IOL
No place for refugees fleeing African tyrants
October 26
2002 at 07:07PM
By Charlene Smith
Legal bodies and human
rights organisations have launched a major attack on
the department of home
affairs for alleged contraventions of South Africa's
laws and international
treaties for handling refugees.
Three key cases are under way and a
plethora of new research by human rights
organisations will be launched
within the next few weeks that shows abuses
ranging from corruption to
beatings of refugees, and legal contraventions.
Organisations calling for
urgent investigations into the system include the
Human Rights Commission,
the Human Rights Committee, the Black Sash, Lawyers
for Human Rights, the
Wits Law Clinic and the Legal Resources Centre, among
others. Leslie
Mashokwe, a home affairs spokesperson, said the department
could not comment
until the judiciary has made its rulings.
The legal actions and research,
including an urgent application against the
minister of home affairs brought
by the Wits Law Clinic late on Friday,
detail:
a.. Allegations
of corruption, which some claim extends to senior personnel
in the
department.
a.. The whipping and beating of refugees outside and
within home affairs
offices. On Thursday officials at the Braamfontein
refugee office in
Johannesburg allegedly beat approximately a thousand
refugees with chains
and sjamboks. A woman whose leg was fractured had to be
taken to hospital.
Abeda Bhamjee of the Wits Law Clinic says: "On several
occasions we have
noted sjambokkings as a form of crowd control, including
within home affairs
buildings. They also use tactics to limit access; for
three weeks in
September and October they limited access because they said
they had no
computer codes."
a.. Policies preventing refugees
gaining the capacity to register, making
them permanent fugitives from the
law.
Home affairs has to accept Ncube's application on
Monday
a.. Policies that render the most vulnerable refugees - those from
countries
where they risk death or torture if they return - incapable of
studying or
finding work for periods for longer than the six months allowed
by law.
a.. Members of the South African National Defence Force
picking up refugees
and depositing them back at the Zimbabwe
border.
a.. Bhamjee says that during the Zimbabwean elections in
March they had
reports of South African soldiers rounding up refugees and
taking them back
to Zimbabwe where some were at risk of physical harm. "This
is a
contravention of the South African Refugee Act, the United
Nations
Convention against Torture, the African Union regulations regarding
refugees
and UN provisions for refugees."
a.. People are being
given non-computerised section 22 permits. If
computerised, they give a
person 180 days before they can register, during
which time they cannot seek
work or study. William Kerfoot of the Legal
Resources Centre in Cape Town
says: "This pernicious practice sees them
saying to people after 180 days,
that they have to wait a further 180 days
with the computerised permit". A
case will be heard around this matter on
February 10 in the Cape high
court.
Rejections of those seeking refugee status often seem based not on
the
merits of a case, but on a list of refugee-producing and
non-refugee
countries, and many rejection letters do not deal with the basis
of the
claims, Professor Lee Anne de la Hunt of the Cape Town Legal Aid
Clinic
claims. She cites the example of a male nurse from the Congo having
his
application rejected. The identical text for his rejection letter was
used
in all subsequent rejections to Congolese.
The Wits Law Clinic
application on Friday was on behalf of Ernest Ncube, a
Zimbabwean, and former
soldier who joined the Movement for Democratic Change
in January 2001. Since
then his family has had to move towns three times to
escape alleged
harassment from Zanu-PF supporters, youth militia and war
veterans, finally
fleeing the country for South Africa.
He has queued at the home affairs
refugee office from 5.30am on four
occasions since his arrival but has never
once been seen. The office deals
with southern African refugees only once a
week and takes no more than 20
applicants a time.
In her affidavit,
Bhamjee says that in January she "became aware of the fact
that the
department of home affairs was... refusing Zimbabweans the right to
apply for
asylum".
Judge Jajbhay of the Johannesburg high court ruled that home
affairs has to
accept Ncube's application on Monday. Wits Law Clinic will
pursue an action
in the high court in February calling for all Zimbabweans to
have this
right.
Bhamjee says: "Zimbabwe is in a crisis and it's time
home affairs
acknowledged that. Everyone should have access to administrative
justice."
The department of home affairs said that 498 356 Zimbabweans
entered South
Africa legally during 2001. An average of 50 000 Zimbabweans
enter the
country legally per month. Many are informal traders who regularly
move back
and forth.
Five Zimbabweans have been recognised as refugees
in South Africa since
April 2000.
Bhamjee says she does not expect a
huge influx of refugees into South
Africa, but South Africa currently only
has provision for accommodating 20
000 refugees compared with countries such
as Zambia and Botswana who on
occasion have housed 500 000 when neighbouring
countries have been in
crisis.
