The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.
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      No one is going to help us until we help ourselves

      8/5/02 9:14:11 AM (GMT +2)



      IN May 2000, one month before the parliamentary election, I stood in
the little trading store of our Marondera farm.

      All the men and women who worked for me were sitting down in the long
grass in the field below the house.

      They had been ordered to attend the Zanu PF rally being held there.

      They were cold, hungry, tired and fed up with the demands being made
by the men who had invaded our farm and called themselves war veterans.

      Every weekend for months on end the rallies went on, but the workers
were too scared not to attend.

      If they refused to go they had stones pelted on their roofs at night,
the vegetables in their gardens were trampled and the maize cobs lying
drying on sheets of tin were stolen.

      The workers on my farm said I should just keep quiet because this was
"only politics".

      I often stood alone in my trading store serving customers and the talk
was always about the situation in Zimbabwe.

      Bus and taxi drivers, teachers and passers-by would all shake their
heads in disgust and shame at what was happening on our farm.

      One day a black pastor said to me: "But when are you farmers going to
do something to stop this?"

      I laughed sadly and shook my head - what was I supposed to do?

      The leaders in the Commercial Farmers' Union who supposedly
represented my interests, told me to do nothing, to say nothing and not to
make waves, because this was "only politics".

      One day a black lawyer driving past our farm from Harare stopped when
he saw at least 300 people gathered in our field.

      There were Zanu PF posters tied onto the trees, our fences had been
cut, war veterans had dug pit latrines in our fields and a calf, tied to a
tree, bellowed in agony as it waited to be slaughtered by the men who called
themselves the commanders of our farm.

      The lawyer said: "My God, is this a land invasion? This is outrageous.
What are you going to do? Have you phoned the police?" I laughed sadly and
shook my head - what was I supposed to do?

      The police had told me they could do nothing, they told me to keep
quiet, to say nothing and do nothing and not to make waves because this was
"only politics".

      By the end of September 2000 when the war veterans squatting on our
Marondera farm had made our lives unbearable, crippled us financially and
emotionally and claimed every field on the farm, my family and I left.

      We leased the property out to another couple and for a while
everything went quiet.
      The squatters left, the war veterans drifted away and some sort of
normalcy returned.

      In February 2002, weeks before the presidential election, the
government men came back. They set up a torture camp in the fields below the
house.

      They dragged young boys and girls there at night, stripped them naked
and beat them with sticks, accusing them of supporting the opposition.

      They ordered the tenants out of the main farmhouse and off the
property.
      They evicted all the workers from the staff village.

      They took over the trading store and turned it into a beerhall.

      I was visited by a professional black woman from Harare who said to
me: "This is unbelievable. What are you going to do? Have you been to see
the government?"

      I laughed sadly and shook my head because the government officials had
told me there was nothing they could do because this was "only politics".

      For 29 months this has been going on and still we are alone.

      So many people have lost everything they worked all their lives for.

      Farm workers are now destitute peasants. Their children are raggedy
and dirty and don't go to school anymore.

      Farmers are living in rented houses in Harare.

      Many hundreds of companies have closed down and many thousands of
people are unemployed.

      Six million people are starving and still we do nothing.

      Still, as a nation, we do nothing. Black, white and brown people do
nothing. Regardless of the colour of our skin, we are all Africans and yet
we do nothing. We all wait for someone else to do something.

      For 29 months we have been waiting for someone else to do something.

      Don't Zimbabweans realise yet that no one can help us until we help
ourselves and that politics doesn't put food in our bellies?
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Daily News

      CFU splinter group vows to stay put on farms

      8/5/02 9:06:28 AM (GMT +2)


      By Lloyd Mudiwa

      JUSTICE for Agriculture (JAG), the militant splinter group of the
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), is headed for a showdown with the government
after its members vowed to stay on their farms in defiance of a directive to
vacate the properties on Friday this week.

      Although they risk jail over the Heroes' holiday, the farmers vowed to
stay on their properties.

      About 60 commercial farmers, among them Renson Gasela the MDC shadow
minister for agriculture and Roy Bennet, the MP for Chimanimani, met in
Harare on Thursday night.

      They resolved to take the government head-on, saying they would not
strike deals with it as the CFU had done to the detriment of its members.

      "There will be no deals cut," Jenni Williams, JAG's spokesperson,
said. "If there is change, it will be from the ground.

      "Appeasement is like feeding the crocodile hoping it will eat you
last."

      She said trying to strike deals with the government had so far failed.

      Attempts by the commercial farmers, and efforts under the
Nigeria-brokered Abuja Agreement and the local Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement
Initiative, to get the government to conduct land reform in an orderly
manner have all failed.

      More than 95 percent of the land has already been listed for
acquisition with some foreign-owned farms previously de-listed being
relisted, Williams said.

      Dave Connolly, JAG's chairman, advised the farmers against destroying
their title deeds, saying they should keep copies of the deeds and lodge the
originals outside the country as they would come in handy later.

      The farmers said the ongoing campaign to evict them from their farms
was a planned genocide against commercial farmers similar to what happened
during the notorious Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980s when 30 farmers were
killed after the North Korean-trained 5 Brigade was deployed in Matabeleland
and the Midlands to quell dissident insurgency.

      Williams said: "We must go back to President Mugabe and remind him of
the promise that he made in the 1980s that there would be no reverse racism.
You must join us in making our leaders accountable."
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Daily News

      CFU says single farm owners seek deadline extension

      8/5/02 8:55:59 AM (GMT +2)


      Farming Editor

      AS the 10 August deadline for 3 000 farmers to vacate farms
approaches, the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) says farmers who own single
farms will not leave but will seek an audience with the government.

