THE
war veterans' movement, previously led by the late Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi,
would like to conduct an audit into how the land redistribution programme has
fared since they launched it with their violent campaign in
2000.
They seem to be more concerned with how they claim to have
been left in the lurch - or to have been short-changed - while their leaders
in the government grabbed the prime land intended for the genuinely
landless peasants.
Discerning analysts would say there has been
the equivalent of a falling out of thieves. In sharing their loot, one group
grabbed more than the other had bargained for.
Now, the group
which believes it was hard done by is trying to square things
up.
It would not surprise the neutral observer if this audit ends
up generating a lot of heat and thunder, signifying absolutely
nothing. Both the leaders and the so-called veterans have profited from
the chaotic land reform programme. Some have made millions of dollars
in extortion; others have taken ownership of so many farms, they will
probably never have to work another day in their lives again.
Meanwhile, the people who ought to have been the beneficiaries of
this campaign remain either where they were before - on overcrowded,
infertile land - or resettled on poor soil with no infrastructure to speak
of.
The audit that the people of Zimbabwe ought to demand of
the government and their war veteran accomplices, is of the death, rape
and destruction of their motherland, all conducted under the repulsive
pretext of righting the colonial wrongs of the past.
This
country has earned such notoriety internationally, as a direct consequence of
the murder, rape and destruction of the past two years, it will be a long
time before it regains its status as one of the most stable countries in
Africa.
Whatever spin the government wants to put on Zimbabwe's
failure to take up the deputy chairmanship of the Southern African
Development Community, the fact remains the prime cause is the bloodshed
which started with the rejection of the draft constitution in the referendum
of 2000.
The government virtually sanctioned a murderous campaign
against its own people because they would not do its bidding. It launched a
blatantly racist campaign against the commercial farmers, ostensibly because
they were not willing to give up their farms without a fight. But
the real reason was that the farmers, along with the majority of the people,
were tired of Zanu PF rule and were ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for
change.
But all dissent would be bludgeoned into submission until
the government and the so-called war veterans became a law unto
themselves, ignoring all constitutional niceties.
The price the
government is willing to pay is very high: ostracism from most councils of
the world. If the United Nations Security Council musters enough courage to
engage the Zimbabwe government about its blithe disregard of the people's
human rights, the stakes could rise even higher.
There can be no
way that the government can justify the distribution of the former white
commercial farms to Cabinet ministers and their wives, or senior soldiers and
their wives. If the people of Zimbabwe accept this travesty of justice
without raising a finger, then the rest of the world would, quite rightly,
say they deserve their God-awful fate of servitude.
The unity of
the forces determined to reverse the plunge into obloquy is
essential.
Just as the government and its war veteran accomplices
are determined to finish off what they started in 2000, the forces of reason
must be just as resolute not to allow them to achieve their evil
goals.
On the diplomatic front, on the domestic front, on every
conceivable front with the potential to influence the outcome of this titanic
struggle, people who are outraged by the events of the last two years must
act with courage and speak out without fear.
Future generations
would never forgive them for bequeathing to them a legacy of death, rape and
destruction.
Zim Independent
Mugabe in total onslaught on democracy -
Tsvangirai Dumisani Muleya PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is intensifying
political repression as he pursues his "total onslaught against democratic
forces", opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan
Tsvangirai has said.
Addressing a public meeting this week, Tsvangirai
said Mugabe had heightened his totalitarian methods since he stormed back
into office after a smash-and-grab election victory in March.
"The
major problem that confronts us remains the political impasse caused
by regime illegitimacy, and which is degenerating daily into a
dangerous crisis," he said.
"The stealing of the presidential
election amounted to a veritable coup d'état because it overthrew even the
shoddy constitution that is in place today."
Calling for resolute
defiance of Mugabe's authoritarian rule, Tsvangirai said people should be
ready to confront the current regime despite its coercion and
violence.
"The aftermath of the fraudulent poll therefore did not
usher in a dictatorial civilian regime," he said. "Instead, a civil-military
junta presided over by a civilian absolute dictator was installed and
continues to impose violently an illegitimate government over the
people."
The MDC leader said Zimbabweans have to realise they were
now living in an "age of total absolutism" and have become prisoners of
tyranny.
"So what this means is that we are confronted by a post-coup
d'état situation with an illegitimate regime in power," he said. "Civil
authority and civil power have been crushed. It is a dictatorial
political dispensation that is more dangerous and qualitatively different
from all other Mugabe dictatorial projects between the achievement of
national Independence in 1980 and the March 2002 presidential
poll.
"Its impact in scale, magnitude and wickedness surpasses all
the evil forces that have been unleashed in this nation in the past," he
said. "The preliminary results of this fascist programme are there for all of
us to see."
Whereas the state-sponsored war of physical
annihilation and genocide was confined to the south-western region and the
Midlands between 1982-87, Tsvangirai said, "this has now been extended to
envelop the whole nation with increased ferocity and
intensity.
"The new infrastructure of state-sponsored violence and
terror that is now in place is not an accident of circumstances. It is there
by deliberate design. It is a clear demonstration of the regime's
determination to settle the issue of its illegitimacy by force or military
means."
In a bid to rally his supporters, Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe
has entered a "critical period that calls for new strategies of resistance to
tyranny" through broad and effective coalitions.
"Defy unjust and
inhuman laws, because freedom comes from such an exercise," he said.
"Transform food and fuel queues into theatres of the struggle for democracy.
Turn hunger into fortitude. Unemployment and poor wages must constitute the
driving force for this inevitable change.
Women's groups must organise
and resist starvation. The youth must reject the bleak and hopeless
future.
"And to the churches I say: preach the gospel of the
cleansing value of suffering in order to achieve liberation and
justice."
Tsvangirai said Mugabe's regime remains on the brink of
collapse despite stealing elections in order to pretend it was
popular.
"A nation cannot go on in a state of siege indefinitely," he
said. "All indications are that the regime is in an advanced state of decay.
It is collapsing because it has no capacity to govern anymore."
After the huffing and puffing Mugabe is
alone THE regional picture - murky at best after a deluge of misinformation
- appears to have cleared somewhat.
We had been led to believe that
President Mugabe pulled off a significant public relations coup with his
speeches to the Earth Summit in Johannesburg and the UN General Assembly in
New York last month. Reference was made to multitudes of admirers swarming
around a buoyant president and an impression conveyed that Mugabe had
"cleared up misconceptions" about his land policy. The self-evident lie that
commercial farmers with one farm who wanted to continue farming would be
allowed to do so was at the heart of the president 's claims.
This PR
offensive was followed up by suggestions that the UNDP was now ready to come
on board with large sums to support the resettlement programme. Even Britain
was portrayed as softening its stance following Tony Blair's indication in
Johannesburg that Britain would channel the funds it had set aside in 1998
through whatever programme the UNDP devised.
The stage was thus set for
yet another demonstration of solidarity by Mugabe 's allies in the region,
headed by Namibia's Sam Nujoma, at the annual Sadc summit in Luanda last
week. That is when things began to fall apart.
Firstly, as this paper
disclosed last month, leaders of Botswana's ruling BDP broke ranks to express
concern about the direction of land reform in Zimbabwe which was impacting on
tourism and investment in the neighbouring state. Comparisons were made to a
runaway vehicle where the driver had lost control.
Then a curious
article appeared in the official media immediately ahead of the Sadc heads of
state meeting saying Zimbabwe had volunteered to step down as incoming deputy
chair in order to concentrate on land reform and enable Tanzania to have a
turn at chairing Sadc. The deputy chair leads to the chairmanship after a
year in the Sadc order of things.
South African papers - contrary to what
we are told, owned and edited by blacks - translated this move as "Sadc
leaders spurn Mugabe". And that is indeed how it is widely seen. Outgoing
Sadc chair Bakili Muluzi was tasked by his colleagues to tell Mugabe that it
would be easier for everybody if Zimbabwe turned down its pending promotion.
No amount of assurances about this being a generous gesture towards Tanzania
could obscure the bitter truth: Zimbabwe was an inappropriate choice as
regional leader in the era of Nepad.
Mugabe's government is not
affiliated to the Nepad scheme because it has contravened just about every
rule of governance including conditions for investor confidence. In the
process it is a hazard to its neighbours.
Let us be clear on this. Sadc
has not undergone a Damascene conversion. It has not suddenly embraced good
governance and the rule of law. The Sadc heads still issued an entirely
delusional statement about the need for "rational and fair" distribution of
land in Zimbabwe - as if that was what the authorities in Harare were doing!
There was no attempt to enunciate the principles for which Sadc supposedly
stands apart from a spurious solidarity among themselves. The attempt to
ring-fence Zimbabwe was expedient and self-serving. But it will be held up
now to donors as a demonstration of Sadc's commitment to the Nepad
initiative.
That's not going to wash. There is growing scepticism in the
West about the region's credentials - especially following Nujoma's
behaviour. As we reveal today, World Food Programme commitments to Zimbabwe
are slowing down because donors are refusing to dig into their pockets when
the government prefers to spend money on other priorities like Miss Malaika.
There is no question of the UNDP endorsing the lawlessness and grabbing that
constitutes Zimbabwe's so-called land reform programme for the same reason -
the donors will not support it.
The international response and the
move by Sadc heads last week to isolate their rogue colleague is a
culmination of two years of state-sponsored violence and repression. But it
is also a side-effect of what have been claimed in Harare as propaganda
victories. Regional heads do not want to be associated too closely with a
regime that has chosen to make enemies with countries that are leading
investors and donors.
At last the chickens are coming home to roost.
Mugabe's antics in Johannesburg and New York have proved entirely
counter-productive for his neighbours. And now a host of EU candidate states
have signed up for measures adopted by Brussels to counter Zimbabwe's
misrule.
This is the real picture that is emerging this week. Following
the huffing and puffing against Tony Blair, Mugabe is more isolated than
ever. And at last his friends have found the courage to tell him.
Please read through this email as it
illustrates best what the Zimbabwean story is all about!!!
They say
all is well that ends well but in the case of Sam Cawood, he has been
released without charge but was portrayed as guilty by the
'propaganda machine' without the right to comment.
He was arrested
yesterday after ZBC and Chronicle headline stories, he appeared before a
Mwenezi magistrate today and was released without charge. As he makes his way
to his temporary home a free man, albeit a persecuted one, we ask that the
real wrongdoers are not forgotten.
