International Herald Tribune
The Associated
PressPublished: May 5, 2008
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's
opposition leader has decided whether he will
participate in a presidential
runoff, but won't make his choice public until
electoral officials set an
election date, an aide said Monday.
Movement for Democratic Change leader
Morgan Tsvangirai's options: concede
the second round to long-term,
increasingly autocratic President Robert
Mugabe; or try to run a campaign in
an atmosphere so violent that the
opposition chief does not feel safe in his
own country.
"We have a decision," Tsvangirai's spokesman George
Sibotshiwe told The
Associated Press Monday. "But we will only announce it
when (the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission) announces the date of the
election."
Attempts to reach electoral commission officials, who
announced Friday a
runoff would be necessary because neither Mugabe nor
Tsvangirai won a simple
majority in March, were not immediately successful
Monday. Deputy
Information Minister Bright Matonga said last week the
constitution requires
a second round no sooner than 21 days from the
announcement of the results,
and no later than a year.
Tsvangirai was
in Johannesburg in neighboring South Africa, Sibotshiwe said,
adding the
leader would make no comment himself Monday. Tsvangirai has been
traveling
in his homeland's neighbors since the first round, saying his
priority is
rallying international support but acknowledging he could be
arrested or
attacked should he go home.
Tsvangirai has claimed he won outright on
March 29 and party officials
dismissed as fraudulent Friday's official
announcement that he got the most
votes, but not enough to avoid a second
round. Tsvangirai's party and
independent rights groups have accused Mugabe
of having delayed the official
results while his army and party militants
mounted a campaign of violence
and intimidation intended to undermine
support for the opposition before any
runoff.
Zimbabwe's neighbors called
on the government to guarantee security during
the second round, according
to a statement issued Monday after a weekend
meeting in Angola of the
Southern African Development Community's political,
defense and security
committee.
On Sunday, the Roman Catholic Justice and Peace Commission
protested
political violence and called on the United Nations and African
Union to
supervise the runoff.
In a statement to coincide with Sunday
services, the Catholic human rights
body said the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission could no longer be relied on as
a "neutral and nonpartisan
electoral umpire" after its five-week delay in
announcing final results. The
Catholic group also cited witness reports of
politically motivated murder,
abduction and torture.
Also Sunday, the Progressive Teachers Union said
teachers, who have
traditionally acted as election officers, had been
targeted in the political
violence. The union said the attacks on teachers
were meant to instill fear
and prevent them from participating as polling
officers in the runoff.
"Whoever is calling himself the government should
act to stop violence in
schools or we will be forced to act," the union
said, threatening a
nationwide strike.
Human Rights Watch said last
week it had received reports that more than 100
polling station officers —
most of them teachers and low-ranking civil
servants — had been detained in
an eastern province. The New York-based
watchdog described that as an
indication the government and its loyalists
were targeting those seen as
betraying Mugabe.
Mugabe's officials have denied fomenting political
violence, instead
accusing the opposition of being behind the
unrest.
Mugabe, 84, was hailed at independence in 1980 for promoting
racial
reconciliation and bringing education and health care to the black
majority.
But in recent years he has been accused of holding onto power
through
elections that independent observers say were marred by fraud,
intimidation
and rigging.
VOA
By Peta
Thornycroft
Harare
05 May 2008
Concerns
about a possible delay in Zimbabwe's presidential run-off election
are
increasing. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has warned that the any
delay
beyond the 21 day limit from May 2 when results were released will be
a
breach of election law. Peta Thornycroft has this report.
The Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission, or ZEC, chaired by Judge George Chiweshe
who was
appointed by President Robert Mugabe, has made it clear it will
decide the
timing of the second round of the presidential election.
The announcement
was carried in the State controlled newspaper Sunday Mail.
The run-off is
necessary, according to the ZEC, because no candidate got
more than half the
votes cast in the March 29 elections. MDC candidate
Morgan Tsvangirai
nevertheless decisively outpolled incumbent President
Mugabe, the ruling
party Zanu-PF candidate.
It took the commission five weeks to announce
the results and rights lawyers
say the delay was an abuse of the electoral
law.
Now there are reports in various media with connections to Zanu-PF
that the
run-off will be delayed by at least 40 days.
Lawyers have
complained that there are more than 120 officials, mostly
teachers, from the
commission still in detention in connection with the
election results. The
union representing the teachers claims the ZEC has
done little to help the
detained officials.
When the results were announced, ruling party
secretary Emmerson Mnangagwa,
made complaints accusing the MDC of bribing
its way to victory.
He used examples of the illegal recount of 23
constituencies where a handful
of votes changed, but did not alter the final
result.
He also said that Zanu-PF would contest the results of 52
constituencies by
petitioning the electoral court which still has to be
established.
The MDC has said it too will contest results of scores of
results it
believed it had won.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
Monday called for an immediate end to
political violence and called on the
the police, army, central intelligence
organization and Zanu PF militia and
so-called war veterans to cease
attacking people it suspects voted for the
MDC.
It also requested that expanded regional and international election
observers be allowed immediate entry into Zimbabwe and that all local
observers be allowed to continue their duties without further
accreditation.
Political violence, according to the Zimbabwe Association
of Doctors for
Human Rights, dramatically increased last week and so far
about 700 people
have been treated and many admitted to hospital with
serious injuries.
Many thousands of people have been forced out of their
homes and many
schools have been taken over by militia. The MDC says at
least 20 of its
members have been killed.
Nearly all those
interviewed by rights lawyers or doctors say they were
attacked because they
voted for the MDC in the elections.
Mr. Mugabe admits his loyalists
killed thousands of oppositon supporters in
southern Zimbabwe in the early
1980's.
www.kubatana.net
Baseline
conditions must be met by the authorities if a second presidential
election
is to be at all acceptable in law and practice
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights (ZLHR)
May 04, 2008
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
has noted the announcement of the
results of the presidential elections by
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(ZEC) on 2 May 2008 after an unprecedented
delay of over one month.
ZLHR has previously made its position clear in
relation to the adverse
impact of the delayed announcement by ZEC on the
credibility of any result
announced. The delay has been unacceptable and,
together with the arrest and
detention of over 120 ZEC officers, the lack of
transparency in the
electoral process (especially post-voting day), and the
ever escalating
retributive political violence, has ensured that this result
is and remains
disputed and of no value to those who voted on 29 March 2008
for a return to
the rule of law, peace and democracy in Zimbabwe.
Be
that as it may, in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act as
amended,
as no presidential candidate received an absolute majority on 29
March 2008,
there is now need for a second election within 21 days of the
declaration of
the result by ZEC on 2 May 2008.
Should the two presidential candidates
agree to participate in the second
election, there is a need to be clear on
exactly what issues need to be
addressed in order for such election to
conform, at the most minimum level,
to Zimbabwean constitutional and
electoral norms and regional and
international standards, most particularly
the SADC Principles and
Guidelines Governing Democratic
Elections.
ZLHR wishes to make it clear that the following issues need to
be addressed
as a matter of the utmost urgency:-
1. Immediate
cessation of all political violence in Zimbabwe, especially at
the local
community level, by all state actors, and non state actors acting
with the
acquiescence of the state. This includes, but is not limited to,
commanders
and officers of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (especially the Law
and Order
section and the riot squad), the Zimbabwe National Army, the
Central
Intelligence Organization, the Police Internal Security
Intelligence,
so-called war veterans and graduates of the National Youth
Service.
2. Immediate comprehensive public statements using print
(all publicly-owned
newspapers throughout the country) and electronic media
(state television
and all four state-controlled radio stations) by the
“Minister” of Home
Affairs, the Commissioner-General of Police, the
Commander of the Defence
Forces, the Commander of the Air Force, and the
Commissioner of Prisons,
denouncing all forms of political violence,
instructing their subordinates
to cease all such violence, and assuring
voters that they will all be
protected, no matter their political
affiliation, and that all perpetrators
will be brought swiftly to justice to
ensure that impunity is fought.
3. Immediate access to all victims of
political violence by lawyers, medical
practitioners, humanitarian
organizations and other groups to provide
emergency and ongoing support
services and to ensure their safety throughout
the second election period
and beyond.
