Human rights award for 'courageous' Zimbabwe lawyer
Mark
Oliver
Thursday December 11, 2003
The Guardian
Beatrice Mtetwa, a
fearless Zimbabwean lawyer who has defended those
arrested by President
Robert Mugabe's government, including a Guardian
journalist, was named Human
Rights Lawyer of the Year last night.
Judges at the Human Rights Awards in
London paid tribute to her courage in
fighting for human rights and press
freedom in a dangerous country. In
October she was taken into custody by
Zimbabwean police and beaten up.
Mrs Mtetwa defended and won acquittal
for the Guardian's former Harare
correspondent Andrew Meldrum, when he was
tried for "publishing a
falsehood", a criminal charge carrying a jail term of
two years.
She also won court rulings ordering the government to allow
Meldrum to stay
in the country but he was illegally abducted and expelled in
May.
The award, from the legal and human rights campaigning group Justice
and the
civil rights campaigners Liberty, was presented to Mrs Mtetwa at the
Law
Society Hall.
The citation praised her "courage and commitment to
human rights whilst
working in an environment hostile to lawyers and the rule
of law and her
disregard to the risks of her personal
safety".
Speaking from Pretoria, Meldrum described Ms Mtetwa as a
"fearless" lawyer.
"She has defended freedom of the press and the rule of law
in Zimbabwe under
the most difficult and dangerous of conditions," he
said.
"It is a great honour not only for her alone but for so many other
committed
Zimbabwean lawyers who are trying to maintain their profession
despite
harassment and even violence."
After her beating by police she
needed treatment for severe bruising and
cuts to her face, throat, arms,
ribcage and legs. Police had been called to
assist her when her vehicle was
attacked by car thieves but instead took her
into custody for allegedly
driving while intoxicated. "They said the tables
have turned, you are no
longer a lawyer, you are a suspect," Mrs Mtetwa said
at the
time.
Zimbabwe pulled out of the Commonwealth at the weekend after its
leaders
ruled that its suspension, imposed after allegations of election
fraud and
violence, should continue.
CNN
Mugabe attacks 'Western media' at Geneva
summit
Wednesday, December 10, 2003 Posted: 7:47 PM EST (0047
GMT)
Wednesday,
December 10, 2003 Posted: 7:47 PM EST (0047
GMT)
GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) -- Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe launched a virulent attack on Western media Wednesday at a world
summit on making better use of information technology such as the Internet to
help poorer nations.
In his first foreign excursion since quitting the
54-nation Commonwealth, Mugabe railed against new technologies, saying they were
used for espionage and to weaken the Third World in the face of "a dangerous
imperial world order led by warrior states and kingdoms."
"Beneath the rhetoric of free press and transparency
is the iniquity of hegemony. The quest for an information society should not be
at the expense of building a sovereign national society," he said in a scathing
address.
Mugabe, who shut Zimbabwe's only major independent
newspaper in September, withdrew from the Commonwealth during the weekend after
the group of mostly former British colonies renewed a suspension imposed over
Zimbabwe's human rights record.
Other developing country leaders at the summit took
the opportunity to urge rich states to do more to help them boost the use of
technologies such as the Worldwide Web and mobile phones as a springboard to
economic growth.
"From trade to telemedicine, from education to
environmental protection, we have in our hands, on our desktops and in the skies
above, the ability to improve standards of living for millions upon millions of
people," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at the opening ceremony.
Roughly 90 percent of the world population has no
access to the Internet, depriving them of a 21st century resource and spurring a
"digital divide" between rich and poor.
Digital Solidarity Fund
Poorer countries, particularly from Africa, had been
pressing for the launch of a "Digital Solidarity Fund" to help finance the
infrastructure they say is needed to close the gap.
But the idea was opposed by richer countries and the
summit declaration -- to be approved formally at the close Friday -- merely
commits states to concluding a study on the issue before a second summit due to
be held in Tunis in 2005.
Summit topics ranged from how to battle spam to
whether administration of the Worldwide Web should be put under international
control.
The latter idea, backed by Brazil and other
developing countries but also opposed by the richer states, was also effectively
put on hold after negotiators agreed to set up a committee to review Internet
management.
The three-day meeting, sponsored by the United
Nations, has drawn officials from 175 countries, but few of the 60 heads of
state or government attending come from Europe or North America.
The role of the Internet in distributing news and
views has focused attention on press freedom and the fact that many of the
governments present, including Zimbabwe's, have been accused of hobbling the
media and restricting access to the Web.
Activists are particularly incensed that the second
phase of the summit in 2005 is due to be held in Tunisia, whose government is
regularly accused of repressing press freedom.
Telegraph
Internet a tool of British imperialism, says Mugabe
By Fiona
Fleck and Anton La Guardia
(Filed: 11/12/2003)President Robert
Mugabe's anti-British diatribes rose to new extremes
yesterday when he
declared that Britain was using the internet to destroy
Zimbabwe and
recolonise the Third World.
Making his first public appearance since
withdrawing from the Commonwealth
three days ago, Mr Mugabe used a United
Nations conference on information
technology to deliver his
attack.
Many delegates at the summit in Geneva hailed a new era
of free access to
information. But Mr Mugabe saw the internet as
pernicious.
"Beneath the rhetoric of free press and transparency is the
iniquity of
hegemony," he said.
He controls all broadcasting in his
country and in September closed the
Daily News, the only independent daily
newspaper.
He said information technology was dominated "by a few
countries in the
selfish interests of those countries which are in quest of
global dominance
and hegemony".
