| Zimbabwe hunt for British
journalists |
Zimbabwe security forces are hunting for British journalists said to have
entered the country on tourist visas.
The reporters, from British and South African publications, were staying in
local hotels, or in safe houses run by the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change, a government newspaper said.
The Government has not stated what it intends to do with the journalists it
arrests.
Government spokesman George Charamba said: "Our net is closing in on them,
and we should be able to account for all of them before the close of the
day."
The Herald newspaper, a government mouthpiece, said several foreign reporters
had entered the country on tourist visas in recent days, violating Zimbabwean
law.
Officials from the government and the ruling ZANU-PF party have accused
foreign journalists and local independent reporters of aiding opposition
officials, whom the government calls "terrorists."
The hunt was only the latest crackdown on independent reporting in Zimbabwe,
which has descended into violence, chaos and economic collapse as part of a
ruling party campaign to suppress the opposition in advance of presidential
elections scheduled for March.
Parliament in Harare was today scheduled to debate a harsh media bill that
free press groups said would destroy Zimbabwe's independent media.
Under current media regulations, all foreign journalists need to be
accredited by the government before entering the violence-wracked country.
When those regulations were adopted last year, local officials said the
accreditation process would simply be a formality. But Zimbabwe has refused
nearly all applications from foreign journalists in recent months.
For those wondering what the Section notifications some farmers are receiving ..........
"Sections" explained :
Section 5 - notice from government stating that the farm has been
identified
for compulsory acquisition and that it will be taken over at a
future date.
Section 7 - notice from government that compulsory acquisition
is now in
progress.
Section 8 - notice from government that owner must
vacate.
In all of the above section letters the area of land to be taken is
stated -
i.e. part of ,section of, all. (These areas are not being adhered to
in most
cases and settlers & gvt officials take as much as they
desire)
By law all of the above notices may be contested by the farm owner
and are
governed by dates (These laws are never followed)
Under the
governments "fast track" plan - once a farm is seized (mostly
before
nowadays) it is divided into plots for either PU,A1, A2 or large
scale
resettlement. PU = peri urban plot. A1 = small plot (under 10
hectares); A2=
medium sized plot (not clear what size) and large scale =
commercial (250
hectares)
While all of the above sounds very well planned and organised on
paper, it is
a complete muddle on the ground - both for the farmers and the
newly settled
people and is largely taking place while legal actions
contesting
designations are still underway and before farmers have left their
land.
In short - absolute chaos on the ground so far.
FinGaz
Trigger-happy cops ignite orgy of violence in Byo
Njabulo
Ncube
1/24/02 1:27:24 AM (GMT +2)
BULAWAYO — It was a little before 10
am last Sunday when the police fired
the first salvo of foul-smelling teargas
to disperse about 10 000 supporters
of the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) surrounding the
White City Stadium here.
"We
have official orders to send you away," shouted a riot policeman to
MDC
national executive members, who included the party’s vice president
Gibson
Sibanda, secretary-general Welshman Ncube and elections director Paul
Themba
Nyathi.
"Can you move!" bellowed the policeman as the crowd
surged ahead,
threatening to pull down the perimeter fence surrounding the
stadium in
which a rag-tag band of 300 ZANU PF militia were gyrating to
songs
denigrating the MDC and its leaders.
Their T-shirts were
emblazoned with President Robert Mugabe’s face, as they
sang revolutionary
songs that castigated MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who
squares off against
Mugabe in the March 9 and 10 presidential election.
"Please, can you
remove these ZANU PF people from the stadium?" pleaded
Ncube, the MDC
legislator for Bulawayo North, who also doubles up as the
party’s shadow
minister for home affairs.
"We booked the venue last week. We have every
right to be here. Remove these
trespassers because they just want to cause
trouble for us," said Ncube to
the police officers, who looked uninterested
but determined to prevent the
MDC from staging its campaign rally in
Zimbabwe’s second largest city, an
MDC stronghold.
About 1 000 riot
police formed a tight cordon in and around the stadium,
effectively sealing
off all major routes leading to the venue where
Tsvangirai was due to hold
his last campaign rally here.
"I will repeat this once, Move! Move, we
have orders to leave these guys
alone," said the menacing-looking police
officer, pointing a finger at the
ZANU PF supporters, who witnesses said had
been bused in from outside
Matabeleland to disrupt the rally.
The ZANU
PF supporters had spent Saturday night camped at the stadium.
The police
officer said: "The order states clearly that we should move with
speed and
remove you (the MDC supporters)."
"Move now and make it fast!" he
bellowed at the MDC officials, whose
contingent of about 10 000 supporters
were threatening to take the law into
their own hands if the police did not
remove the ZANU PF militia.
The ZANU PF supporters brandished an
assortment of homemade weapons,
including catapults, metal batons and
knobkerries, taunting the MDC
supporters, who promptly collected rocks,
bricks and stones to fight back if
attacked.
Then suddenly, missiles
started flying from all directions. Stones were
thrown at the police, accused
by the MDC supporters of working in cahoots
with ZANU PF to thwart the
labour-backed party from campaigning peacefully
around the
country.
The police continuously hurled teargas at fleeing crowds, while
other
officers lashed out with baton sticks at youths who pelted them with
all
kinds of missiles.
"Fire, fire!" shouted the police as its riot
squad continued to teargas the
MDC supporters, who now seemed determined to
lynch the ZANU PF militia.
The teargas triggered 10 hours of street
battles between the police, ZANU PF
and opposition supporters.
Teargas
smoke filled the air, sending tearful MDC supporters scurrying for
cover in
the neighbouring high-density suburbs of Mabutweni, Iminyela,
Njube,
Pela-ndaba and Mpopoma.
In the ensuing stampede, several members of the
public and police officers
were injured as political violence rocked this
otherwise quiet city.
Some teargas canisters were thrown into houses in
the surrounding
high-density suburbs, angering residents, some of whom had
property looted
by marauding gangs.
"The violence moved from the
stadium to our homes," said a visibly angry
Gibbs Dube.
"ZANU PF
youths came to my house and took away my property. They accused me
of
supporting the MDC. I am very bitter."
Milton Gwetu, the elderly MDC
legislator for Mpopoma constituency,
temporarily lost conscience as the
teargas smoke threatened to choke him.
It was the swift reaction of some
youths that saved the veteran trade
unionist from certain
death.
Police this week dismissed widespread rumours that about four
people died
when the violence erupted outside the White City Stadium, but
Bulawayo
police spokesman Mthokozisi Manzini-Moyo said they had arrested 25
youths.
"They will appear in court soon, facing charges of public
violence," said
Manzini-Moyo, adding that four policemen were badly injured
in the
disturbances that lasted up to about 9 pm that Sunday, spilling over
to
other high-density suburbs several kilometres away.
Nearly 100
people suffered varying degrees of injury and the MDC said this
week that
about 11 of its supporters were unaccounted for.
"We fear they could have
been abducted by ZANU PF militia because some of
our youths were kidnapped at
the stadium by ZANU PF supporters during the
stampede and taken to Solusi
farming area, where they were assaulted and
made to eat sand," said an MDC
activist.
The total value of property damaged in the melee could not be
ascertained
this week, but a twin-cab allegedly belonging to a passer-by was
burnt
beyond repair while other cars whose drivers dared pass near the
suburbs
surrounding the White City Stadium were stoned.
The latest
orgy of violence is the second to rock Bulawayo in the last few
months,
following an incident in November when MDC and ZANU PF supporters
torched
each other’s property following the death of two ruling
party
activists.
The MDC’s Welshman Ncube said the violence, which
erupted ahead of a visit
by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, indicated
that Mugabe’s promise of
free and fair elections was meaningless.
FinGaz
Millions forced to buy ZANU PF cards
By Cyril Zenda Staff
Reporter
1/24/02 1:07:01 AM (GMT +2)
WENDY Maodzwa, the Financial
Gazette’s salaries administrator, was with
other members of her family on
their way to Harare from a funeral in rural
Rusape when they decided to stop
at Goto growth point to refuel.
Suddenly, a gang of youths approached and
menacingly demanded that they
produce membership cards of the ruling ZANU PF
party or else they were in
trouble.
Their salvation only came from an
old man who happened to know some members
of the gang from their previous
farm invasion escapades.
As soon as she arrived in Harare, Maodzwa had to
buy the card for her own
safety, although she says she does not need
it.
This was not the end of her problems because, a day after buying the
card,
the people who sold her the card followed her up to tell her that she
had to
attend their meetings without fail or else.