4. An immediate and public guarantee by the “Minister” of
Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs, of the institutional and
individual independence of
the judiciary, especially the judges of the
Electoral Court so that they can
carry out their constitutional functions
without fear or favour.
5. The immediate entry into Zimbabwe of expanded
regional and international
observer missions, especially those of SADC,
COMESA, PAP, AU and the UN, who
will be allowed full access to all areas of
the country, and who can ensure,
amongst other things, that ZEC, through its
officers on the ground at each
and every polling station, is able to perform
its constitutional functions
transparently and without fear or
favour.
6. The immediate cessation of the continuing arrests of ZEC
presiding
officers and other election officers, the withdrawal of all
charges against
those already arrested, and their immediate release from
detention.
7. A public undertaking and order to all law enforcement
agents by the
“Minister” of Home Affairs and the Commissioner-General of
Police that ZEC
officers will not be targeted and their safety and security
will be
guaranteed during the second election and in the aftermath
thereof.
8. The immediate cessation of attacks on civil society
organizations and
individuals working therein, and all other human rights
defenders,
especially those involved in human rights, electoral and civic
education
activities, by state actors and non state actors acting with the
acquiescence of the state. This includes, but is not limited to, commanders
and officers of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (especially the Law and Order
section and the riot squad), the Zimbabwe National Army, the Central
Intelligence Organization, the Police Internal Security Intelligence,
so-called war veterans and graduates of the National Youth
Service.
9. Assurance that all local observers will be allowed to
continue with their
observation obligations as stipulated by law and
increase their numbers of
accredited observers if they feel it is necessary,
to ensure state
compliance with electoral law and procedure at all times,
especially, but
not limited to, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network and
its member
organizations.
10. Strict compliance by the authorities
with the Constitution of Zimbabwe
and the Electoral Act, especially as
regards the posting of results outside
polling stations immediately after
counting and tabulation has been
effected, and the timely announcement of
results.
11. Immediate and equal access by both presidential candidates
and their
representatives to the publicly-owned media (print and electronic)
and
immediate cessation of inciting hate speech and propaganda, and false
information.
ZLHR wishes to finally make it very clear that there
will be zero tolerance
for any attempts by the incumbent president to
utilize his disputed and
unconstitutional powers or any other means to amend
in any way the current
electoral laws and process, most particularly the
time-frame within which
any second election must be held – the deadline of
which is on or before 24
May 2008. In addition, the ZEC must ensure that it
complies strictly with
its obligations in this regard and does not seek to
unlawfully justify the
further delay of this electoral process.
May-5-2008
By Bronwen Dachs
Catholic News Service
CAPE TOWN,
South Africa (CNS) -- Zimbabweans will be afraid to return to the
polls
unless runoff elections are internationally monitored, a church
official
said after official results showed opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai won
the most votes in the presidential election, but not enough
to beat
President Robert Mugabe.
Harassment of opposition supporters and those
involved in monitoring the
March elections is happening mostly in rural
Zimbabwe, said Alouis Chaumba,
head of Zimbabwe's Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace. In a May 4
telephone interview, he said "people are
scared" to vote in a runoff because
they fear for their lives.
With
"polling agents being accused of being enemies of the state who want to
sell
out the country," few will want to be involved in monitoring the
runoff,
"which leaves the process open to cheating," he said.
"People voted for
change and now feel utter disbelief" as they are told they
need to vote
again in a runoff, he said.
Those who voted in Zimbabwe's March 29
presidential and parliamentary
elections "feel like it was a futile exercise
and have lost faith in the
process," Chaumba said.
Election officials
said May 2 that Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for
Democratic Change,
took 47.9 percent of the vote while Mugabe, 84, who has
led Zimbabwe since
independence from Britain in 1980, took 43.2 percent.
Zimbabwe election
law requires 50 percent plus one vote to avoid a runoff.
The opposition
maintains that it won the presidential poll outright with
50.3 percent of
the vote.
The official results of the parliamentary vote confirmed that
the opposition
held a majority of seats for the first time in 28
years.
No date has been announced for a runoff.
"We want a process
from which we can move on to a Zimbabwe where the dignity
of the human
person is respected," Chaumba said.
"We need an impartial body to
facilitate the process, such as the African
Union or United Nations," he
said.
"Another Zimbabwe is possible," Chaumba said, noting that they
"want
readmission to the world of nations and to reclaim our status in
Africa as
the breadbasket of the region with a highly educated
population."
"Our human capital is now outside the country, and we want
to draw them
back," he said.
Past elections in Zimbabwe "have brought
nothing but suffering, and we have
to move on. We cannot continue in this
environment," he said.
In late April Zimbabwe's Christian leaders called
for international
intervention in the country's crisis, saying that those
accused of voting
for the opposition are being tortured, abducted and
murdered.
Churches are bearing the brunt of the country's instability,
Chaumba said,
noting that "many of those who are fleeing after being beaten
and tortured
are finding solace in churches."
"So many people are
internally displaced, and those who would normally be
providing for families
are now looking for assistance for themselves," he
said.
Chaumba said
"everything has come to a standstill" since the March
elections, with
teachers not returning to work and doctors on strike.
"The health and
education systems are in dire straits and the government is
doing nothing
about it," he said.
Zimbabwe has the world's highest inflation rate --
more than 100,000
percent -- an unemployment rate of more than 80 percent
and severe shortages
of basic foods and fuel.
The World Council of
Churches and All Africa Conference of Churches said in
a late-April report
that the situation in Zimbabwe "creates a dangerous
vacuum that could lead
to total disintegration of the nation as well as
threaten the unity of the
church."
Noting that the elections "were far from being free and fair"
with the
process "skewed in favor of the incumbent who openly utilized state
resources to his advantage," the report "calls on the ecumenical family to
continue to uphold the people of Zimbabwe in their prayers and to remain in
solidarity with them in the postelectoral period."
Also in a
late-April statement, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga
of
Tegucigalpa, president of the international Catholic umbrella group
Caritas
Internationalis, urged the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms
embargo
on Zimbabwe.
The cardinal also said international observers should be
sent to Zimbabwe to
monitor human rights.
"No more arms must reach
Zimbabwe unless there is the guarantee that they
will not be used against
the people. Church workers are reporting an upsurge
in violence that is
deeply troubling," Cardinal Rodriguez said.
africasia
UNITED NATIONS, May 5 (AFP)
UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday expressed alarm at
reports of rising violence
and intimidation in Zimbabwe and said he was
consulting with African leaders
on how to help resolve the country's
election crisis.
"I am deeply concerned at reports of rising levels of
violence and
intimidation" in Zimbabwe, he told reporters.
He said he
was consulting with the chief of the African Union (AU),
President Jakaya
Kikwete of Tanzania, AU commission chief Jean Ping and
Zambian President
Levy Mwanawasa, who currently heads the 14-member Southern
Africa
Development Community, on how best to handle the crisis.
Zimbabwean
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) are mulling whether Tsvangirai, who fell just short
of the overall
majority needed to oust President Robert Mugabe in the first
round, would
run in the second round.
Tsvangirai has previously said he saw no need
for a second round, convinced
he won more than 50 percent in polling on
March 29.
However, official results released on Friday, nearly five weeks
after
polling day, gave him only 47.9 percent while Mugabe was said to have
won
43.2 percent.
The runoff should in theory be held within three
weeks of the declaration of
results but the commission has still to set a
date.
By Lance Guma
05 May
2008
In December 2000 Robert Mugabe opened a Zanu PF congress by urging
his
supporters to, ‘strike fear in the heart of the white man.’ Eight years
down
the line that policy is being employed to cover all opposition
supporters
and officials. The 84-year-old Zanu PF leader, smarting from an
embarrassing
March 29 election defeat, is allegedly paying ruling party
thugs Z$10
billion for every murder of an MDC activist. The militants are
also being
paid Z$5 billion for every opposition home burnt down. According
to The
Zimbabwean newspaper a defector from the terror campaign has
confirmed that
‘Operation Mavhotera Papi’ was mounted with the specific
approval from
Mugabe.
