The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
President Robert Mugabe's embattled regime is planning
shock new measures to
control all broadcast and Internet-based information,
reports said on
Friday.
The move comes barely a day after Mugabe
accused Britain of using the
Internet as its new tool in trying to recolonise
the Third World.
Media organisations now fear that the government could
soon move to regulate
their Internet websites. - Independent Foreign
Service
iafrica.com
Zim accuses Commonwealth of racism
Posted Sat, 13 Dec
2003
Zimbabwe's foreign minister has formally notified Commonwealth
Secretary
General Don McKinnon of the country's decision to leave the global
body,
citing "racist humiliation", the ZIANA state news agency reported on
Friday.
Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge wrote a letter to McKinnon on
Thursday,
following the Zimbabwean parliament's endorsement of President
Robert
Mugabe's announcement earlier this week that the southern African
country
was leaving the 54-nation bloc of mostly former British
colonies.
Mugabe announced on Sunday that Zimbabwe was quitting after a
Commonwealth
Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in the Nigerian capital
Abuja said the
southern African country's 20-month suspension was to be
prolonged.
"The principles of equality, fair play and respect for
national sovereignty
of member states for which the Club stands have, sadly,
been compromised. In
their place new imperialism and hegemonism are rearing
their ugly heads,"
Mudenge said.
"The Republic of Zimbabwe has chosen
to terminate its membership of the
Commonwealth from 7 December (2003) rather
than continue to subject itself
to such racist humiliation, arbitrariness and
arrogance," he added.
Mugabe said Zimbabwe was being unfairly treated by
white members of the
Commonwealth who are opposed to its controversial land
reform programme.
But his critics within the grouping say Zimbabwe was
suspended - originally
after a disputed presidential election in March last
year - because of human
rights abuses and harassment of the
opposition.
Mugabe's withdrawal from the Commonwealth has exposed
damaging splits in the
body.
Members of the Southern African
Development Community of which Zimbabwe is a
member have criticised what they
say is intolerance by powerful white
members of the
Commonwealth.
AFP
JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet:
www.justiceforagriculture.com
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
justice@telco.co.zw with "For Open Letter
Forum" in the subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1:
The President,
CFU.
Dear Mr. Taylor Freeme,
I have
been away for a few weeks and have been wondering what your Union is
up to.
The last I heard was that Matabeleland Region had decided that they
did not
feel that they could continue to participate in your academy of
dancing. It
seems that they felt that whilst it might be perceived in some
quarters that
your Union was in fact a truly democratic organization - just
like the
government - there were perhaps some anomalies as to whose tunes
your Union
danced to.
The tune of "Dialogue" has been an old favourite for some
years now, and
seems to get your inner circle on to the floor, and into Mick
Jagger like
mode and mood every time. The only down side is that there are
less and
less dancers, year on year.
Essentially, I am asking you if
there are any new dance routines in the
pipeline. In the interests of
transparency please reply to
justice@telco.co.zw
Yours
faithfully,
J.L.
Robinson.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
Be happy, Mugabe tells the starving
Government begins huge TV and radio
propaganda campaign
Rory Carroll in Harare
Saturday December 13,
2003
The Guardian
Zimbabwe's government has begun a huge propaganda
campaign to cheer up the
country with music, football and sex. All the main
forums of popular culture
have been harnessed to depict government policies
as reasons to smile and
break into song.
State-sanctioned jingles with
upbeat tunes which feature wriggling female
dancers and next month's African
Nations Cup football final dominate
television and radio.
It is is
being compared to the Roman emperors' attempt to appease the masses
with
bread and circuses - though in Zimbabwe's case, without the
bread.
President Robert Mugabe's regime has difficulty importing fuel and
other
necessities but its well-funded publicity drive was in full flow this
week,
the radio and television stations playing new jingles every 30
minutes.
Musicians, actors and other artists said the Zanu-PF party was
on its way to
monopolising popular culture, forcing them to either
collaborate or go
without work.
Some vowed to fight back. One theatre
group said it would open a chain of
cinemas in the townships soon to show
films of political satire. An
exhibition at the national gallery in Harare
included strident criticism of
the government.
But such defiance will
have limited impact in the absence of independent
daily journalism, said
Andrew Moyse, head of Media Monitoring Project
Zimbabwe, a watchdog group in
Harare.
"The ruling party is totally setting the agenda. It is closing
down
independent and external avenues of information to make people
more
susceptible to propaganda," he said.
A recent decision to
champion the national football team, the Warriors,
showed that the
information minister, Jonathan Moyo, had learned the value
of sport, he
added.
