BBC
Friday, 8 November, 2002, 11:52 GMT
Zimbabwe 'running out of bank
notes'
Worth about 20 pence - but like gold-dust in
Harare
Zimbabwe's economic crisis has created crippling shortages, and
now even bank notes are proving hard to come by.
The Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe has said it will step up monitoring of all but the smallest cash
transactions, in the hope of stopping bank notes disappearing from circulation.
Growing demand for large volumes of cash - used, officials say, for
untraceable money-laundering operations - has reportedly left big bank notes in
short supply.
The Bank has set up a Financial Intelligence Unit to track
suspicious cash transactions, and may push forward plans to introduce a new
1,000-Zimbabwe-dollar note, twice the size of its current biggest denomination.
Economic spiral
The Bank's taskforce will look at all
transactions in excess of 500,000 Zimbabwe dollars.
At official exchange
rates, that is over US$9,000 (£5,700), but on the black market, the Zimbabwe
dollar is trading at around 1,800 in the US currency - and falling fast.
Inflation is rampant in Zimbabwe: it hit an annual 140% at the last
count, which means many Zimbabweans have to deal in ever larger quantities of
cash.
The weak Zimbabwe dollar has left the country short of vital
imported goods, which in turn has pushed prices up still further.
At the
same time, the authorities also allege rampant money laundering, as rich
individuals attempt to spirit their liquid assets out of the country.
JAG SITREP 9th November 2002
Nationwide, there has been something of a
resurgence of SI6 pressure as
new listings have been gazetted. After a
relatively quiet period, there
were a number of incidents this week where
farmers face pressure from
their employees to retrench
them.
MARONDERA
Peter Wright leases Nyaradzi farm in the Marondera
South area. An
electric motor was stolen from the farm on Thursday, and on
Friday he
went to the police to report the issue. He was given the runaround,
and
then eventually sent to see the CIO. Again he was kept hanging around
for
a long time, and then in the afternoon was arrested. He has been
charged
with insulting the president, under the Public Order and Security
Act,
but his partner, Sue Parkin, maintains that the charge is trumped
up.
Wright has been having some difficulty on his farm due to SI6
pressure.
Wright's lawyer has been contacted, but he has advised that he will
be
unable to get him out over the weekend.
THE JAG
TEAM
Hotlines:
(091) 317 264 If you are in trouble or need
advice,
(011) 205 374 please don't hesitate to contact us
-
(011) 863 354 we're here to
help
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
Justice
for Agriculture mailing list
To subscribe/unsubscribe: Please write to jag-list-admin@mango.zw
BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION HARARE
VISA PROGRAMME FOR
ZIMBABWE
From 9 November (00.01hrs) 2002, Zimbabwean nationals will
require a
visa to travel to the UK. Zimbabweans wishing to transit the UK en
route
to or from a third country will also require a visa.
How will
the programme work?
In future, Zimbabweans wishing to travel to, or
transit, the UK should
apply for a visa, through our special operator FedEx.
You can lodge your
application at FedEx's offices in Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru,
Mutare or
Victoria Falls (addresses overleaf). There is no need to visit the
High
Commission in person. Straightforward applications will be dealt
with
within 7 working days. If there is a query, you will be invited to
an
interview at the High Commission. FedEx will deliver your passport,
with
a visa if your application has been successful, to your home
address.
How much will a visa cost?
The current fee for a standard
visitor's visa, allowing entry to the UK
for up to six months, is Z$64,800. A
direct transit visa currently costs
Z$48,600. Details of fees for other
types of visa are available from
the High Commission or on our website, www.britainzw.org. Fees are
subject to
review. You should check the current fee before you make
an
application.
What if I have already made my travel
plans?
We have put in place special arrangements to help those who
already have
a confirmed ticket to travel to or via the UK, and can show that
it was
purchased on or before 7 November:
A. you do not need a visa to
travel if:
· you are due to arrive in the UK on a direct flight,
or a direct
transfer flight via Johannesburg, before midnight (24.00hrs) on
15
November 2002 and would not previously have required a visa (eg
a
genuine visitor or student);
· you are due to transit the UK
before midnight on 15 November
2002.
B. you need a visa, but your
application will be treated as a priority,
if:
· you are due to
arrive in the UK on a direct flight or a direct
transfer flight via
Johannesburg, between midnight on 15 November and
midnight on 29 November
2002;
· you are due to arrive in the UK on any other flight
(including
indirect flights via other cities) any time between now and
midnight on
29 November 2002;
· you are due to transit the UK
between midnight on 15 November
and midnight on 29 November.
If any of
these points apply to you, you can apply for your visa at the
British High
Commission from 08.00hrs on 8 November. You should come to
the High
Commission as soon as you can, bringing your passport, 2
photos, visa fee and
ticket. We will deal with all applications as
quickly as possible to ensure
that genuine visitors with confirmed
travel for this period, can stick to
their plans.
What if I plan to travel in the future?
Anyone
planning to travel to or via the UK, arriving after midnight
(24.00hrs) on 29
November 2002, should apply for a visa through FedEx.
You should also apply
through FedEx if you want to travel between 15 and
29 November but have not
yet bought a confirmed ticket. You should
deposit your passport, photos,
application form and visa fee at any
FedEx office:
·
Harare: FedEx House, 101 Nelson Mandela Ave: Tel 705588;
Fax
797695
· Bulawayo: 6 Princess Park Mansions: Tel 61519; Fax
60218
· Mutare: Shop 2 Bottgers Building, First Avenue: Tel 66030;
Fax
66049
· Gweru: AA Premises, Lobengula Ave: Tel 054
28340/28035; Fax
054 24282
· Victoria Falls: Cargo Services, 268
Adam Stander Drive:
Tel/Fax 013 43304
You can do this from today.
Application forms are available from FedEx,
or at the High Commission, or can
be downloaded from our website,
www.britainzw.org. We will also be able to
accept visa applications at
the High Commission, although we believe that for
most people FedEx will
offer a more convenient service.
Is anyone
exempt from the visa requirement?
Yes, the following categories of
Zimbabwean passport holders do not need
a visa to travel to or via the
UK:
· those who are legally settled in the UK and have been away
for
less than two years;
· those have a certificate of
entitlement to the right of abode
in the UK;
· those who have
previously been granted leave to enter or remain
in the UK for a period of
more than six months, and who are returning,
for the same purpose before that
period has expired.
Opening Hours?
We will be open 8am - 4.30pm on
Friday 8 November and 8am -1pm on
Saturday 9 November to answer any enquiries
and to assist those who
qualify for the special arrangements. Thereafter we
will revert to our
normal opening hours: 8am-4.30pm from Monday to Thursday
and 8am-1pm on
Fridays.
Please do not come to the High Commission over
the next few days to make
enquiries, unless you qualify for the special
arrangements set out
above. We need to focus on those with immediate travel
plans. Please do
contact us by telephone, email or in writing, with any
questions, and we
will do our very best to assist:
Tel: 772 990
/ 774 700
Email: ukvisas@harare.fco.gov.uk
Address:
Visas, Corner House, Samora Machel/Leopold Takawira, PO
Box 4490.
British
High Commission, Harare
Extract from an email from Zim
"On the general/national front, Zimbabwe's
economy collapsed last week.
Truly collapsed. Some friends in Jo'burg may
remember when I was with them
in June (this year) and was complaining that
the rand/ Zimdollar (now called
Zimkwatcha) rate had then dropped from 35 to1
to 50 to1. Well it slowly
declined to 75 to 1 until about two weeks ago. Now
comes the interesting
bit. In the last week it has plummeted to 145 to1. Yes
One SA Rand will buy
you Z$145!!! One UK pound is nudging Z$2000, one USD is
Z$1400+ and it just
continues going down. Hence the title of my letter. In a
brief three year
period, we Zimbabweans have all become both millionaires AND
paupers. Anyone
who owns a fridge or a microwave is now a millionaire, and
none of us can
afford the cost of living anymore.
X.'s insulin and
medicines have now just gone up to Z$121 000 per month. I
needed some new
graters and peelers for my "factory" They're available in
Bulawayo. Z$18 000
for a stainless steel grater, and much more reasonable,
Z$5 000 for a
peeler.
Our workers have just got a 100% pay increase, and two further
increments in
January and March to make it a total of 200%. Good for them as
they might be
able to afford a bit more, but disaster for us. Where do we get
the extra
money? Most agricultural produce falls under the Govt's
price-control
regime, so we can't just put our prices up!!
Inflation
is now officially 139% p.a., but in reality is probably treble
that. With the
currency collapse, all imported items have at least doubled
in the last week
alone! A report I saw last week said the IMF reckoned we'd
hit 522% inflation
by next year. I'd say we're pretty close to that already.
I've been
increasing my pickle prices 10% a month (below inflation!!), but
have just
had to put through 25% for November and another 25% for December.
Any of you
in business must be shaking your heads. I was hit with a 100%
increase in the
price of sugar (when you can get it), the new labour costs,
and the
devaluation all in the same month. My vinegar is made from acetic
acid which
is now Z$1400 per litre, and here's a goodie - the lids for my
pickle bottles
are now Z$ 120 each. When I started 4 years ago, they were 83
Zim cents."
SABC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zimbabweans speak out against 'anarchy'
November 09, 2002,
12:00
Zimbabweans are becoming vocal about their
unhappiness with the
situation in their country. A declining economy and
growing food shortages
have led to ordinary citizens to speak
out.
Demonstrations are planned in Zimbabwe's four main
cities today
by members of a civil rights group called the National
Constitutional
Assembly. The marchers are demanding a new constitution, which
they say is
the most viable solution to the crisis in
Zimbabwe.
At the same time, Pius Ncube, the Roman Catholic
Archbishop of
Bulawayo, alleges that the situation in that country is far
worse than the
outside world perceives. He says hundreds of starving people
have begun to
die from hunger and the world is unaware of it because the
government is
lying about the situation.
Yahoo News
Police halt anti-Mugabe protests
By Stella
Mapenzauswa
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe police have quashed protests
by civic groups but
the activists vow to forge ahead with a series of planned
demonstrations
against President Robert Mugabe's 22-year rule.
The
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) said police fired teargas on
Saturday
to disperse about 1,000 marchers in Harare's Mabvuku suburb as part
of
several marches to protest against a constitution critics say Mugabe
has
manipulated to entrench his power.
