The Times
April 26, 2008
James Bone in New York
Britain forced Zimbabwe onto the UN Security
Council agenda yesterday as
regional efforts to resolve the election
stand-off faltered.
Sir John Sawers, Britain's UN ambassador, won
agreement for the 15-nation
council to hear a briefing on the crisis from a
senior UN official, probably
on Tuesday. The British move is a possible
prelude to seeking UN backing for
an arms embargo on Zimbabwe because of the
risk of election-related
repression.
The disclosure came as riot
police raided the headquarters of the opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change in Harare and detained about 100 supporters
who had taken refuge
there.
The MDC, which claims victory in elections held on March 29, said
that 250
police raided the building, taking prisoners away on a crowded
prison bus
along with computers used during the election campaign. Results
for the
presidential poll have still not been released, but President
Mugabe's Zanu
(PF) party lost its parliamentary majority at the ballot
box.
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Britain is unlikely to be able
to secure the votes necessary to impose a UN
arms embargo on Mr Mugabe's
regime, a move which in any case could be vetoed
by China. The Security
Council could, however, endorse a de facto moratorium
on arms shipments by
Zimbabwe's neighbours, who blocked a shipload of
Chinese arms from reaching
the country's ruling party.
Britain succeeded in getting the Security
Council to schedule a briefing on
Zimbabwe despite reluctance from such
influential members as South Africa
and China. The move takes UN involvement
a step further, after Gordon Brown
raised Zimbabwe at a Security Council
summit on Africa last week.
Britain acted now so that the UN briefing on
Zimbabwe would take place under
the chairmanship of South Africa, before
Britain assumes the rotating
presidency of the Security Council on May 1. No
council-member objected to
the British proposal, knowing that Britain had
the nine votes needed to win.
“We are not opposed to the briefing on
Zimbabwe being made in the Security
Council. However, we wonder what value
it can add,” Dumisani Kumalo, South
Africa's UN ambassador, told
reporters.
A Chinese diplomat said the crisis should be addressed by the
African Union.
“Zimbabwe is facing a similar situation to Kenya,” the
official said.
Zimbabwe was first discussed by the Security Council in
July 2005 following
President Mugabe's brutal slum clearance programme,
known as Operation
Murambatsvina, or Operation Drive Out Trash. At that
time, Britain won a
procedural vote, where vetos do not count, for the
council to hear a report
by UN special envoy Anna Tibaijuka calling the
demolition of homes a
“disastrous venture”.
Zimbabwe came before the
Security Council again in December 2005 when Jan
Egeland, the UN's
humanitarian chief, called for action on the food crisis
in the country as
part of a wider briefing on African crises. The Security
Council also
received a briefing from a UN humanitarian official in March
2007 after the
opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, was arrested and beaten
in
custody.
Globe and Mail, Canada
STEPHANIE NOLEN
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
April
25, 2008 at 7:10 PM EDT
JOHANNESBURG — Sixty heavily armed police
officers raided the headquarters
of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for
Democratic Change in Harare Friday,
while 25 police swarmed into the office
of the country's independent
election monitors.
Police took an
estimated 300 people into custody, many of them already badly
injured
victims of state-sponsored violence who had sought shelter at the
party
office.
The raid is seen as the strongest indication yet that the regime
of
President Robert Mugabe has no intention of ceding power, despite a
widespread belief that he and his ZANU-PF party lost the national election
on March 29 to the MDC.
Police detained displaced people and party
workers at Harvest House, as the
MDC headquarters is called, and took away
computers and piles of documents
related to the election, the party said.
Two rooms that had housed some 300
refugees from militia violence were left
deserted – in the room that
sheltered women and children, there was only a
pile of blankets neatly
stacked against the wall. In the men's room, the
floor was littered with
bandages and bottles of medicine; one man with a
broken leg was forced to
leave his crutch behind.
Two MDC members of
Parliament, who had been collecting victim testimonies at
the time of the
raid, were detained. Three security guards, the only people
left in the
headquarters, were almost incoherent with shock afterward.
Police said
they were seeking opposition supporters whom they accused of
arson and
“destabilization” campaigns in the countryside. But Andrew Makoni,
a
human-rights lawyer who rushed to the central Harare police station, where
those detained were crammed into small holding cells, said the charge was
preposterous.