Mr Moyo has ended years of official neglect of the Zimbabwe
Football
Association and is now funding the team, which delighted fans
by
unexpectedly qualifying for the African Nations Cup in Tunisia.
He
is believed to have written the lyrics which are aired almost hourly: "We
are
the hunting grounds; we are going for goals, goals, goals. Score
Warriors;
go, go, Warriors."
One western diplomat credited Mr Moyo with a publicity
coup, but doubted
that the feel-good factor would last.
"After a match
you want to go home and eat, but what if you can't afford the
bus fare and
there is no food in the house?"
Since Mr Mugabe's rigged re-election last
year was followed by a political
crackdown, the economic collapse has turned
Zimbabwe into the world's
fastest shrinking economy. Much of the hunger,
poverty and unemployment has
been blamed on the chaotic seizure of
white-owned farms, but in jingles the
policy is depicted as a heroic redress
of colonial injustice.
Their production values are good, and some of the
tunes so catchy that even
opposition supporters have found themselves humming
along. But accompanying
one on screen with a traditional dance, the kongonya,
has prompted protests
from TV viewers appalled at the pelvic grinding of
young women and children.
"Pornographic, sexually perverted, disgusting,"
some of them said.
Mr Mugabe has defended the advert and this week the
state-owned Herald
newspaper devoted two pages to explaining that the dance
epitomised the
fight against colonial domination.
"The sexually
suggestive connotations of the waist wriggling and the fast
rhythmic throwing
upwards and downwards of buttocks is again a sign of
defiance of the
detractors of the land reform," the Herald explained.
Since the the
independent Daily News was closed, opposition groups have
boycotted the
Herald, but people are so starved for news that even in
Harare, an opposition
stronghold, it sells out quickly.
Opposition groups praised the bravery
of independent weekly newspapers such
as the Independent and Standard, but
said they were too small to counter the
government's daily
propaganda.
Some art forms considered elitist are swelling the criticism
of Zanu-PF.
Theatre in the Park, a trust, has just finished a season of
outdoor shows in
Harare which included satires on nepotism and
dictatorship.
Plays such as Up the Vice Staircase and Super Patriots and
Morons, which
savage tyranny, have been left unmolested by Zanu-PF's secret
police and
youth militia. "They use [them] as a barometer for what people
are
thinking," said Daves Guzha, a producer.
Defiance was also evident
at the national gallery. The ground floor showed
idealised images of happy
cotton farmers - an exhibition commissioned by a
parastatal company - but an
exhibition upstairs had bleak images of
oppression with such titles as An
Illusion of Freedom.
"My work is getting more political. You have to
speak out," said Charles
Kamangwana, an artist whose depiction of women
selling oranges made a
statement in the way the paint dripped.
"You
know they're not going to sell any oranges. The drips are like tears,"
he
said.
Independent (UK)
Mbeki claims UK to blame for crisis in Zimbabwe
By
Basildon Peta, Southern Africa Correspondent
13 December
2003
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa has sprung to the defence
of Robert
Mugabe and blamed Britain for the crisis in Zimbabwe.
In his
weekly letter to the ruling African National Congress, Mr Mbeki
said
President Mugabe'sseizures of white farms had become inevitable
because
Britain had not honoured its commitment to fund land reform. Mr Mbeki
also
criticised the Commonwealth, saying it did not have the interests
of
Zimbabwe's people at heart when it decided to renew the country's
suspension
from the organisation. Mr Mugabe pulled his country out of the
Commonwealth
on Sunday night in protest at the decision.
President
Mbeki dismissed Commonwealth concerns about human rights abuses in
Zimbabwe,
saying it had lost sight of the land issue, which he described as
the core of
the problems in Zimbabwe.
His remarks are certain to further disappoint
those who are already angered
by his defence of Mr Mugabe at the Commonwealth
summit in Nigeria and his
attempts to oust its secretary general Don
McKinnon, who has been a vocal
critic of Mr Mugabe.
Lovemore Madhuku,
a prominent Zimbabwean academic, said: "The point is that
Mbeki is now
looking a bit silly by his campaign to defend the
totally
indefensible.
"I think he has made it clear that his African
Renaissance and Nepad [New
Partnership for Africa's Development] pet
projects, which are predicated on
good governance, are not worth the paper on
which they are written. Rich
countries must take note and not waste time on
these things."
In his defence of Mr Mugabe's government, Mr Mbeki quoted
the Kenyan author
Ngugi wa Thiongo: "Africa actually enriches Europe but
Africa is made to
believe that it needs Europe to rescue it from poverty." Mr
Mbeki said those
who fought for a democratic Zimbabwe "with thousands paying
the supreme
price during the struggle, and forgave their oppressors and
torturers in a
spirit of national reconciliation, have been turned into
repugnant enemies
of democracy".
