Reuters
Mon 15 Dec
2008, 23:08 GMT
By Claudia Parsons
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 15
(Reuters) - African countries must exert more
pressure on Zimbabwe to end a
political stalemate that has contributed to a
humanitarian crisis of extreme
concern, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
said on Monday.
In a
briefing to the U.N. Security Council that British Foreign Secretary
David
Miliband called "devastating," Ban said the failure to form a
government
since March elections has been accompanied by a dramatic
deterioration in
living conditions.
"The current cholera epidemic is only the most visible
manifestation of a
profound multi-sector crisis, encompassing food,
agriculture, education,
health, water, sanitation and HIV/AIDS," Ban told
the council, hours after
the United Nations reported the number of cholera
deaths had risen to 978.
Ban said 5.8 million people, more than half the
population, would need food
aid in the months through to March, and nine out
of 10 provinces had
reported cholera cases in one of the worst epidemics in
Zimbabwe's history.
President Robert Mugabe lost the first round of
presidential elections in
March to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, but
Tsvangirai withdrew from a
run-off citing attacks on his supporters. The two
reached a power-sharing
agreement in September but have yet to form a
government.
Miliband said the political impasse was caused by Mugabe's
refusal to
implement the September agreement and that while the disease in
the
headlines now was cholera, the heart of the problem was "the disease of
misrule and corruption."
The cholera epidemic and Zimbabwe's economic
meltdown have drawn new calls
from Mugabe's Western foes for the resignation
of the 84-year-old leader,
who has ruled since independence in 1980. Mugabe
has accused Western
countries of trying to use the cholera outbreak to force
him out of power.
"There is still denial of the gravity of the
humanitarian situation in the
country and the collapse of state structures,"
Ban said in his report to the
council.
He said the international
community must insist on the immediate formation
of a government of national
unity.
The Southern African Development Community has taken the lead on
mediations
which have been conducted on its behalf by former South African
President
Thabo Mbeki.
Ban said SADC's mediation needed fast
results.
"SADC leaders should display stronger unity and resolve to
address the
political stalemate," Ban said, adding that while he was ready
to help
wherever possible, neither the government of Zimbabwe nor the
mediator
welcomed a U.N. role.
"This clearly limits our ability to
effectively help find immediate remedies
to the crisis," Ban
said.
The Security Council met behind closed doors to hear Ban's briefing
and did
not issue any statement or resolution on the crisis. Council member
South
Africa has resisted efforts to bring the Zimbabwe situation to the
council,
arguing that it is not a threat to international peace and
security.
(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
http://news.yahoo.com
by Gerard Aziakou - 42 mins
ago
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Monday
slammed "the denial of reality" by Zimbabwean President Mugabe's regime as
the UN Security Council reviewed the dire situation in the southern African
country.
The closed-door meeting, also attended by US Secretary of
State Condoleezza
Rice, heard a briefing from UN chief Ban Ki-moon on
Zimbabwe's mounting
woes, including a political stalemate, economic meltdown
and a deadly
cholera epidemic.
US diplomats had initially hoped to
have the council adopt a non-binding
statement condemning Mugabe for his
failure to protect his people from the
cholera outbreak, but a Western
diplomat said the plan had run into South
African opposition.
Another
Western diplomat made it clear that there was no consideration of a
statement at Monday's meeting.
And Rice also told AFP that she was
not disappointed, insisting that the
ministerial session was not meant "to
have an outcome."
Asked whether there would be another council meeting on
Zimbabwe before the
end of President George W. Bush's administration next
month, she replied: "I
don't know. But I think it is high time to do
something about Zimbabwe."
Some Western council members said they hope to
make a fresh push for
adoption of such a statement in January when South
Africa will no longer sit
on the council.
"We believe that this
meeting needs to mark the restart of Security Council
engagement on this
issue," Miliband said. "I hope the Security Council will
continue in the
weeks ahead to continue to engage."
Miliband told reporters after a
closed-door council ministerial session that
Ban presented a "shocking"
picture of "the disintegration of state
institutions, the collapse of the
economy,...the collapse of health and
education services and the shocking
fact that cholera has returned to
Zimbabwe."
He said speakers
highlighted the humanitarian urgency in Zimbabwe where a
cholera epidemic
has claimed nearly 1,000 lives and stressed the need for
Zimbabwe's
neighbors and the African Union to "take a stronger role" in the
resolution
of the crisis.
The United States blames Mugabe for Zimbabwe's political
deadlock, economic
meltdown and humanitarian crisis, including the cholera
outbreak.
In his briefing, Ban deplored the fact that "neither the
(Harare) government
nor the mediator welcomes a United Nations political
role ... This clearly
limits our ability to effectively help find immediate
remedies to this
crisis."
"The current cholera epidemic is only the
most visible manifestation of a
profound multi-sectoral crisis, encompassing
food, agriculture, education,
health, water, sanitation and HIV/AIDS," he
added.
He stressed that the mediation by the Southern African Development
Community
(SADC) "needs result fast."
"The people of Zimbabwe cannot
afford to wait any longer. The international
community cannot afford to
watch as the situation gets worse," Ban noted.
State Department spokesman
Sean McCormack said Washington has been talking
to Zimbabwe's powerful
neighbor South Africa and other Security Council
members about how to "start
a process that will bring an end to the tragedy
that is unfolding in
Zimbabwe."
Countries with leverage should use it to press for change in
Zimbabwe,
McCormack said.
