Out of 30 million
people there must be a capable
person to take over from me and he will be
the chosen one."
In 2002
Mugabe won a six-year term in elections pitting him against
opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai.
Some observers condemned the poll as flawed and
unfair.
--Reuters
The Telegraph
Tribal rivalry left behind in united hatred of
Mugabe
(Filed: 15/05/2004)
Zimbabwe's poorest region is bedevilled
by the twin plagues of Aids and
misrule, reports Peta Thornycroft in
Lupane
Zimbabwe's impoverished and neglected southern region of
Matabeleland is
witnessing a miracle of sorts.
The signs were clearly
seen yesterday at an opposition rally when Morgan
Tsvangirai, the leader of
the Movement for Democratic Change, addressed a
crowd on the eve of a
by-election.
The former union leader was hailed as a hero in Lupane, 160
miles south east
of Victoria Falls.
"Morgan, Morgan, Morgan," they
shouted as Mr Tsvangirai spoke from a dusty
soccer pitch surrounded by
mahogany trees and cattle with clanking bells.
Yet the MDC leader is from
the majority Shona tribe, while the voters are
members of the Ndebele. Mr
Tsvangirai comes from a district 250 miles away
which many of those listening
have never heard of. He speaks a language they
do not understand.
But
for the Ndebele, who have suffered more than any others under the
autocratic
rule of President Robert Mugabe, any possibility of change
generates
excitement.
"We cannot be free with Mugabe," said Priscilla Tshuma, 35,
eyes glistening
with excitement. The mother of three had walked "so far" to
see "Morgan" for
the first time.
"They [Shonas] killed our fathers,
uncles, brothers," she says of massacres
which began 21 years ago, and lasted
until Zanu-PF forced the opposition
into a government of national unity, a
one-party-state, for the next 12
years. It was in Lupane that the worst
massacres took place after Mr Mugabe,
then the prime minister, ordered his
North Korean-trained troops to
slaughter, maim and starve people in
Matabeleland.
The victims, buried in shallow graves or stuffed down
disused mine shafts
were supporters of the Zimbabwe African Peoples' Union,
Zapu, with whom Mr
Mugabe had had an uneasy alliance in the final stage of
the war to end
Rhodesian rule.
No one knows how many died, perhaps
20,000. The bloodshed has been less this
time as Mr Mugabe uses the courts
and parliament to crush the MDC, the first
mass opposition party to cross
tribal, race and class lines.
It came within a whisker of winning the
election in 2000 when it was only
nine months old. Since then it has been
bludgeoned and bankrupted by
hundreds of largely trumped up court cases
including a farcical two-year
treason trial against Mr Tsvangirai and two of
his lieutenants.
In rural areas it is now hard to tell whether the MDC
has been suffocated or
gone underground. It won five times more votes in
Lupane in 2000 than Mr
Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF.
In blatantly rigged
presidential elections two years later, largely run by
the army, the MDC
retained its 14,000 votes, but 3,000 new voters appeared
from nowhere in
Lupane and its majority was reduced by that number.
Now they have to
fight to keep the seat and admit that defeat in Lupane,
even allowing for
cheating and beatings, would be a serious blow.
The party has lost one
by-election in Matabeleland, where hatred for Mr
Mugabe has been constant
since before independence in 1980.
"I can be free with Morgan," Mrs
Tshuma said. "We are not forced to come
today, they [MDC] don't want to know
our names, to put [us] on lists."
Police kept their distance as the
crowd, dressed in their best, trickled
into the soccer ground and swelled to
1,500.
It was a normal day for the MDC. More than 60 MDC youth members
were
arrested during a fight over campaign posters, one journalist was beaten
up,
and a woman Zanu PF supporter was stabbed in the
backside.
According to the United Nations, more than a million people in
Matabeleland,
or half the province's population, survived the past two years
only because
of western food aid. That figure includes 55,000 residents of
Lupane.
No one at the rally had heard the government's widely derided
announcement
claiming that the country had enough grain and that foreign food
agencies
should therefore shut up shop.
Mr Mugabe ordered the UN to
halt its annual harvest assessment. "They don't
want us to see their
failure," said a worker from a leading foreign food
distribution
network.
Four years ago, Mr Mugabe, fearful of an MDC victory began
evicting 3,500
white farmers and hundreds of thousands of their MDC
supporting workers off
the land. Most of it now lies fallow.
