World Press Review
The Fragile Lives and the Dictator
Eugene
Soros
Worldpress.org contributing editor
Harare, Zimbabwe
September 16,
2004
The Zimbabwean National army moved into the sprawling town of
Chitungwiza at
dusk. Heavily armored vehicles and soldiers with automatic
rifles lumbered
through the streets. As they passed through Mavis Chirombe's
homestead, a
child called out: "Soldiers are coming!" The cry was met with
silence from
the 50-year-old grandmother.
For some Zimbabweans, the
coming of the soldiers means a diminished ability
to be really happy. For
others, it brings recurring nightmares with images
of torture lurking in
their minds again and again. For everyone involved,
the experience greatly
reduces one's faith in humanity and raises serious
moral
questions.
In the days that followed the mass protests and stay-aways of
last June,
bitter memories of previous protests shot up into Mavis
Chirombe's life.
"I fought death 20 years ago," said Chirombe. "I am
still trying to and I
still need some pills to put me to sleep. I lost a son
in 1982. He was
beaten to death. The reason being that we then were
supporters of Zimbabwe
African People's Union [the late Joshua Nkomo's
Zapu-PF, the strongest
opposition party in 1980 to President Robert Mugabe's
Zanu-PF] of which we
were members and weapons of war had been found on its
farms."
Soon she breaks down, and every word is told in tears.
"I
do not think things will be the same again," she says with much
disdain.
Mugabe's rule has become perilous for women, who are frequently
raped,
forced into marriage because of food shortages and economic
hardships, or
subjected to degrading and inhuman treatment. A case in point
was when
soldiers ordered unknown couples to engage in sexual intercourse at
a public
nightclub in one of Chitungwiza's shopping centers.
Barbara,
who says we cannot use her full name, recounted an incident when
soldiers
were ordered to search her: "They literally touched every part of
my body. I
felt like screaming, but I was afraid of being beaten-up. I
wonder if the
armed forces have any women members these days."
Julia Muskwe, 39, was
forcibly stripped of her shirt at gunpoint before
sympathizers jumped to her
rescue and questioned why the soldiers were
undressing her. Julia now hardly
moves away from her home in unit G
Chitungwiza.
Mavis Tapera's (UMP
District) assailants ordered her out of her house at
night and used a knife
to cut off her petticoat, leaving her clad in only
her underwear. Her
assailants brutally assaulted her sexually, and ordered
her to imitate
demeaning sexual maneuvers. Later, her assailants returned
her to her
home.
Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, a local Member of Parliament (MP)
and
gender activist said violence over the past two years and the economic
situation have left many women vulnerable and homebound: "Even in parliament
we have now stopped raising gender issues until we have addressed the issue
of bread and butter and the people's security."
Amani Trust, a local
non-governmental organisation that assists survivors of
political violence,
revealed that more than a thousand people have sought
shelter with them
since 2000. A majority of these victims of violence and
displacement were
women.
"Research shows that women are the easiest targets of political
violence,
but because of their resilience most women remain indoors and
rarely report
the matters to the police," said Amani Trust Advocacy Officer
Joseph
Nherera. In rural areas most women who speak to journalists are
consciously
risking their lives. "Mwanangu! Tinosara thichiona ndondo (we
will see fire
when you are gone)."
Since coming to power in 1980,
Mugabe has made it clear that people who do
not subscribe to his ideologies
and party, the Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF),
will be persecuted in one way or another.
In 1982, under the guise of a
clamp down on rebels, Mugabe sent in a special
army brigade trained by the
North Koreans. But its real purpose was to deal
with the Ndebele opposition
Zimbabwe African People's Union-Patriotic Front
(Zapu-PF). The brigade's
activities were secret but 20 years later, human
rights investigators
reported that more than 20,000 Ndebeles had been
slaughtered - some raped,
many shot and bayoneted in random public
executions.
Although some of
the victims of Mugabe's whims have fought their cases in
court and won, they
still live in constant fear and apprehension.
"The fact that Mugabe is
still at the helm of things in Zimbabwe does not
help matters," said Dareni
Tomu, an opposition activist and Muskwe's friend.
"His thugs are still
immune from the full wrath of the law."