He singled out Britain, the United
States and Australia for using their
information technology superiority to
"challenge our sovereignty through
hostile and malicious broadcasts
calculated to foment instability and
destroy the state through
divisions".
Mr Mugabe told the conference that the internet and computer
revolution were
"spin-offs of the same industry that allows once again for
the conquest of
our societies . . . the same platforms used for high-tech
espionage".
New technology provides one of the few channels of
information still open to
his opponents.
During the failed referendum
campaign to approve a new constitution
enlarging his powers in February 2000,
critics distributed a highly
effective mobile phone text message declaring:
"No Fuel. No Jobs. Vote No."
The opposition Movement for Democratic
Change and Zimbabwean human rights
groups have made extensive use of
e-mail.
Zimbabwe's withdrawal from the Commonwealth provoked a bitter
session in the
Harare parliament yesterday.
The foreign minister, Stan
Mudenge, said the Commonwealth was dominated by
white "racist bullies" and
the ruling party whip, Rabson Gumbo, called on
Zimbabwe to sever diplomatic
relations with Britain.
ninemsn
Zimbabwe ministers attack Howard
AFP - Zimbabwe's
government MPs, seeking parliamentary approval of President
Robert Mugabe's
decision to pull the southern African country out of the
Commonwealth, have
turned on Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
Mugabe's supporters
singled out Howard for his role in pushing for
Zimbabwe's continued
suspension from the Commonwealth.
Foreign Minister Stan Mudenga referred
to him as the "butcher of Baghdad" -
a reference to Australia's participation
in the war in Iraq.
Mudenga said Howard had declared that Zimbabwe would
not be re-admitted into
the Commonwealth until Mugabe was removed from
power.
"That was said by the butcher of Baghdad - John Howard," he
said.
"The decision to pull out of the Commonwealth is correct. There
is no way
Zimbabwe can meet Mr Howard's demands of regime change."
The
move to ask parliament to endorse the decision in retrospect sparked
heated
debate, especially from the opposition which had on Monday branded
Mugabe's
decision as illegal since it lacked the approval of the cabinet
and
parliament.
Mudenga referred to whites in the Commonwealth as
"racist bullies".
He said Zimbabwe's problems were being stirred up by
Britain, Australia, New
Zealand and Canada, which he said were unhappy about
the government's land
reforms of taking land from whites and redistributing
it to blacks.
Mugabe withdrew Zimbabwe's membership from the Commonwealth
on Monday
shortly after the club decided to extend the country's suspension
for an
indefinite period.
While Mugabe was travelling to Switzerland,
the cabinet endorsed the
decision to withdraw from the club of mainly former
British colonies.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told parliament
Zimbabwe had to resign
from the Commonwealth "so as to stop any further
humiliation of the
country".
However, the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) strongly
opposed Mugabe's decision.
"I believe
the decision (by Mugabe) to pull out of the Commonwealth is a
blatant
disregard of the role of parliament," said MDC lawmaker
Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga.
"We need to begin giving to the
people of Zimbabwe the right to make
decisions," she said.
Another MDC
parliamentarian, party secretary general Welshman Ncube, drew
parallels
between Zimbabwe and the only other country to have pulled out of
the
Commonwealth, apartheid South Africa.
South Africa pulled out of the
Commonwealth in 1961 "when the apartheid
regime was facing the wrath of the
Commonwealth over its racist policies,
discriminatory policies. The parallels
are very clear.
"We are dealing with a regime which is undemocratic, a
government which is
completely off the rail and has to be brought back on
rail," said Ncube.
The debate was expected to continue late into the
night before a vote was
taken, but the motion is likely to sail through as
Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe
African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)
enjoys a majority in
parliament.
The Age
Ambassador sparks diplomatic spatDecember 11, 2003 -
1:47PM
Zimbabwe's ambassador to Australia was
today called into a meeting at the
Department of Foreign Affairs after she
accused Prime Minister John Howard
of acting like a dictator.
Florence
Chitauro criticised Mr Howard over his actions when he chaired a
Commonwealth
working group on Zimbabwe.
She said Mr Howard had declared that
Zimbabwe's suspension from the
Commonwealth would remain before holding a
meeting of the working group.
It is understood foreign affairs officials
used the meeting today to tell Ms
Chitauro of Australia's displeasure at her
comments.
Zimbabwe this week withdrew from the Commonwealth after it was
told its
suspension would not be lifted unless it improved its human rights
record.
Ms Chitauro said she had told foreign affairs officials she had
been
speaking up for Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe when she accused
Mr
Howard of acting like a dictator.
"I said I'm here to protect the
head of state I represent and the country,"
she told ABC radio.
"The
President of Zimbabwe has been called all sorts of names, and I am here
to
make sure that I take a position."
Ms Chitauro said her government did
not understand why Australia had taken a
hardline stance on
Zimbabwe.
"We have no problem with Australia in general, but we are just
wondering why
it's taking this rigid position," she said.
A
state-controlled newspaper in Harare has called for Zimbabwe to cut
off
diplomatic relations with Australia, but Ms Chitauro said she was not
aware
of any moves to do this.
"So far as I am concerned, bilateral
relations remain the same and that
issue was never raised by the government,
but by an individual who has his
or her own opinion," she said.
The
Department of Foreign Affairs was not immediately available for comment
on
the meeting.
- AAP
jang.com
Leaders in Geneva info meeting differ over press
freedom
GENEVA: Leaders from more than 50 countries launched a summit on
Wednesday
to bridge the digital divide and expand use of the Internet to
poor
countries, but a split quickly emerged over whether news media should
be
free or restricted.