As if the
people of Matabeleland were not suffering enough, there is another
plague
stalking their land.
Under a tree, Bestnut Khumalo, 28, said he was in
pain around his collar
bone. Unable to walk, thin as a wisp, he said. "I
don't want to eat. I have
much pain.
"The hospital says I am [HIV]
positive. Will I get better? I do not know.
"When I was younger I dreamed
of building a house, but there is nothing in
Zimbabwe, so I went to Botswana.
My daughter is there. I came home when I
was ill."
His uncle who asked
not to be named as he is a civil servant, said: "He has
this virus. The
hospital tried to treat him but it didn't work."
Two young women carrying
babies on their hips said they and their infants
"vomited all the time". A
couple of filthy orphans who should have been at
school hung around because,
their grandmothers said, "fees are now too
high".
Olivia Ncube, 24,
said her daughter, Luba Duba, 18 months, could not walk
properly. "She vomits
all the time. So do I. I took her to the hospital, but
we do not get
better."
Gertrude Ncube, also 24, said she had TB and her children,
Charlotte and
Pumzile were ill.
Back at the rally, Mr Tsvangirai joked
with the crowd and asked: "Why would
anyone be stupid enough to vote for Zanu
PF?"
He knows the answer. The people know the answer. Fear.
Resurgent Mugabe looks to the future
Rory Carroll reports from Lupane, a
district about to back the man who
devastated it
Saturday May 15,
2004
The Guardian
Robert Mugabe likes to win elections, but few
imagined his appetite for
victory would extend to Lupane, a constituency
which has a special reason to
loathe Zimbabwe's president.
It was here
that he waged war against the Ndebele people two decades ago by
exterminating
entire villages, leaving the teak forests dotted with mass
graves and making
Mr Mugabe a folk monster for those who survived.
Yet it is here that the
president turns today for an electoral endorsement
when voters choose a new
member of parliament.
No matter that the byelection was occasioned by an
assault on David Mpala
which is widely blamed for the opposition MP's death,
or that Lupane's
economy is in even worse shape than the rest of the country:
Mr Mugabe
expects to win.
"Party set to retain Lupane seat," ran the
headline this week in the local
paper, the Chronicle. Like all dailies it is
pro-government, so it meant the
ruling Zanu-PF party. It also meant regain,
not retain, but that would be to
quibble about a result apparently
foretold.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) expects to
be clobbered
in what should be a stronghold. "We know from canvassing that
the vast
majority of Lupane still supports us but the rest of the country
won't know
that," said David Coltart, an MP for nearby Bulawayo.
For
the president it is a remarkable turnaround. Twelve months ago his
23-year
rule seemed to be coming to an end under the weight of a general
strike,
fissures within the ruling party and shortages of petrol
and
banknotes.
Today the opposition is on its knees, shortages have
eased and the
80-year-old is orchestrating an exit strategy for eventual
retirement on his
own terms. His spokesmen say this is the reward for land
reform popular with
peasants and for standing up to bullying from the former
colonial power,
Britain, which is popular across Africa.
But Mr Mugabe
is not taking his popularity for granted: this month the
censorship board
banned a play called Super Patriots and Morons, which took
a satirical look
at an anonymous African country struggling with fuel
queues, food shortages
and authoritarian rule.
The opposition says Mr Mugabe plans to overturn
its large majority in Lupane
by sticking to the formula of intimidation and
rigging which delivered him
the presidential election in 2002.
Victory
this weekend would set up the ruling party to sweep next year's
parliamentary
elections, and meanwhile leave it just one seat shy of the
two-thirds
parliamentary majority needed to unilaterally amend the
constitution,
smoothing Mr Mugabe's anointment of a successor.
"I am 100% sure that
they will rig it and declare victory. They are
absolutely evil, these people,
they will do anything for power," said Pius
Ncube, the Catholic Archbishop of
Bulawayo and a vocal critic of the
government.
Youths from the militia
known as the Green Bombers have set up camps in all
26 wards, according to
the MDC candidate, Njabuliso Mguni. "They go out and
terrorise the
villages."
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The
well-dressed strangers in four-wheel drives are assumed to be agents
from the
Central Intelligence Organisation. At least 10 opposition polling
agents have
been arrested.
