Reuters
Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:32 AM GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's annual
inflation rate accelerated to 1,204.6
percent in August compared to 993.6
percent in the year to July, a new
record, official data showed on
Friday.
The figures are normally released earlier in the month, but
officials said
on Monday the August publication was delayed as statisticians
had failed to
get money for price surveys due to problems stemming from the
introduction
of new banknotes.
President Robert Mugabe has singled
out Zimbabwe's inflation, the highest in
the world, as the biggest stumbling
block to recovery from an 8-year-old
economic recession critics blame on
government mismanagement.
From Zim Online (SA), 15 September
Harare - Cash-strapped Air Zimbabwe was forced to fork
out US$2 million to
charter a foreign aircraft to service its international
routes after
President Robert Mugabe last Tuesday seized the national
airline's single
working long-haul plane to ferry him to Cuba, Zim Online
has learnt. Senior
Air Zimbabwe officials, who did not want to be named for
fear of
victimisation, said the chartered aircraft, a Boeing 767-300,
belongs to
EuroAtlantic Airways, a charter airline based in Portugal. "The
Portuguese
plane will service all our international routes, the
London-Harare, Beijing,
Singapore and Dubai routes until September 18, when
the President returns
home," said one official. Another official in the
bookings department at Air
Zimbabwe's head office just outside Harare said
the plane being used by
Mugabe will fly to London without the Zimbabwean
leader and his entourage -
they are banned from Britain - to pick up
passengers and then fly to Egypt.
Mugabe, who will travel from Cuba to
Egypt, will board the Air Zimbabwe
plane from Cairo for the flight back to
Harare.
But Air Zimbabwe spokesman David Mwenga denied Mugabe had
taken the national
airline's only long-haul jet or that the airline was
using a chartered
aircraft to ply its international routes. "No, it's not
true," was all
Mwenga would say. The Air Zimbabwe spokesman would not
disclose more
information as to whether Mugabe used scheduled flights to
travel to Cuba,
something the Zimbabwean leader rarely does. This is not the
first time
Mugabe has commandeered Air Zimbabwe planes to take him on his
many trips
outside the country. He often does that and at one time in 2004
took one of
the heavily indebted national airline's wide-bodied jets for a
vacation with
his family and a small party of aides in Asia. Mugabe's abrupt
commandeering
of planes, mismanagement and corruption have combined to bring
Air Zimbabwe
to a state of near collapse. The airline which was one of the
largest in
Africa now has only one long-haul jet and several small
Chinese-made
short-haul jets used on domestic routes. In just one of several
cases where
passengers have found themselves stuck because Air Zimbabwe has
no planes,
40 passengers spent several days stranded in Harare because the
airline
could not accommodate them on its London-bound aircraft.
Zim Online
Saturday 16 September
2006
HARARE - Politically motivated
violence and human rights abuses are on
the increase in Zimbabwe, with for
example 68 cases of illegal use of
torture recorded last July compared to
only one case the previous month,
according to the Zimbabwe Human Rights
Forum (ZHRF).
The ZHRF, a grouping of more than 17 of the country's
main human
rights and pro-democracy non-governmental organisations (NGOs),
monitors
political violence in Zimbabwe and publishes regular reports on the
human
rights situation in the troubled southern African
country.
In its latest report dated July 2006 and released this
week, the ZHRF
blamed most cases of politically motivated torture and
assault on state
security agents and called on the government to ensure its
agents upheld
international and local laws forbidding torture and inhuman
treatment of
people.
It said: "The Forum deplores the use of
assault and torture by the
police during arrests and detention. The Forum
further urges the responsible
authorities to abide by the prohibitions of
torture as espoused in the
United Nations convention against torture and
other forms of cruel, inhuman
and degrading treatment and
punishment."
Ironically, the Forum's call on the government to end
torture of
pponents comes amid reports that about 15 labour leaders arrested
by the
police for organising worker protests last Wednesday were all in
critical
condition after they were severely assaulted and tortured by the
police.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and some
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change party leaders were still in police
custody by
late Friday afternoon and where they were being denied medical
attention.
Only ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe, who is
suspected to
have suffered a fracture on the skull during the assaults, had
been allowed
to go to hospital because of his severe injuries.