“If any person was running away after committing a
crime, the last place
they would seek refuge is Harvest House,” he said.
“The people at Harvest
House are clear victims of violence.”
MDC
spokesman Nelson Chamisa, distraught after the raid, also denied that
any
party supporter had been involved in carrying out attacks.
“This regime
is now operating with impunity,” he said. “They are now
accusing our members
– who actually fled violence – of beating up ZANU-PF
members. These 300
people came to our offices because they have nowhere to
go … Zimbabwe is a
frying pan. We are burning and someone needs to quench
the burning. … It's
genocide in the making.”
Last week MDC Leader Morgan Tsvangirai told The
Globe and Mail he was
certain that upon his return to Zimbabwe he would face
arrest and possible
brutality. He has been outside the country since 10 days
after the vote,
lobbying regional and international leaders.
Police
also raided the offices of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network – a
coalition of 39 civil society organizations that sent monitors to polling
stations across the country for the vote. ZESN has become a particular
target of government wrath because it published an independent vote tally
two days after the election. Those results showed Mr. Tsvangirai had led the
vote, with a total of 50.3 per cent, with a 2.5-per-cent margin of
error.
That independent tally, based on an elaborate and internationally
tested
methodology, made it much more difficult for ZANU-PF to claim Mr.
Mugabe had
won. ZESN had the support of international pro-democracy
organizations such
as the National Democratic Institute in producing the
tally, and expatriate
staffers of those groups were the first targets of
raids, including one on a
small Harare hotel five days after the
vote.
Last night, police raided the home of the ZESN director Rindai
Chifunde,
with a warrant to search for “subversive material likely to cause
the
overthrow of a constitutionally elected government.” Possessing such
material carries a potential life sentence in Zimbabwe. At press time, Ms.
Chifunde and Noel Kututwa, the ZESN chairman, were in hiding. ZESN program
manager Tsungai Kokerai was arrested at the organization's
offices.
Police took people away from Harvest House in three trucks and a
bus. There
were 20 children under three years old among those detained, and
many of the
adults had broken limbs, while at least one had a recent gunshot
wound.
“It was shocking – it was as if they were dealing with a bank
robbery,”
Teresa Mano said of the police actions. She was walking past the
downtown
MDC headquarters when the raid began. “After 10 minutes I saw them
shoving
injured people in to the bus and trucks. They were brutal. Those
that
resisted were beaten with batons. Pregnant women were being dragged to
the
trucks. There were babies screaming all over the place. You would think
they
were dealing with hardcore criminals.”
By nightfall, police had
distributed those detained yesterday among police
stations across Harare and
were in the process of shipping them back to
their local police stations
around the country for processing.
Didymus Mutasa, the Minister of
National Security, said the raid was an
effort to root out those fomenting
violence.
“There are lots of people who are lying that they have been
beaten, hiding
at the MDC offices, when, in actual fact, they are the ones
who have been
perpetrating violence,” he told The Globe and Mail. “The
police have a duty
to deal with such people, it's the law. That is justice.
The police know
what they are doing: they don't just arrest people who have
done nothing
wrong. There is too much deception in this country about
violence on the
opposition.”
On state-run television last night,
Patrick Chinamasa, Zimbabwe's Justice
Minister, denounced ZESN as “an
appendage of the West.”
Mr. Mugabe yesterday renewed his attacks on
former colonial power Britain
and other Western nations for leading what he
called a shameless campaign
against his government, speaking at the opening
of a trade fair in the
second city of Bulawayo.
“And what is our
crime? Simply reclaiming our birthright, namely the natural
resource of our
land and for remaining resolute in the defence of our
hard-won national
sovereignty,” he said.
Zimbabweans voted four weeks ago today, but the
government has yet to
release the presidential ballot results. Parliamentary
results gave control
of the house of assembly to the combined opposition,
but the
government-controlled electoral commission is in the process of
recounting
23 constituencies and is widely expected to return the
parliamentary
majority to ZANU-PF.
Western leaders have been
increasingly critical of Mr. Mugabe in recent days
(Jendayi Frazer, U.S.
assistant secretary of state for Africa, said Thursday
that it was obvious
Mr. Tsvangirai won the election) and there are growing
signs that
neighbouring African leaders have also wearied of him.