"The right to freedom of opinion and expression
is fundamental to
development, democracy and peace, and must remain a
touchstone for our work
ahead," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in
opening the conference.
President Omar Bongo of Gabon said, "Journalists
have rights but they also
have certain duties, and they have to act in a way
that is ethically
acceptable. With that kind of mutual respect, we can move
forward,
recognizing that the Internet must not be used to destabilise
situations nor
to destabilise the way people think."
"Calls for a free
press are a smoke screen," said President Robert Mugabe of
Zimbabwe. "Beneath
the rhetoric of free press and transparency is the
inequity of hegemony,"
said Mugabe.
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda focused on his goals to
provide all Rwandans
with access to the Internet. "We plan to transform
Rwanda into a
technological hub," Kagame said.
"The World Summit on
the Information Society is helping to draw the world’s
attention to the
importance that new technologies, whether the Internet or
other mechanisms,
have for helping people around the world," said Ambassador
David Gross of the
US State Department.
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin was one
of the few Western
leaders to address the opening session. "We must build an
information
society for everyone, a society open to all," Raffarin
said.
Pending approval from world leaders is a declaration that
challenges them to
use technology in promoting development goals such as
eliminating poverty,
fighting AIDS and curbing child mortality. It calls for
connecting schools,
public libraries and health centres in poor countries to
the Internet by
2015.
The Star
Zim pullout gets nod of approval
December 11,
2003
Harare - Parliament has endorsed President Robert Mugabe's
decision to
pull Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth of Britain and its former
territories
after a raucous debate, lawmakers said.
Foreign
Minister Stan Mudenge yesterday said the country would not be
"a lackey" of
its former colonial ruler and other white Commonwealth members
after the bloc
extended Zimbabwe's 18-month suspension at a weekend summit
in
Nigeria.
Opposition lawmakers argued the withdrawal was a ploy to
ease
international pressure on Mugabe to make human rights and
democratic
reforms.
But with the ruling party controlling all
but 54 seats in the
150-member Parliament, the motion's approval was a
foregone conclusion.
The 59-41 vote was one of the closest in
recent sessions, lawmakers
said.
Zimbabwe has been barred from
the Commonwealth since disputed
elections last year, in which Mugabe was
accused of using intimidation and
vote-rigging to extend his more than
two-decade rule.
Mugabe announced that Zimbabwe was withdrawing
just hours after the
54-nation Commonwealth agreed on Sunday to continue the
country's suspension
indefinitely.
His decision was endorsed by
the cabinet at its weekly meeting on
Tuesday and only needed parliament's
approval to come into effect.
Zimbabwe's neighbours, including
South Africa and Zambia, led
a push at the summit to have the country
re-
instated.
Mudenge said they were overruled because of
Britain's opposition to
Zimbabwe's seizure of thousands of white-owned farms
for redistribution to
blacks. - Sapa-AP
SBS, Australia
MUGABE REJECTS IT CALLS
11.12.2003.
09:23:13
Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe has railed against some
information
technologies that he claims weaken the Third World in the face of
"a
dangerous imperial world order led by warrior states and
kingdoms."
Mr Mugabe defied a US and European Union travel ban to
speak at a
three-day UN information technology conference in
Geneva.
It was his first trip abroad since quitting the
Commonwealth after the
54-nation bloc extended his nation’s
suspension.
“Violent propaganda and misinformation… delegitimise
our just
struggles against vestigial colonialism, indeed to weaken
national
cohesion," Mr Mugabe said.
Advances in technology have
merely served to strengthen rich nations
over the poor, he
added.
Mr Mugabe’s views contrasted with other developing country
leaders who
urged rich countries to do more to help them use technologies to
boost
growth.
"We have in our hands, on our desktops and in the
skies above, the
ability to improve standards of living for millions upon
millions of
people," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at the opening
ceremony.
Delegates from about 175 governments have met at the
summit, marking
the climax of months of wrangling over issues such as
bridging the digital
divide and devising a new Internet
framework.
Poorer countries, particularly from Africa, had been
pressing for the
launch of a "Digital Solidarity Fund" to help finance the
infrastructure
they say is needed to close the gap. However, richer countries
oppose such a
plan.
The Spectator
Sanctions may make us feel good, but they will not topple
Mugabe
Margaret Thatcher was right and Thabo Mbeki is right. British-led
sanctions
against a renegade regime in Central Africa — be it Ian Smith’s
when the
country was called Rhodesia, or Robert Mugabe’s when it had been
renamed
Zimbabwe — are a counterproductive response to an unacceptable
government.
My family and I lived in Rhodesia from 1958, when I was
eight, to 1968, when
I was 18. Ian Smith’s unilateral declaration of
independence (UDI) was made
in November 1965 and we experienced three years
in which the economic screw
was progressively tightened. Along with much of
the black population and a
fair few of the white population too, we had
vehemently opposed Mr Smith’s
election and thought UDI a catastrophic mistake
(as it proved to be) but our
opposition to Smith could not exempt us from the
effects of sanctions.
My father had to try to continue a business selling
electric cables, so his
commercial life, bound up with making the Rhodesian
economy work, was placed
in direct opposition to his political beliefs, which
were that Rhodesia
should be forced to accept the will of Her Majesty’s
government. My mother,
a tireless campaigner against Smith, nevertheless
needed petrol for her
Morris Minor, and all of us had to connive in the
various dodges which soon
became common among fuel-hungry Rhodesians. We
became freelance
sanctions-busters, making day trips over the Zambesi to
Zambia to fill the
car and several jerry cans with petrol.