In a direct reference to Britain, he
said: "Those who, in the interest of
their [white] 'kith and kin', did what
they could to deny the people of
Zimbabwe their liberty, for as long as they
could, have become the eminent
defenders of the democratic rights of the
people of Zimbabwe."
Mr Mbeki asked why the land issue had disappeared
from the global agenda
when it was at the "core" of the problems in Zimbabwe.
Whenever the land
issue was mentioned, he said, it was only "to highlight the
plight of the
former white landowners, and to attribute food shortages in
Zimbabwe to the
land redistribution programme".
He accused Britain,
the United Nations and European Union of not honouring
commitments to help
finance land redistribution in Zimbabwe after colonial
rule left most
productive farms in the hands of the white minority.
"A forcible process
of land redistribution perhaps became inevitable," Mr
Mbeki said. He accused
"some within Zimbabwe and elsewhere" of treating
human rights as a tool to
overthrow the Zimbabwe government. While
acknowledging that "many things have
gone wrong in Zimbabwe", Mr Mbeki
attributed the crisis to machinations by
British governments which were
meant to protect the interests of their "white
kith and kin".
Extract from
Pambazuka News 136
Fahamu
(Oxford)
December 11, 2003
Posted to the web December 12,
2003
ZIMBABWE: TIME FOR COURAGE
Rotimi Sankore
The
announcement by Zimbabwean government officials that they would pull
the
country out of the Commonwealth following their continued suspension
raised
the stakes dramatically, ironically on the eve of International Human
Rights
Day on December 10. This has serious implications for the
organisations
capacity to promote human rights in Africa and amongst
non-African
countries.
If the commonwealth takes no further action, it
would appear all a country
has to do to side step its authority is to
withdraw from it. If however it
decides to take further steps against the
Zimbabwean government as provided
for in its Harare principles, it risks
widening the split in the
organisation and triggering a spiralling crisis. It
is significant that the
14 member Southern African Development Community
(SADC) issued a statement
on the 10th of December expressing its "displeasure
and deep concern with
the dismissive, intolerant and rigid attitude displayed
by some
(Commonwealth) members." The organisation called for "engagement" and
"not
isolation" saying, isolation "will do nothing to assist the people
of
Zimbabwe overcome their difficulties".
In this respect, a strong
complicating factor is the apparent double
standards exhibited by some
'western' governments. The idea for instance
that any government could float
the idea of relaxing sanctions on, or even
ending the suspension of Pakistan
while simultaneously calling for stiffer
penalties against Zimbabwe at the
Commonwealth may yet rank in history
alongside the worlds biggest foreign
policy blunders. Some Asian countries
especially India, which is a
traditional opponent of Pakistan, would also
have watched this closely.
Alluding to this David Ellery, writing in the
letters pages of the UK
Guardian of December 9 2003, stated, "Mugabe is
missing a trick. All he has
to do is offer to send a token force to Iraq and
Blair and Bush will be
praising him as a bulwark of democracy and human
rights."
This double
standards and what is seen by some African governments as covert
support by
some 'western' governments for opposition interests opposed to
land reform
has not only strengthened Mugabe's resolve, it has mobilised his
party behind
him as well as those African governments that share a similar
colonial
past.
However, it is important to remember that the central problem as
regards
Zimbabwe is not the resolution of the problems in the Commonwealth.
The
central problem is the resolution of the crisis in Zimbabwe.
The
contradictions in the Commonwealth have long existed and Zimbabwe has
only
brought them to the fore again.
To many around the world
[including within the Commonwealth], the crisis has
several sides to it. To
some the question is "are you for land reform or
not?" To others the question
is "are you for democracy and human rights or
not?"
These questions
have been shaped by the perceptions that to be strongly for
land reform
suggests uncritical support for the Mugabe government and its
policies and
that to be strongly for human rights and democracy suggests an
uncritical
alliance with 'white farmers', 'former colonial masters' or the
opposition as
currently represented by the MDC.
This conundrum confirms that as is
sometimes the case, the perception is as
important as the reality. In this
case, key factors behind these perceptions
are race and political
convenience.
Conflicts that are complicated by race and ideology are
often tricky waters
to navigate. It is necessary therefore to be courageous
and unambiguous in
standing by principles that will facilitate consistency.
In the case of
Zimbabwe, it is time for courage.