NZ Herald
World can't cope with famine says UN
28.10.2002
By
GEOFFREY LEAN in London
Global warming is helping to cause an unprecedented
series of famines that
is pushing the world beyond its ability to cope, says
the United Nations.
The warning - the starkest yet issued by the UN on
how climate change is
affecting world food supplies - comes as a second
massive famine looms in
Africa.
The new head of the UN World Food
Programme, James Morris, is to announce in
London that drought in Ethiopia
and the Horn of Africa is precipitating a
food shortage as great as the one
now afflicting southern Africa.
Meanwhile, the UN's Food and Agriculture
Organisation is predicting that
this year's total world harvest will fall for
the fifth year in succession,
while the global population continues to grow.
Food stocks are falling well
below critical levels and prices are soaring.
The escalating crises will add
urgency to a new round of international
negotiations on combating global
warming under way in New Delhi.
They
will concentrate on what new measures should be taken beyond the
Kyoto
Protocol, which is expected to enter into force over the next few
months.
Morris will give details of how famine is returning to Ethiopia
and
surrounding states. Nearly six million people in the country that became
a
byword for hunger in the 1980s now need emergency food aid.
Another
million people in Eritrea and three million in Sudan are in the same
position
after rains failed there too.
There are also food shortages in Kenya and
Somalia and the WFP reckons that,
in all, up to 14 million people face famine
in the region - about the same
number as are afflicted in Zambia, Malawi,
Mozambique, Zimbabwe and other
southern African countries.
In some
countries - such as Somalia and Zimbabwe - the crisis has been
greatly
aggravated by conflict and government policies.
But the WFP says that the
two famines are "essentially the result of
shifting weather patterns that in
recent years have been wreaking havoc on a
global scale".
A spokesman
said that "global warming is a major contributor" to the
changing
weather.
He added: "There has been a sharp increase in weather-related
natural
disasters. This is a very, very serious situation."
Scientists
have long predicted that droughts and floods will increase as
global warming
takes hold. According to the World Disasters Report,
published by the Red
Cross, 2000 and 2001 were the two worst years on record
for disasters. Since
then, more than 360 natural disasters have occurred in
the first nine months
of this year. Drought has also struck from Australia
to Mongolia, Vietnam to
Sri Lanka, West Africa to Thailand. Floods affected
more than 100 million
people in China and more than 40 million in India, and
brought the worst
inundations yet to Germany, Austria and the Czech
Republic.
The WFP
warns the crises are becoming so frequent that the world community
is
"running out of the ability to cope".
Although emergency food aid almost
tripled over the 1990s, it was not enough
to meet growing needs. This year
the WFP had to suspend help to three
million women, children and elderly
people in North Korea because it had run
out of resources.
"The global
emergency relief system is overwhelmed," said the spokesman.
"I cannot
recall when things were last as bad. The chickens are coming home
to
roost."
UK sports agent accused of selling military gear to African despot
Antony
Barnett and Paul Harris investigate the network of companies run by a
man
suspected of trading military supplies with Robert Mugabe
Sunday October
27, 2002
The Observer
John Bredenkamp's mansion lies at the end of a
private road on the outskirts
of the Berkshire village of Sunningdale. It is
a 'millionaire's row' of huge
houses and winding drives. Bredenkamp's home is
one of the biggest.
The sprawling pile befits a man who is 33rd on Britain's
rich list, higher
than Sir Paul McCartney. His £700 million personal fortune
stems from a
business empire that includes top sports management agency
Masters
International. The last year has been good for him. He was the
19th-fastest
riser on the rich list - just behind Richard
Branson.
Masters looks after some of the biggest names in sport, such as
cricketer
Graeme Hick and rugby internationals Ieuan Evans and Mike Catt.
Past clients
include golfing legends Ernie Els and Nick Price.
But in
the eyes of the United Nations, the millionaire mansion and high
brick walls
hide a dirty secret. Bredenkamp was last week named by a UN
report as a key
arms trader and a man who has made millions from illegally
exploiting the
natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A UN
panel has now
recommended imposing a travel ban on him and freezing his
personal
assets.
It would be a devastating blow for Bredenkamp, a white Zimbabwean
who was a
former star rugby captain of Rhodesia and has made his home in
Britain.
Bredenkamp has jealously guarded the secrets of his business empire
for
years, but last week a UN report described a network trading in weapons
and
valuable minerals across the war-torn Congo. The trade has helped fuel
a
conflict that has claimed up to three million lives and been called
Africa's
'First World War'.
