ABOUT 350 women activists from a
pro-democracy group, several of them with babies on their backs, were in custody
yesterday after being arrested by Zimbabwean riot police for holding an
“unlawful” meeting.
Most of them were arrested on Thursday in a Young Women’s Christian
Association hall in the Harare township of Kambuzuma as they gathered to plan
for nationwide demonstrations today to demand a new democratic constitution.
Police have banned the planned demonstration by the National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA), an alliance of church, civic and labour organisations, under the
terms of draconian security laws passed in January.
Also arrested were a smaller number of NCA workers who were distributing
leaflets in the city centre yesterday, Lovemore Madhuku, the NCA chairman, said.
Three NCA officials were also detained when they went to visit the arrested
women, who are being held in nine police stations in Harare townships.
“This is a police state,” Mr Madhuku said. “There are pregnant women in the
cells, women who brought children with them and women who left their children at
home.”
A police spokesman denied that there were any children with the women.
However, the Independent Daily News published a photograph of two
toddlers in a police yard.
Lawyers are seeking a court ruling to secure the release of the women. “What
police intend to do is to keep them until after the demonstration,” Mr Madhuku
said.
The latest police action is seen as evidence of the Government’s rapid
decline into dictatorship in less than a month since President Mugabe was
declared the winner of presidential elections that most of the world has
declared illegitimate.
“They think we will continue to be soft. That’s gone, that’s finished,” Mr
Mugabe said at the weekend.
The women were arrested under the Public Order and Security Act which the
Government used as a near- blanket ban on the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change’s political meetings during the election campaign.
Police have also used the law to ban today’s scheduled demonstration. “I
think there will be trouble,” Mr Madhuku said. “But we will not obey unlawful
orders, including unlawful orders by the President.” |
Zimbabwe militia accused of abuse
April 5, 2002 Posted: 11:45 AM EST (1645 GMT)
LONDON, England (Reuters) - State-sponsored militia in Zimbabwe are
assaulting and raping supporters of the country's opposition in reprisal attacks
following last month's disputed presidential ballot, Amnesty International said
on Friday.
The human rights group said it was concerned about mounting reports of rape
and sexual torture by the militias, continuing a pattern seen in the run-up to
elections won by President Robert Mugabe but rejected as rigged by Western
governments.
The Crisis in Zimbabwe human rights group said on Thursday as many as 50,000
people, mostly supporters of the defeated Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
had fled their homes fearing revenge attacks.
Amnesty said militia had used a published list of names and addresses of MDC
polling agents to attack and destroy the homes of opposition officials.
"The Zimbabwe government has an absolute obligation...to protect all its
citizens from human rights violations," Amnesty said in a statement.
"Instead, the government's condoning of militia violence serves a political
purpose: destroying an opposition party and taking revenge on Zimbabweans who
may still support the MDC."
Amnesty said dozens of people were being held in some 50 illegal detention
centres around the country and cited a report that around 1,000 women were being
held in camps.
Youth militia stationed outside food distribution centres were assaulting
those thought to be MDC supporters and preventing them from buying food, despite
a rising risk of famine in the country, Amnesty said.
Copyright 2002 Reuters. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
MSNBC
Zimbabwean militias attack opposition -
Amnesty
LONDON, April 5 — State-sponsored militia in Zimbabwe are
assaulting and raping supporters of the country's opposition in reprisal
attacks following last month's disputed presidential ballot, Amnesty
International said on Friday.
The human rights group said it
was concerned about mounting reports of rape and sexual torture by the
militias, continuing a pattern seen in the run-up to elections won by
President Robert Mugabe but rejected as rigged by Western
governments. The Crisis in Zimbabwe human rights group said on
Thursday as many as 50,000 people, mostly supporters of the defeated Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC), had fled their homes fearing revenge
attacks. Amnesty said militia had used a published list of names and
addresses of MDC polling agents to attack and destroy the homes of
opposition officials. ''The Zimbabwe government has an absolute
obligation...to protect all its citizens from human rights violations,''
Amnesty said in a statement. ''Instead, the government's condoning of
militia violence serves a political purpose: destroying an opposition party
and taking revenge on Zimbabweans who may still support the MDC.''
Amnesty said dozens of people were being held in some 50 illegal detention
centres around the country and cited a report that around 1,000 women were
being held in camps. Youth militia stationed outside food distribution
centres were assaulting those thought to be MDC supporters and preventing
them from buying food, despite a rising risk of famine in the country,
Amnesty said.
Business Day
Mugabe's cronies upset by travel
ban
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- By
Duncan Guy Smart sanctions by the United States on select Zimbabweans have
started a wave of whinging in reports published in the country's only
independent and privately owned Sunday newspaper, the Zimbabwe
Standard.
While the United States Embassy in Harare will not divulge
names of people on its list, the paper has in the last month reported that a
Member of Parliament and the wife of the army commander who has game
hunting investments have found themselves to be targeted.
Also written
about - though through hearsay - is an unnamed businessman linked to arms
sales.