      Other farmers said they had sold their assets and were winding off
their businesses.

      Amendments to the Land Acquisition Act gazetted on 10 May 2002,
indicated that once a farmer received a Section 8 acquisition order from the
government, they had 45 days to cease farming operations and a further 45
days to leave the farm.

      The first 45 days expired on 24 June while the 90 days expire at
midnight on 9 August.
      CFU president Colin Cloete said in an interview: "The government must
treat us like Zimbabweans as we are here to stay. This is our country and we
cannot go anywhere."

      Cloete said more than 1 000 commercial farmers had been issued with
Section 8 orders when they owned only one farm. According to the criteria of
compulsory land acquisition, single-owned farms are not supposed to be
designated.

      "Using myself as an example, I own one farm and I have been told to
go. I do not understand the government policy but I will continue to seek
dialogue with government until we reach an understanding," Cloete said.

      Cloete said some farmers in their individual capacities were
consulting and had applied to the district administration offices and the
government for an extension of the deadline as they owned single farms. He
said many farmers had unharvested crops and animals on the farms and could
not just pack their bags "overnight". "I am one of the farmers who have
applied to the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement asking
for an extension because I am still grading tobacco, I have an unharvested
wheat crop in the field, I have an export garlic crop in the field as well
as cattle."

      While some farmers vowed they would stay put after 10 August, some
said they were selling their assets to leave as there was no security in
farming.
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New Vision (Uganda)

            Zimbabwe farmers in land search

            By Charles Opolot

            About 80 tobacco farmers from Zimbabwe are looking for land in
Uganda, state minister for lands, Baguma Isoke has said.
            Baguma who was speaking as chief guest at a graduation ceremony
of 29 participants in entrepreneurship development workshop in Hoima on
Friday, advised Ugandans to enter partnership with foreign investors who had
the money and market links.
            The 10-day workshop organised by Enterprise Uganda and sponsored
by UNDP attracted small scale business people from the districts of Hoima,
Kibaale and Masindi.
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News24

Farmers lose land worth R260m

Harare - Zimbabwe's white farmers have lost an estimated Z$14.5 billion
(R260m, US$26m) worth of property through seizure or looting in a two-year
campaign of often violent farm seizures, a farmers' group said at the
weekend.

Quoting economists, Justice for Agriculture (JAG), which is a splinter group
of the mainly white Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU)said that "Z$14.5
billion's worth of moveable assets have been illegally impounded or looted
since February 2000".

The figure was included in a statement released on Saturday.

The seizure of the properties by ruling party supporters has been in support
of a government land reform programme that has targeted as much as 95% of
white-owned land for redistribution to landless blacks.

JAG says it intends to sue the ruling Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) party after it has completed working out the
total losses sustained by both farmers and farm workers.

"This could be one of the biggest loss suits in Zimbabwe or externally under
applicable laws," the JAG statement added.

An estimated 2 900 white farmers will have to vacate their properties by
midnight this Thursday as a government deadline for farm take-overs runs
out, according to the CFU. - Sapa-AFP
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News24

Sick MDC man back in hospital

Harare - Senior opposition official Fletcher Dulini-Ncube (62) was
recovering in hospital on Sunday after being arrested on Saturday, less than
24 hours after having one of his eyes surgically removed, lawyers said.

Dulini-Ncube was taken from his bed in the private Mater Dei hospital by
security police in the western city of Bulawayo on Saturday, and was only
returned at 18:30 after being given a medical specialist's certificate
saying that his condition was "life threatening", said lawyer Nicholas
Mathonsi.

Police had insisted that Dulini-Ncube, a member of the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change's national executive and local MP, spend the weekend
in police custody, despite his operation on Friday, so that he could be
taken to court on Monday for indictment on allegations of murder.

"He was in a very bad condition when I last saw him (shortly before
returning to hospital)," Mathonsi said. "The wound in his eye had not been
dressed and it was bleeding a little. He was in extreme pain."

Mathonsi said when he left the MP in hospital on Saturday, he was guarded by
three policemen.

He spent all day Saturday in the office of the officer commanding the
notorious law and order section of the police in Bulawayo central police
station.

"He requires careful treatment under strictly sterile conditions for some
time," said Eddie Cross, the MDC's secretary for economic affairs. "The
threat is that if he is not treated with the utmost care, he will lose the
other eye."

Dulini-Ncube was among scores of MDC officials arrested in Bulawayo in
November when President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party accused the
opposition party of killing a local official of the lawless militia of
so-called guerrilla war veterans.

Chronic diabetes

A victim of chronic diabetes, Dulini-Ncube was denied access to his drugs
and also refused the specialised diet needed for his condition.

As a result, doctors said, he began to go blind in one eye which also began
to turn septic. He was released after two months, for most of which he was
detained illegally, but did not recover fully.

Police wanted Dulini-Ncube to be removed from his hospital bed again on
Monday so he could appear in court for his indictment for trial, Mathonsi
said, but he was trying to persuade police to have the magistrate travel to
hospital to conduct the hearing at the MP's bedside.

Throughout the affair over war veteran Cain Nkala's killing, courts have
accused police of arresting MDC officials with little or no reason and
holding them without evidence.