Yet at the
same time we were telling friends that we wanted sanctions to
succeed. This
caused my parents great difficulty when trying to explain to
friends how we
squared the circle. My classmates would berate me for
hypocrisy, and it was
hard to know how to answer. The effect on the
population at large was less
complicated. People felt cornered. Among the
majority of whites, resolve was
hardened. White liberals left, fell silent
or joined the majority. Nor did
blacks in Rhodesia feel encouraged or
empowered by Britain’s attitude. Most
felt abandoned. If Harold Wilson and
his government wanted to topple Smith,
they argued, why did he not take
responsibility and send in the British army?
Sanctions seemed a less than
brave response.
They were anyway
ineffective. They did cause huge inconvenience and many
shortages, but we
soon learnt to cope, and local industry was boosted by the
block on imports.
With the help of white South Africa and the Portuguese in
Mozambique,
sanctions-busting grew. What destroyed Smith’s regime in the end
was
terrorism: an endless, escalating, unwinnable war against
black
freedom-fighters.
Not many years later, working in the Leader of
the Opposition’s office when
Margaret Thatcher held that post, we were in no
doubt about her views. She
thought Harold Wilson’s (and Edward Heath’s)
sanctions policy had been a
feeble response, and that HMG ought to make up
its mind whether to support
Smith, attack him, or take no position at all.
She was attracted by the idea
of supporting him, but talked out of it by
colleagues.
Later she dragged her feet on sanctions against South Africa.
Some think
this was because she (or Denis) felt some sympathy with the white
government
there; others (myself among them) believe it was better explained
by her
instinctive hostility to confused and partial measures which were
more
likely to wound than to destroy.
Not every comparison between
then and now suggests a parallel. Sanctions
against Rhodesia were meant to
bring down the economy, which Commonwealth
sanctions today are not. Sanctions
against South Africa did play some part
in the downfall of apartheid, though
I would argue that its fall is better
explained by a growing sense among
whites there of total international moral
isolation. British policy under
Tony Blair claims to aim at the same
result — not to destroy what is left of
the Zimbabwean economy but, by
‘targeted’ sanctions, to shame and embarrass
Robert Mugabe’s leadership as
well as to undermine his military capabilities
and make him understand he is
alone in the world. Though the Conservative
party is demanding tougher
sanctions, Michael Ancram, the shadow foreign
secretary, is not proposing
that the country be starved into
submission.
The problem with these approaches is that they will enrage
Mugabe’s regime
without overpowering it. They will not shame him. Among the
ruling elite
they will intensify resistance and may marginalise the more
reasonable
elements. They also give Zimbabwean ministers a ready-made excuse
— white
neo-imperialism — for their own economic failure. Among the wider
black
population it is probably fair to say that bewilderment will be the
most
common response. Black resistance leaders are unlikely to condemn
the
Commonwealth’s sanctions policy, but I would be surprised if it was
winning
them new popular support.
And in one crucial respect they are
achieving (and this week at the
Commonwealth summit achieved) the opposite
effect to pushing Mugabe into an
international moral limbo. Nobody has better
reason to regret Mugabe’s cruel
stupidity than the country’s two neighbours,
South Africa and Mozambique,
who must deal with the debts, the cancelled
trade and the refugees. The
leaders of both must heartily wish Mugabe dead.
But by allowing the dictator
to characterise international pressure as
neocolonialism, sanctions have
made it harder for Thabo Mbeki and Pascoal
Mocumbi to distance themselves
from him. We may deplore the hypersensitivity
and racial defensiveness which
sometimes emerge when black leaders hear white
criticism; but it is a fact,
well-known, predictable and
predicted.
Did our Prime Minister really believe he could nudge and
cajole black Africa
into falling into line behind a sanctions policy in whose
creation black
Africa had played no part? He was optimistic. Do Michael
Ancram and Michael
Howard honestly think sharper sanctions will help topple
Mugabe? My guess is
that at root they simply wish to add to the force with
which Britain
expresses its revulsion towards his regime. This is posturing.
International
relations should be concerned less with posture than with
results. We
Spectator readers should ask ourselves whether we genuinely
believe that to
show our hatred for Mugabe through sanctions will hasten his
downfall.
Unless we do (and I do not) then we are recommending a foreign
policy
because it will make us feel good, rather than change things for the
better.
There will be much clucking and tut-tutting this weekend at the
behaviour of
some of the African Commonwealth; and many of us here may
console ourselves
that at least we in Britain are doing — in one of Mr
Blair’s favourite
phrases — ‘the right thing’. But are we? Sanctions against
Zimbabwe should
have been led by Mugabe’s neighbours, or not at all. Now they
are failing.
However warm a feeling it may give us, failing is not the right
thing.
Matthew Parris is a political columnist of the Times. His
autobiography, Chance Witness, is now out in Penguin
paperback.
Rising numbers in need of food
aid
|
© IRIN
Greater than expected need means aid agencies face
uphill battle |
JOHANNESBURG, 11 Dec 2003 (IRIN) - The
number of Zimbabweans needing food aid next year is expected to rise well beyond
original estimates, according to new research.
Aid agencies had forecast
that 5.5 million people - half of the population - would require food aid during
the pre-harvest months of January, February and March 2004.
However, the
latest Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) report on Zimbabwe noted
that "the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee has revised the estimates
of the rural population in need of food assistance from October to December to
4.1 million, and for January to March to 5.1 million".