Police also dispersed
protesters in neighbouring Chitungwiza where four
people were arrested, NCA
Chairman Lovemore Madhuku said.
"We will forge ahead with
demonstrations every two weeks regardless of any
police ban," he told
Reuters.
Police were not available for a comment.
Earlier
this year, Mugabe's government enacted a tough new security law
which outlaws
the staging of demonstrations without police permission.
The NCA -- a
broad coalition of student and church groups, political parties
and human
rights groups -- has spearheaded several protests in the past two
years to
press for a new constitution.
Mugabe has amended the constitution 16
times since leading the country to
independence from Britain in 1980, in what
critics say were attempts to
tighten his grip on power.
In April
police arrested more than 60 NCA activists during demonstrations
against
Mugabe's controversial victory in a March presidential poll
condemned as
fraudulent by the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) and
Western governments.
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party says the election
was free and fair and has
rejected MDC demands for a fresh
poll.
On Saturday, police fired teargas at a crowd of MDC youths to
stop them from
marching around a stadium in Harare's populous township of
Highfields, where
the party later held a rally to commemorate its third
anniversary.
A Reuters correspondent saw youths throwing stones in
retaliation, smashing
the windows of two government vehicles as they drove
past.
Formed in 1999, the MDC emerged as the strongest challenge to
ZANU-PF when
it won nearly half the contested seats at parliamentary
elections held in
June 2000.
The opposition says it would have won
had it not been for a violent campaign
it blamed on ruling party
supporters.
The opposition says Mugabe has mismanaged the country
since assuming power,
leading to a political and economic crisis marked by
acute food shortages
affecting nearly half the population.
The
government blames the shortages on drought but critics also point to
Mugabe's
controversial drive to seize white-owned commercial farms for
redistribution
to landless blacks.
UTV
SATURDAY 09/11/2002 17:49:34
Zimbabwe protest in
London
Hundreds of people gathered outside Zimbabwe's High
Commission today
to protest against the Mugabe government's prosecution of
opposition
leaders.
Organisers said the demonstrators, who
included exiles and torture
victims of the Mugabe regime, numbered around 400
and had come to London
from all over England. Police could not confirm that
number.
The group were voicing their opposition to treason charges
Mugabe has
laid against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and other senior
members of
his Movement for Democratic Change, who are due in court on
Monday.
The demonstration began at midday and lasted around two
hours,
although the weekly vigil that began a month ago was continuing late
this
afternoon with around 50 people remaining.
Police said the
protest was peaceful with no arrests or violence.
The protest came
a day after Zimbabwe banned British Prime Minister
Tony Blair and scores of
his ministers from entering the country and imposed
visa requirements on
Britons in retaliation for European sanctions.
That move in turn
was made a day after the British government
announced that most Zimbabweans
will need a visa to enter Britain.
Written by a Belgian visitor to Zimbabwe :
"
This are two of the emails I sent ( and wrote in
english), while staying in zimbabwe.
Hi there,
These last days were very unusual. There were two
birthday party's, one on friday and the other on Saturday. These two events
again were a demonstration for the schizophrenia in this country. On Friday we
were invited at the house of the UNO - FAO cooperator. These people donated a
part of the fencing surrounding the property of the orphanage. The amounts of
food and the variety of dishes was shocking. More shocking was the attitude of
the people I talked with. Some of them were very humble but most of them were
the rich and upperclass. I sat at the table with a Swiss diplomat. Her husband
is Brazilian and as a spouse of... he is not allowed to work - to have a job,
allthough he gets wages from the Swiss government. This man starts to tell that
nothing in Zimbabwe is as bad as in the news overseas is said. He has a pleasant
life, he can get everything he needs. He can have as many staff as he wishes,
because it is so cheap, he does not experience any shortages, etc. etc. The
only places he has been in Zim ever since he arrived almost two years ago is in
Harare and in Vic Falls - of all places those were you're less likely to
encounter food shortages and starvation...especially when you are used to air
conditioned houses, servants and swimming pools all around.
If people like him keep spreading the word that Zim
is OK then how can people in Europe or the US for instance be convinced that the
situation is extremely bad?
An other lady was astonished to hear that at least
two of the kids here in the orphanage are emaciated as if it were Biafran
children. "How can that be in my backyard?"
The second party was on Saturday in the orphanage
were we celebrated the first birthday since the place exists and it was Dorcas'
first birthday. They call her porky Dorky because sometimes she behaves like a
little piglet. None of the children had ever been to a birthday party. They
don't know what it is. Most of them even don't know their birthday and ages are
estimated.
Porky's parents are both death - from AIDS and TB.
We couldn't afford to buy a birthday cake. Instead
we baked a cake from a package of cake mix, and we added biscuits, guava strips
and sweets. For the children it was a treat as they never had before.
We used balloons to decorate the place. These
balloons were a gift from somebody in Belgium.
Porky's crown stayed on her head all day, which was
a surprise... and during that day a group of youngsters from St. John's College
came by to give her some presents and spend some time with the children. These
boys and girls kind of adopted Dorcas, are godfather/mother to her because she
has no one else.
The children already are asking who's next to
celebrate his or her birthday.
Some good things are happening here too, you know.
Yesterday the fish were released in the swimming pool. (they are going to bread
fish to be able to get food out of it for the children in the orphanage) They
are so small that we are teasing Norman - there's no fish at all. Actually I
only saw one (out of probably over 200) but they are as small as kapenta (a
little 4cm long fish that is eaten a lot - they dry the fish and because it is
so small you cannot remove any inner parts nor the head, so it is eaten as a
whole but miniature fish). I really hope this experiment will succeed. If not,
what a waist.
Another funny thing : they have chickens, rabbits,
turkeys etc. One little bantam hen is nesting behind the front door. On the
inside - in the house.
Then the children are very funny. Their Shona is
much better than their English. Yesterday a little boy went to the housemother
and says "I ROVE YOU mammy" He cannot pronounce the letter L.
In the mean time I've made a file for each child on
the computer. I scanned all their documents so that they can be printed at any
time in stead of getting expensive photocopy's. There is still a lot of work
that needs to be done.
Tomorrow we will have another busy day, but it's
worth it. Today Tatenda has laughed for the first time.
until next update.
H.
Subject: another zim story
Hello,
Yesterday it started to rain over Harare. During
the past week we already had a few showers but this was different. Heaven opened
it's gates and it went on all night.
I had supper together with Winnie, Eunica and Grace
who look after the children. They wouldn't believe that I would eat sadza with
my hands. I told them that I had before, while staying at Lucy Mashonga's
homestead and when visiting Thobekile, every year now since 1992. At that moment
the lights went off. One of the famous power cuts in Zimbabwe. You don't know
what causes it, you don't know how long it lasts... so we ended up eating by
candle light, a poor substitute for the fire you sit by whole evening, spending
your time in a rural areas. They wanted to know if I have a totem and I
explained it is not common in Belgium to have one but it was a nice entrance to
ask them about theirs. Winnie's is the wild cat, Eunica's the buffalo and
Grace's the heart, meaning she can not eat the heart of any animal.
Rainy season means that lots of thatched roofs
start to leak and actually need repair before that happens. Talking about these
things we spend some time, also being grateful to be in a nice house instead of
being in a hut.
When I entered my room that night a strange sound
came out of it and I realized it was water splashing on the carpet. A large spot
appeared, showing this must have gone on for a while already. As it didn't stop
raining all night I could listen for hours to the sound of raindrops falling
into a bucket, until finally I fell asleep.
A house doesn't protect you from the weather in
Zimbabwe.
This morning we went to the Clinic with 6 of the
children to get them weighed. Little Tatenda who is over 1 y only weighs 5.3 kg.
After that we went into town. All the children's
documents had to be handed to Social Welfare in order to prolong their stay in
the orphanage and to keep things in order. While waiting in the car, I was
watching watching hundreds of people, men - women, baby's, toddlers... queuing
for passports. Why are all these people applying for a passport? Or is it
obvious?
Funny though, because of the rain some of them had
umbrella's, some of them a plastic bag wrapped round their hair and even some of
them were bold enough to put on a shower cap.
(queues for bread are the most common thing - for
petrol also since the country once again has ran out of fuel)
With high hopes on the rainy season - which I
don't like as much as the Zimbabwean people do - on behalf of them I hope this
long rainy day has set a start for a fertile and prosperous year.
H.
"
Dear Family and Friends,
The end is near ! I haven't felt so positive about
Zimbabwe since the 9th March 2002 when I stood for 4 hours in a queue and with
huge pride and satisfaction marked a bold cross on a ballot slip in our
Presidential elections. On that day I felt 99% sure that we were about to see
democracy in Zimbabwe. I was wrong then but now I feel 100% sure that the end
is in sight. No, I haven't gone mad but for the first time since the September
11th terror attacks in America, the world has started noticing us again and had
the courage to openly criticise and condemn our
government's policies and actions. This is excellent news and at last we have
hope to hold on to.
The US announced that they were considering taking
what they called intrusive and interventionist action in Zimbabwe to ensure that
people who are starving to death are able to access the food that is being given
to us as emergency relief aid. It's taken them long enough but they seem to have
finally admitted that a lot of their donated grain is not reaching starving
people but being hijacked and used to feed people who support the government.
With the US announcement came a mass of propaganda here at home. The ZBC radio
headlines screamed that America was planning to invade Zimbabwe. Silly as that
may sound I got pulled off the road yesterday when travelling to
Harare to make way for a State motorcade to pass.
These convoys are headed by outriders on police motorbikes. The bikers travel in
the centre of the Highway with lights flashing and sirens blaring. When you see
them you must immediately pull up and stop. I sat on the edge of the road
watching in the mirrors as the car behind me did not stop quickly enough. The
biker stopped, waved his fist at the driver and shouted at the man for a couple
of minutes before moving off. Then I watched in wide-eyed horror as the convoy
passed. First a BMW, then a silver Mercedes and then 14 armoured cars. All the
vehicles were filled with soldiers wearing yellow berets, pointing their rifles
at us standing next to huge cannons. The convoy appeared to be heading towards
Mutare which is a border crossing into Mocambique and perhaps our government
think that that is where the Americans will invade from!