Police have detained "suspects" for weeks beyond the statutory 48 hours they
are allowed to without bringing them to court and then defying court orders
for their release.

Last month, senior prison officers said they would not obey court orders
until they had been sanctioned by their superiors. They have been charged
with contempt of court.

Last week Mugabe declared that his regime would heed the courts only if his
ruling party considered judges' orders were "objective".

The 78-year-old ruler has dragged the country into economic and social chaos
since February 2000 when he launched a campaign of bloody repression to
avert imminent defeat in parliamentary elections by the popular MDC.
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  Posted on Sun, Aug. 04, 2002

      White Zimbabwe farmers prepare for expulsions
      By Rachel L. Swarns
      New York Times

      BANKET, Zimbabwe - This is the season for winter wheat, the time when
lush, green seedlings usually blanket the earth. But these days, the
tractors' roar is gone and many farms are idle.

      Here in this hungry land, where the United Nations says 6 million
people -- half the population -- are threatened by famine, the government of
President Robert Mugabe has ordered thousands of the country's most
productive farmers to stop farming.

      The white commercial farmers, among the largest producers of wheat and
cornmeal, help feed the nation and fuel the economy. But they have been
condemned as racists because they have refused to turn over their land to
the government -- land that was seized from blacks during British colonial
rule.

      Day of reckoning

      Now, officials say, the day of reckoning is finally at hand.

      By Thursday, the government has announced, most of the nation's white
farmers must leave their farms for good. As the deadline approaches, many
farmers are packing their bags.

      The threatened expulsion of 2,900 white farmers has shaken a country
already reeling from drought, a collapsing economy and the political
violence. Some say officials are punishing the farmers for financing the
opposition in the presidential election last March, which most Western
officials believe was rigged to ensure Mugabe's victory.

      Others say Mugabe, 78, who came to power in the 1980 election that
ended white rule, is desperate to secure a place in African history as the
revolutionary who returned the land to his impoverished people.

      Officials of the World Bank and Western governments agree that the
land should be redistributed in Zimbabwe, so that a tiny white minority no
longer controls more than half the fertile soil. Whites make up only 1
percent of the population. But farmers and foreign donors have balked at
participating in this program, which has been dogged by violence and
cronyism ever since it was revived two years ago.

      Prominent politicians loyal to Mugabe now control scores of fertile
farms while many poor blacks are stranded on arid stretches without adequate
water or sanitation.

      As government-backed militants have swept across the country, invading
the farms in the past few years, several white farmers and dozens of black
farmworkers have been killed. Thousands of other black laborers have been
evicted and left homeless.

      The government has refused to pay white farmers for their properties,
saying it will not pay for land stolen by British settlers. Britain has
agreed to finance a well-run land-redistribution program, but not the one
now in place. Farmers who are forced off their properties receive nothing.

      It is unclear how the government will deal with whites who defy the
deadline. Some officials have threatened to crack down. Others have promised
to be lenient with farmers who agree to give up some of their land.

      The exodus of whites from Zimbabwe's farms is quickening.

      In July, Adrian Wilkinson was loading his belongings into his Isuzu
pickup truck, trying to beat the government deadline.

      In normal years, he grows about 740 acres of winter wheat. This year,
he will produce no wheat. Militants threatened him when he tried to plant. A
few weeks ago, they barricaded him and his wife inside their farmhouse,
pounding on the doors and singing for blood.

      So the Wilkinsons have decided to give up their 3,000-acre farm, where
they also grew tobacco, soybeans and corn, and the red brick farmhouse where
they raised their children and savored the best years of their lives.

      ``On Monday, I took out my stove and my dishwasher,'' said Wilkinson,
50, who plans to live off his savings in a smaller house in town, where
whites feel more secure. ``Today, I'm going to take out this washing machine
and the tumble dryer.''

      Desperation simmers

      Wilkinson did not weep when he locked the door and turned his back on
his red roses and tiger lilies. But under the surface, desperation simmers.

      He swallows what he calls ``happy pills'' to get through the day
without drowning in rage or sorrow. At night, he takes sleeping pills. He
has consulted a counselor to cope with his anger.

      ``Am I angry?'' he asked. He clenched his steering wheel as he drove
past his empty fields. He has lived on this farm all his life. ``I'm not
against black advancement, but this is my life; it's my home. I'm losing
everything.''

      Over the past two years, as the farm invasions spread, about 15
percent of the country's white farmers have left their properties, according
to the Commercial Farmers Union, which represents about 3,500 white farmers.

      In 1999, agriculture accounted for 20 percent of Zimbabwe's domestic
product, the World Bank says. A year later, the figure had dropped to 11
percent.

      The production of corn -- the country's staple food -- plunged nearly
70 percent this year, the United Nations says. It predicts that the
production of winter wheat will be down as 40 percent.

      In the village of Chikhovo, where hundreds of people waited hours to
receive cornmeal from the charity World Vision, many seemed doubtful about
the land-redistribution plan.

      They agreed that officials should right the historical wrongs that
left blacks stranded on crowded, rocky soil. But Lloyd Tafirenyasha, who
scrapes by on one bowl of porridge a day, said he could not understand how
farmers could be evicted while millions of Zimbabweans were going hungry.