A senior US official, speaking on condition
of anonymity, proposed Thursday
that Zimbabwe's neighbors, particularly
South Africa, close their borders
with the country.
Zimbabwean
Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu however told the
state-owned Herald
newspaper Monday it was "improper" for western countries
to try to put
Zimbabwe on the UN Security Council agenda.
http://www.bloomberg.com
By Bill
Varner
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon said
living in Zimbabwe has become "unbearable" and that the cholera
epidemic,
which has killed 978 people, might sicken as many as
60,000.
"We continue to witness a failure of the leadership in Zimbabwe
to address
the political, economic, human rights and humanitarian crisis
that is
confronting the country and do what is best for the people," Ban
said at a
UN Security Council meeting attended by U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza
Rice and British Foreign Secretary David
Miliband.
Zimbabwe, ruled by President Robert Mugabe since 1980, is in
its 10th year
of a recession and faces political stalemate following the
failure of talks
on a power-sharing government. Mugabe won presidential
elections this year
after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai backed out of
a runoff, citing
police intimidation of his supporters.
The World
Health Organization has prepared a "comprehensive cholera-response
operation
plan" and the government has accepted it, UN spokeswoman Michele
Montas
said. The health organization is "in the process of procuring and
distributing emergency stocks of supplies," she said.
Ban said the
plan requires $25 million to implement and that the number of
people needing
food aid is likely to increase to 5.8 million by March from
the current 3.5
million. That would be about half of the population.
Unity Government
Urged
"The people of Zimbabwe cannot afford to wait any longer," Ban
said. "The
international community cannot afford to watch as the situation
goes worse.
There is a possibility that the entire economy could collapse
within a short
time. A first step must be to insist on the immediate
formation of a
government of national unity."
The Security Council
wasn't considering any action or statement on the
crisis. President George
W. Bush said last week that Mugabe should quit.
"We believe this meeting
needs to mark the restart of Security Council
engagement," Miliband told
reporters after the panel met, citing the
"disintegration of state
institutions" in Zimbabwe and the "disemboweling of
the economic
institution."
The new fatality figures followed Mugabe's statement last
week that cholera
"no longer exists" in Zimbabwe. The nation's leading
opposition party, the
Movement for Democratic Change, said Mugabe displayed
"madness" when he
denied the existence of the disease in the nation he has
ruled for 21 years.
Water Treatment
Cholera, spread mainly through
contaminated water and food and poor
sanitation, causes severe diarrhea and
vomiting that can be fatal. The first
cases in the Zimbabwean outbreak were
reported in August. A collapse of the
country's economy has led to shortages
of chemicals for water-treatment
plants.
"The main problems are lack
of adequate clean water, exacerbated by recent
interruptions in the supply,
overcrowding, and lack of capacity to dispose
of solid waste and repair
sewage blockages in most areas," Montas said.
Zimbabwe tried to block the
Security Council meeting, the state-controlled
Herald said, citing the
information minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu. The U.K.
and the U.S. have been
trying to use cholera as a "pretext for war on
Zimbabwe," the Harare-based
Herald said on its Web site, citing the
minister.
The council can
only debate issues that pose a threat to international peace
and Zimbabwe
does not, the newspaper said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Bill
Varner at the United Nations at
wvarner@bloomberg.net
Last
Updated: December 15, 2008 16:50 EST
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Wayne
Mafaro Tuesday 16 December 2008
HARARE - Zimbabwe's
opposition on Monday said it will not join a unity
government with President
Robert Mugabe until the veteran leader agrees to
equitable sharing of power,
drawing the country closer to new and most
likely violent
elections.
The Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC party vowed to defeat Mugabe's
government in
fresh polls. But the opposition strongly denied charges it was
training
bandits to unseat Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party, saying the
allegations were
false and a ploy by the government to justify declaring a
state of
emergency.
MDC secretary general Tendai Biti told
journalists in Harare that the
opposition would participate in a unity
government outlined under a
September 15 power-sharing agreement only after
a host of outstanding issues
including equitable sharing of power have been
resolved.
Biti said; "The MDC will participate in any government only
after the
resolution of the issues that are still outstanding."
Among
the sticking issues that the MDC wants resolved are the allocation of
ministerial portfolios, the appointment of provincial governors and the
constitution and composition of the National Security Council.
Biti
said the MDC was unhappy that Mugabe gazetted the draft constitutional
amendment Bill at the weekend without consulting the opposition, a move he
said violated the agreement between the political parties.
Without
the backing of the MDC the constitutional amendment Bill - that
seeks to
pave way for appointment of Tsvangirai as prime minister and Arthur
Mutambara who heads a break away a faction of the opposition as deputy
premier in a unity government - cannot pass in Parliament.
If the
Bill flops it would effectively mean collapse of the power-sharing
agreement
between the three parties and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa
said at the
weekend that such an outcome would force the government to call
fresh
presidential, parliamentary and local government elections.
Biti said the
MDC was ready to face ZANU PF in new elections but said such
polls would
have to be held in line with the Southern Africa Development
Community
(SADC) guidelines on the conduct of free and fair elections.
"ZANU PF
cannot threaten us with an election," said Biti. "You can bring on
an
election anytime, and we will beat you thoroughly, but it has to be an
election held consistent with SADC guidelines on elections."
The MDC
secretary general accused the government of falsely accusing the
opposition
of training bandits in neighbouring Botswana to justify imposing
emergency
rule in Zimbabwe and cracking down on opponents.
""We have no doubt as a
party that they (government) are going to declare a
state of emergency,"
said Biti.