I am referring to the politicians on
whose orders he was arrested and the journalists who wrote the story and
televised it on the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. Without shame, The
Chronicle Newspaper, chose to run their story without seeking comment from
Cawood whilst acknowledging that the Police were yet to interview him. The
Herald then ran the Byo story without seeking comment.
We will attempt
to grant Cawood the right to tell his side of the story even though we know
that the state press will not fairly grant coverage to this side of the story
and despite suffering an unnecessary night in custody.
Cawood is among 65
farmers in Matabeleland who were evicted from their homes by the Land Task
force, an illegitimate gang of pro ZANU PF officials. The only legitimate
acquiring authority being the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture, who may
apply for eviction through a competent court sitting with due regard to the
Zimbabwean Constitution and Human Rights.
Eviction of farmers would only
occur after the sitting of the nonexistent Agricultural Land Settlement
Board. This Board would be tasked with allocating a farm once it had passed
the set criteria. This board has never been formed which is why the
allocations are instead being made by Land Task Force Committees chaired by
the Provincial Governors.
Kembo Mohadi is a ZANU PF Member of Parliament
for Beitbridge and is now Minister of Home Affairs and in a more powerful
position to settle old scores with the Cawood family.
It is no
accident that I paint this picture - Beitbridge is lorded over by the Mohadi
family who wield limitless power and demand from the border towns '
residents' unquestioning political patronage.
Recently 3 milling
companies were forced to close, as they were not deemed politically correct.
Of course the "newly resettled farmers" (referred to in the Chronicle
article) lining up to acquire free cattle were none other than the
"well-heeled" Mr and Mrs Mohadi.
It is interesting to note that Inspector
Ncube in the Nyamandlovu area send word to evicted farmer Chris Jarred that
if he did not come to get his Cattle they would be forfeited to the
"state".
Minister Mumbengegwi (now recycled in the War Cabinet as
Minister of Industry and International Trade) ordered the elderly Vosloo
family he had displaced to pay him rent for their Cattle they had not managed
to move before they had to leave.
Back to the Cawood family,
commercial agriculture we knew it 3 years ago was build on the fortitude of
Mr and Mrs Cawood. They built their farm up from dry and thorny virgin bush.
Hectares of underutilized state land surround the Cawood farm where genuine
settlers could have been placed.
Cawood is a surveyor by profession and
has been instrumental in assisting to locate water in remote and arid areas
of Matabeleland and had been a voice to solicit development of these areas,
which in his own words could have become "an oasis of agriculture for
Matabeleland".
It is the unfortunate persecution of potential partners
like Cawood that has turned the once honorable ideal of 'land for the
landless' into 'political rewards for the politically
correct'.
Ends 9th October 2002
---------------------------
Jean Simon is Sam Cawood's daughter.
Dear Sir (To friends in political
circles) I wrote to you yesterday concerning my family in Beit Bridge, the
south eastern part of Zimbabwe.
My father, Samuel Knott Cawood, was
taken into police custody yesterday, 9 October 2002, in the late afternoon
and is currently being help in the police cells at Beit bridge Police Station
in Zimbabwe.
His crime?
He humanely ordered his staff to cut the
throats of the week old calves as he loaded their mothers for slaughter
during last week so that they were not killed in the trucks taking their
mothers for slaughter.
My father has been a cattleman and landowner in
Zimbabwe since 1965. He is well known for his conservation and good livestock
practices. He built up a herd of Brahman Hereford cross cattle as well as a
Brahman stud which has become the envy of many people. He was instructed by
the National Task Force of Zimbabwe to vacate his farm by last Friday. He had
nowhere to take his breeding herd of cows, many of which had just calved down
but many which were heavily in calf. He was able to get a booking to send his
cattle to slaughter. He did so.
During the months and weeks prior to
making this awful decision, settlers on his farm, which he had bought and
paid for under the Mugabe regime, regularly penned his cattle in the kraals
without food or water to harass him. He was assaulted on a number of
occasions, beaten, locked into a kraal while trying to dip and brand his
cattle. His staff were systematically beaten and intimidated by government
forces, including the police, army and politicians.
In a last
desperate attempt to do what he felt was the only humane thing he could to
protect his livestock and his investment, he sent the cows for slaughter. He
was so traumatised by this that he was unable to witness the slaughter of his
calves himself.
Yesterday, 9 October 2002, Mr Kembo Mohadi, the Minister
of Home affairs, and the local member of parliament for Beit Bridge area,
gave a direct instruction to the police at Beit Bridge to put Sam Cawood in
jail. During this past weeks the minister's wife, Mrs Mohadi, has been going
around the farms along the Bubye River where theses cattle were, trying to
acquire the cattle for their own purposes She was unable to "liberate" these
cattle as my father sent them for slaughter. In addition, my family are aware
of how the election was won both in 2000 and in 2002. Their local member
of parliament is punishing them for their knowledge of these
matters.
Mr Mohadi gave an instruction last week to the police at
Mwenezi, to put my brother, Brian Cawood, in jail for "attempted murder".
Fortunately when he went before the Judge in Masvingo on Saturday morning, 5
October 2002 in Masvingo, the Judge realised this was a conspiracy by the
Minister and very bravely sent Brian home on $10 000 bail. He is to appear in
court on 4 November 2002. My brother is being falsely charged.
THESE
ARE CRIMES AGAINST MY FAMILY BY GOVERNMENT FORCES IN ZIMBABWE.
Please
help us to stop the crimes against the people of Zimbabwe. Help us to get our
human rights back.
PLEASE help me to get my father out of jail. He is 74
years old and innocent of the crime charge against him.
Yours
faithfully JEAN SIMON
A personal view from Eddie Cross
--------------
Jean is Sam Cawood's daughter. What she does not put in
this note is that her parents (now both in their 70's) left South Africa in
protest at the apartheid policies of the Nationalist Government. They came to
what was then Rhodesia and played a consistent role in opposition to the same
policies in this country. Sam is one of the best cattlemen in Southern
Africa, a tall, well built man, he is well known throughout the region. His
relationship with the people in the adjacent communal lands has always been
excellent. Sam is not politically active although his sympathies with the
democratic opposition are well known.
Mohadi, on the other hand, is
directly implicated in a murder case involving a man who was thought to be
have been "involved" with his wife. This man's mutilated body was found in
the bush just south of Bulawayo. Although a case against the Mohadi was made,
no charges were brought and in fact he is now the Minister of Home Affairs,
responsible for the Police. Mohadi already has extensive interests in the
area including thousands of hectares of ranching land that has been
"acquired" by the state during the recent illegal land exercise.
What
people have got to realise is that Sam is in fact an investor, who sold up in
South Africa, came to this country and invested every cent he had in his
property and enterprise. His rights as a freehold property owner
are protected by the Constitution, his investment would have the protection
of agreements signed with the World Bank and also the South
Africa/Zimbabwe Investment Protection Agreement when and if that is signed.
His neighbour, a French investor already has such protection and is not being
disturbed. To the best of my knowledge the South African High Commission has
not taken any direct role or interest in this case.
Sam farms in
region 5 - dry, almost semi desert country that is totally unsuited to
communal type agriculture. It has no potential for more intensive forms of
agriculture. Under the Abuja Agreement on the Land Reform process, Sam would
have been left alone as his property would not conform to the criteria laid
down. More staff are being displaced by this action than are likely to be
settled on the farm.
This is a straight forward case of a criminal act
perpetrated by the State against an individual who has no protection
whatsoever. You judge for yourself if this is an action that is based on
anything other than greed and criminal political activity.
Thursday, 10 October, 2002, 12:27 GMT 13:27 UK Zimbabwe union
leader 'tortured'
Zimbabwe's police are often accused of using
torture
Zimbabwean police have tortured the leader of a teachers' trade
union, who called a strike, his lawyer has said. Raymond Majongwe gave
himself up to police on Wednesday after hearing that the police were looking for
him.
He has been beaten up and when I saw him... he
couldn't sit on his own
Lawyer Tererayi Gunje His
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) has been on strike since Tuesday,
demanding a 100% pay rise.
Official inflation is currently running at
135%, while up to half the population - six million people - are facing the
prospect of starvation, according to aid agencies.
Lawyer Tererayi Gunje
said that Mr Majongwe had been "seriously injured" according to the French news
agency, AFP.
"He has been beaten up and when I saw him yesterday
[Wednesday] night he couldn't sit on his own. I think he has broken ribs and
internal bleeding," he said.
"I will file an urgent application to
secure his release."
'Rights invaded'
Police spokesman Andrew
Phiri told AFP that the allegations would be investigated.
He confirmed
that the police were holding Mr Majongwe and that he was due to be charged under
the controversial new Public Order and Security Act (POSA).
The economic crisis has made many Zimbabweans reliant on food
aid
The POSA makes it an offence for "any person who, acting in
concert with one or more other persons, forcibly invades the rights of other
people", said Mr Phiri.
The police accuse Mr Majongwe and other union
leaders of visiting schools and intimidating teachers into following the strike
call.
Mr Majongwe was a senior official of the opposition Zimbabwe Union
of Democrats before forming the PTUZ.
Education, Sport and Culture
Minister Aneas Chigwedere has called the strike illegal, although he last week
admitted that teachers in Zimbabwe are the lowest paid in the Southern African
region, reports AFP.
Correspondents say that the strike call has been
patchily observed, with many teachers reporting for work but not teaching.
The strike has been rejected by the larger Zimbabwe National Teachers'
Association.
Many opposition activists and two journalists have
complained of being tortured while in police custody as political tensions have
risen in recent years.
MSNBC
Zimbabwe teachers' leader arrested over
strike
HARARE, Oct. 9 - Zimbabwean police arrested the leader of
a teachers' union on Wednesday, as thousands of teachers closed down
classrooms for a second day in a dispute over wages.
Police
accused Raymond Majongwe, secretary general of the 12,000-member Progress
Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, of barring students from attending lessons at
some schools in the capital Harare, a senior union official said.