This is the plight
of millions of Zimbabweans as President Robert Mugabe’s
party , sensing his
defeat in the March 9 and 10 presidential election,
strikes terror in the
hearts of citizens, demanding that they buy costly
ZANU PF membership
cards.
The campaign, which is targeting supporters of the opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), has forced many Zimbabweans to cancel
trips to
remote rural areas where most of the harassment and torture are
taking
place.
Senior MDC officials have had to tell their sympathisers
to acquire the
cards for their own safety in the face of mounting violence
and police
inaction to stamp it down.
"This is a clear case of
extortion, forcing people to buy cards which they
do not need," said David
Jamali, programmes coordinator of Zimbabwe’s
leading human rights watchdog
ZimRights.
"We strongly condemn this practice and urge members of
political parties to
desist from doing it. Instead of forcing people to buy
their cards, they
should sell policies that are acceptable to the people and
people will
support them," Jamali said.
ZANU PF recently boasted that
it had raised more than $500 million from the
sale of its cards in the past
three months.
At the current price of $82 per card, this means that about
6.1 million
Zimbabweans — about half the country’s population — have been
forced to buy
the cards for their personal security.
Despite
nationwide complaints from members of the public that they are being
harassed
by ZANU PF youths and their war veterans over the party’s cards,
police
spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena this week denied that any such thing
was
happening.
This is despite the fact that virtually on a daily
basis, buses plying the
Harare-Bindura route are being stopped by these
gangsters at illegal
roadblocks to demand the party’s cards from
passengers.
"No one is being asked to produce any party cards as far as
we know. Police
at roadblocks are only checking for things like weapons and
dangerous items,
apart from the usual traffic requirements," Bvudzijena
said.
He said that some plainclothes police officers — members of the
Criminal
Investigations Department — could also be found at roadblocks
looking for
criminals.
But ZANU PF’s national commissar Elliot Manyika
was last week forced to go
public on the issue, ordering party supporters to
stop demanding ZANU PF
cards from members of the public.
Security
Minister Nicholas Goche this week also called on ZANU PF supporters
to stop
demanding party cards, saying culprits arrested by the police would
receive
no legal assistance from the ruling party.
Tawanda Hondora, a member of
the human rights group Lawyers for Human
Rights, said it was criminal for
ZANU PF members to extort money from the
public under the guise of party
cards.
"The demand is unconstitutional and unlawful because it restricts
the free
movement of people. It is like the demand that people should carry
identity
cards, which was declared unlawful in a constitutional case of
Elliot versus
the Commissioner of Police and another in 1997," he
said.
Hondora said if the victims are able to positively identify those
police
officers and ZANU PF thugs who are involved in the practice, they
would be
able to seek redress through the courts.
Jamali urged all
Zimbabweans who have bought ZANU PF cards under duress or
fear to register at
any ZimRights office in the country because the human
rights body is
compiling a list of people from whom money has been extorted
in order to
prepare action against the ruling party.
Jamali said the list could also
be used to challenge the presidential
election, which experts says is likely
to be won by MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai but could be rigged in Mugabe’s
favour.
The ZANU PF party cards scam follows raids on companies and
factories last
year by the same mobs under the guise that they were resolving
labour
disputes. Several firms were forced to close down by the raids while
some
senior company executives were assaulted willy-nilly.
Earlier in
the run-up to the 2000 parliamentary elections, the same youths
invaded
hundreds of commercial farms across the nation, where they are still
camped,
in the name of land hunger.
At least nine farmers and nearly 40 MDC
supporters were killed in the
accompanying violence, which sealed off farms
and the vast rural areas from
the opposition.
FinGaz
Is there peace after Bob?
Reg T Gola
1/24/02 1:20:13 AM
(GMT +2)
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe turns 78 next month. After a 21-year
stint of bad
governance, Mugabe has imposed himself on his party and
government yet again
for another term in office.
Zimbabweans are
visibly sick and tired of the tyrant’s continued
misgovernance, however he
may use the tools of repression at his disposal.
Zimbabweans have an
inalienable right to good governance and this right is
not negotiable, hence
the emergence of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) — a protestant
youthful party comprising frustrated former ZANU PF and
PF ZAPU
supporters.
The MDC has caused so much agitation within the corridors of
power in
Zimbabwe that Mugabe, in response, has stepped up the use of terror
by his
hooligans.
State terrorism is once again so much in evidence.
Opposition supporters are
picked up by ZANU PF and government thugs to either
disappear forever, get
murdered or to be maimed permanently.
For
Mugabe and his cronies, this is the best formula to enforce public
compliance
and public acceptance of his tyranny and the rule of his
government which he
operates in a manner not different from the way one
would operate one’s
personal tuckshop.
Mugabe has successfully surrounded himself with highly
rewarded bootlickers
in his party’s central committee, Politburo, the Cabinet
and in the country’
s security institutions. He has surrounded himself with
true robots.
These praise singers have sung so well over the years to the
extent of
referring to their tyrant boss as "another Jesus Christ of our
times" in
return for presidential handouts.
But now with the tide of
state terrorism rising daily, innocent people being
abducted at funerals,
weddings, churches, political rallies and homes all in
the spirit of keeping
the over-aged Mugabe in power, the desire for urgent
change has become the
most critical need for the majority of Zimbabweans.
Every Zimbabwean who
goes into a supermarket comes out a very angry man with
an increased desire
for change due to the hourly price increases of basic
commodities arising
from Mugabe’s mismanagement of the economy.
But if Mugabe fails to rig
the presidential election in March, mayhem may be
expected. The current ZANU
PF systems are designed to make Zimbabwe
ungovernable for the next
president.
One wonders how a new president would govern with some ZANU PF
sympathisers
in the high offices of the judiciary, with a police force that
has
successfully purged all professional, apolitical and
opposition
sympathisers. The same goes for the army and the prison service,
not to
mention the spy Central Intelligence Organisation which has always
been
wholly ZANU PF owned since inception.
Police chief Augustine
Chihuri, a supposedly career civil servant, has
openly declared that he is a
ZANU PF member, while Zimbabwe National Army
head Vitalis Zvinavashe is
reported to have been desperately trying to play
the role of peace broker
between rival ZANU PF camps in Masvingo, hoping to
boost Mugabe’s
presidential election campaign.
ZANU PF’s Youth Brigade, formerly
designed to suppress PF ZAPU, the only
formidable post-independence force
that threatened Mugabe’s ruling party in
the early 1980s, has re-emerged in
time for the presidential election, this
time under the guise of a national
youth service. It had collapsed following
the unity accord between PF ZANU
and ZANU PF in 1987 as it no longer served
a purpose.
I believe the
youth brigades are recruited from ZANU PF party cells and
thoroughly trained
in the art of battering opposition members.
Now that a new, more
formidable political force has emerged in the form of
the MDC, the notorious
youths, equivalent to Malawi’s Young Pioneers during
the reign of its
declared life president Hastings Kamuzu Banda, have
suddenly re-emerged as a
matter of urgency. Life has once again become
"brutish, nasty and short" for
Zimbabweans.
The ZANU PF youth brigades now have a well-established
permanent camp in
Mount Darwin in Mashonaland Central.
The heavy
milita-risation of all strategic establishments, including the
ruling ZANU
PF’s election nerve centre — the rural areas — also suggests
some strategic
positioning for a possible coup if the party loses. ZANU PF
has deteriorated
into a rural party surviving on rural idiocy.
The army, the militia of
war veterans and the youth brigades have been
deployed well ahead of the
election to impose an iron curtain barring all
opposition political parties
from the rural areas over the campaign period
to ensure that Mugabe returns
to power at all costs.
Mugabe and his thugs have made it no secret that
another war is in the
making in the event that the MDC wins a free and fair
election.
Mugabe’s argument is that the MDC is a white man’s party out to
resuscitate
colonialism. The idea is to incite Zimbabweans to rise against
the MDC.
But this only shows that Mugabe does not respect the electorate.
The people
who know the depth of his misgovernance and the cost of his
continued rule.
If Mugabe were to stand against Ian Smith in March, there
is no doubt that
he would not make it.
Elections are not about skin
pigmentation — they are about good governance,
democracy, the rule of law,
protection of lives and property, freedom of
speech and association, people
empowerment, women’s rights, child rights,
good health and education, sound
economic policy, poverty alleviation,
freedom from hunger, among many other
things.
The people do not feed on liberation war credentials. The
military must stay
at the barracks and keep away from politics.