World Food
Programme (WFP) spokesman Richard Lee told IRIN the original estimates indicated
4.4 million people in rural areas would need food assistance from January to
March 2004, with an additional 1.1 million urban residents bringing the total to
5.5 million nationally.
However, "if the FEWS report is saying the number
in rural areas is over 5 million, then we are looking at more than 6 million
people in need for the whole country, if you include the original estimate for
urban areas". WFP had been concerned for some time that needs were outstripping
the earlier estimates, mainly due to Zimbabwe's economic decline.
Lee
noted that with rising numbers of people requiring help, WFP "really does need
extra donations, particularly cash, so that we can buy food and speed up the
process of getting food to beneficiaries in Zimbabwe who need it".
IRIN
reported last month that the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) had warned in an appeal to donors: "what began as a food crisis in
Zimbabwe in 2002 has grown into a major humanitarian emergency, with people
suffering the effects of a deteriorating economy, HIV/AIDS, depleted social
services and policy constraints".
OCHA pointed out that "as the country
enters its fifth successive year of economic decline, Zimbabwe faces critical
shortages of foreign exchange to maintain essential infrastructure, and
inflation has soared", leading to greater vulnerability in urban
areas.
An urban vulnerability assessment is currently underway in
Zimbabwe, which Lee said "would give us even more accurate statistics on the
situation in key urban areas". It was highly unlikely that the assessment would
show a decrease in urban vulnerability. "I very much doubt the figure will be
less than the original estimate, given the continuing economic problems in
Zimbabwe," Lee said.
During 2002/03 crisis, vulnerability peaked at
around 7 million.
The latest figure indicated that people in need were
"still less than in [2002/03] but, clearly, it is still a very serious crisis,
and we are still struggling to get enough resources to meet the original
estimates", Lee stressed.
"If the numbers continue to rise we are going
to find it even more difficult to meet the needs in the country," he
warned.
FEWS NET reported that access to food for both urban and rural
people "remains a serious concern, as the prices of basic commodities and all
other basic services continue to rise at astronomical rates".
It warned
that the total cereal gap of 493,000 mt "still remains unfilled, and [the]
government's capacity to respond continues to be seriously
compromised".
Last month aid agencies requested US $109.4 million to meet
outstanding funding requirements for their Zimbabwe
programmes.
theconnection.org
How To Kill A
Country It's hard to see it any other way:
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe
is killing his country; so says the Human
Rights scholar Samantha Power.
Six years ago, Zimbabwe had the
fastest growing economy in all of
Africa. Now unemployment stands at 80
percent. Torture is rampant.
Corruption is common. The warehouse of the
country's sole maize and wheat
distributor is empty.
With
Mugabe's recent decision to quit the Commonwealth, many fear the
worst has
just begun -- that the nation once considered the heart of
Africa's
bread-basket, could become the location for widespread famine as
early as
next year. Already close to half the people there depend on the
U.N. for food
hand-outs. Samantha Power has seen the destruction of nations.
She says
Mugabe is on target to destroy his own.
New Zimbabwe
The Fuehrer wants club to join
By Masola wa
Dabudabu
11/12/03
WE hear that the ZANU-PF cabinet has decided to endorse
the sentiments of
the Fuehrer to quit the Commonwealth.
As expected of
men and women of questionable political repute that they are,
the cabinet
ministers overwhelmingly sang along with their leader in
approving the
nation's exit from the Commonwealth.
Those men who were once likened to
Mugabe's wives by the fiery Margaret
Dongo could not stand their ground on
the issue. They knew that any other
voice besides the master's voice would be
deemed treasonous and treacherous
by Mugabe. Out of fear of an old and frail
man, and not necessarily out of
prudence, the cabinet ministers voted
unanimously for the ill-informed exit.
Unkind history was being made and
repeated here! This is like the 1961
withdrawal of South Africa from the
Commonwealth, thanks to Vervood's
obsession with apartheid! History is in the
making again as men and women
who are deemed highly educated and civilised
chose to drown the country in
the murky waters of Mugabe's politics of hate
and madness.
The not so distant future will judge these men and women
unkindly. The focus
will be on the ministers' carelessness as custodians of
the country's
executive arms. History will expose the ministers as cowards
who masked
their yellow hearts with vehement support of a deranged loner.
History will
not waste its precious moments focusing on Bob in this case. It
shall be the
ministers who will bear the brunt as they could have
collectively averted
unilateral actions of a madding old man. They shall be
judged as accomplices
to the murder of a nation!
As for Mugabe
himself, he is way past redemption! All he await is Mother
Nature to take her
toll! He is making decisions that only serve to enrich
his ego without
necessarily benefiting the people of Zimbabwe. He is an old
man who now needs
the guidance of younger and more dexterous subordinates to
rein him when-ever
he engages in his excesses. There is no longer mitigation
in moving along the
flow of Mugabe's temper!
The cabinet ministers were supposed to provide
checks and balances against
any excesses by Mugabe. They were supposed to
stand up and tell the old man
that by putting into action his impulsive
decisions, he was actually doing
harm to the already half-battered esteem of
the people of Zimbabwe. At least
some of the ministers should have tried to
boldly articulate the interests
of the people. There was supposed to be
someone intelligent enough to stand
up to Mugabe's riff-ruff
attitude.
Unfortunate for Zimbabwe, we are talking about ZANU-PF
ministers here, not
servants of the people! We are not talking about
ministers with an interest
in the affairs of the people of Zimbabwe but
people whose interests lie in
their pockets. We are not talking of people
with a straight forward
conscience but people who think with their pockets,
for their pockets and
under the influence of their pockets'
contents.
