"The game we are about to play needs music," the Zimbabwean police
constable
said to the12-year-old girl. But as he tossed a mattress on to the
ground it
was clear that it was no game he was planning.
For the next
four hours the girl's mother and younger sisters, aged nine and
seven, were
forced to chant praises to President Robert Mugabe and watch
Dora being
gang-raped by five "war veterans" and the policeman.
"Every time they
stopped singing, the policeman and war vets beat them with
sjamboks and
sticks," said Dora, crying and clenching her hands repeatedly
as she recalled
the ordeal that took place behind her family hut in a
village in the dark
shadow of the Vumba mountains of Manicaland, in eastern
Zimbabwe. "They kept
thrusting themselves into me over and over again
saying: 'This is the
punishment for those of you who want to sell this
country to Tony Blair and
the whites.' When they had finished, it hurt so
much I couldn't
walk."
Now in hiding, spending most of her nights in frightened
wakefulness, she
remembers feeling the rough breath on her face, the hands
forcing apart her
thighs, and "that animal thing" as she calls it slamming
into her underfed
body. Dora was raped because her father is a supporter of
the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change. He is not a candidate, not a
party official,
just a simple carpenter who had mistakenly believed that he
lived in a
country where he could vote for whom he liked.
Dora's
story, as she tells it, started with a Land Rover full of war
veterans
drawing up at the door about 10pm one evening in June, while her
father was
away, and ended with her left bruised and bleeding at 2.30am.
"There had been
a bad luck owl in the msasa tree that day," she said,
recalling hearing it in
between passing out. But the real beginning of the
horror can be traced back
to March when her village voted against Mr Mugabe
in the presidential
elections. For rape has become the latest weapon in Mr
Mugabe's war against
his own population. Dora's screams in the African night
were a warning to all
the other villagers as to what might happen to those
who even think of
defying the President again.
Dora is one of hundreds of young girls
who are being raped in the fields and
mountains of rural Zimbabwe every month
as part of what human rights workers
are calling a "systematic political
cleansing of the population".
Many of the girls are taken to camps run by
Mr Mugabe's youth militia, the
Green Bombers; a sinister parallel to the rape
camps of Bosnian Muslim women
established by Serb forces in the early 1990s.
And with half the country
facing starvation, more and more youths are being
lured to join the militia
by the prospect of food.
In Zimbabwe,
though, there is an extra, fatal dimension to the ordeals that
the women
endure: with at least 38 per cent of the population HIV positive,
the rape is
often a death sentence.
"We're seeing an enormous prevalence of rape and
enough cases to say it's
being used by the State as a political tool with
women and girls being raped
because they are wives, girlfriends or daughters
of political activists,"
said Tony Reeler, the clinical director of the Amani
Trust, a Harare-based
organisation that monitors and treats torture victims.
"There are also
horrific cases of girls as young as 12 or 13 being taken off
to militia
camps, used and abused and kept in forced concubinage. But I
suspect, as
with Bosnia, the real extent of what is happening is going to
take a hell of
a long time to come out."
Rape goes unreported in many
parts of the world, but more so in Africa,
particularly in rural areas where
a raped daughter is seen as bringing shame
on the family and afterwards
becomes hard to marry. The pressure to remain
silent is even stronger in a
repressive police state where the police are
often the perpetrators. Dora's
family did go to the police station only to
be laughed at with the words:
"We're not fools to arrest one of our
colleagues."
Nor do many rape
victims receive medical treatment. In Dora's case the local
clinic had no
drugs and the family did not have the money to take her to
hospital, so she
is being treated with traditional herbs. Her own dreams of
becoming a nurse
are in tatters as she is terrified that she may have been
infected with the
AIDS virus.
Fear and hunger are what passes for life in much of Zimbabwe.
In Harare
there is a facade of normality - workmen repaint the blue trolley
shelter in
the gleaming new airport terminal, the traffic lights work and
pavement
cafes serve the best cappuccino in Africa. The roads are full of
gleaming
new BMWs, known as "girlfriends of ministers' cars", bought by
government
officials profiting from black market money
speculation.
The only signs of anything amiss are the long, snaking
queues for bread,
sugar and fuel, the absence of maize (previously the
country's staple food)
from all shops and the number of people simply hanging
around. Unemployment
has now reached 70 per cent of the working
population.
MSNBC
Blair to press regional
leaders on Zimbabwe
MAPUTO, Aug. 31 - Britain's Prime Minister
Tony Blair said on Saturday he
would raise Zimbabwe's ''appalling catalogue
of mismanagement and
corruption'' with southern African leaders during a
three-day visit to the
region.
Blair
told reporters on his flight to Mozambique that Britain was
doing all it
could to seek change in Zimbabwe.
But he added that an international summit on protecting the
environment and
enriching poor nations in Johannesburg -- which Blair is due
to address on
Monday -- should not be held hostage to the crisis across
South Africa's
northern border.
''There is a gross and
appalling catalogue of mismanagement and
corruption (by President Robert
Mugabe's government),'' Blair said. ''That
is why we are doing everything we
possibly can to put pressure on that
government to
change.''