Intimidation is widespread. Staff at St Luke's missionary
hospital visibly
trembled when two pick-up trucks disgorged pro-Mugabe
militants and Jabulani
Sibanda, the leader of the war veterans, stormed into
the reception to
demand better medical treatment for his followers.
A
group of village headmen with tales of harassment would be interviewed
only
off a dirt track in a moonlit forest, deeming any other time and place
too
perilous.
Kenneth Ndlovu, 52, said Zanu-PF members had visited each
village and kraal
head in the past three months and ordered them to supply
voter lists, attend
rallies and deliver support on polling day. Compliance
earned a monthly
salary of up to £140; refusal prompted a slew of threats.
"They told me to
leave my village. But I won't," said Mr Ndlovu, who lamented
that many
headmen had succumbed.
No one knows how many votes such
traditional leaders will swing. In the
absence of opinion polls and
independent media the political preferences of
some 45,000 voters scattered
over a sprawling rural constituency may never
be known.
Fourteen of
the 60 polling stations are mobile and will be difficult to
track, according
to Reginald Matchada-Hove of the Zimbabwe Election Support
Network, an
umbrella group of independent watchdogs. Some voters had been
prevented from
registering and opposition rallies had been disrupted, he
added.
State
broadcasters have trumpeted the ruling party's plan to revitalise
Lupane with
a new university and an "aggressive marketing strategy" designed
to bring
foreign investment to impoverished subsistence farmers.
A novelty of the
campaign has been the low level of violence. No deaths have
been reported and
few injuries. The most serious clash left a Zanu-PF woman
needing stitches
after being axed in the buttocks by MDC supporters,
according to hospital
staff.
One theory to explain the relative peace is that Mr Mugabe, a
Shona, does
not want to animate memories of the military crackdown that
killed thousands
of minority Ndebele in the 1980s.
The other theory is
that Zanu-PF is experimenting to see if it can triumph
without bloodshed,
thereby boosting the legitimacy Mr Mugabe is said to
crave. "They have
calculated they can lessen the violence and still win. I
think they could be
right," Mr Coltart said.
The party mustered 2,000 cheering supporters
under a roasting sun in Lupane
this week to greet their leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, who made a rare foray
from the capital, Harare. But the
opposition is bankrupt and demoralised.
Party workers are unpaid, leaders are
entangled in court cases and there is
no effective medium to counter
government propaganda. State security
infiltration sows
paranoia.
Several white supporters said they were no longer willing to
lend vehicles
and donate fuel to a party they fear will lose half its 52
seats in general
elections that could be brought forward to this
year.
"Since Iraq the international community has forgotten us," shrugged
one. For
the time being, he said, the MDC's main task was simply to continue
existing
in a backwater despotism.
Australians arrive in Zimbabwe
Keeping to the party line
Wisden
Cricinfo staff
May 15, 2004
The Australians' first press
conference after arriving in Zimbabwe was an
understandably cautious affair
on both sides. The players and management are
aware that this has the
potential to be a hugely controversial trip, and so
spent most of the time
sticking firmly to a pre-arranged and well-rehearsed
script; the media know
that the Zimbabwe authorities tolerate nothing
remotely critical and so
didn't probe too much.
There was one point where things got a little
political when Steve Bernard,
the tour manager, was asked what would happen
if Robert Mugabe turned up at
a game. "I understand he's not coming to meet
us, so I don't really think
that's going to matter either way," Bernard said.
"Politicians aren't all
that interested in coming to see us play, I gather,
so we don't expect to
see them there. They may well turn up and so be it, but
we're here to play
cricket and I don't expect we'll be asked to pose for
anyone or anything
like that."
But Bernard made it clear what the
official line was regarding the morality
of touring when he was asked about
being in Zimbabwe when there was so much
international pressure on the Mugabe
regime over alleged human-rights
abuses. "It's a cricket tour and that is how
we are treating it," Bernard
said. "We are supporting Zimbabwe cricket and
Zimbabwe cricketers."
Otherwise, much of the questioning centred on
the strength, or rather
weakness, of the Zimbabwe side and how Australia
would cope. "That's
probably going to be our biggest challenge, Ricky Ponting
admitted. "We have
to be at our best to maintain the high standards we have
set.
"I want us to play the best cricket possible while we're here,
if that means
finishing games pretty early then so be it. A lot of the guys
haven't played
any cricket for quite a while and that generally makes you a
bit keener."