''He was arrested today. The police are charging him under (the security act)
and accusing him of going around closing schools,'' said union president
Takavafira Zhou. Zhou said police had called him in for questioning,
but he was still consulting his lawyer. Police were not immediately
available for comment. Zhou said some 60,000 teachers nationwide had
heeded the call for a classroom sit-in, to press for salary hikes of up to
200 percent. The teachers are also demanding the government act
against what they say is harassment by supporters of President Robert
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party. The government has in the past
accused teachers of publicly supporting the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), which has posed a strong challenge to Mugabe's
rule. The education ministry says the strike is illegal and has
threatened teachers who take part with dismissal. However, it has promised to
raise their salaries, among the lowest in southern Africa, next
year. Zimbabwean papers carried differing verdicts on the strike
on Wednesday, with state-owned media saying it had been a flop,
while privately-owned newspapers said most teachers had heeded the boycott
call. Zimbabwe has seen several strikes in the last few years by
workers struggling to cope with rising costs as the country suffers its
worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980. The
crisis began in early 2000 when pro-government militants, led by veterans of
the 1970s liberation war, began invading white-owned farms in support of a
government drive to redistribute land to landless blacks.
Britain to pile pressure on Zim Dumisani
Muleya BRITAIN will continue turning up the diplomatic heat on President
Robert Mugabe until he moves to halt repression and economic mismanagement,
a British minister has said.
Responding to questions in a House of
Lords debate on Zimbabwe on Tuesday, Under-Secretary of State in the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office, Baroness Valerie Amos, said London would continue
battling to contain Mugabe and moderate his regime.
"The
government's policy on Zimbabwe is straightforward," Amos said. "We want a
stable, prosperous and democratic Zimbabwe but Zimbabwe has been destabilised
and impoverished by bad governance in recent years. We will support
Zimbabwe's people and their democratic aspirations while aiming for maximum
isolation of the Mugabe regime."
British peers expressed hor-ror and
outrage over the Zimbabwe crisis. They accused the Labour government of
making only feeble attempts to resolve it.
Amos said it was not
correct to say government's actions over Zimbabwe were weak because Mugabe
had been significantly isolated largely due to
British efforts.
"The European Union and the United States have
imposed targeted sanctions against the regime," she said.
"The
sanctions have had an impact. Assets have been seized, and the travel ban
impedes the regime's ability to operate. The Commonwealth has
suspended Zimbabwe from its councils. The more the regime ignores world
opinion, the more isolated it will become."
Amos said smart
sanctions would be intensified to force Harare to change
its course.
"We keep sanctions under review," she said. "Since the
travel ban was introduced, 59 more names have been added, including seven
that were added on September 13. However, they are European Union sanctions,
and we must work with our EU partners and colleagues in reviewing
them."
Peers asked why Mugabe and his officials continued to roam
around the world despite travel restrictions. But Amos repeated EU countries
have an obligation to respect international treaties, which allow leaders to
travel.
"I mentioned the isolation of the Mugabe regime," she said.
"Zimbabwe is beginning to hear the same message from within the region as
well."
Shifting to famine, Amos said although the EU and United
States - the biggest suppliers of emergency food aid in Zimbabwe - would
continue to provide food relief, it must be understood the current crisis was
largely caused by Mugabe's disastrous policies.
"That crisis is
man-made," she said. "It is more the result of bad policy than of bad
weather." Britain has since last year provided £32 million
in assistance.
On land reform, Amos said London supports the
redistribution exercise despite state propaganda to the
contrary.
"There is the important issue of land reform," she said.
"The United Kingdom government accepts, and have always accepted, that land
reform is essential to Zimbabwe's development. We have contributed to
it.
"However, we have never accepted that the solution is to hand over
large sums of money to the Zimbabwe government on an unconditional
and unsustainable basis."
Amos insisted land reform should be
"transparent, fair and legal". She said chaos and violence could not be
substitutes for effective policy to correct colonial land
imbalances.
Amos said the UK government believed the only solution to
the political impasse in Zimbabwe was a resumption of the inter- party talks
brokered by South Africa and Nigeria.
Whites barred from racism conference Mthulisi
Mathuthu THE African Descendants World Conference Against Racism ended this
week in Barbados amid protests after it resolved to bar whites from the
meeting and went on to endorse President Robert Mugabe's controversial land
reforms.
The forum, which brought together more than 550 delegates,
kicked off on a controversial note last Friday after Russia, Cuba, South
Africa, Colombia and France's overseas territories walked out following the
barring of white delegates.
Those who stayed, including Sabelo
Sibanda of the Zimbabwe School of African Awareness, wound up business on
Monday this week with resolutions calling for rights to African citizenship
and praise for Zimbabwe's belligerent 78-year-old leader.
The
remaining delegates focused on reparations from European countries
that engaged in the 18th century slave trade.
Cuban delegation
spokeswoman Maria Morales led the protest against the exclusion of whites
saying: "Cuba will never support any action aimed at segregating a group of
people. Furthermore, Cuba believes that such a decision is intolerant and
contrary to the purposes of this conference."
The Attorney-General
and Minister of Home Affairs of Barbados, Mia Mottley, stated her country was
opposed to the resolution.
"We are unequivocally opposed to any
resolution seeking to separate persons on the basis of race or ethnic
origins. We have fought too long as a nation against this type of injustice,"
she said.
UK mulls visas for Zimbabweans Staff writer THE
BRITISH government is planning to introduce visas for Zimbabweans travelling
to the United Kingdom as a way of stemming the tide of economic refugees from
this country, the Zimbabwe Independent heard this week.
Sources in
Whitehall said the visas are set to take effect in November.
Currently
the British government does not require visas for visitors to
the UK.
There has been a marked increase in Zimbabweans seeking
work in Britain recently as opportunities for employment diminish at home and
the value of the Zimbabwe dollar plummets.
The Independent
submitted written questions to the British High Commission at 9am yesterday.
At 5pm spokesperson Sophie Honey said: "It is not our practice to comment on
rumours of this kind. Visa regimes world-wide are subject to constant
review." She said the British High Commission in Harare had in the past year
issued 2 600 visas for Zimbabweans seeking temporary residence in the
UK. But she said the High Commission did not have statistics on how
many Zimbabweans had entered the UK as visitors as these did not require
visas. The move to introduce visas for Zimbabweans is designed to cut
down on the number of people visiting the UK purportedly on holiday but then
taking up jobs. Many have taken up menial work in that country. -
Staff Writer.
NGOs ordered to register under controversial
Act Blessing Zulu THE government has instructed all non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) to register under the controversial Private Voluntary
Organisations (PVO) Act in a move seen as a further attempt to clamp down on
independent voices.
After failing to use the Political Parties (Finance)
Act to kill off foreign funding of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change, the government believes that funds for the MDC are being channelled
through NGOs, hence the crackdown.
Last month the Ministry
ofPublic Service, Labour and Social Welfare published an ad-vertisement in
the government-controlled Herald instructing all NGOs not registered under
the ministry to do so in terms of Section 9 of the PVO
Act.
Section 6 of the Act prohibits such a "body, institution or
association to operate without being registered", the notice
said.
Section 25 of the same Act makes it a criminal offence to
operate without being registered.
Human rights activist Brian
Kagoro said the Act criminalised organisations such as the temporary networks
set up to respond to the food crisis and those meant to assist displaced farm
workers. He said most of these were trusts registered with the Registrar of
Deeds and the High Court.
"It is tantamount to saying that, faced
with the incapacity of the State and registered PVOs to respond to the
current crisis due to its magnitude, all bona fide attempts to assist are
criminal," Kagoro said.
The law was enacted in 1997 but was not being
fully enforced and analysts view the attempts to do so now as a sign of
desperation.
The recent moves by the government are contrary to a ruling
of the full bench of the Supreme Court which struck down provisions of the
PVO Act in 1997. The case involved the Ministry of Labour and the Association
of Women's Clubs.
The Non-Governmental Organisation Network
Alliance Project (NNAP), which groups all NGOs, said the government was
considering tightening the legislation.
"The Ministry of Justice
is believed to be drafting legislation that will affect the operations of
non-profit organisations in Zimbabwe," NNAP said in a
statement.
On Wednesday, Information minister Jonathan Moyo suggested
on ZBC Newshour that the government would crack down on NGOs which he said
were being funded by foreign governments.
Jonah Gokova,
co-ordinator for Ecumenical Support Services, said the law was highly
controversial and undemocratic.
"The real motive behind the PVO Act
is for government to achieve total control of NGO/civil society groups," he
said.
Former Zanu PF allies adopt targeted
sanctions Dumisani Muleya TARGETED sanctions against President Robert
Mugabe and Zimbabwe's ruling elite have been adopted by a host of countries
lining up for membership of the European Union.
Many are
former allies of Zanu PF when they were part of the Soviet empire.
EU
president Denmark said European countries waiting to join the 15-member bloc
had committed themselves to implementing restrictive measures
against Zimbabwean officials in a bid to force Mugabe to stop repression and
violent land seizures.
The countries that last week adopted smart
sanctions against Harare are Baltic states Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania,
and eastern European countries Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland,
Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania which was a key Zimbabwean ally before the
collapse of former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's regime in 1989.
In
addition to the 10 EU candidate countries, the Mediterranean islands
of Cyprus and Malta as well as European Free Trade Association (EFTA)
member Liechtenstein have also adopted sanctions against
Zimbabwe.
"The Central and Eastern European countries associated with the
EU, the associated countries Cyprus and Malta, and the EFTA country
Liechtenstein," Denmark said, "declare that they share the objectives of the
council decision of September 13, 2002 implementing council common
position 2002/145/CF SP concerning restrictive measures against
Zimbabwe.
"They will ensure that their national policies conform to
that council decision. The EU takes note of this commitment and welcomes
it."
The EU, United States, Switzerland and New Zealand have imposed
targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Canada has imposed arms trade
restrictions and Australia has warned it would adopt smart sanctions
soon.
Cyprus and Malta's adoption of the targeted measures against
Mugabe and his officials would apparently strengthen Britain's hand in the
Commonwealth where it has been battling to isolate
Zimbabwe.
Although most Commonwealth countries do not approve of
Mugabe's repression, developing countries have tended to hesitate when it
comes to action.
The broadening and extension of targeted sanctions
by the EU candidate countries came as the European Commission on Wednesday
said the 10 countries could wrap up accession talks in December and join the
bloc in 2004 in a historic unification of Europe, provided Ireland's voters
do not derail the project in a referendum on October 19.