Chinamasa was quoted by state media on Monday as saying the
Harare
administration had collected evidence that Botswana was providing
military
training to opposition MDC members as part of a plot to remove
Mugabe.
The Justice Minister did not disclose the evidence but said all
relevant
information had been passed on to the SADC's special committee on
defence
and politics which was looking into the matter.
The MDC
defeated ZANU PF in parliamentary elections on March 29 winning 100
seats in
the 210-member lower house of Parliament, while Mugabe's party won
99 seats.
Mutambara's faction of the MDC won 10 seats with one seat going to
an
independent.
Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a parallel presidential
election but fell
short of the margin required to avoid a second round
runoff vote.
Tsvangirai later withdrew from the June 27 runoff poll
because of state
sponsored violence against his supporters, leaving Mugabe
to win the vote as
sole candidate. But Mugabe's victory was rejected by the
international
community, forcing him to enter a power-sharing deal with
Tsvangirai and
Mutambara.
Zimbabweans had hoped the power-sharing
agreement would help ease the
political situation and allow their country to
focus on tackling a deepening
humanitarian crisis marked by acute shortages
of food and basic commodities,
amid a cholera epidemic that has killed close
to 800 people since August. -
ZimOnline
http://www.voanews.com
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
15 December
2008
The Zimbabwean government has tacitly admitted that
soldiers have killed
scores of people who were illegally prospecting for
diamonds in Chiadzwa
district of Manicaland province.
City council
officials in Mutare, capital of Manicaland, said they were
approached by a
district administrator who asked them to allocate land for
the mass burial
of 83 bodies, including those of 78 people killed in
Chiadzwa in recent
weeks, the others victims of cholera.
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
reported earlier that soldiers were killing
illegal miners in the Manicaland
diamond fields, but no official figures had
been released.
Mutare
Deputy Mayor Admire Mukorera told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri that
local
authorities told the government it should announce the deaths before
burying
the bodies.
Dear All,
I do not know the validity of this claim which
was received
from a white farmer in the area.
I do know however, that it
has been reported accurately that the ZDF have
been sent into the
area
where illegal diamond panning was taking place with orders to clean it
out
using whatever means !
I also believe that 2 Pakistani's were
apprehended recently by the
Mocamibique authorites just about to cross
the
border into Zimbabwe carrying 230 million US $ with the intention
of
purchasing illegal diamonds who knows for whom?.
I guess no prizes as
to who was going to benefit from that deal though in
Zimbabwe!
kind
regards
Neil
Mass murder in Manicaland- Province just south-east of
Mashonaland (Harare)
________________________________
First they beat
the ZRP (Police) officers who tried to intervene, then they
told them to
leave or die. Thats the actions of the great members of the
ZDF.
Then
these great defenders of the liberation struggle herded men women
and
children into ambush zones using helicopters and motorcycles.....and
killed
them all. And they did this day in and day out for three days in
Manicaland
this week.
I have just returned from Mutare, numbed by the
slaughter I have seen. When
contacted with the news of these events, I packed
a truck with food and
blankets and went down with my staff to see what help
we could offer. I
could not imagine what I was about to see.
Bullets
whistling across main roads, people screaming and running as bullets
punched
holes through their homes, bodies being dumped into army trucks to
move to
Mutare.
I eventually placed the food and blankets with a church group
for
distribution and headed to Mutare to see if I could get help sent South
to
Marange. Everyone, ZRP included are too scared to move.
Helping a
family look for two missing relatives at the Mutare morgue has
left me with
visions of horror that will haunt me to my death day. I
estimate over 200
bodies lies in rotting piles at Mutare morgue, grotesque
heaps of what were
human beings until a few days ago. They are unknown
persons, families are
scared to come forward to claim them, fearing the same
fate... The stench is
indescribable, power is off in Mutare for between 12
and 18 hours per
day.....
You may ask what this is all about..... simple. The dead are
SUSPECTED by
the military bosses to be illegal diamond panners. No due
process, no
presumption of innocence, no right to defend ones self in a court
of law,
just instant summary execution by the defenders of this great
liberation.
Top businessmen in Mutare have been picked up by the army,
and taken away,
tortured for a few days, released, no charges, no crimes,
just a "suspicion"
that "maybe you know something". They are also robbed of
any forex they have
on them/in their homes. I met two of them at an attorneys
office, one is a
70 year old man, his back and buttocks beaten for 3 days,
until he begged
them to kill him, then they realised he actually did not know
anything.
Another, Ari Badhella (family of Badhella Traders) bought his way
out of the
torture sessions.
What a great nation Zimbabwe is (not).
And the chiefs will condone this mass
murder as they always do.... After all
it is their families that want those
diamonds....Zimbabwe..
http://www.hararetribune.com
Monday, 15 December 2008
21:47
The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) was ordered by the High Court
today, 15
December 2008 to immediately attend to the case of the ZINASU
Secretary
General and University of Zimbabwe S.R.C President, Lovemore
Chinoputsa who
was suspended at the Institution 18 months
ago.
The case was presided over by Justice Ormejee at the High Court
at 9:30am.
Chinoputsa's suspension came after a spate of demonstrations
by students at
the college in 2007 over the illegal increase of $1million
top up fees by
the administration.
He was suspended jointly with nine
other students but the cases of the
other students have since been
finalized, leading to the Union suspecting
that the postponement of the
student's leader case 10 times is a deliberate
move by the college
administration to frustrate the leader.