The paper says party youths are selected by
local party branches and then
sent for a 7 day training exercise at the
army’s KG6 headquarters in Harare.
During the training they are taught
assassination skills and paramilitary
activities. The recruits are taught
how to stab their targets and reminded
of the importance of throwing their
knives into rivers or sewage drains to
avoid being traced. On graduation the
militants are then deployed to areas
far from their homes, where they are
unknown to the intended victims. The
youths ‘are sent out at night in small
squads to kill members of the
Movement for Democratic Change or burn their
houses,’ the paper reported.
On Sunday the MDC issued a statement saying
it had received information of a
plot to assassinate MDC officials using a
group of 18 snipers. The party
says, ‘the killers have set up a satellite
base opposite (the police)
Support Unit in Chikurubi, Harare.’ To aid their
operations Zanu PF has
provided the team with ‘10 new Toyota Hilux single
cab vehicles which have
number plates that range from ABD 1650 to 1659,
among other equipment.’ The
party fears MDC members of parliament and key
workers at the party’s Harvest
House headquarters are the main targets. At
least 21 party activists and
supporters have been killed countrywide in the
wave of violence designed to
intimidate the electorate ahead of a
presidential run-off.
Meanwhile the violence in rural areas is
increasing. Sources have told
Newsreel that the Gokwe area has been turned
into a war zone, with ruling
party militants on the rampage and the area
virtually shut down. Across most
of the country opposition supporters are
being beaten while their homes are
torched. Many businesses have had to shut
down to minimise their risks from
the violence. The situation is so serious
the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) on Friday said it was providing
emergency assistance to more than
1500 displaced people. The agency says it
is providing blankets, soap,
buckets and tablets for purifying
water.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
JOHANNESBURG,
5 May 2008 (IRIN) - More than 50 protesting Zimbabweans were beaten up and 11
members of the activist organisation, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), were
arrested in the country's second city, Bulawayo, on 5 May, according to a WOZA
official.
Photo:
kubatana.net
WOZA has been organising marches to highlight issues
regularly
"We demonstrated ahead of Mothers Day to call for an end to
political violence," WOZA National Coordinator Jenni Williams told IRIN. "Riot
police came upon us indiscriminately - the driver of the police vehicle just
drove into the crowd," Williams alleged. "Others were injured by police, who
beat them with batons."
Williams said the raid was extremely chaotic.
She alleged that police beat her into a police vehicle, then demanded what she
was doing in the vehicle and beat her out again. According to WOZA, the 59
injured people were receiving care at a private clinic, but the whereabouts of
the 11 people who were arrested was yet to be established.
A police
spokesman in Bulawayo said they were unable to confirm the arrests and referred
IRIN to the national police headquarters in the capital, Harare. Despite
repeated attempts, IRIN was unable to contact the police in Harare.
Election results
Williams said: "We are calling on the Chief
Election Officer to declare [leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change Morgan] Tsvangirai the winner. We believe the results [released last
week] were rigged; we don't believe them."
According to the results
declared by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), none of the presidential
candidates managed to get the required majority of 50 percent plus one:
Tsvangirai received 47.9 percent, while President Robert Mugabe polled 43.2
percent.
"No candidate received a majority of the total number of votes
cast, which means a second election shall be held on a date to be advised by the
ZEC," said Lovemore Sekeramayi, ZEC election officer for the presidential
ballot.
"According to the Electoral Act, the two candidates who received
the highest and next highest numbers of valid votes cast shall be eligible to
contest in the second election. Accordingly, Tsvangirai and Mugabe are eligible
to contest in the second election."
While the Electoral Act states that
a presidential election re-run has to be held within 21 days of the results
being announced, the ZEC has been vague about when the run-off will be held,
keeping Zimbabweans on tenterhooks.
ZEC chairperson George Chiweshe told
the media at the weekend that the ZEC board would meet "as soon as possible" to
discuss the date for the run-off, and the logistical arrangements for holding
another election - an expense the impoverished state can ill afford.
ZANU-PF, which lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since
Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, has announced that it is already preparing
for a run-off. According to MDC vice-president Thokozani Khupe, the party's hand
is being forced to participate in a second presidential election.
Late
on 5 May, MDC officials were locked in a meeting to consider lodging an
application in the High Court in Harare to get the ZEC to verify the results,
which might yet make a presidential run-off unnecessary.
Luke
Tamborinyoka, the MDC director of information, told IRIN: "One of the conditions
that we would propose in the event of a run-off is that the election will have
to be supervised by the United Nations, the African Union and the Southern
African Development Community."
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
May 05, 2008
There is concern for several people who are
missing and others who were
injured after police beat demonstrators from the
Women and Men of Zimbabwe
Arise in Bulawayo on Monday. The group took to the
streets to call for an
end to the politically motivated violence that has
left more than 20 people
dead in the last few weeks, and to say that they
are against a run-off
presidential election. But unfortunately they met up
with exactly what they
were protesting against. It has also been reported
that riot police were
beating any group of women that they come across in
town.
According to WOZA coordinator Jenni Williams, the protestors had
just
gathered and begun to march when they were violently set upon by 2
truckloads of riot police who viciously beat people with their baton sticks.
She said the vehicles came from behind the protestors at top speed and
knocked over several of them, causing some serious injuries. At least 59
people needed medical attention from injuries from baton sticks and
vehicles. About 7 people were arrested but it is not clear where they were
taken to. Lawyers have not been able to locate them.
Williams said
they regrouped an hour later and adopted a different strategy,
they marched
silently. This allowed them to get quite close to the High
Court, where they
planned to deliver a petition demanding that the chief
election officer
declare MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai the country’s
president, as he is the
candidate that secured the greatest number of votes
in the elections. They
also said they wanted to make it clear that they do
not want a run-off
election, because it would only result in more
state-sponsored
violence.
Amongst those beaten and injured was Jenni Williams, who was
assaulted both
on the street and in a police vehicle. She was detained
briefly in a police
car and later released, but there is concern for others
who were arrested.
Lawyers have not been able to ascertain how many there
are or where they
were taken. The second batch of those arrested were last
seen being driven
to an area near Brady Barracks.
Williams said they
will continue to speak out on important issues, despite
the violent response
that the police exhibit each time.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
www.swradioafrica.com
Urgent Appeal to the UN
Security Council to prevent Genocide in Zimbabwe
The United Nations
Security Council must consider the Zimbabwean
humanitarian crisis with
urgency and seriousness. March 29-30, 2008
Presidential and Parliamentary
elections were not free and fair. ZANU PF
government has conducted a
campaign of terror and rigged in many
constituencies. More than 5 million
Zimbabweans have fled the country
because of serious politically and
religious persecutions.
All opposition gatherings have been banned.
Opposition supporters are being
harassed and tortured. Cases of death and
serious human rights abuses are
being reported on daily basis. More than 20
people have been murdered by the
ZANU PF and 5000 have been displaced by
violence. Zimbabwe is at war.
ZANU PF came to power by violence. Its
president Robert Mugabe said he
cannot leave power except by 'barrel of a
gun.' In 1983 ZANU have committed
a genocide, that eliminated 40 000
Ndebeles without even a compunction.
Since 2000, thousands of Zimbabwean
opposition members have been murdered.
Tens of thousands have been tortured
and millions are currently being
starved. All productive commercial farms
have been invaded, looted and
destroyed under the pretext of land
resettlement. Independent newspapers
have been bombed and closed down.
International journalist or election
monitors are not being allowed into the
country. Many local journalists have
been harassed, tortured or
murdered.
ZANU PF does not win elections but rigs them and cling on power
by
intimidating the electorate. In March 2002 they massively rigged
presidential elections. Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) is the one with legitimacy to be president of Zimbabwe because
he won both March 2002 and 29 March 2008 presidential elections. ZANU
government is a criminal enterprise which is thriving by committing serious
crimes against humanity, torture, rigging of elections, murder and other
massive abuse of human rights.
Zimbabweans are peace loving people who
long for democracy, freedom and
justice from their oppressive government. By
rigging elections and State
oppression Mugabe's regime is determined to
continue torturing, destroying
homes and murdering people to maintain power.