When has this government ever turned down an opportunity
to parade upon the world stage as the champion of Africa? When has it ever
refused the chance to pretend that its discredited policies are those being
pursued by the region as a whole?
The question arises following
attempts to convince us that Zimbabwe voluntarily gave up its turn to chair
Sadc in Luanda last week. South African papers reported President Mugabe
leaving Luanda early in a huff because fellow heads of state had made it
clear to him in private discussions that Zimbabwe would be an inappropriate
holder of the post - initially as deputy chair and subsequently as chair - at
a time when regional leaders are trying to generate confidence in Nepad. But
ministers have been pretending that this was a voluntary move by Zimbabwe to
afford Tanzania a chance to move up the Sadc ladder.
Needless to say,
nobody believed them. And to its credit, the Herald demonstrated considerable
skill and stamina in making sure Information minister Jonathan Moyo didn't
get away with his usual bluster in its interview with him on Monday. The
unnamed interviewer identified every single hole in Moyo's threadbare
argument about needing to consolidate the gains of the Third Chimurenga and
giving Tanzania a turn at the helm. He gnawed away at him like a ravenous
rodent.
Wasn't the need to consolidate past gains just as compelling at
other points in our history? Why did Zimbabwe occupy the deputy chair during
the foreign ministers' meeting if it had no intention of taking up the
post subsequently? Wasn't this really about Zimbabwe's damaging stand-off
with the international community and the consequences for Sadc if Zimbabwe
took a leadership role?
Unable to provide satisfactory answers, Moyo
engaged in diversionary tactics. There was reference to "oranges and apples",
"noise-makers out there", and the "British and apartheid press".
When
none of this snake-oil proved as persuasive to the Herald's questioner as it
might have been to the usual suspects at the Sunday Mail, the
minister resorted to abuse. "Nonsensical and insulting" was used at one point
in response to a perfectly reasonable question about the validity of the
March poll. When it was pointed out to Moyo that neither the DRC nor
the Seychelles had hosted Sadc but they had not been elevated, the minister
had clearly reached the end of his very short tether.
"If you think
Tanzania is in the same situation as Seychelles and the DRC from the point of
view of the liberation of Zimbabwe and the region, then you have a cross that
you must carry alone," he declared before terminating what had obviously
become a rather unproductive interview. Because Moyo's interviewer was not
named, a rumour is doing the rounds that the minister interviewed himself. If
so he made a lousy job of it!
While still with the Luanda meeting, we
liked the bit in the Sunday Times about Botswana's Festus Mogae asking Mugabe
why TV reports showed white farmers packing up their possessions if Zimbabwe
was only expropriating surplus land. "Mugabe said the reports were not
correct because all the farmers still had houses."
At last the
official lies seem to have lost their purchase on a key constituency! But we
can't believe he trotted out that tired old line about Margaret Thatcher and
John Major agreeing to fund land reform but Tony Blair refusing. The Harare
donors conference on land at which Britain pledged £36 million for land
acquisition was held in 1998, a year after the Labour government came to
power. All Britain and other donors asked in return was that land should not
continue to be distributed to Mugabe's cronies. Britain lost £44 million that
way in the 1980s and early 90s. Transparency, continuity of production,
stakeholder involvement and poverty alleviation became the set criteria for
donor assistance.
That is the current position and no amount of wishful
thinking that the UNDP is suddenly going to do a U-turn and "recognise new
realities" on the ground is likely to change what has become a very fixed
policy which the whole donor community is agreed upon.
Shakespeare
Maya, leader of the National Alliance for Good Governance, recently opined:
"This land was stolen from our ancestors, and it follows that those who hold
it now are thieves."
As we all know who holds it now,there is unlikely to
be any disagreement with that statement.
The Danish presidency of the
European Union has announced that the Central and Eastern European countries
associated with the EU (ie candidate states) and the EFTA country
Liechtenstein, a leading banking centre, have agreed to implement sanctions
against Zimbabwe. The list of countries Zanu PF officials can visit is
shortening with each passing month. But we were interested to learn that some
Zanu PF ministers now say they never liked shopping in London anyway.
Commenting recently on the travel ban, Jonathan Moyo told the South African
press it was "meaningless".
"It is very dangerous to go to the US or
Europe these days," he claimed. "Anyway, Dubai is a much better shopping
place than London."
One reason given for Mugabe's early departure from
Luanda was his wish to attend the ceremonies in Maputo marking the tenth
anniversary of the end of the civil war in Mozambique. He said he was "full
of emotion and joy" to be present at the celebration. He embraced
Mozambique's opposition Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama saying: "Let us not
talk of violence again and let us not raise our fists against each other. Let
us show our love, our unity, our oneness."
The irony of our
fist-waving leader flying to Mozambique to embrace the leader of the
opposition and pledging himself to non-violence will not have been lost on
many observers.
Why did the Herald, by the way, have to tell us that
Mugabe's delegation to the ceremonies in Maputo included Jonathan Moyo? Why
weren't the other members of the delegation named? Is this selective
reporting designed to boost the profile of the minister who controls the
government media?
Last Sunday Moyo was complaining about the
"oppositional press" twisting what Mugabe had told President Olusegun
Obasanjo in respect of the March poll.
"They criminally interpret that
the president said there would be an election re-run," he ranted. "If these
people were true champions of the rule of law they would be the first to
understand what the president said."
The Zimbabwe Independent reported
last week that Obasanjo had disclosed at a news conference in Abuja that the
Zimbabwe government had assured him it would call an election re-run if the
courts ruled in favour of Morgan Tsvangirai's petition on the validity of the
March poll.
We can readily understand how this disclosure may have proved
uncomfortable for Mugabe whose underlings have been breathing fire on the
electoral issue, at one stage trying to block the entry of a South African SC
who the MDC had asked to head their legal team.
But Obasanjo's remarks
are now a matter of public record. They were videotaped so there is no
denying them. But what exactly was it that the president said that we don't
understand? Was there some nuance we missed? What is "No" about "Yes"? If
there is a qualification for the president's parrots to make let's have it
and stop this indignant squawking. As for the opposition refusing to respect
the law, which Moyo chose as his sermon last Sunday, he omitted to mention
that it was his laws that are being defied, laws that have no place in a
democratic society and which are yet to be tested in court.
The
respected Spanish newspaper el Pais has published a number of claims about
the Zanu PF regime that have been widely read around the world in an English
edition. It claims prominent Zimbabweans are involved in currency exchange
rackets including illicit dealing in diamonds.
"In tracking the trail of
the cash, el Pais has obtained dozens of documents, including three signed
affidavits, and spoken to experts on Zimbabwe in London, Washington and New
York," the article claims. "But the investigation has centred chiefly on the
testimony of two individuals who worked closely for more than two years
within an elite clique of Zimbabweans and foreign business people who have
been making big money out of the mayhem of war."
In their interviews
with officials in London and Washington, the article said, "the words that
kept on recurring to describe Zimbabwe's ruling elite were 'mafia',
'pillage', and 'criminal'".
The article quotes Lord Renwick, onetime
ambassador to Pretoria, Russ Feingold who chairs the US Senate's
sub-committee on Africa, Ed Royce who heads the House of Representatives
sub-committee on Africa, and Walter Kansteiner, Assistant Secretary of State,
among others.
"The revelations of the two individuals from inside the
Zimbabwean 'mafia' who spoke to el Pais in conversations in London and (the
Spanish resort) Marbella," the article says, "help reveal the depths of the
Zimbabwean tragedy and shed new light on a criminal network whose accomplices
and interests extend from Africa to Europe and the Middle East."
While
earlier on we congratu-lated the Herald for its challenging interview with
Moyo, its censoring of unpalatable news is less acceptable.
In its story
on threats by Namibian foreign minister Hidipo Hamutenya to expropriate
white-owned farms, Reuter said: "He said no decision had been taken yet on
expropriation but farmers would be compensated for their land, and he did not
foresee Zimbabwe-style land seizures in his country.
"Zimbabwe's often
violent land seizures have helped to plunge the region's second largest
economy into crisis," Reuters said.
The Herald's version read: ""He said
no decision had been taken yet on expropriation but farmers would be
compensated for their land." All reference to Zimbabwe was
omitted.
Our thanks to George Shire for sending us the e-mail addresses
for himself and other government public relations officers. Readers may like
to contact the following if they have any comments on their
performance:
George wrote a
fulsome tribute to Ugandan fellow-migrant David Nyekorach-Matsanga for
inviting him to the recent conference on Zimbabwe in London, details of which
were published in the Independent.
"I would like to thank you per-sonally
and Africa Strategy fororganising what was for me a very informative
conference," Shire said. "I felt honoured to have been asked to do a paper
for that conference. I salute your continuing support forthe people of
Zimbabwe, Hondoye Minda, Zanu PF and its leader-ship under President Robert
Mu-gabe. I look forward to work-ing with you again. In solidarity, Dr George
Shire, the Open University."
But Matsanga has been waxing indignant over
the Independent's story.
"I have no love for turncoats and those bought
by British money to insult President Mugabe," he wrote. "I don't need
permission to call a conference in London. I am also a taxpayer in Britain
for the last 16 years. If my money is used wrongly then I have the right to
question the process in Britain. I have a lot of support in London on
Zimbabwe that even Blair is worried of me. I have no words for zygotes like
independent yellow journalism.
"Let people know that whether alone, I
will one day deliver democracy to my home country and Africa as a whole. I
promise you my own response which will shut down such paper (sic) because
mine is a serious detailed report on their funders. They can insult those who
have not gone to school but my life has been grown of tough metal. - Dr David
Nyekorach-Matsanga."
We promised you some Danish news this week. Our
records show a Mrs Jocelyn Jacobsen-Mauchaza was ZNCC Business Woman of the
Year in 1996. Mr Jacobsen was, we understand, a Danish national who did much
to assist his wife's business in its formative years after she returned to
Zimbabwe from Denmark. It would therefore be incorrect for her to state that
she hadn't tasted white blood since 1980, as reported last month. She had, it
seems, been feasting on Danish bacon more recently!
Finally, signs
that there's too many Zimbabweans in England...
Balancing rocks on the
new £10 note.
Dual language signs at Heat-hrow Airport - eg
"ImmigrationUko" and "Vari KuDepotwa itai queue muri pano".