We are talking about men and women who have set themselves in
an exclusive
club of witches and wizards. Once a member of the club, always a
member. The
blackmail within the wicked club forbids members to see evil,
hear evil or
speak evil of one another. The ministers are in a club that
survives because
every other man or woman has something juicy about the
other! All the
ministers are willing members of Mugabe's witching
séance.
It is a pity that two thirds of the parliament membership in
Zimbabwe are
men and women who have been highly and dangerously whipped along
ZANU-PF's
wicked path. If the majority of the parliamentary membership
consisted of
men and women with the country at heart, the motion to withdraw
Zimbabwe's
membership to the Commonwealth would be soundly defeated.
Unfortunate for
Zimbabwe, ZANU-PF members of parliament would be jostling to
please the
despot from Zvimba.
The voting patterns of the morons that
were voted for by the people of
Zvimba, Muzarabani, Uzumba Maramba Pfungwa
and Mwenezi is predictable. Those
members of parliament will sit on their
brains and vice-versa! (If they were
men and women of integrity, they would
not have voted for the enactment of
laws that kill democracy such as AIPPA
and POSA). There is no way ZANU-PF
members of parliament would oppose
Mugabe's withdrawal of Zimbabwe from the
Commonwealth even if some of them
are what they claim to be education-wise;
thanks to largesse of the
Commonwealth Secretariat!
I shudder to think how much of negative
compliments history is preparing for
those careless and carefree men and
women who are abetting the cause of a
dictator. I bet there shall never be a
kind adjective used to describe the
evil men and women. Cowardice shall not
be taken as defence when the time
comes. Accountability shall be the order of
the day. Each man and woman
shall be held accountable for their actions or
for neglecting to take action
when they had the opportunity to do
so.
Hitler led to doom a great number of men and women who ordinarily
would not
have lifted their fingers in anger. He made killers out of
simpletons.
Priests and doctors became murderers over-night. So many men and
women
allowed their brains to be prostituted by one sick man. The men and
women
failed, either collectively or individually to castrate the bull of
madness
that was Hitler. The situation is much the same for Zimbabwe under
ZANU-PF.
Mugabe is sleeping with ZANU-PF men and women in an unholy orgy of
political
sodomy. The victims of his political adventurism are refusing to
tame or
neuter the political pervert!
Zimbabwe's hope now lies with
fate! Let us all pray for deliverance from
Mugabe's evil grip!
New Zimbabwe
Mugabe plays cards close to chest over retirement
By
Cris Chinaka
11/12/03
ZIMBABWE'S embattled President Robert Mugabe has
left the question of his
future plans wide open despite speculation he is
looking for a graceful exit
in the face of economic collapse and political
turmoil.
Analysts say although Mugabe used an annual conference of his
ZANU-PF party
at the weekend to squeeze an endorsement of his leadership,
there are signs
to suggest the 79-year-old Zimbabwean leader is working
towards early
retirement.
Analysts say Zimbabwe's rift with the
Commonwealth helped Mugabe -- who
turns 80 in February and has been in power
for the last 23 years -- divert
attention from the question of who should
succeed him.
Barred from a weekend Commonwealth leaders' summit in
Nigeria, Mugabe pulled
out of the 54-member group when it extended Zimbabwe's
18-month-old
suspension, first imposed over alleged vote-rigging in his
re-election last
year.
"I don't think Mugabe manoeuvred the subject
(of succession) out of the way
because he doesn't want it to be discussed but
because that was not the
forum," said Professor Heneri Dzinotyiwei of the
University of Zimbabwe.
"If anything I think what we got there was a
confirmation that he wants to
handle the issue very carefully in a manner
that does not destabilise his
party," he told Reuters.
The party is
due to elect a new leadership at a congress next December.
Mugabe's
presidential term ends in 2008.
Zimbabwe is struggling with a deepening
political and economic crisis that
many blame on government mismanagement,
particularly Mugabe's handling of a
land-reform programme that gave
white-owned farms to landless blacks.
ZANU-PF issued a statement ahead of
the party conference quashing intense
media speculation that Mugabe would use
the convention to give pointers on
his future, including his preferred
successor.
Political analysts say although there has been a general
feeling in ZANU-PF
over the last year that Mugabe should leave, there is no
agreement on who
should take over his post, a fact which Mugabe's critics say
he has
exploited.
In his closing speech to the conference, Mugabe said
he was aware that some
party members had been holding secret meetings on the
succession issue, but
he made clear he had no plans to step down in the
foreseeable future.
He said he still had a mandate to fulfil but that if
he felt the "need to
rest", he would tell the party that he wanted early
retirement.
Analysts say Mugabe seems preoccupied with finding the best
possible
"honourable exit" because he wants to walk out with dignity rather
than be
kicked out of a party he has led since the 1970s.
Dzinotyiwei
said the way Mugabe has been strengthening ZANU-PF structures in
the last six
weeks suggests he was conditioning it for elections.
"Despite his
denials, I think Mugabe is still looking at the possibility of
stepping aside
early, maybe next year, maybe in 2005 but only when he is
confident that
ZANU-PF and a new leader can beat the opposition,"
Dzinotyiwei
said.
Mugabe has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980. Early
this year he
encouraged ZANU-PF to begin debating who should succeed him,
sparking
speculation he would quit early.
But in September Mugabe
disbanded the committee spearheading the debate,
saying it was causing party
divisions. Political analysts say he probably
dissolved it to take tighter
hold of the debate after the death of one of
his two deputy
presidents.