''But it will not and should
not dominate us talking about the future
of the planet as a whole,'' he
added.
Zimbabwe, a former British
colony, has been gripped by a deepening
political and economic crisis since
pro-government militias invaded
white-owned farms in early 2000 in support of
Mugabe's campaign to
redistribute their land to landless
blacks.
Mugabe says the actions are a
necessary redress of colonial
injustices. Britain says Mugabe is pushing a
fertile country to the brink of
famine while enriching his
cronies.
The crisis in Zimbabwe has cast
a shadow over plans to create an
African renaissance, championed by Blair,
which links increased Western
trade and aid with good governance and economic
reform by African countries.
''The whole
of that region has an interest and responsibility (in
Zimbabwe). That's
something I want to discuss with African leaders,''
Blair
said.
Blair said his two-day
visit to President Joaquim Chissano's
Mozambique is aimed at highlighting an
African leader ''who is taking his
development programme seriously, doing the
right thing,'' in stark contrast
to
Mugabe.
Blair will visit British-funded
programmes in the Mozambican city of
Beira on Sunday, including projects to
support adult and children's
education and a hospital accident and emergency
department.
Britain has promised to
boost its aid to Africa to one billion pounds
a year and Blair said it was
''important that people realise that this money
goes with strict controls and
is well spent.''
SUMMIT OPTIMISM
Blair sounded a guarded note of optimism that up to 200 nations
meeting in
South Africa could strike a deal to promote sustainable
development and
protect the environment.
Ministers and
officials have been haggling all week over issues
including trade, energy and
sanitation before the arrival of world leaders
in
Johannesburg.
''My assessment...is there
is a will to find an agreement,''
Blair
said.
He said it was crucial
that the summit endorse previous environmental
commitments made at meetings
in Rio and Kyoto, as well as delivering
tangible steps forward both on the
environment and economic development.
''It's important we send out a big signal in South Africa that we are
going
to hold to positions that we have agreed -- there shouldn't be
any
backsliding,'' he said.
''Secondly (it's important) we get certain specific deliverables that
we want
to see on areas like fisheries, education, poverty, sanitation and so
on.''
Mozambique leader backs Zimbabwe
seizures
August 31, 2002 Posted: 1:51 PM EDT (1751
GMT)
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Mozambican President Joaquim
Chissano gave his
backing to land redistribution in neighboring Zimbabwe,
where the government
seized thousands of white-owned farms, state-owned media
reported Saturday.
"We would like to express our solidarity to all
Zimbabweans involved in the
process, which is aimed at enlarging the number
of Zimbabwean citizens with
access to land," Chissano, on a one-day visit to
Harare on Friday, said in
an address broadcast on state
radio.
Zimbabwe has experienced more than two years of political and
economic
chaos, widely blamed on the ruling party. The government's decision
to
target 95 percent of white-owned farms for allocation to landless blacks
has
contributed to widespread food shortages and left half the country's
12.5
million people in danger of starvation.
Western governments have
condemned the land seizures and accused longtime
President Robert Mugabe of
rigging recent presidential elections, but
African leaders have been
reluctant to criticize a long-standing political
ally.
Chissano's
remarks came a day ahead of a two-day visit to Mozambique by
British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, one of Mugabe's fiercest critics. Blair
is due to visit
the central port of Beira Saturday and have talks with the
Mozambican leader.
The crisis in Zimbabwe is expected to top the agenda.
Britain, the United
States and several other countries have imposed targeted
sanctions against
Zimbabwe, denying senior officials entry visas and
freezing their overseas
assets.
Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980, has
in turn
vilified the British government, blaming the former colonial power
for many
of his country's problems.
In the Mozambican capital, Maputo,
Foreign Minister Leonardo Simao said
Saturday relations between Mozambique
and Britain were excellent and that
the timing of Chissano's visit to
Zimbabwe was a coincidence.
Chissano, a moderate leader who has welcomed
evicted white Zimbabwean
landowners to farm in his country, denied recent
reports that his government
was working with the United States to isolate
Mugabe.
"I don't know why (the United States) made this statement because
as far as
I know we have had not contact with America about Zimbabwe for a
long time,"
Chissano told the state-owned Herald newspaper shortly before
returning to
Mozambique.
"I would not be here if I had ill feelings
about President Mugabe," he said.
"Zimbabwe is not a danger to Mozambique and
Mozambique is not a danger to
Zimbabwe, so it is clear there is nothing of
that nature."
Zimbabwe's Mugabe to defend policies
at summit
Reuters News
Agency
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe said on
Saturday that President Robert Mugabe
would defend at the Earth summit the
controversial land-reform policies that
have brought sanctions against
him.
Speaking to reporters in
Johannesburg, Information Minister Jonathan
Moyo rejected accusations that
the drive to seize white-owned commercial
farms for redistribution to
landless blacks was responsible for a looming
famine in the
country.
"We uphold certain political
values such as sovereignty, independence
and pan-African solidarity. These
are things we have to pursue here,"
he
said.
