I have just returned from a meeting in Borrowdale where the guest speaker
was
the white 17 year old MDC activist Tommy Spicer. His usually happy face
was
pale and sombre and although he spoke without anger,
his tale had the full
attention of the audience.
At the beginning of last week Tommy was abducted
by so-called "war vets"
and, in front of about 300 people, he was beaten up
and kicked around. A
knife was held at his throat and he was ordered to
chant "ZANU PF IS A
PEACEFUL PARTY". He could not bring himself to say
something so ridiculous
and instead, he fell to his knees laughing. Tommy,
himself, was
subsequently arrested by the Marondera Police and charged with
kidnapping
and assault. He spent 6 days inside and was, yesterday, released
on bail.
Two of Tommy's friends have recently been murdered by "peaceful"
zanu pf
militia - one beheaded, the other stabbed in his face and body, and
his leg
partly removed with an axe. He had just that day read the medical
report of
a man whose face had been hacked off. The new law and order in
Zimbabwe
means that should you be be kidnapped and assaulted, you yourself
will then
be charged with that offence and jailed. Although lucky to be
alive, one can
not help but admire a teenager whose commitment to his country
supersedes
his safety and his home comforts. Tommy's closing words were aimed
at those
who have so far not managed to make some contribution towards change
in
Zimbabwe. He appealed for funds, old clothes for victims, medical
supplies
and food.
Everyone in Zimbabwe must have stories like these......
"My nephew and his fiance were attacked last weekend at a war vets road block
along the Shamva road. They were badly beaten up...because they did not have a
party card.."
..my friends up the road were invaded
by war vets. but the Colonel of the Zipra crowd went and threw them off....he
arrived with the police, they just parked themselves there and took over one of
the cottages which is occupied by a young white couple."
Telegraph
'Mugabe's men gave us marijuana, then ordered us to beat up
people like
these'
(Filed: 27/01/2002)
'TREVOR' is one of the
thugs now terrorising Zimbabwe. He tells Philip
Sherwell what he has done,
how he is paid - and why he'll not vote for
Mugabe
Trevor is
awaiting his next assignment in terror. His commanders are
delighted with the
role he played in a successful and very bloody attack on
supporters of
Zimbabwe's opposition in Bulawayo last weekend - which means,
he fears, that
he will be expected to do the same again soon.
The quietly spoken young
man is a foot soldier in President Robert Mugabe's
new national youth brigade
- the army of trained thugs that has been
unleashed on the country in a
brutal effort to force through the Zimbabwean
leader's re-election in
March.
In a remarkably frank interview, Trevor disclosed how recruits
were drilled
in military tactics and political indoctrination at the
notorious Border
Gezi training camp at Bindura, 50 miles north of
Harare.
His startling revelations - the first by a Border Gezi graduate -
contradict
the ruling Zanu-PF party's assertion that there is no military
instruction
at the site.
Trevor described how, fuelled on "rations" of
marijuana and beer, youth
brigades were sent on "community service" - a
euphemism for vicious attacks
on supporters of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and
their presidential candidate, Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Across the country, marauding Zanu gangs are led by Border
Gezi youths in a
carefully co-ordinated campaign of political
violence.
Throughout our meeting at a secret location in Matabeleland,
Trevor - not
his real name - glanced around nervously and often dropped his
voice to a
whisper. He had no doubt that his comrades would kill him if they
knew that
he had disclosed their secrets.
Trevor admitted that he had
beaten his victims senseless with clubs. He said
that others had killed MDC
activists with axes and knives and, on one
occasion, by burning down a house
with its occupants inside.
What is all the more shocking is that Trevor
is no mindless thug, and does
not even support Mr Mugabe or his Zanu-PF
party. Articulate and intelligent,
but unemployed for four years since
leaving school, he made no apologies
that his motivation was purely
financial.
The youths have been paid according to results. For what
Trevor calls "a job
well done" - usually a weekend rampage, stopping people
and ordering them to
show Zanu membership cards, and attacking suspected MDC
followers - each has
received the equivalent of about £15. (A teacher, by
contrast, is paid £45 a
month.)
He said: "I know I'm not doing the
right thing. But when you're hungry,
you'll do anything for
money."
His biggest payday - £30 - came last weekend when he played a key
role in
the youth militia's most dramatic operation: they succeeded in
preventing Mr
Tsvangirai from addressing an MDC rally at a sports stadium in
Bulawayo.
Trevor and his comrades were taken there by lorry from Harare
and deployed
in the stadium on Saturday. When MDC youths began arriving that
evening to
make preparations for Sunday's rally, the Zanu militia pretended
they were
fellow opposition activists - then beat them savagely.
Seven
or eight were taken away unconscious by the security authorities.
Trevor is
convinced that they either died from their injuries or were killed
later. The
rally was abandoned the next day after MDC supporters were driven
away by the
Zanu militia and police firing tear gas.
The subordination of the police
and army to Mr Mugabe's desperate fight for
political survival is illustrated
by the manner of Trevor's enrolment. Two
months ago, he went to Harare to
apply to join the police, but at the
recruitment office, he was told that,
under new procedures, he would first
have to undergo national
service.
He was driven by military vehicle to the Border Gezi camp (named
after a
former cabinet minister and close friend of Robert Mugabe who is now
dead).
There, he and fellow recruits were given fitness training, drilled
in
gun-handling and military strategy and taught to follow
orders
unquestioningly by army officers.
They were also lectured in
pro-Zanu thinking and anti-MDC and anti-white
propaganda.
The camp is
the brainchild of Elliot Manyika, the local MP and Gezi's
successor as youth
affairs minister. "We saw him when he visited to check on
our progress," said
Trevor.
"He told us that it was our patriotic duty to remove anyone who
hindered the
progress of the government. It was coded language, but we knew
he meant the
MDC."
Mr Manyika, who accompanied Trevor and his comrades
when they travelled to
Bulawayo before last weekend's ambush, also ordered
the campaign to force
villagers and farm labourers to buy Zanu cards. The
operation has netted the
party an estimated £1 million in recent
weeks.
Trevor believes that the camp at Bindura and a new one at
Ntabazinduna, near
Bulawayo, have turned out thousands of recruits. They have
stopped wearing
the olive green uniforms that identified them as Border Gezi
youth, and have
been deployed in small units across the country with orders
to recruit local
thugs to help on their rampages.
While Mr Mugabe's
regime used self-styled veterans of the independence war
to conduct his
land-grab offensive against white farmers, their lack of
discipline prompted
him to draft politically indoctrinated youth to provide
the muscle for his
re-election battle.
Trevor has been told that he will finish his
"community service" in early
March - just as Zimbabweans go to the polls. He
expects to be given the
orders for his next mission in the coming
days.
Despite the campaign of intimidation and terror, however, his own
background
explains why Mr Mugabe's biggest hope of clinging on to power is
the massive
vote-rigging exercise that he and his senior lieutenants are
planning.
"I used to dream of being a pilot," said Trevor, "But in this
country you no
longer select a career - you take anything you can. I was
desperate and I
took this.
"We are allowing ourselves to be used for
money, and we know that Zanu-PF
will drop us if Mugabe wins in
March."
Asked how he will vote in the presidential poll, he sat back and
smiled for
the only time in the interview. "It's obvious, isn't it? I'm an
MDC
supporter. I'll be voting for Morgan Tsvangirai. This country has
been
ruined by Mugabe."
Chicago Tribune
Mugabe's iron fist
Published January 26,
2002
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe doesn't waste much time in
breaking his
promises. He assured the world that his country's presidential
elections in
early March would be free and fair, even as his government was
trying its
best to put in the fix.
Mugabe reassured regional leaders
meeting in Malawi in mid-January that
speech rights, press coverage and
international observers would be
unfettered. He could have saved his breath.
Back home, his ruling ZANU-PF
party was trying to pass an oppressive
media-control law that he backed. It
would essentially outlaw any practice of
journalism without state approval.
Violators could spend up to two years in
jail.
That Draconian proposal turned out to be intolerable even for
Mugabe's usual
rubber-stamp parliamentary coalition. A pragmatic wing of
ZANU-PF, fed up
with Zimbabwe's increasing isolation from the civilized
world, managed to
load the bill up with amendments and forced the withdrawal
of the bill after
it lost two floor votes.
It could return, though.
And whether it does or not, other restrictions on
speech and freedom that
Parliament enacted earlier in the month will remain
in place. They prohibit
statements that are "likely to engender hatred or
hostility," particularly
toward Mugabe. They give police sweeping new powers
of arrest and seizure,
while tightly restricting the movements of
independent election
monitors.
Worse, Zimbabwe's military chiefs have announced they will only
support a
president who fought in Zimbabwe's war of independence. That would
rule in
the 77-year-old Mugabe and rule out the leading opposition candidate,
Morgan
Tsvangirai, a popular labor leader.
Mugabe's story is sadder
than other tales of third-world dictators gone
wrong because he and his
country showed so much promise. For most of his 21
years in office,
Zimbabwe's constitutional government provided a model of
free press, free
speech, free education and an independent judiciary in a
developing
country.
But, faced for the first time with an opposition strong enough
to unseat
him, he has rallied support by making scapegoats of the white
farmers who
own most of the country's arable land. Zimbabwe needs land
reform. Great
Britain and the United States have tried to help bring it. But
Mugabe has
been less interested in real land reform than in exploiting the
issue.
Instead of calling for calm, he has egged on the sometimes-fatal raids
by
war veterans on white-owned farms.
Zimbabwe's dream does not have
to end in disaster. Democracy is putting up a
good fight in the former
British colony. That fight needs outside help to
survive its isolated
president.
President Bush signed a bill just before Christmas that offers
a generous
package of incentives, including an immediate $25 million for land
reform
and election oversight, if Zimbabwe restores the rule of law,
allows
international observers of its elections and initiates equitable
land
reform. The bill calls for sanctions to be imposed if Mugabe continues
his
reckless course.
Aid from other sources such as Britain, the
International Monetary Fund and
the World Bank also hangs in the balance. The
choice is up to Mugabe. He can
live up to his long-held status as Zimbabwe's
father of independence or he
can be the father of its new
oppression.Zimbabwe's dream does not have to
end in disaster. Democracy is
putting up a good fight.
Copyright © 2002, Chicago
Tribune
UK cracks down on Mugabe
Kamal Ahmed and Andrew Meldrum in
Harare
Sunday January 27, 2002
The Observer
Britain's relations
with Robert Mugabe plunged to their lowest level since
independence last
night when the Government called for Zimbabwe to be thrown
out of the
Commonwealth and millions of pounds of funds to be seized as a
wave of
political murders sweeps the impoverished country.
Fearing further
anarchy ahead of elections in its former colony in March,
Britain will this
week call for Zimbabwe's expulsion and throw its weight
behind international
moves to seize Mugabe's multi-million-pound assets and
ban him from
travelling anywhere in Europe.
The sanctions - which include seizing
Mugabe's assets held in European banks
and banning travel for the President
and members of his Zanu-PF government -
will be agreed at a meeting of EU
Foreign Ministers in Brussels tomorrow.