The Institution was given up to
the 9th of January 2008 as the deadline for
the disciplinary hearing. The
college authorities unashamedly set the
hearing to 18 December
2008.
If the order is granted, Chinoputsa has a prospect to go back to
college
next year.The Secretary General was represented by Messrs Joshua
Shekede of
Wintertons Legal Practitioners through the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human
Rights.
http://voanews.com
By
Patience Rusere & Sylvia Manika
Washington
15 December
2008
A spokeswoman for the International Federation of Red
Cross said the cholera
epidemic in Zimbabwe is getting worse despite the
best efforts of
international relief organizations, and the World Health
Organization said
the death toll had risen to 978 victims.
The WHO
said some 18,413 cases of cholera had been reported.
Communications
Officer Heron Holloway of the International Federation of Red
Cross in
Southern Africa told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe
that the lack of hospitals and clinics to receive patients makes it
hard to
quell the disease.
Meanwhile, Chairman Douglas Gwatidzo of the Zimbabwe
Association of Doctors
for Human rights said a new outbreak of cholera was
reported in Kadoma,
Mashonaland West province.
Responding to the
general health care crisis in Zimbabwe, the United Nations
Population Fund
Monday said it was providing $US200 million worth of medical
supplies to the
maternity wings of state hospitals in a move to shore up
services that have
greatly diminished.
Correspondent Sylvia Manika of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe reported.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Nokuthula
Sibanda Tuesday 16 December 2008
HARARE - The British Red
Cross has launched an appeal for urgent help for
thousands of people
affected by cholera and food shortages in Zimbabwe and
neighbouring
countries.
Africa programme support manager at British Red Cross, Di
Moody, said: "The
rainy season is coming and we know from experience that
rains are an
aggravating factor for cholera. Continued efforts are needed to
make sure
the disease is not allowed to run out of control.
"This
means providing immediate aid for those currently affected and
widespread
hygiene education to prevent new cases from breaking out. People
in Zimbabwe
and across the region are still facing a very real risk and its
vital that
this risk is addressed as quickly as possible."
According to the United
Nations cholera has killed close to 800 Zimbabweans
out of 16 700 cases
recorded since last August.
The disease has since spilt into Zimbabwe's
neighbours, Botswana, Mozambique
and South Africa. The South African
government last week declared a stretch
of the border with Zimbabwe a
disaster zone because of the increase in
cholera cases as Zimbabweans flee
in search of treatment.
The cholera epidemic, coupled with acute food
shortages, has highlighted
Zimbabwe's worsening economic and humanitarian
crisis that critics blame on
mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe,
Zimbabwe's sole ruler since
independence.
Mugabe denies ruining
Zimbabwe and instead blames his country's problems on
sanctions and economic
sabotage by Western powers opposed to his rule. -
ZimOnline
http://www.ottawacitizen.com
December 15, 2008 5:43
PM
OTTAWA - A stockpile of medication for thousands of victims of a
cholera
epidemic in Zimbabwe will soon be shipped overseas courtesy of the
federal
government along with a coalition of private sector partners and
humanitarian groups, International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda announced
Monday.
World Vision Canada spearheaded the project with
donations from Canadian
pharmaceutical companies. One shipment is already
being sent out with doses
for about 20,000 people, but the organizers needed
financial help from the
government to send out a second shipment of
medication for about 60,000
people.
Dave Toycen, president and
CEO of World Vision Canada said the money would
"serve as a much needed
lifeline" for the population.
"The children are the most vulnerable
during this cholera outbreak," Toycen
said in a statement.
Nearly
1,000 people have been killed by the epidemic, while close to 16,000
were
already infected.
Liberal MP Keith Martin said he approached the
government last week about
providing help to ship the
medication.
"This shipment is critically important to save lives and
time is of the
essence," Martin said.
Oda announced that the
government would provide World Vision with up to
$500,000 for the
transportation costs and would continue to monitor the
situation in Zimbabwe
to determine if further response is necessary. The
government has announced
$10 million in humanitarian assistance since July
2007.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
December
16, 2008
Jan Raath in Pangeti
Click to donate to The Times Appeal
For
years the 12 families in Pangeti have relied on a colonial-era pipeline
from
a river beyond the next ridge. The heat is fearsome for much of the
time
here in the Honde Valley, a vast and densely populated bowl full of
banana
groves a few miles from the border with Mozambique. You will collapse
if you
do not drink a lot of water.
Rhoda Chimuka, 44, bespectacled single
mother, farmer and chairperson of the
village pump committee, turned on the
decades-old tap. Brass squeaked drily
and that was all. It runs two days a
week, she said, just long enough to
give each family 50 litres of murky
water. Today, all eking out of every
drop of suspect water was about to end,
thanks to Pump Aid.
The charity, supported by The Times in this year's
appeal, is a familiar
name in many parts of Zimbabwe. Pump Aid was born here
ten years ago when
its founder, Ian Thorpe, teaching in the country during
his gap year,
watched two students die from dysentery caught from
contaminated water.
He and two Zimbabwean colleagues created the low-cost
Elephant Pump, which
guarantees a supply of clean, fresh water. The yellow,
squat pillbox pumps
now dot many rural districts.
In June Ms Chimuka
travelled the 50 miles to the Pump Aid office and asked
for Pangeti's name
to be put down on the list of applicants. A few weeks
later, a truck was in
the village, its driver stepping tentatively around
the slopes Pangeti lies
on, holding a U-shaped piece of wire in front of
him.