A senior southern African diplomat also said Mugabe had gone
out to absorb
young leaders mainly from the business sector to prepare for
possible early
presidential and parliamentary polls.
"There is
leadership renewal going on which appears to be a pointer that the
old guard
is preparing to hand over power to a new generation, and the
president is
also preparing to hand over to another man," he said.
New Zimbabwe
Mugabe's Swiss luxury revealed
From David Sharrock in
Geneva
11/12/03
IN an extraordinary display of indifference to what the
world thinks of
Zimbabwe’s woes, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe began a
three-day visit to
Switzerland for a United Nations conference by checking
into one of the
country’s most exclusive hotels.
Mr Mugabe selected La
Réserve, a country club-style spa on the shores of
Lake Geneva, for his
20-strong entourage. Rooms at the Réserve cost from
£380, with the
presidential suite available for £4,500. Jacuzzis and
flatscreen televisions
come as standard with the suites and at sunset every
guest receives a
handwritten weather report for the next day.
Whether or not Mr Mugabe
feels he needs such pampering after the exertions
of pulling Zimbabwe out of
the Commonwealth last weekend, he was certainly
reluctant to come out of his
suite yesterday. When he finally did, the
Zen-like calm that the Réserve
strives to create was shattered by a display
of thuggish behaviour from his
bodyguards, who manhandled several waiting
photographers.
For his
part, Mr Mugabe beamed genially from behind his corridor of minders,
but
ignored questions from reporters about his decision to withdraw from
the
Commonwealth after Zimbabwe’s suspension from the body was renewed
in
Nigeria. Earlier, Jonathan Moyo, the Zimbabwean Information Minister,
when
asked why the decision had been made, replied: "Ask Tony
Blair."
Mr Mugabe was granted a visa to travel to Geneva even though
Switzerland has
followed the lead of the European Union and the United States
by imposing
sanctions on Zimbabwe, including a travel ban for the President,
his wife
and 77 close associates.
The UN conference - on the urgent
need to bridge the technology gap that
threatens to leave the Third World in
the Dark Ages while industrial nations
make swift progress in the digital age
- has given him an opportunity to
cock a snook at the EU’s sanctions and give
a high-profile demonstration
that he is far from friendless in the
world.
Mr Mugabe used his speech to attack Britain and the United States.
He told
the summit: "These last two years have shown us how information
and
communications technologies (ICT) superiority are often deployed as
a
prelude and accompaniment to aggressing the sovereignties of poor and
small
nations. I say this because my country Zimbabwe continues to be a
victim of
such aggression with both the UK and the United States using ICT
superiority
to challenge our sovereignty through hostile and malicious
broadcasts
calculated to foment instability and destroy the state through
divisions."
Mr Mugabe revelled in the role of international statesman
when he addressed
the leaders of more than 60 nations. They listened
attentively and he
received the applause of half of Africa, the presidents of
the Baltic
states, much of the Middle East and the French Prime Minister for
his
innocuous words on technology. Yet his enthusiasm for the internet may
come
as a surprise in Zimbabwe.
Last month 15 people were arrested and
charged under the Public Order and
Security Act for sending out e-mails from
an internet café in Harare, which
urged demonstrations in protest against the
President’s rule. The alleged
miscreants were released on bail and are
awaiting trial in the first case of
its kind in Zimbabwe - The Times
(UK)
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 10 December
Zim lawyers
demonstrate against abuse
Harare - Scores of Zimbabwean human rights
lawyers staged a half-hour
demonstration in the capital, Harare, on Wednesday
to protest at the assault
and harassment of lawyers and judges. Dressed in
their black gowns and some
in white T-shirts, the lawyers, including senior
attorneys, held placards as
they marched from the Supreme Court across the
city's busiest streets during
the lunch rush hour. The demonstration was held
to mark World Human Rights
Day. Some of the placards read "No to torture",
"Stop harassing judges and
lawyers now" and "Freedom of expression now". The
demonstration was probably
the first street protest by rights activists to be
authorised and escorted
by police officers since a new security law was
introduced in Zimbabwe early
this year. Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights Nokuthula
Moyo read a list of more than 10 lawyers who had
been "assaulted and
harassed by the police" either in their line of duty or
as complainants in
2003. "The police record for the protection and defence of
human rights has
been appalling," she told the protesters at the end of the
march in the
city's main park, Harare Gardens. "No matter how abused we are
... we must
soldier on until we restore the dignity this country deserves,"
she said.
Moyo, however, applauded the police for approving and even
providing escort
for their protest. "I hope what has happened is the
beginning of good
things. We hope from now on our police will start to
observe and protect
human rights," she said. Almost all attempted
demonstrations against rights
abuses and in support of democratic reforms in
Zimbabwe by a host of civic
activists this year have been broken up by
police.
ZWNEWS
Thu 11-Dec-2003
Losing his touch
In Masvingo he created an atmosphere somewhere between a
mediaeval
inquisition, a Stalinist show trial and a smelling out
ceremony
Comment
By Michael Hartnack
Robert Mugabe demonstrated at last week's ruling Zanu PF party
conference
that he has lost the political skills he once had. We saw a old
man ready to
squander his few remaining cards for the sake of attention and
applause, and
a vulgar show of power. With 52 leaders gathered
simultaneously in the
Nigerian capital, Abuja, Mugabe's threat to quit the
Commonwealth was bound
to get world headlines. The way he made the threat -
which he later carried
out - was one of his classic manipulated shows of
popular opinion, relieving
him of the onus: all 10 provinces endorsed a
resolution, theoretically
emanating from the floor, which called on Mugabe
to withdraw from the
Commonwealth immediately. "If we say we are doing this,
we will do it. We
never retreat," said Mugabe, before announcing the
withdrawal on Sunday after
the Commonwealth leaders, despite the best
efforts of South Africa on
Mugabe's behalf, continued Zimbabwe's suspension.