But the clique of
generals ruling Zimbabwe appears impervious to criticism
and is moving ahead
with plans to stage a run-off presidential vote, after
first carrying out a
campaign of intimidation in all rural areas where the
MDC edged out ZANU-PF
in the first round.
With a report from a Globe and Mail contributor in
Harare
Yahoo News
30
minutes ago
HARARE (Reuters) - A partial recount of Zimbabwe's
parliamentary vote
suggests that President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF is
unlikely to
reverse the opposition's victory.
A total of 13 seats
have been recounted so far. ZANU-PF must win nine of 10
remaining
constituencies to take back control of parliament, according to
the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission's (ZEC) count so far, the state-run Herald
newspaper
reported in its Saturday online version.
(Reporting by Cris Chinaka)
Zimbabweans are depressed and afraid as their political stalemate drags on.
An insider's account. On Election Day Zimbabwe was
peaceful. But then, it always is. Those of us who have covered this country for
a long time know that it's what goes on quietly in the repressed rural areas
during the run-up to the poll that really counts. This time, though, there was a
brief moment of hope when it looked as if it could all be different. For a few
days before and after our March 29 ballot it seemed that the combination of
common sense, rampant inflation and concerns about his legacy had persuaded President
Robert Mugabe, 84, to let democracy have its way. Sadly, we forgot to
remember that Mugabe's democratic urges are never more than brief
spasms. Mugabe is also trying to buy time by demanding a recount in some of the
parliamentary votes. While that situation lingers, the beatings are increasing
in both numbers and savagery. On Friday police raided the MDC headquarters in
Harare—further undermining the movement's already weakened infrastructure—and
detained election officials around the country. At least three are said to have
been tortured to try to force "confessions" that they cooked the vote for the
opposition. Of course, thanks to price controls Zimbabwe's cell phone networks are
largely disabled, so it's often impossible to independently verify the dead,
assaulted, displaced and detained. (I regularly go the roundabout route of
having a family member in neighboring South Africa text-message government
officials in Zimbabwe for comment. Not surprisingly, none has
responded.) What a mess. Peta Thornycroft is a freelance Zimbabwean journalist and winner of a
2007 Courage in Journalism award from the International Women’s Media
Foundation. She writes for the Daily Telegraph (U.K.), Independent Newspapers
(South Africa) and Voice of America. © 2008
During our interlude of optimism, the authoritarian
Mugabe—prodded by an earlier agreement with South African President Thabo
Mbeki—allowed the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to
campaign in the rural strongholds of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF.
Thousands turned out to see and hear MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai for the first time.
In that respite, too, the foreign
journalists who previously had to sneak into the country as tourists came out of
hiding and stepped into Harare, the
capital's disintegrating streets with their cameras and microphones. Agents from
the country's feared Central Intelligence Organization watched unperturbed as a
correspondent did a stand-upper outside our colonial matron, the Meikles Hotel;
a Tsvangirai press conference drew a crush of elbowing journalists tripping over
cords and plugs.
The beatings and assaults, kidnapping and torture came
later—when results posted outside 9,000 polling stations showed the extent of
the losses by the country's rulers. ZANU-PF narrowly lost its parliamentary
majority, and Mugabe, by all accounts, lost the presidential ballot to
Tsvangirai. Mugabe's response: to hold off on releasing the results of the
presidential race. Almost a month later he has yet to do so.
Meanwhile,
the postelection retribution continues. Mugabe, trying to intimidate voters into
choosing him in the event of a runoff with Tsvangirai, ordered police and army
to punish rural residents who had voted for the MDC. That involved beating
residents within inches of their lives and burning their houses to force them
out of their voting areas. The nation's few hundred remaining white farmers have
been targeted too. At last count some 150 farms had been damaged in some way and
many farm workers forced to quit their jobs and homes. Hundreds who remained
have to attend all-night ZANU-PF propaganda sessions, called pungwes.
Nor is there an end in sight. While the outgoing Mbeki is
best placed to resolve the crisis, his past record—and his present silence—does
not inspire hope. During 2007 Mbeki refused time and again to heed advice from
MDC negotiators Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube during nine months of interparty
dialogue that was supposed to deliver not only better election, media and
security laws but a new constitution and transitional arrangements to deliver
Zimbabwe from Mugabe. The negotiators kept on asking Mbeki whether he had a plan
B to prevent precisely the kind of deadlock and violence in which Zimbabweans
now find themselves. Of course there was no plan B. Mbeki never believed what
they told him about Mugabe—a man he has known since Zimbabwe gained
independence—and thought he knew the Zimbabwean better.