McDonald
launches new "McSa-dza neboerewors sandwich". The"McSadza neboerewors
inemhiripiriis also available at leading bran-ches in Slough and Luton.
The"McVhukavhuka special" - zondosandwich with special herb sauce and extra
cheese.
Burger King follows suit with "The BK Double maribs akagochwawith
cheese meal".
Pizza Hut overjoyed at success of the new "Derere
Supreme Pizza"with a choice of nyimo, mazhanje or ishwa toppings!
New
dual language signs on all public toilets "Occupied/Mune-munhu".
Zimbabwe's exodus Iden
Wetherell HOW many Zimbabweans are there living in the diaspora? Your guess
is as good as mine. There are no statistics available because citizens
leaving Zimbabwe are not recorded as emigrants, nor are the great majority of
those arriving elsewhere recorded as immigrants. They enter mostly as
"visitors".
It is estimated South Africa is host to over two million
Zimbabweans. Britain is said to house another half a million. Europe, the
United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are home to thousands
more.
The UK figure is growing faster than any of the others
including South Africa. A hardening of attitudes in South Africa has made it
a less hospitable destination for our nationals, although hundreds still risk
life and limb to cross the Limpopo every month.
Those seeking work
in South Africa are largely, but by no means exclusively, less educated and
many end up on farms in Limpopo province or in the teeming townships around
Johannesburg. Those going to the UK tend to be qualified. But they are
prepared to come down a notch or two in the employment scales to do more
menial work so long as they are earning hard cash in a competitive
economy.
Thousands of immigrants from Eastern Europe, Turkey,
Afghanistan and the Indian sub-continent are currently massing at France's
Channel ports to await their opportunity to enter Britain illegally - usually
on trucks and trains.
Why Britain? Firstly, unlike continental Europe,
its internal (as distinct from port-of-entry) controls are very lax. Once
you're in there is less likelihood of the authorities catching up with you.
Potential immigrants interviewed in France said there were other reasons:
Britain was seen as an influential player in the world. Immigrants like to
identify with successful societies and short of crossing the Atlantic, living
in Britain was their primary ambition.
Learning the language opened up
global opportunities they felt.
Zimbabweans have a head start. They
know the lingo. And once past Immigration they're in. British Immigration
authorities seem to have been told to look the other way. How else do you
explain the thousands currently pouring in?
I recall those silly
stories about Zimbabweans being detained and made to watch anti-land-reform
videos. It doesn't appear to have stemmed the flood!
The picture will
of course change somewhat if visas are introduced. The British authorities
are said to be contemplating this option. But until then, the exodus will
continue.
Everybody now knows a relative or close friend who has
unofficially emigrated. Every business has lost an employee to the
UK.
We recently lost an employee whose wife called in to report that
her husband had food poisoning and would be off for three days. Next thing we
heard (the next week in fact) he was working in McDonalds in
Belfast.
The tummy trouble had evidently cleared up! Other editors have
similar stories to tell. The defector rarely states his/her true intention.
They need time to make a safe entry at Gatwick. Then word trickles back that
they are now "off-shore"!
This is the current reality. It is
ironic that the country President Mugabe has sought to demonise as "the
enemy" in his facile propaganda is the preferred destination of Zimbabweans
escaping from the misery of his scorched-earth policies.
Go to
Harare airport on a Sunday evening when two flights leave for London and you
will see the extent of the exodus. It is a mass migration primarily of
skilled people. And a good number of chefly relatives are included. They take
with them the skills necessary for Zimbabwe to compete as a
developing country: teachers, nurses, doctors, pharmacists, engineers and
accountants. They contribute to Britain's levels of comfort while reducing
ours!
Mugabe has commented on Britain stealing nurses. I tend to feel
the same way about predatory recruitment agencies. But this should simply
reinforce the view that we now live in a global village where skills and
capital will travel.
The emigration of the middle class benefits
Zanu PF in so far as it removes a political threat and reduces the nation to
dependency upon government - the same rationale behind land reform. People
who can think for themselves and build national prosperity are not wanted in
Zanu PF's medieval fiefdom.
It is a tragedy being played out before
us. The only consolation is that when the old tyrant goes - as go he will -
the new Zimbabwe will have available to it a wide range of returning skills
capable of addressing the enormous task of reconstruction.
Daily News
Two killed in robbery
10/10/02 8:19:37 AM
(GMT +2)
Staff Reporter
ELIZABETH, 76, and David
Phelps, 68, brother and sister, were brutally murdered on Saturday afternoon
by suspected robbers who stole property at their home of 50 years in Harare's
Avondale West suburb.
Both were single. The police at
Avondale Police Station, who took the bodies to the Parirenyatwa Hospital
mortuary, confirmed the murder, but refused to give details of the gruesome
double murder.
They referred all questions to police spokesman,
Chief Superintendent Bothwell Mugariri, who was not immediately available for
comment.
Philip Phelps, the deceased's brother, said he was
notified by the police about the deaths on Tuesday after they had already
removed the bodies from the house.
He said: "I have not seen
their bodies yet, so I don't know how they were killed. Some property was
also stolen, but I am yet to make out the full situation."
Philip said postmortems would be carried out today at
Parirenyatwa Hospital.
He said he would not give many details
because the police were still investigating the matter.
But
neighbours yesterday said the victims' assailants broke a window through
which they gained entry into the house.
They could not say exactly
how the two were murdered but said after they were killed, David and
Elizabeth were tied to chairs in the house before their assailants ransacked
the house and escaped with their loot.
One neighbour, who refused
to be named, said the area had experienced a spate of burglaries in the past
few months.
He said last month, a gang of robbers tried to break
into a house in the vicinity but only ran away after the owners called for
assistance.
As a result, some residents of Avondale West have
resorted to tight security measures, including the use of alarm systems, to
protect their lives and properties from the prowling robbers.
"In the case of David and Elizabeth, the murderers might have taken advantage
of their advanced age.
"It's a sad situation and I hope the police
will be able to arrest the culprits and bring them to justice," another
neighbour said.
Abuja pact alive but critically
ill THE Nigerian High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, Wilberforce Juta, has
been reported in the media to have stated (at a reception in recognition of
the 42nd anniversary of Nigeria's independence), that his country believes
that the Abuja Agreement on Zimbabwean land issues is still alive. In that he
is probably correct, to the extent that it has not - as yet - been
nullified and revoked by the parties that entered into it. However, at the
very least it is in a very deep coma, for none of its provisions are being
implemented and, in fact, Zimbabwe's present policies and actions are
diametrically in conflict with the principles of the Abuja
Agreement.
Nevertheless, even though the Agreement is lingering at
death's door, it could well be resuscitated and imbued with a strength that
could dramatically change Zimbabwe's very distressed and calamitous
circumstances into ones that are constructive and positive, and of
substantive benefit to all Zimbabweans. But for that resuscitation to occur,
there must be absolute commitment to the Agreement, and that commitment must
not focus selectively upon the Agreement's provisions, but must be given
whole-heartedly to all that had been agreed.
It is indisputable that,
for Zimbabwe, agriculture has been the foundation and the mainstay of the
economy. Few would challenge any contention that agriculture must be restored
to its prominent economic role if there is to be any real prospect for
recovery of the Zimbabwean economy. It can also not be credibly disputed that
Zimbabwe has long needed a major programme of agrarian reform. The pernicious
Land Apportionment Act that precluded land ownership for the vast majority of
Zimbabwe's populace can never be justified. It was unjustly discriminatory
and the motivations for its original enactment and for retention of it in the
Statutes for decades can only be described as evil, callous and
inhuman.
However, the same can be said of Zimbabwe's present land
policies. They are as evil, cruel, unwarrantable and condemnable. When the
country was under the rulership of whites, the black population should not
have been prevented from owning and cultivating land (not being land owned by
the State and patronisingly made available for agricultural use by the people
on a communal basis, but land to which any, whether black or white, could
acquire title or guaranteed continuing tenure). But the allegations of
Zimbabwe's rulers that the land was stolen from the black population is of
little foundation. When whites first acquired land in Zimbabwe, most was
unoccupied and fallow. The black population numbered an estimated maximum of
600 000, inclusive of the young and the elderly. Such a population could not
possibly have used the land of the magnitude of Zimbabwe, and particularly so
with the minimal resources then available to them. Moreover, very few of
the white farmers who have been so severely and outrageously victimised
in recent years, are descendants of the whites who first acquired,
developed and worked the land. Most of the white farmers of the 1990s and
thereafter acquired the land by purchase.
Even if one follows the
biblical concept that the sins of the fathers continue unto the fourth
generation, any misdeeds of whites more than a century ago cannot justly be
visited upon the present generation of white farmers.
The real
misdeeds centre upon the barriers created by legislation to preclude black
ownership of land and the hindrances erected by whites to obstruct black
economic empowerment. Those misdeeds needed to be halted and their
consequences reversed, and that was agreed at the Lancaster House talks of
1979. Independence rapidly brought about an environment which could spawn the
creation of a non-discriminatory Zimbabwean society, free of racial
divisions. Blacks were lawfully able to acquire land, but most lacked the
resources to do so. Britain (whom the Zimbabwean Government
continuously reviles, supporting its contemptuous attacks with gross
misrepresentations of fact), provided 44 million pounds sterling in the first
decade of Zimbabwe's independence for the acquisition and utilisation of land
by blacks.
In 1998, the Harare donors conference evidenced great
willingness to assist substantially with funding for blacks to become
production landowners. In all material respects, the issues agreed upon at
that conference were the same as those subsequently agreed at Abuja. It was
intended that willing donors within the international community would
initially fund the redistribution of five million hectares of land to blacks.
Those lands were to be acquired from whites on a "willing buyer, willing
seller" basis, or by compulsory sale to the State of unutilised and
under-utilised lands and farms owned by those possessed of more than one
farm. In all cases, fair compensation was to be paid for land and for
improvements thereon, the funds being provided by the donors. The Abuja
Agreement impliedly prescribed that the programme of land reform would be
implemented in an environment of law and order, respect for human rights, and
co-operation.