The
whites in this country are Zimbabweans, they are investors, they have
got
interests which require political representation. If the people of
Zimbabwe
democratically choose to work with their fellow oppressed
Zimbabwean whites
or investors towards a high-quality life, that would truly
symbolise
successful reconciliation — the rainbow nation. If the people of
Zimbabwe
democratically elect a white president to serve their interests,
then that
would be freedom of choice and democracy at play.
For Mugabe, the whites
are good people, patriotic and committed to
development only if they
subscribe to ZANU PF’s lawlessness.
Mugabe and ZANU PF have failed to
deliver. They have dismally failed to
address the needs of the people of
Zimbabwe. They have failed to protect the
people from hunger, disease,
strife, lawlessness and poverty.
Mugabe’s revolution is a revolution that
lost its cause. There is urgent
need for another revolution — hence the
emergence of the MDC from within the
ruling ZANU PF.
Reginald
T Gola is a legislative consultant and political commentator.
From ZWNEWS, 25 January
Food shortages could eclipse all other
election issues
By Michael Hartnack
As Zimbabwe slides
toward widespread famine, the supply of staple food could
now eclipse all
other issues in presidential elections. Opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai
declared Wednesday, in his starkest warning yet, that
"hunger and starvation
now loom for millions", and agricultural sources said
the country would run
out of maize next month since it was now impossible to
import sufficient to
meet the monthly national requirement of 150 000
tonnes. Only the government
denied there is a crisis. "There is so much
maize in the country, and we may
not even need to import if we manage to
impound all maize from commercial
farmers," said Justice Mutasa, spokeswoman
for the state-controlled Grain
Marketing Board. Even by the propaganda
standards of President Robert
Mugabe's government, the claim was
astonishing. The government maintained
this week it had seized 36, 000
tonnes of maize from white commercial
farmers, but there are doubts about
the truth of this announcement.
Meanwhile, supermarket shelves are virtually
denuded of supplies of mealie
meal, the staple diet; farming sources
reported last week that only 40 000
tonnes of maize were left; the Catholic
Church and the United Nations
Development Programme say that 500 000
Zimbabweans already in urgent need of
relief in the western Matabeleland and
central Midlands areas.
In
trademark fashion, Mugabe's officials and the state-controlled media
accuse
commercial farmers of hoarding maize to destabilize the government,
and
scatter the rest of the blame on milling companies and patchy rainfall.
The
statistics tell a different story: production has slumped drastically
because
of invasions of white-owned farms by government supporters. In the
2000
season, commercial farmers planted 150 000 hectares to maize, in 2001,
69
000, and currently only 45 000 is planted with an expected yield of 200
000
tonnes -- just over a month's supply for the nation. Agriculture
Minister
Joseph Made, who until September repeatedly denied there would be
any
shortfall in food production, now says that 98 000 tonnes of maize have
been
requested from the World Food Programme. Made also maintains that next
month
will see a bumper 3-million ton maize harvest from black farmers,
including
300 000 people settled on recently acquired white-owned land. This
claim is
contradicted by government appeals for U.S.$60 million in donor
assistance.
The United States responded with an initial 8
000-tonne
shipment.
Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for
Democratic Change, said substitute
foods for Zimbabwe's 13 million people
were at least twice as expensive and
in short supply, partly as a result of
the farm invasions, and maize was
irreplaceable as stockfeed. He appealed to
voluntary organisations and
foreign governments to make ready for a relief
operation, if need be after
"the induction of a new MDC government in April."
Maize supplies have also
been hit by current political violence. A senior
policeman was allegedly
implicated in looting by militants of 45 tonnes of
maize from a farm in the
Raffingora area earlier this month. A recent check
on all supermarkets on
the road from Mutare to Harare indicated bare shelves.
In the capital, the
OK Bazaars First Street Branch had only 20kg bags (at
Z$491) and 5kg bags of
super refined meal at Z$194 - far beyond the pockets
of 80 percent of
Zimbabweans who are living below the bread line. (The
official exchange rate
is Z$80 = £1, the "parallel" rate is as high as Z$600
= £1).
Relief agencies have apparently fended off initial demands by
the Mugabe
government that it distribute all food aid. Officials of the UN
Development
Programme and the World Food Programme confirmed this week they
had had
discussions with the Zimbabwe government and received assurances they
would,
now be allowed to distribute relief supplies. But the MDC and
other
government critics say that those distributing relief are being
closely
monitored by the ruling Zanu PF party and Central Intelligence
Organisation.
During the calamitous 1993-94 drought Zanu PF insisted all
relief, even that
donated by charity, go out under the aegis and propaganda
stamp of the
ruling party.
FinGaz
Violence threatens food aid
Staff Reporter
1/24/02
1:41:02 AM (GMT +2)
THE United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) said
this week it could be
forced to suspend a US$60 million food aid programme
for Zimbabwe if the
safety of relief workers is compromised by political
violence sweeping the
country.
The organisation’s warning
comes in the wake of violent attacks by a gang of
ruling ZANU PF party youths
last week on relief workers attached to
Christian Care Zimbabwe, one of the
implementing partners of the WFP’s food
programme.
The relief workers
failed to produce membership cards of Zimbabwe’s ruling
ZANU PF party, as
demanded by the gang, upon which they were attacked
viciously.
"As in
many other countries where WFP works under very difficult
circumstances, we
would do everything possible to keep the (food) operation
going," WFP
programme officer Anna Shotto told the Financial
Gazette.
"However, if WFP’s ability to distribute food into the
hands of the intended
beneficiaries and the safety of WFP staff, its
implementing partners’ staff
or the beneficiaries themselves becomes
seriously compromised, then WFP
would be forced to temporarily suspend food
distributions and negotiate on
how to resume," she warned.
She said
under the letter of understanding signed between the WFP and the
government
of Zimbabwe in December 2001, the safety of WFP’s implementing
partners and
their assets were the responsibility of the government.
Shotto said her
organisation and its implementing partners were in the
process of consulting
both central and local government officials in order
to come up with safety
procedures to be used when implementing the WFP’s
emergency food
operation.
As well as the relief workers, hundreds of opposition
supporters nationwide
have been attacked by ZANU PF supporters in the past
few months as
campaigning for the presidential election on March 9 and 10
hots up.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says about
10 of its
supporters have been killed since January this year, taking the
toll of the
dead in the past two years to more than 100.
ZANU PF has
also reported that at least five of its supporters have been
murdered by MDC
members since Christmas.
Brian Raftopolous, a leading political analyst,
this week said the
government was not interested in reining in its marauding
supporters because
its strategy ahead of the election is to instil fear in
donor agencies so it
can control the supply of food aid.
Credible
reports this week already spoke of plans by ZANU PF to distribute
state food
only to villagers who it believed would support Mugabe in
the
ballot.
Until late last year, the government had denied it needed
international
assistance to import urgent food aid, saying it had enough
reserves of the
staple maize.
Once the magnitude of the looming crisis
became clear, the government then
refused to allow non-governmental agencies
in Zimbabwe to distribute the
food aid, claiming that they would give it to
supporters of MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, who threatens to unseat President
Robert Mugabe in the
March ballot.
The government only backed down
towards the end of last year.
Meanwhile, the WFP is expected to receive
clearance tomorrow from the
government to bring into Zimbabwe its first
consignment of 8 470 tonnes of
maize from Tanzania, where a Zimbabwean
technical team has been dispatched
to ascertain its
suitability.
"Government inspectors are already in Tanzania to check
whether the maize is
bacteria-free or not before it can be transported to
Zimbabwe," said an
official at the Harare office of the United Nations
Development Programme.
If cleared, the maize will arrive in Zimbabwe next
week and is the first
tranche of 116 000 tonnes expected in the country under
the aid programme,
which will assist an estimated 3.5 million Zimbabweans who
have applied for
food handouts.
Zimbabwe faces a serious humanitarian
crisis if international donor agencies
do not provide food relief in the next
few weeks, especially in the rural
areas where harvests of the staple maize
crop were below expectation last
year and are not expected to improve this
year.
The food shortages have been triggered by the government’s seizure
of
commercial farms and the accompanying violence by its supporters
against
farmers, nine of whom have been killed in the past two
years.
The farm seizures and the violence have disrupted farming and
forced scores
of farmers to flee the country, worsening an already low output
of maize and
wheat crops caused by a poor rainfall
season.