Economically,
the country has become ungovernable. A single U.S. dollar now costs 100 million
Zimbabwe dollars; local economist John Robertson estimates that inflation will
hit 5 million percent by Oct. 1. The mint's sturdy German presses spew out ever
higher-denomination notes, and the central bank doubles the money supply weekly,
but most factories remain closed after central bank governor Gideon Gono removed
foreign currency from corporate accounts in January to fund the elections. In
supermarkets outside Harare, there is little to buy beyond Jell-O, corn curls,
cabbages and cleaning materials.
For now, Mugabe has been strategically
weakened by the saga of the An Yue Jiang, the Chinese ship laden with weapons he
ordered last year. After port workers in neighboring countries refused to
offload its contents for fear they would be used against Zimbabweans, the ship
had to return to China. There's also mounting outside pressure from countries
like the United States and Britain, but in the end this is a problem that will
have to be solved by regional leaders. Depressed Zimbabweans may be convinced
that Mugabe lost the presidential vote by at least 7 percent, but that's cold
comfort when the old man refuses to release the results and ever more people in
rural areas are savagely beaten for voting "the wrong way."
25 April 2008
Issued by the
Movement for Democratic Change April 25 2008
Police storm MDC HQ -
snatch political violence victims
Heavily armed police details today
stormed MDC headquarters, the Harvest
House in central Harare and took away
over 400 victims of political violence
who have fled from their homes after
being persecuted Zanu PF militia across
the country.
Thousands of MDC
supporters have fled from their homes following high level
attacks by Zanu
PF youth militia who are backed by armed men in uniform and
claiming to be
soldiers.
Also arrested by the police in the raid were; Hon. Paurina
Mpariwa who is
the MP for Mufakose and Evelyn Masaiti Matongo MP for
Dzivaresekwa.
The two parliamentarians were involved for providing food
and medical aid to
the victims.
The police also took several MDC
staff members and damaged most of the
party's office equipment including
computers. Doors were kicked open while
important documents were removed and
taken away by the police.
Police took over 300 victims who are mainly
women and children who have run
away from their homes following disturbances
and they are currently being
held at the Harare Central Police
Station.
Most of the political victims who were seeking shelter at
Harvest House
along Nelson Mandela Avenue, were seeking medical treatment
after they had
been severely assaulted by Zanu PF supporters for voting for
the MDC in the
29 March elections.
The MDC won the elections although
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is yet
to announce the presidential poll
results after over three weeks after the
voting.
The victims are from
areas such as Mudzi, Mutoko, Murehwa, Masvingo, Gutu
and Lupane and had fled
to Harare seeking treatment and refuge.
Statement issued by the Movement
for Democratic Change April 25 2008
SABC
April 25, 2008,
17:45
Cosatu has expressed outrage at the reported arrests of hundreds of
people
in a police raid on Zimbabwe's opposition MDC's headquarters in
Harare, and
demanded their immediate release.
The MDC says its
supporters, including pregnant women and children, were
bundled into the
back of government trucks and whisked away.
Cosatu spokesperson, Patrick
Craven says this raid is the clearest evidence
yet that - what he called
-the illegal Mugabe regime has no intention of
respecting the democratic
process and the wishes of the people of Zimbabwe.
Cosatu will lead
marches in protest over developments in Zimbabwe on the
tenth of next month
in Gauteng, Cape Town and Durban.
Zim Online
by Lizwe Sebatha Saturday 26 April
2008
BULAWAYO – An independent candidate has filed an urgent
court application to
force President Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) to
order elections in a constituency where voting
was postponed last month
after the death of an opposition
candidate.
Zimbabwe held parliamentary elections on March 29 that were
won by the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, but ZEC is
yet to
issue results of a parallel presidential vote, which Mugabe is
believed to
have lost to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Voting was
deferred in the constituencies of Pelandaba-Mpopoma, Gwanda South
and
Redcliff in terms of the electoral law that allows postponement of
polling
in the event of a candidate dying to afford contesting parties an
opportunity to choose replacement candidates.
