http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=9490
January 4, 2009
By Owen
Chikari
MASVINGO - A group of about 10 soldiers clad in full military
gear deserted
from 4 Brigade headquarters outside Masvingo on New Year's Day
and went on
the rampage.
They assaulted people and looted goods from
shops.
Residents of Rujeko, a high density suburb of Masvingo, spoke of a
nasty
encounter with the deserters as they went from door to door,
assaulting
people and demanding cash.
At least five people among them
a three year-old were injured during
disturbances which lasted almost three
hours.
The soldiers told those they assaulted that they were tired of
working
without being paid and had every reason to obtain foreign currency
from the
public.
One of the deserters was arrested while nine are
still on the run. The nine
are believed to have crossed the border into
neighbouring South Africa.
"We were surprised to see soldiers in full
military uniform at night ", said
Jereki Chanyau, a resident of Rujeko who
was one of the victims.
"They assaulted anyone they came across and even
went door to door demanding
money and other valuables."
The police in
Masvingo confirmed the incident adding that they had since
launched a
manhunt for the nine.
"We managed to arrest one soldier and nine are
believed to have run away and
have never been seen", said a police officer
who refused to be named.
"We want the rogue soldiers in connection with
the looting that took place
in Rujeko and surrounding areas. At the moment
five people are receiving
treatment in hospital including a three year old,
after they were beaten up
by the rogue army elements."
Witnesses told
the Zimbabwe Times that the soldiers said they were heading
for South Africa
because they were tired of working for peanuts.
"They told us that they
were now leaving for South Africa and therefore they
wanted to raise money
for their journey," said one of the victims.
No official comment could be
obtained from the army as senior officers were
reported to be still on
holiday.
However sources at 4 Brigade said the arrested soldier confirmed
looting
goods from shops as well as beating up people.
The incident
occurred barely a month after rogue soldiers went on the
rampage in Harare
and looted goods before seizing cash in both foreign and
local currency from
members of the public.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=9481
January 4, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - Zimbabwe's security establishment now sees
determined preparation
for staging a coup against President Robert Mugabe in
every nook and cranny.
A heavily armed group of armed security agents,
some arriving by helicopter,
stormed an outdoor training camp on the
outskirts of Harare on Friday night
under the pretext that training of
insurgents was underway in military
strategies in preparation for a coup
against the government.
The camp site, Kudu Creek, which trains boy
scouts, tourists and others in
outdoor living, is located along Gardner Road
in Ruwa. It is owned by Angus
Thompson and Gary Nestead. The invaders of the
camp site allege that
Thompson and Nestead are former members of the
Rhodesian Security Forces
infamous Selous Scouts.
The controversial
Selous Scouts were a special-forces regiment of the
Rhodesian Army which
operated from 1973 until dissolution at independence in
1980. They were
named after British explorer Frederick Courteney Selous. The
Selous Scouts
committed brutal acts against both civilians and ZANLA and
ZIPRA forces
during Zimbabwe's war of liberation. The regiment also
recruited captured
guerillas and often conducted operations in the rural
areas while disguised
as guerillas.
Thompson and Nestead have run the Ruwa training camp for
five years. They
offer training in adventurous activities and personal
development
opportunities for young people.
Sources say the area
around Kudu Creek was cordoned off around 11 pm on
Friday by four teams made
up of about 40 people.
The four teams comprised heavily armed officers
from the Zimbabwe Republic
Police (ZRP), military police, Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and
the Air Force of Zimbabwe
(AFZ).
A source, who witnessed the swoop on the place, told The Zimbabwe
Times that
he was also caught up in the raid.
"I was driving along
Gardner Road on Friday night at around 11 pm when I was
suddenly confronted
by a group of military police officers who instructed me
to remain in the
car," said another source who lives along the same road as
the camp
site.
"I couldn't even ask why because I was too terrified. Suddenly an
AFZ
helicopter hovered above the place before landing at some
distance.
"I saw everything that happened. The group entered Kudu Creek
and ransacked
the place before taking away the two owners and a handful of
people who were
there at the time.