It is therefore
possible in Zimbabwe and elsewhere, to stand:
- For democracy;
-
For the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, association, assembly,
and
political participation;
- Media freedom;
- And simultaneously
recognise the urgent need for land reform and
redistribution to correct the
injustices of colonialism based on racist
oppression, discrimination and
exploitation.
It is also principled to stand for correction of colonial
injustices and
simultaneously demand that the need for land reform and
redistribution
should not and cannot be used as an excuse or cover to
sanction violence and
murder. Land reform can and must be carried out but
only on a constitutional
and equitable basis. This should have been the
position of the Commonwealth;
this should be the position of the African
Union and of the SADC.
It is important to sort out the Zimbabwean crisis
now on the basis of clear
and unambiguous democratic principles not just for
Zimbabwe, but also
because the land problem may rear its head in South Africa
sooner than many
think. If it manifests in South Africa on the same basis as
it has in
Zimbabwe then the legacy of apartheid, the unresolved issues around
race,
the economic divide, the sharper role of ideology in the liberation
struggle
and the size of the country and economy - all will combine to make
it far
worse than it could ever be in Zimbabwe.
Africans and
democratic minded African leaders and governments must not
allow perceived
'western' double standards to distort their views on
democracy. It is
possible for President Mugabe to be a former liberation
fighter, to have been
once democratically elected and to now pursue
undemocratic policies. Violence
is not necessary to ensure land reform in
Zimbabwe. It is also not justified
by the fact that colonial settlers used
violence and murder to illegitimately
seize land from Africans. Had it been
determined to do so before it started
facing political problems, the Mugabe
government could have enforced land
reform in a constitutional, legitimate
and equitable way at any time in the
last two decades.
For this reason African rights campaigners must be
steadfast on the question
of rights and democracy in Zimbabwe and appreciate
the fact that support for
democratic principles in Zimbabwe is not the same
as endorsing the policies
of "western interests", or any opposition parties
or organisations.
International rights campaigners and non-African
governments must also be
clear and unequivocal that in addition to
campaigning for democratic
principles that they stand for land reform and
redistribution as a step
towards correcting the injustices of Zimbabwe's
colonial past. If not, they
risk becoming part of the problem instead of
contributing to the solution.
Given the opportunity, the people of
Zimbabwe will make the right choices
and these choices will in the long run
be consistent with democratic
principles, human rights and correcting the
injustices of the colonial past
on a constitutional, just and equitable
basis.
*Sankore is a member of the Pambazuka Editorial Board and is
Coordinator of
CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights, which
works on rights
issues in Africa. CREDO can be contacted via Pambazuka News
or via
info@credonet.org
Two articles here - the second one answering the first.
Extract
from
Pambazuka News 136
Fahamu (Oxford)
December 11,
2003
Posted to the web December 12, 2003
BLACK CRITICS OF MUGABE
SUPPORT WHITE SUPREMACY
Simon Hinds
Black people around the world
are undermined by the black critics of Mugabe.
The black critics are
supporting white supremacist beliefs that black
people:
i. should be
denied rights and economic benefits enjoyed by white people;
ii. should
support white leadership because of their inferiority.
In general, the
Zimbabwean issue is about whether black people can limit the
selfish
interference of Western elites in their own countries. In
particular, it is
about black people restoring ownership of their land from
white beneficiaries
of colonialism. This is a southern African problem
because in the region the
descendants of colonisers own most of the best
land.
Black people
should not judge Mugabe's black critics on the basis of their
opposition to
his violence and 'dictatorship'. The real issue is their
relationship to the
white supremacist campaign to remove a leader who is in
opposition to it. The
critics are dangerous because they refuse to openly
oppose white
supremacy.
Mugabe's violence is not the issue. Violence was needed to
remove
colonialism in Zimbabwe. No doubt, there were human rights abuses
during the
struggle. Yet, a key objective was black land ownership. Violence
is a
natural outcome of white farmers refusing to give up land their
descendants
stole through violence. The MDC has no problem with violence.
But, in no way
would British people accept most of their land being owned by
non-whites.
Democracy is not the issue. Reporting on the 2002
Presidential elections,
the Tanzanian Observer Mission concluded: "The
results of the election are
the wishes of the people of Zimbabwe." A similar
conclusion was reached by
missions from Mozambique, Russia, the former OAU,
China, Zambia, Malawi, the
December 12th Movement from the US, Iran, and
Japan. The two missions most
quoted in the West were from a Commonwealth
group, dominated by white
nations, and from opposition MPs in southern
Africa, which was funded by the
anti-Mugabe European Union. Mugabe's black
critics use them as the basis of
their 'Mugabe stole the elections'
claim.