News24
Zim protesters 'want freedom'
16/09/2004 13:17 -
(SA)
Midrand - Police pulled a security cordon around the Pan African
Parliament
(PAP) opening ceremony in Midrand on Thursday morning when
protesters
arrived to press for democratic reform in Zimbabwe.
About
300 protesters carrying placards reading "We need food not violence",
"Democracy Now", and "Restore our basic freedom", toyi-toyied outside the
hall at Gallagher Estate where delegates and guests attended the opening
ceremony.
A spokesperson said the group was made up of Zimbabweans
who fled their
country for South Africa because of bad
conditions.
They came to plead with the PAP to put pressure on President
Robert Mugabe
to restore the rule of law and human rights in his country,
said Jabu
Mkwanazi.
Stripped of freedom
A petition handed out
by the group spoke of a "chronic democratic deficit"
in Zimbabwe.
"We
have been stripped of our basic freedoms: freedoms we fought a
liberation
war for," the document read.
It called for free and fair elections in
Zimbabwe, saying conditions were
currently not conducive to
this.
"Zimbabwe is our home, we want to go back, but we are prevented
from doing
so by the criminal failings of a government which has lost touch
with the
people and abandoned the principals which guided our liberation
agenda," the
petition read.
"We are calling on our fellow Africans to
help us move toward a new
beginning and create a new Zimbabwe which is a
true reflection of the one we
envisaged when we were fighting for
independence."
Meanwhile, in Harare, about 50 women from the pressure
group Women of
Zimbabwe Arise (Woza) demonstrated outside the South African
embassy in
Harare on Thursday, calling for an end to human rights abuses in
the
country.
Singing protest songs and carrying banners calling for
an end to harsh press
and public order laws, the women tied red ribbons on
the embassy's perimeter
fence in "memory of those killed and starved to
death by the Zimbabwe
regime," said Woza head Jenni
Williams.
Williams told Sapa the demonstration was timed to coincide with
the opening
of South Africa's parliament.
"We're here to tell (South
African President Thabo) Mbeki that we are going
to end his quiet diplomacy
in this country. We want more fire."
The demonstration, which lasted for
half an hour, ended peacefully when the
women dispersed before police
arrived.
MDC
PRESS
16
September 2004
APPOINTMENTS
TO DELIMITATION COMMISSION IS AN EXERCISE IN
DECEPTION
The
appointments to the Delimitation Commission, that were announced by Robert Mugabe yesterday, represent yet another breach of the SADC
protocol on elections and further vindicates the MDC’s
decision to suspend participation in elections. The majority those appointed
have long and close ties to Zanu PF and have no
history of independence and fairness.
The protocol is
very clear on the need to build transparency and fairness in electoral processes
by creating institutional and administrative frameworks that are safeguarded
from political manipulation.
This is simply
not happening in Zimbabwe. We are going in the opposite direction.
The
appointments that have been announced will ensure that the Delimitation
Commission (a body tasked with re-drawing constituency boundaries ahead of
elections to reflect shifting population patterns) is loaded with individuals
who because of their close historical and present ties to Zanu PF can be relied upon to do the bidding of Zanu PF. This is particularly worrying if one has regard to
the fact that the MDC has documentary
evidence that the process of re-drawing constituency boundaries,
ahead of the March 2005 parliamentary elections, has already been carried
out, under the instructions and guidance of officers from the
notorious Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO).
By appointing
new personnel to the Delimitation Commission, in order to provide it with a
veneer of independence, and tasking them to carry out the process of amending
constituency boundaries ahead of the parliamentary elections, the government is
clearly attempting to legitimize and rubber-stamp the discriminatory boundary
changes that it has already carried out unlawfully.
This is not in
the spirit of the Mauritius agreement. Yet again the
Zimbabwe government is demonstrating how out of touch
it is with the goals of the African renaissance.
Similarly, the
appointments procedure for the new ‘independent’ Electoral Commission, that were
outlined in the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Bill gazetted on Friday 10
September, will ensure that the government retains a controlling hand over its
operations and activities.
This latest
‘reform’ measure demonstrates that the government is being deeply disingenuous
with its pronouncements on electoral reform. What is clear is that the
government’s package of cosmetic reforms is a deliberate attempt to mislead the
nation and the region. The government is trying to create a smokescreen of
‘legitimacy’ behind which it can continue its strategy of consolidating its
coercive grip on the electoral processes and ensure pre-determined outcomes.
