|
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
|
Reuters
Wed 31 Dec 2008,
7:27 GMT
HARARE, Dec 31 (Reuters) - A Zimbabwean court on
Wednesday ruled that a
leading human rights campaigner and 15 other
activists should remain in
custody pending a remand hearing in a case that
has deepened doubts over a
power-sharing deal.
Jestina Mukoko, head
of a local rights group, and the other activists have
been charged with
recruiting or trying to recruit people to undergo military
training to
topple President Robert Mugabe's government.
"The accused cannot be
released at this stage, this is a proper case for (a)
remand hearing," said
Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe. The activists will
appear in court next Monday
for a bail hearing.
Two activists facing lesser charges were ordered to
be released in line with
High Court ruling last week but state prosecutors
said they would appeal the
decision.
Thirteen of the activists who
will remain in custody are members of the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change. Two are Mukoko's colleagues.
A High Court judge last week
declared the detention of Mukoko and her eight
co-accused unlawful and
ordered their immediate release, but the government
appealed. (Reporting by
MacDonald Dzirutwe)
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=9332
December 30, 2008
By
Raymond Maingire
HARARE - The High Court will today hear an urgent
application seeking to
stop any further prosecution of Zimbabwe Peace
Project director, Jestina
Mukoko, and her workmate, Broderick Takawira,
before a full inquiry into
their kidnapping is launched.
Judge,
Elphas Chitakunye is today (Wednesday) expected to hear the case of
Mukoko,
a former staffer at the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation, who
was abducted from her home in Norton in the early hours of
December 3. Her
kidnappers were a group of armed men, who identified
themselves as being
policemen.
A few days after her disappearance, Takawira and another ZPP
employee, were
snatched from their offices in Harare .
The lawyers
are also seeking a relief order that Mukoko and Takawira be
released
forthwith as their arrest and detention were declared unlawful.
The two
have since been charged on alleged attempts to seek the overthrow of
President Robert Mugabe through recruiting persons to train as bandits and
insurgents.
"We are seeking an interdict to stop their further
prosecution until the
state is compelled to disclose the identity of their
kidnappers," Harare
lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa told The Zimbabwe Times
Tuesday.
The state admits the accused persons were
kidnapped.
"There should be a full inquiry into those kidnappings and
that police
arrest those kidnappers before we can deal with these people as
accused
persons," she said.
The state admits that the accused persons
were abducted.
Said Mtetwa, "We want to know whether it would be proper
to try them for any
offence when they had initially been reported as
kidnapped.
"The state must say where these people were being held all
along. The state
must also inquire into whether or not these people were
lawfully held.
"The state cannot pretend not to know where the accused
persons were over
the past eight weeks."
Mtetwa also wants the court
to compel Police Commissioner-General, Augustine
Chihuri to bring before the
High Court persons who claim they received
Mukoko and others from state
security agents on December 22.
Police claim to have taken custody of the
accused persons, alongside 30
human rights defenders and MDC activists from
state security agents.
Before that, they had continuously denied any
knowledge of their
whereabouts.
Justice Anne-Marrie Gowora early this
month ordered the police to release
Mukoko.
In the event that they
were not holding her, the police were ordered to do
everything possible to
search for her, including placing adverts in the
press soliciting for
information about her whereabouts.
"We are seeking an order for the
Attorney General to show cause why he
should not direct the police to
investigate a criminal offence," Mtetwa
said.
The state is also
resisting attempts to release Mukoko to a private hospital
for treatment
claiming that an army doctor identified as Chigumira attended
to her when
she was in custody.
Justice Yunus Omerjee last week ordered the release
of Mukoko and eight
others for treatment at Harare 's Avenues Clinic pending
what had been their
impending appearance for remand hearing at the
magistrate's court last
Wednesday.
They claim thery were tortured
while in detention.
The state has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court
to stop their release.
"We want the High Court to tell us if it is now
legal to entertain a rogue
state that comes with a defective document
seeking to perpetuate an unlawful
act.