Mugabe is reputed to have plundered
more than £400 million as his people
face starvation.
'We have the
full backing of Downing Street, there is a consensus growing
for action,'
said one Whitehall source. 'We want to take action that is
effective and
shows the President that he cannot act with impunity.'
On Wednesday, Jack
Straw, the Foreign Secretary, will also push the case for
suspending Zimbabwe
from the Commonwealth. He will say that
Mugabe-sanctioned actions against
opposition forces, the beating up of
journalists and draconian security laws
have placed the country outside the
norms of international
values.
Mugabe will be told that 'smart sanctions' will be imposed unless
he allows
international observers to oversee the elections, enforces a
decrease in
violence and abandons plans to gag the media.
Whitehall
sources said it was 'highly unlikely' Mugabe would agree to the
terms and
that sanctions would be imposed 'in the near future'.
Tony Blair, the
Prime Minister, will take the same message to the meeting of
Commonwealth
heads of state in Brisbane on 2 March. The delicate meeting -
it is unlikely
that African members of the Commonwealth will agree to the
suspension - will
be attended by the Queen. Senior government figures said
it was possible
Mugabe would boycott the event, one of the most important in
the
Commonwealth's calendar.
The Government's move comes after increasing
pressure by those campaigning
for a tougher stance against
Zimbabwe.
'It is now abundantly clear that the Zimbabwean government has
no intention
of meeting the criteria necessary to ensure that the
presidential election
can be fairly contested,' Glenys Kinnock, Member of the
European Parliament,
said in a letter to the European Voice this
weekend.
'They have failed to understand that state-sponsored violence
and
intimidation must end, that an acceptable timetable for the entry
of
election observers must be set out and that the freedom of the media must
be
respected.
'The time for dialogue is over; it has been clear for
months that President
Mugabe and his henchmen are simply not
listening.'
Kinnock is pressing Blair to make the move before his trip to
African states
next week. She has been invited to Downing Street to discuss
her concerns.
Two weeks ago, the EU invoked Article 96 against Zimbabwe,
paving the way
for sanctions. Officials said that the regime had failed to
give a
'satisfactory response'.
A detailed report on Zimbabwe by the
Brussels-based International Crisis
Group also urges countries to take action
against the Mugabe government.
'There is too much bark and too little bite in
dealing with Zimbabwe,' said
the report. 'If meaningful action is not taken
now, the leadership in Harare
will continue to believe it can act with total
impunity.'
Last night there were fresh reports of political violence as
Zanu-PF forces
clashed with opposition MDC factions. Figures from the Human
Rights Forum
show that well over 80 per cent of the violence has been
perpetrated by
Mugabe's party, by police or by the army. The Zimbabwe
Electoral Support
Network states that conditions for free and fair elections
do not exist.
Zim Standard
UK urged to send troops to Zimbabwe
By our own
Staff
BRITAIN’s opposition Conservative Party has said Prime Minister Tony
Blair
should not rule out the possibility of sending troops to Zimbabwe if
chaos
erupted immediately after the presidential election scheduled for March
9
and 10.
Reports from London quoted opposition foreign affairs
spokesman Michael
Ancram as saying on Wednesday that the Labour government
should continue
pressuring Mugabe to restore the rule of law in Zimbabwe. His
comments come
in the wake of the threat by Zimbabwe security chiefs that the
uniformed
forces would not recognise a win by a candidate without liberation
war
credentials.
But while the Conservative party urged more robust
action by Britain, the
government’s parliamentary under secretary of state in
the foreign office,
Ben Bradshaw, simply repeated the official line that
“action will be taken’’
, if things became worse. He refused to
elaborate.
Ancram was speaking during a debate on Zimbabwe to which nine
members of
parliament contributed—six of them Conservatives.
In the
latest debate, everyone agreed that the situation had continued
to
deteriorate and that they had received constant reminders, some from
their
constituents, of the terror campaign and atrocities being perpetrated
under
Mugabe.
It was widely acknowledged that the March 9-10 elections
would not be free
and fair, but Bradshaw would not speculate on Britain’s
reaction if Mugabe
either lost and tried to cling to power, or if he won a
fraudulent election.
Ancram and Maude said that instead of hiding behind
guilt about Britain’s
colonial past, the government should spend some of the
international capital
accrued by Blair during the last few months, to take a
lead in the Zimbabwe
crisis and to go beyond the efforts of the European
Union.
Zimbabwe government spokesman, Jonathan Moyo was unavailable for
comment.
Zim Standard
The Standard ‘banned’ as terror campaign spreads
By
our own Staff
ZANU PF hooligans have intensified the ban on the sale of The
Standard in a
number of areas around the country, as the terror campaign to
boost
President Mugabe’s waning image ahead of the presidential poll in
March
mounts.
According to the latest reports, ruling party supporters
have spread the ban
on The Standard to Kwekwe, Chinhoyi, Mvuma, Bindura,
Rusape and Ruwa.
An official with Munn Distributions, the distributors of
The Standard, said
they had stopped delivering the paper in a number of areas
around the
country because of the hooligans.
Vendors selling the
newspaper in Chitungwiza and in the Harare suburbs of
Sunningdale, Kambuzuma
and Mbare have also been harassed by hooligans.
“Rusape is now a no-go
area. We have not delivered the paper there for the
past two weeks. We have
set up a network of vendors in Rusape who will
inform us of the situation on
the ground so that we decide whether to
deliver the paper or not,” said the
official.
“In Chinhoyi they are intimidating retailers and shop managers
not to sell
the paper and we have not supplied Mvuma with The Standard for a
month now.”
A vendor who was selling the newspaper in Sunningdale last
week, was
attacked by hooligans while another in Kambuzuma had 60 copies of
the paper
torn, said the official.
“What is worrying is that the
situation seems to be spreading to other areas
around the country. Because of
the situation, we are advising our vendors to
be out of the city centre by
5pm,” he said.
Ruling party hooligans and war veterans have in past
months been on the
rampage, beating up people seen reading the independent
press. The situation
has been rife in rural areas, especially in Mashonaland
West and Central
which Zanu PF considers its stronghold.
Despite the
clampdown, the official said demand for the paper continued to
soar, with
many areas calling for an increase in copies availed to
their
areas.
The Standard’s print run averages between 35 000 and 40
000 copies a week,
with most assues getting sold out.
Zim Standard
Mugabe minder in envoy’s sex scandal
By Chengetai
Zvauya
THE sex scandal involving the Libyan ambassador who allegedly
sexually
abused a female staffer at the embassy has deepened with revelations
that
President Mugabe’s personal bodyguard tried to cover up the scandal
when
tasked to investigate the case.
Senior Assistant Commissioner
Winston Changara, who is also head of the
Police Protection Unit (PPU)
reportedly took the victim, Janet Mutasa, on a
joy trip to stop her from
spilling the beans.
The ambassador allegedly cajoled Mutasa into giving
in to his demands for
oral sex for a period of about two years.
Mutasa
told The Standard last week that Changara had tried to cover up the
case by
taking her on a tour of the resort town of Victoria Falls and Binga
during
which he told her to drop the charges against ambassador, Mahmound
Yousef
Azzabi.
“Changara told me to forget about the story and promised to find
employment
for me in return. He also told me that I should not report the
story to
anyone.
“I have decided to come out in the open about what
the ambassador did to me
and how he took advantage of his position. What is
most disappointing is
that Changara, as head of a police unit, did not take
any action against
this man. He must explain his inaction. I challenge him to
deny that I
reported the matter to him.”
When the story broke two
weeks ago, Changara denied ever having met Mutasa
and any knowledge of her
sexual abuse at the hands of Azzabi.
“He must be ashamed of himself for
denying that he does not know me when he
used to call me muzukuru (niece), I
know his office like the back of my
hands and all my family members know that
Changara had said he would help me
with my case,” said Mutasa.
She
told The Standard that her family was now living in fear following
the
publication of her sex ordeal at the hands of the the ambassador,
between
1999 and last year.
“Police officers are frantically looking
for me and threatening members of
my family who are refusing to tell them
where I am living,” said Mutasa.
“The officers who said they had been sent by
Changara visited my parents’
home last Sunday and asked about my whereabouts.
They instructed my parents
that I was to report Changara’s office at
Tomlinson Depot and explain how
the press had got wind of my story,” she
said.
Mutasa narrated how she had first met Changara at his Tomlinson
Depot office
and how they had quickly established a relationship with him
calling her
muzukuru and promising to investigate her allegations against
the
ambassador.
Said Mutasa: “I was referred to Changara by some
officers who told me that
my case was so serious that it could only be
handled by their boss,
Changara. This happened in August 2001 and was the
beginning of a long
working relationship with him which saw him take me out
for a weekend at the
Victoria Falls and Binga in the company of eight
officers from his unit.”
She said at the Victoria Falls they spent five
days enjoying themselves and
in Binga, they stayed at lodges.
She
added: “Changara sent his driver with $2 500 for bus fare for me to
board a
bus to Victoria Falls where he was already. He told me that he
needed a break
from the ordeal and that he would secure a job for me in
Victoria
Falls.
“Changara used to regularly send his driver called Chagonda to
pick me up
and take me to his office for further questioning and information,
but
eventually he said the best he could do was help me find a new job and
start
all over again.”
Mutasa says her relationship with Changara
soured after the Victoria Falls
escapade. “Changara become hostile and told
me he was no longer interested
in helping me. He sent Chagonda to get me from
Dzivarasekwa and drive me to
State House where he was on duty and we went to
the Royal Golf Club where we
had a meeting.
“He said I was a dirty
person who did not appreciate what he was doing for
me. He even said he had
been forced to lie to President Mugabe that I was
his niece whom he was
helping to secure a job.”
Mutasa said Chan-gara’s change of attitude
towards her came about after the
policeman had learnt that she had reported
the matter to the deputy minister
of youth development, gender and employment
creation, Shuvai Mahofa, who had
asked her to write a report and forward it
to the minister of foreign
affairs.
“When Changara learnt about my
meeting with minister Mahofa, he became mad
for reasons I don’t understand.
This happened in September last year and it
was the last time I spoke to him
until he started sending people to my
parents’ home looking for
me.”
Mutasa was dismissed from her employment on allegations that she had
stolen
five plates, but she maintains that she had been set up for
threatening to
expose the ambassador for sexually abusing her.
Zim Standard
Chihuri orders cops to vote Mugabe
By our own
Staff
POLICE Commissioner Augustine Chihuri has embarked on a campaign tour
for
Zanu PF and is ordering his subordinates to vote for President Robert
Mugabe
in the forthcoming presidential election, The Standard has
learnt.
According to police sources, Chihuri’s whirlwind tour has taken
him to the
country’s provinces.
Although police spokesman, Assistant
Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena, said
Chihuri’s tour was not for campaign
purposes, but for appraising officers on
the political situation in the
country, those who attended the meetings
insist the commissioner was
campaigning for Mugabe.