President Mugabe has unreser-vedly castigated the
international community in general, and the Commonwealth and Britain in
particular, for not implementing the Abuja Agreement by failing to provide
the promised funding. But Zimbabwe has also failed to implement the
Agreement. It has not acquired farms for redistribution on the basis agreed
in Paris and again agreed in Abuja. Instead, it has abused the precepts of
genuine democracy to bulldoze legislation through Parliament giving
government a virtually unfettered right to acquire any lands whatsoever,
without compensation for the land and with long delayed, inadequate
compensation for improvements. It has made a mockery of the fundamentals of
human rights and has not even pretended to maintain law and
order.
Instead, it has allowed war veterans, thugs, aspirants to
"get-rich-quick", the chefs and fat-cats of society and wives of army
generals and of ministers in the government, to do as they wished to acquire
farms. Assault, violence, abuse, loot-ing and vandalisation were
unhesitatingly allowed to prevailif perpetrated by blacks against white
farmers. Even actions of self-defence and protection of possessions by the
whites incurred the wrath of the State and of the so-called guardians of law
and order.
If, as the Nigerian High Commissioner suggests, the Abuja
Agreement is still alive and is to remain alive, to come out of its coma and
become an agreement of substance, the Zimbabwean government must make the
first move. It must repeal those provisions of the Land Acquisition Act as
are unjust, inhuman and discriminatory. It must ensure a rapid, absolute
restoration of law and order, and especially so in rural areas. It must
restore ownership to the previous white farmers of those of those farms which
do not fall within the acquisition criteria of the Abuja Agreement, and must
remove from those farms any who have seen fit to settle themselves thereon.
And, if the Abuja Agreement is to become effective, government must cease
abusing and vilifying the donors.
Government and donors need also to
address the payment of fair compensation to those who had their possessions
stolen from them and to those whose homes, farm equipment and farming
infrastructure were viciously destroyed and their crops stolen.
Should
all this occur, then the Abuja Agreement will really be alive instead of
being on the threshold of death's door. And were the Abuja Agreement alive
and kicking, a positive, constructive, equitable programme of agrarian reform
would emerge and become a reality.
Past injustices would be reversed, and
so too would the many present injustices which reflect the Zimbabwe of today.
Zimbabwe would be set upon a path of agricultural economic growth, which
would in turn be the catalyst for recovery and growth of the economy as a
whole. Zimbabweans would no longer starve, unemployment would reduce markedly
and the hardships faced by so many will diminish and decrease. The only
question is: Has government the will to breathe life into the Abuja
Agreement, or has it not the maturity to turn around from that which it has
done and is doing? If government adheres to its present paths of agrarian
reform, Zimbabwe is doomed and the Abuja Agreement dead. If it has a genuine
wish for Zimbabwe's well-being, then it will act to ensure that the Nigerian
High Commissioner is right, in that the Abuja Agreement will be alive!
Mugabe begins to feel diplomatic squeeze Vincent
Kahiya AS President Mugabe's rogue regime begins to feel the diplomatic
squeeze prompted by revulsion at his land seizures and repression in the
country, the Harare administration has embarked on a public relations
campaign to demonstrate that - contrary to impressions - the rule of law is
being upheld.
There are signs that Mugabe, however much he may
fulminate against his critics, has become sensitive to allegations that his
government is ignoring its own laws in land acquisition.
Countries in
the region have in the past two years refused to take Mugabe head-on but have
instead taken their cue from Thabo Mbeki's quiet
diplomacy.
Notwithstanding support from his chief cheerleader in the row
with Britain, Sam Nujoma of Namibia, diplomats say other leaders in Sadc are
expressing unease about Zimbabwe's chaotic redistribution programme in which
powerful figures have simply helped themselves to farms and
homesteads.
Reports from Angola said at the Sadc heads of state summit,
which took place in Luanda last week, there was an unprecedented move to
sideline Zimbabwe from two of its key structures.
In the first move
regional leaders barred Mugabe from ascending to the position of deputy
chairman of the organisation.
They replaced him with his Tanzanian
counterpart, Benjamin Mkapa. Mugabe's election to the post of deputy chair of
Sadc would have meant that he automatically succeeded as the next
chairman.
Sadc leaders moved swiftly, it was reported, to avert a
further marginalisation of the region by the international
community.
In yet another move to block Mugabe, the leaders re-elected
President Joacquim Chissano of Mozambique as chairman of the Organ on
Politics, Defence and Security for a further one-year term.
Tanzania
was supposed to have been the next chair of the organ, while Zimbabwe, which
once led the organ, would have ascended to the position of deputy
chair.
Government officials were this week at pains to explain that the
fall of Mugabe from his high horse was a product of an amicable arrangement
and not an indictment of his land policy. But analysts were agreed the
move represented an attempt by Sadc to avert the ostracism that would
have followed Mugabe's promotion.
"With Zimbabwe pulling out of the
DRC and its lesser role in the Sadc region, Mugabe has become a footnote on
the Sadc political script," said political commentator and activist Brian
Kagoro.
But there is an even greater threat to his political stature -
open criticism by his perceived friends who want to guard against the
contagion effect of Zimbabwean politics rubbing on to their
economies.
Mugabe remains a clear and present danger to Africa's designs
for Nepad as he is regarded as a stumbling block to democratisation on the
continent.
Two weeks ago press reports from Botswana said the Botswana
Democratic Party (BDP) was not happy with the conduct of the land reform
programme and had expressed its disapproval at inter-party talks held with
Zanu PF in Bulawayo in August.
BDP national chairman Ponatshego
Kedikilwe said the handling of the situation was "not neat enough", comparing
it to a driver who had lost control of his vehicle.
President Festus
Mogae was reported last week in Luanda as asking why Mugabe 's claims on land
reform were contradicted by the evidence of farmers removing their
possessions from farms.
In the face of growing criticism from his allies,
analysts say Mugabe has become more sensitive and is now bent on ensuring
that he does not lose his few remaining friends.
The new approach,
analysts say, is first to admit that mistakes have been made in the land
reform programme. There is then a promise that the problems are being
attended to.
Last month Foreign Affairs minister Stan Mudenge circulated
to diplomats accredited here minutes of a meeting of ministers involved in
the implementation of the land reform exercise in which Vice-President
Muzenda, who was then acting president, made a commitment that the agrarian
reform would be done according to the law.
"I am directing that any
action on the ground that is not consistent with our policy and laws be
discontinued forthwith," Muzenda said. "In the meantime, honourable
Vice-President Joseph Msika will meet with all concerned to look into
problematic issues relating to the completion of the fast-track resettlement
programme and report to cabinet accordingly," Muzenda said.
The note
to diplomats also sought to assure them that the government, in its quest for
social justice, would not deprive any white commercial farmer who wanted to
continue to farm the opportunity to do so.
"The highest authority in the
land, notably His Excellence President RG Mugabe, has consistently made
pronouncements . that we will continue to respect our policies and laws that
no European commercial farmer who is prepared to farm as a Zimbabwean will
remain landless," he said.
The diplomatic drive is not only designed to
make Mugabe look less like a racist ogre but also to win back international
material support for the land reform exercise.
Despite the hardline
stance in 2000 that Zimbabwe would go it alone, Mugabe' s government has been
trying to court Western support for the land reform exercise through the
United Nations Development Programme.
But this is bound to fail as long
there is a gulf between the rhetoric abounding in official statements and the
reality on the ground.
The spokesman for the United States embassy in
Harare, Bruce Wharton, said his government welcomed such promises but the
Zimbabwe government had to practise what it preached.
"We are pleased
to see the statement (from Muzenda) but we will judge the government's
commitment by action taking place on the ground and not by sentiments
expressed in a letter," said Wharton.
Kagoro said the parlous state of
the economy was bound to transform Mugabe from his hardline demeanour to more
friendly engagement with the West.
"Mugabe is in the same situation Ian
Smith was in 1979," said Kagoro.
The poor state of the Rhodesian economy
dragged him to the negotiating table. Mugabe does not have a choice but to
drop his hardline stance and adopt a more amicable engagement with the West,"
said Kagoro.
Analysts said in his quest to build bridges with the West,
Mugabe faced another threat from within his ranks.
Kagoro said
criminal elements who took Mugabe's hard-man stratagem seriously had been
given a free rein to create disorder on the land and now had to
be demobilised - not a very popular decision within his ranks.
This
has put the septuagenarian leader in a fix.
He has to demonstrate to the
world that he is committed to the rule of law and acceptable behaviour which
entails coming down hard on his own followers. He also has to keep the
hardliners happy as they are his current life-buoys.
Torn in between,
he does what he knows best - being duplicitous - which means telling the
world that no white farmer will be left landless while at the same time
driving them off the land with threats of prosecution.
Food imports running out Vincent Kahiya DESPITE
government claims last month that the United Nations would increase food aid
to Zimbabwe, the situation on the ground has not changed significantly as
volumes are much less than those expected.
At the end of a meeting
between President Mugabe and UN World Food Programme director James Morris
last month, the government announced that the WFP would increase food
supplies to Zimbabwe to 55 000 tonnes a month.
Information at hand,
however, shows that only one maize shipment of 14 000 tonnes of maize from
the United States is expected at the port of Maputo.
This shipment
will be the only WFP-sourced maize consignment for the whole of the month.
The ship Axon Adriane is due to dock in Maputo tomorrow.
Also
expected this month from the US are two shipments of 807 tonnes of beans and
1 708 tonnes of vegetable oil aboard the ship Pavel Vavilo, on October
27.
Tuesday next week will see the arrival at the port of Beira of 20
000 tonnes of the Jewel Bank's yellow maize imports.
Donor support
for the WFP initiative to import food has failed to match the demand of at
least 50 000 tonnes a week.
The country needs about 25 000 tonnes of
maize a week and the two shipments this month would barely last two weeks at
normal consumption levels. The maize is, however, only expected to arrive in
the country at the end of the month due to huge delays in off-loading caused
by congestion at the ports.
Shipment details obtained this week show
that there is no Grain Marketing Board maize shipment for the next three
weeks, which is likely to exacerbate an already critical food situation in
the country.
Sources at the GMB yesterday said the government was now
relying on WFP food aid and the Jewel Bank imports, which have started to
trickle in from Brazil.
Of the 486 000 tonnes expected to be
shipped under the Jewel Bank import arrangement, 106 000 tonnes have been
secured as there is a scarcity of the commodity in the Americas.
Moscow Times
UN Wins Promise of Wheat for Poor
By Yevgenia
Borisova Staff Writer The head of the World Food Program got what he came to
Moscow for -- a promise from the government to become an official donor of
the United Nations agency that supplies food to more than 70 million
people around the globe.