All peaceful avenues to
freedom in Zimbabwe have failed.
Millions of
political dissenters who fled State atrocities are suffering in
exile and
want to return home. May the UN act on rigging of elections,
torture, murder
and suppression of the will of the people in Zimbabwe. This
is a pre-emptive
move to avoid genocide and bring stability in Zimbabwe.
The illegitimate
ZANU PF government of Robert Mugabe has committed genocide
in 1983 and will
not hesitate to commit another genocide now. Zimbabwe is a
Gun free Zone,
therefore citizens have no weapons to defend their women,
children and
property from State militias, military police and war veterans
who have been
unleashed to harass, abduct, torture, murder and burn houses
of all people
who did not vote for ZANU PF government on 29 March 2008
elections.
Foundation of Reason & Justice is opposed to violence,
abduction, torture,
and destruction of homes and human rights abuses by ZANU
regime. In case of
defensive war, we urge citizens to act properly and
responsible under any
legitimate opposition leaders to defend their lives
and property from
criminals and bloodthirsty
dictators.
Yours for Freedom & Justice
Collen
Makumbirofa
The world's democracies have dragged their feet, but there is still time to thwart Robert Mugabe's despotism.
LEST history fail to record the dismal response of the international community on Zimbabwe, let us reprise the signposts of a descent into darkness. Firstly, just days after the March 29 poll, the Southern African Development Community observed, ridiculously, that the elections had been free and fair, with some caveats. The United States and the European Union then began voicing some concerns over delays in announcing vote returns.
Yet the world failed to move.
After these first volleys, weeks of continued global indifference were taken to new highs as the Zimbabwe High Court refused to properly consider a petition by the Movement for Democratic Change and failed to order the release of the still-embargoed results.
Again, the world said nothing.
By the third week of April, South African President Thabo Mbeki was surmising that all parties must keep talking. This was despite the fact that the ruling Zanu-PF, by all independent counts the loser in the elections, still held all government offices and infrastructure, and had begun intimidating Zimbabweans considered to be against them.
Still, the world nodded and remained unmoved.
By now the silence from global governments and bodies like the SADC and the United Nations had become unbearable. Admonitions and threats from many governments, and even the most liberal-minded communities in the US and the EU, ring hollow. Words have not been followed by action.
Now we have discussion of multilateral sanctions. But where is the movement?
So far we have had circular motion trying to disguise itself as forward progress from the international community. It's a downward spiral that takes us further from the light of democracy.
The MDC has professed a non-violent approach to healing Zimbabwe since our foundation in 1999. Despite the intimidation and the violence dished out to our members and supporters, including me personally, we see no solution in simply finding bigger sticks. That is fighting the wrong fight.
The MDC, in something of a rarity among African opposition groups, has no army. While Robert Mugabe and his thugs trash the country and trample on justice, we cannot play the same brutish game and call ourselves democrats. We have relied on and trusted the democratic process and invested our belief in the international community being there to uphold those same values. Yet this has not happened.
While gaining plaudits is not on our agenda, we might justifiably have expected the international community of liberal and democratic nations to act on their professed values and support a colleague in need of assistance.
The MDC and the many democrats in Zimbabwe have understood there is an obligation to liberty that would be acted on by those in possession of it.
We appear to be wrong.
For Zimbabwe to be the proud and successful country it can be, and has been before, we need the world community. As a country, even a democratic one, we will stand only by propping against those who can help us re-establish a free Zimbabwe.
Today, we look out at our peers and hear the frustration, the anger they feel. They are emotions we feel too. But we see their reluctance to act and we bear the consequences.
And we are not alone. The implications of a failure to act in Zimbabwe are that despots everywhere will be encouraged and democrats will be disillusioned. While it is true that liberty is its own reward, those fighting at the coalface of democracy should expect more return on their investment. They should be able to hope.
What we call for is a means to remove the defeated Mugabe. But, more than this, we need to find the way to break down his corrupted regime and banish those who have benefited from it and now close ranks about their leader.
This is a job for the UN, above all. The UN has the wherewithal and the legitimacy of multilateral compulsion to effect forward movement in Zimbabwe today.
President Mugabe and his minions must be isolated, physically if need be, and a new Zimbabwe defended as it emerges from the ruins.
This means freezing the assets of the regime, blocking transactions, closing down networks, putting a spanner in the machinery of coercion, protecting the innocent, and in every way marginalising the rotten infrastructure of the formerly ruling Zanu-PF until it can no longer survive.
It may seem odd that we are calling for what sounds like a peacekeeping operation in Zimbabwe, but this is in effect what we seek. For Zimbabwe is under attack from within. It is being eaten away by the forces of the former government, and what peace there is needs to be nurtured and developed. There is no hope for Zimbabwe otherwise.
There are implications for the international community, too, should Zimbabwe fall. The international community is today being beaten by the wily old master of lies, Robert Mugabe. So far, democracy's finely balanced gains in Zimbabwe are only highlighting the defeatism of the international community. That is a situation that needs to be reversed immediately.
Morgan Tsvangirai is the leader of Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change. He wrote this comment exclusively for The Age.
nasdaq
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AFP)--The chairman of the
African Union's executive,
Jean Ping, Monday held "very constructive" talks
with Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe on the country's five-week-old
electoral crisis, a senior
diplomat told AFP.
"Ping and his
delegation were received by Mugabe. The discussions were very
constructive
and provided an opportunity to review all aspects of the
situation, " an
African diplomat said.
Speaking to AFP from Addis Ababa where the African
Union is headquartered,
the diplomat said Ping travelled to Harare with
African Union political
affairs commissioner Julia Dolly Joiner and peace
and security commissioner
Ramtane Lamamra.
Ping "also had a working
meeting with the chairman of Zimbabwe's electoral
commission during which
the two men reviewed the entire electoral process
from the start," the
diplomat said.
"The meeting allowed us to look at all the scenarios for
the coming weeks,
notably what is being done to ensure a satisfactory second
round in the
coming weeks," he said.
The diplomat added that the
delegation was expected to leave Harare later
Monday and fly on to Arusha,
in Tanzania, for a meeting of the continental
organisation's executive
council.
Ping's visit to Harare comes amid pressing calls from the U.S.
for increased
African Union involvement in the Zimbabwean electoral
crisis.
African countries have been divided over Zimbabwe, which has been
mired in a
bitter dispute since March 29 general polls.
Results
released after five tense weeks indicate a run-off is needed between
Mugabe
and Movement for Democratic Change candidate Morgan Tsvangirai, but
the
opposition leader maintains he won outright in the first round.
(END)
Dow Jones Newswires
05-05-081104ET
IOL
May 05 2008 at
04:06PM
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is expected
to return
to Zimbabwe this week, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
said on
Monday.
Spokesperson George Sibotshiwe said Tsvangirai
was on his way to South
Africa from Tanzania on Monday and would leave for
Zimbabwe shortly.
"Mr Tsvangirai will be arriving from Tanzania on
Monday and will go to
Zimbabwe in a few days time," Sibotshiwe
said.
He said Tsvangirai was not afraid of being
arrested.
"He can not afford to be afraid of being arrested. He is
an opposition
leader facing a dictator and prospects of being arrested come
with the
territory," he said.
Tsvangirai left Zimbabwe in the
second week of April to attend a
Southern African Development Community
(SADC) meeting in Zambia and has not
returned to Zimbabwe
since.
Zimbabwe's Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, accused
Tsvangirai of
treason and attempting to overthrow the government with
British collusion.
Tsvangirai remained abroad for the past month in
part to lobby
governments in the region to intervene in the Zimbabwean
election stalemate.
It had been speculated that he also feared for
his safety.
Sibotshiwe dismissed claims that Tsvangirai had been
given temporary
residency in South Africa, saying he was accorded a
visitor's visa each time
he was in the country. - Sapa
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
May 05, 2008
Representatives from Non-Governmental
Organisations from across Africa have
been meeting in Swaziland, and
Zimbabwe has dominated the proceedings. The
NGOs met on the sidelines of the
43rd Ordinary Session of the African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
(ACHPR), and expressed serious
concern over the current human rights
situation in Zimbabwe. Lawyer and
human rights activist Gabriel Shumba,
whose own torture case comes before
the Commission this time around, said
Zimbabwe has been upgraded to a
conflict level similar to the Sudan where
millions have died.