© Wisden Cricinfo Ltd
Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2004 5:51 PM
Subject: exact estimate
Dear
Family and Friends,
Since the end of February 2000 Zimbabwe has been a
country in crisis.
Hundreds
of thousands of farm workers, managers and
owners were thrown off their
properties to make way for people who at first
were called "peaceful
demonstrators", then "land invaders," then "settler
farmers" and are now
called
"new farmers." Homes were taken over, farmers
and their workers were
murdered,
assaulted and terrorized, private
property was looted, burnt or seized, and
agricultural equipment and
machinery became the property of the State. To
make
what our government
calls this "Agrarian Revolution" look OK in the eyes of
the
world,
Presidential Powers were used, the constitution was changed, court
rulings
were ignored and legislation and statutory instruments were
gazetted
in
favour of the actions of the Zimbabwe government.
As
each month and year passed Zimbabwe got hungrier, food got scarcer
and
inflation soared from 10 to 600 percent. No one really expected 2004 to
be
any
better, particularly if we were to believe what we could see with
our own
eyes
and even if we believed the propaganda churned out in
Zimbabwe every day. As
the
country's main growing season approached last
year, I wrote in my letter of
the
9th August 2003: "Night after night on
the State owned television there are
desperate pleas from people who were
allocated 7 hectare plots on farms.
Plough
for us, they cry, give us seed
and fertilizer." Three weeks later I wrote:
"This
week even the State run
newspapers announced that the seed companies could
only
provide 40% of
national requirements." And, in October 2003, I wrote: "There
is
neither
seed nor fertilizer to buy in the shops."
Zimbabwe's maize crop has not
yet been harvested but for the last two weeks
the
government have
announced that we are in for a "bumper harvest." At first
they
said we
could expect 1.7 million tonnes and now our Agriculture
Minister
Joseph
Made has fine tuned his estimate to very precise and exact
numbers and says
that
Zimbabwe is about to reap two million, four hundred
and thirty one thousand,
one
hundred and eighty two tonnes of maize. WOW,
if the Ministers figures are
correct, you would think our government would be
throwing the borders open
and
inviting journalists, camera crews and
agricultural experts from all over
the
world to come and see just exactly
what an awesome harvest has been
achieved.
They are not!
A
fortnight ago the Zimbabwe government ordered a UN crop assesment team
to
leave the country after it had been in the field for only 4 days. The
World
Food
Programme said they had written approval to carry out the
assessment but
Minister Made said they were here without his say so. The UN
described
Minister
Made's estimated harvest figures as "impossible" and "a
fantasy", the FES
Foundation warned of "an impending famine" and Zimbabwe's
Commercial Farmers
Union estimated a crop of around 700 000 tonnes saying:
"the seed that was
sold
does not add up to that output."
This week
the Minister of Social Welfare said that Zimbabwe does not need
any
more
World Food Aid. Frankly, our eyebrows are raised very high and
ordinary
people here are very scared of how the next few months are going to
be.
Unless
the government has a change of heart, there aren't going to be
any
journalists
or camera crews to witness the facts on the ground and
there isn't going to
be
any world food aid to catch people who teeter on
the brink. Everything in
Zimbabwe is dictated by politics, even harvest
figures and elections are
getting
near. Until next week, with love,
cathy,
Copyright cathy buckle 15th May 2004.
From The Daily Mirror, 14 May
It's not over yet!
Innocent
Chofamba Sithole
Succession politics threaten Sky News public
relations deal
The fallout between the ruling Zanu PF and the
Department of Information and
Publicity in the Office of the President and
Cabinet over the Sky News saga
has hit a new low, the Daily Mirror can
reveal. Sources close to the furore
surrounding the British television crew
that had flown into the country to
shoot a series of documentaries in an
apparent international public
relations campaign for the ruling party and
government claimed the deal has
fallen victim to the ruling party's
internecine succession politics. In a
letter dated Monday 10 May, the
department of information's principal press
secretary Edward Mamutse told Sky
News producer Ben Depear that his crew
should now leave the country as they
had finished part of their shooting,
which, Mamutse said, meant that their
accreditation had also expired. "The
department notes that you claim
completion of the first part of your
assignment for which you have been
accredited. This in effect means that
your accreditation has expired as of
today," Mamutse said.