FinGaz
Farmers ordered to hand over guns
1/24/02 1:41:46 AM
(GMT +2)
ZIMBABWE’S white commercial farmers this week said they had been
instructed
to hand over all their firearms to the police in a move they said
had
sinister implications.
Commercial Farmers’ Union president
Colin Cloete said farmers had
unsuccessfully sought clarification on the
issue from Deputy Commissioner of
Police Griffith Mpofu but he had refused to
discuss it.
"We have been told to hand over our weapons to the police,"
Cloete told the
Financial Gazette. "I think this was meant to be a routine
weapons-checking
exercise, but this has a rather sinister tone to
it.
"It has a political undertone to it. This is not the usual case
(where)
police go around commercial farming areas interviewing and asking
farmers to
produce their firearms and licences."
But police spokesman
Wayne Bvudzijena said the exercise was not targeting
commercial farmers only
but also ruling ZANU PF party supporters and their
militant so-called war
veterans in a bid to curb the escalation of
politically motivated violence in
the country ahead of the March 9 and 10
presidential election.
"We are
carrying out this exercise in light of the many cases of violence
being
reported," he said, admitting that the security forces could not
guarantee
that all firearms would be surrendered.
Commercial farming areas have
been the epicentre of violent clashes between
ZANU PF supporters, most of
them armed, and the farmers and their black
workers.
ZANU PF accuses
the farmers and their workers of backing the opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai poses
the deadliest
threat to President Robert Mugabe in the election already
marred by
unprecedented violence.
At least nine white farmers and more than 100
blacks, virtually all of them
MDC supporters, have died in violence that has
swept the country since
before the June 2000 parliamentary elections, which
were narrowly won by
ZANU PF.
But Bvudzijena yesterday could not say
whether the police now had enough
manpower, which in the past they said they
did not have, to protect farmers
and their workers after the surrender of the
fire arms.
"There is no police force in the world that can manage to
operate on its
own. Where there is a will by the public, we will be able to
deal with the
situation," he said.
"Having a weapon does not guarantee
one any security but we hope that they
(the owners of the firearms) will
cooperate and bring them in." — Staff
Reporter
Blair set to visit Africa on anti-Zim campaign
Herald (Zim. government controlled paper) Reporter
BRITISH
Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, is scheduled to visit several
African
countries soon to drum-up support for his campaign for the expulsion
of
Zimbabwe from the Common-wealth and the imposition of sanctions against
the
country.
Well-placed sources said Mr Blair was now desperately
trying to mobilise
some key African countries ahead of next month’s
Commonwealth Heads of State
and Government summit to be held in
Australia.
It is understood that Mr Blair will first visit Nigeria and
then South
Africa, two countries regarded as key to any successful campaign
against
Zimbabwe.
Reports from Lagos, Nigeria confirmed Mr Blair’s
visit to Nigeria next month
for talks with President Olusegun Obasanjo on
Zimbabwe.
A spokesperson for the British High Commis-sion in Zimbabwe, Ms
Sophie
Honie, also confirmed Mr Blair’s plans to visit some African countries
but
would not mention any names.
"The Prime Minister has said he would
like to visit Africa but his office
has not confirmed any travel plans,’’ she
said last night.
However, diplomatic sources said the campaign could only
succeed in dividing
the Commonwealth between blacks and whites as the African
Union has pledged
to stand by Zimbabwe, while several members of the European
Union have
openly called for the suspension of the country from the grouping
of mostly
former British colonies.
South Africa’s President Thabo
Mbeki last week categorically stated that his
country would not desert
Zimbabwe on its hour of need.
Nigeria’s President Obasanjo told the
Zimbabwean Government, during his
one-day meeting with President Mugabe on
Sunday night in Harare, that he
would not sit at a conference where an
African country will be booted out
for reasons, which were not
serious.
The Sadc region has also thrown its weight behind Zimbabwe and
admonished Br
itain for hosting pirate radio stations that were transmitting
propaganda
aimed at heightening tension and creating ethnic hatred in the
country.
It is understood that some leading members of the Commonwealth,
including
Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, have said there were no reasons
for placing
Zimbabwe on the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group’s
agenda.
CMAG recommends the banning of member countries from the
Commonwealth.
"What Blair will find a problem when he visits Africa is
that Africa now
understands Zimbabwe and that Britain is using its colonial
position to try
and beat Zimbabwe into submission.
"As far as Nigeria
is concerned the attempts to 'CMAG' Zimbabwe from the
Commonwealth are
designed to derail the Abuja agreement, which clearly state
that the core
problem in Zimbabwe is land.
"All these other things, which are now being
brought in by the European
Union and the United States such as election
monitors and Press freedoms do
not recognise this," said an African diplomat
who declined to be named.
He said Nigeria wanted the Abuja agreement to
succeed. "But it can only
succeed if everyone keeps their
promises."
President Obasanjo told journalists in Harare that the Abuja
accord should
not be allowed to collapse.
"We must never allow Abuja
to become a dead letter. So the reason why I have
come is to ensure that
Abuja remains on course," he said.
Some political commentators said Mr
Blair was now acting like the United
States’ secretary of state, judging by
the increasing number of errands he
was undertaking on behalf of the American
government since the tragic events
of the September 11 attack in New
York.
His foreign visits have triggered an uproar in Britain as the prime
minister
was spending most of his time outside the United Kingdom than at
home.
This comes at a time when the British economy has been taking a
major knock
with a collapsing transport and health delivery
service.
"He has allowed the war in Afghanistan and the situation in
Zimbabwe to
confuse and derail him," said one commentator.
British
journalists, however, called on Mr Blair to visit Zimbabwe and study
the
situation on the ground rather than rely on distorted information from
the
media.
Also from the Herald ........
IDs now mandatory
Herald Reporter
ALL Zimbabweans above the age of 16
are now required to carry their identity
documents when in public places
following the gazetting of the Public Order
and Security Act
yesterday.
The Bill was passed by Parliament early this month and has now
been assented
to by President Mugabe.
It replaces the colonial Law and
Order (Maintenance) Act and gives the
police power to effectively deal with
the current wave of political
violence, which has seen political hooligans
and thugs using petrol bombs to
attack opponents.
Under the new law,
which was passed after Parliament sat for a record time
after independence of
15 hours, a police officer may at any time require a
person in a public place
to produce an identity document.
An identity document is defined as a
document issued to a person under the
National Registration Act, a passport,
or a driver’s licence issued by or on
behalf of the Government of
Zimbabwe.
Any visitor’s entry certificate or other certificate or permit
issued to a
person in terms of the Immigration Act or in terms of any law
relating to
refugees, or any passport, ID or driver’s licence issued by a
foreign
government is also defined as an identity document.
Failure to
produce an identity document on request by a police officer who
will be
acting in good faith in the course of investigating an offence,
within a
police cordon, at a roadblock, at a public gathering or a public
meeting of a
political nature or in the vicinity of any area protected in
terms of the
Defence Act, the Protected Places and Areas Act and the Parks
and Wildlife
Act, shall be guilty of an offence.
He/she will be liable to a fine not
exceeding $5 000 or to imprisonment for
a period not exceeding six months or
both.
However, any person found without an identity document on his
person in
circumstances other than those specified above shall be afforded
an
opportunity, within seven days, to produce the ID at a specified
police
station.
A police officer of or above the rank of inspector may
establish a cordon
round any area if he considers it reasonably necessary to
contain any public
disorder or public violence within the area or to protect
the area from any
public disorder or public violence.
A police officer
may stop and, without a warrant, search any person, vehicle
or vessel
entering or leaving Zimbabwe and any person in or upon such
vehicle or
vessel, and seize anything which he has reasonable grounds would
afford
evidence as to the commission of an offence under any law.
The law sets
stiffer penalties for people who cause disaffection among
members of the
police or defence forces.
The possession of dangerous weapons, publishing
or communicating false
statements prejudicial to the State or undermining the
authority or
insulting to the President also attracts heavy
penalties.
Public violence will attract a fine not exceeding $100 000 or
imprisonment
for a period not exceeding 10 years or both.
Organisers
of public gatherings shall give at least four days written notice
to the
regulating authority for the area in which the gathering is to
be
held.
Failure to do so will attract a fine not exceeding $10 000 or
imprisonment
for a period not exceeding six months, or both.
Any
person who organises or sets up or suggests the setting up of a group or
body
with the view of overthrowing the Government by unconstitutional means,
or
supports such a group, shall be guilty of an offence and liable
to
imprisonment for not more than 20 years without the option of a
fine.
Acts of insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism will attract a
death
sentence or life imprisonment.