"We hear there were rogue
doctors who have already examined them while they
were under torture," said
Mtetwa.
The state is saying the accuse persons did not need any treatment
as they
were attended to by an army doctor during their
detention.
"We want the medical doctor who is said to have examined
Mukoko while she
was in her torture chambers to come and tell the court as
to who called him
to the torture chambers to come and minimize the trauma
that they had
suffered," she said.
"We have no confidence in the
doctors. They were hiding evidence of the
torture and trauma to which they
were subjected."
http://www.voanews.com
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
30
December 2008
Lawyers for detained Zimbabwe Peace Project Director
Jestina Mukoko and
political activists being held by police said Tuesday
they have been trying
to get their clients medical care.
Harare
Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe on Monday ruled that Mukoko and
activists of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change should be allowed
to see
doctors of their choice while being held on charges that they
conspired to
overthrow the government.
Lawyers for the detained, who number about 40,
also charged they were
severely tortured.
The court is expected to
rule Wednesday on the detainees' application for
release on
bail.
Authorities have defied a High Court ruling saying the detainees
should be
hospitalized. The state is appealing that ruling in the Supreme
Court.
Mukoko and the others are accused of recruiting government
opponents for
military training in Botswana aiming to bring down the
government, and of
bombing police stations.
Defense lawyer Alec
Muchadehama told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
that he and other attorneys have asked the court to
oblige the police to
disclose the names of those responsible for the wave of
abductions over the
past 10 weeks.
http://www.voanews.com
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
30 December 2008
With a
New Year's ultimatum by Movement for Democratic Change founder and
Zimbabwean prime minister designate Morgan Tsvangirai looming which could
derail the troubled power-sharing process, officials of the Southern African
Development Community were trying on Tuesday to arrange an eleventh-hour
meeting between the principals.
Tsvangirai issued a statement Dec. 19
saying he would ask his National
Council to vote to break off power-sharing
talks if abductions of MDC party
members and civic activists do not cease
and if all those seized by state
agents have not been released by Jan.
1.
The police in recent days have produced many of those abducted by
suspected
members of the state security apparatus since October - only to
charge them
with plotting to topple the government. Police have also defied
a high court
order to hospitalize the prisoners and the state has filed an
appeal with
the supreme court seeking to overturn that
order.
President Robert Mugabe in line with the urgings of SADC's current
chairman,
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, has formally invited
Tsvangirai
to be sworn in as the prime minister in the national unity
government he has
been trying to form for weeks.
But Tsvangirai has
not accepted the offer and SADC sources say regional
leaders are struggling
to save the power-sharing pact before it completely
falls
apart.
Tsvangirai spokesperson George Sibotshiwe told reporter Blessing
Zulu of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that Tsvangirai stands by his threat to
pull out
of power sharing talks if all those abducted are not set free by
the first
day of 2009.
Secretary General Welshman Ncube of the rival
MDC formation says its chief,
Arthur Mutambara, has not received an
invitation letter from Mr. Mugabe, but
added that the MDC grouping supports
a meeting of the principals to rescue
power-sharing.
Political
analyst and lawyer Theressa Mugadza commented that abductions must
be
condemned - but that ultimatums are not effective.
http://www.voanews.com
By Patience Rusere
Washington
30 December
2008
The World Health Organization has begun to issue daily updates
on the
cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe which include comprehensive and sobering
statistics by locale showing the cholera death count relentlessly rising
while the fatality rates for some cities, towns and districts are shockingly
high in comparison with international norms for the disease.
The WHO
cholera update through Monday, Dec. 29, showed an increase of 1,268
cases
and 43 deaths for cumulative totals of 30,365 and 1,608,
respectively.
The WHO provided the cumulative cholera fatality rates for
more than 50
locales - in some cases shockingly high. For instance, the
fatality rate in
Chitungwiza, the Harare satellite town hit early on in the
epidemic, was
17.5%, compared with 3.3% for Harare itself.