An unnamed senior official in the same
department was also quoted in
yesterday's Herald confirming the Sky News
crew's departure on Wednesday
afternoon after the department had notified the
immigration department to
ensure the crew's departure. As in their earlier
reports since the onset of
the Sky News saga, the Herald reiterated its
claims by curiously anonymous
sources that it was not Zanu PF that had
brought in the Sky News team. "It
emerged last week that a Ugandan national,
David Nyekorach-Matsanga and not
Zanu PF, was behind the crew contrary to
media reports which said the ruling
party had invited the Sky News crew," the
newspaper reported in yesterday's
edition. However, in an apparent response
to these claims, Zanu PF's
information chief, Nathan Shamuyarira yesterday
made it abundantly clear
that it was the ruling party - "and not someone
else" - that had initiated
the Sky News deal. "The Sky News team that has
been filming in Zimbabwe in
the last ten days was invited to come to Zimbabwe
by Zanu PF. The statement
given to your readers that they were invited by
some one else is not
correct," read a press statement from Shamuyarira's
office. "The party and
the government agreed that Sky News should come to
produce a documentary
film on Zimbabwe. That work has started but it is not
yet completed," the
statement added.
According to authentic
correspondence between Shamuyarira and Sky News head
of foreign news, Adrian
Wells in the possession of this newspaper, the team
was also supposed to
interview President Robert Mugabe, lands and land
resettlement minister and
Zanu PF chairman, John Nkomo, Speaker of
Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa,
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor
Gideon Gono, among other leading
government officials. "We should grab this
chance. Can you clear the
arrangement with the President (Mugabe), and
instruct Comrades Mamutse and
(Stephen) Chidawanyika to line up those to be
interviewed, and arrange the
programmes in detail," Shamuyarira wrote to
information minister Jonathan
Moyo on March 17 this year. Chidawanyika, Zanu
PF's deputy director of
information and publicity, last night declined to be
drawn into elaborating
on the press release from the party. However,
confidential sources have told
the Daily Mirror that the underlying dynamics
attendant to the Sky News saga
have their genesis in the ruling party's
internecine succession politics.
They claimed certain political interests
were worried that the documentaries
would project some of the interviewees
in glossy light to the international
media audience, thus advancing their
profiles as acceptable candidates in
Zanu PF's succession race.
However, the ruling party's information
department appears determined to
have the Sky News programme run to its
conclusion. While the party managed
to get round the information ministry's
demand that the Sky News crew return
to their country of origin and seek
accreditation from there, it awaits to
be seen whether the Sky News crew
would secure the necessary accreditation
and the green light to proceed with
the presidential and all planned
interviews. Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports
suggest Sky News has already
begun to show some of its documentaries although
it could not be ascertained
whether or not the coverage was to the ruling
party's satisfaction.
VOA
Zimbabwe: Special Election in Matabeleland Province Seen As Test of
Ruling
Party
Peta Thornycroft
Harare
15 May 2004, 19:07
UTC
A special election underway in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland province
is seen as a
test of strength for the ruling ZANU-PF party. People in the
district of
Lupane are electing a replacement for an opposition candidate,
who died
after his health deteriorated following his reported torture. The
special
election should be an easy victory for the opposition Movement
for
Democratic Change, but local observers say they are concerned
about
vote-rigging.
The presence of the opposition MDC in most rural areas
outside of
Matabeleland is hard to gauge. Most political analysts say this is
either
because its support has waned, or because widespread repression has
forced
it underground.
The opposition has lost four special elections
in the last four years. All
the elections were supervised by the ZANU-PF
government. Opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai told an election rally in
Lupane last Wednesday that,
until there is an independent electoral
authority, people should expect the
results of the ballot may be
manipulated.
Observers point out that, despite a decreasing population in
the area, 3,000
more people voted in the 2002 presidential elections than in
the
parliamentary elections two years before. All those votes were counted
as
won by the ruling ZANU-PF. Still, the opposition scored an easy victory,
and
it is expected to win this time, as well.
Lupane is a poor
district with about one out of five people infected with
the HIV virus.
Hospitals have been reporting a dramatic upsurge in malaria
death this year.
Most of the people are unemployed, and depend for their
livelihood on food
aid from Western donors.
Twenty years ago, Lupane was the site of
Zimbabwe's worst atrocity,
perpetrated by government troops against political
opposition. The Catholic
Commission for Justice and Peace, which investigated
the massacre, estimated
between 10,000 and 20,000 people died, and an unknown
number of others were
forced to flee.