What is the issue? A massive, covert and overt regime change
campaign by
white elites. Is it because they love human rights and democracy?
This group
is lead by Zimbabwean white farmers, white South Africans,
right-wing
Western politicians and business leaders. This group has the
support or
acquiescence of white liberals. Some white liberals are fooled.
Yet, the
politics of the leaders are white supremacist. They share the
politics of
people who actively opposed the Zimbabwean national
struggle.
A network of organisations are leading this campaign. It
includes: Zimbabwe
Democracy Trust, the Westminster Democracy Foundation, the
European Union's
Africa Working Group, the London-based Royal Institute of
International
Affairs, and the US State Department. There are also, of
course, Western
governments. Their methods are:
- the creation of and
financial support of opposition groups
- use of money to turn civil
groups into oppositional groups
- use of violence to destablise Zimbabwe
and provoke the Government
- crippling the Zimbabwean economy
- a
media campaign
- threatening black countries with the withdrawal of
financial support.
On 4 August 2002, The Sunday Mail in Harare reported:
" the British
government had funded the opposition party to the tune of
nearly Zim$10m in
the run-up to the parliamentary elections. The opposition
party has also
confirmed this." The report reveals that the MDC receives
financial backing
from Germany, Holland, Denmark and the US.
In other
words, Western elites have created and funded opposition groups and
have
sought to undermine the economy to produce more support from
Zimbabweans.
These elites are engaging in foreign activity that would be
unacceptable in
their own countries.
The strategy of the black critics is to blind people
to any other issue
other than Mugabe's human rights abuses. Yet, these are
abuses they
deliberately provoke. The most charitable view of them is that
they are
suffering so much from those abuses that they are blind to or do
not
consider the white supremacist agenda of their allies. But this makes
them
dangerous fools.
It could be that they are aware of the white
supremacy of their allies and
have struck a faustian deal them to get rid of
someone who is far worse. But
if Mugabe were that bad there would be former
members of the War Veterans
fighting alongside former members of the
Rhodesian army to get rid of the
'brutal dictator'.
It could be that
their actual alliance is with white liberals. But clearly
white supremacists
are using white liberals as a respectable front for their
colonial ambitions.
The black critics still ought to be deliberately
distancing themselves from
the white supremacists. Yet, none of this is a
satisfactory explanation. The
reality is that the leaders of the black
critics are paid hands of racists.
It is the continuing silence of the
so-called opposition that proves their
complicity in white supremacy.
BLACK CRITICS OF MUGABE SUPPORT WHITE
SUPREMACY: PAMBAZUKA RESPONDS
Rotimi Sankore
It requires a great
deal of political clarity to sort the issues on Zimbabwe
and a short message
cannot do it in depth. Nevertheless I think it is
important to make some
clarifications on the question of race and criticism
of President
Mugabe.
1. It is not proper or correct to allege/imply that [all] black
Mugabe
critics are in effect supporters of white supremacy.
2. I for
example could never be accused of being such a person. I do not
need to go
into detail but suffice to say that all my life, I have fought
and will
continue to fight against all manifestations of racism.
3. I have also
lived under [and suffered the consequences of the repression
of] another
undemocratic African government that did not have a land
controversy at hand
to blur the issues. I have had the unfortunate benefit
of seeing journalist
colleagues disappear, be jailed, tortured, killed and
hounded in to exile in
many countries. None of them were supporters of white
supremacy. [Ironically,
'western' interests supported some of such dictators
such as Mobutu of Zaire
especially during the cold war]
4. Yes there is an overwhelming need for
land reform and redistribution not
just in Zimbabwe but also across southern
Africa. In truth it should have
been done - not in the last two years - but
long ago. It can also be done in
a civil way without inciting lynch mobs to
murder people.
5. The issues in Zimbabwe are not just about minority
whites owning the most
land and blacks not having access to land. It is also
about democracy and
human rights, which are universal concepts. Black people
are dying of AIDS
and Famine in Zimbabwe.
6. Yes there is a reasonable
element of racism in the support for
anti-Mugabe forces by some white people
and western interests. Such
interests are clearly identifiable and there is
no need to mix them up with
those that don't share their interests.
[Descendants of colonial settlers
for instance would be happy to hang on to
their land under any circumstances
and would never have spoken up for human
rights of Africans were they not
under attack themselves.]
7. While it
is true that white people that have not suffered the
consequences of slavery,
colonialism, apartheid or racism do not appreciate
the extent to which race
may colour their perception of issues and how this
in turn colours how their
actions and policies are perceived by Africans.