The EU also finally publicly announced that food is
being used as a political weapon in Zimbabwe. This announcement caused another
immediate rash of vitriolic propaganda in our State media and resulted in our
government playing tit for tat. They announced that they had imposed a travel
ban on British Prime Minister Tony Blair and 121 members of his government and
frozen their assets in Zimbabwe. They also announced that the Zimbabweans who
run the Voice of the People Radio Station and Short Wave Radio Africa may not
return to the country.
For the last 32 months everyone has been saying
that things will have to hit rock bottom before anything happens to change the
situation in Zimbabwe I think it would be fairly accurate to say that Zimbabwe
has now hit rock bottom.Things are falling apart very rapidly now. There are
queues of 100 and more cars at the few filling stations that have fuel, there's
very little food to buy, meat went up 100% this week, bread flour is non
existent as is maize, sugar and cooking oil. One cob of green maize costs $110
if you can find it and almost every queue you see is now manned by
police.
Thank you all for reading my weekly letter these
last 32 months, thanks for lobbying your MP's and ensuring that the true stories
of horror in Zimbabwe are exposed. At last our work is bearing fruit and the
world has started believing that the crisis in Zimbabwe is not about land or
race but about politics. We have hope now, we don't know how or when this hell
will end but now at least we know it will be soon. The EU, US, UK and UN finally
found the courage to speak out and now we look to South Africa and our regional
neighbours to do likewise and prove to us that they aren't racists and greedy
politicians but that they really do care about the suffering of ordinary people.
Until next week, with love, cathy. http://africantears.netfirms.com
Copyright cathy buckle 8th November 2002.
House of Lords debate on Zimbabwe this week FYI:
Zimbabwe (Freezing
of Funds, other Financial Assets or Economic
Resources) (Amendment)
Regulations 2002
12.53 p.m.
Lord Howell of Guildford rose to move,
That an humble Address be
presented to Her Majesty praying that the
regulations, laid before the
House on 8th October, be annulled (S.I.
2002/2530).
The noble Lord said: My Lords, I shall direct my remarks to
both this
Motion and the Overseas Territories (Zimbabwe) (Restrictive
Measures)
(Amendment) Order since they cover similar ground. That will make
for a
better debate.
I make clear that in raising these matters we on
these Benches are not
against, in principle, the purposes behind the two
measures. Indeed, if
anything, we want them to go much further. We believe
that a global
approach to the problem of sanctions and restrictions on
Zimbabwe is
needed and that as many financial centres should be covered as
possible.
But the decision to pray and to amend, as we are doing, reflects
our
extreme concern that sanctions are not biting and that more can be
done,
both by the European Union and by the United Kingdom, to stop
evasion
and to tighten travel bans.
Although I shall make some
criticisms of the policy behind these
measures and the policies they lead to,
those criticisms are not
directed at the noble Baroness,
1 Nov 2002 :
Column 451
Lady Amos. She has fought nobly and strongly for addressing the
Zimbabwe
situation to more effect, and I know that she is as frustrated as
some
of us are at the turn of events in Zimbabwe and the difficulty there
is
of facing up to and dealing with it effectively.
We are discussing what
might be termed "catch-up" measures. They extend
existing EU restrictions on
the movement of Zimbabweans and on
provisions for the freezing of funds and
other restrictions to British
Overseas Territories, including the Cayman
Islands, which is an
important financial centre, and to Cyprus sovereign
bases.
What kind of assets is it believed will be caught by the extension
of
these powers? The total figure of assets so far frozen-the
noble
Baroness gave the figure the other day in your Lordships'
House-is
£120,000, which is a very small sum. It defies belief that the
assets of
the Mugabe regime and its associates held in various banks are
only
£120,000. I suspect they must be at least 10 times, if not 50 times
that
sum. That figure is, frankly, ridiculous. I am interested to know
why
the figure so far is so modest and whether these measures will
enlarge
it a little.
The United Nations panel on illegal activities in
the Democratic
Republic of Congo submitted a report to the president of the
Security
Council on 15th October giving details of massive involvement
by
Zimbabwean defence force personnel, numerous Zimbabwean politicians
and
officials and several mining and diamond companies, most of
them
implicated in asset manipulations and bankrolling activities for
the
Mugabe regime.
The panel speaks of,
"crucial groups
linked to the army of Zimbabwe".
That report, although aimed at the
Congo, casts light on the funding
position and the finances of the Mugabe
regime. It lists 29 companies
which the panel says should have financial
restrictions imposed on them.
Presumably they have assets somewhere-perhaps
some in the United
Kingdom. I do not know. It lists a further 85 companies,
12 of them with
headquarters based in the United Kingdom, which are described
as
violating OECD guidelines in the Congo/Zimbabwe labyrinth.
So the
question is whether the assets of those companies that are
involved have been
investigated. We can therefore become a little
clearer about how Mr Mugabe is
financed and what assets from these
companies are kept in the UK. If the UN
panel believes that some of
these companies should have financial
restrictions on them, have we
proposed to the EU that such financial
restrictions should be imposed?
Can we meanwhile act unilaterally in relation
to companies that are
based here, with headquarters in London, if we have the
power to do so?
Do we need to wait or should we urge our EU colleagues to
come along
when they are ready to do so, when they cease to be quite so
hesitant?
1 Nov 2002 : Column 452
That is the position on the
freezing of funds. We get more and more
light cast, as the days go by, on the
gigantic pattern of activities,
some of them criminal, which fund and feed
the Mugabe regime and enable
it blithely to disregard the outside pressures
on it.
The second measure deals with named individuals. Again it wishes
to
extend powers to target individuals to the British Overseas
Territories.
The number is listed. We do not believe that the are working.
There are
far too many loopholes and exemptions, which seem to mean
that
Zimbabwean officials, many of whom have been identified as
having
involved themselves in extremely undesirable activities, can move
around
much too freely.
One problem is that the exemptions are rather
wide. The Minister in the
other place quoted them as being,
"on the
grounds of humanitarian need, including religious obligation, or
on grounds
of attending meetings of international bodies or conducting
political
dialogue that promote democracy, human rights and the rule of
law in
Zimbabwe".
Those seem wide exemptions, which make it understandable how
undesirable
people are still be able to move around.
The order brings the
total of named individuals to 79-which is, of
course, the number identified
in the latest EU regulation with which the
order is designed to catch up. But
that still leaves out a long list of
names in the UN panel report that I
mentioned of people who have been
illegally involved in both the Congo and
Zimbabwe. I have added three
names in my Motion. They are all mentioned in
the UN panel list as
individuals who ought to be sanctioned or banned from
travel, but many
more qualify. My Motion also proposes that the list should
include
families and dependants, which would increase the number again. If
there
is any doubt about the need to increase the number, the New
Zealand
Parliament has just banned a list of 142 undesirable Zimbabweans who
it
believes should not be able to travel outside their
country.
Meanwhile, there have been what appear to us to be flagrant
breaches of
the ban. For instance, back in the summer, there was the example
of the
sinister police chief, Augustine Chihuru, going to Lyon
in
France-apparently he had some exemption or was able to exploit
some
loophole. Since then, EU Ministers recently decided to move the
EU-South
African Development Community meeting from Copenhagen, where it had
been
intended to be held next week, down to Maputo in Mozambique to
allow
Mugabe and company to attend. I know that there are two sides to
the
argument: the outcome for pressure on Zimbabwe may be better in the
end
as a result, but that move is certainly questionable. It would be
useful
to hear the Minister's view on whether it is right for British
Ministers
or officials to be attending.
However, it is not just a
question of issuing more orders or statutory
instruments. Such measures must
be turned into properly implemented
policies. The Government keep saying that
they cannot intervene in the
internal affairs of a sovereign
country-apparently not in this case,
although that is a selective
doctrine
1 Nov 2002 : Column 453
these days-that they cannot act on
their own and that anyway, these
things are best left to other African
nations to deal with.
I am not sure that I agree with that; the Movement for
Democratic Change
in Zimbabwe and Morgan Tsvangirai do not, arguing instead
that the
international community should intervene. But even if one agrees
with
that hand-binding position, the United Kingdom could take some action
on
its own immediately from London. We could then urge others in
the
European Union, the Commonwealth and the United Nations to
follow.
I should include in those measures: implementing the UN
panel
recommendations and pressing the EU to do so as well;
extending
sanctions to spouses and dependent children, as does my
motion;
eliminating the travel ban loopholes; and ensuring that the travel
ban
list complies with the list already issued by the US Government. The
new
list does not seem to cover individuals specified in the UN
report,
which I recommend to anyone interested in the matter. It does not
cover
the same group of people; we should certainly make the lists
match.
We should review and, where practicable, freeze the assets held in
the
UK of all companies implicated in bankrolling Mugabe, and draw up
and
publish a dossier of all known or suspected Zimbabwe torturers and
human
rights abusers. Perhaps we should even state that some of those
people
may have to stand trial for crimes against humanity, as has been done
by
the Americans in the case of the gangsters in Baghdad and Iraq.
Such
crimes have certainly been committed.
We should extend the
embargoed goods list, which at present seems
perforated and permeable, and
press the EU to do likewise. I
understand-no doubt some of your Lordships
will want to comment on
this-that the Mugabe regime is kept well supplied
with the appurtenances
of power, such as black Mercedes, and so on. That
should be
reconsidered. I add to that the point made by my noble friend
Lord
Carrington the other day. If funds have been allocated for land
reform-I
do not advocate new expenditure, but if such funds are
available-surely
some of them should go to the Zimbabwean farmers who have
been evicted,
cannot get hold of their money and are without any resources or
support,
rather than to be spent on further land reform and budgetary
support
directed by the illegal government in Harare.
The Zimbabwean
crisis is at present moving towards a dangerous
catharsis. There is now an
ongoing threat to the Matabele people. The
effects of Zimbabwean economic
chaos are beginning to strangle the whole
region and are threatening all of
the vision and hopes embodied in the
New Partnership for Africa's Development
and other development claims
for southern Africa.
The Foreign and
Commonwealth Secretary has pledged that the integrity of
targeted sanctions
must be maintained. It is important that that
worthwhile pledge-no doubt made
with all good intentions-is carried into
practice. That is why we have raised
those
1 Nov 2002 : Column 454
issues and prayed against or sought to
amend the orders by the Motions
on the Order Paper. I beg to move.