Bredenkamp was shown to enjoy close
business links with senior members of
Zimbabwe's army and political elite.
Washington has already barred him from
entry to the US, along with several
senior Zimbabwean officials.
In May 2000 the British Government -
increasingly outraged at President
Robert Mugabe's human rights violations
and violence against white farmers -
imposed an arms embargo on
Zimbabwe.
Bredenkamp - who voluntarily co-operated with the UN over the
report - has
angrily rejected the conclusions that he has been involved in
'illegal
exploitation' of Congo's natural resources. He has written to the
UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan protesting that much of the material in
the
report is flawed and stating that he aims to contest vigorously
his
inclusion on any sanctions list.
Whatever the final outcome, the
weight of evidence obtained by the UN
suggests Bredenkamp faces a struggle to
clear his name.
Just half a mile away from his house, Bredenkamp's
business headquarters sit
on a corner of a busy road on Sunningdale's High
Street. As with other
office blocks in the commuter belt, it is a
non-descript redbrick building
hinting little at what goes on inside. But it
is from here that Bredenkamp
runs his complex web of companies that reach out
from the Home Counties to
Africa and beyond.
Britain's imposition of
an arms embargo on Zimbabwe appeared not to dampen
Bredenkamp's enthusiasm to
help prop up Mugabe's brutal regime. A year after
the embargo was passed,
Bredenkamp boosted his ever-expanding fortune by
concluding a
multimillion-pound contract to supply Mugabe's armed forces
with military
equipment.
An invoice obtained by the UN and dated 6 July, 2001, reveals
that one of
Bredenkamp's Zimbabwean companies, Raceview Enterprises, was
supplying
Mugabe's air force with £2.3m of camouflage cloth, batteries, fuel,
boots
and army rations. Most controversially, the UN says it has other
documents
that prove Bredenkamp provided £2m of aircraft spares to the
Zimbabwean air
force. While Bredenkamp is not a British citizen - he carries
a Zimbabwean
and Dutch passport - the fact he uses Britain as a base for his
business
activities will be an embarrassment for Ministers who vigorously
fought for
European Union sanctions against Mugabe.
But potentially
the most damaging revelations for the British Government are
claims by the UN
that Bredenkamp benefits from a working relationship with
Britain's largest
and most important defence contractor, BAE Systems
(formerly British
Aerospace). The report discloses that Bredenkamp is an
investor in an African
company called Aviation Consultancy Services. While
the firm's name sounds
innocuous, it is in fact one of the most important
arms trading groups in
Africa brokering deals between defence firms and
governments.
One of
ACS's major clients is BAE Systems, and the UN claims Bredenkamp has
used his
involvement with ACS to offer to broker sales of BAE military
equipment to
the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report also claims that
BAE breached
European Union sanctions by supplying spare parts for
Zimbabwean Hawk jets
early in 2002.
Both BAE and Bredenkamp deny they have been involved in
busting sanctions,
but The Observer has learnt that the House of Commons
select committee on
arms exports is to launch an investigation into the UN
allegations. It has
described the matter as 'of grave concern'. Opposition
MPs have also tabled
parliamentary questions to the Government to explain the
exact nature of the
relationship between BAE and Bredenkamp.
For
Bredenkamp, the political and public spotlight on his business affairs
will
be very uncomfortable, although it is not the first time
Bredenkamp's
activities have caused outrage. He is alleged to have supplied
arms to both
sides in the Iraq-Iran war of 1980 to 1988, something he has
always denied.
Bredenkamp was born in South Africa in 1940, but moved
north to Zimbabwe,
then called Rhodesia, as a child. He excelled at sport and
captained his
school's rugby team. He later became close to the white
Rhodesian regime of
Ian Smith as it battled black guerrilla movements. He was
in charge of the
financial affairs of the Rhodesian army and is alleged to
have been involved
in sanctions-busting for Smith in return for a valuable
concession to export
tobacco. Bredenkamp has also always denied these
allegations.
In 1993 Bredenkamp sold his tobacco trading firm, Casalee,
and set up his
main company, Sunningdale-based Breco. The full extent of his
business
empire is difficult to ascertain, with many of his companies
registered in
tax havens like the Isle of Man and the British Virgin Islands.
However, his
company's website refers to a network of trading operations in
oil, property
and food that criss-crosses Africa, Eastern Europe and the Far
East. But it
is his involvement in the Congolese mining industry - along with
his arms
trading - that now threatens to derail his business ambitions. The
UN claims
that one of his British Virgin Islands companies, Tremalt, has
been
illegally exploiting minerals in Congo, such as uranium, cobalt and
copper.