After meeting with WFP executive
director James Morris on Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said
Russia is prepared to supply the WFP with 30,000 tons of food-grade wheat,
the government web site announced.
"This is a very good news,"
Morris said Thursday morning in an interview at the Metropol Hotel. "The
Russian Federation is the most important country in the world that is not
currently a donor to the WFP. ... so this is a great step forward for the
WFP, which is the place where the world comes together to provide help and
support to very hungry and poor people all around the world."
Morris said he also had "a good visit" with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and
a number of parliamentary deputies.
"Their response was that the
Russian Federation was committed to becoming a donor to the World Food
Program, and they were especially interested in our work in places like North
Korea, Afghanistan, South Africa," he said.
The government
already is familiar with the World Food Program's work in the North Caucasus.
Since the current Chechnya conflict began in October 1999, more than $40
million in supplies has been funneled into the region by the WFP, according
to UN figures.
Details have not yet been worked out for Russia's
new cooperation with the WFP; in the past it served only as a contractor for
the program, providing its services. Morris said the total volume of Russia's
donations to the WFP is not yet clear, but he expressed the hope that Russia
would become a permanent donor and the size of its commitment would
grow.
Thirty-six countries have donated to the WFP this year,
including Cuba, Hungary and Slovakia. The United States was the biggest
single donor, with a contribution of $808 million as of the beginning of
October.
The biggest donations -- more than 60 percent of the total
WFP budget of $1.9 billion last year -- come from the United States, while
most of the rest are sponsored by Canada, the European Union and
Japan.
Russia's donation of 30,000 tons of wheat is worth $2.1
million, based on a minimum European price of $70 per ton, said Lyudmila
Pigina, grain analyst for OGO, a major national grain trader.
Current prices in Russia, however, have dropped to almost $40 per ton because
of the good harvest. Russia harvested 45.7 tons of wheat, 2.2 million tons
more than last year, and planned to export about 8 million tons, according to
Agriculture Ministry figures.
"This amount -- 30,000 tons -- does
not mean anything for Russia," Pigina said. "It will not affect prices here,
and I don't think the donation was made for this purpose. But the fact that
Russia is becoming a member of this very significant program is a very
important political move."
Most of the WFP donations that reach the
North Caucasus are sponsored by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid
Program, or ECHO, said Philippe Royan, head of ECHO's Moscow
office.
Last year, Russia received more than $24 million, which
allowed it to regularly supply food for more than 310,000 people in Chechnya
and Ingushetia, including 47,000 schoolchildren aged 6 to 12 in 159 schools,
the UN said.
In addition to providing food packages, the WFP
runs the "food for work" and "food for assets creation"
programs.
In the first one, 15,000 people are employed in social
works projects: sweeping streets, repairing schools, disposing of rubble and
planting trees. In return, they get food worth about 600 rubles per month,
including flour, sugar, oil and salt. The second program provides refugees
who return from Ingushetia with roofing and other construction materials to
repair their homes and also with food for several months for the whole
family.
But while WFP spending in the North Caucasus is stable, the
global budget has been reduced this year to $1.7 billion, while hunger has
been exacerbated in many parts of the world. In North Korea, the WFP is
feeding 6.5 million people -- a third of the population. In Afghanistan --
10 million people.
Every day, 24,000 people die of hunger in the
world, the WFP web site says.
"The most serious humanitarian
crisis in the world today is the one in six countries in southern Africa --
Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesoto and Swaziland, where 14.5
million people are at risk of starvation. It is a very serious complication
of a drought for several years, huge devastation of HIV/AIDS and issues of
governance," said Morris, who is also a special envoy in southern Africa for
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
"Our mission now is to generate
resources to feed these people, especially women and children. There are 4.5
million orphans, and 60 percent of them have a mom and dad who died because
of HIV/AIDS. We saw a grandmother taking care of 20 children
there.
"That is why the commitment of Russia is so important to
us," Morris said.
Former Zanu PF allies adopt targeted
sanctions Dumisani Muleya TARGETED sanctions against President Robert
Mugabe and Zimbabwe's ruling elite have been adopted by a host of countries
lining up for membership of the European Union.
Many are
former allies of Zanu PF when they were part of the Soviet empire.
EU
president Denmark said European countries waiting to join the 15-member bloc
had committed themselves to implementing restrictive measures
against Zimbabwean officials in a bid to force Mugabe to stop repression and
violent land seizures.
The countries that last week adopted smart
sanctions against Harare are Baltic states Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania,
and eastern European countries Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland,
Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania which was a key Zimbabwean ally before the
collapse of former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's regime in 1989.
In
addition to the 10 EU candidate countries, the Mediterranean islands
of Cyprus and Malta as well as European Free Trade Association (EFTA)
member Liechtenstein have also adopted sanctions against
Zimbabwe.
"The Central and Eastern European countries associated with the
EU, the associated countries Cyprus and Malta, and the EFTA country
Liechtenstein," Denmark said, "declare that they share the objectives of the
council decision of September 13, 2002 implementing council common
position 2002/145/CF SP concerning restrictive measures against
Zimbabwe.
"They will ensure that their national policies conform to
that council decision. The EU takes note of this commitment and welcomes
it."
The EU, United States, Switzerland and New Zealand have imposed
targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Canada has imposed arms trade
restrictions and Australia has warned it would adopt smart sanctions
soon.
Cyprus and Malta's adoption of the targeted measures against
Mugabe and his officials would apparently strengthen Britain's hand in the
Commonwealth where it has been battling to isolate
Zimbabwe.
Although most Commonwealth countries do not approve of
Mugabe's repression, developing countries have tended to hesitate when it
comes to action.
The broadening and extension of targeted sanctions
by the EU candidate countries came as the European Commission on Wednesday
said the 10 countries could wrap up accession talks in December and join the
bloc in 2004 in a historic unification of Europe, provided Ireland's voters
do not derail the project in a referendum on October 19.
Farmers bay for CFU boss's blood Augustine
Mukaro MORALE has hit rock bottom in the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) as
major stakeholders called for the resignation of the union president Colin
Cloete and his lieutenants for failing to tackle government on its land
reform programme which has threatened to wipe out commercial agriculture in
the country.
Tension, which has been bubbling under the surface for
some time at the beleaguered CFU, burst into an outpouring of anger against
Cloete's leadership as the farmers, led by Matabeleland South regional
executive Mac Crawford, demanded a special referendum to decide the fate of
Cloete and his deputy, Doug Taylor Freeme and director David
Hasluck.
Cloete had earlier tried to thwart regional offices' call
fora radical stance against gov-ernment by suspending out-spoken members such
as BenFreeth who led the power-ful Mashonaland West/South
region.
At an executive council meeting held on September 24,
stakeholders called on the three to step down for failing to represent the
interests of members at a critical stage when they are losing their lifeline
through farm invasions.
Information at hand shows that farmers went
onto take advantage of a rece-ntly introduced "Open LetterForum" website to
fire broadsides at their leaders for dictatorial behaviour and for inaction
in the face of state terrorism.
Farmers are arguing that the
Cloete executive is adopting the wrong approach to President Mugabe's chaotic
agrarian programme. They are calling for a total abandonment of appeasement
as government continues to violate its undertakings on land
acquisition.
"CFU is now to be run by a dictator, with a 'Boy's Own'
determination to run it his own way, ably assisted by the very able
director," John Llewellyn Robinson said in a letter copied to Cloete, Freeme
and Hasluck.
"CFU leadership has failed to address the needs of
agricultural stakeholders. To be specific, the needs of the farmers who are
committed to staying and being part of the recovery; the needs of our skilled
farm workers who have not yet been considered for the opportunity of owning
land and title.
"I have called upon the president to call a
referendum of all farmers with the rider that should he not be prepared to
call a referendum, I call upon him and his vice president to tender their
resignations."
Robinson argues that the Cloete executive's conduct is
in direct breach of the CFU constitution's section 3 (d) which demands that
the leadership should promote the union's interests to enable its
survival.
Cloete said yesterday he could not comment on the issues
because he was on leave. - Staff Writers.
Showdown looms over Nepad Dumisani Muleya/Loughty
Dube A SHOWDOWN is looming over the New Programme for Africa's
Development (Nepad) when African finance, economy and planning ministers meet
next week in Johannesburg to debate the continental renewal
programme.
While other African governments have endorsed the ambitious
Nepad, regimes like those in Harare and Tripoli have rejected it labelling it
an "imperialist" programme designed to consolidate Western interests on
the continent.
Key African countries such as South Africa,
Nigeria, Senegal, Algeria, Egypt and a host of others have backed the
programme. The African Union adopted the programme at its inaugural meeting
in July in Durban, South Africa.
However, divisions have remained
simmering between pro-Nepad governments and those against it despite the fact
the scheme was endorsed at the Organisation of African Unity meeting in
Lusaka last year before being adopted in Durban. This could lead to tensions
in Johannesburg.
South Africa and Zimbabwe have already had exchanges
of harsh words over Nepad with Pretoria describing Harare's claims that the
programme was "imperialist" and "still awaiting endorsement" as
"nonsense".
Those opposed to Nepad seem to resent the conditions of
democracy, good governance, accountability and human rights attached to
it.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his ally President Robert
Mugabe have been vocal against these conditionalities. The two leaders stand
accused of anti-democratic practices.
The meeting, which was
organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, is scheduled
for October 19/21. A committee of experts is however expected to meet prior
to the conference on October 16/18 to prepare for the ministerial
meeting.
The UN ECA says the conference will be "the biggest
gathering of ministers and experts involved in economic policies of Nepad
since the AU summit in July".
Business Day
Foreign
Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma will visit Zimbabwe for two days,
from today, to hold a bilateral discussion with her Zimbabwean counterpart
Stan Mudenge. "The visit by Minister Dlamini Zuma is part of efforts by South
Africa, acting as part of the international collective, to assist the people
of Zimbabwe in their strides towards national reconciliation which will lay
a firm foundation for their political and economic recovery," her office
said in a statement.
The delegation includes Pandelani Mathoma, Chief
Director, Southern Africa, and other senior Foreign Affairs
officials.
The decision to hold the bilateral meeting was decided by the
two Ministers during the recent Southern African Development Community summit
held in Luanda, Angola, earlier this month.