A person shall report the
presence of insurgents, saboteurs or terrorists to
the authorities within 72
hours of becoming aware of them, failure of which
he/she shall be guilty of
an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding $50
000 or to imprisonment for
not more than two years, or both.
Any person who forcibly disturbs the
peace, security or order of the public
or any section of the public, or
invades the rights of other people shall be
guilty of public violence and
liable to a fine not exceeding $100 000 or
imprisonment for a period not
exceeding 10 years, or both.
The sentence will be stiffer if during the
public violence, there is an
attack on the police or other persons in lawful
authority, there is bodily
injury or damage to property.
A person who
throws, propels or prepares to throw any missile, article or
thing likely to
cause damage or injury to another person, motor vehicle,
boat, aircraft or
building, overturns or attempts to overturn any motor
vehicle, boat or
aircraft, leaves or places on or over any road anything to
obstruct such road
or endanger persons using it shall be guilty of an
offence.
He/she
will be liable to a fine not exceeding $100 000 or imprisonment for
not more
10 years, or to both.
MDC MPs strongly opposed the introduction of the
Act during debate in
Parliament early this month, but the Government said the
legislation was
necessary to give the police more powers to deal with acts of
terrorism and
public violence.
The Minister of Home Affairs, Cde John
Nkomo, who steered the law through
Parliament, said there was nothing
sinister about the Act as most countries
in the world had enacted similar
legislation after the September 11 2001
terrorist attacks in the United
States.
"The need to guarantee the security of our people cannot be
overemphasised …
and as Minister of Home Affairs it is my responsibility to
ensure that
people can go about their business without being terrorised and
that those
who are talking of elections in March can go ahead to campaign
peacefully.
"We need legislation that will enable the police to move
swiftly so that
people can campaign freely."
The Public Order and
Security Act, he said, was better than the Public Order
Act of Britain, which
also required that any public procession should be
cleared by the
authorities.
International Herald Tribune
Mbeki and Mugabe
Thursday, January
24, 2002
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa has an obligation to
acknowledge that
his quiet diplomacy has not worked and to mobilize the
Southern African
Development Community to lean heavily on President Robert
Mugabe of
Zimbabwe, who has violated pledges of good governance, the rule of
law,
human rights and democracy made directly to SADC. South Africa, with
an
economy 20 times that of Zimbabwe, cannot support the mass flow of
refugees
and economic devastation that further instability in Zimbabwe will
likely
cause. The other countries of the region, which would feel the
repercussions
even more severely, need South Africa to use its leadership
within SADC.
.
South Africa faces the challenge of developing a regional
consensus on
setting out specific conditions for recognition of a legitimate
election,
establishing the penalties for not achieving those conditions, and
taking
initial steps that demonstrate credible intent. Only then will
President
Mugabe take SADC seriously and perhaps reverse his disastrous
course.
.
- From an Africa briefing by the International Crisis
Group
(Harare/Brussels).
Daily News
Lies won’t rescue Zanu PF
1/24/02 9:27:11 AM (GMT
+2)
The individual voter has a legitimate right to be left alone
to decide his
or her party. It is beastly to threaten him in any way
whatsoever for a
political or whatever reason. Nkomo dealt, of course, with
policy matters
and not with the physical operations of the Zimbabwe Republic
Police.
But he should surely be deeply worried that political
violence is increasing
in spite of the police. In Bulawayo on Sunday, for
example, the police
turned their batons on those who had called them – the
MDC – for protection
instead of Zanu PF functionaries who had been sent
obviously to disrupt a
scheduled MDC rally at White City
Stadium.
Rioting erupted and many people, including some members of the
police force,
were injured. It was quite unpardonable that the situation was
allowed by
the partisan police to get to that violent stage.
One
wonders whether Zanu PF leaders are aware that some civil wars
started
because of unjust treatment of some underprivileged citizens by
sections of
state agents, and that it is much easier to start a war than to
stop it.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has a bounden duty to ensure that
the police
force serves everybody in Zimbabwe fairly and efficiently
irrespective of
their political affiliation, tribe, race or gender.
If
this is not done, the country will get to a dangerous stage when
each
political party, each tribe, each race or, at best, each
residential
community or locality will have its own vigilante groups. Is that
what the
authorities want?
The minister should avert that tragic
situation from occurring by acting
decisively. If he is fed lies by his
officials about what is actually taking
place, then this nation is in a very
tragic situation.
Lies, however, cannot save Zanu PF from more electoral
defeats. Lies can
mislead some people some of the time, but never all the
people all the time.
Daily News
Fraudulent election result faces rejection
1/24/02
9:15:46 AM (GMT +2)
By Conrad Nyamutata
Gareth Evans,
president of the Belgium-based International Crisis Group,
says President
Mugabe has carried out unfair practices before the March
presidential
election, making it difficult for the international community
to accept his
victory.
Evans said Mugabe was on track to win the election by the
“foulest” means.
He said two years ago, Mugabe began a campaign of violent
intimidation,
cynical and corrupt exploitation of the land reform issue, and
unscrupulous
and excessive abuse of power.
“International attention
has at last been engaged but action, despite
repeated calls by organisations
like mine for targeted sanctions, has so far
been lamentably weak,” said
Evans.
“Time is running out, with just six weeks left before the poll.”
He said the
rigid controls the government sought to impose on the independent
media
indicated that the ruling party was already rigging electoral rolls
and
preparing to stuff ballot boxes.
Restrictive electoral laws had
also been imposed. Evans said under the
circumstances, it was difficult to
accept a win by Mugabe. “If Mugabe does
win the presidential election, the
first question for the international
community must be whether the result
should be recognised,” he said.
“By accepting the result of a corrupt
election process, the international
community would be, in effect, condoning
illegal land grabs, the demolition
of democratic principles and the
independence of the judiciary, the
co-opting of the police and army for
political ends and economic vandalism.
“This won’t help the effort
elsewhere in Africa to achieve greater
democratisation and economic
progress.” He said the occupation of farms by
Zanu PF supporters and
subsequent displacement of farm workers was central
to the ruling party’s
election strategy.
Driven from their homes, many thousands of presumed
opposition supporters
will be disqualified from voting. Evans noted that five
supporters of the
MDC had been killed recently and MDC MP David Mpala was
abducted and
stabbed.
He said seven people had died in
politically-related killings in December
and if nothing changed the incidence
of murder, torture, unlawful detention
and arrest seemed certain to rise as
the poll approached.
“The police protect the abusers, rarely
investigating attacks on opposition
supporters and doing nothing to stop
violent farm invasions, sometimes
actively supporting the invaders,” he
said.
Evans expressed his displeasure at the stance taken by the Southern
African
Development Community (Sadc) leaders.
“The Sadc has urged
Mugabe to uphold regionally agreed principles on
elections. But no one has
taken any action that will have a direct impact on
the leadership,” he said.
“Mugabe has continued to walk away from meetings
promising to uphold the rule
of law and allow free and fair elections, but
delivering on none of his
pledges.
“To provide the best chance for a relatively fair election,
meaningful
personal sanctions should be applied right now to Mugabe and those
closest
to him, to be lifted only if the voting process proves
acceptable.”
He said even if Zimbabwe admitted election monitors and
foreign journalists,
and instructed the police to arrest those who commit
acts of violence, there
was every chance that standards would slip as the
polling days approached.
The imposition of travel bans by the European
Union, the United States and
the Commonwealth countries on the Zanu PF
leadership at this late stage
would be largely symbolic but useful, he said.
A provisional freeze on
access to foreign-held bank accounts and assets would
hurt more, said Evans.
“Action of almost any kind by Zimbabwe’s southern
African neighbours would
hurt most of all,” he said. “These are the countries
that have the most to
lose from Zimbabwe’s slide, and the only ones with a
chance of exerting
personal influence on its President.
“Mugabe and
his cronies are reported to have sizable financial interests in
South Africa
and any restrictions on access to that property and funds would
certainly
sting. Even if Mugabe is beyond influence, targeted sanctions
would certainly
affect the calculations of other ruling party officials now
weighing their
personal interests against those of the country.”
Unfortunately, he said,
Sadc members, on all the evidence to date, were the
least likely to take
action against Mugabe.
Daily News
Mugabe signs Public Order Bill
1/24/02 9:19:38 AM (GMT
+2)
Political Editor
THE draconian Public Order and Security
Bill has now been signed into law by
President Mugabe and it is now a
criminal offence to “cause disaffection
among the police and defence forces”,
publish or communicate false
statements, say or write “insulting and false”
statements concerning the
office or person of the
President.