Mr. Moyo was asked whether he
would deliver this message in person to
the British delegation. He said that
Mr. Mugabe would address the UN
meeting: "They will hear the president's
voice...We hope Britain will be
there to
listen."
As leader of Zimbabwe's former
colonial ruler, British Prime Minister
Tony Blair has often been singled out
for special attacks by Zimbabwean
state media and cabinet officials. In
return, Mr. Blair has openly derided
Mr. Mugabe, calling him a "little man"
running a government of "gangsters."
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told Reuters that Zimbabwe would not
accept
genetically modified foodstuffs as part of mostly U.S. aid shipments
to its
famine-threatened population.
"We do not
accept genetically modified material into Zimbabwe," Mr.
Made said. World
Food Programme officials said, however, that Zimbabwe has
previously accepted
GM food aid.
Mr. Mugabe accuses Britain of
supporting his opponents and seeking to
entrench white dominance of the
farm-based economy. The United States and
European Union have imposed travel
and financial sanctions on Mr. Mugabe and
his ruling elite after his
contentious re-election in March polls condemned
as flawed by the opposition
and most Western states.
Mr. Mugabe has
vowed to press ahead with the eviction of 2,900 of the
country's 4,500
remaining white commercial farmers despite legal challenges
at home and
criticism by the West.
"The fast-track
land resettlement program is over. There are no people
who need to move in,
there are people who need to move out ... We are now
praying that God gives
us the next thing, the rains," Mr. Moyo
said.
Zimbabwe is at the centre of
southern Africa's worst drought in a
decade, with six million of its 13
million people facing starvation. Aid
agencies and farmers say the land
campaign has hurt food output but Mr. Moyo
blamed the crisis only on
drought.
"While we are having drought,
they (Europeans) are having floods. Are
they able to do anything with those
floods? Are they able to grow anything?
No. So you cannot judge us on such
issues as the drought."
Of six southern
African nations threatened by famine, Zambia has also
rejected GM grain. Most
of it comes from the United States, which is
providing the bulk of food aid
in the region. Asked if he was prepared to
discuss the aid issue with U.S.
officials at the Earth Summit, agriculture
minister Made said: "There is
nothing to discuss ... You can't use the
Zimbabwean population as guinea
pigs."
Mr. Moyo described as "hogwash" and
"colonial propaganda" a report in
Britain's Daily Telegraph that commandos
from Britain's elite SAS had
conducted reconnaissance missions along
Zimbabwe's border to ready for a
possible emergency evacuation of British
citizens.
"They (Britain) should simply
ask for our assistance and we will help
them in a civilized way and make sure
they get on board the next British
Airways flight to London," he
said.
Sky News
Blair And Mugabe May
Clash Zimbabwe has said at
the Earth Summit that President Robert Mugabe
would defend the policies that
have brought sanctions against his
country.
Mugabe is due to speak after his
'enemy' British PM Tony Blair on
Monday.
Speaking to reporters at
the summit in Johannesburg, Information Minister
Jonathan Moyo rejected
accusations that the drive to seize white-owned farms
to give to landless
blacks was casing famine in the country.
'Pursue here'
"We uphold
certain political values such as sovereignty, independence and
pan-African
solidarity. These are things we have to pursue here," he said.
Moyo was
asked whether he would deliver this message in person to the
British
delegation. He said Mugabe would address the UN meeting: "They will
hear the
president's voice...We hope Britain will be there to listen."
Mugabe has
called Blair a "little man" running a government of "gangsters".
GM
food
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said that Zimbabwe would not
accept
genetically modified foodstuffs as part of mostly US aid shipments to
its
famine-threatened population.
The United States and European Union
imposed travel and financial sanctions
on Mugabe and his ruling elite after
his controversial re-election in March
polls condemned as flawed by the
opposition and most Western
states.
Last Updated: 16:11 UK, Saturday August 31,
2002
ABC News
Zimbabwe Rules Out GM Food
Aid, Won't Talk to U.S.
Aug.
31
- JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Zimbabwe will
not accept genetically
modified (GM) foodstuffs as part of mostly U.S. aid
shipments to its
famine-threatened population, its agriculture minister,
Joseph Made, said on
Saturday.
"We do
not accept genetically modified material into Zimbabwe," Made
told Reuters in
Johannesburg following the arrival of President Robert
Mugabe for the Earth
Summit.
Of six southern African nations
threatened by famine, Zambia has also
rejected GM grain. Most of it comes
from the United States, which is
providing the bulk of food aid in the
region.
Zambia has said it shares European
fears that GM is not safe and wants
its own scientists to probe the issue.
Western nations have accused Mugabe's
government of hurting output in
southern Africa's "breadbasket" through land
seizures from white
farmers.
Asked if he was prepared to
discuss the aid issue with U.S. officials
at the Earth Summit, Made said:
"There is nothing to discuss...You can't use
the Zimbabwean population as
guinea pigs...There is no way we can bring that
material into Zimbabwe, which
is a very clean environment."
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