In Mutoko,
Mashonaland East province, fatalities have run at 20.8% with 32
deaths out
of a total of 154 cases. In Makoni, Manicaland province, the
death rate was
12.7% with 42 deaths from 332 cases. But in Beitbridge, a
bustling town on
the border with South Africa, the rate was just 3% despite
the 3,702 cases
reported - perhaps because many residents of Beitbridge
headed for Musina,
South Africa, to seek emergency treatment.
Nationally the cumulative
death rate was 5.3% - still well over the 1%
fatality rate which health
experts say is the international norm.
For an interpretation of the data,
reporter Patience Rusere reached
epidemics spokesman Gregory Hartl of the
World Health Organization in
Geneva, who said there is nothing in the recent
statistics to suggest the
spread of cholera is slowing.
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Wednesday, 31 December 2008
|
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=84904
Nat
Hentoff
Posted:
December 31, 2008
1:00 am Eastern
© 2008
If Eleanor Roosevelt
were still here, she would be enraged and sickened by
the utter failure of
the United Nations, which she nurtured into being, to
stop the continually
mounting horrors inflicted on the people of Zimbabwe by
its insatiably evil
president, Robert Mugabe. While the United Nations just
mutters away, in a
Dec. 7 lead editorial, the Washington Times got to the
rotting core of his
rule:
"People are starving and compete in the countryside with baboons,
jackals
and goats for roots and wild fruits; health care has imploded and
cholera is
on the march as water and sewer systems collapse; and refugees by
the
millions have left the country." Some of those refugees bring cholera
with
them to neighboring states.
South Africa keeps shaming itself by
continuing only to "mediate" this
virulent crisis as if it's possible to
mediate relations with a plague. And
the 15-nation Southern African
Development Community also continues its
minuet with deadly Mugabe. Only
Botswana and Kenya face the naked truth and
call for his removal." Said
Mugabe (Associated Press, Dec. 19): "Zimbabwe is
mine."
On Dec. 18, I
heard Mugabe himself on the BBC actually saying that the
ravages of cholera
among his people are "a disease planted by former
colonial masters to foment
war."
Those Western masters, he implies, must have also caused hospitals
to shut
down, water taps to go dry and food supplies to vanish. But what of
the
continuing kidnappings of Zimbabweans opposing Mugabe as well as the
kidnappings of humanitarian workers? The kidnappers must be agents of former
colonial masters disguised as Mugabe's police and soldiers?
(Column
continues below)
There are many anxious commentaries on how
to pressure the United Nations to
break the political deadlock unmovingly
maintained by Mugabe as he refuses
to give the opposition any means to rein
in the official thugs who savagely
beat and have murdered many of the
Zimbabweans who do not revere their
Liberator. And even if there were a U.N.
Security Council resolution to at
least threaten action, armed action,
against this oppressor, Security
Council members China and Russia would
automatically veto even an intimation
of real force against the ruler of
this utterly broken sovereign state.
The headline of the Dec. 7
Washington Times editorial - rare among voices on
this international
treadmill of protest - was: "Forced action for Zimbabwe?"
And the editorial
ends:
"Alas, at some times in some places diplomacy just doesn't work
because one
side's ... values are so averse to civilized society that words,
hopes,
logic and reason are pointless. ... [T]here seems - to us, at least -
no
debate going on in Zimbabwe under Mr. Mugabe. Has anyone in that part of
the
world thought of the 'f' word - force?"
Some have thought of that
word in this part of the world. George W. Bush had
been thinking of force
against the genocidal tyrant, Gen. Omar al-Bashir, in
Sudan, and was
dissuaded by advisers. I expect the destructions of families,
including so
many children, in Zimbabwe also affects him deeply, but he will
soon be
leaving.
The new vice president, Joe Biden, has recommended force so that
we can
actually say never again in Darfur. And the Republican presidential
candidate, John McCain - acutely aware of United Nations' impotence not only
in Sudan and Zimbabwe - has been strongly advocating a "league of
democracies" - nations whose fundamental values would impel them to
intervene when sovereign states are exercising that sovereignty to dismember
their people.