Moved,
That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty praying that
the
regulations, laid before the House on 8th October, be annulled
(S.I.
2002/2530).-[Lord Howell of Guildford.]
1.8 p.m.
Lord
Bruce of Donington: My Lords, I speak briefly in this debate to
seek further
information from my noble friend the Minister. First, to
what extent-I use my
words with some precision-are the Government
responsible to the European
Union for any steps that they are
considering taking or have already taken? I
ask that bearing in mind
that the European Union itself has great difficulty
accounting for its
expenditure and income. Few people know exactly how the
finances of the
European Union are conducted; to what extent they have been
legalised;
to what extent they are considered valid by our laws; or to what
extent
we are bound by them. I hope that that does not include members of
the
Government. That comes against a background of
accounting
irresponsibility in the European Union, to which reference has
been made
many times not only in the press but by Members of this
House.
As one who is certainly not an expert on Zimbabwe, I venture to
suggest
that the Government insist on dealing with their part of the
matter-that
part of the matter connected with British interests that they
control.
They must ensure that steps are not imposed on them by the
European
Union. I humbly submit that we are in no way accountable to the
European
Union or the Commission for actions taken in connection with the
present
situation.
Lord Dholakia: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord,
Lord Howell of
Guildford, for raising these matters. I shall comment on a few
aspects
of the concerns that he raised.
The second Motion seeks to
extend the number of people included in the
order before us. No one doubts
for a moment that those people, and many
others, bear responsibility for
serious violations of human rights and
freedom of opinion in Zimbabwe. I
press the Minister to ensure that the
Government keep up the pressure, as
they have done for some time, by
making sure that the economic, humanitarian
and legal situation in
Zimbabwe is not undermined by the action that they
take in bringing
European countries along with them. Nobody doubts that there
has been a
breakdown of the rule of law or that there have been human
rights
abuses, but I plead with the Minister that, although unilateral
action
on our part may seem attractive, it is no substitute for joint
action
with others in the European Union. That will have the maximum impact
in
allowing us to achieve our objectives.
The Minister should consider
carefully the names mentioned by the noble
Lord, Lord Howell of Guildford. We
should ensure that others in the
European Union take note of what he said,
in
1 Nov 2002 : Column 455
proposing those names. Finally, what about
the United Nations? Would it
be possible to take any international action
with the United Nations at
the centre? I look forward to the Minister's reply
on that.
We should send an unequivocal message from your Lordships' House
that we
did not accept white racism before independence and that, equally,
we
are not prepared to accept black racism, supplemented by
oppressive
action by Mugabe against his own people.
1.15
p.m.
Baroness Park of Monmouth: My Lords, it is reassuring to know of
the
action being taken today. I hope that the Government will now lose
no
time in acting against Oryx, which is UK-based, and against
John
Bredenkamp and his firms, ACS, Tremalt, Ridgepoint International and
any
affiliates that they may have in the UK. Oryx is reputed by the UN
panel
on the illegal exploitation of natural resources, to which reference
has
been made, to have or to have had an account in Hambros Bank in
London.
Since the original European Commission regulations were made and
the
common position agreed in July, the House would be glad to know
whether
a report could be made on action taken to freeze assets and
obstruct
money laundering. On 8th October, when I asked about Oryx, the
Minister
said:
"we will continue to examine ways in which we may
seize the assets of
those who are on the banned list".-[Official Report,
8/10/02; col. 220.]
We would like to know what, if anything, has
happened, if it can be said
publicly.
The Government continue to allow
President Mugabe to impose a veto on
any British action, under than discreet
private pressure, to defend
democracy for the people of Zimbabwe-if only the
right to free
reporting-on the grounds of our wicked colonial past. The
African states
continue to say that what is happening is an African affair
that should
be solved by Africans. Other countries of the Commonwealth, which
has
every right to act and insist on the upholding of the
Harare
Declaration, continue tacitly to accept Mugabe's right to murder
his
people, conduct ethnic cleansing in Matabeleland-not for the
first
time-and to destroy a flourishing country. The Commonwealth
troika,
alas, has been defied and has, effectively, been powerless so
far.
I suggest that there are two cards that we ought now to play. We
are
also members of the UN, as the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, said, and
we
have a strong tradition of human rights. What are the Government
doing
to disseminate immediately the recent report of the UN panel to
which
reference has been made? That report is about the Democratic Republic
of
Congo and was made at the order of the Security Council. When I
suggest
dissemination, I do not mean that it should be sent to the
Secretary
General of the Commonwealth. It should be sent to every member of
the
Commonwealth, with a covering note pointing out what the
Zimbabwe
Government, through their armed forces, have done to
another,
non-Commonwealth
1 Nov 2002 : Column 456
African country
and highlighting the disgraceful plundering conducted by
the Zimbabwe
government organ, OSLEG.
I hope that all the individuals and firms who are,
as my noble friend
Lord Howell of Guildford said, listed in the annexes to
that report will
be included-if they are not already included-in the EU list
for action,
either to prevent them from travelling or to freeze their
assets.
Unfortunately, as several Commonwealth countries are listed as
being
involved, this cannot be brushed aside as a domestic squabble
between
Britain and Zimbabwe. We must use the report and not let it pass
into
the limbo in which all too many of such UN documents pass. In July,
the
Council of the EU spoke of responding to the UN humanitarian appeal;
I
hope that it will work equally actively with the UN to follow up
the
report.
I spoke of human rights. I hope that the Government will
also take steps
to publicise and send to every Commonwealth member a copy of
the Amnesty
International report of 22nd October, entitled Democratic
Republic of
Congo: Making a killing. It records the killing of Congolese
miners in
Mbuji-Mayi, the diamond mine ceded to Zimbabwe and exploited by
Oryx and
OSLEG-the beautifully named Operation Sovereign Legitimacy-and by
the
Zimbabwe forces. Perhaps, their political and military masters should
be
reminded that they could qualify for trial for war crimes.
Other
noble Lords will, I am sure, speak about the monstrous ethnic
cleansing that
is going on in Matabeleland, not for the first time. A
document exists-and
has been publicised-that purports to be a secret
plan for genocide; that is
to say, the total destruction of the Matabele
by the Shona. Many thousands
were massacred-with no word said by the
world-by Mugabe's regime, not long
after he came to power, by the North
Korean-trained 5th Brigade, under
Perence Shiri. Shiri is now head of
the Zimbabwe air force and the owner of a
large farm, from which,
earlier this year, he evicted the family settled
there under the land
policy.
There is, alas, no need for a secret
plan. Matabeleland has been
systematically starved and oppressed for years.
Now, however, there is
open ethnic cleansing and open use of the weapon of
starvation, as well
as simple violence, murder and intimidation. There is,
incidentally, an
interesting section of the document that refers-with what
truth I do not
know-to a more sophisticated long-term Shona takeover of the
banks. It
attributes some of the extensive seizures of large properties and
farms
to Shona owners, thanks to the banks and, as the document
says
laconically, to the fast-track A2 resettlement programme, which
was
supposed to resettle families from the reserves.
The Government
cannot have a policy on Africa that ignores not only what
Zimbabwe does to
other African countries-Malawi and Zambia would not be
starving, but for
Mugabe's deliberate destruction of wheat and maize
crops-but what it does to
its own citizens. We should make it clear to
the
1 Nov 2002 : Column
457
Commonwealth that its members must stand by their principles, as
they
were ready to do over Fiji and Pakistan, and insist on a major visit
by
observers who will see what must be done to restore a country
now
utterly destroyed. If they do not, we cannot take them seriously.
They
have tried the polite way, and they have been defied by a dictator.
Now,
they must stand up for the people, on whom he daily inflicts
murder.
What pressure has the Commonwealth, apart from the admirable
John
Howard, exerted on President Mbeki? What is Mozambique,
admitted
uniquely into the Commonwealth, doing to uphold the principles for
which
it is supposed to stand? It is time that Mozambique paid its
dues.
People are dying every day, and the world does not know it.
The
Matabele, in particular, must feel like the inmates of the
concentration
camps during the last war in Germany-forgotten and
unacknowledged. We
must use every means open to us to save them. During the
war, even the
Germans could not refuse entry to the Red Cross, at least to
see
prisoners-of-war. Why do we not promote and finance visits by the
Red
Cross, the UNHCR and Amnesty International to Zimbabwe? They will
be
turned back, but we should send some more the next day. Each day,
we
should give the event full, world publicity.
It is difficult to
understand how we failed to convince the African and
Asian members of the
Commonwealth that, in defending tacitly Mugabe's
right to murder his people
and destroy his country, they are wholly
betraying the Zimbabwean people, a
large number of whom are black.
Millions of them will soon die, and those
countries are looking the
other way. They enjoy freedom, law and order, so
what right have they to
fail to defend the right of Zimbabweans to the same
things? If they need
an African view of the ineffable Mugabe, let them
remember President
Mandela's denunciation of him as a tyrant four years
ago.
Lord Astor of Hever: My Lords, I fully endorse everything that my
noble
friend Lord Howell said about these two statutory instruments.
With
regard to the first instrument on the Order Paper-the freezing
of
funds-surely our list of restricted persons should, at the very
least,
be congruent with the more extensive United States list. In view of
the
globalised nature of the business world, can the Minister explain why
we
have not yet managed to achieve such congruence?
I believe that we
should take a leaf out of the United States' book and
extend the restrictions
to cover spouses and dependent children. The
point of these targeted
sanctions ought to be to make life very
uncomfortable for the individuals
listed. Apparently, four Zimbabwean
Cabinet Ministers have children at school
in the United Kingdom. That
education is being paid for by
criminally-acquired wealth, while whole
rafts of children back in Zimbabwe
are too weak from hunger to attend
school-if, indeed, they are fortunate
enough to have a still-functioning
school in their area.
1 Nov 2002 :
Column 458
What we are facing in Zimbabwe is catastrophe. There is no
time for
gentile persuasion, or pressure, through the usual channels. What
we
have is a cynically engineered human catastrophe. This is engineered
by
the Zanu PF élite to cling to the power from which they corruptly
derive
their wealth, but abetted and sustained for their own purposes by
an
international criminal élite. They need the corrupt regime to
launder
their drugs money and to cover the tracks of their lucrative
arms
dealing.