Bredenkamp denies any wrongdoing and claims all his mining interests
are
above board.
Back in the Home Counties, a woman who answered the
phone at Bredenkamp's
mansion last week said he was travelling, but could not
say whether he was
abroad or in Britain. Should the UN Security Council
accept the UN report's
findings, such freedom to roam is a luxury Bredenkamp
may not enjoy for
long.
DISPATCH FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA
Diamonds to finance
Namibia
land-grab?
Marxist government required to pay for white-owned farms it
takes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Posted:
October 27, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Anthony C. LoBaido
© 2002
WorldNetDaily.com
"The international diamond traders are the law in
Namibia."
-- Namibian Minister of Energy and Mines Jesayu
Nyamu
SOSSOSVLEI, Namibia - What do white-owned farms and diamonds have
in common
in Namibia? More than one might believe upon first
glance.
When Namibia's Marxist President Sam Nujoma recently released a
list of 192
farms to be confiscated, many political observers wondered where
he would
find the funds to do so. In 1993, Namibia and Germany signed a
bilateral
accord stating that any and all German-owned farms would receive
fair-market
value from the Namibian government in the event of a land
transfer.
Many Namibia watchers remain skeptical that Nujoma would risk
destabilizing
the Namibian currency with such a risky budgetary move. After
all, the
Namibian currency is directly pegged to the South African rand, and
foreign
investors don't want to see Namibia turn into another Zimbabwe -
where
dictator Robert Mugabe's confiscation of white-owned farms has brought
that
nation to the brink of anarchy and famine.
However, recent
revelations that Nujoma might be ready to challenge the
DeBeers diamond
cartel point to a potential source of funds to cover the
cost of the German
farm purchases without swamping the national budget.
Nujoma and his SWAPO
regime (Southwest Africa People's Organization)
recently listed 99 farms
owned by German nationals and another 91 owned by
white South Africans. There
are 350 foreign-owned farms in all of Namibia.
The total land area covered by
these 192 farms is four times the size of
Luxembourg.
Franzie Toppens,
a white Afrikaner Namibian miner from Luderitz, told
WorldNetDaily that he
can scarcely believe recent developments between SWAPO
and
DeBeers.
"My family has been mining diamonds in Namibia for four
generations. DeBeers
and Anglo-American have been the undisputed kings in the
diamond trade since
day one. The British, the Afrikaners, the ANC - no one
has dared to
challenge them. Until now," said Toppens.
Namibia was a
German colony until the end of World War I, when it was turned
over to the
British Empire. Later, the apartheid regime took control of the
area. The
nation was known as Southwest Africa until 1990.
Recently, Namibian
Foreign Minister Hidipo Hamutenya said his government was
frustrated at the
slow pace of land redistribution and put out feelers to
the European Union
for financial aid in taking over white-owned farm land.
"We want the EU
to make a contribution, to give us money for those reforms.
Once they've
agreed to the principle that they will contribute, then we'll
talk about the
figures," he said.
"There is a (provision) in our constitution that
private assets can be
expropriated in the public interest," he told the
international media
recently. However, it is well-known that Nujoma has
appropriated several
white-owned farms for his personal use. In Zimbabwe,
most of the white-owned
farms were purchased after the 1980 fall of Rhodesia
to Mugabe's Marxist
government, and Mugabe has handed over most of the land
to his cronies or to
black squatters without the drive, resources,
intelligence or agricultural
knowledge to run the farms.
"Fair and
just compensation must be provided to those who had laid claim to
that
property before. So the government might go for expropriation. We may
not
have to see it if people can be reasonable," said Hamutenya,
White
farmers control about 75 million acres of Namibian farmland. Only 5
million
acres are owned by natives.
DeBeers double-cross?
With the rise of
right-wing governments inside the European Union, there is
little likelihood
the EU will fund the Nujoma/SWAPO appropriation of
white-owned farms. But
that won't deter the SWAPO regime, which set in
motion a plan last May to
garner a new revenue stream. This plan involves
the DeBeers diamond
cartel.
In 1994, DeBeers gave Namibia's communist regime a 50 percent
interest in
the diamond mines for a 25-year mining right, including offshore.
DeBeers
agreed to the deal, even though Nujoma's government didn't put up any
money,
because it cemented its control of Namibia's lucrative offshore
rights.
Geologists estimate that there are over a half-billion carats waiting
to be
mined under the ocean off Namibia.
It was last May that the
Nujoma regime told Namibian Mines and Energy
Minister Jesaya Nyamu to
implement Section 59 of the Diamond Act.
"Section 59 is no small matter.