And they set specific
conditions involving democracy and respect for human
rights for
readmission.
Asked whether Mugabe's regime had regrets about
quitting the
Commonwealth after nearly 24 years, Didymus Mutasa, the
Politburo Secretary
for External Affairs, said: "No, not at all, it (the
decision) is taken with
great pleasure because as members of our party put
it, there is no 'common
wealth' between us and the white members." Earlier,
British Prime Minister
Tony Blair's spokesman had blamed South Africa for
making consensus on
Zimbabwe impossible by its insistence on a pro-Mugabe
line. Now Mugabe no
longer wants to be in the Commonwealth, South African
President Thabo Mbeki
is not obliged to fight for him in the name of African
brotherhood. Mugabe
has, in effect, resolved Mbeki and Blair's quarrel for
them.
The Mugabe who sabotaged the labours on his behalf by
friendly Third
World members of the Commonwealth is not the shrewd Mugabe of
the 1970s, who
outmanoeuvred all rivals for power. The old Mugabe would
surely have
contrived to get a belated invitation to meet well-disposed
Afro-Asian heads
of government, mediating on his behalf. Had he given a
last-minute show of
willingness to compromise he might have seized a
diplomatic coup. But it was
not to be.
Mugabe had the dates for
the Zanu-PF party conference in Masvingo
brought forward to coincide with the
Commonwealth summit so, denied an
invitation to grandstand in Abuja, he could
indulge this favourite pastime
on the domestic stage. His delusions of
grandeur peaked when he revealed his
hopes for start of a Cold War, or
perhaps World War III, between China and
the United States. He has lost all
sense of proportion. The reality he will
not face is that he is the
geriatric, self-appointed ruler of a bankrupt,
landlocked little
country.
In Masvingo he created an atmosphere somewhere between a
mediaeval
inquisition, a Stalinist show trial and a smelling out ceremony.
"Who is
here as a traitor, sitting amongst us and yet going back to the
enemy?" he
hissed at a cowering auditorium. "Who is here as an enemy, turning
the party
into an instrument of individualism?...Let them repent, be ashamed.
For I
know what is happening," he added, referring to the dreaded
Central
Intelligence Organisation. Mugabe (not looking sideways at his young
wife's
expensive clothes or at his own imported attire), then attacked
the
"worshippers of money, not regarding the soul of Zimbabwe. Double
dealing,
one leg in the party, one leg in the MDC. During the day they drink
with
Zanu PF, during the night with MDC." He spat venom about his ability
to
"unleash legal force and legal violence which we are permitted to do"
to
"tame the MDC" and its "useless protests". "I hope they are tame now,"
he
said in a voice laden with menace. Mugabe dismissed talks with the MDC
which
Pretoria has confidently been announcing are on the point of success.
MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai likewise publicly confirmed at the weekend, for
the
benefit of the Abuja summit: "No formal talks ever took place. There are
no
talks. No agreement, ready for signature, is in sight."
Mugabe was so rash in Masvingo that he forgot the political value in
staying
vague about his retirement plans. In June, Mbeki forecast a
Zimbabwean
solution would be found within a year, with Mugabe's graceful
exit. Mugabe
conclusively dashed that hope, bluntly informing the party
delegates he
intended to stay to the March 2008 end of the term he claims to
have won in
last year's disputed polls. Mugabe, in short, has become not
only his own
worst political and diplomatic enemy, but a huge liability to
his friends.
Here in Zimbabwe we must expect some new campaign of revenge
against the
opposition for going to lobby in Abuja, where the banned Daily
News brought
out a special edition, against civil society or whites
generally, against the
few remaining white farmers, against urban
businesses, or diplomats.
Meanwhile, Mbeki may wonder how he can restrain
Mugabe before he again has
the ground cut from under his feet, or is faced
with another calamitous fait
accompli.
Channel News Asia
Zimbabwe opposition lawmaker resigns claiming
harassment
HARARE : A lawmaker for the main opposition party in
Zimbabwe has
resigned his parliamentary seat claiming harassment by state
agents, a party
spokesman said.
Paul Themba Nyathi, spokesman of
the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), confirmed that Tafadzwa Musekiwa
had resigned his seat of Zengeza, a
constituency in the satellite town of
Chitungwiza, outside Harare.
The resignation is bad news for
the MDC, which recently failed to
retain a key parliamentary seat in the
central town of Kadoma, following a
by-election it lost to President Robert
Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African
National Union - Patriotic Front
(ZANU-PF).
Musekiwa, who was the youngest lawmaker voted into
parliament in 2000
general elections in 2000, fled to Britain last year
claiming harassment by
state agents.
A by-election will now need
to be held to replace him. While the MDC
has strong support in most urban
areas, Mugabe's party enjoys significant
backing in the rural
areas.
"We as a party are aware of the harassment he (Musekiwa) was
subjected
to," Nyathi told AFP. But he added: "Virtually ever member of the
party goes
through that harassment."
The MDC stormed onto
Zimbabwe's political stage in 2000, snatching up
nearly half the contested
seats.
However, several by-elections have been held due to deaths
or
resignations, and the ruling party has increased its number of seats to
66,
against 52 for the opposition.
- AFP