      ``We wake up in the morning with no food,'' said Tafirenyasha, 18.
``We need help. Those who are good in agriculture, they should continue.
Those white farmers, they must stay for now.''
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MSNBC

Zimbabwe opposition leader says police search home



HARARE, Aug. 4 - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said
police searched his house on Sunday in a move he slammed as political
harassment.
       On Friday, a magistrate set November 11 as the date for Tsvangirai
and two senior colleagues in his Movement for Democratic Change to be tried
on charges of plotting to kill President Robert Mugabe, who has been in
power since 1980.
       ''The police were here with a search warrant around 1:30 pm (1130
GMT). They said they were looking for illegal immigrants, arms of war and
subversive material,'' Tsvangirai said.
       ''This confirms the ongoing political harassment against myself. I
don't expect any charges from this, but I expect more such harassment of the
opposition,'' he told Reuters by phone.
       The police, six in plain clothes and four in uniform, took several
files containing newspaper clippings from his home office during a one-hour
search, Tsvangirai said.
       Police were not immediately available for comment.
       Tsvangirai, MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube and Renson Gasela,
secretary for agriculture, deny the murder-plot charges.
       Last week police questioned Tsvangirai over allegations he tried to
organise the unconstitutional overthrow of Mugabe while addressing a rally
in May, his lawyer said, describing the claims as political victimisation.
       Formed in 1999, the MDC emerged as the strongest challenge to
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party when it won nearly half the contested seats at
parliamentary elections held in June 2000.
       The opposition says it would have won had it not been for violence it
blamed on ruling party supporters.
       Tsvangirai is legally challenging Mugabe's victory in a presidential
poll in March, which the MDC and Western countries have condemned as
fraudulent. Mugabe says the West is trying to impose Tsvangirai as leader.
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Daily News

Leader Page

      Zanu PF not planning wisely for its future

      8/5/02 9:13:36 AM (GMT +2)



      On many occasions we have expressed the hope that the government will
give us the opportunity to praise them. They have not given us much of that
chance.

      What we have had instead have been chances to take the government to
task for a plethora of its sins of commission or omission.

      There are far too many things the government has done which it should
not have done.

      The government has become exceptionally adept at the game called
delaying tactics.

      They will do anything to postpone the moment of reckoning - not
according to the way of thinking of this newspaper, but according to the
verdict of the people of Zimbabwe.

      And, as far as the people of Zimbabwe are concerned, the governance of
this country is not nearly as good as it should be.

      Questions are being asked, for example, why it is that we are not as
well-off now as we were when whites were in charge. And why we have even
less of the freedom of expression and association than we had then. It is
really sad.

      Everybody in this country is wondering what has happened to the once
true fighter for freedom and good governance, Professor Jonathan Moyo, whose
once tenacious and brilliant advocacy for democracy and accountability in
governance writings will for ever stand as some of the most scholarly
treatises ever written in political economy and democratic governance.

      It is so disappointing to note that these noble qualities which Moyo
was fighting to make the Zanu PF government adopt as the norm are the ones
he is now fiercely fighting against.

      The fact that Moyo initiated, obviously in consultation with and
approval of the highest office in the land, some abominably evil pieces of
legislation - such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy
Act and the Public Order and Security Act - is sufficient evidence that he
has now gone full-time into the Zanu PF self-preservation game. President
Mugabe's rule, so they reckon, must be preserved at all and any cost -
including being vindictive to those who would otherwise be allies.

      But the truth is that the current state of affairs in this country
cannot - and will not - last the lifetime of Mugabe, let alone for a
thousand years as those in his government would wish it did. Ian Douglas
Smith is a living testimony to that.

      The government must always think ahead. It should not delude itself
into believing it will always be the party in power.

      Change is bound to come whether we like it or not - not necessarily
through the Movement of Democratic Change, even though it is the rallying
point in the people's demand for change at the moment.

      Unless the government changes its attitude and becomes more
people-friendly, the people will, one way or the other, take back from Zanu
PF that mandate to govern which it gave the party in 1980. And, when - not
if - that happens, those in power today need to be certain their actions
today will not make them liable to criminal proceedings against them by the
new rulers - as is already happening to Zambia's most recent past president,
Frederick Chiluba.

      Regrettably, members of the present government are not doing
themselves much of a favour in that respect. Instead of doing all they can
to ensure the next government will not find it necessary to take legal
action against them, they are actually busy doing the opposite - making sure
many of them will get prosecuted when they leave office.

      The latest illustration of that self-indictment, which in a way could
be loosely described as Zanu PF's death wish, is contained in Home Affairs
Minister John Nkomo's
      outrageous statement.

      Nkomo was quoted last week as saying that the government is "actively
considering a range of measures to take which will include the withdrawal of
passports and introduction of exit and entry visas against political
opponents . . ."

      If the government goes ahead with those plans, it will remove all
doubt that Zanu PF is made up of people who are totally incapable of
planning for the future.

      There is that possibility, never mind how remote it might appear, that
one day Zanu PF will go out of power.

      If that should happen, what is a new government likely to do to them?
      Return the compliment, wouldn't they?

      Think about it.
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Daily News

      MDC MP warned of arrest for failing to appear in court

      8/5/02 9:09:30 AM (GMT +2)


      Staff Reporter

      Harare magistrate Hope Ngara on Friday warned Paul Madzore, the MP for
Glen View, that he risked arrest if he again failed to attend court.

      Madzore, 32, appeared before Ngara pleading for the cancellation of
the warrant of arrest issued against him on 17 July by Harare provincial
magistrate Joyce Negonde.

      He had failed to appear in court for further remand on charges of
public violence.