They said Chihuri’s trump card in his current
campaign is the recent 155%
pay hike for officers, and the on-going land
redistribution exercise which
has seen members of the uniformed forces
receiving preferential treatment in
the allocation of plots.
Chihuri, who
violated the Police Act in 2000 when he publicly declared his
loyalty to Zanu
PF, has already toured Manicaland, Mashonaland West and
Mashonaland Central.
Last week, he addressed police officers at Morris Depot
and Harare
Central.
He is to cover the remaining provinces before the presidential
poll
scheduled for 9 and 10 March.
Said one police officer from
Manicaland: “Chihuri reminded us of the recent
pay increases and said we
should thank the government for addressing our
plight. He then castigated the
MDC, saying it was sponsored by whites and we
should never vote for
it.”
According to another source, the commissioner, “who spoke like a
true
politician”, chronicled the events of the liberation struggle giving
reasons
why he thought government was right to grab land from the whites. He
also
allegedly threatened to deal with those officers aligned to the
MDC.
“Basically, the message was mari takakupai ende nyika haisi
kuzotorwa (we
have given you money and the ruling party will retain power),”
said the
officer.
Dismissing the allegations, Bvudzijena said the tour
had started before
government announced the pay increases for police
officers.
“That is a gross misrepresentation. We are trying to realign
police officers
to the objectives of the organisation. We want police
officers to understand
the political climate in the country and how they
should deal with political
violence which is an area of concern to us and we
need our officers to
emphatically deal with it.
“We were not only
looking at crime but administrative issues as well,
including finances. But
some people have misconstrued our actions as
campaigning,” said
Bvudzijena.
Said one officer in response to Bvudzijena’s denials: “They
could never buy
us with money, nor with Chihuri’s cheap politics. Like
everyone else, we are
suffering because of the current corrupt government and
we definitely won’t
be bought by Mugabe’s 30 pieces of silver.”
A
constable within the force described as “peanuts” the 155% salary
increment.
“It is worthless. I was earning $13 500 before the increase and
now this has
jumped to $30 000, but it is nothing when one looks at today’s
cost of
living,” he said.
Chihuri’s campaign trail follows a statement released
by the commander of
the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Vitalis Zvinavashe
on behalf of the
Joint Operations Command, that uniformed forces would not
respect the
results of the presidential poll if Mugabe lost the
election.
Members of the Joint Operations Command include Chihuri
himself, Air Marshal
Perrence Shiri, Zimbabwe National Army commander, Lt Gen
Constantine
Chiwenga and the heads of the intelligence and prison
services.
Just before the 2000 parliamentary elections, Chiwenga
undertook a similar
tour, ordering soldiers to vote for the Zanu PF
candidates in the the
general election which was narrowly won by Zanu
PF.
Zim Standard
Zanu PF fails to stop Tsvangirai, Obasanjo meeting
By
Chengetai Zvauya
EFFORTS by a high-powered Zanu PF delegation to stop a
meeting between
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and MDC president,
Morgan Tsvangirai at
State House, in the early hours of Monday morning were
scuttled when the
Nigerian leader insisted on the meeting taking
place.
The ministers—among them foreign affairs’ minister, Stan Mudenge;
lands,
agriculture and rural resettlement minister Joseph Made; home
affairs
minister, John Nkomo; Nicholas Goche of state security and Jonathan
Moyo of
information and publicity—were clearly embarrassed when Obasanjo
insisted on
seeing Tsvangirai in private.
According to sources, after
the meeting with Mugabe, the ministers wanted to
shepherd Obasanjo straight
to the airport but he refused to budge until
after he had met with Tsvangirai
in private at State House.
“They all looked bemused as Obasanjo went
ahead with his meeting with
Tsvangirai at State House. They expected him to
ignore Tsvangirai, but he
proceeded to greet Tsvangirai, give him a warm hug
and call him ‘Mr
President’,” said the source.
Equally surprised were
state security details manning the State House who
could not believe their
eyes when Tsvangirai arrived in a Mercedes Benz
around 1am. They simply
saluted the MDC leader as a sign of respect.
The Standard is also
informed that in the interior of the presidential home,
Tsvangirai was warmly
received and cordially served with tea, after turning
down the offer of a
more solid meal. This happened while he was waiting for
the Nigerian leader
at the guest house he was staying in.
Yesterday, Tsvangirai himself
confirmed his warm reception by security
details and staff at State
House.
Said Tsvangirai: “Yes, I can confirm the meting took place at
State House.
The staff there were very good and gave me a warm
reception.”
Obasanjo then met with Tsvangirai, who was in the company of
his shadow
foreign affairs minister, Tendai Biti. Also present on the
Nigerian side
were, foreign affairs minister Sule Lamido; information
minister, Professor
Jerry Gana; co-operation and integration in Africa
minister, Chief Bimbo
Ogunkelu and Obasanjo advisor, Enerst Shoneka.
News24
Relief supplies arrive in Zim
Harare - An initial
consignment of 5 200 tons of maize imported by the World
Food Programme (WFP)
under an emergency relief plan has arrived in the
western city of Bulawayo, a
senior Zimbabwean official confirmed on
Saturday.
But as the
consignment was delivered by truck, fears were growing that
Zimbabwe's
transport facilities do not have the capacity to distribute
enough maize to
meet demand.
Maize is already scarce on the nation's supermarket shelves.
An estimated
558 000 people are thought to need food urgently.
It is
estimated that Zimbabwe's railways cannot handle more than 10 000 tons
a
month and the roads only a fraction of the balance, needed to meet
the
monthly national consumption of 150 000 tons.
Grain producers last
week said the country's meal stocks were down to less
than 40 000
tons.
But the Grain Marketing Board - a semi-state organisation - said
imports
would not be needed if it could seize stocks being illegally
concealed and
hoarded by white growers it accuses of being bent on economic
sabotage.
Last week the government moved to seize 36 000 tons of maize it
claimed
white farmers were illegally holding back. The claim was denied by
the
producers.
Analysts say that a massive drop in commercial planting
of maize has
contributed to the food crisis.
Morgan Tsvangirai,
presidential candidate for the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC), says 13 million Zimbabweans face the prospect of
hunger and
starvation. - Sapa-DP
Zim Standard
News Focus—Moyo’s rude awakening
By Farai
Mutsaka
WHEN information and publicity minister, Jonathan Moyo first
introduced the
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill in
December, he was a
very proud man.
Five weeks down the line, Professor
Moyo is not proud but wounded. Not only
has the Bill seriously dented his
image, but it has left his popularity in
the party in question and has badly
battered his ego.
The party disagreed with him on major clauses which
would have given him the
power to hire and fire journalists operating in
Zimbabwe.
Used to having his own way in a party he thought he controlled,
Moyo
received a rude awakening from Zanu PF MPs when they refused to endorse
the
Information Bill in its original form.
Ruling party MPs were
united in caucus that Moyo’s Bill was too draconian to
be passed without
amendment. Moyo had spent five weeks trying to convince
his colleagues to the
contrary.
MPs flatly told him that he could not fight his personal wars
through
parliament.
And like a truly wounded man, he has been forced to
make concessions which
have seriously eroded the power he expected to give
himself through the
Bill.
Thirty-six amendments have so far been made to
the Bill but the MPs want
more changes.
Now that he is completely out
of ideas, Moyo has resorted to tongue lashing
senior party officials he
suspects are behind his failure.
On Friday morning, he attacked respected
politician and astute lawyer,
Eddison Zvobgo, accusing him of suffering from
memory lapses.
Zvobgo’s crime: He has refused to be pushed into making a
hurried report on
the Bill. Zvobgo is the chairman of the Parliamentary Legal
Committee
responsible for scrutinising bills and exposing their
constitutional flaws.
Zvobgo, a former justice minister, has accused Moyo
and his ally, justice,
legal and parliamentary affairs minister, Patrick
Chinamasa, of failing to
put the Bill together properly and of thus causing
the current chaos.
Said Zvobgo: “The chaos has not been caused by the
legal committee. The
chaos has been caused by the government and the minister
in particular, who
has failed to put this Bill together properly. The chaos
is totally
unassociated with my committee. The minister has held this house
to ransom
by his failure and inability to put his things a bit more neatly,”
said
Zvobgo.
Moyo was stung by these comments.
Said a ruling
party MP: “What we did was reduce him to size. He disregarded
advice from
elder party members when he was crafting the Bill. He was very
proud of it
and saw it as his personal project but we don’t want to be used.
Moyo should
know that he is still politically immature and has a lot to
learn. We could
not be forced to pass a law that would in effect ban all
journalists from
practising. Moyo does not have a constituency to report to,
but back in our
constituencies, we will be asked why we are enacting such
bad
laws.”
Party insiders believe Moyo’s recent setback to be the beginning
of worse
things to come for the former donor-funded professor, it could be
the
beginning of his fall from grace.
“He was beginning to see himself
as the all powerful man in the party and
had to be stopped at some point.
This is someone who joined the party only
last year, from the Constitutional
Commission and yet he wants to act so
big. We will not allow it. The mood now
is that Moyo is a big liability and
is discrediting the party by making too
many enemies. He has to be stopped,”
said a party insider.
As he waits
for a second reading of the Bill on Tuesday, Moyo must surely
be
contemplating a possible future in the political
wilderness.
Zim Standard
Zanu PF concerned about violent campaign
By Farai
Mutsaka
THERE is heavy lobbying within Zanu PF for the party to desist from
the
violent campaign which has seriously dented the party’s image, The
Standard
has learnt.
According to sources within the party, a number
of senior members felt the
violence had to be stopped if the ruling party was
to attract meaningful
support.
Manicaland governor, Oppah Muchinguri,
is spearheading the anti-violence
campaign, the sources
said.
Muchinguri is said to have made presentations to President Mugabe
for an end
to the terror campaign being employed by the party.
The
governor is understood to have made her plea at a recent meeting
between
President Mugabe and the provincial governors. Much-inguri could not
be
reached for comment at the time of going to press.
“There are
people in the party who have now realised that the violence has
to stop. The
campaign is backfiring and it is not doing us any good. The
party is now
being viewed as a violent party and this will not win us any
votes. We have
to adopt other strategies. While such a campaign could have
worked in 1980,
times have changed and people are cleverer. They can no
longer be
intimidated,” said the source.
The anti-violence lobbyists are said to
have accused Zanu PF political
commissar, Elliot Manyika of fanning violence
through his notorious youth
brigades recently trained at the Border Gezi
Training Camp in Mt Darwin.
“Manyika should stop abusing those
youngsters. They have been mounting
roadblocks and beating up people in the
rural areas. Manyika can use them in
his own province, but we will not allow
them to cause suffering among people
in our provinces. That is not the way to
win votes,” said a ruling party
insider.
In an abrupt u-turn, the
usually combative Manyika has of late been
preaching anti-violence messages
and warning ruling party militias not to
construct roadblocks in rural areas.
At a recent rally in Mashonaland
Central, Manyika told his militias to stop
harassing villagers and demanding
party cards from them.