It represents the 'tail wagging the dog,'"
Italian diamond trader Adriano
Costa told WorldNetDaily. Costa owns a
diamond trading company in Cape
Town.
Under Section 59, Namiba can sell off 10 percent of its diamonds
outside the
control of the DeBeers' global diamond monopoly. Nyamu penned a
letter in
2001 to Gary Ralfe, DeBeers' managing director, telling him of the
SWAPO
regime's displeasure with its "arrangement" with the diamond cartel.
Nyamu
cited low prices as a large concern of the SWAPO elite. He also
expressed
unhappiness with DeBeers' production quotas.
DeBeers, which
set up a company with the SWAPO regime called Namdeb, was
knocked for a loop
by Nyamu's letter. Maurice Tempelsman, an American
diamond magnate and former
consort of Jackie Kennedy-Onassis, immediately
flew to Namibia for a personal
meeting with Nujoma. Tempelsman has extremely
close personal ties to the
Nujoma family. For example, Aaron Mushimba, the
brother-in-law of Nujoma, is
a partner of Tempelsman via a company in the
Bahamas registered under the
name "North Bank Diamonds."
On May 27, Tempelsman wrote a letter in which
he promised the SWAPO regime
an $80 million dollar down payment for not
implementing section 59. The
American also speculated that he might be able
to get several large Western
transnational banks to float another $30 million
into SWAPO coffers if
Nujoma would only relent on SWAPO's threat to undertake
an investigation
into the prices DeBeers receives for its diamonds on the
open, albeit
controlled, market.
Nyamu banged heads with Nujoma at the
recent SWAPO Politburo meetings and
has sought to challenge Nujoma to be the
new leader of Namibia. Nujoma,
already in an unconstitutional third term, has
sought to reign in Nyamu. The
fate of Section 59 and its effect on Namibia's
budget and the future
compensation for German farmers remains to be seen.
From The Observer (UK), 27
October
Oryx: The carat and the UN's
stick
It's a dark tale that links arms, Africa, smuggling, gems - and
billions of dollars
Jamie Doward
It reads like a bad novel. A diamond mining firm in darkest
Africa is a front organisation for the Zimbabwean army. The firm, which mines in
the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country ripped apart by years of conflict
and from where the Millennium Diamond came, has links with a UK-based arms
dealer who supplies Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. The mine's Omani owners
- thwarted in their attempts to float the firm on the UK stock exchange -
smuggle US dollars into Zimbabwe to grease the palms of politicians. Some of the
money - drawn from City bank accounts - is used to buy diamonds which the
company then claims to have extracted from its own mine. But this is not the
stuff of a substandard Wilbur Smith. This is an explosive United Nations
Security Council report. And for the mining firm, Oryx Natural Resources, which
has plans to produce 10 per cent of the world's diamonds, it is very bad news
indeed. But then Oryx is no stranger to controversy. Its short history is a
study in crisis management. Oryx hit the headlines last year when the BBC
claimed a lieutenant of Osama bin Laden was one of its shareholders. The BBC
retracted the claims, but faces a claim for damages of up to £15 million.
Certainly Oryx had links with Mugabe. When it tried to float in the UK in June
2000, Oryx's prospectus revealed a firm close to Mugabe owned a 20 per cent
stake in the mining firm. A press outcry ensued and the float was pulled. Oryx
claims the firm linked to Mugabe is no longer a shareholder. The UN disagrees.
'The [UN] Panel has now obtained documentary evidence that Oryx is being used as
a front for the Zimbabwean Defence Force (ZDF) and its military company, OSLEG.'
The report concludes that Oryx's 49 per cent stake in its Congolese mining
concession is owned by OSLEG and that this arrangement is representative of an
elite network linking 'Congolese and Zimbabwean political, military and
commercial interests ... This network has transferred ownership of at least $5
billion of assets from the state mining sector to private companies under its
control in the past three years.'
If this was not damning enough, the report links Oryx to John
Bredenkamp, the Berkshire-based millionaire, named in Parliament as 'the main
arms supplier to Zimbabwe'. The UN says it has a document detailing a $1.5m loan
agreement signed by Bredenkamp and Oryx's chief executive, Thamer Bin Said Ahmed
Al-Shanfari. In addition, the UN has evidence that a plane owned by Bredenkamp
and used by Oryx was loaded with Congolese francs bound for Harare, in
contravention of the DRC's exchange rate policy. There are other damning claims,
notably those linking Oryx to Avient Air, a military company supplying services
and equipment to the ZDF. The report states: 'Under the management of Andrew
Smith, a former British army captain ... Avient was contracted to organise
bombing raids into the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 1999 and 2000.'