Jocelyn Chiwenga, wife of Zimbabwe National Army
commander Lieutenant-General Constantine Chiwenga, was to have travelled to
Las Vegas to attend an international hunting show.
"She said she
planned to use the show to promote trophy hunting on her Kazungula hunting
concession where she has a lodge," the paper reported.
"The Standard is
informed that the trophy hunts are being co-ordinated by the Department of
National Parks which intends to recruit war veterans as professional hunters
to assist prospective international hunters."
It said Chiwenga refused to
discuss her failed visa application but confirmed she had bought air tickets
to travel to the US to attend the Safari International Convention in Las
Vegas.
The unnamed businessman the Standard wrote about reportedly called
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner and was
"said to have been taken aback when Kansteiner is said to have stopped short
of calling him an unashamed liar".
"Kansteiner one-by-one went through
a number of deals that the businessman was involved in with or on behalf of
Zanu PF and the government, including arms sales.
"Said one top
source: "He (named businessman) was really taken apart. He was shocked
because he never expected Kansteiner to have that information about him. He
was trying to lobby to get himself off the list, but he did not realise how
serious and thorough the Americans have been about this whole thing. I have
not myself seen the list of individuals to be targeted, but I understand it
is quite frightening." "
The Member of Parliament, Philip Chiyangwa, from
Chinyoyi which has been a hot spot of farm invasions and election violence,
was quoted as saying: "Why are they interested in Chiyangwa? I do not need
anybody to tell me which country I should or should not visit. Is America our
God? To hell with them. All Zanu PF members will take appropriate action
against this move as we have not committed any crime. We will respond very
soon. We are going to take steps to match their actions, steps against the
American, British and Swiss nationals working here. We are busy consulting
others so we can chart the way forward," he told The Standard.
"My
journeys are confined to countries in Africa. I have banned myself from other
countries in the past five years. They will never see me landing on their
soil."
The Times
Mediators see Harare politicians From Jan Raath in
Harare
THE first moves toward a possible settlement of Zimbabwe’s
political crisis began yesterday when Nigerian and South African mediators
held preliminary, separate consultations with the ruling Zanu (PF) party and
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). State radio said
Adebayo Adedeji, a Nigerian diplomat, and Kgalema Motlanthe,
secretary-general of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress,
discussed a venue and agenda for substantive talks.
It said that a full
meeting with both parties present could begin only when Patrick Chinamasa,
the Justice Minister, returned from a business trip
to Switzerland.
The bulletin gave no more details, other than naming
the suprisingly junior ruling party delegation that met the mediators. It
said that it was led by the Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, who holds
the post of deputy secretary in President Mugabe’s politburo. He was
accompanied by two former Cabinet ministers, one dismissed for corruption in
1989 and the other dropped for being ineffective.
The MDC was led by
Welshman Ncube, its secretary-general. He is also a leading advocate and
Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Zimbabwe.
Daily News
Berserk soldiers beat up Gweru residents again
4/5/02
8:53:40 AM (GMT +2)
From Our Correspondent in Gweru
SCORES of
Gweru residents were injured on Tuesday night after they
were indiscriminately beaten up at several nightclubs and council-owned
beerhalls by soldiers in the city.
The residents said the
latest raids were meant to cow them into boycotting the countrywide mass
demonstrations organised by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA),
tomorrow.
The NCA, a coalition of several civic groups, tomorrow plans to
launch its series of mass demonstrations to pressure the government to
urgently review the constitution, which it has described as grossly
defective.
Several revellers at the council-owned beerhalls in Mkoba and
Senga suburbs, fled when the soldiers moved into the high-density
suburbs.
The soldiers patrolled the city and high-density suburbs using
two armoured vehicles. Timothy Mukahlera, the owner of one of the nightclubs,
described the raid as “barbaric” and called on the government to stop the
continued harassment of urban dwellers.
During the run-up to last
month’s presidential poll, the soldiers conducted similar raids at nightclubs
owned by members of the MDC.
Angry revellers at Chitukuko Hotel, owned by
prominent Gweru businessman, Patrick Kombayi retaliated, overpowered and
disarmed one of the soldiers.
The firearm, an AK 47 assault rifle and its
fully-loaded magazine, were later handed over to the police, but the soldier
in question has not been formally charged.
Daily News
Chinamasa recalled from Geneva to lead negotiations with
MDC
4/5/02 8:49:09 AM (GMT +2)
Chief Reporter
PATRICK
Chinamasa, the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and Zanu
PF’s secretary for legal affairs, has been recalled from a government
business trip in Geneva, Switzerland, to lead his party’s negotiations with
the opposition MDC.
Contacted from Geneva yesterday, Chinamasa
said he would be home tomorrow to head the Zanu PF delegation comprising
among others, Professor Jonathan Moyo, the Minister of State for Information
and Publicity in the President’s Office, Witness Mangwende, a former Minister
of State responsible for War Veterans’ Affairs, and Frederick Shava, a Zanu
PF administrator.