The session kicked off in Ezulwini, Swaziland on
Saturday, with Swaziland’s
former Prime Minister Obed Dlamini urging
participants not to shy away from
discussing real problems in Zimbabwe and
other African countries such as
Kenya, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of
Congo
Speaking during the opening ceremony Dlamini said: “The violent
campaign by
ZANU PF and its supporters in the rural areas of Zimbabwe must
be
criticised.”
Shumba said the NGOs called for regional and
international supervision of
elections in the event there is a runoff
between Robert Mugabe and Morgan
Tsvangirai. They recommended that elections
go ahead only after observers
and monitors are already on the ground in
Zimbabwe, making sure there is
peace.
The NGO forum was presented
with shocking reports of the state-sponsored
violence that has caused the
deaths of over 20 people in the post election
period. There have also been
more than 450 arbitrary arrests and detentions,
mostly of opposition
supporters and officers from the Electoral Commission.
Zimbabwe’s attempts
to import weapons from China, statistics on the economy
and death rates were
also highlighted.
The NGOs called for the creation of an African Truth
and Justice Commission,
that would prosecute perpetrators of human rights
abuses on the continent.
Shumba said that they agreed the culture of
impunity that currently exists
needs to be eliminated.
Meanwhile the
AFP news agency reports that the chairman of the African Union
executive
Jean Ping has held "very constructive" talks with Robert Mugabe
during a
visit to Harare. The report quotes a senior African diplomat who
said the
talks centred on the electoral crisis.
Speaking from Addis Ababa where
the AU is headquartered, the diplomat said
Ping travelled to Harare with AU
political affairs commissioner Julia Dolly
Joiner and peace and security
commissioner Ramtane Lamamra. Ping also
reportedly met with the chairman of
Zimbabwe’s electoral commission and
reviewed the entire electoral process
from the start.
The delegation was expected to leave Harare on Monday and
head to Arusha, in
Tanzania, for a meeting of the AU’s executive council.
The United States has
been calling for increased AU involvement in the
Zimbabwe’s crisis.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
www.legalbrief.co.za
Published in: Legalbrief
Africa
Date: Mon 05 May 2008
Category: South Africa
Issue No:
279
South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority has
been asked to prosecute 18
top Zimbabwe security officials for torturing
members of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The
18 include two Cabinet Ministers as well as the heads of state security,
police, prisons and defence who were allegedly involved in torturing - 'on a
systematised and/or widespread basis' - MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and
other MDC officials in a major crackdown in March last year. The Southern
African Litigation Centre (SALC) has submitted a dossier to the NPA
containing comprehensive evidence of the involvement of the 18 security
officials, says a Sunday Tribune report. SALC director Nicole Fritz said
that in terms of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Act,
South Africa is obliged to arrest and prosecute anyone who commits a crime
against humanity as defined by the International Criminal Court. This means
that if the NPA agreed to investigate and indict the 18 security officials,
they could be arrested if they set foot in South Africa.
Monsters and Critics
May 5, 2008, 15:25 GMT
Harare - Cash shortages in
Zimbabwe worsened Monday on the first day of free
trading of the Zimbabwe
dollar as people queued for hours in banks to buy up
local
currency.
The Zimbabwe dollar closed the day in some banks at close to
200 million
against the US dollar, down from a starting rate of 160 million
set by the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabweans with foreign
currency to sell welcomed the willing- buyer,
willing-seller policy
introduced last week by bank governor Gideon Gono but
were unhappy about the
shortages of cash.
'The rate being offered by the banks is much higher
than what the foreign
exchange dealers are offering, but we have been
waiting for cash since
morning,' one man said at Barclays Bank, which was
offering 165 million
Zimbabwe dollars for 1 US dollar.
The man said
he would take the Zimbabwe dollars in cash rather than have the
money
transferred into his bank account because inflation of over 165,000
per cent
meant the money would quickly lose value if left sitting in the
bank.
The Reserve Bank floated the Zimbabwe dollar in a bid to obtain
foreign
currency for food and key agricultural inputs and end rampant black
market
currency trading.
Before the move, the Zimbabwe dollar had
been pegged at 30,000 Zimbabwe
dollars to the US dollar, compared with
around 130 million Zimbabwe dollars
to the US dollar on the black
market.
Analysts are wary, however, of the government's commitment to a
free
floating currency.
In 2005, the Reserve Bank partially floated
the Zimbabwe dollar only to fix
the exchange rate again when the currency
started depreciating faster it had
anticipated.
Business Day
05 May 2008
Chantelle
Benjamin
Chief
Reporter
TAXPAYERS may have to pay millions of rands in compensation for
the
government’s failure to act in Zimbabwe when hundreds of white-owned
farms
belonging to South Africans were confiscated in 2000.
Free
State farmer Crawford von Abo is taking President Thabo Mbeki, Foreign
Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi
Mpahlwa to court to force the government to ratify a treaty that protects
South African investments abroad, or pay him R80m in compensation. Von Abo
has been battling for six years to have confiscated farms in Zimbabwe
restored to him.
Von Abo’s bid to recover losses could open the way
for similar court
actions. More than 100 South African farmers lost land in
Zimbabwe.
Von Abo, a former chairman of SA’s maize and wheat boards
and a Zimbabwe
resident, had farmed in Zimbabwe since the 1950s and employed
more than 1000
Zimbabweans until he was arrested in 2002 for contravening
Zimbabwe’s Land
Acquisition Act by refusing to leave his farm. At the time
he owned only one
farm, Fauna, 100km north of Beitbridge.
Von Abo is
to bring an urgent application this week to compel the government
to
legalise the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment
Disputes
(ICSID) — a mediation facility set up by the World Bank to protect
foreign
investment in 144 member countries. Von Abo is asking as an
alternative for
the government to compensate him for the land he lost.
Von Abo argues
that the government failed to provide him with diplomatic
protection, his
constitutional right, and was “passive” and “sluggish” when
it came to
acting against Zimbabwe’s unlawful confiscation of land. He also
accused the
government of not sending a witness to his court case.
At the time of his
arrest, Von Abo said intervention by officials from other
countries, in
particular France and Germany, saw land returned to those
nationals from
farms neighbouring his.
The South African Law Commission recommended
a few years ago that SA give
the ICSID legal status. This would protect
companies with business interests
abroad. At least 42 African countries,
including Zimbabwe, are signatories.
Democratic Alliance (DA) MP
Andries Botha said that in 2002 the DA had
handed the names of more than 120
South African citizens who lost farms in
Zimbabwe to the South African
government, but little was done to assist
them. He said the party asked
again last year what was being done to assist
citizens who lost farms but
had yet to get a definitive reply.
In 2002, the foreign affairs
department insisted it had intervened when Von
Abo was arrested and had
“raised the matter with Zimbabwean authorities,
including the principal of
lands”.
RTTnews
5/5/2008 1:04:12 PM Zimbabwe's Progressive Teachers Union on Monday
threatened to go on a strike unless the pro-government activists stop their
attacks on the members of the union.
The union says that the
government supporters target the union members
accusing them of siding with
the opposition in the controversial 29 March
elections, reported the
BBC.
A spokesman for the union said that about 133 of its members, who
worked as
officials in the controvertial presidential polls, were seriously
injured in
the attacks.
"They were beaten with iron bars, some have
had their legs and limbs and
hands seriously injured," said the union's
spokesman Raymond Majongwe.
"Quite a lot have been hit on the head and its
quite tragic, it's terrible."
Post poll violence broke out in Zimbabwe
after the ZEC failed to announce
the result of March 29 presidential
elections in which the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
claimed outright victory.
It is estimated that the violence following the
elections has left at lest
3,000 people homeless, 500 injured and 10 dead.
Also, several human rights
groups claimed to have found camps where people
are being tortured for
having voted "the wrong way".