About 30 metres
from the top of the slope, the wire prongs quivered. Pangeti
met the first
requirement: underground water. Ms Chimuka got her 19-year-old
son and a
couple of friends to dig the well. For two weeks they chopped into
the hard
red clay until, at 10 metres, they struck water.
She was organising the
final requirement, a strong, brick-lined well, when
the cholera epidemic
that had already killed hundreds in Harare surfaced in
the district for the
first time in years. The people of Honde Valley are
dirt-poor but they
quickly found the cash for three bags of cement and a
heap of building sand,
costing up to US$100 in Zimbabwe's crashing economy.
The villagers baked
their own bricks.
Mid-morning last week, a truck arrived with lengths of
plastic piping, four
large concrete arcs to house the pump, a collection of
ironware, a length of
nylon rope and a bag of washers. The structure rose
quickly as Pump Aid's
three builders laboured on the concrete apron around
the construction. By
now most of the village's people were gathered under
the shade of a tree and
making remarks. Like Ms Chimuka, all were in their
church best.
The pump's housing was hefted on. Florence Tendere, the wiry
bass-voiced
young woman appointed pump mechanic, was learning how to tie
sheepshank
knots to fix the washers to the rope that will lift water from
the bottom of
the well. After the concrete had set, the villagers drew
closer as Ms
Tendere vigorously turned the handle. There was a gurgle. Then
a cheer went
up and the women ululated as a strong stream of clear, cool
water flowed
from the outlet.
Ms Tendere was ecstatic. "Now I can
wash my body two or three times a day, I
can wash my dishes, my clothes, my
house, I can have clean water for
cooking," she said happily. Then she
added, soberly: "We must wash and wash
and wash. We fear
cholera."
AquAid, the watercooler distributor, will donate £2 for every
£1 donated by
Times readers
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
December
16, 2008
Threatening the World Cup
rather than violent intervention will force action
on Zimbabwe
Catherine
Philp
Few experiences are more frustrating than seeing misery unfold before
you as
you stand helplessly by. Few provoke a stronger urge to cry:
"Something must
be done!" Add a cartoon baddie with a creepy Hitler tache,
the ruination of
a beautiful land and a televisually awful cholera outbreak
and the cries for
action get shriller still: "Send in the
troops!"
The ruination of Zimbabwe provokes - in Britain, at least - many
more such
calls than most of the other miseries unfolding in Africa.
Ghastly,
intractable problems such as Congo and Darfur are not our problem.
Our
history as the former colonial power makes Zimbabwe our cause - and our
refusal to intervene, moral cowardice, dressed up in historical excuses and
lingering white guilt.
It is only 11 years since Clare Short, then
Secretary of State for
International Development, insisted otherwise,
writing the maddest letter in
the history of modern British diplomacy to
Robert Mugabe. She repudiated
Britain's "special responsibility" to fund
land reforms, as promised in
1979. "We are a new government from diverse
backgrounds without links to
former colonial interests," she opined. "My own
origins are Irish and, as
you know, we were colonised, not colonisers."
That's settled then, isn't it?
International agreements be damned, my people
died of potato hunger. So
there.
To be fair to Short, Mugabe was
fleecing Britain blind, and the situation
could not go on. But Britain did
have a responsibility to Zimbabwe, as the
original architect of its unequal
land distribution, to see justice done.
What followed is better
remembered in Britain: the land invasions that began
in 2000, which drove
hundreds of white farmers and their families violently
from their land.
Britain screamed loudly - many of the victims were British
citizens - and a
new dynamic of antipathy between Britain and Zimbabwe was
born. Britain was
the evil imperialist seeking to recolonise "Rhodesia";
Mugabe became the
"black Hitler".
It is hard to describe how bizarre our Zimbabwe obsession
looks from other
vantage points. This weekend I dined with two friends,
experienced foreign
correspondents with a half-century of war reporting
between them. Neither is
British; both expressed bafflement at the British
media obsession with
Zimbabwe, a country both know well. Both have also
witnessed the horrors of
Congo, Rwanda, Darfur and Somalia.
How, they
asked me, can people here seriously be debating forcible regime
change in
Zimbabwe while the millions killed by war and hunger in Congo and
Darfur are
met with apathy? Zimbabwe's situation is indeed appalling: a
cholera
epidemic that has killed hundreds, a collapsing economy, political
terror
and widespread hunger. It is also, we were forced to agree, the only
story
any of us had ever covered that is less awful on the ground than in
the
news. Congo is where I have heard the most stomach-churning stories of
violence in my life. The testimony I have heard from Darfuri refugees
convince me that they are victims of a genocide - and how often do we hear
of our colonial legacy there? Yet Zimbabwe is the story that has this
country angriest.
Military intervention is not going to happen, and
Mugabe knows it. But not
only would he love us to threaten it, he is already
pretending that we have.
The Zimbabwean Opposition is firmly against even
the talk of military
intervention, believing it drives Mugabe's military
cabal tighter around
him. Yesterday Mugabe accused Botswana, his nearest
critic, of training
insurgents against him, just days after it threatened to
close its border
with Zimbabwe. If we threaten it, we had better be seconds
away from meaning
it. Mugabe has shown us plenty of time already what he
will do with his back
to the wall.
We need to accept that we have no
leverage with Harare and turn to those who
do. South Africa is the regional
superpower and the country on which
Zimbabwe most depends.
But if we
want South African leaders to act, we cannot make it suicidal for
them to do
so. South Africa is riven with its own racial problems and
violence hanging
over from its incomplete post-apartheid reconciliation.