But Bulawayo lawyer Job
Sibanda, who was standing as an independent
candidate in Pelandaba-Mpopoma,
says the Electoral Act stipulates that the
ZEC should have postponed
elections for a maximum of 14 days and wants the
High Court to order the
commission to set a new date for a by-election
election in the
constituency.
Mugabe is third respondent in the matter while ZEC and its
chief elections
officer, Lovemore Sekeramayi, are second and first
respondents respectively.
Sibanda said in papers filed with the Bulawayo
High Court: “Respondents have
failed despite the clear provisions of the law
stipulating that a
by-election should be ordered within 14 days of the
announcement of the
death of a candidate . . . to announce when the
by-election will be held.
“Through their continued silence, the
respondents continue to be in breach
of the law. There is an urgent need
therefore to direct that the respondents
be ordered to comply with the
law.”
The matter was not yet set down for hearing by Friday.
The
application just adds another new twist to Zimbabwe’s election stalemate
that began after ZEC withheld results of the presidential vote and which
political analysts say has potential to explode into serious violence and
bloodshed.
The MDC, which last week lost a court bid to force
electoral authorities to
release results of the presidential poll, says
Mugabe’s government has
blocked results while it implements a campaign of
violence and terror to cow
voters to back the 84-year old President in an
anticipated second round
run-off poll against Tsvangirai.
The MDC
says 10 of its supporters have been killed in the violence while 3
000
others have been displaced from their homes, in what the opposition
party
has described as a war being waged by state security agents and ZANU
PF
militias against Zimbabweans.
Church leaders have urged African leaders
and the United Nations to
intervene to end the violence that they say if
left unattended could easily
slide into another genocide of the type seen in
Rwanda. -- ZimOnline.
But, as Ms Frazer arrived in Africa on Thursday, she must have known that
'clarity' is precisely the one ingredient Zimbabwe lacks most. A month after
parliamentary and presidential elections took place, no official results have
been published. President Robert Mugabe more or less admitted that the opposition won control
of Parliament and once even hinted at the possibility of submitting himself to a
run-off against Mr Tsvangirai in order to decide who should become Zimbabwe's
next head of state. But, since then, Mr Mugabe's stance has hardened. His officials have ordered
a 'recount' of the vote, despite the fact that some of the ballot boxes have
since disappeared. And nobody is now talking about another round of presidential
voting. Everything seems to point towards a major, looming confrontation. Supported
by the military and the security services, Mr Mugabe believes that he still
holds the upper hand. He may be prepared to offer the opposition a power-sharing deal. But if
opposition leaders refuse it, he is determined to crush them with all his might.
This strategy carries huge
risks. Mr Tsvangirai, who is now outside the country, has little incentive to
accept such a deal; he may order a campaign of civil disobedience against the
government. And Mr Mugabe cannot be sure that, if ordered, his armed forces would fire on
demonstrators. In short, both sides are now at a stand-off. The question is: Who
blinks first? The most immediate losers are, of course, the people. No less than 80 per
cent of the population is unemployed. And those who manage to find work discover
that their salary is pulverised by an inflation rate exceeding 100,000 per cent.
Very soon, the title of a 'failed state' will be a compliment for Zimbabwe. But South Africa, Zimbabwe's key neighbour, also emerges damaged from this
episode. For years, Mr Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, has persuaded
the world that his 'quiet diplomacy' was more likely to find a solution in
Zimbabwe. While many African governments are beginning to tire of Zimbabwe's leaders,
Mr Mbeki continues to claim that there is 'no crisis'. The result is that Mr Mbeki, who leaves office next year, is increasingly
marginalised inside his own country. However, not everything is gloomy. Zimbabwe apart, large parts of Africa are
booming. Sub-Saharan economies are currently growing by 6.6 per cent, and
foreign investments and loans have risen from S$14 billion yearly at the
beginning of this decade to S$71 billion last year. So while Zimbabwe remains a disaster, the rest of the continent deserves
continued engagement, and offers much hope. April 26,
2008
ZIMBABWE
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is the 'clear victor' of the country's
latest elections. That, at least, is the opinion of Ms Jendayi Frazer, the US
Assistant Secretary for African Affairs.