There is the letter to Al-Shanfari from Sidney Sekeramayi, Zimbabwe's Minister
of Defence and a shareholder in a joint venture between the Congolese military
and the ZDF. Sekeramayi writes 'to express my sincere gratitude' for a donation
from Al-Shanfari. And then there is the small matter of diamond smuggling. The
UN report states that in March 2001 Al-Shanfari instructed his security chief to
smuggle diamonds from the DRC into South Africa.
The allegations are corrosive. Oryx emerges as an intimate
financial ally of the ZDF and a company prepared to break any rule. The UN
recommends financial restrictions should be placed on Oryx, something that will
kill its chances of exploiting its mining concession, which has been valued at
up to $2bn. Many of the claims in the UN report bare a striking similarity to a
feature which appeared in the Spanish newspaper El Pais. The paper claimed Oryx
smuggled money into Zimbabwe with the help of the ZDF and that some of the cash
found its way to Mugabe's wife, Grace. El Pais subsequently printed a lengthy
correction. The paper carried comments from Geoffrey White, Oryx's managing
director. El Pais stated: 'According to him [White], two ex-employees of Oryx,
whom he described as "fraudsters motivated by revenge" - and who believe Oryx
owes them money - are spreading malicious stories.' This claim seems genuine.
The Observer has established that Oryx's security chief - a former SAS soldier -
and a colleague did threaten to expose the company if they were not paid off.
Oryx is now suing the two former employees.
As for the veracity of the claims, Oryx refutes those linking
it to the ZDF. It says it provided the UN with its share register which clearly
shows there can be no links with the Zimbabwean army. Oryx says it co-operated
with the UN, handing over corporate documents and highlighting damaging
inaccuracies in an earlier draft report, but to no avail. As for the illegal
foreign exchange transactions and diamond smuggling claims, Oryx offers detailed
rebuttals which appear to show the UN has confused the situation. The company
admits Bredenkamp guaranteed a loan on behalf of a friend working for Oryx, but
denies it has a relationship with the alleged arms dealer. It admits to doing
business with Avient - which it claims is the only company operating aircraft
large enough to transport mining equipment in the DRC. Al-Shanfari, it says,
donated only $500 to Sekeramayi. The UN, though, doesn't seem interested in
Oryx's denials. Nor does it seem in a hurry to publicise any documents to back
up its claims. Oryx now has four months to persuade the UN it is wrong - or its
mine will close. History shows there are few successful precedents for
persuading the UN to change its mind. Whatever the truth, the closure of the
mine would be a tragedy. It has created 1,200 jobs, two schools and a hospital
in an area where few thought it possible. 'In the villages around the mine there
is money for the first time,' White said. After seeing its flotation pulled in
mysterious circumstances, after being libelled by the BBC and attacked by El
Pais, Oryx believes the UN report is the latest development in a smear campaign
designed to force it out of business. White said: 'There's a continual
disinformation campaign driven by commercial competitors.' This could be
paranoia or a PR smokescreen, designed to smother the allegations. Or it might
be true. Only if the UN publishes its evidence will the real Oryx be
exposed.
Scotland on Sunday
Zimbabwe hero snubs Mugabe from grave
TREVOR
GRUNDY
IT WAS an ignominious end for the grandson of a Scottish
bricklayer who
became prime minister and fought valiantly for black rights in
Zimbabwe - to
die stripped of his citizenship by the president he had battled
to bring to
power.
When he died at the age of 94 earlier this month,
Sir Garfield Todd - the
former prime minister of Southern Rhodesia - was no
longer a citizen of
Zimbabwe despite his courageous support for black
majority rule and having
lived in the country for nearly 70 years. Todd had
been deprived of a
passport and denied the vote by his former friend,
President Robert Mugabe,
who he recently described as "Judas
Iscariot".
After helping propel Mugabe to power in 1980, Todd was
rewarded by being
appointed a senator. But he became an outspoken critic of
the rampant
corruption in the newly-independent Zimbabwe and the mistreatment
of its
people.
Even Todd's funeral, which takes place today, has been
the subject of bitter
controversy in his adoptive country after what was seen
by many as an
unseemly attempt by Mugabe to 'appropriate' his body for his
own political
ends.
Mugabe wanted the former leader to be buried at
Heroes Acre outside the
capital Harare which is the final resting place of
the president's favoured
followers.
But Todd's daughter Judith
refused, pointing out that earlier this year
Mugabe stopped her father voting
in the general election, saying he was
really a foreigner who should pack up
and leave the country he had made his
own after arriving as a Christian
missionary in 1934. Instead Todd, who was
born in New Zealand, will be buried
at his Dadaya Mission Station, where he
established his first school for
African children in the 1930s.