Police arrested dozens of youths
ahead of the opposition party's rally last
week, but kept a low profile
during the rally, and released most of the
detainees without a charge
afterwards. One ZANU-PF supporter was reportedly
beaten up and taken to
hospital.
In the first hours of voting Saturday, the opposition reported
two of its
supporters were taken into police custody and allegedly
tortured.
Zimbabwe Police Arrest Constitutional Activists
Sat May 15, 2004 11:30 AM
ET
HARARE (Reuters) - Police fired teargas and beat activists with
truncheons
in the central Zimbabwe city of Gweru on Saturday as they prepared
to hold a
meeting on constitutional reform, the coalition organizing the
gathering
said.
Police arrested 80 people including the group's chairman
Lovemore Madhuku
ahead of the meeting, said Ernest Mudzengi, spokesman for
the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA).
The meeting was meant to
focus on an economic and political crisis many
blame on President Robert
Mugabe's ZANU-PF government.
The NCA, a coalition of human rights groups,
political parties and student
and church organizations, has lobbied for
constitutional reforms in Zimbabwe
since 1999.
"The police assaulted
participants with truncheons... 20 sustained injuries.
We condemn this latest
act of police brutality, which we view as part of the
ZANU-PF regime's
increasingly insane strategies of holding onto power,"
Mudzengi said in a
statement.
The chief police spokesman, Senior Assistant Commissioner
Wayne Bvudzijena,
said he was still getting details on the
incident.
The NCA says major flaws in the constitution make it impossible
to hold free
and fair elections in Zimbabwe, and have helped Mugabe to
tighten his
24-year grip on power.
The main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and some Western
countries say Mugabe's re-election
to a six-year term as president in 2002
was fraudulent.
But Mugabe,
who dismisses the MDC as a puppet of his Western opponents, says
he won
fairly.
ZANU-PF, which narrowly beat the MDC in 2000 parliamentary
elections, has
since wrested away four opposition seats in a series of
by-elections, amid
charges of an uneven playing field.
Zimbabweans in
the northwestern district of Lupane cast ballots on Saturday
in another such
poll to replace an opposition legislator who died earlier
this
year.
Victory in Lupane would give ZANU-PF 97 seats in the 150-strong
legislature
and would be a psychological boost ahead of next year's general
elections.
The Battle for Zimbabwe - Geoff Hill
I recently finished the book and can highly
recommend it. I found it interesting but it also left me with a mixed feeling of
sadness and fury. I thought I'd got over all this stuff, but .....I haven't.
In fact I could readily identify with Geoff's
introduction: "The most fearful curse has to be, 'May you fall in love with
Africa'......Having an affair with Africa, like any great love, will take you
through conflicting emotions of hate and desire, joy and despair. And, if you
stay long enough, it will drive you insane and, in your madness, you will
finally realise that, come what may, this is where you were meant to
be."
My heart tells me that this is where I was meant to
be, but my brain knows the absolute opposite.
Geoff had leave Zim to publish his book and having
read it, one would know why. The stuff he managed to dig out was extraordinary
and I would think that he would have been a marked man if he had
stayed.
From my perspective, amongst the more interesting
aspects of his book were his descriptions of:
- The scale of corruption in Zim and SA. We all know
that it is widespread but the degree to which it is practiced leaves one with
the feeling that it is so entrenched that it is now impossible to deal with. No
section of African society seems to be immune. The gauntlet of corruption that
the millions of Zim povo have to deal with fleeing to neighbouring states is
amazing.
- Related to the above, the machinations and the
structures of the highly organized looting of the Congo's resources by Zim Govt.
Ministers and officials, with the active participation of Zim
Govt.structures makes for fascinating reading. Al Capone could teach these guys
nothing.
- Not only does he describe the obvious ethnic
fractures of Shona, Matabele and other minorities but also the internal
infighting between the 4 major Shona factions with Mugs' Zezuru faction holding
sway and not being too hesitant to arrange the knocking off of Manicas or others
who step out of line.
- The barbarity of Mugabe's regime, that is geared to
maintaining power by unbridled savagery, is even more extreme than most of us
onlookers could ever dream of. Geoff's descriptions of the wide-spread methods
of the Green Bombers and War Vets make the beheading death of Nick Berg look
almost humane. His experience, when he was himself detained by them, is
frightening and he was a very lucky chappie to survive. His interviews, both
within Zim, SA and Britain, of refugees' experiences are both interesting and
horrifying at the same time.