Human Rights Watch
Security Forces
Raid Opposition Headquarters
(Johannesburg, April 25, 2008) – President
Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party and
state security forces have sharply
intensified a campaign of organized
terror and torture against opposition
activists and ordinary Zimbabweans,
Human Rights Watch said today. Armed
riot police raided the Harare
headquarters of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) on April
25, 2008 and arbitrarily arrested scores of
people, including women and
children seeking refuge there.
“We’re
seeing a major increase in government-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe
right
now,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
“The
ruling party has been sending its allies – youth militia and so-called
“war
veterans” – after people it thinks voted for the opposition in last
month’s
election. In recent days, the army has been playing a direct role in
the
repression, and police have arrested people fleeing the violence. Now
anyone
seen as opposing Mugabe is in danger.”
Over the past few days, Human
Rights Watch has documented a pattern of
increasing violence by ZANU-PF
militias and the military, both in the number
of incidents recorded and the
brutality used. For example, one MDC supporter
from Uzumba, Mashonaland East
province, told Human Rights Watch that ZANU-PF
militia members had cut off
his ear. Another man from Mudzi, also in
Mashonaland East told Human Rights
Watch that he received severe wounds to
his buttocks after being beaten with
logs. His attackers told him that if he
went to the hospital for treatment,
they would come back and kill him. The
man reported to Human Rights Watch
that by the time he reached medical
treatment in Harare, his flesh had begun
to rot.
For the first time since the post-election crackdown in Zimbabwe
started,
Human Rights Watch has documented several incidents of retaliatory
violence
by MDC supporters, although the scope of these incidents bears no
comparison
to the widespread state-sponsored violence by ZANU-PF and its
allies.
Eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that in parts of Mashonaland
East and
Manicaland provinces, MDC supporters had burned homes of known
ZANU-PF
supporters and officials. The emergence of tit-for-tat retaliatory
attacks
between ZANU-PF and MDC supporters could further escalate the
violence
putting the general population at greater risk.
More than 40
armed riot police raided the MDC headquarters, known as Harvest
House,
during the morning of April 25 and forced scores of men, women and
children
into a pickup truck and a bus. It is not known where the police
have taken
them. They were among 250 persons, including some 60 women and
children,
sheltering at Harvest House after fleeing increasing violence and
torture by
ZANU-PF in rural areas. Police also confiscated MDC computers and
files. The
police claimed those arrested were wanted for assault and arson.
Also on
April 25, eight Criminal Investigation Division (CID) police
officers
entered the offices of the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network
(ZESN), the
only nationwide independent election monitoring organization
which had
compiled its own data on the disputed March 29 elections. Police
officers
searched the premises and confiscated files and other sensitive
information.
They interrogated ZESN’s program manager, Tsungai Kokerai, for
seven
hours.
In the wake of the disputed elections, ZANU-PF and its allies set
up torture
camps in areas where the opposition has made significant progress
and
opposition strongholds
(http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/19/zimbab18604.htm).
In the city of
Mutare, for instance, a country club was turned into an
informal torture
center. Human Rights Watch expressed grave concern for the
welfare of an
estimated 500 people, including more than 100 children, who
are believed to
be sheltering in the MDC’s regional headquarters in Mutare
to try to escape
state-sponsored violence.
Human Rights Watch
investigations have also found that the political
violence in Chivi South
constituency, in Masvingo province, demonstrates the
organized nature of
state-sponsored violence against the MDC and the
increasing role of the
army. According to eyewitnesses, five days after the
election, a group of
so-called “war veterans” arrived in the area, and went
from ward to ward,
urging people to “repent” for voting MDC. They forced
people to attend
pro-government rallies where MDC supporters were made to
burn their party
cards and MDC T-shirts, and become members of ZANU-PF. The
“war veterans”
severely beat several MDC supporters, and burned the homes of
others. On
April 18, a group of army and police officials arrived in Chivi
South and at
a meeting with the traditional chief and village headman
demanded that the
village headman compile a list of all known and suspected
MDC supporters in
their village. Army troops burned more homes of suspected
MDC voters the day
after the meeting.
Zimbabwe’s parliamentary elections delivered a
decisive defeat for the
ruling ZANU-PF led by Mugabe. Yet, almost four weeks
later, the
ZANU-PF-appointed Electoral Commission has failed to announce the
results of
the presidential poll that took place at the same time. On April
19, the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission carried out a recount in 23
constituencies
that was seriously flawed because the original ballot boxes
had been moved
to undisclosed locations.