The ZHRF report cites several examples of police and army brutality
against
opponents of President Robert Mugabe's government.
In one such case
on July 9, 2006, the youth chairman of the MDC in
Chitungwiza town was
abducted by eight men suspected to be Zimbabwe army
soldiers who took him to
an army camp along the highway from Chitungwiza to
Harare and where they
severely assaulted and tortured him, the report says.
The report
also cited the arrest and subsequent assault of 128
activists of the
National Constitutional Assembly for holding demonstrations
in Harare
demanding a new and democratic constitution in Zimbabwe.
Another 18
activists of the Combined Harare Residents Association were
also arrested in
July for protesting against deteriorating conditions in the
capital. Two
journalists, Ndamu Sandu and Godwin Mangudya, who were covering
the
residents protest were also arrested, the ZHRF report says.
All
those arrested were released after spending the night at Harare
Central
Police station but not before paying admission of guilt fines of
$250
each.
The Forum condemned the brutal assault of Trudy Stevenson, a
legislator of the Arthur Mutambara-wing of the fractured MDC. Stevenson, who
sustained a broken arm and other serious injuries to the head, was allegedly
assaulted by youths belonging to the other faction of the opposition party
led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
Both Home Affairs Minister Kembo
Mohadi and Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa were not immediately available
to respond to the ZHRF report.
However, the government has in the
past denied that security forces
target its political opponents for abuse
and torture. - ZimOnline
VOA
By
Carole Gombakomba
Washington
15 September
2006
Amnesty International is urging the international
community and the public
to send protest letters to the Harare government
objecting to the detention
and treatment of union leaders, opposition
members and others. The human
rights organisation says Harare has violated
the United Nations Declaration
on Human Rights.
Amnesty says it is
also seriously concerned with what it calls the "illegal"
detention of more
than 100 members of the activist group Women of Zimbabwe
arise who were
arrested Monday for protesting rising water fees in Harare,
the
capital.
Police released the last of the WOZA activists early Friday
after their
arraignment.
Amnesty International Africa campaigner
Simeon Mawanza told reporter Carole
Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that the force of world public
opinion can help hold the Harare
government accountable for its actions.
New Zimbabwe
By David
Coltart, MP
Last updated: 09/16/2006 02:53:36
THE MDC (AM faction)
expresses its deep concern and outrage regarding the
pre-emptive arrests of
ZCTU members and our colleagues in the MDC (MT
faction), the alleged denial
of access to them by lawyers and alleged
assaults of them by state
operatives this week.
Notwithstanding the provisions of POSA, the
Zimbabwean Constitution is quite
clear regarding the right that Zimbabweans
have to demonstrate peaceably.
The provisions of POSA used by the Zanu PF
regime to arrest people
exercising this fundamental constitutional right are
fascist laws no
different to those used by the white minority regime in
terms of LOMA. They
were bad laws then and are no different now. LOMA did
not prevent the
legitimate demands of the people from being realised and in
the same way
POSA will not succeed ultimately in denying the people their
rights. The
sooner the regime realises that these laws will not solve the
Zimbabwean
crisis the better. The regime is advised to repeal POSA and then
sit down
with all Zimbabweans to negotiate a solution to the calamitous
situation
afflicting our nation.
We are especially concerned about
reports that state agents have denied
access by lawyers to those detained
and that several of those detained have
been severely assaulted. These two
breaches of rights usually go hand in
hand - when lawyers can't get in to
see their clients law enforcement
agencies the world over feel they have
licence to torture. That is the very
reason why the United States Supreme
Court recently, and very correctly,
ruled that the denial of access to
lawyers in Guantanamo Bay offended the
American Constitution. Sadly this
practice is routine in Zimbabwe and has
been for decades. It must stop
immediately and those responsible for both
the denial of access and torture
must be identified, rooted out of whatever
state agency they belong to and
prosecuted.
A specific call is made on the Attorney General to
investigate these reports
of denial of access and torture. It is the
Attorney General's responsibility
to ensure that Zimbabwe's Constitution is
obeyed by all, especially by state
agents and the police in particular. We
expect that he will call for an
urgent investigation into these allegations
and that he will vigorously
prosecute those responsible for these outrages
if the allegations are found
to be correct.