Hundreds of white
farmers have been murdered in South Africa in recent
years. That the
killings are not part of an orchestrated campaign does not
diminish the
ferocious racial tensions they reveal.
No South African leader - not even
Jacob Zuma, in whom we are investing a
terrifying degree of trust - is going
to unseat a black liberation hero at
the bidding of a white former colonial
power. So it is behind closed doors
that South Africa must be told that
while we understand its own
difficulties, enough is enough.
South
African eyes are focused on 2010, when footballing nations will gather
for
the World Cup. South Africa is already justifiably worried that its
internal
troubles may imperil the tournament. There are background whispers,
still
quiet, of a boycott.
Now is the time to show South Africa a yellow card.
South Africa has already
suggested that some teams could be based in
neighbouring countries such as
Namibia or Botswana, making it a genuinely
African contest. Let's go farther
still. Persuading footballing nations to
send teams only to those countries,
and play their matches there too, would
deliver South Africa a monumentally
embarrassing rebuke that no one could
plausibly portray as racist or
anti-African. Would the prospect of losing
the World Cup stir South Africa
into more action? We owe it to Zimbabwe to
find out.
Catherine Philp is diplomatic correspondent of The Times
http://www.modernghana.com
By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong
Zimbabweans are dying
of cholera in the face of dire poverty and primitive
politics. When the
caring international community responsibly queries,
Harare says Zimbabwe has
no cholera - and by extension no existential
crisis. The two minds come from
different universes - one closed, the other
opened.
The relationship
between health and politics normally do not play out openly
but in Zimbabwe
it is. Zimbabwean politics is counter-productive, and that
has affected
everything, creating a cycle of defaults and devaluations that
has turned
Zimbabwe into inflation-ridden basket case.
At the centre of the
Zimbabwean mounting cholera deaths is never-say-die
Robert Mugabe,
80-something years old, who has turned the African values of
empathy upside.
Mugabe has got into the habit of ruining Zimbabwe by
lurching into
anti-imperialism accusations and seeing all of Zimbabwe's
troubles as caused
by outsiders but him. In Mugabe, some important part of
the Zimbabwean mind
has gone into a terrain of denunciation and avoidance.
As the
denunciation works, Mugabe cares less about the need to find genuine
solutions to Zimbabwe's dilemma. Zimbabwe is failing, its eyes glaze
slightly, and clouds close over the sight of death. Mugabe refused entry
visas for global statesmen Kofi Anan and Jimmy Carter to help solve
Zimbabweans' pains. Anan has achieved similar feat in Kenya. Mugabe sees
Anan and Carter as light - Mugabe is allergic to light, he is prone to
darkness. Zimbabweans' immense suffering fails to instruct and urgency
vanishes. Zimbabwe wheels into a poisonous partisanship - its politics
caught in a dance of bereavement. Mugabe has become Roman Emperor Nero,
caring less as Zimbabwe burns behind him.
This has made Zimbabwe
having the world's highest annual rate of inflation -
231,000,000 percent -
and only one in ten adults have regular jobs. Mugabe
has ruined "a wonderful
country" and turned a "bread-basket" into a "basket
case." In African
cosmology, Mugabe's unfatherly insensitive tendencies
toward Zimbabweans'
stark reality could be described as witchcraft - a
treacherous destroyer, a
dark-minded Satan, an archetypal Pull Them Downer.
Part of Mugabe's loss
of sight to Zimbabweans' anguish may be his massive
dabbling in
juju-marabout mediums - a flash of what has partly stalled
Africa's
progress, where its elites are controlled by irrational spiritual
mediums to
the point of self-annihilation. As much as Zimbabweans know it is
a common
knowledge to see juju-marabout mediums, witch-doctors and other
spiritualists trooping the State House in Harare. In Mugabe's State House,
it is always darkness, no mourning anymore but a somewhat tattered and
agonizing season.
Despite Zimbabweans suffering in the face of
Mugabe's enormous confusion,
Mugabe believes, in his grand delusion that
Zimbabwe's predicament will
vanish and Zimbabwe will be well. Mugabe's old,
tied mind billows off to
locate better memories, the nationalist as fighter
of colonialism,
imperialism toppled and spinning on mid air, old glories,
folklore of its
own innocence, old strength, wars won when Zimbabwe was
healthy and inspired
Africa and reggae superstar Bob Marley, and when its
traditional virtues
shone.
Mugabe has conned himself into nostalgias.
Was it during the 1970s that the
Central Africa Republic's Jean-Bedel
Bokassa, who made himself Emperor in a
dirt poor country, that the addiction
to this sightlessness to immense
suffering got out of hands? Today, Central
Africa Republic is a collapsed
country and nobody hears about it.
But
Zimbabwe has more gravitas. To salt away Zimbabwe, Archbishop Desmond
Tutu
has summoned African traditions and punched into Mugabe's stupidity and
asked Mugabe to "resign or be sent to The Hague for the "gross violations"
committed against" Zimbabweans and, by extension, Africans. Tutu is a very
serious man, a conscience of Africa, who doesn't play with immense human
suffering, taking on the apartheid juggernauts in South Africa and winning.
Tutu wants Mugabe "removed by force if he refuses to go." Julius Nyerere's
Tanzania marched into Uganda and removed the buffoon Idi
Amin.
Despite the Tutu and other concerned voices, Zimbabwean politics -
shortsighted, vicious, stupid - plunges on. But in Tutu, Zimbabwe's pain
should be confronted no matter what; Mugabe will be made to awake to
Zimbabwe's grim realities.