- He concludes with a chapter 'When Freedom Comes' and
lists the daunting challenges that lay ahead, including the prosecution of those
guilty of crimes and the required mental healing of the population segments that
have been brutalized.
- He also refers to the pressures that will be brought
to bear by Matabeleland for separation of their 'State' from their Shona
masters.
- His question, 'Will SA go the way of Zim' was
answered guardedly in the affirmative but in my view, was
unconvincing.
In case anyone has any funny notions about my
motivation for this review, I have done it out of pure interest and not as any
service to anyone connected to this publication.
M
This is Exeter
MUGABE RUINED MY LIFE
12:00 - 15
May 2004
A city mum who fled the violence in Zimbabwe is attempting to
rebuild
her shattered life in Exeter.
Liz Bennie, 59, who now
lives in Topsham, lost everything when
supporters of President Robert
Mugabe's regime seized her home and business.
Today she spoke of
her last traumatic 18 months in Africa, as members
of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF
party occupied the ranches of white farmers
across the troubled former
British colony.
Her husband Harry, who was diabetic, died last June
aged 71 at their
20,000-acre ranch with Liz at his side.
She
claimed the trauma of what was happening around the couple at the
hands of
Mugabe's so-called war veterans was largely responsible for
his
death.
Liz said she was still adjusting to living in the UK
and no longer
being in fear for her life.
She said: "It is so
easy when you are here to ignore what is happening
over there.
"People are really suffering - it is very important British people
don't
forget what is going on.
"I am lucky to have roots in England where
I could escape to, but
there are plenty of families with nowhere to go and
no-one to turn to."
Liz grew up in Devon and has two adult children
from her first
marriage. She married Harry in 1998 after meeting him two
years earlier on a
trip to Zimbabwe.
Before emigrating
permanently she bought a house in White Street,
Topsham, to which she has now
returned.
The couple ran a successful safari business employing 60
people on
their ranch until the political climate turned ugly in
Zimbabwe.
Using violence and intimidation, the war veterans began
driving white
families from their homes in a radical programme of land
"reclamation".
For almost two years the couple knew it was only a
matter of time
before their ranch would be targeted.
Gradually
the intimidation tactics grew more frequent and more
frightening as men were
drafted in to take possession of their ranch.
A gang eventually set
up camp on the outskirts of Liz and Harry's
property.
Liz said:
"The first time I knew trouble was coming was when 12 war
vets waved me down
on the road back to the ranch.
"I stopped, thinking they wanted
work, but they said they just wanted
to go up to the ranch, and they didn't
need work."
The couple lived in growing fear as their property was
gradually taken
over.
Liz said: "The constant sound of chopping
wood told us they were there
to stay - they were felling our trees for
firewood and to build houses.
"They would set fire to parts of the
ranch - we could see the glow at
night as bush on the perimeter burned. They
did other things too, like
cutting off the water supply to the workers,
beating up our workers who
refused to desert us, and threatening to kill
Harry."
Her husband was eventually taken to hospital in Bulawayo.
However, by
the time he came out Liz had made up her mind she had to return
to Britain.
Once back she begged her husband to leave Zimbabwe, but
he still
refused to leave the ranch.
In February 2003 Liz
returned to Africa after her husband suffered a
relapse.
But he
died within a few months of her return and she again fled the
country. By now
the ranch had become the property of the state.
Liz is now building
a new life in Exeter and continues to monitor the
situation in
Zimbabwe.
She said: "I feel for the black people who Mugabe is
claiming to
represent.
"They have no work, no food and, at the
moment, no hope."
I have extracted relevant bits from a very long
article put out by Amnesty International, and published on the following
website.
http://www.dublinpost.com/p/22/80104603a2513b.html?id=WNAT5ebf1f0b7b8a5c24d05e54f872f07f0d
the European
Union's arms exports
Amnesty, Fri 14 May
2004 |
|
|
Undermining Global Security: the European Union's
arms exports
AI Index: ACT 30/003/2004
1. Introduction:
This report seeks to analyse the current polices
and practices of the 15 EU Member States and the 10 new Member States with
regard to their control of the transfer of military, security and police (MSP)
technology, weaponry, personnel and training. The report demonstrates why
Amnesty International is convinced that more effective EU mechanisms to control
MSP exports are urgently required to help protect human rights and ensure
respect for international humanitarian
law.
|
Austrian and UK transfers to Zimbabwe:
Following widespread and
sustained human rights abuses by the Zimbabwean security forces and their armed
supporters, the European Union (EU) introduced an embargo on military equipment
to Zimbabwe in May 2000. In the run-up to the presidential election in Zimbabwe
in March 2002, repression by government forces of opposition rallies and other
campaign gatherings intensified. Youth militia, supporters of the ruling
Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), and so-called war
veterans, often with the direct collusion of the police, perpetrated much of the
political violence.