The source said he was held up in
his car until the early hours of Saturday
morning when his house and others
along the same street were searched by the
military police.
A highly
placed police source told the Zimbabwe Times that the operation was
led by
two senior AFZ officers, Air Vice Marshals Henry Muchena and Martin
Chedondo, who arrived at the place in the AFZ helicopter.
"There was
nothing at the place except equipment used to train tourists in
outdoor
adventures such as bungee jumping and mountain climbing," said a
police
source.
"There were also receipts from schools which have sent their
pupils to be
trained as scouts at the place. It was just a waste of state
resources
because some of the people who were taken together with the owners
of the
place turned up to be mere gardeners.
"These people surely did
not commit any crime."
He said the state was hoping to gather its
evidence at the camp as it tries
to build a case against the mainstream
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
which it has accused of training
bandits in Botswana to forcibly remove
President Mugabe from
power.
The government is said to be preparing to present the evidence
before a
Southern African Development Community (SADC) security organ, which
has also
sent investigators to Botswana to investigate the
claims.
"They are saying the people were being trained in military-style
assault
attacks," said the source.
Close to 40 mainstream MDC
members, civic society activists and a journalist
are in prison on charges
of plotting to topple President Mugabe from power
by force.
The
detained include a two year-old child taken along with her
parents.
Lawyers representing the detained activists wanted the police to
arrest the
people who abducted them. But the Minister of State Security,
Didymus
Mutasa, vetoed the move saying it was a national security
issue.
The activists have been detained for close to a month now, and
have been
denied private medical treatment.
The High Court ruled that
the activists be sent to the Avenues Clinic in
Harare or that doctors of
their choice be allowed to examine them at
Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison
where they are currently detained.
The state has challenged these
orders.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=9496
January 4, 2009
Geoffrey
Nyarota
By Mxolisi Ncube
JOHANNESBURG - Some Zimbabwean
political exiles based in Johannesburg have
dropped what could be bomb-shell
on former Home Affairs minister, Dumiso
Dabengwa.
They accuse
Dabengwa, who is the leader of the recently revived ZAPU party,
of
personally presiding over their torture by state security agents close to
a
decade ago.
Yesterday Dabengwa briefly denied the allegations, saying he
would respond
in full if another phone-call was made in half an hour.
Several attempts to
call him thereafter failed as he had switched off his
phone
The exiles, most of them founder members of the Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC), which has now grown to become Zimbabwe's most
powerful
political party since independence apart from Zanu-PF, accused the
former
minister of "sitting and watching" while they were assaulted by state
security agents back in 1999.
The activists could not explain why
they were now going public after
remaining silent for ten
years.
Khumbulani Sibanda, formerly a youth member of the MDC in
Bulawayo, and two
other former MDC activists who requested not to be named,
told the Zimbabwe
Times that one night in 1999, they were tortured for more
than eight hours,
some of the time in Dabengwa's presence, at Magnet house,
headquarters of
the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) in the
city).
"I was among a group of about 16 MDC activists who were raided in
the city
one evening, while on our way to the MDC offices, where we wanted
to leave
our posters and other party material after a rally. While on the
way, we
were raided along Josiah Chinamano Street at about 7 pm, and
force-marched
to Magnet House," said one activist.
He said that their
captors, who numbered more than 40 people, most of whom
appeared to be war
veterans, accused them of trying to return Zimbabwe to
its colonial
rulers.
The activist, who claims he was among the most vocal members in
the group,
says that on arrival at Magnet House, most of their captors
departed,
leaving them in the hands of people they suspected to be members
of the CIO.
They had then been tortured.
"They beat us up with
anything they could lay their hands on, from baton
sticks to fists and
booted feet, saying that we should tell them who our
foreign sponsors were,"
said the activist.
Confirming the allegations, Sibanda said that while
they were still being
beaten, Dabengwa arrived in the offices and they
thought that he would free
them, since he was a government
minister.
"The CIO continued with the assaults, accusing us of being
terrorists who
wanted to topple Mugabe. Dabengwa sat in one of the seats in
the big office
and told us that we should co-operate or else we would die.