Kenya Today
By KITSEPILE
NYATHI, Nation Correspondent
Last updated: 5 hours ago
HARARE,
Monday
The Zambian government has deported hundreds of traders from
neighbouring
Zimbabwe, a move that will pile pressure on President Robert
Mugabe to find
a solution to his country’s long-running political
crisis.
Zimbabwe plunged deeper into a political quagmire at the weekend,
when
opposition leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai rejected the results of the
March 29
presidential elections.
The results, released a month after
the disputed polls, showed that Mr
Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) beat Mr Mugabe, but
failed to avoid a second round of
voting.
Mr Tsvangirai says the results were manipulated and has so far
refused to
take part in the runoff on a date yet to be set by the Zimbabwe
Electoral
Commission (ZEC).
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, who
also chairs the Southern African
Development Community (SADC), has been one
of the most outspoken African
leaders against the deteriorating situation in
Zimbabwe.
Thousands of Zimbabweans flock into neighbouring countries on a
daily basis
in search of basic commodities, which are extremely scarce at
home, and
Zambia has been the most accommodating and rarely deports the
traders.
The state media in Harare accused Zambian soldiers and police of
stealing
from the Zimbabweans, and quoted a member of the Joint Operations
Command
(JOC), a grouping of security chiefs close to Mr Mugabe, as saying
they
would take the issue up with Lusaka very soon.
The traders were
rounded up at the resort town of Livingstone and dumped in
the no-man’s land
separating the two countries’ borders along the Zambezi
River in the dead of
night, state media said.
“I can confirm that we received the deportees
and recorded statements from
them,” said Senior Assistant Commissioner
Edmore Veterai, who chairs a
provincial organ of the JOC. “We are now going
to take up the issue as JOC
and find out from our Zambian counterparts what
happened. We will also
investigate the allegations raised by those who were
deported.”
The MDC says the JOC took over the day-to-day running of the
government soon
after realising that Mr Mugabe and Zanu PF had been
defeated, a charge
denied by government.
The state-run Chronicle
newspaper acknowledged that cases of Zimbabweans
being deported from Zambia
have been few, given the historical ties between
the two
countries.
But it warned that authorities in Harare might retaliate
because Zimbabwe
was also awash with informal traders from Zambia, who have
been conducting
their business freely for years.
The deportations
came as South Africa announced that it will send a team to
Zimbabwe to
investigate claims of violence blamed on Mr Mugabe’s
supporters.
President Thabo Mbeki told African religious leaders at a
meeting that he
was concerned about reports of escalating violence in the
neighbouring
country. Botswana, which last week announced that it had set up
a temporary
refugee camp for Zimbabweans fleeing the political violence, has
also
tightened the screws on its neighbour by banning the importation of
gasoline
through its borders.
On Sunday, it reiterated its claims
that it was being overwhelmed by
Zimbabweans claiming political persecution
at home.
In a statement, Minister for Defence, Justice and Security, Mr
Dikgakgamatso
Seretse, said there had been an influx of refugees seeking
international
protection in the aftermath of the polls.
“For some
time we have been receiving illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe
seeking
economic opportunities who have been crossing at ungazetted entry
points
into Botswana,” he said.
Few of these people sought asylum, Mr Seretse
said. “But, since the
elections, we have received a number of people
actively seeking political
asylum and international protection and alleging
they feared for their
lives,” he said, adding that there was a probability
the numbers would grow.
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 5:29 AM
Subject: zimbabwe situation
I
write regarding the extract from the Aberdeen Press and Journal regarding
the "A to Z Trust" recently registered as a charity in Scotland by Mrs Elsie
OLIVER, a former resident of Aberdeen. The association with Zimbabwe arose
because of the twinning arrangement that exists between that city in
Scotland and Bulawayo. However, the Trust does not restrict its activities
to Bulawayo but to the whole of Zimbabwe, and for example a children's
hospice and a children's home in Harare have been beneficiaries.
The aims
of the Trust are: ~
The prevention/relief of poverty
The advancement of
education
The advancement of health
The relief of those in need by reason
of age, ill-health, disability,
financial hardship or other
disadvantage
The Trust number is SCO39203 and trustees may be contacted by
telephone #
01620 824284.
All donations are used exclusively for the
intended beneficiaries as no
costs are charged to the Trust other than those
required by law such as the
preparation and approval of annual accounts;
trustees do not receive any
form of payment and the existing trustees pay
all of their own expenses when
visiting Zimbabwe to oversee the proper use
of the donations.
Mrs OLIVER and her husband have had along association with
Zimbabwe and have
managed to support orphaned children by the payment of
compulsory school
fees, the provision of writing materials and books, and
some uniforms.
Additionally computers have been supplied for schools, the
children's home
and a charity near Bulawayo that has used them to establish
an Internet cafe
to generate income for its own purposes. Over 80 boxes of
clothing, shoes
and other essentials have been flown out for distribution to
needy people.
We are interested to hear from any groups who require support
with viable
projects which will enable them to raise their standards of
living. These
will be overseen on the ground and help given where it is
needed.
Any donor who requires it will receive feedback as to how the money
has been
used and in the past we have also been able to provide photographs
of some
of the beneficiaries and the conditions in which they have been
compelled by
circumstances to live.
Donations are required to support the
work of the Trust and these will be
acknowledged and feedback as to use will
be given. Any donor wishing to use
the UK Gift Aid system to benefit the
Trust by allowing tax to be reclaimed
should indicate this and appropriate
receipts will be given for record
purposes.
Elsie OLIVER - Trustee.
Monsters and Critics
May 5, 2008, 6:48 GMT
Wellington - New Zealand joined
Monday international calls for Zimbabwe's
Robert Mugabe to allow the United
Nations to monitor a presidential run-off
vote if the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) takes part.
Prime Minister Helen Clark told
her weekly news conference, 'The Mugabe
regime appears to be increasing its
campaign of repression and abuse against
opposition supporters, human rights
activists, and civil society groups,
raising fears that it means to hold on
to power and batter the Zimbabwean
electorate into submission before a
second presidential ballot.'
She said it was clear that a recount of
seats in the March general election
had produced a 'quite remarkable' result
in that Mugabe's ZANU-PF had lost
its parliamentary majority for the first
time since independence.
Clark said it was uncertain whether the MDC
would participate in a
presidential run-off, given credible claims that its
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai achieved more than 50 per cent of the vote in the
presidential
ballot.
'In the event that the MDC does decide to
participate in the presidential
run-off, it will be crucial that
international observers are able to monitor
the ballot to ensure that the
will of the Zimbabwean people is upheld,' she
said. New Zealand strongly
supported calls for the UN to be allowed to
monitor the vote, Clark
said.
www.swradioafrica.com
Editor
Can someone please
explain why robert mugabe has the prerogative to decide
who votes, who
doesn't, who is invited to monitor elections and who is not
etc. Why why why
Oh! why? After all he is contestant and should not set the
rules. He has got
away with it for a long time and has not been seriously
challenged.
He has redrawn constituency boundaries to his advantage.
He has abused state
resources, vehicles, personnel and other infrastructure
to his advantage as
a matter of routine.
We must not allow Mugabe to
have his way. Four (4) million Zimbabweans
outside the country were not
allowed by Mugabe to exercise the right to
vote. They also need to protect
democracy at all costs. MDC should only
agree to a re-run on the following
MINIMUM conditions:
A Truly Independent Body must run the election NOT ZEC
which is an extension
of ZANU PF. The voters roll must be revisited and
should be transparent. It
must be agreed to by all parties. All ‘Ghost’
voters must be removed.
All interested Observers from anywhere in the world
MUST be allowed without
exception. The same applies to journalists. There
should be no need for
accreditation
The same electoral procedure as in
the recent election must be followed.
Votes must be counted at polling
stations verified there and signed for by
all election agents.
All
internally displaced people must be allowed to go back to their homes
prior
to voting. Their IDs must be restored and they must be allowed to
participate freely in political activities.
