From BBC News, 12 June 2000

Zimbabwe minister accuses US, Britain

The Zimbabwean foreign minister, Stan Mudenge, has accused the United States and Britain of trying to destabilise the country before parliamentary elections later this month. He said both countries supported opposition parties in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in the region. President Mugabe has already accused Britain of supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Last week, the Senate Foreign Relations committee in the United States approved a bill to suspend bilateral American assistance to Zimbabwe until democracy and the rule of law was restored. The bill, which still must be approved by the full senate, would help opposition groups mount possible legal challenges to election results.

From The Daily News, 12 June 2000

Gross human rights violations unearthed

Conrad Nyamutata

THE International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) based in Denmark has unearthed several cases of gross human rights violations in Zimbabwe during the run-up to the election. The IRCT undertook a fact-finding visit to Zimbabwe between 29 May and 6 June before compiling the report. The organisation concluded: "The current situation indicates that organised violence and torture are taking place on a very large scale..." The IRCT delegation included Maria Piniou-Kalli, the president of the organisation and Soraya Usmani Martinez, the secretary-general. In the report, the organisation said it found cases of physical and psychological torture and disruption of communities through intimidation and violence. The international body made recommendations following interviews and testimony from 10 victims of violence. In all the cases, the persecution resulted in anxiety, depression and pain. Most of them were members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

"Objective findings of physical and psychological torture were found in all 10 cases," said the IRCT. "There is evidence that mass psychological torture is occurring. Three cases illustrate torture being used to renounce political party affiliations. There is evidence of community disruption through intimidation and violence against health workers and teachers."

The visit by IRCT follows a terror crusade launched by suspected Zanu PF supporters against members of the MDC since the rejection of the draft constitution in the referendum held in February this year. At least 28 people have died, and 6 500 people, mostly villagers in the rural areas, have fled their homes in fear of persecution. The IRCT delegation came to Zimbabwe following a request by Amani Trust, local violence monitors, to conduct research. Amani acts as IRCT's regional co-ordinating centre for Africa.

The organisation made some recommendations. "It is imperative that the Zimbabwe government sign and ratify the United Nations Convention against torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment as soon as possible," said IRCT. "There should be independent judicial commissions appointed to investigate all gross human rights violations. A policy of reparations should be developed and implemented. The policy should include restitution, compensation and rehabilitation."

The organisation said mass psychological torture came in the form of forced attendance of pungwes (overnight meetings), beatings and humiliation of people in front of their communities. Attendance at these events was clearly under duress for many, the organisation said. References to "re-education" gave the impression of mass psychological torture. IRCT said violence had caused disruptions. Through interviews of victims, the organisation had noticed health services had been disrupted after hospitals were closed and ambulances stopped from carrying victims. Some places were being used for torture. In Mashonaland East, the Zexcom office at Murehwa Growth Point was known as a torture house, the organisation noted. Chipesa Farm in Marondera was also a centre for the planning and implementation of violence. The farm, owned by Iain Kay, was invaded by war veterans. In Karoi, the Zanu PF offices in the high-density suburb of Chikangwe were being used to house a militia. The group chanted slogans and sang all night, bringing opposition members for beatings at the offices.

IRCT said there had also been serious allegations that the surgery belonging to Chenjerai Hunzvi, the war veterans leader, has been used as a torture centre. Rape has been reported, and at least 12 cases have been attended to by non-governmental organisations. There were also reports of mass rapes. Some nurses had allegedly been raped at Nyadire Mission Hospital.

IRCT said Zimbabwe has had a history of gross human rights violations over the past three decades, including violations during Zimbabwe's liberation struggle in the 70s. The violations included extra-judicial killings, physical and psychological torture, rape, mass terror, and disappearances. While pungwes during that time were characterised by song and dance, they were also occasions for "political education". Sell-outs and political opponents were tortured and frequently executed at such meetings. IRCT noted that the violations witnessed in the 70s were seen after independence when the North-Korean trained Five Brigade was unleashed in Matabeleland and the Midlands regions.

The violations are well documented in: Breaking the Silence, a report produced by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and the Legal Resources Foundation. The government produced its own report but the findings were not published. The organisation also cited the food riots in 1998, when the police and the army assaulted demonstrators. The organisation also noted the kidnapping and torture of journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto of The Standard by the army.