He was there for
more than three hours, while we were being tortured and
forced to eat party
fliers and other materials that had remained from the
rally," he said.
"Despite now claiming to have left Mugabe, Dabengwa is
one person that I
will not forgive for what he did to us that day," said
Sibanda.
"If he did not have anything to do to control Mugabe's torture
chamber, he
should not have come to laugh at us and demand that we tell
people where we
were getting guns that they knew we did not have. I wish I
could personally
testify against him in court in the event that we finally
re-gain freedom
from Zanu-PF. He is just as bad as Mugabe."
One of
the activists, who claims he fled to South Africa after he was
arrested and
tortured on several occasions, says that he lost part of his
eye-sight and
control of his left arm during the beating that Dabengwa
witnessed.
"My life has been destroyed now. I cannot do any job that
is physically
demanding because I cannot control my left arm. I have to
visit an eye
specialist every month, while also having to change spectacles
every six
months," he added.
Sibanda is the secretary-general of the
MDC Veteran Activists Association
(MDC VAA), which was formed to assist
desperate activists living in exile,
also confirmed that Dabengwa was part
of those who persecuted them.
"I was also in Bulawayo in the MDC
intelligence section when these things
happened and I was told on numerous
occasions that Dabengwa was there when
these crimes were committed. Now we
have to offer psychological counseling
to these traumatised individuals who
will be haunted forever by what they
went through," said
Sibanda.
Dabengwa defected from Zanu-PF in February last year to join
former Finance
Minister, Simba Makoni's Mavambo project.
When reached
for comment, Dabengwa briefly denied the allegations Sunday
evening.
"I do not remember anything like that, but call me after 30
minutes," he
said.
Repeated attempts to reach the former minister
thereafter failed, as his
mobile phone seemed to have been switched
off.
Dabengwa, who was Home Affairs Minister for eight years ending in
2000, is
now the chairman of a revived ZAPU, which broke away from a unity
accord
signed by Mugabe and former political rival, Joshua Nkomo in
1987.
"When I was in government and in Zanu-PF, I used to tell Mugabe not
to
victimize and use violence against the MDC but he did not listen," said
Dabengwa at a press conference soon after election to his new
position.
"He refused to stop using violence against the MDC saying that
the power
base of Zanu-PF was threatened. He was unrepentant and believes
violence is
the solution."
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=9486
January 4, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe will form a new government
by February,
state media has reported.
The state-controlled Herald
newspaper which normally reflects official
government thinking, quoted
unnamed sources as saying a new government was
most likely to be in place by
the end of February.
It was expected then that the three parliamentary
political parties would
have passed Constitutional Amendment Number 19 Bill
with Mugabe signing it
into law.
Mugabe has invited MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai to be sworn in as Prime
Minister. But Tsvangirai has declined the
invitation, arguing he cannot be
part of the government until a number of
outstanding issues have been
resolved.
Mugabe met Arthur Mutambara,
leader of the breakaway faction of the MDC to
discuss the formation of a new
government.
Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the MDC parties signed a power-sharing
agreement on
September 15. The pact has stalled over the sharing of key
ministries and
posts.
"The President has had enough of games from the
opposition and he made this
quite clear in his meeting with MDC leader
Professor Arthur Mutambara," said
a source quoted by The Herald. "They
agreed that a Government should be put
in place sooner rather than
later."
In the past, Mutambara has said the government without Tsvangirai
would not
work, and that he would not be part of a two-man deal with
Mugabe.
The Herald reported that Nicholas Goche, Zanu-PF's secretary for
national
security in the Politburo and Public Service Minister, was in
Musina on
Saturday to appraise the South African facilitators on "recent
developments
and to map the way forward".
It is understood these
included the invitations sent to Tsvangirai and
Mutambara.
Last week,
Mugabe terminated the executive appointments of ministers and
deputy
ministers who lost their seats in last year's parliamentary
elections.
Mugabe's spokesperson George Charamba would not she light
on the meeting
with the South Africans. Goche is understood to have met
Sydney Mufamadi,
mediator Thabo Mbeki's right-hand man.