“The recount results
expected this weekend or early next week will do little
to restore
credibility to this election process,” Gagnon said. “The violent
crackdown
on the opposition is just one more sign that President Mugabe will
stop at
nothing to keep hold of power. A re-run of the presidential race
will have
no validity.”
Human Rights Watch said that the dramatic escalation of
violence shows that
the initiatives of the intergovernmental Southern
African Development
Community (SADC) and South African President Thabo
Mbeki’s mediation role
have not been effective in resolving the political
impasse and ending the
violence.
“The SADC and President Mbeki are
standing by as Zimbabweans suffer horribly
at the government’s hands,” said
Gagnon. “The African Union should
immediately step in to protect civilians
and resolve this crisis before it
gets any worse.”
Daily Mail, UK
By
IAN DRURY - Last updated at 23:00pm on 25th April
2008
Murderous dictator Robert Mugabe should be stripped of
his honorary
knighthood, MPs demanded last night.
They said it was
'abhorrent' that Zimbabwe's president retained the honour
despite his
appalling human rights record, including beating, torturing and
killing
opponents.
Earlier this week, Foreign Secretary David Miliband accused
the 84-year-old
of trying to 'steal' the Zimbabwean election held last
month. Final results
have still not been declared.
Mugabe was made an
honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath by
John Major's Tory
government in 1994 - for 'significant contributions' to
relations between
Britain and its former colony. In 2003 Tony Blair promised
to look at
withdrawing the honour and the Commons Foreign Affairs Select
Committee
called for Mugabe to be stripped of it. But no action was taken
Ministers
can ask the Queen to cancel a knighthood on the grounds of
someone's
'unworthiness' to hold it.
The action would come through the Forfeiture
Committee, which advises on
honours.
The Liberal Democrats have now
written to Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus
O'Donnell, who chairs the committee,
asking him to 'urgently consider'
removing the title.
Foreign affairs
spokesman Ed Davey said doubts were raised in 1994 over
whether Mugabe
should have been awarded the honour in the first place,
because of his role
in massacres of Zimbabweans. He added: 'His fitness to
hold this honour has
further deteriorated with his actions in recent years
and months. Surely a
man prepared to steal an election is not worthy of an
honour from the
Queen?'
Mr Davey said revoking the knighthood would 'send a message that
the British
people will stand shoulder to shoulder with a democratic outcome
for
Zimbabwe.'
Meanwhile, 16 MPs have joined an all-party campaign
calling on the
Government to strip Mugabe of his honour. Led by Lib Dem MP
Paul Keetch,
they said it was 'regrettable' it had not been
revoked.
Ministers are understood to be wary of handing Mugabe ammunition
for his
propaganda war against his country's old rulers.
But the
Foreign Office said last night: 'We are listening carefully to the
views of
those who wish to see Mugabe's knighthood removed and we don't rule
out
taking action.'
Very few knighthoods have been withdrawn. Former Romanian
tyrant Nicolae
Ceausescu was stripped of his title only three days before he
was executed
at the end of 1989.
British nationals can lose their
titles if they are convicted of serious
criminal offences.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri & Marvellous Mhlanga
Washington
25 April 2008
Politically inspired
violence continues to mount in Zimbabwe’s rural areas.
Sources in Makoni
West constituency of Manicaland Province said Friday that
suspected armed
war veterans shot and killed 40-year old Tabitha Marume of
Hera village
there.
Marume died on the way to a hospital in the provincial capital of
Mutare,
according to the sources, who said her body was at the Mutare
offices of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change formation led by
Morgan
Tsvangirai. The sources said three people were abducted in the
constituency
and their whereabouts were unknown.
Violence against
opposition supporters, which the opposition and civil
society groups charge
has been ordered and organized by the ZANU-PF party of
President Robert
Mugabe with the help of government officials and agencies.
It is believed
that the violence is intended to punish those who voted for
the opposition
in March 29 elections, and to intimidate voters ahead of a
presidential
runoff ballot.
Such a runoff election has not been called, but observers
believe ZANU-PF
sees such an election as a way out of the dilemma created by
the suppression
since March 29 of the results of the presidential election.
Tsvangirai's MDC
formation contends that he won more than 50% of the votes
cast on May 29 and
is the president-elect.