Mugabe cannot provide basic goods and
services for Zimbabweans, has
asphyxiated them spiritually, and go on
putting up Zimbabwean
great-grandchildren as collateral. The Zimbabwean pain
radiates Africa-wide
and has opened deep wounds on Africans self-worth.
Kenya's Prime Minister
Raila Odinga, who has fought the likes of Mugabe and
prevailed, wants
African governments "oust Zimbabwe's leader." Others argue
Mugabe is "well
past time."
Mugabe and the main opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) perform
a dance of breathtaking fecklessness
over power-sharing after general
elections that the MDC won but scrambled by
Mugabe. It started in September,
Zimbabwe in faster free fall. US Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice says it
was a "sham election" followed by a "sham
process of power-sharing talks."
That makes Mugabe's mind fraudulent for an
old man who should demonstrate
the African virtues of humanity and
empathy.
This is the shape-shifting landscape of a Mugabean insecurity
and power
compulsion. The two terms mean the same thing: a powerless
dependence upon
one unreality or another, whether Mugabe denies that there
is no cholera
outbreak or Zimbabwe's water supply haven't collapsed. Here
unrealistic
boundaries blur and melt. In his paranoia, Mugabe sees himself
only as
Zimbabwe. Mugabe sees opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his
associates
as dangerous aliens. Mugabe has passed into lands of the bizarre
and savage,
into moral shutdown and passivity.
Contrary to Mugabe's
blind assertion that the Zimbabwean crisis is only
Zimbabwean business,
African leaders who had generally refrained from
criticizing each other in
public are breaking the old imprudent unspoken
rule. African leaders have
not bought the Mugabean blame game - every bad
thing happening in Zimbabwe
is caused by either the opposition MDC or
Western imperialism. This is
coming from a Mugabe who has big image among
Africans as an
intellectual-leader.
The new image is that the rot in Mugabe's private
mind is eating away at his
famed intellectuality, mental balance and public
responsibility. No doubt,
Mugabe, still running the anti-imperialism con
game 51 years after Africa
freed it self from colonialism, portray himself
as a victim of Western
prejudice, and, worse as a man who has mended his
ways despite Zimbabwe's
troubling realities saying the contrary. Mugabe is
pretentious,
self-destruct, self-deluding, careless and allergic to
reality.
The Mugabe mentality prevails in zones of African life even when
what
prevails on the ground say different thing. Africans are addicted to
the
Mugabes, a true enslavement, a dreary mania. Here real life fades away.
Most
African society has its Mugabean traits. To name them is to belittle
them,
of course, to deactivate Mugabe's craziness in
cliché.
Liberia's Samuel Doe played the Mugabean card and sent Liberia
into
conflagration. Sierra Leone's old buzzard Siaka Stevens closed his
country
to greater freedoms and rots and surely prepared Sierra Leone into
one of
the horrifying civil wars Africa has seen. Mobutu Sese Seko's Zaire
(now the
Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC) run Zaire on fraud and destroyed
its
innate traditional institutions and is now descended into the chaos that
has
engulfed the DRC.
But regardless of such parallels, as Richard
Dowden (formerly of the London,
UK-based Economist) indicates in his new
Africa: Altered States, Ordinary
Miracles, each African states should be
seen not necessarily from its own
distinct milieu but their "different
misgovernment." Zimbabwe should be seen
simultaneously in its own
environment and Mugabe's unique foolhardiness.
Mugabe's Zimbabwe -
sorrowful, painful, lopsided, and improbable - reminds
me of the diarist
Jean Cocteau's argument that "Stupidity is always amazing,
no matter how
used to it you become." Mugabe is used to stupidity. It is
inconceivably
amazing, though excruciating, to see an old man like Mugabe
and supposedly
an intellectual giant, thrown off balance morally and
spiritually, and
destroying his beautiful country without being aware of his
actions.
Perhaps in Mugabe's Zimbabwe, where huge unfreedoms have
entangled the
country's progress and created never-ending sorrow, there is
at work in
Africa some law of equilibrium enforcing the principle that
greater freedoms
will bring on commensurate progress (as Botswana, Ghana,
South Africa,
Mauritius, and Senegal prove) and put at bay a Mugabean
idiocy.
Punch, Nigeria
By Punch Editorial
Board
Published: Tuesday, 16 Dec 2008
The ongoing cholera epidemic in
Zimbabwe has further compounded an already
dire situation in the Southern
African country, and urgent steps must be
taken to restore it to the path of
sanity.
As at the last count, over 800 people have been confirmed dead
and the
government of Mugabe does not seem to have a clue about how to deal
with the
crisis. Reports have it that hospitals have run out of drugs, while
available equipment and staff can no longer cope with the epidemic, which
has also spread to neighbouring South Africa.
World leaders are
already of the opinion that the solutions to Zimbabwe's
problems should
start with kicking out the incumbent President, 84-year-old
Robert Mugabe.
Prominent among them are the British Prime Minister, Mr.
Gordon Brown; the
American President, Mr. George Bush; the French leader,
Nicolas Sarkozy; and
the Kenyan Prime Minister, Mr. Raila Odinga. The Bishop
of Pretoria, South
Africa, Dr. Joe Seoka who described Mugabe as the modern
day Hitler, has
also urged churches to pray for his removal. But
surprisingly, the sit-tight
ruler still enjoys the support of the 53-nation
African Union, which is
exploring a political solution to the country's
hydra-headed
problems.