Enter President-elect Barack Obama. Whatever other
goals he achieves in his
presidency, despite the unprecedentedly enormous
domestic and international
obstacles confronting him, he could eventually
leave office having helped
make possible a stunningly historic coalition of
nations that would be ready
to use force to stop genocide and such other
atrocities now wholly
uncontrolled in Sudan and in Zimbabwe. At least, Bush
now states there can
be no government power sharing with Mugabe still in
office.
Members of that coalition - which could save untold numbers of
lives - could
include, among others, England, France, Canada, Germany,
India, Australia
and Japan. Since delay means more deaths, Obama and his
foreign relations
team could soon begin initial contacts with prospective
members of "the
league of democracies" to start planning for crucially
necessary
interventions.
Meanwhile, to spark interest in this
desperately humanitarian intervention,
there is a report by Lydia Polgreen
form yet another massacre in the Belgian
Congo (New York Times, Dec.
11):
"As the killings took place, a contingent of about 100 United
Nations
peacekeepers was less than a mile away, struggling to understand
what was
happening outside the gates of its base. The peacekeepers ... short
of
equipment and men (were) already overwhelmed, (U.N.) officials said, and
they had no intelligence capabilities or even an interpreter who could speak
the necessary languages."
If Obama were to become an inspirer and
facilitator of the league of
liberators, what a global legacy of
exceptionally audacious hope he would
leave in the name of the United
States!
Listen, Mr. President, to Samuel Adams: "Our contest is not only
whether we
ourselves should be free, but whether there shall be left to
mankind an
asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty." And now,
real-time asylums
beyond borders.
Nat Hentoff is a nationally
renowned authority on the First Amendment and
the Bill of Rights and author
of many books, including "The War on the Bill
of Rights and the Gathering
Resistance."
http://www.thestar.co.uk/
Published Date: 31 December 2008
By Sarah
Crabtree
THE Thulambo Three - the failed asylum seekers from Africa hoping to
be
granted permission to stay in Sheffield - are likely to see in the New
Year
tonight in detention.
Priviledge Thulambo, aged 39, and her two
daughters Valerie and Lorraine,
were spared immediate deportation on Monday
after eleventh hour intervention
by their supporters in
Sheffield.
The trio had been due to be flown out of the UK from Heathrow
Airport, on a
Kenyan Airways flight bound for Zimbabwe.
But -
although a last-minute application for judicial review meant the women
did
not have to board the aeroplane - the three are still locked up at
Yarl's
Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire awaiting further
news.
It is likely to be Monday before supporters here in Sheffield
can lodge an
application for bail with the courts.
If granted, the
three women should be allowed to return to their home on
Heavygate Road in
Walkley, where they were living before they were arrested
earlier this
month.
Priviledge, Valerie, 20, and Lorraine, 18, were refused asylum
because their
paperwork states they are Malawian nationals.
In fact
the family insist they are from Zimbabwe, and only in desperation
used fake
passports to flee their homeland after three of Priviledge's
relatives were
killed for supporting opponents of president Robert Mugabe's
regime.
British authorities intend to send the family back to Malawi
- but
supporters claim that would be a 'death sentence' once their paperwork
was
discovered to be false and they were sent on to Zimbabwe.
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=131880
Nigeria
12.30.2008
When it all looked like there was going to
be peace at last in Zimbabwe with
the power-sharing agreement, there seems
to be far more crisis there than
was ever imagined. For long now, the
Zimbabwe crisis has generated diverse
reactions from across the world. What
is not debatable, however, and should
not be further politicised is the
critical condition of that nation's
socio-economic and political life, now
accentuated by the cholera outbreak
that has claimed over 1000 persons.
But how did a country that was once the continent's beacon of hope
degenerate to this level of ruin? Some analysts have fingered the West for
what they see as its interference in the internal affairs of the Southern
African country, particularly its perceived partisanship in the wake of the
Zimbabwean government's land reforms aimed at redistributing arable land in
favour of blacks. Others have put the blame for the nightmare in Zimbabwe
squarely on its president of 28 years, Robert Mugabe, under whose watch his
country has witnessed a blatant abuse of power and human rights.