In any democratic country
if subordinates are found guilty of serious human
rights allegations the
Minister under whom they fall take responsibility and
resign. This is not
the first time that the police, CIO and youth brigade in
Zimbabwe have been
accused of torture - there have been persistent reports
(many backed by
irrefutable medical evidence) over the last few years of
these agencies
being engaged in acts of torture.
Article 2 of the UN Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
degrading Treatment or Punishment
states:
"Each State Party shall take effective legislative,
administrative, judicial
or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any
territory under its
jurisdiction".
It is clear to all reasonable
people that the Zanu PF regime has failed to
comply with this basic
international obligation. In particular the Minister
of Home Affairs,
Minister Kembo Mohadi, has failed to prevent torture being
used by the
police. He is deeply aware of the issue because it has been
raised on
several occasions with him in Parliament. He should also be
acutely
empathetic because he himself suffered torture at the hands of this
regime
in the 1980s. In all the circumstances we call upon him to
resign.
Finally we are cognisant that this regime has in the past simply
denied that
torture has been used and so is likely to do so again. With this
in mind the
Zanu PF regime is reminded that "torture is an international
crime over
which international law and the parties to the Torture Convention
have given
universal jurisdiction to all courts wherever the torture
occurs". We are
keeping records of those responsible for these heinous acts
and will use all
the means at our disposal to bring the culprits to
book.
Martin Luther King once said "Where evil men would seek to
perpetuate an
unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a
real order of
justice".
That is precisely what we are doing and as
sure as day follows night a real
order of justice will be brought to
Zimbabwe.
David Coltart MP is the Shadow Minister of Justice for the MDC
faction led
by Arthur Mutambara
By Violet Gonda
15 September 2006
"It's really terrible and really brutal" were the
words used by Dr
Reginald Matchaba Hove of the Zimbabwe Doctors for Human
Rights to describe
the severe injuries and the torture of the arrested
officials on Thursday
evening. After two days in police custody the victims'
lawyer Alec
Muchadehama successfully applied to the High Court for an order
to give them
access to a medical doctor. 15 brutalised members of the
Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions, including the top leadership were
escorted in handcuffs
from Matapi Police Station to Parirenyatwa Hospital
for urgent medical
treatment. Matchaba Hove said he rushed to the hospital
after he received
several calls from concerned relatives of the victims. He
confirmed that
even though all 15 showed signs of serious injuries and had
difficulty
walking they arrived in handcuffs. The doctor said what was even
more
concerning was the fact that they were whisked back to Harare Central
early
Friday morning despite their injuries.
The victims,
including ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo and Secretary
General Wellington
Chibhebhe told the medical team that when they were
arrested on Wednesday,
"they were taken two at a time into a cell and beaten
by five policemen in
uniform, who beat them for at least an hour if not
more." When tired the
police officers are said to have taken rests or taken
turns to torture the
labour officials.
The arrests happened in Harare on Wednesday as
people gathered for a
mass demonstration against low salaries, high taxes
and workers' lack of
access to anti-retroviral HIV/AIDS drugs.Describing the
injuries Dr Matchaba
Hove said; "Chibhebhe himself had obvious lacerations
on the top of his head
and his shirt was full of blood. His hands were
obviously swollen and the
left hand - it was very clear that he had an
obvious fracture. They all had
severe bruises to the limbs, backs, buttocks
and they said to us they had
been thoroughly beaten the very day they had
been picked." He said Lovemore
Matombo's hands and his back are swollen.
Lucia Matibenga, the ZCTU First
Vice President, was bleeding from the ears.
Matchaba Hove named some of the
others injured; Moses Ngondo and Rwopedza
Chigwagwa had fractures of the
forearm, Tererai Todini a broken finger and
Nqobizita Khumalo a fractured
leg.
Despite the serious
condition of the activists the police took them
back in custody. The doctor
said; "I left hospital around half past three in
the morning and we had been
assured that they would be kept overnight until
they seen by a specialist. I
am advised though that early this morning
(Friday) after 6am , all of them,
except Mr Chibhebhe who was admitted, were
taken back to Central." He said
the police insisted on taking them back to
Harare Central Police Station
where their case was processed for court.