In an exclusive interview with Scotland on
Sunday, Judith Todd said she
never once considered allowing her father to be
buried at Mugabe's chosen
cemetery.
She explained: "In life, he was a
modest man and never ever considered
himself to be a hero, although many
people told him he was just that."
Asked if she knew how angry the Mugabe
government was that its offer had
been turned down, Todd replied: "I don't
know, and to be honest, don't
care."
'A vile pit where
the nation's crooks lie side by side'
he added it was "typical" of
the ruling Zanu (PF) party to stop her father
voting in the general election
and then try to declare him a national hero
the moment he died.
The
families of Zimbabwe's dead heroes receive some financial perks from
the
government. Widows, for example, receive a small pension and free
transport
facilities.
But as one of the leading newspapers in the
country, The Daily News, warned
in an editorial: "Whoever they choose to be
interred at the Acre will be
assumed to be like-minded, to be a person of no
principles, a person driven
by self-aggrandisement who would commit political
murder if that was the
only route to retain power."
The 'Father of
Black Nationalism' James Chikerema also described the
cemetery as a "vile pit
where the nation's crooks lay side by side", adding:
"The really great sons
and daughters of Zimbabwe never wanted to be taken
there - Joshua Nkomo,
George Nyandoro, Ndabaningi Sithole."
And Welshman Ncube, a senior figure
from the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, said: "If anyone from the
government gets up and speaks
at Sir Garfield's funeral, I'm going to stand
up and walk away."
When Todd was stripped of his citizenship during this
year's general
election, he remarked that he was at least grateful that his
wife - who had
died two months earlier - had not lived to witness the
insult.
Ironically, Mugabe had taught briefly at the school Todd had set
up. And
when he was turned away from a polling station in Bulawayo, it was by
an
election officer he had once taught at the Dadaya Mission
Station.
Throughout his life Todd suffered repeatedly as a result of his
impassioned
support for black majority rule. In 1958 he was forced to resign
after
losing the confidence of his party following an attempt to increase
the
proportion of black Africans allowed to vote. And under Ian Smith's rule
he
was restricted to his ranch and then twice detained during the 1972-1982
war
for independence.
Thousands of black mourners are expected to
stand with Todd's daughter today
and pay tribute to a man many call in the
local language Sindebele "the
white messiah who gave us hope".
Then,
as stones and soil cover his coffin, they will break into song and
give the
rare Ndebele Royal Salute to a man who in 1958 defied his
all-European
cabinet, his all white party, his settler grass roots
followers, but never
his lifelong principle that one day Rhodesia would be
transformed into a
multicultural paradise in southern Africa.
Sunday Times (SA)
War of words over MP's death in Harare
prison
DINGILIZWE NTULI
The Zimbabwean government has made
concerted efforts to absolve itself from
blame surrounding the mysterious
death of former Movement for Democratic
Change spokesman and MP Judah
Learnmore Jongwe in remand prison.
Jongwe, 28, was found dead in his cell
at the maximum Chikurubi Prison on
Tuesday morning in Harare, where he was
being held on a charge of stabbing
his wife to death.
Two separate
autopsies were conducted on his body, one by a government
pathologist and the
other by an independent pathologist flown in from South
Africa by the Jongwe
family on Thursday.
Police, however, withheld the two postmortem
results to allow for further
analysis of forensic specimens and other samples
collected from Jongwe's
cell.
They allowed the independent
pathologist to conduct the second autopsy at
the request of his family, after
MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai said that
he held the government responsible
for Jongwe's death .
Tsvangirai said the government had a broad
strategy to reduce the MDC's
parliamentary representation and force through
constitutional changes.
This was after police announced that they had
found a small bottle with one
pill next to Jongwe's body. Prison officers
failed to account for it.
Chief police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena
said Jongwe was prescribed
antibiotics by prison doctors after complaining of
a severe cough and
diarrhoea.
He said his condition deteriorated
and inmates reported seeing Jongwe
vomiting several times before collapsing
and dying in the early hours of
Tuesday morning.
The government
hit back at the MDC, accusing Tsvangirai of trying to gain
political mileage
from a sad event.
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo told state media
that the MDC had
ill-treated and abandoned Jongwe after his
arrest.
Moyo said Jongwe had complained about being abandoned by the
MDC to some
members of the parliamentary legal committee who visited him in
prison.
Bulawayo-based lawyer Daniel Molokela, a former colleague of
Jongwe in the
student movement, said Jongwe was in a jovial mood and looked
strong and
healthy when he visited him 24 hours before his
death.