Comment from The Daily News, 12 June 2000

Mbeki does not back illegal farm invasions

Pius Wakatama

OF late there has been a lot of hullabaloo, in the government Press, about how the region is supporting Zimbabwe’s land policy. The headlines are blazoned in such large type as though the support of this or that country makes our despicable acts righteous. The so-called support of South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia and Namibia is nothing but cold comfort. It will not change the fact that our country, which was a first class republic with unlimited potential is now a broke pariah state, which is the laughing stock of the civilised world.

After carefully reading the reports of the so-called support, I came to the conclusion that our neighbours support the policy of land redistribution but not the lawless way we are going about it. Not one regional leader has said that they support the illegal farm invasions. Regional leaders should indeed support land reform because, like us, they have land imbalances in their own countries.

All self-respecting Africans support the policy of land reform. Without it the liberation war would have been fought in vain. In Zimbabwe opposition parties, civil society and ordinary citizens have made it clear that there is need for land redistribution. However, they are aware that the government’s opportunistic and populist way of handling the land issue will not lead to land reform.

Our economy hinges on agriculture. The land issue should, therefore be handled in an intelligent and deliberate manner, and not haphazardly as a political ploy to win the votes of the uneducated, land hungry rural folk. The approval of violence and lawlessness by the government, which is supposed to be the custodian and enforcer of the law, is abhorrent to most Zimbabweans.

Regional leaders too, realise the danger of encouraging lawlessness. They would not like the anarchy that is taking place in Zimbabwe to spill over into their own countries. They would like to see land redistributed in an orderly, peaceful and just way, which will not harm their fragile economies.

President Mbeki is no fool. It is most unlikely that a man like Nelson Mandela could have made a mistake in his choice of a successor. He realises that nothing will be gained by antagonising our rather irrational and belligerent President Robert Mugabe. He, therefore, embarked on a soft diplomatic approach to diffuse the already volatile situation in Zimbabwe. Denouncing Mugabe directly, as a despot and tyrant, would put him in a corner and all hell might break loose.

This is why he quietly raised $560 million to buy farms for redistribution in Zimbabwe, on a willing-seller, willing-buyer basis. This money will be channelled through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This is good thinking on the part of Mbeki because, then our Zanu PF kleptomaniacs will not be able to get their fingers on it. The UNDP will certainly make sure that the acquired land will be distributed in such a manner as to be productive and in an equitable and transparent way designed to benefit the poor.

Much as I appreciate Mbeki's soft diplomatic approach, I am still rather sceptical. I know my president. He is full of guile, cunning and intrigue. The land issue was not a serious matter to him at all, otherwise he would have dealt with it ten years ago. It was a devious scheme to put Chenjerai Hunzvi and his murderous thugs on white-owned farms to terrorise the farmers and their workers who had come out en masse in support of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Right now white farmers and their workers are being "re-educated" to support a party they detest. Those who showed any resistance were tortured or murdered in cold blood.

Mbeki has put Mugabe in a quandary. Accepting the offer means accepting what he regards as "foreign interference" in the form of the UNDP. Not accepting it might mean losing the only real friend he has. He is at the same time afraid of accepting the offer because it will mean removing the war veterans from occupied farms, thus losing his trump card in the elections. He is, therefore now stalling by accusing the UNDP of trying to derail the land acquisition process. He also says he does not want the 841 already designated farms only but all white owned farms.

President Njoma of Namibia also publicly supported Zimbabwe. He recently enthusiastically joined Mugabe in shouting out-dated communistic slogans against so-called imperialism and neo-colonialism. He is respected for his role in freeing his country from white oppression, but he is no intellectual or moral giant. Instead of retiring so that someone else could take the lead, he shamelessly changed the constitution to make it possible for him to remain in power. He also let Mugabe fast talk him into going into the Democratic Republic of Congo when South Africa had sensibly refused to go. However, lets give him the benefit of the doubt and hope that he is on the soft diplomatic approach.

I love the Sotho people. They are some of the most beautiful people on earth. I have been to their mountain kingdom and have enjoyed their unstinting hospitality and their care-free approach to life. However, their leaders' support of Zimbabwe does not mean much. The recent political history of the tiny impoverished state leaves much to be desired. Had it not been for the intervention of South Africa and neighbouring states, Lesotho would have gone up in flames. One hopes that peace can be maintained there for the people are so impoverished that they need all their energies just to eke out a living.

Zambia recently joined the chorus in support of Zimbabwe's land policy. However, one has to view their enthusiastic support with suspicion for they are busy courting Zimbabwe's disgruntled white farmers to their own country. Unlike Zimbabwe, Zambia has investor-friendly laws which allow government to offer land for free or at a minimal fee to investors who promise to invest in the country's long-neglected agriculture industry.