If the Government are serious about doing something that
will materially
alter the lives and conditions of the millions of Zimbabweans
living on
the brink of starvation, they must work to break the business
network
that supports Mugabe. We must now go for the other individuals who
have
well-documented connections with the web of business interests that
lie
at the heart of the Zanu PF regime. I ask the Government to lay
before
the House a revised instrument, an up-to-date instrument, that
takes
full account of recent developments, such as the report
and
recommendations of the UN Panel of Experts, mentioned by my
noble
friend.
With regard to the other statutory instrument, I see
little point in
bringing before the House an order that will prevent the
lower echelons
of the Zimbabwean Government from travelling to the smaller,
outlying
territories of the British Crown-to Pitcairn or St Helena-when
key
individuals-those who engineer shady deals to provide the
all-important
financial lifelines to the regime-are free to come and go at
will and
use their assets to broker more international deals.
The
names of Wing Commander Mike Moyo, Brigadier General Sibusio Moyo,
and Thamer
al-Shanfari are specifically named in the list of individuals
against whom
the UN Panel of Experts asks us to impose a travel ban and
financial
restrictions. Brigadier General Sibusio Moyo is
Director-General of COSLEG,
the body that co-ordinates the Zimbabwean
regime's plundering of resources in
the Congo. He is also a member of
the forum that meets monthly to co-ordinate
the military and commercial
strategy, and divide up the commercial spoils
between Zanu PF and its
business partners. Thamer al-Shanfari is the Chief
Executive of Oryx
Natural Resources, a company whose intimate involvement
with funding the
regime has long been known. That involvement has now been
officially
confirmed, beyond any doubt, thanks to the painstaking work of the
UN
Panel of Experts.
This statutory instrument seems almost irrelevant
when a coach and
horses is being driven through the EU targeted sanctions by
moving the
SADC-EU summit from Copenhagen to Maputo. Apparently, this
Government
raised no objection. I hope that the Minister will explain the
rationale
of the Government's policy in acquiescing to this move. Further, as
my
noble friend Lord Howell asked, perhaps she will also say
whether
British Ministers will attend.
I trust that the noble Baroness
will not tell the House that she is
working through the NePAD nations to
bring about change in Zimbabwe.
President Mbeki of
1 Nov 2002 : Column
459
South Africa stated on Wednesday that political and human rights
matters
would not be subject to peer review as part of the NePAD process. I
ask
the Minister also to withdraw this statutory instrument and lay
before
the House an amended order, as suggested by my noble friend.
Lord
Avebury: My Lords, I entirely agree with the noble Lord, Howell of
Guildford,
that what we need is a global approach to the matter. It is
apparent that the
EU targeted sanctions are not working; indeed,
everyone knows that. We have
three components: the sale, supply, export
and shipment of equipment, which
we are not discussing this afternoon;
the freezing of funds; and the
restrictions on travel. I should like to
take up the reference made by the
noble Lord to the import of armoured
Mercedes-Benz limousines by the regime
for the exclusive use of Mugabe
and his cronies.
When we are supposed
to have a ban on military equipment of all kinds,
it seems extraordinary that
such goods could slip through the net. As
the noble Baroness has informed me
in correspondence, they are not
covered by the list that is being adopted by
the European Union. If that
is the case, the list should be changed, as I
have tried to convince the
noble Baroness, to include armoured limousines. I
do not believe that
the noble Baroness needs much convincing in that respect;
it is just a
question of how we persuade our European partners to extend the
list to
cover other goods.
As the noble Lord, Lord Howell, pointed
out, very few of the leading
members of the regime are seriously
inconvenienced by the existing
measures. Even those who are actually named do
not suffer any real
hardship as a result of the measures that we have so far
introduced: it
is the wives who go on the shopping trips around Europe; and
it is their
children who attend expensive public schools at the expense of
the
people not only of Zimbabwe but also of the Democratic Republic of
the
Congo. They can easily evade whatever restrictions are imposed
by
importing goods through third countries that do not go along with
the
restrictions that we place on both travel and trade.
I agree that
we need to strengthen the EU sanctions and make them bite
on as many senior
figures of the regime as possible. I also agree with
noble Lords who pointed
out that we should co-ordinate our activities
with others who are
independently adopting different lists. It seems to
me to be crazy that we
should all do our own thing, so to speak, and
"invent the wheel" from
scratch, instead of getting together with the
Americans, the New Zealanders,
and others, and establishing a common
list. It has been said that the
American list consists of 200 names. I
hear that the New Zealand list
contains 142, while our list consists of
only 72 names. The noble Baroness
will no doubt correct me if I am
wrong, but there are disparities between the
figures adopted by three
different regimes. Such lists should be aligned
accordingly. We should
go for the maximum-the American list-which includes
many people who are
hangers-on and not the principal figures in the
regime.
1 Nov 2002 : Column 460
When the Commonwealth Ministerial
Action Group meets next March to
consider what to do about Zimbabwe, it will
be guided not just by what
we are doing now by way of these extensions but
also by the objective
evidence of whether Zimbabwe is violating the Hirare
declaration.
Therefore, as has been said-especially by the noble Baroness,
Lady Park
of Monmouth-it is essential that we collect the evidence and that
it
should be incorporated in a definitive set of documents that the
Troika
can use as yardsticks for its judgment. I believe that the
Commonwealth
Secretariat should be charged with that task. I wrote to
the
secretary-general a few days ago asking him to compile a dossier
for
circulation to member states. I believe that much of the
criminal
behaviour of the Zimbabwe regime has either escaped the notice of
other
members of the Commonwealth or they have, for their own reasons,
chosen
to ignore it.
One particular piece of evidence which your
Lordships should note is the
Inter-Parliamentary Union report on the
violations of rights of
parliamentarians-a matter which should concern this
House and another
place. For example, Mr Justin Mutendadzamera, his wife and
step-son,
were severely ill treated by police who broke into their house and
beat
them. Mr David Mpala was kidnapped on 13th January 2002 and, after
being
stabbed in the abdomen, was dumped six kilometres away. People
helped
him to the police station and hospital, and he was put on a life
support
system.
Mr Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, whose case I have mentioned
before, a 61
year-old diabetic, was incarcerated for several weeks without
being
given appropriate medication for his disease. As a result, he
almost
lost the sight in one eye. There are three other cases with which
I
shall not weary the House, but all of them should be made available
to
other Commonwealth states, to our partners in the European Union, and
to
member states of the United Nations, so that they know what is going
on.
If that can be done to MPs, what are they doing to the ordinary
citizens
of Zimbabwe?
The noble Baroness, Lady Park of Monmouth, has
referred particularly to
the case of Matabeleland. The Minister will know
that we had some
information from reliable sources there earlier this week
concerning the
diversion of humanitarian aid to the supporters of the ZANU PF
regime,
the confiscation of aid which has led the World Food Programme
to
suspend its operations in some parts of Matabeleland, the holding up
of
large quantities of aid which are waiting in South Africa to cross
the
border into Matabeleland because they cannot get permission, and, as
a
result, withdrawal from the territory of many agencies such as
Oxfam,
Save the Children Fund, CAFOD, and so forth.
I have a letter
from the Right Reverend Pius Ncube, Archbishop of
Bulawayo, who begins by
saying:
"The biggest problem right now is that of
starvation".
That is what we are confronting in Matabeleland. That is
because, as he
says, the Zimbabwe Government are denying import licences
for
humanitarian agencies, is
1 Nov 2002 : Column 461preventing the
distribution on the ground of the
aid which is provided, and using violence
against persons operating for
humanitarian agencies. He goes into much detail
that I shall not weary
your Lordships with now, but if such a personage as
the Archbishop is
moved to write that letter, then we are facing a situation
in
Matabeleland which, as the noble Baroness has said, is even worse
than
in the rest of Zimbabwe. It almost amounts to genocide, as
our
representatives from Matabeleland told us when we met earlier this
week.
The noble Baroness also mentioned the UN expert panel report. Here
we
have a particular responsibility because there are organisations
and
individuals who are operating from this country. She
particularly
referred to Oryx, a company whose machinations we have discussed
several
times on the floor of the House in debates on both DRC and
Zimbabwe.
I should like to draw the attention of the Minister
particularly to
paragraph 53 of the report which states that Oryx transported
eight
crates of Congolese francs for shipment to Harare on 13th March 2000
in
an aircraft belonging to Mr John Bredenkamp. His name will be
familiar
to the Minister as a person who lives in Sunningdale, Berkshire
and
whose address has been given to the Foreign Office on
previous
occasions. Yet he apparently continues his activities with impunity.
The
Minister also mentioned the account of Oryx in Hambros Bank,
London.
That was used to transport parcels of United States dollars, which
had
been withdrawn from the bank, and sent to Kinshasa, without
declaring
them to the Congolese authorities. At Kinshasa that money was
changed
into Congolese francs and transported to Harare and the eastern
DRC.
On another occasion Oryx employees said that they were asked to pay
Mr
Emerson Mnangagwa a commission on those transactions, which
contravened
Zimbabwe law. Mr Mnangagwa is the speaker of the Zimbabwe
Parliament. He
is the same gentleman who refuses to answer questions about
the torture
and ill treatment of MPs when they were addressed to him by
the
Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. He has ignored
all
the letters. This is also the gentleman who is illegally diverting
the
resources of the DRC.
Another aspect of Mr Bredenkamp's activities
is that he is said to be
the agent for British Aerospace in Zimbabwe. The
expert panel report
accuses him of having facilitated or organised the sale
of 3.5 million
dollars of goods to the Zimbabwe defence forces in July 2001,
and to
have organised the delivery of spare parts for the Hawk jets owned
by
the Zimbabwe Air Force early in 2002. Has Mr Bredenkamp been, or is
he
going to be, questioned by the police about those activities?
Of
course, within Zimbabwe itself, let alone the DRC, political
violence
continues unabated. The political violence report of the Zimbabwe
Human
Rights NGO Forum for September gives detail about
1 Nov 2002 :
Column 462the state of affairs there. I shall not weary the
House with
everything they say. I shall give some figures from the
period 1st January
2002 to end September.