Professor Welshman Ncube
MDC Secretary
General
Notes
to Editors:
The new Commission includes
the following members:
- Job Whabira - a former Mugabe Permanent Secretary who achieved notoriety for
defying several court orders to release Standard journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto after the army arrested and
tortured them for a story that the paper had published.
- Justice Chiweshe – handed down a number of
questionable judgments that kept MDC MP Fletcher Dulini Ncube and other others accused in the Cain Nkala murder case in custody despite lack of evidence
against them. All the accused have since been proved innocent.
Roadblocks set-up to search for maize
[ This report does not necessarily
reflect the views of the United Nations]
HARARE, 16 Sep 2004 (IRIN) -
Police in Zimbabwe have set up roadblocks on
major roads in a bid to prevent
privately acquired maize from reaching urban
centres.
Farmers are
required to sell all their maize stocks to the state's Grain
Marketing Board
(GMB), which, by law, is the sole purchaser of maize and
wheat grown in the
country. The GMB also has a monopoly on the distribution
of
maize.
The police, in conjunction with officials from the GMB, began
conducting
maize searches at roadblocks at the start of the harvest season
in the
middle of the year.
All commuters from rural areas are ordered
to disembark and their
possessions searched. Any bags of maize confiscated
at roadblocks are
forfeit to the state.
Despite the slow-down in
official inflation - the annualised inflation rate
stood at 314 percent in
August, down from 362 percent in July - prices of
basic commodities have not
stopped rising.
This has prompted urban residents to try to purchase
maize from rural areas,
rather than pay the higher prices demanded in city
shops. However, they must
run the gauntlet of police checks.
"The
police took all my bags of maize. It is expensive to buy mealie-meal
[maize-meal] in Harare, and I decided to take maize bags from my rural
area," a disgruntled James Shumba told IRIN.
Another Harare resident,
civil servant John Daudi, said he could not afford
to buy maize-meal from
the shops. "At the end of every month I visit my
village and collect maize
from there, but I travel at night to avoid the
police," he
said.
Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka refused to comment on the
issue.
A GMB official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed
that the GMB
had asked the police to set up roadblocks in order catch
"illegal marketers"
of maize, as this could "sabotage" government efforts to
feed the country.
The Minister of Social Welfare, Paul Mangwana, told
IRIN the government was
distributing food in needy areas and would make sure
nobody starved.
Cereal availability uncertain
[ This report does not necessarily reflect
the views of the United Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 16 Sep 2004 (IRIN) -
National cereal availability in Zimbabwe
remains uncertain, with rural
dwellers in maize-deficit areas bartering or
relying on friends and family
to supplement their supply, the Famine Early
Warning Systems Network (FEWS
NET) said in its latest report.
Government spokesman Steyn Berejena told
IRIN on Thursday that the Grain
Marketing Board (GMB) had so far received
298,000 mt of maize from farmers,
against a national demand for 1.8 million
mt. He said the government
remained hopeful that its predicted grain harvest
of 2.4 million mt would
materialise.
Berejena noted that "deliveries
are still going on - part of the maize crop
is still in the fields". He
added that "some [commercial] farmers even
smuggled their machinery and
equipment out of the country, which has
affected the rate at which crops are
harvested".
FEWS NET observed that "information on GMB imports has not
been made
available, [making] conclusions on cereal availability in coming
months
difficult to assess", but on-farm stocks were declining.
While
"food-insecure households are still able to rely on neighbours,
friends and
relatives within their areas and adjacent districts to
supplement their
grain needs", those in deficit producing areas, mainly in
the eastern and
southern parts of the country, have had to "purchase or
barter for their
cereal", FEWS NET said.
The report said that "although basic commodities
like maize meal, cooking
oil, flour and sugar are currently available in
urban markets, affordability
is a problem". Hyperinflation, high rates of
unemployment and low wages were
contributing to food insecurity in urban
areas.