Even though Mbeki might not succeed with Mugabe, his philosophy and diplomacy have to be applauded. With leaders like him, there is hope for Africa, yet. The idealistic and philosophical African Personality and negritude are still alive on the continent even though wounded and limping. His vision of an "African Rennaisance" has rekindled hope in the hearts of those of us who look beyond the mundane. Let us give the man who has put on Madiba’s mantle a chance.

Comment from The Sunday Times (SA), 11 June 2000

Mad Bob creating the Marxist land of his dreams

Stephen Mulholland - Another Voice

It is ironic that events in another country have caused so much fear and anxiety among those South Africans who worry about their futures and those of their families. These people are not all white and are not all property-owners, although many are. People of colour wouldn't want what is happening in Zimbabwe to happen here. Only those who would benefit, through the abuse of power, would wish to be run by an egomaniacal dictator whose response to political reverse is to terrorise, torture and kill not only his opposition but anyone he perceives to be even a potential threat.

And some are victimised merely to discourage others. Thus Indian merchants and property-owners have been pushed around in much the same manner that the crazed Idi Amin treated these law-abiding citizens whose only sin seems to be achieving success through hard work. Mugabe's murderous thugs have targeted black teachers and health workers simply
because, being educated, they can discern what is going on. This reminds one of Pol Pot's mass murder of his own people, and the Russian and Chinese habit of sending intellectuals for re-education, as collectivist brainwashing was known. Simple people are warned that the vote is not secret and that voting for the opposition is a certain death sentence. Good luck to
the international monitors who will try to convince them otherwise.

No one can accuse London's left-wing Guardian newspaper of sympathising with colonialism or propertied whites and Indians. Last week, its reporter wrote: "In the run-up to the elections on June 24-25, Mugabe's Zanu-PF party has unleashed a widespread campaign of violence against the opposition which has taken at least 30 lives. Thousands more opposition supporters have been beaten, raped and tortured." Zimbabwean police were apparently helpless to act against Mugabe's anarchic mobs of so-called war veterans as they ignored court orders, wantonly destroyed property, terrorised and killed farmers, their families and their workers and illegally occupied farms.

But the police quickly discovered teargas and their courage when riots broke out this week at petrol stations as the fuel crisis intensified. Mad Bob blamed the Brits for not delivering oil for which Zimbabwe cannot pay because it is spending what is left of its foreign exchange on its forces in the Congo, there to protect the diamond interests of Mugabe and his criminal
buddies.

It was former President Nelson Mandela who remarked that tyrants are often loathe to give up power because it means that their successors may well go after them for the crimes they committed while in office. And it was Archbishop Desmond Tutu who charged Mugabe with being a caricature of the likes of Idi Amin, Milton Obote, Mobutu Sese Seko and other dictators who have damaged the image of African leadership.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwean businesses, forced by economic and political turmoil to either shut down or cut back, have been identified by Mugabe's hit men to be dealt with after the election. In Mugabe's tortured imagination, a tourist operator who shuts down because there are no tourists is a traitor and, even worse, someone who wants to put Zanu-PF in a bad light because of losses of jobs and foreign exchange earnings.

As election fever rises, Mad Bob took to the hustings this week to proclaim that his government would seize all white-owned land and that any whites with land in Zimbabwe would be the beneficiaries of our charity. After the choice bits have been dished out to his cronies, the landless will be given commercial farms to squat which, of course, will ruin the country's
agronomy. Mad Bob will then have what he has always pined for, a Marxist enclave in which his word is law and God help anyone who steps out of line.

From The Daily News, 12 June 2000

MDC chairman flees Murehwa

Staff Reporter

FIDELIS Madziva, the chairman of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Murehwa, fled last week after his homestead was set on fire by suspected Zanu PF supporters. Madziva, of Chidawaya Village, was seriously assaulted before his property was set ablaze. A relative, who refused to be named, said Madziva was receiving treatment at the Avenues Clinic in Harare. The MDC is paying for his medical expenses. The relative said 12 Zanu PF supporters led by a youth leader in Murehwa found Madziva preparing his harvested maize at his homestead. The group demanded MDC membership cards and money he was using for campaigning.

Madziwa told them he did not have the cards and money. "They immediately started assaulting him with sticks and iron bars," he said. "He fell unconscious." The gang went on to burn his hut, a bedroom and a granary. His harvested maize stored in a granary was destroyed. The relative said the Zanu PF supporters destroyed Madziwa's mattress. They took MDC cards and some food. Madziva reported the matter to Musami Police, who could not act. He said Madziva did not go to Musami Hospital, fearing the Zanu PF militants would pursue him and "finish him off."