      Madzore, of the opposition MDC, is on $10 000 bail in a case in which
he is alleged to have led about 100 youths from Glen View and Mbare in an
attack on Zanu PF supporters' houses in Mbare, damaging and destroying
property worth $164 600.

      Ngara said Madzore had a previous warrant of arrest issued against him
cancelled and the court would not continue giving him the benefit of the
doubt.

      He said: "The next time this happens I will be forced to confirm the
warrant of arrest."

      He then remanded the MP to 1 October.

      His lawyer, Naison Machingauta, said Madzore had failed to attend
court on 17 July because he was in Bulawayo attending a parliamentary
workshop.

      He said he had written to the prosecutor on 16 July advising that
Madzore would not be able to appear in court the following day.

      Asked by Ngara what he expected the prosecutor to do when he had only
written to him the day before Madzore was to due appear in court,
Machingauta said Madzore had seen the invitation to the parliamentary
workshop, dated 2 July 2002, very late.

      Ngara said attending the workshop should not have taken precedence
over the court sitting.
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Daily News

      Magistrate orders police to release seized camera

      8/5/02 9:03:39 AM (GMT +2)


      Staff Reporter

      HARARE magistrate Dominic Muzawazi on Friday last week ordered the
police to return a camera they seized from Newton Spicer, a film maker, when
they broke up two rallies organised by the Movement for Democratic Change in
Harare on 16 June.

      Muzawazi made the order following an application by Spicer's lawyer,
Raymond Moyo of Gill, Godlonton and Gerrans.

      Moyo told the court that Spicer was not on remand and there was
therefore no need for the police to continue holding his camera.

      The State, represented by Owen Murozvi, did not object.

      Muzawazi said: "It is ordered that the police release the camera and
the Clerk of Court is hereby instructed to write a letter to the police
giving effect to this order."

      The order did not give the police a deadline to return the camera.

      The camera which was confiscated when heavily armed riot police
attacked and arrested 88 people at rallies to mark International Youth Day
in the Harare city centre and at the MDC's provincial offices at Number 8
Mbuya Nehanda Street, had not been returned by yesterday morning.

      Spicer's wife, Edwina, said they would pursue the matter today.
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Daily News

      Police raid Tsvangirai's home

      8/5/02 9:00:09 AM (GMT +2)


      By Sam Munyavi

      POLICE yesterday raided MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai's home in
Strathaven, Harare, searching for "arms of war, illegal immigrants and
subversive materials".

      Tsvangirai said about 10 policemen arrived with a search warrant
between 1.30pm and 1.45 pm.

      Four of them in riot gear were armed with AK rifles.

      He said: "They had a search warrant that said they were looking for
arms of war, illegal immigrants and subversive materials. They searched
through the whole house, but they did not find anything. They picked up one
or two documents, which are just news items."

      The opposition leader said the police had taken away his assistant's
Mazda B2500 truck, claiming it was being used in illegal activities.

      "This is desperation of the worst kind. I am a law-abiding citizen.
Who in his right senses would keep arms of war, subversive materials or
so-called illegal immigrants in his home?" Tsvangirai asked.

      In May this year, more than 20 heavily armed riot police officers,
accompanied by two war veterans, raided Tsvangirai's rural home purportedly
looking for arms of war. They reportedly assaulted two of Tsvangirai's
workers.

      Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube, the MDC secretary-general, and Renson
Gasela, the MP for Gweru Rural, are facing treason charges for allegedly
plotting to assassinate President Mugabe. Their trial has been set for 11
November at the High Court.

      On 25 July Tsvangirai faced a new allegation of attempting to
overthrow the government over a remark he made at a rally in Gwanda in May.
He has denied the allegation. He was questioned for allegedly contravening
Section 5 of the Public Order and Security Act, which deals with the
subversion of a constitutionally elected government.
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Daily News

      Sikhala sues Moyo

      8/5/02 8:59:41 AM (GMT +2)


      Staff Reporter

      JOB Sikhala, the Member of Parliament for St Mary's, who was on Friday
acquitted of contravening a section of the Posts and Telecommunications Act,
is suing Jonathan Moyo, the Minister of State for Information and Publicity
in the President's Office, who laid the charge, for $6 million.

      Harare magistrate Wilbert Mandinde acquitted the opposition MDC MP of
breaching the Act by allegedly using abusive language and threatening the
junior minister on the telephone on 9 September last year following the MDC'
s victory in the Bulawayo mayoral and council elections.

      Sikhala said: "Jonathan Moyo has sought to abuse the law in our
country. His evidence was discredited.

      "The magistrate said Jonathan Moyo's utterances of giving me bus fare
and pocket money are lies. His statement was meant to injure and malign my
character. I am going to sue him for $6 million."

      During the trial on 22 May, Moyo raised laughter in the gallery when
he claimed he used to give Sikhala pocket money and bus fare.

      While testifying, Sikhala stunned a Harare magistrates' court when he
alleged that Moyo had threatened to "fix" him for asking about a rumour of
an alleged homosexual relationship between the junior minister and former
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation chief executive officer, Alum Mpofu.

      "I asked him whether he was aware that the people in town were saying
he was not qualified to talk about morality and whether he was aware there
was a rumour in town that he had an intimate relationship with Alum Mpofu
when he was at Wits University and Mpofu at the South African Broadcasting
Corporation.

      "Jonathan became vicious saying: 'You MDC people are the ones moving
around spreading these lies. I am going to fix you, young man.' I have
patiently waited for Jonathan Moyo's fixing. I have seen it today," Sikhala
told the court.