All Zimbabweans of voting age
including those outside the country should be
allowed to vote. Expatriate
Zimbabweans must register with the Embassies (in
the presence of all party
representatives at all times) and a roll prepared
before voting day. In
order to register, potential voters should produce
evidence that they are
legally entitled to be staying in any foreign Country
ie Residence Permits
or Exemption Certificates together with Zimbabwe IDs. A
computer programme
should be developed to prevent double voting and this can
be distributed to
all foreign polling stations before voting day. On voting
day a Polling
station can be arranged at CIVIC CENTRES (Not Embassies) of
major cities
where Zimbabweans are residing in large numbers in foreign
countries. The
voting procedure as in 4. above should be adhered to.
The Top brass of the
media must be removed as they have been appointed on
partisan lines to
misinform and project the Zanu PF line. All political
parties must campaign
freely without hindrance and must be given equal
airtime in the broadcast
media.
A peace keeping force (From UN, SADC, EU and AU) must be brought in to
protect innocent Zimbabweans from retribution. It must be in place 3 months
before and after the election re-run.
Mugabe’s Security Top Brass
Security personnel MUST be removed as they are
basically ZANU PF and have
publicly indicated that they will not salute any
winning candidate who is
not Mugabe.
These conditions are fair to everybody including ZANU
PF.
Mr. Editor anything less will give Zanu PF an unfair advantage and will
subject ordinary Zimbabweans to tyranny and brutality for a long time to
come.
I Write as
‘Zimbabwe Patriot’
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 05 May 2008
14:37
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), a
network of 38
non-governmental organisations, which has been observing all
aspects of the
electoral process of the 29 March 2008 harmonized elections
notes the
announcement of the result of the Presidential poll by the
Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) in which the ZANU PF candidate, Robert
Mugabe
garnered 43.2%, the MDC (Tsvangirai) candidate Morgan Tsvangirai got
47.9%,
Simba Makoni got 8.3% and Langton Towungana got 0.6% of the
vote.
“This is a clear circumstance that will necessitate an
electoral run
off in terms of Section 110 of the Electoral Act, we urge the
ZEC to ensure
that said run-off is undertaken within 21 days as is outlined
by the
Electoral Act. The law provides that ‘where two or more candidates
are
nominated and no candidate receives a majority of the total number of
valid
votes cast, a second election” must be held within 21 days after the
previous election”, explains Noel Kututwa Chairperson of ZESN.
ZESN will continue to play its role in the observation of this
election and
the provision of independent information to all stakeholders.
The
organisation will continue the deployment of its long-term observers
(LTOs)
and short-term observers (STOs) across the country. The Network
cautions
that duly accredited observers should be allowed to freely continue
observing the election process. ZESN will keeping a close watch on the
situation and calls on the responsible authorities to guarantee the security
of observers. ZESN also call on ZEC to ensure the invitation and
accreditation of all local and international groups accredited to observe
the 29 March poll is extended to cover this second round.
In
the run-up to the second round of the presidential poll, ZESN
re-emphasises
on the need for Zimbabwe to adhere to and implement minimum
conditions set
out in Southern African Development Community (SADC)
Principles and
Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections in this re-run and
all subsequent
elections.
ZESN calls for zero tolerance on the prevailing
political violence. We
call upon political leader to denounce political
violence publicly.
Furthermore ZESN urges the police to act swiftly and
decisively in dealing
with the perpetrators in accordance with the law. It
is essential that the
conditions prevailing prior to the 29 March poll
should serve as minimum
requirements for this election. ZESN particularly
discourages any changes to
the electoral legal framework through the use of
the Presidential Powers
(Temporary Measures) legislation or any other
instrument. While ZESN is
encouraged that improvements were noted in the
elections of 29 March 2008
(of note less incidents of more extreme
violence), the network urges all
Zimbabweans to maintain the same spirit.
Commendable reforms, particular the
posting of results outside polling
stations and constituency tabulation
centres should not be
eroded.
While noting the improvements preceding the 29 March poll,
the Network
urges ZEC and other relevant bodies to continue to make advances
by availing
and publicising information on noted areas of concern like the
numbers and
distribution of postal ballots, the number of registered voters
per
constituency, locations of tabulation centres, list of polling stations
and
exact details of procedures such as the verification and tabulation of
results as well as the flow of information from the polling station to the
national level. This should be done well in advance of Election Day and
should not be subject to last minute changes. In addition the tabulation and
collation of results should be done transparently, in the presence of partly
agents and observers. Results should also be released in a timely,
transparent and accountable manner as this will definitely help reduce
tensions following any election.
Any election presents citizens
with the opportunity to take the
destiny of their nation into their hands.
ZESN therefore urges all
Zimbabweans who are registered to vote to come out
in their numbers and
exercise that democratic right freely. ZESN also urges
the authorities to
respect the will of the people of Zimbabwe.
The results announced are as follows:-
Presidential Poll Results –
29 March 2008 Harmonized Elections
Candidate
Number of
Votes
Actual Percent Vote
Makoni, Herbert Stanley
Simba
207 470
8.3%
Mugabe, Robert
Gabriel
1 079 730
43.2%
Towungana,
Langton
14 503
0.6%
Tsvangirai,
Morgan
1 195 562
47.9%
Total Valid
Votes
2 497 265
100%
Spoilt ballots
39 975
Total votes cast
2 537 240
Percentage
Poll
42.7%
The Monitor
(Kampala)
OPINION
5 May 2008
Posted to the web 5 May
2008
Grace. P Karamura
A few weeks ago, the BBC showed a
picture of a woman in Zimbabwe who was so
badly tortured that she could
hardly walk.
Uncharacteristic of an African woman who would rather take
an injection in
her gomesi rather than expose her nakedness, she stripped
naked for the
world media to see the horrendous wounds inflicted on her by
the government
that had fought the independence war to protect her. Her
crime wasn't
because she may have or not voted for the opposition but
because she lives
in the opposition stronghold!
The following
evening I was leading a Parish Junior Youth club when a few
nine-year-olds
ran to me as if they had something troubling them. "Rev.
Grace, why does
Mugabe beat women?" one of them asked. Children can be
unpredictable at best
of times but I must confess I was caught off guard
this time.
As I
scratched my head to tactfully respond, another child cut in, 'it's not
fair
Rev. Grace, is it'? 'No it isn't darling', I responded as I looked away
at
the Youth worker that had just come in. I tried as much to hold back the
tears and I rushed for the door back to the Vicarage!
All night I
pondered at those innocents' questions and concerns. What pricks
my
conscience even now is not my failure to give them a satisfactory answer
but
how I have tried as much to avoid these children in case they demand for
an
answer. Every day I ponder about these children's question and wonder how
many more children in Zimbabwe that may be asking the same!
I suppose
it's the same situation in which the Archbishop of York found
himself when
he cut his clerical collar on live TV and vowed never to wear
it again until
Mugabe is gone. By the way things stand, it seems it will be
awhile before
my brother Sentamu wears his collar again!
Presumably he must be asked
from time to time what he thinks of the Zimbabwe
situation. By cutting his
collar, it was a clear response of what he thinks
of Mugabe's
regime.
I must however take off my hat for Mr Mugabe who at 84 years,
still has his
faculties intact (or does he?) and can still manage such
hectic and
demanding political campaigns.
He is obviously a very
bright man with seven degrees many of which he
acquired when he was in
prison fighting the oppressive Ian Smith's regime.
As bright as he may be,
he is still convinced that he has something special
to offer Zimbabwe, even
at 84!
This is where I find the irony. For such an intelligent man who
endured the
dangers of the guerrilla war, who witnessed first-hand prison
torture
inflicted on his people and his first wife in particular, how he
could allow
similar if not worse suffering to happen to his people under his
regime.
I am using the word 'under his regime' deliberately. Many people
who
perished during Amin's regime were not necessarily killed by Amin. Some
of
them disappeared as a result of unscrupulous individuals thirsty for
unsettled family and political feuds.
Either way it defeats every
imagination that ordinary people for whom Mr
Mugabe was sworn in to protect
can be treated worse than beasts simply
because they exercised their
constitutional right.
Mail and Guardian
Peter
Luhanga
05 May 2008 06:00
After
fleeing persecution or economic meltdown in their home
countries, up to a
third of refugee children in South Africa are denied the
right to an
education.