John Nkomo, the Minister of Home Affairs, yesterday
told Parliament the
Public Order and Security Act, more repressive than the
colonial Law and
Order (Maintenance) Act it has replaced, “was somewhat long
overdue” which
had “arrived at the correct time”.
He said the June to
December 2001 period had seen an upsurge in politically
motivated violence
with a total of 288 cases being reported ranging from
murder, kidnapping,
arson, malicious injury to property, assault and theft.
“These were done
by both political parties with the MDC topping the list
with 118 counts,
while Zanu PF was involved in the commission of 77 cases. A
total 428 arrests
were made of which 67 were whites,” said Nkomo.
A list he submitted on
political violence showed 496 offenders had been
arrested of whom 429 were
blacks and 67 whites.
The Act criminalises “acts in agitation for the
removal or change of
government through violent means” and “insurgency,
banditry, sabotage and
terrorism” and bans public gatherings, among other
things.
FinGaz
‘New ID law targets opposition’
1/24/02 1:47:23 AM
(GMT +2)
NEW legislation compelling Zimbabweans to carry identity cards
(IDs) at all
times will disenfranchise large numbers of opposition supporters
who are
being forced to surrender their IDs at illegal roadblocks set up by
militia
of the ruling ZANU PF party, the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change
(MDC) said yesterday.
"The militias have instructions
to confiscate these identity cards from MDC
supporters and the
registrar-general has instructions not to issue new
identity documents until
after the presidential election," MDC spokesman
Learnmore Jongwe
said.
He said even before the gazetting on Tuesday of the new Public
Order and
Security Act, the MDC had "received hundreds of reports" from
supporters
whose identity documents had been confiscated by ZANU PF
supporters at
illegal roadblocks.
The MDC this week also reported
that
2 500 of its members had been forced to flee political violence in
Rusape
and Buhera in the past two months while three houses belonging to
party
members in Marondera’s Dombotombo suburb were damaged by suspected ZANU
PF
youths at the weekend.
The Commercial Farmers’ Union yesterday also
reported an upsurge in the
number of farm workers being forced to attend ZANU
PF’s "re-education
camps", but police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said calm
had returned to
commercial farming areas.
— Staff Reporter
FinGaz
Embassies make contingency plans
1/24/02 1:45:37 AM
(GMT +2)
INTERNATIONAL embassies in Harare this week said they had
contingency plans
in case of political upheaval in the run-up to Zimbabwe’s
March presidential
election, but had no immediate plans to evacuate their
nationals from the
country.
"The Australian government will do
all it can to provide assistance to
Australians in Zimbabwe should the
situation deteriorate and the government
has got in place a range of
contingency plans for what might occur,"
Australian High Commissioner to
Zimbabwe Jonathan Brown said.
"But we are not evacuating Australians. We
had plans in place during the
legislative elections in June 2000, but we
didn’t evacuate Australians," he
told the Financial Gazette.
The
American embassy and the British High Commission said they had
contingency
plans for their diplomatic missions worldwide, but had no
immediate plans to
evacuate their nationals from Harare.
A British High Commission
spokeswoman said weekend reports that her country
was planning to evacuate 25
000 British passport holders resident in
Zimbabwe were "wholly
inaccurate".
Meanwhile German embassy counsellor Werner Koehler said the
Germans were
still assessing the situation.
"We are trying to assess
the situation and see what risks are there," he
said. "There are contingency
plans worldwide, but we are trying to see what
needs to be done."
An
estimated 1 500 Germans, 1 250 Americans and 900 Australians are resident
in
Zimbabwe, which has seen hundreds of locals and foreigners leaving
the
country in the last few months in anticipation of escalating violence in
the
run-up to the poll.
Opposition parliamentarians in Austria
this week protested against a deal in
which an Austrian firm sold 66 vehicles
to the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA).
Reports from Austria said the
opposition legislators were worried that the
vehicles were being used to
transport youth militias and war veterans
spearheading President Robert
Mugabe’s campaign for re-election on March 9
and 10.
The Green Party,
an Austrian opposition party, has since demanded that the
Austrian government
tightens a law that regulates Austrian trade in military
products.
The
law forbids Austrian firms from selling military equipment to
countries
involved in war or to places where the likelihood of war breaking
out is
high.
But the reports from Austria said the Steyr vehicles,
which were delivered
to the ZNA over a month ago, were not covered by this
law because they were
not fitted with guns and other special devices. They
were largely considered
to be mere transport vehicles.
This was why
Steyr Special Vehicles (Pvt) Limited, the firm that sold the
vehicles, did
not need special permission from Austria’s Foreign and
Internal Affairs
Ministry before entering the deal with the Zimbabwe
government.
But
the Green Party this week said the Austrian government should widen the
law
to include the vehicles sold to Zimbabwe.
— Staff Reporter
FinGaz
Troubled CSC closes head office
Staff Reporter
1/24/02
1:46:19 AM (GMT +2)
BULAWAYO — The Cold Storage Company (CSC)
headquarters in Bulawa-yo has been
forced to close indefinitely following the
seizure of its movable assets
estimated at $1 billion because of debts owed
to two financial houses, it
was established yesterday.
The meat
processor’s assets were seized over a $232 million debt owed to
Genesis Bank,
formerly the Trade and Investment Bank. Kingdom Financial
Holdings also
recently secured a High Court order to attach CSC’s property
over a debt of
about $1 billion.
Workers at the CSC’s Bulawayo branch which houses the
company’s world-class
abattoir were sent on forced leave last week after the
messenger of court
swooped on the country’s biggest meat processor, seizing
its office
furniture, computers, chairs, fans, tables, filing cabinets,
processing
machinery and equipment.
The closure of the abattoir will
hit the firm’s projected exports to the
regional market, especially to South
Africa, which re-opened its market only
recently after months of suspension
following the discovery of
foot-and-mouth disease in Matabeleland.
It
also emerged yesterday that the firm had failed to pay its workers
this
month’s salaries on time. The workers’ pay was due on Monday this week
but
had not been paid by yesterday. Management has pledged to pay the
workers
tomorrow.
Management was yesterday not available for comment
but a source at the
messenger of court here confirmed that the CSC was in
deep financial
problems.
A member of the workers’ committee added:
"Even the acting chief executive’s
computer and chair were taken away. What
the closure means is that we are
not able to supply our exports to the
regional market, including South
Africa. Meat for the regional market is
processed and dispatched from
Bulawayo.
"In fact, everything is at a
standstill because the general administration
of the company is run from
here."
FinGaz
Farmers left with only 16 days to go
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
Staff Reporter
1/24/02 1:42:45 AM (GMT +2)
NINETY commercial farmers
are facing eviction from their properties next
month as Zimbabwe’s ruling
ZANU PF party intensifies a campaign to drive out
white farmers and whip up
support ahead of March’s landmark presidential
election.
The farmers
face eviction on February 9 after being served almost three
months ago with
90-day notices to quit their properties under Section 8 of
the government’s
Land Acquisition Act, which has already been wielded up
against 1 200
commercial farmers in the past two months.
Farmers this week said of the
90 property owners, 20 were in Mashonaland
East, 40 in Mashonaland West and
30 in Mashonaland Central.
The evictions come at a time when ruling party
supporters have stepped up
efforts to establish campaign bases and
re-education camps on commercial
farms in anticipation of a possible
onslaught against the opposition.
Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU)
president Colin Cloete this week admitted
that there was a systematic and
calculated drive to push owners off their
land, and expressed deep concern
about the security of white farmers.
"There seems to be a systematic
drive to force farmers off their land," he
told the Financial Gazette. "There
is a marked decline in the security of
commercial farmers."
Cloete
said more than 40 farmers had been expelled from their properties in
the past
one-and-a-half weeks, seven of them last week alone.
Cases of harassment,
intimidation and work stoppages in most parts of the
country except
Matabeleland were also on the rise, he said.
Most incidents of harassment
of farmers were in Mashonaland Central areas of
Mvurwi, Arcturus and
Mutorashanga and the Mashonaland West areas of
Raffingora, Kadoma and
Chegutu, as well as in Macheke in Manicaland.
Cloete said in some
instances, white farmers were able to return and work on
their properties,
but most had sought refuge in towns and cities.
As Zimbabwe heads towards
a presidential election in which President Robert
Mugabe squares off against
Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the main
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), ruling party militia are
also said to be forcibly recruiting
youths from farms for the "national
service" introduced last
year.