The truth is that not all
white people are racists. Some have even fought
and died for the
anti-apartheid, anti-colonial struggles and the civil
rights movement
etc.
8. Mugabe need not have waited till he faced growing political
opposition to
sort the land problem. He could have done it when there was
little or no
opposition anytime in the previous 20 years. While it is true
that some
interests will rather ruin Zimbabwe than see land reform, the truth
is that
Mugabe's policies are also undermining the Zimbabwean
economy.
9. It may seem attractive to some people to imply that because
white
colonial settlers murdered millions of Africans and violently seized
land,
the same should be done to them. However although 'revenge' may give
immense
satisfaction, this simply reduces the perpetrators to the same
bestial
mentality that generated colonial murder and exploitation. [There
will never
be enough space here to discuss the place of revenge and vengeance
in the
human psyche and society, if it is appropriate or not, to what extent
is it
reasonable and so forth.] More importantly if land reform is the
objective,
it can be done without mayhem. Prior to the last elections Zanu-PF
had
enough political strength to ensure land reform in a constitutional
manner.
It is not impossible to do so even now.
10. Finally and to
reiterate: It is possible to campaign for democracy and
human rights in
Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa without being a supporter
of white
supremacy. Note also that:
(1) If you fight the beneficiaries of
undemocratic policies by undemocratic
means, you loose your legitimacy and
moral authority especially if you play
on a legitimate cause to selfishly
hang on to power and the fall out is that
thousands of innocent people suffer
the consequences. (2) To campaign for
democracy, free expression and other
rights in Zimbabwe is not an
endorsement of the MDC or its
policies.
The fallouts of slavery, colonialism, apartheid and more
sophisticated
modern day exploitation of Africa can only be solved by more
democracy and
more human rights, not less. Some racists that were never and
never will be
democrats will exploit circumstances to hang on to their land.
However in
the long run, a genuinely democratic Zimbabwe will not accept
minority
control of majority land, but will address the problem in a
non-violent and
democratic manner.
DR CLEMENT LUHANGA
Gaborone,
Botswana
Please note that during the regime of General Sani Abacha and
the killing of
Ken the Great of the Agoni people the whole Commonwealth was
behind
expelling Nigeria from the body. Now comes the great Mugabe who has
tortured
and is torturing the people of Zimbabwe and the African leaders
are
condoning the suffering of ordinary Zimbabwean men and women. Is this
the
type of leadership that we expect from our Presidents? For Gods sake wake
up
SADC and African Commonwealth. You are there to care for all the people
not
Mugabe alone.
The Herald
Serial killer on the prowl in Harare's avenues area
By
Tsitsi Matope
WHAT started off as a "lucky find" by some street kids when
they picked up
frozen packets of "meat," has unfolded into one of the biggest
nightmares
for homicide police and most Zimbabweans who now believe a serial
killer
could be roaming the streets.
The plastic packets were soon
discovered to contain human parts police now
suspect could belong to more
than one body.
For the street kids, the "lucky find" had been assumed, as
usual, to be a
packet of pork or chicken thrown out of some household and off
they went for
a braai.
No sooner had they made a fire that they
discovered the "meat" to be that of
a human being.
The street kids
became suspicious when they saw the chest cavity with the
heart still lodged
in it and a breast in another bag they picked nearby.
That discovery has
sent shock-waves throughout Harare.
The Avenues, normally a hive of
activity until the early hours of the
morning, have this week been
deserted.
Even the ladies of the night who brave chilly or rainy nights
have gone
under in fear of the monster which neatly cut the limbs of its
victim using
what could have been a meat cutting machine - the type used in
butcheries.
Some people living in the Avenues now keep their children
indoors soon after
dark for fear of the maniac, who has so far, outsmarted
the police.
Obviously operating under the cover of darkness, the killer
has been coming
out during the witching hours to further complicate the
murder puzzle by
throwing fresh body parts at different points.
Last
Wednesday, a day after they combed the whole of Greenwood Park and
found
nothing, police discovered another human leg in the surrounding
area.
"There are many possibilities in this case. We are not yet certain
the parts
belong to just one woman or person. We have taken the parts to
Parirenyatwa
for DNA tests to establish the actual race and if at all the
parts belong to
one body," the officer commanding special investigations in
the Criminal
Investigations Department, Assistant Commissioner Christopher
Gora said.
As police were working on this discovery, a caretaker at a
flat in Baines
Avenue had the previous day, discovered another bag with
cleaned intestines,
parts from the groin area and other human
parts.
Police picked up the three street kids and the caretaker for
questioning.
It was apparent that the parts were those of a human being
but what
confounded the police and complicated their investigations further,
was the
distance between the points at which the parts had been
picked.