New research suggests that schools turn away
refugee children
who don’t have required documentation, such as birth
certificates or enough
money for school fees.
The
research, a yet-to-be released study conducted by the Forced
Migration
Studies Programme (FMSP) at the University of Witwatersrand, shows
that 341
of 1 190 refugees interviewed in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town
came to
South Africa with their children, yet 35% of these children do not
attend
school.
According to FMSP, 150 000 refugees are documented on
the
database of the department, but there are as many as 1,5-million
undocumented refugees in the country. By extrapolation, there could be as
many as 150 000 refugee children in the country who do not attend
school.
Tara Polzer, one of the programme’s researchers, said
more than
a third of the refugee parents interviewed could not access
schooling for
their children. This happened in spite of the Constitution
being clear that
the right to basic education applies to everyone,
regardless of their legal
status.
Schools act unlawfully
when they refuse to enrol undocumented
asylum seekers and refugee children.
But many schools misunderstand the law
and are under the impression that
they are not allowed to accept children
without birth certificates,
vaccination cards and other documentation.
Refugees are often
turned away because they cannot pay school
fees. “They believe that
non-South African children are not eligible for
school fees exemption -- but
that’s not true. In fact foreign children are
eligible for school fees
exemptions, just like South African children.”
Polzer said
schools in areas where there are many asylum seekers
and refugees need to
plan not only for South African children but for all
the children living in
the area.
Cape Town Refugee Centre Education Coordinator
Solethu Mnxanxeni
said the department of home affairs takes an “unreasonably
long time” to
issue documentation, which makes access to schools difficult
for children of
refugees.
But Mnxanxeni said that despite
bureaucratic delays, some
schools temporarily enrol refugee children while
waiting for the home
affairs documentation. However, he said, by the same
token, many refugee
parents encounter schools that refuse their children
entry without
identification papers.
There is also the
problem of schools not knowing which grade a
refugee child should be placed
in when they don’t have previous school
reports.
Rodney
Theys, the principal of Voorspoed Primary School in
Hanover Park, said there
are 40 refugee children at the school, 10 of whom
have no
documentation.
The lack of information negatively affects the
province’s
Centralised Educational Management Information System (Cemis),
which
determines, among other things, the pupil-to-teacher ratio. “The
number of
teachers that we get is based on the number of pupils enrolled …
the total
number is according to what we put on Cemis,” said
Theys.
This means that with the addition of undocumented
children,
pupil-to- teacher ratios in some of the classes are as high as
53:1.
He said language is also “a major problem” as many
refugee
children do not speak English or Afrikaans and teachers often have
to spend
a lot of time with them. “Even their parents -- we find it
difficult to
communicate with them when they come to register their
children.”
Xenophobia, he said, is another “big issue” at the
school, and
refugee children often become introverted.
Zimbabwean refugee Nowa Phunda, who lives in Khayelitsha and has
two
children, aged 18 and 14, said they often complain about xenophobic
attacks.
His children have been called makwerekwere (a derogatory term for
foreigners) at school.
When he arrived in South Africa in
2006 he was unable to enrol
his children because all the schools said they
were full. As a result, his
children lost a year of schooling before they
were enrolled in 2007 with the
help of the Cape Town Refugee
Centre.
Coming from Zimbabwe, his children speak English but
battle with
Afrikaans. One of his sons had to repeat a grade because he
could not pass
the subject.
But despite the difficulties,
there are success stories. Rwandan
Justine Sibomana (21) matriculated in
2004 after starting school in South
Africa in 1999.
Her
family originally lived in Nelspruit and she was welcomed
into the school,
where fees were waived. She had to learn Siswati in
Nelspruit and, when her
family later moved to Cape Town, polish up her
English.
Having had access to education means Sibomana, now a graphic
designer, can
contribute to South African society. --West Cape News
Standard Freeholder, Canada
Posted By Gwynne Dyer
Posted 3 hours ago
As the delay in
announcing the results of Zimbabwe's presidential election
stretched out
endlessly, the political jokes proliferated across southern
Africa.
The best ones were based on the old "Why did the chicken
cross the road?"
joke. The correct answer is, "To get to the other side,"
but the
protagonists in the Zimbabwean crisis were all given lines that
mocked the
positions they had taken.
Thus, for example, President
Robert Mugabe, who lost the election but
wouldn't admit it: "The chicken
will never be allowed to cross the road. Not
in my lifetime! Let those that
run away to Bush and Brown do so.
"Not my chicken! My chicken will never
cross the road. It will never be
colonized again!"
Or Tendai Biti,
secretary-general of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC):
"We have irrefutable evidence from those who were at the road
that the
chicken has, indeed, without any shadow of doubt, crossed the road.
I hereby
declare that Chicken Huku Inkuku is now the legitimate resident of
the other
side of the road."
Or Didymus Mutasa, the minister of national security:
"I do not think it
crossed the road. If it crossed the road it's because the
white farmer
dragged it. But we cannot allow that to happen. It will have to
come back."
Finally, on May 2, 34 days after the vote, the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission
released the results of the presidential
election.
Predictably, it showed that while opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai's 47.9
percent of the votes put him almost five per cent ahead of
Mugabe, he had
not cleared the 50 per cent hurdle and so would have to face
Mugabe again in
a run-off.
The MDC claims that the delay was imposed
so that the ruling ZANU-PF party
could tamper with the results, and that
Tsvangirai really won 50.3 percent
of the votes in the first round. He has
been sheltering in South Africa for
fear that Mugabe's thugs will beat him
up again or even kill him, so it may
be some days before the party leaders
decide whether to run again in a
second round -- but the real Didymus Mutasa
cruelly outlined their dilemma.
"I don't think they are serious about not
participating (in a run-off)
because they have been saying different things
since the election day,"
Mutasa said. "But if they are serious this time,
they will be shocked,
because we will proceed without them. The message is
very simple: if they
don't participate, they lose the run-off."
It
may never be known whether Tsvangirai really scraped a victory in the
first
round. Independent observers working from the results that were posted
outside each polling station estimated that he got 49.4 per cent of the
votes, but gave a margin of error of 2.4 per cent. Both Tsvangirai's victory
claim and the regime's figure of 47.4 percent are within that margin of
error.
The fact that the regime's soldiers removed the ballot boxes
from the
Electoral Commission's headquarters three weeks ago, and that it
delayed so
long before releasing the final figures, suggests that it needed
the time to
change the numbers and cancel a Tsvangirai victory. But it may
just have
been using the extra time to terrorize villages that voted heavily
for the
MDC, before embarking on a second round of voting.
The
regime's strategy for the run-off is already clear. Recent changes to
the
electoral law included a great multiplication in the number of rural
polling
stations, which makes it easy to identify which villages backed the
opposition. Many of these villages have already had a visit from ZANU-PF
enforcers who beat suspected opposition supporters while local police and
army units look on.
The MDC claims that 20 of its supporters have
already been killed, and many
hundreds beaten so severely that they had to
be hospitalised. It could be
three weeks or even more until the second round
of the election, which
allows time for every pro-MDC village to get the
treatment at least once,
and in some cases repeatedly.
The MDC will
almost certainly agree to take part in the run-off in the end.
Its
supporters will face violence that may deter many from voting, and the
regime will not permit adequate scrutiny of the voting by outside observers.
This time, people trying to photograph the results that must be posted up
outside each polling station are likely to be chased away or killed. Yet it
is still possible that Mugabe will lose by such a big and undeniable margin
that he will have to acknowledge defeat.
When you take account of the
legions of "ghost voters," all strangely
sharing the same few addresses, who
loyally cast their votes for Mugabe in
every election, and the large number
of known MDC supporters whose names
were removed from the electoral rolls,
the real proportion of eligible
voters who would now vote against Mugabe in
a free election probably amounts
to two-thirds or more.
Thanks to the
results of the first round, they now KNOW that they are in the
majority. It
is imaginable that this will give them the courage to use their
votes
despite the intimidation they face, and to turf Mugabe out.
Gwynne Dyer
is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are
published in 45
countries.