The province,
in which Manyika was once governor, has been the worst
affected by political
violence.
Virtually all rural areas in the country have become ‘no go’
areas because
of roadblocks mounted by Zanu PF militias who assault anyone
they find
without a ruling party card.
The violence has so far claimed
the lives of over 90 MDC supporters. The
opposition have been barred from
campaigning in rural areas which Zanu PF
claims it totally
controls.
The excessive violence in rural areas has seen a number of MDC
supporters
being displaced from their homes.
The war veterans have set
up bases around the country which are being used
as torture
camps.
“The real challenge is for us to filter the message to the war
veterans and
party supporters on the ground. What we are now trying to do is
tell war
veterans leaders to pass on the message to their members not to
use
excessive violence anymore,” said a senior Zanu PF official.
Zim Standard
ZCC deplores terror campaign
By Trevor Muhonde
THE
Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) has castigated the government
for
unleashing a reign of terror on innocent citizens.
This comes in
the wake of attacks by government-sponsored militias on
churches affiliated
to the council.
In an interview with The Standard, the general-secretary
of ZCC, Denison
Mafinyane, said while the government was preaching peace, its
supporters had
gone “demonic” by besieging churches.
“What the ZCC is
saying is we do not want violence. We do not believe in the
killing of our
people. All political parties should urge their supporters
not to violate
other people’s rights,” said Mafinyane.
His comments come in the wake of
the heavily criticised national day of
prayer meeting which was transformed
into a Zanu PF rally as overzealous
church leaders fell over each other in
praise of President Mugabe.
Notable among those at the meeting was
Anglican Harare Bishop Nolbert
Kun-onga who has caused chaos in the diocese,
Madzibaba Nzira of the Johane
Masowe Wechi-shanu, and a plethora of leaders
of obscure churches.
Mugabe in hunt for 'four hidden correspondents'
By David Blair and
Peta Thornycroft in Harare
The Daily Telegraph, 25 January 2002
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/25/wzimb25.
xml&sSheet=/news/2002/01/25/ixworld.html
PRESIDENT
Robert Mugabe's regime launched a hunt for foreign journalists
inside
Zimbabwe yesterday, accusing four correspondents of entering the
country
illegally and having "intelligence cover from a hostile state".
The Daily
Telegraph was accused, along with three other newspapers, of
sending
journalists to Zimbabwe "under the guise of being tourists" in
defiance of a
virtual ban on correspondents visiting.
The latest threat to the
international press came as Mr Mugabe's attempt to
push through a draconian
media law descended into chaos.
For a fourth time, his aides failed to
bring the bill before the House,
triggering an unprecedented public row
between a senior cabinet minister
and Eddison Zvobgo, a veteran figure in the
ruling Zanu-PF party.
The Herald, the official daily newspaper, said
yesterday it had found
journalists from The Daily Telegraph, Guardian,
Economist and the Sunday
Times of South Africa staying in hotels or "safe
houses" owned by the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
It
quoted George Charamba, permanent secretary of the Information
Department, as
saying: "Our net is closing in on them and we should be able
to account for
all of them before the close of the day."
The journalists were accused of
breaking regulations compelling foreign
journalists to seek permission one
month before visiting Zimbabwe.
Clearance is almost always
refused.
Three correspondents were expelled last year and the BBC was
banned. Since
then some journalists have entered Zimbabwe as tourists and
filed reports
under their own names. The Daily Telegraph has a permanent
correspondent in
Harare, but no journalist on special assignment.
The
Herald yesterday quoted Mr Charamba as saying: "What makes the
whole
development quite sinister is the fact that these journalists have
got
intelligence cover from a hostile state."
The government has
previously branded journalists "terrorists" and Zanu-PF
supporters have
assaulted at least 12 in the past six months.
Observers believe that the
action against journalists is intended to
obscure a violent campaign by
Zanu-PF to secure victory for Mr Mugabe in
the presidential election due on
March 9 and 10.
Mr Mugabe has taken this campaign a stage further by
proposing the Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill that would
make it illegal
for journalists to work without state approval and ban
foreign
correspondents from living in Zimbabwe.
But a crucial
stumbling block has been the parliamentary legal committee.
Chaired by Mr
Zvobgo, who was sacked from Mr Mugabe's cabinet in 2000, it
is believed to
have told the government that its bill is unconstitutional.
Yesterday
Patrick Chinamasa, the justice minister, announced to a packed
parliament yet
another delay in the appearance of the media bill before the
house, to gasps
of surprise from MPs. He then attacked the legal committee
and accused it of
"holding this house to ransom".
Mr Zvobgo rose and rebuked Mr Chinamasa.
"Members are quite aware of the
chaos that was caused by government, by the
minister, in putting this bill
together," he said. It was Mr Chinamasa, he
said, who was holding the house
to ransom.
The sight of two Zanu-PF
heavyweights attacking one another on the floor of
parliament was an
unprecedented sign of the discontent within the ruling
party.
The Hon A. J. Downer
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Dear Minister
There is growing public concern over the crisis in
Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean Australians, especially those who still have filial links
with Zimbabwe, are concerned for their loved one’s futures and for the
country…its people, the economy and its environment.
Zimbabwe is at a critical juncture: the outcome of the presidential
election, scheduled for 9th -10th March, will decide whether the country returns
to the rule of law and establishes a plural democratic system or descends into
the depths of political and economic chaos. The latter scenario will have a
disastrous effect on the broader southern Africa region where fragile economies
are already suffering the effects of the government created crisis in Zimbabwe.
A refugee situation is developing in Zimbabwe and will add to the global refugee
crisis.
As a result of recent draconian Zimbabwean legislation:
· tens of thousands of innocent voters have been
disenfranchised
· the opposition has had its campaigning efforts curtailed
· security forces powers have been expanded to such a degree that
civil liberties are all but destroyed.
The erosion of democracy and human rights surpasses that which occurred
under the Smith government when it became world pariahs. The world shows less
revulsion of the Mugabe government’s excesses. Australian media coverage of the
situation in Zimbabwe is to be condemned for its paucity. Loud condemnation from
activists is conspicuous by the silence.
We thank you and the government for your efforts in putting pressure on the
Mugabe government through the Commonwealth, and other means. Your insistence on
the restoration of the rule of law and due democratic process is much
appreciated.
You are urged to continue to speak out on the demise of democracy in
Zimbabwe and to make urgent representations to Mr Thabo Mbeki, other SADC
leaders and Mr Kofi Annan requesting continual pressure on the ZANU PF
government of Zimbabwe.
Unfortunately, expulsion from the Commonwealth will now have little or no
impact on President Mugabe or the elections. Decisions have been delayed too
long and too many excuses have been made for what is actually happening. If
there is going to be any real attempt to help the country, it will have to be a
concerted and direct international effort. Why? Because President Mugabe and
his government are no longer dependent upon the west as a result of financial
backing from Libya. They are therefore able to thumb their noses at democratic
processes.
The Libyan support of President Mugabe comes with its own agendas,
price tags and demands. The Libyans will bleed Zimbabwe dry and create a
convenient and strategic staging post within southern Africa for their future
plans. They have a very vested interest in ensuring that President Mugabe
stays in power. The silent victims are the naïve, but exceptional Zimbabwean
people. Only a very small percentage of mainly city based people have any idea
of what is going on due to the complete repression of the media.
www.swradioafrica.com broadcasts
live each day from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Zimbabwe time. It is an attempt to get an
independent radio voice into the rural areas of Zimbabwe where there is no
access to the independent press. Needless to say, it does not broadcast from
within Zimbabwe.
The current situation in Zimbabwe provides alarming evidence to support the
view that Zimbabwe is indeed disintegrating towards a total political, economic
and social meltdown, resulting in intolerable suffering on the people of
Zimbabwe. Enclosed, as addendum, please find a precis of articles which have
been compiled from news and information received since mid 2001. This is done in
order to stress the speed at which events are moving. These are divided into
the following headings:
· The Gaddafi factor
· Tampering with the voters rolls
· Fate of the black farm workers
· Fear of opposition
· Redeployment of troops
· Military training of school children
· Military About-Turn
· Refusal to abide by judicial or parliamentary decisions
· Election date
· Growing links to terror groups and Bin Laden
Also attached in full are two excellent articles by Basildon Peta, a
fearless journalist of great integrity who works with the Zimbabwe Financial
Gazette.
The penultimate attachment is an e-mail from a white farmer. His anger and
despair at the situation is an example of the anger building up across the
nation.
The last attachment is from Cathy Buckle, the author of African Tears. She
has been bravely speaking out against the government (through e-mails), having
earlier been a supporter of Mr Mugabe in his government’s earlier years. Her
e-mail is attached as an illustration of the hopelessness of the situation.
Zimbabwe can be saved from the abyss if sufficient diplomatic pressure is
exerted from the international community. You are urged to continue applying
diplomatic pressure on the international community, and SADC countries in
particular, to call for the following:
· An end to all acts of political violence and intimidation in
Zimbabwe
· The implementation of SADC norms and standards for a free and
fair election
· The unequivocal withdrawal of recently implemented draconian
legislation
· The Zimbabwe Government to condemn political
statements by the army
· The immediate invitation and accreditation of international
observers
· Guarantees that international and local journalists will be able
to work without fear of arrest or political intimidation
If the conditions are not met by the end of January the international
community is urged to take decisive action and impose targeted sanctions on
President Mugabe, his family and other leading Zanu PF figures (and their
families) guilty of committing gross human rights abuses.
Yours faithfully
Angus Falconer
Copies to: The Hon KM Rudd MHR; Senator Vicki Bourne; Senator Alan
Ferguson; Senator Andrew Murray; Premier Geoff Gallop, The Australian, Melbourne
Age, The West Australian
Attachments
The Gaddafi factor
In
September, the Guardian (UK) wrote:
Gadaffi, who has despaired of his efforts to play a leadership role in the Arab
word, has begun to use his financial muscle to make interventions right across
black Africa. He has made Zimbabwe a special case, first advancing
Mugabe a loan of $100 million and then making a special trip to the OAU summit
in Lusaka, the first such summit he had attended since 1977, to give all-out
support to Mugabe's land-grabbing and anti-white policies.
Since then, the association between the two has resulted in:
Gaddafi’s promise to Mugabe of $586 million in fuel supplies
A $900,000 election
contribution to the funds of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party.
Gaddafi calling on Zimbabwe’s
Muslims to wage a jihad against the whites
¨ After his visit, Gaddafi leaving
behind two bodyguards for Mugabe and four specialist coordinators, experienced in the training and a handling
of death squads
¨ Mugabe recruiting Libyan bodyguards
and highly trained intelligence officers to beef up his personal security
¨ Gaddafi buying/being given 20 houses
in Zimbabwe likely to be used as safe-houses for death squads. The houses are
strategically scattered; four in Harare and one in every regional town or
centre of any size.
¨ The establishment of a Libyan
Embassy in one of the homes of Mugabe’s wife, Grace
¨ The instigation of a joint plan
calling for the targeted assassination of MDC politicians, troublesome
journalists and the like.