Chinamasa said: “I have been recalled home to lead the
delegation in the talks. I have been attending to government business here
in Switzerland and that has been terminated. I will get the full details when
I arrive home.” Learnmore Jongwe, the MDC’s spokesperson, yesterday said: “I
understand that there have been some consultations between the facilitators
on both sides, but the official talks have not yet begun. We are waiting to
hear from the facilitators as to when the talks will begin
officially.”
Jongwe said the MDC team is led by Professor Welshman Ncube,
the party’s secretary-general. Other members of the MDC team include Gift
Chimanikire, the party’s deputy secretary-general, Yvonne Mahlunge, a member
of the MDC national executive, and Professor Elphas Mukonoweshuro, adviser to
Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC president.
Mukonoweshuro is a lecturer in
the Department of Politics and Administrative Studies at the University of
Zimbabwe.
Ankomah's Solidarity Based On Falsehood And Violence Zimbabwe Independent
(Harare)
OPINION April 5, 2002 Posted to the web April 5,
2002
Mthokozisi Mathuthu,
THE coming of Baffour Ankomah to
Harare last week and the subsequent discussions he held really help to
contextualise the Zimbabwean problem.
Like the Sadc leaders and many
other so-called Pan-Africanists who endorsed President Mugabe's re-election
as "legitimate", " free and fair" Ankomah demonstrated a lack of
understanding of what is happening through his misplaced solidarity messages
and denunciations of fellow journalists.
He said the people's
condemnation of Mugabe's re-election was much ado about nothing because
elections were rigged in South Africa in 1994, the US, Nigeria and elsewhere.
He also said he didn't see anything wrong with the media laws in Zimbabwe
because there are worse laws in Britain.
Moreover he said Zimbabweans
need not cry loud because more people died in South Africa during the 1994
pre-election period.
Needless to say, this logic was bought by none other
than the Ankomah-think-alikes who include Tafataona Mahoso, Vimbai Chivaura,
Ibbo Mandaza, and Rino Zhuwarara who are conspicuous beneficiaries of
Mugabe's patronage politics.
It is not news to hear these people
hailing Mugabe's fraud because they are part of the minority which is scared
of a new dispensation under which competence, qualifications, credibility and
business ethics will be upheld.
Like Ankomah, their reasoning seems to be
that if thousands of people died in South Africa then we shouldn't mourn the
less than 200 killed by Mugabe's shock troops in the farmlands and elsewhere
because it was a revolution.
This logic is essentially built on falsehood
and bears within it elements of its own decay. It ignores the fact that in
Zimbabwe we have a supposedly-democratic leader, an anti-apartheid zealot who
deliberately let loose his dogs of war to secure his
re-election.
While in South Africa violence was often spontaneous
involving various people, in Zimbabwe it is systematic occurring according to
state plans and in such a way that election observers would not see
it.
If the situation in Zimbabwe is normal why did Mugabe like Ian Smith
and John Vorster introduce restrictive laws to block change? Why did he have
to remove judges like Anthony Gubbay and reintroduce laws previously
rejected by parliament?
How does Mugabe's fear of a future under which
he will be in exile in Libya or on trial for killing people since 1982 become
a revolution?
People like Ankomah and his local mandarin friends seem to
be forcing us to believe that the killing of farmers, headmen and others is
not murder per se because it is part of a revolution.
According to
them, Mugabe has a licence to allow his thugs to do anything because all
these will be classified as revolutionary acts. We are supposed to support
Mugabe's revision of the language of land redistribution.
The idea is to
force us to only condemn Smith's barbarities while white-washing Mugabe's own
murderous projects.
This is a clear abuse of African memory. Ankomah,
Mahoso, Chavaura, Zhuwarara and Mandaza are helping Mugabe to personalise our
collective memory and the African crisis by legitimising self- renewal and
bloody projects such as the so-called Third Chimurenga.
The crisis in
Zimbabwe is not about land. It is simply about misrule, gullibility,
patronage and thuggery.
That we find ourselves today held to ransom by an
old man who stole an election explains how we have allowed a certain culture
of fear, deception, gullibility and patronage to develop in the country since
1980.
The trouble with certain "scholars" in this country is that they
see Mugabe as a hero or master first and president last. These are the
scholars whom Mugabe will grant space on national television and papers to
confuse national values with his survival and personal projects.
How
does one explain that these scholars found in the Media Ethics Committee,
Constitutional Commision and National Ethos programme have never bothered to
show us how bad Mugabe is?
Is it a coincidence that they bless everything
which Mugabe champions? Ankomah and his friends think that local journalists
are not as patriotic as their British counterparts. What makes them think
that criticising Mugabe is being unpatriotic or is "bashing" and
"demonisation"?
It is difficult for Zimbabwean journalists not to
criticise Mugabe every day because he is an authoritarian who has put himself
at the centre of every facet of life in Zimbabwe surrounding himself with
imbeciles and criminals-in-waiting who cannot disagree with him.
He is
a national problem at the centre of the crisis. This is what Ankomah should
have been told. He needs to be taken seriously and not hated by all of us
here.
|