Were the chest cavity, liver and part of the groin and intestines
that had
been picked up at the corner of Sixth and Baines Avenue on the
previous day
parts from one body or were these parts of a different human
being?
On Monday, a human leg was left at the very doorstep of the Police
General
Headquarters in Greenwood Park.
Asst Comm Gora said the
discovery of a human leg near the police head office
had unraveled the
possibility of a serial killer playing tricks with the
police.
Cases
involving serial killers who dump bodies of their victims at police
stations
have been cited elsewhere in the world. It is possible that the
killer was
trying to confuse the police.
"I ordered some detectives to make a
thorough search in the whole park for
any clues that might lead us to the
murder suspect but there was nothing."
The following morning, people
strolling in the same park noticed a dog
tugging at another human
leg.
Asst Comm Gora said there was a possibility the killer watched
the
detectives searching and left the other leg close to the park to
further
confuse the cops.
"Unlike the first leg that we had previously
discovered, this one was in its
early stages of decomposition," he said
adding that it appeared both legs
had come off one body.
Police have
not recovered parts that can lead to easier identification like
the hands and
head meaning the killer could be sophisticated.
Only the breast and groin
indicated the victim was a woman and her age has
been estimated to have been
between 20 and 35.
The colour of the legs seem to indicate the woman was
coloured.
"We are still to establish what could be a possible motive of
the killing
and the actions of the killer after committing the offence," Asst
Comm Gora
said.
It is suspected the killer cut up the body or bodies
and removed parts
valuable to them before packing the remainder in different
black plastic
bags they later dumped.
An elderly woman who stays near
Greenwood Park yesterday said although the
police headquarters is a few
metres away, she no longer felt safe.
"I cannot even take a breather in
the park because I do not know if the
people I will meet there are not the
ones involved in the grisly killings,"
she said.
Another man who stays
near Baines Avenue where some parts were found said
commercial sex workers
who usually roamed the streets had taken a break for
fear of the
unknown.
"This was a frightening incident and no one at the moment wants
to be out at
night. Who knows, the killer could be out there in search of
body parts to
sell," the man said.
Early this year, a severed body of
a 16-year-old girl was found in
Dzivarasekwa.
It had no genital parts,
hands, lips and heart. Some people quickly pointed
out that this was a ritual
murder case, a practice rampant in most parts of
Africa.
Recent
reports have also indicated that there is trafficking of human organs
such as
kidneys in South Africa and across its borders.
A man from that country
was this week sentenced to six years in jail for his
involvement in the
racket.
The 58-year-old Roderick Frank Kimberley pleaded guilty to 38
counts of
contravening the Human Tissues Act.
It is believed rich
clients are travelling to South Africa from other parts
of the world to
receive kidney transplants.
From The Times (UK), 13 December
Jailed van Hoogstraten trained as Samaritan
By Christopher Walker
Best wishes from Robert
Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, may not be sought in
many quarters, but for
Nicholas van Hoogstraten, Britain’s most notorious
property developer and one
of the African nation’s largest landowners, it
clearly means a lot. The
despotic President was one of the first to
congratulate him on his release
from jail this week, Mr van Hoogstraten
claimed yesterday, after the quashing
of his conviction for arranging the
death of a business rival, Mohammed Raja,
62. The multimillionaire served
only 13 months of a ten-year sentence at
Belmarsh high-security prison
where, he disclosed, he had been trained as a
"listener" by Samaritans.
During an interview with his local paper, the
Brighton Evening Argus, Mr van
Hoogstraten, 58, once described by a judge as
a "self-appointed emissary of
Beelzebub", displayed a certificate received
from the organisation set up in
1953 as a 999 phone service counselling
potential suicides. HM Prison
Service Document 10380 declared: "This is to
certify that Nick van
Hoogstraten has been trained by The Samaritans of
Bexley/Bromley in
listening and befriending skills at HM Prison
Belmarsh."
Mr van Hoogstraten, from Uckfield, East Sussex, was freed
after a legal
battle during which he argued successfully that the judge had
made a mistake
and had misdirected the jury at the original trial where he
had been found
guilty of manslaughter. Yesterday the Court of Appeal ruled
that an Old
Bailey judge’s unchallengeable ruling that Mr van Hoogstraten
should not
face retrial on a manslaughter charge thwarted the interests of
justice.
"Those interests require that Mr van Hoogstraten be retried," said
Lord
Justice Kennedy, sitting with Mr Justice Curtis and Mr Justice Forbes.