¨ The allocation of at least a dozen
(now thought to be nearer 25) large-scale farms to Libyans as part of an
‘economic cooperation package’ but thought also to be involved in the
training of young militia
¨ LIBYA acquiring a substantial stake
in the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim)
¨ HUNDREDS of Libyan troops, part of
Col. Gaddafi’s elite forces who are known for their terror tactics being sent
to Zimbabwe and housed in secret locations scattered across the country
with, it is believed, assassination squads moving into Harare.
¨ Zimbabwe's passport office ordered
to produce 10,000 passports, which will be issued to Libyan nationals,
according to officials in the registrar general's office. Unofficial
estimates now say that about 15 000 Libyans have had their Zimbabwean passports
processed.
Tampering with the voters rolls
¨ A deadline of January 6 imposed
for residents of foreign descent to obtain proof they have renounced any claim
to foreign citizenship. The stringent legislation - which will strip the newly
stateless of their votes - was rushed through Parliament and signed into law
last July
¨ In the last three months, an
estimated 100,000 foreigners have been brought in to Zimbabwe to take up
citizenship, holding up and ahead of, resident Zimbabweans wishing to register
in order to be able to vote
¨ once the ‘aliens’ have acquired
local passports, they will be allowed to register to vote in 2002’s
presidential election, boosting the ruling party
¨ a crack-down and refusal to register
anyone who has a parent born outside the country even if they are themselves
Zimbabwe born
¨ people spending nights at the
Registrar-General's Office, with most saying every excuse is found so that they
fail to get passports, births, deaths certificates or national identity cards.
¨ Only known Zanu-PF voters being told
exactly how and where to register
¨ An estimated 2.8 million
dispossessed black farm workers unable to vote because they now do not live in
a specific area and cannot produce the utilities bills etc., as proof of
residence
¨ On December 4th, a high court judgement ordered the government
to relax the stringent proof or residency rule likely to disenfranchise further
millions of people
¨ Government
over-ruling this judgement
¨ The likelihood that tens of
thousands will arrive at polling booths only to be told they are not registered
¨ postal ballots accepted only from
staff at diplomatic missions and soldiers posted abroad.
¨ The new rules bar Zimbabweans living
in other countries from returning home to cast ballots.
¨ Zimbabweans of Indian descent,
hundreds of thousands with links to Malawi and Mozambique, people with Greek
ancestry, are among millions facing statelessness
Fate of the black farm workers
¨ Most of the dispossessed farm
labourers have nowhere to go and can be seen by the side of dusty roads seeking
shelter from the bitter winter nights.
¨ lawyers for farm workers
increasingly worried over the fate of tens of thousands of workers and their
families, who have effectively disappeared and no one knows where they have
gone.
¨ Pro-government militants, blocking
off country towns and huge swaths of the countryside, making it difficult for
workers' advocates and aid agencies to count how many people have been
displaced by the violence.
Fear of opposition
¨ On January 4th, despite orders from Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court
that Harare’s mayoral and council elections must go ahead, Mugabe hinted at
postponing these elections indefinitely
¨ On
January 6th, Government
announced it will amend the Urban Councils Act in order to abolish the posts of
executive mayor. The amendment will see the introduction of chief
executives appointed by a board with members chosen by the minister of local
government, public works and national housing.
¨ There
will be no further mayoral elections anywhere
Redeployment of troops
¨ July: despite UN requests, Zimbabwe
refuses to withdraw troops from the Congo (DRC)
¨ November 21st, Mugabe recalls thousands of soldiers from the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to help him fight a crucial
presidential. All Zimbabwean soldiers barred from taking leave until
after the conclusion of the presidential election.
¨ November
29th, Mugabe deploys troops in the opposition’s
stronghold in north-western Zimbabwe.
¨ December
9th -hundreds of starving villagers who are not
members of the ruling party in Lupane have been denied food aid by the war
veterans and vigilante groups. The worst affected are the children and the
elderly. The war veterans, most of them former Zipra guerrillas who were
themselves victims of the same party and government in the 80s, have made sure
that only members of Zanu PF obtain food relief. About 100 000 people are in
urgent need of drought relief food in Lupane and Nkayi districts but food is
not reaching them
¨ December
16th, in a move described as a crackdown on
"terrorism", the Zimbabwean government has moved army units into
Matabeleland province bringing fears of a repeat of the “gukurahunde” staged in
the 1980’s when at least 20,000 are estimated to have been killed by Zanla armed forces (North Korean trained
Fifth Brigade).
¨ state-sponsored
terror squads, responsible for the violence in Mashonaland during the
parliamentary bye-elections, transfer their activities to the rural areas of
Matabeleland North - specifically the Lupane and Nkayi districts. Vigilante groups
comprising war veterans and Zanu PF supporters roam villages looking for
members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). They have vowed
to turn Lupane and Nkayi into "no go" areas for the MDC whose
meetings have already been banned in Lupane. Indoctrination camps for MDC
abductees have been set up in these areas
Military training of school children
¨ December 27th: The opposition leader said the government was
operating an unofficial militia. "They are operating under the guise of
national service, and about 1,000 of them have been let loose to terrorise MDC
supporters in the towns and rural areas."
¨ December
28th: 1 000
national service officers were recruited by the government after one of
Mugabe's militant cabinet ministers, Border Gezi died in a car crash in April.
A training camp was established in his memory and the first 1 000 graduates
went into service 6 weeks ago
¨ December
29th:
Zimbabwe's national service officers have been accused by the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change of political violence and terror over Christmas. Sekai
Holland, an senior MDC official, brought three severely injured supporters to
hospital in Harare on Wednesday after, she claimed, a rural government clinic
refused to treat them. Some had their hamstrings and tendons cut, others have
been chopped all over their bodies.
¨ December
29th: the
first man attacked by national service officers, MDC activist Laban Chiweta,
died in hospital from injuries sustained on December 6. Three other opposition
activists were killed a few days before Christmas, allegedly by war veterans
and national servicemen, bringing the number of MDC supporters killed since the
June 2000 election to 90.
¨ January
1st: Graduates from the Border Gezi Training
Camp, being trained ostensibly under a national youth service training program,
descended on Kuwadzana township. They randomly beat up and harassed the
residents - then proceeded to Mabvuku where they did the same thing. This group
of about 100 youths beat up people accusing them of being MDC
¨ January
4th: The
ruling Zanu PF party, through the deployment of war veterans, has turned
several schools in remote rural areas into makeshift military barracks to train
youths to campaign against the opposition in the run-up to the March
presidential election. The veterans are using sticks as guns in the military
drills. The recruits, some allegedly forced to join the militias, undergo
10-day training sessions. On Monday, recent graduates from training centres
terrorised western townships of Harare, smashing windows, looking for food and
taking clothing from washlines in the name of Zanu PF. Residents complained
that police stood idly by while youths damaged their property for about
two-and-a-half hours. Armed with sticks, stones and other weapons, they looted
grocery shops, flea markets and vegetable stalls. More than 70 houses were
destroyed in the chaos.
Military About-Turn
¨ September
6th: middle
and junior-ranking officers of the spy Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) recommended that President Robert
Mugabe should retire before next year's presidential election to enhance Zanu
PF's chances of winning the ballot
¨ November
15th: The
Zimbabwe National Army has offered farms and land to all serving soldiers in
exchange for support and loyalty to President Mugabe in next year's election.
¨ November
24th:
Zimbabwe’s commissioner of police has ordered a white farmer to leave his land
and home, because he is moving in. Augustine Chihuri and his wife arrived
at Woodlands Farm, Shamva, one of the richest agricultural areas in the
country, and introduced himself to Mike Butler, the farm owner. Mr Chihuri told
Mr Butler that he and his wife would be arriving soon to take up residence in
the homestead
¨ December
20th:
Zimbabwean army generals urged President Mugabe to quit and anoint a successor
on the eve of the governing party’s Victoria Falls conference, to enhance Zanu
PF’s chances in next year’s presidential election. Authoritative sources said
the top generals, under the umbrella of the Joint Operation Command (JOC), met
Mugabe in one of their regular briefings. The JOC comprises General Vitalis
Zvinavashe, Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Lieutenant General Constantine Chiwenga,
Zimbabwe National Army, Air Marshall Perence Shiri of the Airforce, Police
Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and Elisha Muzonzini, Director-General : Central
Intelligence Organisation.
¨ December
23rd: Contrary
to expectations that the Zimbabwe government's land resettlement exercise would
benefit landless peasants, Joseph Made, the agriculture minister, has allocated
prime farms to top army, government and Zanu PF officials.
¨ January
6th: Mugabe,
has doubled the pay of the country’s security forces as part of a campaign for
victory in March elections, which he hopes will keep him in power for five more
years. All police, soldiers and war veterans received the increases on New
Year’s Day, putting their salaries and allowances well ahead of those of other
public-sector workers in a crumbling economy, which is effectively bankrolled
by Colonel Muammar Gadaffi of Libya, who has given Mugabe a £250m credit for
oil imports
¨ January
10th: An hour
before election dates were announced Zimbabwe's military leaders declared
they would only support a leader who fought minority white rule in the 1970s.
This is seen as a warning that they would not support a government led by
Morgan Tsvangirai. Flanked by all of Zimbabwe's security chiefs, General Vitalis
Zvinavashe said: "Any change designed to reverse the gains of this
revolution will not be supported."
¨ Until
now, the military has strenuously denied accusations that it supports Zanu-PF,
maintaining that it will loyally serve the government of the day - whoever wins
elections.
Refusal to abide by judicial or parliamentary decisions
¨ January 8th: Zimbabwe's ruling party suffered a shock
defeat in parliament on Tuesday when it introduced a controversial electoral
amendment bill that critics allege is designed to boost President Robert
Mugabe's re-election bid in March. With a number of Zanu PF deputies absent
from parliament after a three-week break, the governing party lost the vote 22
to 36 but vowed to reintroduce the bill on Wednesday.
¨ Zimbabwe's
main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said that
under parliamentary regulations a defeated bill can only be reintroduced in the
next session of parliament later in the year.
¨ January 10th:
Zimbabwe's parliament has approved two of the three controversial measures
which President Robert Mugabe wants to use in his re-election
campaign.
- The security bill stipulates ‘engendering
hostility towards the president is an offence; police have new powers to
disperse public gatherings; carrying identity cards is compulsory.
The first clause would effectively prevent the opposition from
campaigning.
- The election bill
stipulates ‘voters must prove 12-month residency; ex-patriate workers are
denied the right to vote; foreign and independent local monitors barred;
election posters or pamphlets require prior permission. The opposition had
defeated the amendments to the electoral law on Tuesday.
Bills rejected by MPs are not normally allowed to be resubmitted to the same
parliamentary session.
¨ The
security bill was passed by acclamation and not by formal vote, and the
election bill was passed by 62 votes to 49.
¨ A third bill introducing tight
controls on the media has not been passed by parliament. January 18th.