"As more households rely on the market to obtain their cereal
needs, food
security will depend more and more on the GMB, which controls
the formal
grain supply system. [However,] the quantity of grain collected
by the GMB,
as of mid-August, is insufficient to meet the needs in urban
centres and
rural areas with deficit production. There are concerns as to
how well the
parastatal will be able to play its grain redistribution role,"
FEWS NET
warned.
Berejena, meanwhile, noted that "even if we do not
reach the target of 2.4
million mt of maize, we do have other cereal crops
which are also staple
foods in Zimbabwe. So the food security [of the
country] really is not
threatened".
Disease Outbreak Feared At Waterless Hopley
Financial Gazette
(Harare)
September 16, 2004
Posted to the web September 16,
2004
Property Reporter
Harare
A SERIOUS health hazard is
looming if no urgent steps are taken to address
the critical water and sewer
problems affecting residents of Hopley Township
in Waterfalls.
The
new low-income housing suburb does not have water and sewer facilities
because it is not connected to the city council's mains, and the more than
50 families residing there are in danger of a major disease
outbreak.
Health experts said the plot-turned-residential area was now a
fertile
ground for diseases such as cholera and dysentery, which thrive in
such
conditions.
Residents are being forced to scrounge for water in
surrounding areas and
some even go to far-away areas such as Glen Norah in
search of the resource.
Hopley Township has more than 300 housing units,
270 of which have been
completed. A company called Morepod Investments is
developing the suburb.
Residents say they were forced to live in the
township because of
desperation. They said incessant rental hikes had forced
them to come and
occupy houses in the suburb although there were no water
and sewer
facilities.
"We go to nearby plots to fetch water for
laundry and other household chores
and sometimes we have to buy the water,"
said Memory Chibodzwa, one of the
residents.
She said the residents
were using pit latrines as toilets because there are
no toilet facilities
and some of the residents were defecating in bushes.
Residents said they
have been promised to be connected to the city's water
mains before the end
of this month.
They said some pipes and hydrants have been laid down and
an inspector
identified only as Kuzvidza from the city's water and sewer
department has
been coming to inspect the works with a view of connecting
the township.
Efforts to contact Kuzvidza and the property developer
proved fruitless.
Construction of the suburb began in 2000 and it was
embroiled in controversy
as the city fathers said they had not approved the
project and all
construction work was stopped.
The developer then
sought regularisation of the building project and got the
greenlight from
the city fathers for the commencement of construction
activities.
Employees of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Standard
Chartered and the
National Social Security Authority are some of the
beneficiaries of the
housing scheme.
Mail and Guardian
Women protest at SA embassy in Harare
Harare, Zimbabwe
16 September 2004 14:18
About 50 women from
the pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza)
demonstrated outside the
South African embassy in Harare on Thursday,
calling for an end to human
rights abuses in the country.
Singing protest songs and carrying banners
calling for an end to harsh press
and public-order laws, the women tied red
ribbons on the embassy's perimeter
fence in "memory of those killed and
starved to death by the Zimbabwe
regime", said Woza head Jenni
Williams.
Williams said the demonstration was timed to coincide with the
opening of
the Pan African Parliament in South Africa.
"We're here to
tell [South African President Thabo] Mbeki that we are going
to end his
quiet diplomacy in this country. We want more fire."
The demonstration,
which lasted for half an hour, ended peacefully when the
women dispersed
before police arrived. -- Sapa
San Francisco Chronicle
'Democracy' in Zimbabwe -- Another reason
to vote here
Farai Chideya
Thursday, September 16,
2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN SHONA, THE WORD for aunt is "tete." Eight years ago, on my first
visit to
Zimbabwe since I was a child, my relatives carted me around the
countryside
in a truck normally used to haul eggs to market, visiting the
old tetes --
or great aunts -- who had lived through colonialism, war and
hard- won
freedom. One auntie lived in a gorgeous green valley at the base
of a
mountain, in a tight-knit village without running water, paved roads or
electricity. My tete's life must have been, in some ways, unbelievably hard.
But her smile was electric, her laughter unrestrained.