      Mpofu resigned abruptly on 3 April after being caught in a
compromising position with another man at a Harare nightclub on 27 March.

      Sikhala, 29, and Tafadzwa Musekiwa, 26, a fellow MDC MP, were arrested
on 14 September last year and detained by the police over the alleged
abusive calls to Moyo.

      Moyo is facing another lawsuit from Geoff Nyarota, the Editor-in Chief
of The Daily News, over an article published in the State-controlled
Herald - which falls under the junior minister's ambit - Nyarota says
defamed him.

      Nyarota is also suing Moyo for $6 million.

      The junior minister could not be reached for comment yesterday as his
cellphone kept ringing without being answered.
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Maize food as a political weapon
"'Hijacking and the use of the donated maize food as a political weapon.
 
 90 % of the maize food is being hijacked in the Masvingo Province and the only way to stop this and force ZANU to allow the MDC to participate in the distribution, is to stop the maize food coming for a while. This will have an immediate affect as there is not enough coming in anyway.What is happening is the WORLD FOOD PROGRAM is only feeding ZANU and MDC are believing that there is a conspiracy in the world against them." 
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From ZWNEWS, 5 August

A nerve touched

By Michael Hartnack

In less than a week, five prominent supporters of Robert Mugabe have fallen foul of the European Union's travel sanctions. The net has now been cast over both doves, such as Finance Minister Simba Makoni, and hawks who have headed the ruling Zanu PF party campaign of farm seizures and contempt for law. But the EU has yet to join the USA in banning businessmen suspected of fronting for Mugabe. Mugabe and his regime are clearly stung. His office reacted with fury to a news item in the independently-owned Sunday Standard noting that Grace Mugabe's name appeared with that of Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden in the Bank of England's schedule of persons prohibited from UK financial dealings. A barely-coherent statement denounced "the criminal placement of the First Lady in the same league as Bin Laden,'' and described the report as "extreme terror journalism." The Standard report was strictly factual, and therefore not an offence under the draconian new press law, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Standard assistant editor Brian Latham said police had not (yet) swooped. Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo threatened to retaliate to the EU list by withdrawing passports from leaders of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

First to feel the force of bans and boycotts was Joshua Malinga, 55, a former Zanu PF mayor of Bulawayo and a wheelchair-bound polio victim who was turned back at London's Gatwick Airport en route to a conference for the disabled in New York. MDC MP for Bulawayo South David Coltart said that while he regretted on personal grounds the action against Malinga, members of Mugabe's politburo had to accept personal responsibility for the tyranny of the past two years and make a firm decision to dissociate themselves. Sweden confirmed last week it had barred three ministers and deputy parliamentary speaker Edna Madzongwe from attending a women's conference. Madzongwe is a fervent Zanu PF supporter. Among the ministers was Shuvai Mahofa, a prominent figure in farm seizures, factional unrest in her home province of Masvingo, and in formation of "green bomber" youth militias.

Some other notable personalities among the 72 now black-listed by the EU:

Retired army commander General Solomon Mujuru and his wife Joyce (known until 1986 as Rex and "Let Us Spill Blood" Nhongo). After one of their daughters died of malaria, they sent the rest of their six children to be educated in Britain. It is unclear where they are at present. Mujuru, like parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa (also on the list), was heavily implicated in the genocidal suppression of Matabeleland unrest in the 1980s. Mnangagwa at that time headed the feared Central Intelligence Organisation. Mnangagwa and Mujuru are seen by many commentators as rivals - and the only potential Mugabe successors who could be trusted to defend his human rights record, since theirs' is even worse. Mujuru is believed to be a pragmatist businessmen can "work with,'' and a backer of Makoni.

The only white in Mugabe's cabinet, British-born health minister Timothy Stamps, 65, who has publicly defended the seizures of white-owned farms. Besides being a medical doctor, he owns a farm outside Harare. Stamps gave a black power salute in Parliament while being sworn in for the 2000 new session. He slated publicity given to the abduction and torture of journalists. He joined the capital's city council as medical officer in 1970 after immigrating from Wales, and later went into private practice. Resoundingly defeated as an independent candidate in a by-election, he joined Zanu PF and was nominated to Parliament by Mugabe.

Mugabe's sister Sabina who has been heavily involved in the seizure of white-owned commercial farms in the Norton area west of Harare, but her millionaire businessman son, Leo, is not on the list.

Witness Mangwende, who as a former agriculture minister was the architect of the Land Acquisition Act. One of his first priorities was to allocate himself 2 000 hectare Bath Estates at Hwedza, 120 km south east of Harare, bought with British funds for 18 peasant families. Mangwende's successor, Joseph Made, was already on the list. He spurned early warnings in May 2001 of impending famine and bears massive responsibility for the current food crisis.

The list also includes a large clutch of security force commanders, all implicated in Zimbabwe's shadowy business deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They also said before the March elections that they would refuse to recognise a win by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
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Tehran Times

Third Iran-Zimbabwe Joint Cooperation Commission to Be Held in Tehran

TEHRAN TIMES ECONOMIC DESK
TEHRAN -- The third joint Cooperation Commission between Iran and Republic
of Zimbabwe will convene in Tehran from August 5 to 8.

According to the Ministry of Commerce's Public Relations, the Foreign
Minister of Zimbabwe, Mr.

Maodunge heading a 22 member government delegation including the Ministers
of Agriculture, Settlement, Rural Areas, and Intelligence and Publicity, is
due in Iran tomorrow.