(This has more than likely been the result of international pressure, thus
proving that international pressure is beginning to have an effect)
Election date
¨ January 10th: Elections will be held on March 9th and 10th 2002. BBC correspondents say Mr Mugabe's
election chances are unlikely to be affected by any decision to expel the
country from the Commonwealth, as CHOGM does not meet until the beginning of
March.
Growing links to terror groups and Osama Bin Laden
There have been many articles reflecting these links … too many to
list. However this one
paints a picture of where ZANU PF is heading.
October 2001: Those who have been following Zimbabwe's 18-month
crisis will be familiar with the aborted listing in June 2000 of a diamond
mining company on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM). Oryx Diamonds
had been due to float its shares on the AIM, in a deal with linked it with
Petra Diamonds, a South African-based mining exploration company, in a bid to
raise finance for the exploitation of a Congo diamond mining concession granted
- in dubious circumstances - by the then President of the DRC, Laurent Kabila.
Oryx Diamonds has very strong links with members of the Zimbabwean military,
and senior members of Zanu PF.
The listing never went ahead owing to strong protests from groups fighting
against the use of "blood-diamonds" to finance Africa's wars, and, it
was reported at the time, because of direct intervention by the British
government. BBC TV's Ten O'clock News on 31 October (?) carried a special
report on the ongoing international investigations being conducted into the
financing of Osama Bin Laden's global network. The report suggested that one of
the men involved in this aborted Oryx Diamonds share flotation was a known
front-man for Osama Bin Laden's past financial operations.
SUDAN
Recent months have seen the sudden warming in relations with another state
frequently linked with terrorism, Sudan. Zimbabwe has confirmed that it is
negotiating to obtain oil from Sudan.
From The Independent
(UK), 28 December
We'll ignore the death threats to fight this despot
Basildon Peta
President
Robert Mugabe has never had much of an ear for views divergent from his own. In
2001, the Zimbabwean leader's intolerance of the media reached its most extreme
level since he took the helm of this impoverished country at the end of white
rule in 1980. The year opened with a resounding warning to the media: the
bombing of a printing press owned by Zimbabwe's only independent daily
newspaper, The Daily News, on 28 January. The year closed with the introduction
of a despicable media law, intended to lead to the closure of all independent
publications in Zimbabwe.
The new Access to Information Bill, due to be passed by Parliament on 8
January, bans foreign journalists from working in Zimbabwe and obliges local
journalists to apply for licences every year. The Bill vests sweeping powers in
Mr Mugabe's chief propagandist, the information minister Jonathan Moyo, who will
personally select who works in the Zimbabwean media. Mr Moyo's hatred of every
basic tenet of democracy is now on public record and his vituperative outbursts
against proponents of freedom have become depressingly predictable. Last week,
he described Tony Blair as a "boyish leader" and an
"ignoramus" who should at "best be in charge of a kindergarten
school".
Anyone who thought the destruction of The Daily News’s printing press was as
bad as it was going to get, was naive. Five days before the bombing, the
77-year-old president's Government had vowed to implement all measures
necessary to silence the media, saying it had become "a threat to the
security of the nation". It soon passed a Bill that banned private radio
and television stations and entrenched the state's monopoly control over the
audio visual media. The Civic Society activist Mike Auret Jr, who had dared to
set up a private radio station, immediately went into hiding and has not been
heard from since. His broadcasting equipment was seized by the police and the
army, and the makeshift studios of Capital Radio completely destroyed.
During the year, at least 24 journalists working for the private media were
brutally assaulted by Mr Mugabe's supporters when they tried to report on farm
occupations by the ruling party's militants. Commercial farms have now
effectively become no-go areas for independent journalists as word has spread
that we are enemies of the regime. In one of the assaults, Collin Chiwanza of
The Daily News only escaped death by hiding in the bush for two days. Prominent
professionals, such as The Daily News's editor, Geoffrey Nyarota, virtually ran
their newspapers from prison cells as the Zimbabwe police regularly arrested
newsroom chiefs from the non-Government media. At least Mr Nyarota was
recognised abroad; he won four international journalism awards in 2001.
There were other arrests. Mark Chavunduka, editor of The Standard, was detained
over an accurate report carried in his paper that Mr Mugabe had been sued in a
New York court by families of 36 opposition supporters murdered by the
Government in the run-up to the June 2000 parliamentary elections. A New York
District Judge later ruled against Mr Mugabe, saying he was liable for the
deaths. Three foreign correspondents, including David Blair of The Daily
Telegraph and Joseph Winter of the BBC, were, with varying degrees of force,
shown the door, never to return. An expose by The Daily News that the police
had aided the looting of white farms caused the arrests of six of its journalists
in June. In virtually all of the 30-plus arrests of reporters and newspaper
managers, the police could not produce formal evidence to pursue the charges in
court. It all confirmed that the detentions and intimidation
were purely intended to break our morale.
In August, The Standard revealed the existence of a hit list of journalists to
be harmed or killed by the Government. Topping that hit list was myself, The
Independent's correspondent in Zimbabwe, and the only black journalist writing
for the British media. Prior to its publication, I had received numerous death
threats. Packets of bullets were left on my doorstep on three occasions, with
notes stating that I would be dead before the 2002 presidential election in
March. In November, Mr Mugabe's Government formally labelled me and five other
journalists working for the foreign media as "terrorists". It went on
to approve the Public Order and Security Bill (POSB), which imposes death and
life sentences on anyone accused of assisting terrorism.
Both the POSB and Access to Information Bill forced a December Commonwealth
Ministerial Action Group meeting to put Zimbabwe on its agenda - the first step
towards suspending the country from the 54-nation grouping. Meanwhile,
Zimbabwe's economy virtually collapsed with foreign currency reserves drying up
and multilateral donor agencies withdrawing from the country. Inflation, which
was below 50 per cent at the start of the year, soared to 103 per cent in
December. The unemployment rate rose to 60 per cent; key manufacturing firms
folded. The Chief Justice, Anthony Gubbay, was fired and Mr Mugabe appointed a
loyalist to take charge of the Supreme Court. About 110 opposition supporters
were killed in 2001 and many more casualties are expected as Zimbabwe approaches
the March presidential election.
But for many of us in the media, despite all the enormous risks we now face,
it's "Aluta Continua'' against Mr Mugabe's tyrannical and despotic rule.
How could it not be? He is wrong.
Party cards run out as Mugabe enforces loyalty
By Basildon Peta in Harare
20 January 2002
Funerals are important in African society, so
when Elizabeth Mujaji heard last week that her brother-in-law had died in the
Chikombe area of rural Zimbabwe, she made plans to travel from Harare to attend
the ceremony.
First, however, she needed to buy a membership
card from Zanu-PF, Zimbabwe's ruling political party. President Robert Mugabe's
"war veterans" and youth militias have set up illegal roadblocks
between most of Zimbabwe's towns, where they assault anyone failing to produce
a Zanu-PF card and send them back to where they came from to get one.
But the main party headquarters in Harare had
run out of cards. Mrs Mujaji (not her real name) then sent her three sons into
Harare's townships to try to buy one for her, but all returned empty-handed,
forcing her to give up her plan to get to yesterday's funeral.
On Friday, an elderly, white, farm manager
whose area has been closed off by militia checkpoints explained why he had
acquired a party card. Without one, he said, "you are humiliated. We were
made to kneel in the road, beg to be let through and sing slogans." He
asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.
Without the vital card, rural Zimbabweans are
finding it impossible not only to travel but to get medical treatment, seeds
and other agricultural aid for peasants, or school places for their children.
People hoping to be assigned property confiscated from white farmers under Mr
Mugabe's controversial land policies have no hope of succeeding unless they
produce proof of Zanu-PF membership.
In some of the areas worst affected by
political violence, such as Gutu and Zaka, traditional headmen and chiefs are
asking shopkeepers to sell goods only to those who can show Zanu-PF cards.
Those who sell to "opposition renegades" risk having their premises
burnt down.
Last week Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said Zimbabwe was already engaged in
a "low-intensity civil war".
Such forms of intimidation, affecting almost
every aspect of daily life, are commonplace in the more remote parts of
Zimbabwe, where most of the country's 12.5 million people live. As the March
presidential election approaches they are spreading to the towns, creating far
more public concern than the controversial bills now going through parliament
which will muzzle the press and make criticism of Mr Mugabe a crime.
"At this rate Zanu-PF cards are now an
equivalent of the water that we drink and the air that we breathe," said a
business executive who was humiliated at an illegal roadblock when he failed to
produce a card while driving his children to a boarding school.
Apart from acquiring a Zanu-PF card,
Zimbabweans are also finding it prudent to learn party slogans and liberation
war songs from the 1970s. Many who have been unable to chant these on demand
have been beaten up.
The rush to acquire cards has cut supplies to
vanishing point. Officials at Zanu-PF headquarters said that while they were
doing their best to print more to meet demand, they could not cope. A
"parallel market" has sprung up in which cards are changing hands for
up to nine times the official price: while the party is supposed to charge Z$34
(about 45p), unscrupulous Zanu-PF officials are charging up to Z$300 (about
£3.70).
Although many Zimbabweans are buying the cards
purely for convenience and are unlikely to vote for Mr Mugabe at the 9 and 10
March presidential election, their money will boost the coffers of a ruling
party that also enjoys the use of state funds.
REPORT ON PROCEEDINGS ON GWALIA
AND GEMINI FARMS BEATRICE
I am sending this to the press as a last resort as it patently clear to me from
my dealings with numerous authorities within Zimbabwe over the last 10 days
that the rule of law and order is long dead in our beloved country. I would
like it publicised as widely as possible nationally, regionally and
internationally. It is a very short summary of what has been a long, agonising
and protracted and unsuccessful battle to get the forces of law and order within
the country to even recognise their responsibility, let alone to act.
I am a farmer living in Beatrice, who owns 2 farms, Gemini Farm and Gwalia
farm. Contrary to Governments often espoused policy BOTH farms have been
designated. Gwalia farm (twice) has received a Section 8, and Gemini the
Section 7. My father and mother were resident on Gwalia, but my father died in
May 2001. For security reasons my mother moved to Gemini to stay with me.
Gwalia has 13 workers, and Gemini 20 workers. There are however some 100
dependants. Whilst after my fathers death the Gwalia workers were clearly
surplus to requirement I kept them on given the harsh economic times we were
experiencing, in the hope that following elections some degree of normality
would return; a fundamental mistake on my part as they are primarily
responsible for my predicament. My family have been resident in Beatrice since
1930, and I have been resident there all my life (47 years). We have throughout
the years experienced a very good working relationship with the locals and our
workers.
On 4th January 2002 whilst returning from Johannesburg I received a phone call
that my family were surrounded by war vets who were seeking to evict us. I
responded immediately. We were given 30 minutes to evacuate the farm under
threat of death. The head vet, a rabid man known as Marewa, reporting to the
Head honcho for the Beatrice area, Zhou, stated clearly that he knew I had
arms, but that he was also armed, and failure to comply would mean death. He
further stated that I could phone the police if I liked, but that I would find
that they would not react. The police had in fact already been alerted by
radio, and sure enough they would not react, claiming lack of transport.