The forum said that there were 58 political
murders during that period,
that 1057 cases of torture occurred, and 223
abductions or kidnappings.
I shall not read the rest of the figures, but that
gives a picture of
the state of affairs that affects ordinary people in
Zimbabwe.
If European Union members are to appreciate the serious
situation that
exists in Zimbabwe and, hence, the need to intensify pressure
on the
regime through targeted sanctions, if the Commonwealth is to have
the
material to enable it to decide the question of Zimbabwe when that
comes
before it next March, and if the United Nations itself is to be left
in
no doubt about the impending crisis, the necessary information should
be
collected, analysed and published by some unimpeachable authority.
I
request that the Minister contact the Commonwealth Secretariat
and
inquire whether the Secretary General is willing to undertake this
task.
Lord St John of Bletso: My Lords, I intervene briefly to give my
total
and undivided support to the noble Lord, Lord Howell, in those
two
Motions. As noble Lords are aware, there is a total case of despair
in
Zimbabwe. Normally in countries where there are cases of
natural
disaster-particularly the famine in Zimbabwe-the police and army come
to
the help of the nation. Sadly, the police and army in Zimbabwe are
mere
puppets of the ZANU PF.
Clearly, sanctions have to be targeted
and it has been made clear in
Europe that we would not want the more general
sanctions to affect
particularly the poor in Zimbabwe. I am pleased that the
issue of Oryx
has been raised. I hope that the Minister will give us
encouragement
about more decisive action to be taken against Oryx, as well as
John
Bredenkamp.
However, I hope that a more global approach can be
taken to sanctions. I
spent many years living in South Africa and, clearly,
sanctions did not
work. What eventually caused a great deal of concern were
sporting
sanctions and I want briefly to raise the fact that the cricket
World
Cup will be held in South Africa at the end of February and in
March
next year. The last five games will be in Zimbabwe. Do the
Government
intend to send our cricket team into Zimbabwe?
Everything
has already been said most eloquently by previous speakers.
However, I would
like to discover from the Minister what action is being
taken in order to
promote a government of national unity in Zimbabwe. I
understand that behind
the scenes the Government are doing a great deal
together with Thabo Mbeki
and SADC in order to promote this. While we
all hope that sanctions will
bite, I hope that diplomatic actions will
continue to force change in a
country ravaged by famine and corruption.
Lord Elton: My Lords, I rise
briefly to add my voice to the chorus of
outrage that has been expressed in
this Chamber. I am most grateful to
my noble friend for
1 Nov 2002 :
Column 463
shining the spotlight again on Zimbabwe. One of the dangers is
that
these events develop when there are even greater and more
anxious
developments in the Middle East. That tends to drive Zimbabwe off
the
front pages of our newspapers.
I am largely a novice in the matter
of Zimbabwe, but the debate has
revealed to me that we have an apparent
system of sanctions which when
examined begins to look like a system of
tokenism. If one has an
incomplete list of people who are proscribed in some
way, it shows that
one is not serious about what one is doing.
By way
of Question for Written Answer, I earlier asked the noble
Baroness about the
effectiveness of the travel ban. She gave an able
exposition of exemptions
which are necessary for the management of
international organisations. People
are given tickets to come to that
and then go home. I wonder whether that
should persist, because they go
home triumphantly smiling, saying, "I have
beaten the ban".
Another aspect of sanctions which worries me is the
economic one, not
simply because of the amazing revelation by the noble Lord,
Lord
Avebury, of crate-loads of money being flown out of this country
with,
it would appear, necessarily the knowledge of the authorities-I
imagine
the Customs and the Foreign Office-and yet it continues. Even if
the
system were more effective in the terms in which it is drawn up,
I
wonder whether it would work. I am sorry that I have not given
the
Minister notice of my question, but I believe that she may have
an
estimate of the number of Zimbabwean citizens who are already
resident
in this country and sending money home weekly. I understand from
a
Zimbabwean friend that that is playing a significant part in
maintaining
a fairly healthy economy in Harare and its immediate
surroundings. There
appear to be bits of the economy in Zimbabwe which even
if we had an
effective system of sanctions-and clearly we do not-would not
be
effective.
Part of the sanctions is the freezing of the assets of
named
individuals, which has been referred to already. The figure I have
from
the Minister's latest answer to me is £123,000. But £3,000 more
than
£120,000 is not real money when it is divided among so many people
and
it is totally insignificant when one looks at a national
economy.
What am I doing except wailing in despair? First, I want to
say
something in solidarity with the beleaguered Archbishop whose cry
should
be heard not only by this Parliament but by our Churches and to which
I
hope there will be a response by our Churches. Secondly, I want
to
differ marginally from my noble friend about the move from Copenhagen
to
Maputo. I do not believe that anything we say or do cuts much ice
with
Mr Mugabe or his cronies. They are affected by the words and deeds
of
their neighbours and fellow Africans. SADC, the organisation which
was
to have met in Copenhagen, recently demoted Mr Mugabe from
deputy
chairman and thus denied him the prospect of glorious publicity
as
chairman next year. That must be humiliating. If the meeting were
in
1 Nov 2002 : Column 464
Copenhagen, Mr Mugabe would not be able
to attend. He can attend in
Maputo and there he can learn of the developing
opinion of him by his
fellow Africans. I hope that he learns a
lot.
1.45 p.m.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,
Foreign and Commonwealth
Office (Baroness Amos): My Lords, I thank the noble
Lord, Lord Howell of
Guildford, for his opening remarks; in particular his
recognition of the
work in which we have been engaged in terms of framing our
policy on
Zimbabwe. Noble Lords will be aware that the European Union
extended the
EU-wide asset freeze and travel ban on Zimbabwe. The total
number of
individuals subject to target exemptions is now 79.
In the
discussions we have had in this House, I and noble Lords have
made it clear
that what we require is a multilateral not a unilateral
approach. I agree
with noble Lords that it would make sense to try to
ensure that the lists
across countries are consistent. We are in touch
with our partners, including
the United States and New Zealand. Noble
Lords will know that the United
States does not have an assets freeze,
so there are differences between us
with respect to the nature of the
travel ban and the number of individuals on
it, and with respect to the
asset freeze. However, we will continue to work
with out international
partners because we all want to see the same things.
We all want to see
the restoration of the rule of law; democratic
accountability; sound
economics; and basic human rights in Zimbabwe. I know
that all noble
Lords share those concerns.
Many noble Lords asked
about the assets and the noble Lord, Lord Howell,
asked in particular what
additional assets would be caught by the
extension. With respect to the funds
so far frozen, a total of 28
accounts containing funds totalling £513,000
have been frozen in the
United Kingdom and Crown dependencies since the
introduction of the
sanctions.
I agree that the process is slow, but
it requires painstaking research.
The money is moved around frequently and,
from other areas of money
laundering where money is being moved not only from
one country to
another but from different jurisdictions, we know that the
matter
requires a great deal of research. It also requires co-operation
between
countries. It is slow, but we have made some progress.
There
have also been a number of questions about the travel ban. The
noble Lords,
Lord Astor of Hever, Lord Howell of Guildford and Lord
Elton, pushed on this
matter. It is only where international treaties
legally oblige EU member
states to let banned individuals in that they
have been allowed to do so.
There have been recent examples-one in
Belgium and one in the United States
in the past two weeks-where
individuals have not been allowed in.
We
will of course keep the list under review. I share many of the
concerns
raised, but I repeat that we act most effectively when we act
together with
our partners. That means that we have to persuade our
partners that the kind
of action that is being proposed is the right
action.
1 Nov 2002 :
Column 465
I now want to comment on the two orders before the House
before turning
to the other matters which have been raised. The Zimbabwe
(Freezing of
Funds, other Financial Assets or Economic Resources)
(Amendment)
Regulations 2002 puts penalties in place with regard to the EU
asset
freeze. Without that regulation, we will not be able to
prosecute
breaches of the asset freeze in respect of the additional names
agreed
by the EU.
The Overseas Territories (Zimbabwe) (Restrictive
Measures) (Amendment)
Order 2002 implements the sanctions in respect of the
additional names
agreed by the EU on the overseas territories. It is
important that the
sanctions are implemented consistently and it would not be
sensible for
this order to go beyond the EU common position. Both these
instruments
are vital to ensuring that sanctions are effective.
A
number of noble Lords referred to the issue of designating additional
names,
a matter raised by the noble Lord, Lord Howell of Guildford. I
shall consider
those additional names and discuss their addition to the
EU designated list
with our EU partners. As I said, it would not be
effective to take unilateral
action. Acting in concert with our EU
partners is vital to ensuring that
maximum pressure is applied to the
Zimbabwe regime. We keep the list under
constant review.
As to the three individuals named and featured in the
recent UN expert
panel report on the exploitation of resources and other
forms of wealth
in the DRC, I agree that the way in which resource
exploitation has
fuelled conflict in the DRC is deplorable. We have given our
full
support to the work of the panel. The report makes a number
of
recommendations which we shall have to study with fellow UN
Security
Council members. We shall consider what further action is
appropriate
once the Security Council has studied the report. Indeed, there
may be a
number of other, more significant, names mentioned in the report
which
we shall need to look at. Lord Avebury: My Lords, surely we do not
have
to wait for the Security Council to meet in cases where
criminal
activities are alleged. That applies particularly to Mr.
Bredenkamp.
Baroness Amos: My Lords, the allegations have to be
investigated. I am
not saying that we have to wait for the Security Council
to meet to take
action. Given that all noble Lords agree that multilateral
action is
better than unilateral action, it is important that the Security
Council
meets to consider the report and for there to be joint UN action
in
respect of the recommendations made in it. We are already engaged
in
discussions with our UN colleagues on this issue.
The noble Lord,
Lord Astor of Hever, and other noble Lords referred to
the question of adding
spouses and dependent children to the list. Again
this has not been ruled out
entirely. However, we need to consider the
matter with our EU partners. It
has been discussed and we shall continue
to discuss it. If there is a
change
1 Nov 2002 : Column 466in what is recommended to the European
Union, I
shall bring that change to the attention of the House. It is right
to
recognise that we have focused on the key decision makers in
the
Zimbabwe regime, and we shall continue to do so.