Meanwhile the Zimbabwe
Association of Doctors for Human Rights issued
a statement saying they
unreservedly condemn the assault and torture and
prolonged detention of the
activists. The doctors also condemned the initial
refusal by the police to
release the injured from Matapi Police Station to a
medical
facility.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
International Federation of Journalists
(Brussels)
PRESS RELEASE
September 15, 2006
Posted to the web
September 15, 2006
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
today condemned the
beating and detention of a TV cameraman by police
officers in Zimbabwe.
On Wednesday, 13 September, Mike Saburi, a
cameraman with Reuters
Television, was assaulted by police officers and
jailed after he filmed the
police beating people involved in a banned trade
union march in the capital
city of Harare.
"We strongly condemn this
brutal assault on Mike Saburi and we call for his
immediate and
unconditional release," said Gabriel Baglo, Director of the
IFJ Africa
Office. "Even though the government had forbidden this
demonstration, it was
still a newsworthy event. Banning media coverage and
trampling on press
freedom will not solve any of the problems in Zimbabwe."
Saburi was
filming the police beating people when he was assaulted and
arrested along
with some others, said Foster Dongozi, General Secretary of
the Zimbabwe
Union of Journalists (ZUJ).
"According to his lawyer, who is the only
person authorised to have access
to the arrested, Mike is accused of having
gone beyond his journalistic work
while filming the march," Dongozi told the
IFJ.
According to an SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe report, during the assault
Saburi
tried to show police his accreditation card but they kept beating him
and
then put him in a police vehicle.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) has called for demonstrations
in urban centres to protest
against poor wages and high taxes and to demand
that workers have access to
anti-retroviral drugs to combat rampant
HIV/AIDS. The main ZCTU leaders have
been arrested.
The IFJ represents over 500,000 journalists in more than
110 countries.
Zim Online
Saturday 16 September
2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Union (ZCTU) secretary general
Wellington Chibebe was in a serious condition
in a government hospital after
being brutally assaulted by the police, while
a Harare court last night
freed 31 other unionists and opposition officials
from police custody on
Z$20 000 bail each.
Chibebe's
application for bail will be heard separately, while the
other trade union
and opposition officials were ordered to return to court
on October 3, to
answer to charges of organising illegal protests.
Under the
government's tough security laws, Zimbabweans must first
seek permission
from the police before holding political meetings or
demonstrations in
public.
The ZCTU and some opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC)
party officials were arrested by the police in Harare on Wednesday as
they
prepared to lead lunchtime protests by workers against worsening
economic
hardships. The protests fizzled out after the arrests.
They were severely assaulted by the police who kept them locked up in
cells,
denying them medical attention. The trade unionists and MDC officials
suffered various injuries including broken arms, legs and ribs.
But
the worst injured was Chibebe who suffered two fractures on the
left arm,
bruises all over his body and deep cuts to the head.
Harare lawyer
Alec Muchadehama, acting for the unionists and
opposition officials, said he
had raised the assault of his clients by the
police before the
court.
"We complained to the court about the severe assault of our
clients
while in police custody. Some of them can barely walk or sit,"
Muchadehama
told ZimOnline, adding that the court had put the brutal
assaults on record.
Earlier in the day, leader of the main wing of
the splintered MDC
Morgan Tsvangirai, prominent human rights lawyer Lovemore
Madhuku and close
relatives were barred by security agents from seeing
Chibebe at the
state-run Parirenyatwa hospital where he is
admitted.
Zimbabwe security forces mounted a massive operation last
Wednesday,
arresting dozens of labour and opposition leaders to thwart
worker protests
called by the ZCTU, the largest umbrella union for the
country's workers.
The ZCTU had called the protests to force the
government and business
to accept linking wages and salaries to the poverty
datum line (breadline),
which at Z$96 000 per month is many times above the
average take home pay of
the ordinary worker.
The union, that
has vowed to intensify job strikes until the
government and business acceded
to its demands, says workers earning below
the breadline should be exempted
from paying tax and also wants the
government to ensure ready availability
of anti-retroviral drugs to combat a
burgeoning HIV/AIDS pandemic killing at
least 3 000 Zimbabweans every
week. - ZimOnline
[This report does not necessarily reflect
the views of the United Nations]
HARARE, 15 Sep 2006 (IRIN) -
Soldiers are being deployed to seize Zimbabwe's
grain harvest from farmers,
in what appears to be a tacit acknowledgement
that the government's
projected 1.8 million tonne crop will not be met.