In
addition to that ignoble profile, Mugabe has the unfortunate record of
taking Zimbabwe to enviable heights and in a twist presiding over its
descent into despondency and corporate failure. Last year, the World Health
Organisation (WHO) announced that the country had the shortest life
expectancy of 37 years for men and 34 years for women; and at 25 per cent,
the one with the highest percentage of orphans in the world. With inflation
running into millions in percentage, life there is grinding to a halt.
This sad situation must not be allowed to go on unchecked. And since the
tragedy is directly related to the nation's turbulent political run, that
aspect should be resolved to pave way for a permanent solution. The closest
Zimbabwe came to peace in recent times was when Morgan Tsvangirai,
Presidential candidate of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and
Mugabe's arch rival, who won the first round of voting in the last
presidential elections but refused to take part in the run-off for alleged
intimidation, accepted the power - sharing formula brokered by former South
African president, Thabo Mbeki, three months ago. Sadly, that opportunity
has been squandered as the anti- Mugabe elements constantly accuse the
country's strongman of insincerity in executing the spirit and letter of
that agreement.
It is indeed worrisome that Mugabe himself has not done
much to allay the
fears about his design to perpetuate his tenure. The other
day at his ZANU
PF annual conference, after berating his adversaries and
insinuating that
African countries lacked the bravery to topple him, he
declared with an air
of triumph: " Zimbabwe is mine."! That is hardly an
honorable response of a
statesman to the dire need for the emancipation of
his people bugged down by
every imaginable woe.
Agreed, the West has
erred in reneging on its promise to fund the
contentious land reforms way
back in 2000 and has instead waged concerted
attacks on the person of
Mugabe. Admitted also that its sanctions against
that country have harmed
ordinary Zimbabweans more than the ruling elite. An
urgent reversal, at
least for humanitarian reasons, has now become morally
pertinent.
As
for Mugabe, the signs are clear enough. At 84 years of age and having
ruled
his country for three decades, he cannot claim monopoly of wisdom in
the
leadership of his country. Zimbabwe can clearly not survive under the
shadow
of their leader's past glories. So, he should step down now. He
should not
seek solace in the stand of people like the South African
President, Kgalema
Motlanthe, on this matter. In reacting to calls for
Mugabe's exit,
Mothlanthe argued that, "I don't know if the British feel
qualified to
impose their will on the people of Zimbabwe , but we feel that
we should
support and take our cue from what they (Zimbabweans) want. It is
our wish
that an inclusive government be established as soon as yesterday."
While we
respect the sovereignty nations and their right to determine of
their
destinies, no ruler should mismanage his country's chances of recovery
and
expect the rest of the world to fold its arms. After all, Zimbabwe 's
despicable political and economic credentials and the woeful state of its
citizenry transcend narrow and sentimental considerations. The human family
should save it while it can. And Mugabe or any other principality must not
be permitted to be a hinderance.
http://www.globalpolicy.org
By Patrick
Goodenough
CNSNews
December 10, 2008
Members of the United Nations
Security Council should not be allowed to use
their veto power to block or
weaken resolutions on genocide or mass
atrocities, a bipartisan team of
former policymakers said Tuesday, as the
U.N. marked the 60th anniversary of
the convention against genocide. Too
often, the group said in a report, the
price of all five permanent members
agreeing on a resolution "has been the
watering down of a response to an
emerging threat to the point at which the
resolution is ineffectual in
averting the threat."
The report by the
Genocide Prevention Task Force did not cite examples of
such occasions,
although China and Russia have shown a willingness in recent
years to block
international action against despotic regimes, by vetoing, or
threatening to
veto, resolutions on Darfur, Burma and Zimbabwe. Elsewhere,
the taskforce
report alluded to the difficulties faced by the West, saying
that "Russia's
and China's respective relationships with Serbia and Sudan
are recent
examples of how a great power patron can complicate diplomacy."