Secretary General Tendai
Biti of the Tsvangirai MDC formation told reporters
in South Africa on April
10 that 10 opposition members had been killed as of
that date.
U.S.
Assistant Secretary for State for Africa Jendayi Frazer told
journalists
during a stop Thursday in Pretoria, South Africa, that
Tsvangirai was the
"clear" winner.
Sources in Makoni West, scene of Marume's reported
murder, said a camp for
war veterans and ZANU-PF youth militia has been
established at Manonga
Primary School in the constituency, with another at
the Chiubvure Business
Center in Makoni South. They said there 15 incidents
of violence in the
constituency on Friday alone.
In an incident
Thursday, youth militia abducted an agricultural extension
officer from his
home in Makoni South, brutally beat him and left him for
dead. A good
Samaritan called an ambulance and he was rushed to a hospital
in
Mutare.
The attack victim, who identified himself only as Nyasha for fear
he would
be subject to reprisals, told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's
Studio 7
for Zimbabwe that ZANU-PF has armed the militia and war veterans in
the
Makoni area.
VOA spoke with a Zimbabwe Defense Forces member who
said he was unhappy at
being ordered to intimidate and commit violence
against opposition members.
The Defense Forces member, named
Mafirakureva, said his colleagues have been
selected to terrorize the
population in anticipation of a presidential
runoff.
BBC
19:51 GMT, Friday, 25 April 2008 20:51 UK
Angola's government has authorised
a Chinese ship carrying arms
destined for Zimbabwe to dock, although it says
it will not be allowed to
unload weapons.
In a statement, the
government said the vessel would only be allowed
to deliver goods intended
for Angola.
On Thursday, the Chinese authorities said they would
recall the ship
to China after port workers in South Africa refused to
unload the weapons.
Other southern African countries had also
refused to allow the ship to
dock.
Leaders in the region had
expressed concern that the weapons could
heighten tensions in
Zimbabwe.
The results of presidential elections held there nearly a
month ago
have still not been released.
Grenades
The state news agency, Angop, said the ship, the An Yue Jiang, had
been
authorised to dock in the capital Luanda.
But it can only
unload "merchandise destined for Angola", a government
statement
said.
Angola is a close ally of Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe.
On Thursday, a Chinese foreign ministry official said the
ship, which
reportedly contains three million rounds of ammunition, 1,500
rocket-propelled grenades and 2,500 mortar rounds, might return to
China.
The US had urged China to recall the An Yue Jiang, while the
UK called
for an international arms embargo on Zimbabwe.
Zambia's president urged African countries not to let the arms in.
But Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper condemned the country's
neighbours
as "myopic stooges" for refusing to let the cargo dock.
"Zimbabwe
is... under attack from the former coloniser and its allies.
As such,
Zimbabwe probably needs to arm itself more than any other country
in Africa
today," the paper said.
Game's governing body blames
'fundamental breakdown' in relationship between
Speed and other ICC members
over Zimbabwe
Andy Bull
guardian.co.uk,
Friday April 25
2008
In an extraordinary development today Malcolm Speed, the ICC's chief
executive, was put on paid leave until his contract expires on July 4 after
a severe falling-out with the ICC's president, Ray Mali, over the
organisation's handling of Zimbabwean cricket.
David Morgan, the
ICC's president-elect, described the news as "the result
of a fundamental
breakdown in the relationship between the CEO and a number
of board members,
including the president, over a variety of issues that
include
Zimbabwe."
He also confirmed that, with Speed's replacement as chief
executive Haroon
Lorgat not coming into office at the beginning of July the
ICC's general
manager, David Richardson will fill the chief executive role
in the interim.
Mali and Speed reportedly disagreed on the ICC's decision
not to take any
major action against Zimbabwe despite a damning independent
audit of
Zimbabwean cricket recently carried out by KPMG.
Speed had
previously refused to attend a media conference after the March
meeting at
which the ICC decided to overlook the audit. He said at the time
that he was
not prepared to defend in public a decision with which he
fundamentally
disagreed. Speed clearly believed that the conduct of senior
Zimbabwean
cricket officials should have been referred to the ICC's ethics
committee.
Mali, who has always made it clear that he supported
Zimbabwe cricket and
its officials, was believed to have been outraged by
Speed's statement.
Subsequently he has gained support from a number of board
members and
successfully moved to have Speed sidelined into paid leave.