The noble Lord,
Lord Dholakia, asked me about the United Nations. We and
others supported a
resolution on Zimbabwe to the UN Commission on Human
Rights. We lost that
resolution because of a blocking resolution by the
African group at Geneva.
As noble Lords know, the UN Secretary-General
has been studying these issues
with respect to Zimbabwe through the
world food programme and UNDP. He has
spoken directly to Mugabe and has
issued statements of concern.
I
should remind noble Lords that the UN Security Council's role is
concerned
with international peace and security. Any UN Security Council
role in
Zimbabwe will require backing from the region, in particular
from the
Southern African Development Community, which, in the light of
what we have
seen, is unlikely to be forthcoming at present. We are very
conscious of this
issue and are continuing to discuss it with our
partners. We need a
broader-based support than currently exists if we
are to get UN
agreement.
This fits in with the point made by noble Lords that we need a
greater
global consensus on these matters, and we shall continue to work
and
press for that. The noble Lord, Lord Howell of Guildford, referred
to
the frustration that he believes I feel. It is a difficult process-it
is
painstaking-but we shall not give up.
As regards its broader
recommendations, the DRC panel report does not
call for sanctions against the
12 companies with headquarters in the
United Kingdom. They are deemed to be
in breach of voluntary OECD
guidelines. We shall of course follow this up and
seek more information
from the panel about the precise nature of the alleged
violations in
order to take the matter further.
The noble Baroness,
Lady Park, suggested sending the report to
Commonwealth and other countries.
It is a very good idea and one which I
shall take up. We have put together a
number of different short
information reports about what is happening in
Zimbabwe, which we have
sent to a number of countries. Information is often
muddled and the UK
position in regard to these issues is often
misrepresented, and it is
very important that we do all that we can to
communicate properly and to
get the correct information out there. I shall
certainly take up the
noble Baroness's suggestion.
I was asked about
paying compensation direct to dispossessed farmers. I
have made it clear
before in the House that any financial support for
land reform in Zimbabwe
would be provided as part of our international
development programme-and that
is to reduce poverty. It would not be
specifically to compensate
farmers.
1 Nov 2002 : Column 467
We need to think carefully about
this. This House and the Government do
not agree with the fast-track land
reform programme put in place by the
Mugabe regime, but if we were to go down
the road of compensating
farmers for that fast-track process we would be
letting the Mugabe
regime off the hook.
A number of noble Lords,
including the noble Baroness, Lady Park, who
has raised the issue with me
before, and the noble Lord, Lord St John of
Bletso, referred to Oryx. That
organisation has an office here but it is
not UK based, which slightly
complicates the situation. We need to
investigate the allegations that have
been made and we are in the
process of doing so. We have to do so very
carefully, with the UN, and
then we shall think about the next steps to take.
I shall be happy to
keep noble Lords informed of any progress, but I remind
them that these
processes can take quite a long time.
The noble Lord,
Lord Howell of Guildford, asked about the EU-SADC
meeting, as did other noble
Lords. It is important to remember several
things. Zimbabwe is facing a
humanitarian crisis-the noble Lord, Lord
Astor of Hever, called it a
humanitarian catastrophe. There are 14
million people in southern Africa
facing starvation, half of whom are
from Zimbabwe. We need to make clear to
SADC the implications of the
situation in Zimbabwe in terms of what is
happening in their own
countries. I have been doing this over a number of
months. When I was in
New York in September for the UN General Assembly
meeting, I had a
number of bilateral discussions with colleagues from African
countries
which focused on the economic and humanitarian impact of the
situation
in Zimbabwe on the region as a whole. We have to get this
message
across. It is important that the European Union should engage in
a
dialogue with SADC, not only on the humanitarian issues but
more
generally on issues of poverty, human rights and governance.
I
shall be representing the United Kingdom at the EU-SADC meeting next
week. I
can assure noble Lords that I shall be extremely tough in the
messages that I
give to SADC. It is almost inconceivable that 40 million
people can be facing
starvation and that is not being recognised by
government in the region. It
is right that the EU should engage in that
discussion through the EU-SADC
process. This is a matter that
governments in the region have to take
seriously. The United Kingdom
Government are giving substantial amounts of
humanitarian assistance not
just to Zimbabwe but to the region. This is about
the responsibilities
that governments themselves need to take for what is
happening in their
countries.
I do not agree that part of our policy
has been to say: leave it up to
Africa. That has never been our position. We
have said that this issue
should concern the whole international community.
That includes
Zimbabwe's partners-including governments on the continent. It
includes
the European Union, the Commonwealth and other countries.
1
Nov 2002 : Column 468
The noble Lord, Lord Avebury, talked about the need
for a global
approach. That is very much what our strategy has been about. I
do not
agree that the Government have vetoed British action in
specific
respects because we are concerned about allegations regarding
our
colonial past. We have been clear about the limitations of what we
have
said because of that colonial history. It does not mean that we have
not
made our position clear, but it is heard and read in a particular
way
because of our historical relationship with Zimbabwe.
The issue of
the Commonwealth was raised by many noble Lords. I have had
numerous
discussions with the Commonwealth Secretary-General. It is
important that the
Commonwealth obtain data. Noble Lords will know that
Mugabe has refused to
meet the Commonwealth Secretary-General. It is
important that the
Commonwealth gathers what data it can, but it is
difficult for it to gather
data within the country.
My noble friend Lord Bruce asked to what extent
our responsibility to
the European Union stops the United Kingdom considering
the steps that
we should be taking. This is a matter of us acting together.
It gives us
greater weight. I can assure my noble friend that working in
partnership
with our EU colleagues has not prevented us from taking specific
action.
I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, that we need to keep up
the
pressure, and I agree with him about the unequivocal message that
we
should send; namely, that as a government, or as the second Chamber
in
the British Parliament, we are not prepared to accept racism.
The
noble Lord, Lord Avebury, talked about working with New Zealand and
the
United States. I have addressed that point. The meeting in March
will not be
a CMAG meeting; it will be a meeting of the troika that was
mandated by the
Commonwealth Heads of Government.
The noble Lord, Lord St John of Bletso,
asked about the World Cup. This
is a matter for the ECB and for the
cricketing authorities. The United
Kingdom Government do not send our cricket
team to Zimbabwe. As to the
point about promoting a government of national
unity, we have been in
constant contact with our SADC partners on this. We
were strongly in
favour of the initiative taken by Nigeria and South Africa
in this
respect. I am aware that discussions continue behind the scenes,
but
very little has changed in regard to the matter.
I agree with the
noble Lord, Lord Elton, that the pressure needs to be
kept up across a number
of different fronts, including through the
Churches. It is the people of
Zimbabwe who deserve our support. They
want to know that they have that
support and we need to make it clear
through whatever channels we
can.
Lord Howell of Guildford: My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who
have
taken part in this short but useful debate. From all speakers there
has
emerged the extremely clear message that more must be done-that
1
Nov 2002 : Column 469the situation is not satisfactory. I thank the
Minister
for her comments and for her undertaking to look at additional
names. That is
welcome.
The Minister's main theme is that we have to act in concert. Our
reply
is that in a concert someone has to conduct the orchestra and
someone
has to play the leading instrument. We are looking for much more
vigour
in those tasks in order to put pressure on the Mugabe regime.
The
Minister spoke about not letting Mugabe off the hook. We fear that he
is
not on the hook at the moment. That is the trouble. More can be
done.
1 Nov 2002 : Column 470
We have made our views very clear. I
am glad that they will be taken
into account. We believe that better orders
could have gone forward than
the one that we are praying against and the one
that we seek to amend.
However, in the absence of such, we should possibly
let these orders go
forward. Therefore, repeating my strong hope that the
Government will
keep very much in mind and will carry forward all the points
made in the
debate, I beg leave to withdraw the Motion.
Motion, by
leave, withdrawn.
House adjourned at eight minutes past two
o'clock.
IOL
A real Zimbabwean war veteran speaks
November 08
2002 at 04:17PM
By Glynnis Underhill
As a
freedom fighter, Wilfred Mhanda helped Mugabe come to power - and came
to
regret giving him his support. Today Mhanda is the spokesperson for a
group
of around 5 000 war veterans who publicly denounce the Zanu-PF
government of
Mugabe, the violent farm invasions and the breakdown of law
and order in
their country.
"We are the real war vets," he says, a sense of urgency
lending emotion to
his words.
"The majority of the people who describe
themselves as war vets and invade
white farms are not really war vets at all.
Mostly they are just thugs.
"We fought for freedom and democracy in this
country, and what they are
doing is quite the opposite."
This
small-framed steely war veteran now coordinates the Zimbabwe
Liberators
Platform, a pressure group formed by war vets in 2000 in protest
at the
anarchy that accompanied the farm invasions.
"It was the start
of the violent farm occupations, and repression and the
suppression of
people's basic rights. All of this was being done in the name
of the war
veterans.
"We were extremely unhappy that these people committing these
violent acts
were using - and destroying - our name, and we felt betrayed
that everything
we had fought for, namely freedom and democracy, was being
eroded. We want
to help the nation restore law and order."
Mhanda
believes the organisation has survived the political turmoil of the
past two
years because most genuine liberation war fighters were determined
to defend
the original ideals for which they fought for the Zimbabwe people.
While
he says that most dissenting voices are usually silenced, Mhanda
continues to
speak out about the atrocities being committed in Zimbabwe, his
views
strengthened by the belief that sustained pressure will bring
about
change.
For a man who has already been thrown into prison
twice by Mugabe, Mhanda
shows little fear for his own safety, openly speaking
about his dislike of
the repressive regime.
Organising the activities
of the Zimbabwe Liberators Platform has become a
full-time job for this war
vet, who every day runs the risk of upsetting his
former comrade.
He
appears passionate about the organisation he represents, and the fact
that he
was in the high command in Zanla and placed in charge of political
and
military training, with the advantage of advanced strategic training
in
China, has given him an insight few others have.
While working
alongside him, Mhanda found Mugabe to be "arrogant, paranoid,
secretive and
only interested in power".
The first time Mugabe had Mhanda thrown into
jail was in 1977 in Mozambique,
when Mugabe persuaded their host, President
Samora Machel, that his own
Zanla commanders were plotting against
him.
Mhanda and 50 other commanders were arrested, and he spent six
months in a
lice-infested, cramped cell with no toilet.