The cholera epidemic has been blamed on the deteriorating
political
situation and the failed economic policies of Mugabe who has been
ruling
since the country's independence in 1980. The epidemic has been
worsened by
the breakdown in infrastructure, especially the water and sewer
lines,
resulting in contamination of drinking water supply.
Mugabe's
sit-tight tendency has forced him to take repressive actions that
have
attracted sanctions from the international community, which have
mortally
hurt the economy. Besides, his relentless crackdown on opposition
elements
and the expelling of white farmers who were largely responsible for
making
Zimbabwe self-sufficient in food production have combined to bring
the
economy to its knees.
Zimbabwe has by far the highest rate of inflation
in the world. Prices of
goods double every 24 hours. Basic items such as
bread, milk or sugar go for
millions of Zimbabwean dollars in a country
where individuals' weekly
withdrawals from banks are pegged at $500 million
- just ten US dollars. A
new $500 million note was introduced last week to
help cope with the
hyper-inflation.
In the recently-held elections,
Mugabe's party lost at the parliamentary
level and also fell behind at the
presidential poll. He, however,
successfully browbeat the main opposition
candidate, Mr. Morgan Tvangirai,
to withdraw, making him the sole candidate
at the rerun poll.
Talks on power sharing deal between Mugabe and
Tvangirai brokered by former
South African President, Thabo Mbeki, have
broken down after the former
insisted on controlling certain portfolios,
especially those of defence and
internal security. Even the military, the
backbone of his survival, recently
went on rampage over pay, a further
indication that he is in the twilight of
his oppressive rule.
In
spite of the World Health Organisation's warning that the death toll
could
reach the 60,000 mark if the epidemic was not stopped, Mugabe came out
to
tell the whole world that the cholera epidemic had been "arrested".
The
humanitarian disaster in Zimbabwe calls for an urgent international
action.
Things have degenerated to the level where the global community of
civilised
people can no longer afford to stand and watch. The people of
Zimbabwe
should be saved from Mugabe's tyranny.
African leaders should come down
from the fence and tell Mugabe that enough
is enough. In fact, world leaders
must match their words with action to end
the calamity in Zimbabwe. Mugabe
has shown that he would rather his country
went under than for him to step
down. He must not be allowed to have his
way.
Email: jag@mango.zw : justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
JAG
Hotlines: +263 (011) 610 073, +263 (04) 799410. If you are in trouble
or
need advice, please don't hesitate to contact us - we're here to help!
To
subscribe/unsubscribe to the JAG mailing list, please email: jag@mango.zw
with subject line "subscribe" or
"unsubscribe".
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear
Members, Friends and Subscribers,
2008 draws to a close and JAG would
like to end the year with a Christmas
greeting to all its Members, Friends
and Supporters.
This has been a particularly difficult and traumatic year
for most of us
still resident in Zimbabwe; for those of you who are outside
our borders and
who continue to observe the decline in our circumstances, it
is perhaps also
a painful experience.
Life brings many unexpected
challenges to us and whilst many are filled with
joy, it is generally those
that we find difficult to cope with that force us
to grow. Such is the
environment that we live in here. Frequently we have
more questions than
answers, however there is always space for reflection
and in those moments we
are able to search for and find meaning in the
things we have faced. When we
are able to do this we invariably find
positive aspects to what may otherwise
seem just a bad experience. This
brings hope to us as we realize that change
is the inevitable reality of our
personal lives. Fundamentally we realize
that we have choice in our
attitudes to the circumstances, people and events
that confront us. This is
the essence of freedom that can never be taken
away from us.
We hope and pray that in the new beginning that each
Christmas invites of
us, we will choose to join in receiving the message and
person of Jesus who
comes to us in true vulnerability. Indeed it is that
powerlessness that
is at the heart of the paradox of God's power in our
lives. We accept that
we have limited power to change things in the place we
live, however we are
able to impact on the situation by the way we choose to
live in those
circumstances. This is ultimately great power and when we
realize and use
this constructively, things do change.
This year at
JAG has seen much progress in achieving our objectives with the
production of
several reports covering the essential research and
documentation that we are
engaged in. We have listened to and recorded the
stories of hundreds of
farmers and farm-workers, and for many, this has
brought a considerable
degree of healing. We are able to bear witness now
and forever to the
injustices that have transpired in the unfolding collapse
of our country and
in addition are well placed to work in the field of
transitional justice
which will be a part of the country's reconstruction.
The evidence gathered
has also provided useful input into our increasing
efforts and ability to
chart a way forward. This is indeed a central focus
for our work in the
coming year. Justice is indeed a noble call and
motivates us continually to
search for it and will it to happen, it has
great momentum and indeed is
driven by our faith in a God that loves and
desires this for all his
people.
We pray that we will all soon share in a time of rejoicing when
these hoped
for reliefs are realized; in the meantime rest assured of our
commitment and
determination at JAG to positively influence this.
Our
best wishes to you and all your families this Christmas and all the best
for
the coming Year.
May 2009 be a year of joy and peace and healing for us
all,
God bless and a meaningful Christmas,
From Ben Gilpin,
For and
behalf of the JAG Team and the JAG Board of Trustees.
NB. The JAG office
is closed for the Christmas break as of today. In case
of emergency the
following people are contactable on the numbers given
below:-
John
Worsley-Worswick: - 011 610 073, 0912 326 965
Ben Gilpin: - 011 861
726
Dennis Pascall: - 0912 233 415