The
remaining permanent members of the Security Council are the United
States,
Britain and France. The council also has another 10 elected members,
each
serving for a two-year period, but under current rules they do not
enjoy
veto power.
The 174-page report was released Tuesday by the taskforce
co-chairs, former
Defense Secretary William Cohen and former Secretary of
State Madeleine
Albright. The taskforce was jointly convened by the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial
Museum, the American Academy of Diplomacy and the U.S.
Institute of Peace.
The report called on President-elect Barack Obama to
show from the outset
that preventing genocide is a national priority, and
said the U.S. Congress
should invest $250 million a year to prevent and
respond to crises.
Because of the difficulties posed by the Security
Council veto, the report
recommended that the U.S. secretary of state launch
"robust diplomatic
efforts" to negotiating an agreement among the five
permanent members (P5)
on not using the veto in cases relating to genocide
or mass atrocities. "A
principal aim should be informal, voluntary mutual
restraint in the use or
threat of a veto in cases involving ongoing or
imminent mass atrocities," it
said. "The P5 should agree that unless three
permanent members were to agree
to veto a given resolution, all five would
abstain or support it." And in
cases where two-thirds of the U.N. General
Assembly supported a resolution
finding that a crisis poses an imminent
threat of mass atrocities, this
"should add further impetus to an
expeditious Security Council response
without threat of a veto."
The
report said the U.S. should strive to act through the world body, but
"if
the Security Council is unable to act, there may be other appropriate
options," including action through NATO or the assembling of a coalition of
like-minded nations. "While the United States may face criticism for taking
strong action in these cases, we must never rule out doing what is necessary
to stop genocide or mass atrocities."
According to U.N. figures,
Russia/the Soviet Union has used its veto the
most over the six decades of
the U.N.'s existence - 124 times since 1946.
Next comes the U.S. with 82,
Britain with 32, France with 18 and China with
six. (China has only been a
P5 member since it took over Taiwan's seat in
1971.) Although use of the
veto has declined in recent years - only 13 times
since 2000 - P5 members
frequently threaten to veto proposals, exercising
what critics call a
"silent" or "hidden" veto in order to manipulate the
council's agenda or
stymie initiatives they oppose.
'Genocidal incitement'
Several
other genocide-related topics were raised on the anniversary of the
adoption
of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of
Genocide. The Genocide Prevention Project, a New York-based
non-government
organization linked to Dream for Darfur, released a watch
list showing eight
"red light" countries where it said genocidal conflict is
happening or at
risk of breaking out - Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Burma,
Sri Lanka, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
A former Canadian
justice minister and attorney-general, Irwin Cotler,
released a petition
urging the international community to take legal action
against Iran for
"genocidal incitement" against Israel. The Genocide
Convention includes an
obligation to take action to prevent genocide. The
petition has been
endorsed by a group of legal scholars and other experts,
including Nobel
peace prize laureate Elie Wiesel. It accuses Iran's leaders
of fomenting
hatred for the State of Israel, publicly inciting genocide,
"supporting the
murder of Israelis and Jews through terrorist groups with a
genocidal
ideology" and "flouting international demands that it suspend a
nuclear
program intent on implementing a genocide." "The enduring lesson of
the
Holocaust and that of the genocides that followed is that they occurred
not
simply because of the machinery of death, but because of the
state-sanctioned incitement to hatred," said Cotler, citing Rwanda, the
Balkans and Darfur.
While genocide had already occurred in those
situations, he said, in the
case of Iran action could still be taken to
prevent it. "The path to
genocide has already been paved; the crime of
genocidal incitement has
already been committed," Cotler argued. "As members
of the international
community, we cannot allow this impunity to continue."
In a message
delivered Tuesday to a conference of the Jewish community
organization B'nai
B'rith International, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
noted that the 1948
convention was a direct outcome of the Holocaust. Ever
since then, he said,
the convention "has embodied the aspiration of the
United Nations to prevent
such a horror from occurring again."