Despite the EU embargo and this pattern of
repression, 66 four-wheel drive vehicles produced by the Austrian arms company
Steyr were delivered to the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) in November 2001.
Opposition parliamentarians in Austria raised concerns that the vehicles would
be used to transport youth militias and war veterans spearheading Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe's campaign for re-election in March 2002.
The
Austrian authorities claimed that the vehicles were not covered by the EU
embargo or by Austrian national legislation on military equipment because they
were not fitted with guns and other special devices. (17) In contravention of
Criterion Two of the EU Code, the 66 vehicles were considered by the Austrian
government to be ordinary "transport vehicles" so that Steyr did not need
special permission from Austria's Foreign and Internal Affairs Ministries before
agreeing the deal with the Zimbabwean government.
Moreover, the
involvement of Zimbabwean armed forces in the brutal war in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo meant that the Austrian government also ignored Criteria
Three and Four of the EU Code. In addition, the Austrian domestic law forbidding
Austrian firms from selling military equipment to countries involved in war, or
to places where there is a strong likelihood of war breaking out, was ignored.
In March 1998 the UK government announced that the Department for
International Development (DIFD) had approved a project to supply over one
thousand Land Rovers to the Zimbabwe Police as part of a programme to help to
reform the police in Zimbabwe. The project was valued at US$14.8
million.(18)
Although these transfers of Land Rovers took place before
the imposition of the EU embargo against Zimbabwe, concerns about the
deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe had previously been raised by a
number of human rights organisations, including Amnesty International. In May
1998, just before the EU Code was adopted, the UK government had indicated that
it was aware of the likelihood that the Land Rovers could be used for political
repression. Nevertheless, the aid project was not formally cancelled until May
2000. By that time it was reported that some 450 Land Rovers had already been
delivered and various reports had detailed the use of Land Rovers to facilitate
human rights violations by the Zimbabwean security forces. For example, in the
town of Zaka in Masvingo Province, local government Land Rovers were reportedly
used in co-ordinated attacks on New Year's Eve 2001 against opposition party
activists. Fifteen opposition political activists were hospitalized after severe
beatings by militia members. DFID and the UK government's continued support for
the supply of such vehicles after June 1998 was contrary to Criterion Two of the
EU Code.
The government of Zimbabwe received a consignment of
six ex-Czech army RM 70 122mm multiple rocket launchers in 2000.
Slovakia has been a point of origin or transit for
arms deliveries to human rights abusers and countries in violent conflict, as
well as to suspected illegal destinations. Slovak transport agents have been
involved in arranging some of these deliveries.(86) In March 2000, a plane left
Bratislava's airport bound for Harare, Zimbabwe, allegedly carrying a
mis-declared weapons cargo for use by Zimbabwean forces in the war in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.(87)
United Kingdom aid to foreign military
In 2000 a
parliamentary answer provided details of how Britain had provided military
training for nearly 4500 foreign military personnel from over 100 countries
including Algeria, Brazil, Indonesia, Israel, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia
and Zimbabwe between April 1999 and March 2000.(260) Neither details of the
nature of the military training nor of the specific forces trained has been made
public. Such training is of potential concern given the poor human rights record
of many of the countries whose forces were trained. Without adequate
transparency and reporting to the public and parliament, such MSP training can
facilitate human rights violations in the recipient countries.
United Kingdom and the DRC:
The UK transfer of
spare parts for military aircraft to Zimbabwe in January 2000, despite concerns
that Zimbabwe was using these jets in the conflict in neighbouring DRC, then
subject to an EU arms embargo, were raised by human rights and development
organizations.(370) Following a public and parliamentary outcry in the UK and
reports of the worsening human rights situation in Zimbabwe itself, the UK
licences were eventually suspended in May 2000