Madziva brought his two grandsons to Harare. His wife, who had gone to hospital, returned to find the homestead burnt. She has sought accommodation elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Etwell Gumbo, the campaign manager for Jasael Chimbendure, the Zimbabwe Union of Democrats (ZUD) candidate for Gokwe North, has also fled from the Midlands area after threats from suspected Zanu PF supporters. Gumbo said he had to leave because the police were not taking any action against the culprits. "We cannot campaign because of the threats," he said. "We had a meeting with the police but they are not helping." Some ZUD supporters were abducted by suspected Zanu PF members and forced to buy Zanu PF party membership cards at $26 each, said Gumbo. Chimbendure fled Gokwe last Monday but decided to return on Wednesday.

Meanwhile three members of the MDC say police officers watched helplessly while a gang of suspected war veterans and Zanu PF supporters tortured them about eight kilometres from Mataga Growth Point in Mberengwa East. The three were among five MDC youth leaders who went to Mberengwa on 3 June to campaign for Sekai Holland, the party's candidate for Mberengwa East. Simbarashe Muchemwa, 25, one of the victims, was still in pain as he related their ordeal to The Daily News on Friday. He sustained bruises and burns to the back, the crotch and the belly after their tormentors burnt him with plastic. They also whipped him. His torturers are still at large.

Muchemwa said their truck ran out of diesel while they were going to Zvishavane. They went back to Mberengwa to buy diesel. Upon their return, they were suddenly surrounded by a gang of strangers. "There were more than 20 men who were very friendly at first. We were surprised when they turned hostile, tied our hands and feet and began kicking and whipping us all over and calling us "traitors." Muchemwa said they asked him about his rural home and when he said that he came from Buhera, they said everyone from Buhera supported the MDC. Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, comes from Buhera.

"Some members of the gang undressed me, lit plastic paper and took turns to torture me, Muchemwa said, still in agony. "It was the most painful experience I have ever had. I screamed and pleaded with them to release me but they would not listen. What hurt me most is that some policemen stopped in a truck while we were being tortured. They did not do anything. "They told us that their leader, Big Chitoro, was coming the following morning to gouge out our eyes and I began planning to escape." Muchemwa managed to escape during the night.

Meanwhile, their torturers released Muchemwa's colleagues and set their truck, a Toyota Hilux, on fire. A Good Samaritan gave Muchemwa a lift to Zvishavane General Hospital. He said he asked to be discharged on Thursday last week after some people came to the hospital looking for him.

From The Daily News, 12 June 2000

Banana's sentence too short: Galz

Staff Reporter

KEITH Goddard, the programmes manager for the Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe says the sentence imposed on former President, Canaan Sodindo Banana, is inappropriate. Goddard said in a statement: "Heterosexual rape carries a sentence of seven years. Justice Chidyausiku is on record as saying that no distinction should be made between homosexual and heterosexual rape. It is strange then to see that he has made an obvious exception in this case and that the Supreme Court has upheld this glaring discrepancy."

Banana was sentenced to seven years and one month in prison accompanied by a $500 fine. Two years were for six counts of indecent assault. The $500 fine and six years and one month of the jail sentence were suspended on condition that Banana pays Jefta Dube, one of his victims, $250 000 compensation and does not commit similar offences within the next three years.

The Supreme Court made a ruling on 29 May that Banana should serve a one-year jail term for 11 counts of sexual offences, including two of sodomy. It set aside the sentence imposed on Banana last year including $500 000 restitution and imposed its own which considered that in modern times, a jail term was not proper in cases where consensual sodomy is practised in privacy.

Goddard said the issue of compensating Dube was "nonsensical." Banana began serving his sentence at Connemara Prison, near Kwekwe, on Friday. Goddard was critical of Justice Nicholas McNally, who handed down the judgement, saying he spoke from a position of ignorance. "Justice McNally's judgement demonstrates, at the very least, abysmal ignorance of equality jurisprudence and at worst it is merely a piece of sophistry," Goddard said. "McNally speaks from a position of total ignorance. Quoting Gelfand as a religious source invites scorn. The man is totally discredited as an anthropologist and his single comment on homosexuality being rare amongst the Shona has been proven totally wrong by more recent professionally conducted research," he said.

The full Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay, Justices Nicholas McNally, Ali Ebrahim, Simbarashe Muchechetere and Wilson Sandura, upheld Banana's conviction and sentence in the High Court.