The state-run daily Herald newspaper said police found two
letters in which
Jongwe expressed regret for his wife's death.
It
reported that he also wrote a footnote in his Bible, dedicating it to
his
fellow inmates on the day before he died.
Jongwe, a lawyer
before he became an MP, turned himself in to the police in
July after his
wife died of stab wounds suffered in a domestic dispute.
The African Wild Dog...today only three viable
breeding populations are left in the wild
The African
Wild Dog, lycaon pictus, has been eliminated from most of their former range
and
today only three viable breeding populations are left in the wild.
Altogether there are thought to be
less than 5,000 individuals living mainly
in South Africa's Kruger Park, Tanzania's Selous Game
Reserve, and in
Northern Botswana. Zimbabwe had been slowly building up their populations
in
the conservancies and are thought to have about 250 individuals
(accounting for 7% of the world
total), but now this indiscriminate poaching
is threatening their future in Zimbabwe. Alistair Pole
has been studying wild
dogs in the southeast lowveld and says, 'Wild dogs are highly susceptible
to
snaring due to their wide ranging movements and the fact that they follow game
trails where
most snaring occurs. As the alpha (dominant dogs) often lead the
pack it is often these dogs that get
caught in the snare. The implications of
this can be significant for the pack. When an alpha dog is
killed it will
certainly throw the pack into disarray and could even result in the disbanding
of the
pack.
The modus operandi of the poachers is to lay a
minefield of snares. So far Save are aware of
at least 6 dogs that have died in snares. 'I personally removed a snare from a
female that had actually bitten off the lower half of her rear leg and still
continued to drag the snare around,' reports Connear. In one case a dog with a
radio collar was killed and the war veterans demanded a ransom for the collar.
For Alistair Pole the situation on the conservancies is a threat to the future
of this endangered species: 'The biggest problem facing wild dog conservation
in Africa is space. As space and prey species are
reduced by encroachment of
occupiers, so the population will decrease. They also become more
susceptible
to stochastic events such as outbreaks of disease or the snaring of an alpha dog
and the
potential pack breakdown. As the occupiers become more settled and
numerous, as they are
doing within Save Valley Conservancy, so these problems
will be compounded. There is therefore a
very real threat to the viability
and existence of the wild dog population in the lowveld.
On Bubiana,
200 animals have been recovered from the snares out of an estimated 30,000
killed
in the past 18 months. Most of the animals found have died from
starvation, thirst, infected wounds,
or strangulation. Many have had only
their limbs cut off for the poacher's pot leaving the rest of the
carcass to
wastefully rot. Guy Hilton-Barber, owner of the conservancy's Barberton ranch,
is
overwhelmed by the senselessness of the destruction he is seeing. 'Many
animals have been
found putrefying without any meat having been removed
because poachers failed to check their
snare lines.
The modus operandi of the poachers is to set
a minefield of cable snares (made from the fences
that surround the perimeter
of the conservancies) that act by slowly strangling, and starving,
their
victims to death. In addition to snaring, the poachers are increasingly
using dogs to run the
animals down, where they are then speared or axed to
death. 'On school holidays poaching is
even harder to control as the kids are
sent out to check the snares. It's easy for them to escape
from us and we
can't convict them as they're too young,' says Keith Pilz, a Manager on
Bubiana.
'The saddest thing is that Bubiana, Save and Chiredzi have vast
amounts of wildlife, healthy
productive populations of all the species.
They have the biggest concentration of game outside of
the National Parks and
yet they have been the hardest hit by these invasions. Zimbabwe has
410
species of birds and 386 have been sighted in Bubiana. We have the
highest nesting black eagle
populations. All of this will be lost if this
isn't resolved.
They have the biggest concentration of game
outside of the National Parks and yet they have been the hardest hit by these
invasions.
Often when
the game guards do catch poachers, the enforcement of penalties has been
negligible.
It would appear that the police are no longer able to uphold the
law, and one Senior Commissioner
has confessed to having his 'hands tied' due
to 'orders from above'. Earlier this year, Roger Whittal, owner of Humani
Ranch on the Save Conservancy, came home one afternoon to find
one of his
safari camps overrun by illegal settlers. In the process of skinning an impala,
the group
consisted of several well-known poachers who had been previously
apprehended. The police informed
Whittal that there was nothing they could
do, that it was not his camp any more but 'theirs'
(indicating the invaders).
Whittal himself has been told that he will be arrested if he continues
to
have anti-poaching patrols on 'their' land. Since then the conservancy has
been brutalised by
widespread poaching including an elephant whose tusk had
been removed.