When provided with transport by the local community, they
still refused to react. We eventually left the farm with three suitcases and
meagre belongings.
We stayed in Harare for 2 days with friends. On the 3rd day I arranged a
meeting with the Inspector of Beatrice police to attempt to negotiate a
strategy to get back onto the farm. He stated that I should return the
following day and he would arrange a meeting with both the labour and the WV.
The following day we went to Gemini and Gwalia and held the meetings. He
explained to them that I was entitled to return to the farm until the
acquisition process had been completed. The workers were concerned about their
terminal benefits in the event of acquisition, as the WV were representing my
forced departure as me having run away .Despite my assurances that they would
receive all their dues, they remained concerned. We agreed to meet on
Saturday 12th January 2002 with the WV to reach an agreement. It must be noted
that terminal gratuities are agreed through the collective bargaining process
between the NEC and ALB, and are clearly laid out in the labour regulations.
They also only become payable on termination. At this time no notice had been
given, so any payment of terminal benefits was premature.
On Saturday we met on Gemini with the WV and the police. The WV stated that
there was no possibility of me returning to the farm. The police, in a complete
about turn, agreed. I was instructed to pay the workers their dues, and given
the undertaking that once this had been done I could remove all my livestock
and household contents. The WV however refused to recognise my right to remove
my movable assets, claiming that these were being acquired. I agreed to return
on Tuesday 15th January 2002 with the proposed payment schedule, which I did.
The proposal I tabled exceeded the amount that the workers were actually due by
5 times, and in my view was generous in the extreme. The Inspector undertook to
discuss the proposal with the WV and workers and revert, which he never did.
On Thursday 17th January 2002 morning I phoned the Inspector to confirm the
position. He stated that he had not yet discussed the issue but that I should
pay out the workers on Saturday anyway. I agreed. However, an hour later he
phoned me to say that he had a group of workers in his office together with
their attorney, a Mr Herbert Kawadza, with a court order authorising the sale
of my property to recover the alleged amount owing. I was astonished. We had
agreed on the process, and I had held up my end of the bargain to the letter. I
stated that it was not possible that the workers could have a court order, as
nothing had been served on me. The Inspector remained adamant. I agreed to
immediately proceed to Beatrice police station to discuss the issue, which I
did with my lawyer. To date I have still never seen my copy of the court
application.
On arrival we found that the workers and their lawyer had left. We examined the
document, and as expected it was NOT a court order. It was an
application to the court by the Gwalia workers, in which I was given until 12th
February to respond. (CFU has copy) My lawyer went to great pains to explain
this to the Inspector. However he was extremely reluctant to recognise the
truth, and continued to represent the affidavit as a court order. His attitude
in this regard was fundamental to the whole organised theft of over Z$ 40
million of property, as he had lent an air of legitimacy to the issue. This
resulted in the workers together with the war vets auctioning 230 head of my
cattle on Thursday afternoon. We appealed to the police without any success. Z$
12 million worth of cattle were sold for some Z$ 4 million. The cattle were
moved off the farm, many in commercial transport. We again appealed to the
police, again with no success. The matter was taken to the district police in
Chivu, who also refused to act. The workers and war vets pocketed the sale
proceeds which amounted to many multiples of what they were claiming was due to
them.
Now desperate, I went to see the Zanu PF Chairman for Mashonaland East, Mr
Kaukonde. He concurred that this was theft, and was amazed that the police
would not react. He arranged for me to meet the Provincial Administrator, Mr
Chingosho, in Marondera. I drove to Marondera and met with the PA. He
initially was reluctant to get involved, but eventually stated that there was a
task force currently in Featherstone, consisting of the DA, the National
Chairman for the War Vets, Mr Nyaruwata, and senior police officers from Chivu,
who could be diverted to attend to the matter. I drove to Featherstone, and
eventually found them. I briefed the task force, but they were unable to assist
on the same day.
On the way back I went to the farm. My workers on Gemini stated that the cattle
on Gemini had been forcibly removed by armed war vets and the Gwalia workers,
and taken to Gwalia. They were intending to auction them on Monday. Over the
weekend the CFU contacted the Assistant Commissioner, Mutanga, and the WV
leadership. I was in constant contact with Mr Cloete, I also phoned the police
hot line without success.
On Saturday I went to Gwalia to assess the situation on the ground which was
highly volatile. There were several armed men with a very hostile attitude. I
discovered that the cattle were bound for abattoirs, and I contacted all
abattoirs and cattle transport companies to inform them that the cattle were
stolen, and were not to be slaughtered. The cattle are branded with a H on
their left flank, and have a triangle cut on their left ear. One of the armed
men shot at me with a shotgun, at which time I decided to leave.
I received assurance on Sunday evening that a senior officer had been allocated
to stop the sale on Monday until the situation could be properly evaluated. On
Monday I received confirmation from the Inspector in Beatrice that the sale had
been stopped. However, despite these blatant lies, the auction proceeded on
Monday. I am informed that half way through the auction the proceedings were
stopped, and the WV moved all the cattle to Joyce mine, which serves as the WV
base. They have not been seen since, but I am informed that they have been sold
from Joyce to various buyers.
On Tuesday 22nd January I requested the SPCA to go into Gwalia to recover my
domestic animals. Mrs Harrison kindly complied but was met with very hostile
workers and WV, and failed to remove anything. She states that this is the
first time she has been unsuccessful, and that the police escort she was given
was of no use at all.
The bottom line here is that the workers, together with the WV have stolen and
illegally sold over Z$ 40 million of property. They have done this with the
full co-operation of the police, who were fully aware that no court order
existed. They are preventing me from moving 1000 pigs which are now in a sorry
state. They have impounded the movable plant and machinery, and the household
contents, effectively leaving me destitue.
The district is controlled by a war vet named Zhou, who clearly does not take
his instructions from the politicians, the forces of law and order, or his own
leadership, but reports direct to the top. There exists complete anarchy.
Farmers have been threatened with death if they talk to the media.
Fundamental to the whole scene is the complete impotence, ignorance, arrogance
and sheer cowardice of the police in general, but the Officer in Charge of
Beatrice in particular, who is without doubt an accomplice before, during and
after the fact to the whole sorry mess, and is not fit to wear the uniform.
I intend to proceed legally against the workers, the police, the state, the
lawyer who is responsible for lending an air of legality to the situation, and
all buyers who knowingly purchased stolen cattle, in the hope that in the
unlikely event that law and order ever returns to Zimbabwe some compensation
may be forthcoming. We have lost in a week what has been built up over 3
generations. If there is a God, may those responsible fry in hell.
Subject: Nothing is sacred anymore
Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002
Dear Family and Friends,
Standing in line at the supermarket this week I was intrigued by the woman in
front of me who was buying 36 bottles of spring/mineral water. I smiled at her
and asked if she was travelling far. No, she replied, it is for the government
meeting in the hotel over the road. Her bill for Z$1860.00 was to ensure pure
water for our leaders while their subjects have nothing to eat. A few months
ago I wrote a letter called 'You may not grow food' explaining how war veterans
were preventing farmers from planting any crops saying that the land was now
theirs. The fruits of their labours are now clear for us all to see. There is
almost no maize meal in Zimbabwe now. I phoned our local distributor and
visited all the supermarkets and wholesalers in Marondera this week to be told
there is no maize meal and they did not know when they would next get a
delivery. This is a desperate situation which the government is attempting to
resolve by seizing all maize stocks still being held by farmers. These stocks
were being held back by farmers to feed their employees and their livestock.
Thousands more lives have now been put at risk and the implications for the
livestock producers and consumers in the coming months is diabolical - eggs,
milk, cheese, chicken, beef, pork, lamb etc etc. To make matters worse it has
not rained for over 3 weeks in most parts of the country so the few crops in
the ground are in a dire condition. Last night even the state run ZBC carried
reports on the condition of our crops. Trying to explain why there was so
little maize growing and why crops planted by the newly resettled farmers was
in such a bad way they said: "Tillage power was inadequate.... water
conservation practices were not adhered to ... army worm is rife because the
settlers cannot afford pesticides...it is a disturbing situation..."
Speaking to agronomists the ZBC reported that crops in parts of Mashonaland
East and Central and Manicaland would recover if rains came in the next week
but would have greatly reduced yields. In the Midlands and Matabeleland though,
the agronomists said that many crops had "passed the permanent wilting
stage." ZBC call this a 'disturbing situation', I would say it is gross
political negligence. Aid agencies have received the first deliveries of food
aid but the World Food Programme are already warning they may have to leave if
the violence is not controlled. The Financial Gazette reports that relief
workers with Christian Care were this week subjected to violent attacks by a
gang of ruling party youths after not being able to produce Zanu pf membership
cards. It is now unsafe to travel without a ruling party membership card and in
an area near here this week a funeral procession was stopped at an unofficial
road block. All the mourners were made to disembark and militants ordered that
the coffin be opened saying they were looking for hidden weapons. It seems that
nothing is sacred in Zimbabwe anymore.
The Access to Information Bill has still not been heard in the house, having
been postponed three days in a row when the parliamentary legal committee
continued to say they were not ready to present it. This has again given us
another week of newspapers - when you can get them. The Daily News is
completely unobtainable in at least a dozen towns now and in some places it is
dangerous to be seen with it. Copies are secretly guarded and produced from
under skirts and inside trouser legs in many areas making us wonder why we even
need an access to information bill. Our independent journalists all deserve
world recognition for their work and incredible bravery because when you do
find a paper the news is absolutely damning. So too is the nightly 3 hour
broadcast from radio Africa on short wave 6145 which has become almost our last
life line. Hardly a night goes by now when I don't sit with tears in my eyes
listening to the horrors being related by people all over Zimbabwe.
There are only 41 days now until our elections and with no sign of a single
election observer yet I wonder if it won't be peace keepers we will end up
asking for. I am going to close with a quote from a friend's piece in this
week's Financial Gazette in the hope that it may prick a few consciences:
" You have children too and if you love your children the way I love mine
you would be in the forefront of fighting for a just and democratic
society." I apologise for so few letters answered this week and thank you
all for your messages of support. Please do have a look at http://africantears.netfirms.com
for other reports and information. With love, cathy
CNN
UK slams Mugabe, urges sanctions
January 27, 2002 Posted: 3:38 PM
EST (2038 GMT)
Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since it gained
independence from Britain in 1980.
LONDON (Reuters) -- Britain said on
Sunday it was now time to ratchet up
pressure on Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe, whose crackdown on free
speech and refusal to allow in international
election observers were
unacceptable.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
will push this week for fellow European Union
leaders to impose targeted
sanctions on Mugabe and for fellow Commonwealth
leaders to suspend Zimbabwe
from the 54-nation group alliance, a government
spokesman said.
With
just six weeks to go before Mugabe seeks to extend his 22-year hold on
power
in Zimbabwe's presidential elections, the spokesman said time was
running out
for the international community to take steps to ensure the poll
is free and
fair.