But,
as the law stood, he added, the court was powerless to entertain an
appeal
by the prosecution against the decision of the retrial judge, Sir
Stephen
Mitchell, that Mr van Hoogstraten had no case to
answer.
In the interview, Mr van Hoogstraten who is one of the
largest landowners in
Zimbabwe, where he acquired 218,000 hectares (540,000
acres) of farmland in
the 1990s, denied claims that his property had been
seized by black
squatters. He said that he was still accumulating assets,
including a
coalmine, in Zimbabwe. He is also building a grandiose second
palace there
to match the £30 million Hamilton Palace he was constructing -
until
imprisonment interrupted the works - in the Sussex countryside as
a
mausoleum and home to his valuable art collection. In a hint of
a
conversion, Mr van Hoogstraten told the paper he had learnt from his time
in
jail. "I have been too straightforward in the past. If you are, you
are
going to get hammered. I have been learning and Belmarsh is a good place
for
learning," he said.
Mr van Hoogstraten, whose precise worth is
now unknown but who at the time
of his trial was named as one of Britain’s
richest men with a fortune
estimated at more than £500 million, claimed that
while inside he had helped
a number of inmates who he felt had also been
wrongly convicted. "I am a
good listener," he added. Among those he advised
was a Jamaican "Yardie"
gangster, who was freed last month after being
acquitted of a murder in
South London, although he is now back behind bars
awaiting deportation. Mr
van Hoogstraten spent his time in the high-security
wing of Belmarsh and
boasted that he could have escaped had he wanted to. "I
could have got out,
but I wanted to stay and prove my innocence," he said.
Instead, he spent his
time studying the law, giving tips to fellow prisoners
as well as sharing
his knowledge of the stock market with them and the
officers. He tried to
rebut suggestions that he was a slum landlord, claiming
to have sold most of
his properties, and he insisted that his tenants would
be overjoyed by his
release. "I am all right as long as you do not upset me,"
Mr van
Hoogstraten, trained listener and befriender, added.
IOL
Parents get their wish to save their son
December 12
2003 at 09:12PM
By Lindi van Rooyen
Jeremy Mansfield and
the Rude Awakening team on 94.7 Highveld Stereo
consider themselves to be
rough, tough and hard to bluff.
Most of the time.
On Friday, they
couldn't hold back the tears as they helped offer the most
precious Christmas
gift of all to a Zimbabwean family: life for their baby
boy.
Financial assistance has been secured
Harare residents Trevor and Charmaine
O'Reilly sent the heart-rending plea
to 94.7: help us save baby Tyler, their
son who was born with a heart
defect. Operated on within hours of his birth
in September, the child still
needs a series of operations, which can only be
done in South Africa and
will cost more than R1-million.
Trevor and
Charmaine wrote: "Our only son will die, unless we can give him
the
life-saving operation he desperately needs. Please don't put our plea
aside,
please read it and let Tyler touch your hearts. Tyler has fought so
hard to
be with us that surely this is a sign that he is meant to live.
"Each
Christmas in Zimbabwe seems to be much bleaker than the last due to
our
current situation. Please make this one an incredible one for us, give
us a
ray of hope and help us. This is our desperate Christmas wish."
Theirs
was among 28 granted over two weeks by the station in its annual
Christmas
wish campaign, which sees individuals and business donating to
help people in
need.
Zimbabwe does not have the necessary facilities to cope with such
a
complicated and immense heart problem. There are only two hospitals in
the
entire African continent equipped to perform these intricate
open-heart
surgeries. One is in Sunninghill clinic in Johannesburg and the
other in
Cape Town.
With the help of family and friends the O'Reillys
managed to scrape enough
money together for a deposit for the first
operation, but because of the
economics of Zimbabwe further funds that were
collected were only a drop in
the ocean when converted into rands.
The
first of the operations has already taken place, but unless the other
two
operations are carried out within the next four months his heart will
start
to outgrow the artificial "shunt", then his heart will fail to
oxygenate his
body and brain and he will die.
Netcare Sunninghill hospital, the Walter
Sisulu paediatric cardiac centre
and Ampath laboratories have pledged to
assist with the medical procedures.
Financial assistance has been secured
from Standard Bank, Colliers
International, Petra diamonds, Montecasino, Auto
& General and
Kimberly-Clark (Kleenex), who all deem it a privilege to be
part of such a
worthy cause. The latter will also supply baby Tyler with
disposable nappies
and baby products to keep him as happy as
possible.
Mansfield broke the news to the O'Reillys: "Here is our living
tribute.
Tyler, this one's for you, kid."
These words were greeted
with a flow of tears from the O'Reillys. Thousands
of people listening in
couldn't stop their tears either.