Patrick Ashton, the owner of Landfall Farm in Mutorashanga, this
week said
ZANU PF supporters were on the rampage there, harassing villagers
and
forcibly recruiting youths for national service.
"On Thursday 11
and Friday 12 January 2002, the youth were collected from
farms in my farming
area on the orders of the local ZANU PF leadership,
supposedly for training
in national service," he told the Financial Gazette.
"They encamped at a
local primary school and over the weekend set up illegal
roadblocks,
harassing motorists and pedestrians along the Mutorashanga/Van
Ad
Road."
Analysts said ZANU PF militia were targeting white farmers because
of their
open support for the labour-backed MDC during the 2000
parliamentary
elections.
Farming sources said there was a general
consensus within government circles
that white farmers could influence their
workers to vote for the MDC.
Long suspected of supporting and funding the
MDC, white farmers have been at
the receiving end of intimidation from
government-backed thugs who have
terrorised them since February
2000.
Suspected war veterans have killed nine white farmers since then,
and in the
past year 250 of the CFU’s 3 500 members have also been forced off
their
farms and in some cases out of the country.
Of the remaining
members, at least 1 200 have been seriously affected by
work
stoppages.
"It seems that the idea to evict white farmers is well
calculated to make
sure war veterans will have a free reign on the farms and
intimidate
opposition supporters before the presidential elections," a senior
CFU
official said.
FinGaz
Youths confess training is military
Staff
Reporter
1/24/02 1:50:04 AM (GMT +2)
CONTRARY to claims by ZANU PF
that its national service youths are not
receiving military training, the
Financial Gazette this week spoke to some
of the graduates of the training
programme who all confirmed that military
tactics and political
indoctrination were the key components of the course
run by the Border Gezi
Centre in Mount Darwin.
The youths said they had been promised jobs in
the army and the police force
in exchange for spearheading President Robert
Mugabe’s violent campaign to
win re-election on March 9 and 10.
But
the five youths interviewed on condition of anonymity for their own
security
said most of them were not happy with the promises of job offers
after the
presidential poll.
They said they would have been happier if they had
been given the jobs now.
Youth Development and Employment Minister Elliot
Manyika last week said the
national service youths were not receiving
military training because
Zimbabwe was not at war and there was absolutely no
need for such training.
He said the army was well placed to defend
Zimbabwe.
The government has said the youths are being trained in courses
such as
carpentry, agriculture, craftsmanship, bricklaying and other
technical
services.
But the youths told the Financial Gazette that it
was not possible to have
effective training in these disciplines within the
short periods the courses
were being run. The courses last between one and
three weeks.
During the training, the youths said they were divided into
groups of about
50 to create psychological bonds that would enable them to
act as a group
once deployed in the field.
A substantial amount of
time was spent on fitness exercises, followed by
gun-handling and shooting
lessons. Those who demonstrated political
awareness in favour of the ruling
ZANU PF were made the group leaders, who
regularly interacted with uniformed
officers to develop their leadership
skills.
The youths said they were
also given political lessons on patriotism and
Zimbabwean history, with
emphasis being placed on how ZANU PF helped
liberate Zimbabwe.
The
youths denied that Russian mercenaries, who once helped Zimbabwe in its
war
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had been re-hired to conduct
the
training.
"To be honest, I have not seen any white man at the centre —
not even Health
Minister Timothy Stamps," one youth said.
"All the
military aspects of the training have been conducted by officials
from the
army and the police."
The youths also emphasised that the military
training was not offered to
everyone. Those suspected of being followers of
the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change and those who failed to
demonstrate sufficient support for
the ruling party were withdrawn from the
centre.
"Although the idea of national youth service is a noble one,
everything that
is being done now is for the election. Maybe proper national
youth service
will start after the election," another youth said.
The
youths said their occasional deployment to do cleaning services in
urban
areas was an attempt to hoodwink the public about their real
mission.
"Nobody needs training to be a sweeper," one of the youths
said.
Daily News
Sadc mistaken to turn blind eye on Zimbabwe
1/24/02
8:51:36 AM (GMT +2)
By Topper Whitehead
THE people of Zimbabwe
are in a desperate situation. The leaders of the
defence forces have decided
to be partisan against the wishes of the masses
and are instilling fear into
the minds of the people.
The most oppressive laws since the
apartheid regime are being rushed through
Parliament and the free Press is
being silenced. The National Youth Service
draftees, whom Parliament forbids
us to call terrorists, are terrorising
urban and rural areas.
Without
so much as a knock on the door they break in, steal anything of
value and
beat up inhabitants – a totally unacceptable service in any
civilised
country. In rural areas they have been busy rounding up families
for
indoctrination and worse.
When local people hear them coming they
barricade themselves in their homes
to escape the pain and humiliation of
being made to jump from high trees and
chant pro-Zanu PF songs and
slogans.
The civilised world calls this an invasion of property and
privacy.
Commercial farm workers have been dispossessed and now squat in
peri-urban
areas.
The Crisis Centre recently found families who had
not eaten for days and
were literally starving. They have also found farm
workers being kept
prisoner by war veterans, on commercial farms obliged to
jump to attention,
act unquestioningly on orders and farm the land for a
small bowl of sadza
(boiled maize-meal) instead of wages. The civilised world
calls this a
concentration camp.
When Zimbabweans are suspected of
being involved in criminal activities in
South Africa, The Herald brands them
MDC supporters. If Zimpapers’ reporters
know so much about these criminals,
perhaps they might like to pass their
names and addresses to the South
African authorities so that the allegations
can be investigated?
After
all, if you know someone’s political orientation you certainly know
their
job, their name and where they live. The civilised world calls
this
obstruction of justice. I am aghast at what South Africa and the
other
Southern African Development Community nations will permit to happen
in
Zimbabwe under the guise of the argument that “they are a sovereign state
so
leave them alone”.
It is barbaric to do nothing while your
neighbour rapes his own children for
self satisfaction, especially when
because of the situation next door your
children start to suffer.
If
this country were a family, the scenario would be one man inheriting
a
household with abundant resources and some children. To help the
new
household and children, the leader receives many contributions and
the
household thrives.
Some of the children suggest that the household
be run democratically but
they are killed and their followers terrorised into
submission. Instead of
sharing the contributions, the father starts to
distribute them among his
chosen children and, before long, there is a
situation within the household
where the leader and his chosen few are
tremendously rich while the bulk of
the children in the house are
suffering.
To satisfy the father’s personal desires, he starts
systematically to rape
his young children which gives him great personal
pleasure so he allows his
favourites to rape the young children
too.
Some of the younger children who try to stop this rape are involved
in
unexplained accidents. Of course, unfettered rape results in more
children,
but the father doesn’t spend anything on providing them with beds,
chairs or
even food. All the money is for him and his select
circle.
While the father and the senior children indulge in rape and
enrichment,
money is embezzled from the household coffers and all the
children starve.
There is no money to go to the clinic, so they die. And
no money for
education, so they know not what to do and they cannot find
jobs. Because
nothing is being done to maintain it, the house crumbles,
except for the
rooms that the chosen few inhabit. There is no food, no water,
no clothes.
But there is electricity and transport, useless to the
starving, but
necessary for the fat cats because the even richer neighbour
admires our
father and thinks that corruption, rape, abuse, torture and
killings are
just the way to run a country. Indeed, when family members went
next door
for that family’s 90th anniversary, our family received a standing
ovation.
All seven of the people in the neighbourhood are members of the
mutual
admiration society. After all, they inherited their homes from
injustice and
this creates a bond which must not, at any price, be
broken.
“We may be pariahs, mad dogs, to the rest of the world, but here
we are
perfection itself” seems to be the catch phrase. Unfortunately, the
rest of
the world does not agree.
The rest of the world is civilised, you
see.
And when the time comes to choose a place to invest, cheap labour
and
sunshine are not attractive when allied to no property rights, an
underfed
and ill-educated work force suffering from numerous diseases, many
of which
only require minimal medical facilities to cure and proximity to a
father
who, if he were not so rich that he could buy his freedom, would be
locked
up as a hardened criminal and child abuser.
The moral of this
story is that it is both wrong and damaging to your
self-interests to turn a
blind eye to any form of human rights abuse under
any circumstances. If your
neighbour is raping his children he should be
stopped, even if he was your
senior at school.