He was later
transferred to a detention camp, where he spent another two
years. The Zanla
commanders were finally released after a representative of
the British Labour
Party took up their case.
The last time Mugabe arrested Mhanda was
shortly after independence in 1980.
Mugabe prevented some of the war vets
from being re-integrated into Zanu,
and so Mhanda and 27 of his comrades
joined the Patriotic Front, he says.
Joining the Patriotic Front gave him
the protection of Joshua Nkomo, who was
the minister of home affairs. Shortly
after Mugabe was elected, he arrested
all 27 of the war vets who had joined
the Patriotic Front.
They spent ten days in a cell, the last five on
hunger strike. Nkomo managed
to have Mhanda and the others
freed.
After that, it was impossible to work in Zimbabwe - Mhanda found
himself
blacklisted at every company he applied to.
He managed to get
a scholarship to study in West Germany and left Zimbabwe,
intending never to
return, he says.
After studying for an MSc in chemical biotechnology,
Mhanda was offered a
lectureship at the Technical University of
Berlin.
But the offer was withdrawn, he believes, because Zimbabwean
intelligence
told the German government that he was a communist
agent.
It was a trick of fate that Mhanda, who had suffered such hardship
in the
war of liberation, should return home to find a battleground of
another
sort. He holds Mugabe and his government solely responsible for the
chaos
and poverty at home.
"Robert Mugabe is a very focused man, that
has not changed. But he is losing
his grip on power and he is acting in
defence of that power. The mask of
Robert Mugabe is now slipping, and he is
revealing the real man behind the
mask."
Mhanda says there are few in
power who can be trusted. He protests that most
of those claiming to be war
veterans and leading the charge to illegally
seize farms in Zimbabwe were far
too young to have fought. Instead, Mhanda
describes them as government
agents.
The Zimbabwe Liberators Platform also dismisses the war veterans
involved in
the farm seizures as cowards for attacking unarmed civilians
during
peacetime, claiming they had turned from liberators to
oppressors.
His organisation says the leader of the farm invasions, the
late Chenjerai
"Hitler" Hunzvi, and his supporters, a group of not more than
1 500 , do not
represent the majority of former freedom
fighters.
"Most of those so-called leaders of war veterans have police
dockets opened
against them, the bulk of criminal activities having been
committed over the
past two years during the anarchy and
violence.
"These so-called war veteran leaders belong in
prison.
"They are fugitives from justice who have gained importance,
which is
preventing them from being sent to jail. They are not being
convicted for
the crimes they have committed."
Mhanda's recent visit
to Cape Town was another attempt to mobilise action
against the Mugabe
government and to draw attention to the fact that other
war veterans, like
himself, are fighting for the restoration of the rule of
law.
Mhanda
believes there could be up to 35 000 war veterans in Zimbabwe, and
the
numbers joining the Zimbabwe Liberators Platform is growing every
day,
although it is not
essential for members to be former freedom
fighters.
While many of its members are concerned by the victimisation of
opposition
party activists of the Movement for Democratic Change, the
Zimbabwe
Liberators Platform is primarily focused on trying to restore a
state of law
to the country.
The origin of the Zimbabwe Liberators
Platform has its roots in the war of
independence. Many of these war vets are
fighters from the Zanu and Zapu
liberation movements, which eventually formed
a joint army in pursuit of
national unity.
They won the backing of the
neighbouring frontline states' leaders,
especially the late President Samora
Machel of Mozambique, who allowed them
to fight from his country. But clashes
soon occurred in the Zipa - Zimbabwe
People's Army - camps between soldiers
of the two liberation movements.
Mhanda and his comrades from Zanu felt
it was a lack of political leadership
that was contributing to the tensions
in the united army. When President
Machel asked them to draw up a list of 10
names of potential leaders, Robert
Mugabe was at the top of their
list.
At the time, Mugabe was under house arrest in Mozambique because
President
Machel was hostile to his anti-unity sentiments. Mugabe was then
freed and
came to lead Zanu - but when the soldiers became disillusioned with
him, it
was too late.
Today Mhanda finds it hard to witness the food
shortage in Zimbabwe and
describes the situation as "critical".
While
the rest of the world realised the Zimbabwe presidential elections
held in
March this year were a "sham", he said there was little outcry. He
appealed
to the international community to condemn what was happening in his
country,
as he said poverty was growing more evident daily.
The numbers of beggars
on the streets had grown and basic foods were no
longer available at the
shops.
"You can't get maize meal on the supermarket shelves, you can't
buy cooking
oil, you can't get milk. It is just not there.
"How long
can the situation continue? There will be social strife. The only
way to
bring about change is to demand a better life and to stand up for
your
rights."
Mhanda says there is nothing to justify the violence being
perpetrated
against Zimbabweans by the Mugabe government. Land could have
been
redistributed to the people and the violence averted, he
says.
"The government is hiding behind the mask of the war veterans, yet
it was
the government that effected these farm invasions to distract from
the
worsening economic plight.
"Mugabe's power is slipping, and the
government could not be seen to be
breaking the law, but it was the
government that was the architect of the
farm invasions.
"They have
used the youth from rural areas and got them to take the law into
their own
hands."
Most of the farms are now just lying fallow, he says with
despair.
"The farms are now completely under-utilised and the people are
starving.
The new settlers are not even using the infrastructure available to
them.
They are tilling the land with oxen and donkeys. Commercial farming has
been
destroyed."
Of the South African reaction, Mhanda says the
attitude shown by President
Thabo Mbeki and the government was a matter of
"extreme concern".
"It is more that the South African government has
shown an indifference
which has negative consequences for Zimbabwe. There has
been a systematic
erosion of the rights of the people.
"Their basic
rights have been reduced to zero and despite the repressive
nature of the
government, it is not being held accountable by the
international
community."
Mhanda says South Africa should be taking a principled stand
and openly
voice its concern.
"There seems to be a trend in Africa
that political rights and democracy are
not paramount. The situation South
Africa could find itself in could one day
be the same as Zimbabwe if a stand
is not taken.
"Today it is Zimbabwe, tomorrow South Africa. South Africa
must condemn the
erosion of basic rights in Zimbabwe in order to lay a solid
foundation for
its own people's rights."
a.. This article
was originally published in The Cape Times on 05 November
2002
BBC
Saturday, 9 November, 2002, 11:40 GMT
Zimbabwe's
casualties
Many thousands of black farm workers are
destitute
The government in Zimbabwe is expected to present its annual
budget statement next week. There will doubtless be promises of a brighter
future, but few people expect them to reverse the country's deepening political
and economic crisis. Land reforms have left the key agricultural sector in
disarray.
White farmers are being chased away, the black farm workers
uprooted from heir homes. Crops have failed and millions are facing starvation.
Mike Donkin, who has just returned from Zimbabwe, believes their lot can only
improve when President Robert Mugabe has gone.
I sit down to Sunday
lunch with some white couples - a sort of wake as their farms are picked off one
by one by the so-called war veterans.
The children are splashing in the
pool under the lilac jacaranda trees, the pink hibiscus in full bloom.
"War veterans" have wreaked havoc on white-owned
farms
There is chat at the table of a farewell trip to the bush to
watch the elephants, of a last-ever tiger fishing contest.
But it all
quickly turns to gallows humour as more beers are sunk. And talk of "making the
plan", if they have to leave Zimbabwe fast.
Over on the hearth, there's
a rack of briar pipes and a carved clock that has ticked away for 80 or 90
years. On the bookshelf are the memoirs of a major general who helped Rhodes to
carve out Rhodesia.
In another cottage garden, a farmer's wife regrets
losing her long-serving family cook. "He's had to go," she says. "Peter - I
can't recall his second name."
Black servants and black workers have
always lived in the shadows, in basic houses - often shacks or mud huts. But, as
Robert Mugabe's land reforms bring them out into the open, it is not to bask in
new homes and gardens of their own.
The government brands these workers
guilty by association. Kicked off the farms, you see them sleeping rough with
their bundles, blankets and children at the roadside. You find them cooking up
the day's porridge meal - if they can get the maize - in scattered camps that
are already overstretched.
A million-and-a-half people have now become
refugees in their own country.
The people who the reforms are supposed
to have empowered have been building their huts on the land they've suddenly
inherited. It is early days but they are clearly far from settled yet.
Feeding Zimbabwe
One man I walk across a bare field to meet says
he's a factory hand and his new garden is proving a bit of a handful.
He's been digging a well for a week and he's not struck water yet. He
shows me the flock of chickens he's bought. "I lose them," he says. "They keep
straying onto the road."
There are no shops, no clinics
for these transplanted communities to use
The new arrival hopes he
can make a go of farming, but he seems far from sure. He is one of the people
the government is relying on to feed not just his family but Zimbabwe.
You drive past many such smallholdings, in the most remote of places.
Here and there groups of neat-uniformed children make the long, long journey to
school.
There are no shops, no clinics for these transplanted
communities to use.
Future plans
When you reach one of the
villages on land the white farmers did not choose to settle, you can see why.
This is where drought now parches the red earth and threatens the villagers with
hunger.
The huts here are grouped in neat, mud-floored compounds, swept
clean by each householder with her bundle of twigs. Two girls of nine or 10 are
shakily pushing a wheelbarrow loaded with water barrels, which they have had to
ferry from a distant dam.
In every Zimbabwean house, farm
and garden, Robert Mugabe is leaving his mark
Some hut walls in
this, Mashonaland, are painted with bright pictures of elephants, tigers and
snakes - a local custom. "There are so many animals here," the headman who's my
guide says. "I saw some impala today."
But then he tells the story of
one woman who decided to decorate her hut with the open-hand, the symbol of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
"The next day a gang of
government supporters came to beat her," he says. "And they threw her a fresh
can of paint to cover it up."
In every Zimbabwean house, farm and
garden, Robert Mugabe is leaving his mark right now.
He makes his plans
for their future in Harare's ex-colonial presidential palace, set in sweeping
grounds. It's guarded by watchful troops - their bayonets fixed. The word is
that Mr Mugabe hardly ever sleeps there - a different bed every night, they say.
For now, though, as his people - black and white - migrate because of
his land crusade, Mr Mugabe has no plans to move house permanently.
Until he goes, it's hard to see how Zimbabwe can be a national home of
which its people can be proud.