The troop deployment
follows Operation Maguta, in which soldiers supervised
agricultural
production on farms and, in some cases, forced farmers to
produce maize
ahead of other crops such as onions and tomatoes.
The state-controlled
Grain Marketing Board (GMB), the sole agency authorised
to sell and buy
maize, warned farmers in a recent statement that "there will
be a massive
grain collection exercise in conjunction with members of the
Zimbabwe
Defence Forces. This is being done in order for GMB to fulfill its
strategic
commitment of ensuring food security."
In response to an opposition party
member's question in parliament,
agriculture minister Joseph Made conceded
that despite good rains the
country faced food distribution problems.
"Indeed, we have been having a
problem of supplying grain to the millers -
we have been balancing the
distribution between what we have already
collected and what we have
imported."
Independent agricultural
analysts predicted a maize harvest of 700,000
tonnes, while GMB depots have
only received 300,000 tonnes so far, leaving a
shortfall of over million
tonnes in the country's annual cereal requirement
of about 1.9 million
tonnes.
The decision to use troops to collect maize from the farmers came
after many
resorted to selling their harvest to middlemen offering prices
above the
Z$31,000 (US$124) a tonne being paid by the grain board. Selling
grain to
anyone other than the board is illegal, but farmers said they had
no option.
"We delivered our maize grain to the GMB in June, but up to
now we still
have not been paid," said Robert Marufu, who farms in Mazowe,
near the
capital, Harare, in Mashonaland Central Province. "I have started
selling
some maize which I retained to middlemen, who are buying at
Z$100,000
(US$400) a tonne compared to the Z$31,000 (US$124) GMB is
offering."
Marufu told IRIN he was concerned that with the new planting
season a few
weeks away, and the GMB's failure to pay him for his maize, he
would be
unable to buy farming inputs for the coming season.
Local
state-controlled media have been awash with reports that senior
government
officials, including President Robert Mugabe, have received
billions of
dollars for their agricultural produce, while small-scale
farmers remain
unpaid.
Simon Pazvakavambwa, permanent secretary in the agriculture
ministry,
refused to say why soldiers were being deployed to oversee grain
collection,
but said farmers who wished to retain some of their crop were
entitled to do
so.
"There is a process that has to be followed, and
any farmer who wants to
keep part of his grain can always apply," he
said.
But farmers in remote rural areas are often unaware of the
procedures, and
it is expected that many will just surrender their crop and
not keep any for
their own needs.
IOL
September 15 2006 at
03:07PM
Harare - Prominent business tycoon John Bredenkamp has been
stripped
of his Zimbabwean passport because he also held South African
citizenship,
it was reported Friday.
Bredenkamp, 66, was
arrested in Harare and detained by police for four
days in July for
breaching strict local citizenship laws by holding both
Zimbabwean and South
African passports. Dual citizenship is not permitted in
Zimbabwe.
A magistrate hearing the wealthy businessman's case
in Harare on
Thursday said he could not convict Bredenkamp of any offence
because of a
legal loophole, the state-controlled Herald newspaper
said.
Bredenkamp's lawyer had argued that the businessman only used
his
South African passport for travel outside Zimbabwe, and not to enter and
leave the country.
Magistrate Tapiwa Godzi
agreed that Zimbabwe's citizenship act did not
give the courts jurisdiction
to act on cases committed outside Zimbabwe's
borders, the Herald
said.
Godzi said Zimbabwe's lawmakers should urgently address the
loophole.
Zimbabwe's Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede had asked
that
Bredenkamp's passport be withdrawn because by using the South African
travel
document, he had ceased to be a Zimbabwean citizen.
That
request had been granted and Bredenkamp would not have his
passport returned
to him, the Herald said.
Born in South Africa in 1940, Bredenkamp
moved to the then white-
ruled Rhodesia as a child. The former Rhodesian
rugby captain has
significant farming and business interests in
Zimbabwe.
He is also reputed to have close links to Emmerson
Mnangagwa, the man
once tipped to be President Robert Mugabe's successor. -
Sapa-dpa