In a series of meetings which are to be held with the chairmanship of The
Iranian Minister of Commerce, Mohammed Sariatmadari, and Zimbabwe's Foreign
Minister, the two sides will sign a memorandum of understanding covering the
economy, commerce and industry after analyzing possible ways of enhancing
bilateral cooperation.

It would be worth knowing that, besides paying a visit to several industrial
units and factories, Mr. Maodunge will also meet some of the high ranking
Iranian officials.

As the report reads, Iran's main exports to Zimbabwe include carpet, dried
grape, motorcycle, plum, solid Sodium Hydroxide, Polyester, plastic objects,
and dates. Iran will in turn import Asbestos from Zimbabwe.

The two countries will also cooperate in the establishment of tractor and
cement factories, radiator production, and textiles in Zimbabwe.
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IOL

Mugabe fires at Bush and Blair from Malaysia

      August 05 2002 at 01:39PM



Kuala Lumpur - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, barred from visiting
Europe or the United States, made the most of a trip to Malaysia to heap
scorn on British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush on
Monday.

Mugabe dismissed Blair, who has led British criticism of Zimbabwe's land
reform policies under which whites are being driven off their farms, as
immature and ignorant.

He scoffed at Washington's refusal to recognise his re-election, in a March
vote widely seen as rigged, by casting doubt on Bush's own legitimacy after
he narrowly squeaked a win against Al Gore in a controversial poll.

Mugabe, 78, pilloried by critics for his love of international travel and
his wife Grace's penchant for expensive shopping trips while millions of his
people need food aid, denied that the travel bans bother him.

      'To this day, I do not know if he is legitimately a president'
"The British say I should not come to Britain, I should not go to Germany,
to Europe as a whole. What do I want Europe for? I've got my own country
which is more beautiful," Mugabe told reporters after addressing businessmen
at the Malaysia Zimbabwe Business Fellowship.

But the African leader seemed happy enough to be in Malaysia, a fellow
former British colony, along with his wife and a 36-member delegation,
revelling in the applause for his every anti-colonialist jibe.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, 76, is an old friend and both
men have been in power for more than 20 years.

The two leaders also share a love of anti-Western rhetoric, but while
Mahathir has steered his country from the economic backwaters to the
mainstream of Asian development, Zimbabwe's economy is in the worst crisis
of its history.

Mugabe even maintained his good humour when asked about Britain's
accusations that his land reforms were responsible for the fact that many of
his people are going hungry, telling local reporters it was not true and
that a drought was to blame.

Mugabe's government is in the process of seizing most white-owned farms -
the backbone of the country's commercial agricultural - saying they were
stolen in the first place by British colonisers.

Britain supports the need for land reform but criticises the way Mugabe has
gone about it.

"Unfortunately, the man in Britain (Blair) is immature," he told the
businessmen. "When we got our independence (1980), he and his kin in
government were in school. They still have a lot to learn."

Of Bush, he said: "I say Mr Bush, you of all, refusing the results of my
election whereby people voted. Who voted for you? We want to know whether or
not you won the election.

"To this day, I do not know if he is legitimately a president. It has to
take a supreme court of the United States to pronounce that he has won, and
the supreme court where his party holds the majority support. There you
are."

The travel ban on the man known at home as "the non-resident president" or
"Vasco da Gama" after the famous Portuguese explorer, was imposed on Mugabe
and members of his government by the European Union and the United States
because of the disputed March elections.

But he has managed to keep up a regular travel schedule, taking the
opportunity to attend United Nations meetings in New York or Rome where the
bans do not apply, and has recently visited Libya and Cuba.

Mugabe's trip to Kuala Lumpur followed his attendance at a Malaysia-Africa
conference on Malaysia's island resort of Langkawi at the weekend. He was
due to leave later Monday. - Sapa-AFP
CNN

Shunned by West, Mugabe turns to Asia
August 5, 2002 Posted: 8:07 AM EDT (1207 GMT)


KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Reuters) -- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe,
facing sanctions from Western nations, said on Monday he would push for
stronger business ties with Asian states such as Malaysia.

"The British say I should not come to Britain. I should not go to Germany,
to Europe as a whole," Mugabe told reporters.

"What do I want Europe for?" he asked.

"For me, coming to Malaysia is like coming home," the 78-year-old leader
said. "You get revived not only in terms of energy, but also in terms of
ideas." Mugabe, who was among several African leaders in Malaysia for an
informal meeting of developing nations over the weekend, had earlier
launched Zimbabwe's first Asia-based trade centre.

"This is a tangible demonstration that we mean business," he said in a
speech describing veteran Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as a
"true leader" of the developing world.

Mahathir has recently travelled widely from his Southeast Asian home,
visiting Washington and the Vatican, while also playing host to a parade of
leaders, including Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and Japanese Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

World view
Political commentator Chandra Muzaffar said Mugabe's visit, which
highlighted Mahathir's wide range of political partners, gibed with the
Malaysian leader's self-styled role as champion of poor countries and the
group of developing nations in the southern hemisphere loosely referred to
as the South.

"In a sense, these things are not contradictory. They are all part of the
man's world view," he said of Mahathir, whose mainly Muslim country is set
to chair the Organisation of Islamic Conference next year.

"Among the elites of the South, Mahathir has influence but then again one
has to distinguish these elites from their people," Chandra added.

Mugabe's government has proposed retaliation, including actions against his
main opposition party, for sanctions Western countries have imposed on him
and his officials since he won a controversial election in March.