"The time has come to put Mugabe on the spot," he said.
EU
foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss possible
measures
against Mugabe if they agree he has not done enough to ensure fair
elections
on March 9-10.
MORE STORIES
EU to tackle world's
hotspots
COUNTRY PROFILE
At a glance:
Zimbabwe
Provided by CountryWatch.com
Two days later
Commonwealth foreign ministers gather in London for talks on
Zimbabwe's
suspension from the group of mainly former British colonies.
Diplomats in
Brussels had said the EU foreign ministers will probably stop
short of
imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe, for fear of giving Mugabe an excuse
to bar
independent election observers.
"He (Straw) will be pressing for a
decision to impose targeted sanctions on
Zimbabwe unless the government there
meets EU demands on election observers
and demands on international media by
a short fixed deadline," the spokesman
said. He declined to elaborate on when
that deadline would run out.
At Wednesday's meeting Straw will argue that
Zimbabwe should be suspended
from the group at a Commonwealth heads of
government meeting (CHOGM) due in
Australia in March, he said.
"We
believe it is time to focus President Mugabe's mind more sharply on
the
consequences of his repression. What has been happening is Zimbabwe
is
totally unacceptable."
'A disgrace to the country'
The upcoming
meetings follow a stinging public attack on Mugabe, who has
ruled Zimbabwe
since independence from Britain in 1980, by Prime Minister
Tony
Blair.
Blair told parliament last Wednesday Mugabe's pre-election
crackdown on
political opposition, capping a two-year campaign to occupy
hundreds of
white-owned farms, was a "disgrace to his country" which would
harm the
whole of southern Africa.
Asked whether Straw was confident
of support from his EU counterparts for
sanctions against the southern
African nation, the government spokesman
said: "There is a shared abhorrence
at some of things that have been
happening there (in Zimbabwe).
He
rejected suggestions that in offering Mugabe more time to meet demands
the
international community was talking tough on Zimbabwe but soft pedaling
when
it came to action.
"We have made clear from the beginning of the year our
concerns and the
likely consequences of a continued deterioration in the
situation. We
believe the time has now come to ratchet up the
pressure."
Diplomats say any EU sanctions on Zimbabwe would most likely
include travel
restrictions and a freeze on overseas assets held by Mugabe
and his inner
circle.
The Independent (UK)
'Smart' sanctions may not be enough to free Zimbabwe
from tyranny
28 January 2002
The call for "smart" sanctions against
Zimbabwe's government has become the
rallying cry of the moment. When
European Union foreign ministers meet today
to agree modest measures designed
to express disapproval of Robert Mugabe's
reign of terror they will try to
present them as cleverer than the
traditional trade embargo.
The
shadow foreign secretary, Michael Ancram, is enjoying a relatively easy
ride
along the moral high ground, urging the Government to impose smart
sanctions,
safe in the knowledge that no interviewer is going to suggest
that he ought
to be in favour of the stupid kind instead.
Yet no one should imagine
that such targeted – for which read limited –
measures provide a painless or
quick way of relieving the frightening
oppression of the Zimbabwean people.
The point about smart sanctions is not
that they are different from stupid
ones but that they are less than the
real thing. While a ban on Mr Mugabe
travelling to Europe is a good thing,
and any attempt to identify and freeze
his assets is welcome, these and
other measures expected to be agreed by the
EU today do not go far enough.
Even if the Commonwealth's "ministerial
action group", which meets on
Wednesday, inches a little further towards
suspending Zimbabwe from
membership, that important symbolic gesture would
probably also fall short
of the decisive pressure needed to force Mr Mugabe
back from the brink of
murderous tyranny.
The situation in Zimbabwe is
certainly grave enough to justify the most
stringent international response
short of military intervention. No
objective observer can expect the
elections in March to be free and fair,
especially when the army has declared
in advance that it will not accept any
outcome other than Mr Mugabe's
re-election as president. The curbs on press
freedom and the continued
intimidation of the regime's political opponents
are unacceptable.
If
full economic sanctions were likely to be effective, and if they had
the
support of the Zimbabwean people, they would be the next logical
step.
However, for several honourable reasons it would be wrong for the
British
Government to advocate such an escalation. One is tactical: that it
would
play too easily to Mr Mugabe's threadbare but still viable
propaganda
machine, which seeks to present any British intervention as an
attempt to
restore white colonial rule. That is why it makes sense for
Britain to act
primarily through international groupings such as the EU and
the
Commonwealth.
The second reason is the reluctance of Zimbabwe's
neighbours, particularly
South Africa, to take effective action against Mr
Mugabe. One of the main
obstacles to Zimbabwe's suspension from the
Commonwealth has been that its
other African members, which ought to take the
initiative, have held back.
Sanctions will not work – as they did not work
against Mr Mugabe's
predecessor, Ian Smith – if they are not enforced by
neighbouring African
nations.
The third and most important reason,
though, is that – unlike the South
African majority under apartheid – most
Zimbabweans themselves do not yet
support full sanctions against their
country. The Movement for Democratic
Change, the main political opposition to
the Mugabe regime, supports
measures directed against Mr Mugabe and his
henchmen but not against the
country as a whole.
So, while it is too
early to call for full economic sanctions against
Zimbabwe, British ministers
should make it clear that they stand ready to
support whatever measures are
called for by representatives of democratic
forces in Zimbabwe. And, whatever
Britain's responsibilities as a former
colonial power, it should be repeated
that the right country to take a lead
in condemning Mr Mugabe and trying to
deter him from destroying his nation
is South Africa.
The Age, Melbourne
Britain ready to take Mugabe to task with possible
sanctions
LONDON, Jan 27 AFP|Published: Monday January 28, 5:55
AM
London will recommend to EU foreign ministers that they put
Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe "on the spot" and threaten him with tough
sanctions,
a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said today.
"We
believe it is time to focus President Mugabe's mind more sharply on
the
consequences of his repression and essentially say he has a choice,"
the
spokesman said.
European Union foreign ministers are due to meet
in Brussels tomorrow to
discuss possible sanctions against the southern
African nation, ahead of
crucial presidential elections set for
March.
The ministers will have four options: immediate sanctions; a
declaration of
sanctions in principle with implementation at a later date; a
formal threat
of sanctions; and, the resumption of consultations with the
government in
Harare.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw "now
believes that the time has come to
put Mugabe on the spot", said the Downing
Street spokesman.
But officials in Brussels said immediate sanctions --
in the form of banning
visas for Mugabe or his close aides, or freezing their
assets held in
foreign accounts -- were unlikely.
Straw may also call
on members of the Commonwealth to take a harder stance
against Mugabe on
Wednesday, when its Ministerial Action Group meets to
discuss developments in
Zimbabwe, said Blair's spokesman.
Britain has pushed hard for its EU
partners to strike a common position on
Zimbabwe, in parallel with its
efforts to have Harare suspended from the
Commonwealth over Mugabe's
political style.
"Clearly what has been happening in Zimbabwe is totally
unacceptable and I
think the word the prime minister used last Wednesday was
that Mugabe's
actions were a disgrace to his own country and also badly
affected the
reputation of the whole of southern Africa," he added.
On
January 11, the EU gave Harare one week to respond in writing to a
request to
allow international observers and foreign journalists into the
country to
follow the electoral campaign and the elections on March 9
and
10.
Zimbabwe agreed, but EU officials say Mugabe has not done
enough to ensure
that such conditions will be met.
From Regional CFU to Provincial Land Committee...........
LAND
ACQUISITION AND INHUMANE TREATMENT OF CATTLE
I refer to letters, which I have
previously written to the Provincial Land Committee, and lately, on the 24th,
to the Officer Commanding Masvingo Province (which I attach).
There are two area which are still
of extreme concern at the moment:
(a) Continual interference
with commercial livestock on commercial farms which has been accompanied by
vicious threats by organised Zanu PF youth to force cattle off, or to restrict,
their rightful grazing land.
(b) The eviction ultimatums
being given by organised Zanu PF youth being given to legitimate farm owners to
evacuate either their homesteads, or sheds, or outbuildings by a certain date.
This is normally commenced by the beating of commercial farm workers, who are
being banned from working for commercial farmers, as to do so “identifies them
with the opposition MDC.”
On (a) there are also
continual reports coming in of cattle also being hacked with either choppers or
pangas, and the latest was carried out by a 12 year old boy on Quaggapan Ranch,
in Mwenezi. The animal’s spinal cord was severed which paralysed the animal,
which subsequently had to be put down. On this ranch alone 8 other similar
cases have recently occurred.
There are a number of
properties where grazing has been severely restricted and in many cases cattle
forcibly kept out of paddocks because a settler has a small unfenced plot of
maize in there. Many malicious compensation claims have been lodged when a
“farmer’s cattle” have been accused of destroying a crop, which in reality
would not have come to anything any way. I am sure you are well aware that as a
result of the present dry spell, as things stand at the moment, no crops are
going to be successfully reaped in this province this year. In the northern
part of the province too much rain destroyed most of the crops early in the
season.
We view this merely as
just another form of political harassment, but which is seriously affecting the
grazing capacities of our farms by their legitimate owners, and the health of
their livestock.
I respectfully urge you
to properly inform all parties involved that the farmer and his livestock still
have every right, under the Constitution and Laws of Zimbabwe, to live on and
to graze his cattle on his farm. This is until the lawful process of land
acquisition has been completed.
There is obviously a lot
of confusion being created by some irresponsible political rhetoric and I
believe that in the interests of a democratic Zimbabwe that it is your duty as
a committee to rectify the confused situation immediately.
From my observations,
this particularly applies to both the Police and District Administration in the
Gutu/Chatsworth areas, where there appears to be a series of private vendettas
being continued against certain individuals. Or is it simply that they have not
been properly informed?
With respect I did not
know that “education” was so important that whole farm premises and farming
operations are being ordered to be closed down in order for farm homesteads to
be immediately used as schools and teacher’s housing. With this comes the threat
to confine or remove cattle as well!
Finally I respectfully
request you to inform all those concerned that the process of land reform as
agreed by the Abuja Accord and the ZJRI, is now the only recognised government
policy on land reform, and that it should be strictly adhered to.
After all, all I and my
farmers wish is to be able to farm and produce food for the nation, in peace,
and that our livestock may be able to graze freely and be treated humanely.
Firearms seizure ......... Annual checking of licences and weapons
I refer to my email dated 20 January
2002, on the subject for firearms seizures by the police from "designated"
farmers.
A few days after this order from
PoliceGHQ was sent, it was withdrawn and replaced by another which ordered
merely that annual checking of licences and weapons be carried out.
Obviously our lobbying and eventual discussions
with police hierarchy paid off.
However for those who wish to renew
their firearms permits applications now have to be signed by the Officer
Commanding, Province, (Propol) and not just any police officer over the rank of
Inspector, as was the case before. Just another bit of petty bureaucracy to
niggle people.
I thank you for your
concern.