She is
gone now, as is my father, who died this year. And so, in many
ways, is the
land I first visited -- a nation that, despite poverty,
sparkled with
promise. I was last in Zimbabwe three years ago, after ruler
Robert Mugabe
began using the issue of land redistribution to placate
disgruntled
citizens. Zimbabwe's farms lay fallow; international trade
slackened;
shopkeepers stood glum near their windows. I took a photograph of
the money
I got in exchange for three hundred measly U.S. dollars. It was a
thick,
unruly pile of colorful bills, each worth about as much as toilet
paper.
While the U.S. election makes the news here in the
states, Zimbabwe's
future is making international headlines. A few weeks
ago, the opposition
party announced it would not stand for election. It's
understandable --
party leaders and supporters have been harassed and
tortured -- but
heartbreaking.
Like many political observers, I
can be a stern taskmaster when it
comes to American democracy. We're the
land of fiery partisan attacks,
pregnant chads and unreliable electronic
voting machines. But as I was
talking to my brother the other day, I
realized how lucky I am.
Munyaradzi is 22, just graduated from
college and looking for a job.
There's little chance he'll find one. Unlike
me -- born and raised in the
States -- he has spent his life in Zimbabwe,
where the promise of democracy
has withered on the vine. Mugabe "could have
been another Nelson Mandela,"
one Zimbabwean said to me. Instead he took
another path, one familiar to too
many residents of African
nations.
Mugabe decided he liked the taste of unlimited power, the
feel of
exiling, intimidating and even torturing opposition party members
and
critical journalists. He decided that stealing from the treasury was his
right, and perverting the real needs of Zimbabweans for land reform was a
cheap way to stay in power. He mirrored the failures of fledgling
democracies around the world. And he has a lesson for us in the United
States.
Democracy, when it dies, sometimes goes quickly. Other
times it is a
slow and lingering death, as greed and the lust for power eat
away at the
vital organs of a democratic state: a free, critical and
unfettered press;
at least one strong opposition party; and, last but not
least, hope that
every citizen's vote counts.
That hope is
missing in Zimbabwe. And yet it's our nation, America,
where half of
citizens don't bother to vote. Maybe we just don't know how
much liberty,
choice and power we really have. Maybe we just don't know how
lucky we
are.
Farai Chideya is editor of PopandPolitics.com, host of Your
Call on
KALW and author of "Trust: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters"
(Soft
Skull Press, 2004).
'Proceeds From Peacekeeping Missions Bought Defence Vehicles'
The
Herald (Harare)
September 16, 2004
Posted to the web September 16,
2004
Harare
THE funds used to purchase the latest consignment of
motor vehicles by the
Ministry of Defence were sourced from the proceeds of
the United Nation
peacekeeping missions in the region, the ministry's deputy
secretary for
policy and procurement, Air Commodore Mike Karakadzai, said
yesterday.
Addressing journalists at a Press conference in Harare, Air
Comm Karakadzai
said the Government did not use taxpayers' money to buy the
Toyota Prados
for service chiefs as claimed by the The Standard newspaper
recently.
Air Comm Karakadzai justified the purchase by the Zimbabwe
Defence Forces
(ZDF) of the vehicles and other equipment, saying the
decision was made
after wide consultations within the force.
"The
fact is that the Ministry of Defence acquired 30 Toyota Prados meant
for use
by one-star generals in the army and air force," he said.
"We resolved to
adopt a two-in-one concept that is buying multi-purpose
vehicles which are
suitable in the day-to-day operations of the force given
our limited
financial resources."
He said the Toyota Prados were appropriate because
of their versatility in
that they were office and outdoor vehicles and can
even be used in hard
terrain as the officers spent most of their time in
outdoor training of
their troops in the field.
Apart from buying the
Prados, the ZDF had also bought an assortment of other
vehicles in line with
its policy where vehicles should be replaced after a
certain period of
time.
The replacement of these vehicles, he said, was long overdue as
that should
have been done three years ago.
Air Comm Karakadzai said
the ZDF was committed to providing the best service
for its members, and
that that was the reason they bought 35 Marcopolo and
Star buses to
alleviate the transport problems facing its officers.
He said the force
was striving to "make-do" with the available resources
following the
imposition of sanctions by Western countries.
He said the sanctions were
imposed at the Government level and local
companies which used to supply and
service ZDF equipment were incapacitated
because most of the equipment was
imported from the West.
"But we have taught ourselves to make-do with
what is available," he said.