The bilateral meeting is
expected to focus on:
a.. Bilateral political, economic and social
relations between SA and Zimbabwe b.. Land reform programme in
Zimbabwe c.. Food crisis in Southern Africa d.. Protection of
investments and avoidance of double taxation. e.. Regional security
issues f.. Efforts aimed at reconciliation among Zimbabweans
specifically focusing on the resumption of political discussions between the
Zimbabwean government and the opposition MDC
UNDP not assisting Zim's land reform Vincent
Kahiya AS the government stumbles towards the conclusion of what it calls
its agrarian reform programme, Western diplomats this week said there were
no plans to fund the exercise through the United Nations Development
Programme.
This effectively pours cold water on speculation in government
circles that the UNDP is about to step in to assist
resettlement
There have been reports that Britain and its European
Union (EU) partners were working out a plan to fund the land reform programme
through the UNDP.
EU resident representative to Zimbabwe Francesca
Mosca yesterday said there were no such plans by the EU.
"I am not
aware of any plans to fundthe resettlement exercise," Mosca said. The
speculation appeared to have been sparked by British Prime Minister
Tony Blair's statement at the September Earth Summit in South Africa that
there was money available to fund the land reform programme through the
UNDP.
A senior official of the UNDP this week said the government had
not come up with any proposal that required donor support.
"I
think it is foolish for someone to just think that the UNDP would once again
try to mobilise donors to fund land reform now when that (initiative) has
failed in the last two years," the official said.
"Look at it this
way, the UNDP and its UN partners are struggling to raise money for
humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe. The same donors cannot at the moment
fund a land reform programme that they have declared illegal,"
he said.
Western donors turned their backs on Zimbabwe in 2000
after the Harare administration refused to implement the terms agreed at the
1998 Harare donors conference and embarked instead on the fast-track
resettlement exercise.
The Abuja Agreement of September last year
recognised land as being the core of Zimbabwe's problems but emphasised the
importance of implementing what was agreed upon in 1998.
An EU
diplomat this week said the UNDP would not move to mobilise donors unless
there was a plan from government indicating how donor support
and expectations would fall in sync with the fast-track land reform
programme.
"We want to see the plan. What is their plan?" he
said.
"Any donor assistance to Zimbabwe from the European Union and
from the United States would be linked to the issues of the rule of law and
human rights."
EU Has No Right to Demand SADC's Isolation of Zimbabwe, Says
Sata
The Post (Lusaka)
October 10, 2002 Posted to the
web October 10, 2002
Sheikh Chifuwe
The European Union and the
United States have no moral right to demand Southern African Development
Community's (SADC) isolation of Zimbabwe, said opposition Patriotic Front
president Michael Sata yesterday.
Sata said it was a mockery for the
Western world to ask SADC to isolate Zimbabwe when during the independence
struggle many people in the region lost their lives and property at their
hands.
"Zambia lost human life and property through bombings from the
Western weapons and personnel," Sata said. "We lost prominent Zambians like
Alick Nkhata and they have not compensated Zambia for all this and they
want Zambia to support them."
He said the background of the EU and the
US was not that of helping Africa develop but to ensure that the continent
remained underdeveloped by using money and technology to intimidate Africans.
He said the West had always been thinking that Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe was foolish but he shocked them at the right time.
Sata advised
the British and the Americans to stop their arrogance and work with President
Mugabe to find solutions to the land reform programme which has displaced
many white farmers.
"The EU are racists and are only here to introduce
direct colonialism for the protection of their own interests," Sata charged.
"Because of their arrogance they have abandoned the Commonwealth to create
their own racist organisation which does not embrace other
groupings."
He said the Americans tried to intimidate Japan by bombing
Hiroshima and Nagasaki using deadly, destructive weapons. Sata said the
Americans, though having managed to bomb Japan into submission, were
disappointed that Japan became independent economically.
"Today the
Americans want to become friends of Japan when it suits them because when
Japan and Korea became advanced in motor industry, they introduced laws to
restrict cars exported to America," he said. Sata said the Americans' attempt
to declare a blockade against Cuba 40 years ago failed because the Cubans
were determined to develop themselves without the Western countries'
assistance.
He said Cuba refused to submit to the Americans and to-date
the country has produced some of the most highly trained manpower in the
world. Sata said the Americans still exhibited their arrogance and sent
mercenaries to attack Vietnam when they realised that it was becoming
economically and politically independent.
"The majority of these
soldiers were, however, black Americans commandeered by white officers but
all the same they came out more bruised," he said. Sata said it was the
Americans again who sent weapons to Unita in Angola to protect their oil
interests but made so much noise when the Angolan government asked Cuba to
assist them.
He said even the late rebel Unita leader Jonas Savimbi was
supported by the West under the guise of "killing" communism. Sata said the
Americans and United Kingdom were deliberately trying to wage war against
Iraq under the pretext that it was producing destructive weapons when they
were just protecting their interests in Kuwait.
He said people should
be able to see that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was not waging a war
against anybody and did not, therefore, deserve the Super power attack. "The
Israelis are killing Palestinians with impunity using heavy weapons but the
Americans are just quiet," Sata said.
"They want to bomb Iraq because
they know that the American children will be miles away, so they don't care."
Sata said Patriotic Front when in government soon would ensure that the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank worked and complied with their
terms.
"If Zambia has to develop we need to behave like Saddam Hussein,
Fidel Castro, Muammar Gaddafi and Robert Mugabe," he said. He said the
reduction of taxes and bank interest rates shall be one of the priority areas
of the Patriotic Front government. Sata wondered how the EU was now
supporting President Mwanawasa whom they said was elected fraudulently in
last year's presidential and general elections.
He said the West had
very little care for the prosperity of the country. "Few days later, the West
are funding Mr. Mwanawasa under the guise of fighting corruption, they are
legitimising his stay in power," Sata said.
"They are not even ashamed
because what they would like is instability in Zambia."
Govt evicts Mauritian farmers Blessing Zulu IN a
move likely to sour bilateral relations between Zimbabwe and
Mauritius, government has evicted 39 Mauritian farmers and their families
from sugar cane farms in the south-east Lowveld in its on-going land grab,
the Zimbabwe Independent has learnt.
Justice for Agriculture
spokesperson Jenni Williams said the farmers, though of Mauritian ori-gin,
were naturalised Zimbabweans.
"The evictions of the farmers began on
Monday and continued to be carried out during the week," said
Williams.
Government has been trying to promote exports of Zimbabwean
goods to Mauritius and last year a business delegation visited the Indian
Ocean island to assess trade opportunities.
The Mauritian Foreign
Minister Anil Gayan last week criticised President Robert Mugabe for his
handling of the land reform exercise which he said was gradually undermining
the whole region.
Two of the farmers, Greg Henning and Cecil de
Robillard, both single farm owners, have subsequently had Section 8 orders
withdrawn and were given letters to continue farming by the district
administrator. The evictions were likely to impact negatively on sugar
production.
"The production of sugar in the Chiredzi area has been
severely compromised following the evictions of sugar cane farmers who met
the bulk of the country's sugar requirements," said Williams.
Up
to 21 other sugar cane growers were also evicted from the area.
Daily News
60 cane farmers evicted
10/10/02 8:39:23 AM
(GMT +2)
From Our Correspondent in Bulawayo
More
than 60 sugar-cane farmers in the Lowveld have been ordered to vacate their
farms.
The orders came from government, police and army officials,
who declared their orders superseded any High Court rulings.
Sugar, most of whose cane is grown in the Lowveld, is one of the
basic commodities in short supply in Zimbabwe.
A senior
government official led a group of about 20 local officials, lands committee
chairman, police officers-in-charge and Central Intelligence Organisation
officials to a meeting with the farmers. The farmers were ordered to vacate
their properties by yesterday morning, whether or not they had received
Section 8 notices.
MDC supporters arrested as police seek to disrupt
Chitungwiza rally
10/10/02 8:44:09 AM (GMT +2)
Staff Reporter
THE MDC nearly abandoned its constituency rally on
Sunday in Chitungwiza after baton-wielding policemen arrested 10 MDC
activists for wearing their party T-shirts.
The police took away
the hired public address system to St Mary's police station before releasing
it later after the intervention of Job Sikhala, the local MP.
The police arrived at Huruyadzo Shopping Centre, the venue of the meeting, at
around 9:30 am in two police Defender vehicles.
John Matienga, 24,
the St Mary's Constituency Development Trust driver, said police used
unnecessary brute force against them.
He said: "Their action was
illegal and politically driven. We were just waiting at the venue for the
rally to start and police rounded us up accusing us of wearing MDC T-shirts.
Since when has it become a crime to put on MDC T-shirts?"
Matienga and four others were ordered to pay $500 fine each which was paid by
Sikhala before they were released.
Five others were held in police
cells at St Mary's Police Station. Sikhala said they were only released after
the rally without being charged.
An officer at the scene who
refused to be named said there was nothing to write about concerning the
"normal arrests".
The officer-in-charge at St Mary's was out of
office on Sunday. Others arrested included Lawrence Machada, 32,
Phillip Negombwe, 21, and Justice Maiyengwa, 26.
According to
the police's admission of guilty form Number 008539M and 008545, for Machada
and Matienga, the MDC members were charged with contravening Section 7 (a) of
the Miscellaneous Offenses Act Chapter 9:15 for conduct likely to provoke a
breach of the peace.
But Sikhala dismissed the charges as "more
political than legal" because the MDC was a legal party that commanded
respect among Zimbabweans. "Zimbabweans believe the MDC is the government."
he said. "The police behaviour was shameful. They are being used to
intimidate us. Let me say today, even if we respect their authority as
policemen, their action was embarrassing."
However, by the time
the meeting started the police had left, except for a few plain clothes
officers.
The party's supporters said it was ironic that police did
not arrest those wearing their party regalia during the course of the
meeting. Sikhala said the police accused the MDC members of loitering
and wearing party T-shirts when it was supposed to be a constituency
development meeting.
"They said the meeting was not for MDC
supporters only but for everyone in St Mary's, including Zanu PF members. But
who are the police to tell us if our members should wear their party clothes
or not?"
Sikhala asked why the police did not arrest all the people
at the meeting who were chanting MDC slogans, if they felt wearing the
T-shirts was criminal?