Harare is studying a comprehensive response to a travel ban and asset
freezes on Zimbabwe's ruling elite by the European Union, the United States,
Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Many Western powers say the election was rigged and are backing demands by
the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for a fresh poll in
the southern African country.

'Fair' win
Mugabe, in power since the former Rhodesia gained independence from Britain
in 1980, says he won fairly and dismisses calls for a new poll as attempts
to usurp power for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

EU sanctions initially targeted 20 leaders from Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF
Party, but were then extended to 52 others.

The Commonwealth group of mostly former British colonies also suspended
Zimbabwe for its conduct of the poll.

At a luncheon speech later, he defended his government's right to take
possession of white farmers' land.

Zimbabwe plunged into turmoil more than two years ago when self-styled war
veterans invaded white-owned farms to help government redistribution of
territory to landless blacks.

Aid agencies say six million Zimbabweans, or nearly half the population,
need emergency food aid due to drought and disruption of farming operations
caused by the government's land policies.

Mugabe said redistribution was expected to be completed by the end of this
month.

"People have planted crops, a lot of people planted wheat this season and
there's very good crop of wheat by irrigation. Come October, we expect
better rains this year," he said. REUTERS
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For immediate release Monday 5 August 2002

"SAVE ZIMBABWE" CAMPAIGN WELCOMES DULINI RELEASE
www.savezimbabwe.com

The "Save Zimbabwe" campaign has welcomed the news that Fletcher Dulini,
62-year old treasurer of the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change has
been released from police custody. Mr Dulini was taken from his hospital bed
by security police on Saturday, and only released on production of a
specialist's medical certificate indicating that his condition was life
threatening.

"Save Zimbabwe" said it was a great relief that Mr Dulini had been released,
but that the seizure had been "cruel and unwarranted. The action of the
worst kind of police state".

ENDS

Issued by Chelgate Limited: www.chelgate.com
On behalf of the ""Save Zimbabwe" campaign.

For further information, please contact Terence Fane-Saunders on:
44 (0) 207 939 7939 or
44 (0) 7768 283 144

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"SAVE ZIMBABWE" CONDEMNS 'CRUEL AND VINDICTIVE' GAOLING OF NEAR-BLIND
OPPOSITION LEADER
www.savezimbabwe.com

The "Save Zimbabwe" campaign today strongly condemned the reported arrest at
the weekend of Fletcher Dulini, National Treasurer and one the leaders of
the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

"This is another example of the Zimbabwe regime twisting the instruments of
law and justice into tools of suppression against their critics", a "Save
Zimbabwe" spokesman said.

"Save Zimbabwe" said that the charges against Mr Dulini were both grotesque
and transparently false. They relate to the abduction and murder earlier
this year of Cain Nkala, a local war veteran leader. The abduction took
place in broad daylight in front of Mr Nkala's wife and several others. The
identities of the abuctors are therefore well known to Mrs Nkala and to the
local community. However, Mrs Nkala has been held under police supervision
since then, and has not been permitted to speak to the press or anyone
connected to the case.

Despite the wealth of evidence concerning the true identity of the
abductors, the MDC rounded up eight Opposition activists, including Mr
Dulini, and charged them with the murder. These people were then held in
prison for several weeks, and three remain detained, despite court orders
that they should be released on bail.

Mr Dulini, an older man who is a devout Christian and church member , is a
serious diabetic, needing constant medical attention.In his earlier
imprisonment this was denied to him, and as a result his sight deteriorated
very badly. When eventually released on bail, he was unable to regain the
full use of his eyes and one eye in particular deteriorated still further.
Last week, he was operated on for the removal of that eye and was about to
go back for further treatment in the local eye clinic, when he was arrested
once more.

"Save Zimbabwe" describe the timing of this fresh imprisonment as "cruel,
vindictive and against all norms of civilised justice.

The case - spurious as it clearly is - only goes to court on the 11th
November and there can be no cause for this fresh imprisonment, other than
the determination of the Mugabe regime to intimidate and suppress all voices
of dissent in the country".

The "Save Zimbabwe" campaign is a non-partisan international initiative,
with broadbased support drawn from both political parties and community
groups. It was launched during the recent African Union meeting in Durban
and is designed to restore democracy, human rights and legitimate government
to Zimbabwe. The holding of early, free and fair elections, under full and
proper international supervision, is a key objective of the campaign.

ENDS

Issued by Chelgate Limited: www.chelgate.com
On behalf of the ""Save Zimbabwe" campaign.

For further information, please contact Terence Fane-Saunders on:
44 (0) 207 939 7939 or
44 (0) 7768 283 144
Zimbabwe's police officers return home from UN peace mission in East
Timor

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

      Xinhuanet 2002-08-06 01:55:11


      HARARE, Aug. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- A total of 20 Zimbabwean police
officers have returned home from a successful one-year United Nations
peacekeeping mission in East Timor.

      Speaking at a ceremony to greet these police officers here Monday,
Zimbabwe Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri said their return "marks yet
another milestone in the continuing success story of the Zimbabwe Republic
Police's distinguished service to international peace keeping commitments."

      Chihuri applauded the officers for having faced up to the daunting
challenges that confronted them while they were in East Timor.

      "Our thrust is to continue extending the hand of assistance to
flashy points across the globe where the rule of law seems elusiveand
suffocated," he said.

      The police officers, comprised four females and 16 men, returned
home Sunday. Enditem
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