Daily News
ZCTU urges workers to resist harsh laws
1/24/02 9:21:55
AM (GMT +2)
Staff Reporter
WORKERS have a battle on their
hands because of the government’s attempts to
pass the Labour Relations
Amendment Bill.
Lovemore Matombo, the president of the Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions
(ZCTU), told the general council of the labour umbrella body
in Harare
yesterday: “At this stage we are alerting all workers that we have
a battle
on our hands. All workers should be ready for a fight. We are
consulting our
lawyers over the constitutionality of this
Bill.”
Matombo said the Bill was “closer to the Masters and Servants Act
of the
1930s under Sir Godfrey Huggins. If it is passed we will have gone
back to
Rhodesia”.
The Bill would effectively outlaw stayaways and
strikes. Matombo called on
all Members of Parliament, regardless of political
affiliation, to throw out
the Bill in the interests of the
workers.
The ZCTU, he said, also condemned the passing of the Public
Order and
Security Bill.
He said: “It disenfranchises the workers. If they
want to hold a meeting
they are required to apply to the police. Knowing the
police as we do
nowadays, they will turn down the request.
“If read
with the Labour Relations Amendment Bill, they both criminalise
stayaways and
strikes and most trade union leaders are likely to go to jail
for 20 years
without the option of a fine.
“With strikes and stayaways prohibited, we
will have a docile labour force.”
The general council, the ZCTU’s supreme
policy-making body, condemned what
it called Zanu PF-sponsored political
violence ahead of the 9-10 March
presidential election.
Matombo said
yesterday: “Some schools in the districts have been closed by
Zanu PF
supporters and workers have been beaten. When they report to the
police, they
are told to go and resolve their problems with the
perpetrators, which does
not make sense.
“Beatings are also taking place in the towns. For
example, we received
reports of people being beaten up by uniformed police in
Budiriro at the
weekend. Yet people expect the police to protect them. We
term this
State-sponsored violence.”
Matombo called on workers not to
fight each other. He said: “If anyone wants
to fight, let them do it through
the ballot boxes on 9 and 10 March.”
Matombo said the ZCTU condemned the
Public Order and Security Bill, which
Parliament passed last week, and the
draconian Labour Relations Amendment
Bill and the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Bill.
He said the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Bill would
curtail information from the independent
media to the workers. He noted that
about 80 percent of the independent
media’s market were the workers.
FinGaz
Govt lays ground for tougher blitz on MDC
By Abel Mutsakani
Assistant News Editor
1/24/02 1:48:51 AM (GMT +2)
EVEN if the day’s
weather was bad, Zimbabwe’s besieged government is likely
to blame it on its
chief rival, the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change
(MDC).
With six weeks before the critical presidential election in
March, the
government has intensified a propaganda blitz against the MDC,
accusing the
opposition party of recruiting youths for military training, of
sending
anthrax-laced mail to senior government officials and of
masterminding
robberies in neighbouring countries.
But analysts this
week said that beyond merely politicking ahead of a tricky
election, the
government was criminalising the MDC.
It could thus be psyching the
nation for a tougher crackdown that could see
the jailing and sentencing to
death of opposition activists under a new and
tough security law now awaiting
President Robert Mugabe’s signature.
"It is much more ominous in that it
(the anti-MDC propaganda) is happening
while Mugabe’s pen is dangling over
the Public Order and Security Bill
(POSB)," University of Zimbabwe (UZ)
political analyst Elphas Mukonoweshuro
noted.
"Obviously the
government is preparing a criminal profile of the MDC to
justify the use in
future of the POSB against the opposition party," he
said.
The
draconian POSB, bulldozed by the ruling ZANU PF party through Parliament
two
weeks ago and expected to be signed by Mugabe any time, prescribes
life
imprisonment or death for a variety of loosely defined security
offences.
For example, one could be imprisoned for life or hanged for
receiving or
imparting military training to Zimbabweans, or for acts of
terrorism and
economic sabotage — in short just the sort of crimes the
state-run Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and its allied newspapers
have accused the
MDC of committing.
The ZBC is the country’s only
radio and television station. The government
also controls the country’s
largest newspaper publishing stable, Zimbabwe
Newspapers, although a small
but vibrant independent media also exists.
Jailing or hanging MDC
activists could knock out the labour-backed
opposition party, which has
weathered political violence that has killed
more than 100 of its activists
since February 2000 to become the deadliest
threat yet to Mugabe and his ZANU
PF’s 21-year stranglehold on power.
Earlier attempts by the government to
jail Tsvangirai using the colonial Law
and Order Maintenance Act, now being
replaced by the POSB, flopped in
December when the Supreme Court ruled he had
not committed treason when he
told a political rally Mugabe should resign
peacefully or be violently
removed from office.
The MDC lost the June
2000 parliamentary poll by a narrow four seats to ZANU
PF.
Political
analysts and observers say Tsvangirai could ride on swelling
public
discontent over worsening hardships and poverty blamed on Mugabe’s
economic
mismanagement to easily defeat the 77-year-old president, who has
ruled the
southern African nation since it became independent from British
colonial
rule in 1980.
Stepping up the propaganda campaign, the government’s
flagship daily Herald
opened this week with a front-page story in its Monday
edition alleging that
the MDC had planned to sabotage the Morton Jaffray
water treatment plant
just outside Harare.
The water plant serves the
metropolitan capital, its two satellites of
Chitungwiza city and Norton town
and Ruwa and Epworth settlements.
Only the quick intervention of the
police saved the day, according to the
Herald, although the paper says none
of the 22 Harare municipal workers it
claims wanted to sabotage the plant on
behalf of the MDC were arrested.
Four days earlier, the same newspaper
claimed it had unearthed a network of
"killer houses" in Harare’s residential
suburbs which it said were run by
the MDC.
It alleged that runaway
criminals and murderers were being kept at these
houses to commit political
violence and to stage demonstrations against the
government.
Earlier
in the month, the Herald and other state-owned media claimed
without
providing any evidence that the MDC had masterminded South Africa’s
biggest
robbery yet when R117 million was stolen from Johannesburg
international
airport.
A gang of South African and Zimbabwean thieves
stole the money but state
media claimed the Zimbabweans were MDC members out
to raise money to fund
Tsvangirai’s presidential run following a ban on
political parties from
receiving funds from foreign donors.
Again this
month, state media claimed that the main opposition party had
sent letters
laced with the deadly anthrax bacteria to government officials,
among them
chief propagandist Jonathan Moyo.
Medical evidence later discounted the
alleged existence of anthrax-laced
mail.
State media reports of the
MDC masterminding political violence or sending
its youth to Uganda for
military training have virtually become a weekly
routine.
Despite the
crimes the MDC is said to have committed, no arrests or
prosecution of the
opposition party’s activists in connection with the
alleged crimes have taken
place.
Kenneth Makamure, communications officer of the Zimbabwe Catholic
Bishops’
Conference, said the government’s branding of the opposition as
criminal
reflected its desperation to win the hearts of the electorate ahead
of an
election it is seen losing.
"This is an attempt to divert
attention from the economic and political
crisis but unfortunately for the
government the violence its militant
supporters are committing on innocent
citizens speaks much louder than all
the propaganda," he said.
stant
justice, including being assaulted, tortured and even being killed.
The
youths, most of them trained in military tactics using public funds on
the
so-called national youth service, ironically stepped up their terror
campaign
immediately after Mugabe assured both the European Union and the
Southern
Africa Development Community three weeks ago that the March ballot
would be
fair and that he was going to act to end violence.
The former chairman of
Zimbabwe’s elections watchdog, the Electoral
Supervisory Commission (ESC),
Peter Hatendi who left the elections body
because Mugabe would not give it
more powers and make it independent,
described the government’s latest media
blitz against the opposition as a
crude attempt to hoodwink
voters.
"It represents a total lack of respect for the sovereignty of the
voter. It
is an attempt to reduce voters to pawns by feeding them
incorrect
information," the retired Anglican Church bishop
said.
Hatendi said he had during his tenure at the ESC tried
unsuccessfully to
initiate a code of conduct to govern how journalists
working for both the
independent and state media would cover elections in
order to avoid such
misinformation and propaganda.
Mukonoweshuro said
the propaganda blitz, which besides demonising the MDC
has also attempted to
portray ZANU PF’s support as rising on the back of
chaotic land reforms,
could be used to justify a rigged election result.
But the respected
analyst insisted the government wanted to be able to crush
the MDC using the
POSB and then tell Zimbabweans and the world that "we knew
the MDC was a
movement of criminals, only that we did not have appropriate
legislation to
act against them".