Charamba, who
is also the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information
and
Publicity, said he could not comment on Goche's meeting as that was "a
party
issue while I am a Government spokesperson".
However, in an interview
with Violet Gonda of SW Radio late last year,
Charamba declared he was a
Zanu-PF functionary.
In fact, Charamba has routinely spoken for Zanu-PF
and overshadowed party
spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira.
He has also
eclipsed his former superior Sikhanyiso Ndlovu - now officially
dismissed
from his post as Minister of Information after failing to secure a
Parliamentary seat.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=9469
January 4, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - Zimbabwe's First Family flies out of Harare en
route to Malaysia
early this week but without the head of family, President
Robert Mugabe.
For what is probably the first time in many years he is
spending his
vacation at home amid reports he feels insecure, confronted by
abundant
evidence of simmering anger against his
government.
Officially, Mugabe is now on his traditional month-long
annual leave, but
will not join his wife Grace and their three children who
will spend the
holiday in Malaysia. The Zimbabwe Times was informed that
Grace and children
will return to Harare just before the opening of the
first school term.
It is believed that the First Family now owns a home
in Malaysia. They
usually spend the month of January there, with Reserve
bank governor Gideon
Gono, a relative of the First Lady, in
attendance.
The lavish lifestyle of the Mugabe family, which Gono
facilitates, rankles
the majority of his countrymen, including supporters of
his Zanu-PF party.
It is in stark contrast to the struggle of millions of
Zimbabweans who
cannot afford basic commodities such as milk or
bread.
The First Lady, who is 40 years Mugabe's junior, spends lavishly
on clothes
and jewellery.
The cancellation of Mugabe's annual
holiday, something completely out of
character for him, has prompted
speculation that the 84-year-old leader was
insecure in the face of
intensifying opposition to his rule in the absence
of a government over the
past nine months.
"This is more of a retreat than an actual leave,"
Mugabe's spokesman George
Charamba told the official Sunday Mail
newspaper.
"The President is very busy reflecting on new structures that
are needed to
deal with the economic sanctions against Zimbabwe as well as
working on
structures of an inclusive Government which must come too
soon."
The State media did not state whether Mugabe will continue his
official
duties or who will be in charge in his absence. In recent years,
Vice
President Joice Mujuru has taken charge in Mugabe's absence. Vice
President
Joseph Msika, two months older than Mugabe, has increasingly
withdrawn to
the sidelines on power over the same period. In March 2005,
Msika was rushed
to hospital after collapsing at home, apparently having
suffered a stroke
and a blood clot in his head.
The spin by the State
media on the causes for Mugabe's cancellation of his
annual trip stoked
speculation that Mugabe did not want to expose himself to
risk by being away
from Harare for too long at this period of political
uncertainty.
Over the past few weeks, as Zimbabwe plunged into
unprecedented economic
crisis and a devastating cholera epidemic killed more
than 1 600 as a result
of the total disintegration of water and sanitation
systems, international
calls for the ouster of Mugabe have reached a
crescendo.
Key Western countries and some prominent Africans, such as
Nobel Peace
Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, have proposed
that Mugabe
should be forcibly removed from office if he refuses to heed
calls to share
power, and also to cease attacks on the Movement for
Democratic Change.
Under pressure, Mugabe has ordered the arrest of over
40 political activists
ranging from humanitarian workers to journalists,
academics and opposition
supporters. They have all been linked to a plot to
overthrow him, charges
dismissed by lawyers of the accused as
trumped-up.
Mugabe has accused the MDC of training military insurgents in
neighbouring
Botswana to orchestrate unrest in Zimbabwe.
In tandem
with this alleged elaborate scheme, the Mugabe regime allegedly
staged
bombings of police stations and at various strategic points, sources
said.
Although there was no evidence, the government blamed elements linked
to the
MDC for the attacks.
Mugabe is reportedly taking the threats against him
seriously, according to
a government source. The threat was one of the
principal reasons for
calling off his holiday.
He has
characteristically reacted viciously and defiantly, lashing out with
increasing ferocity.
"Zimbabwe is mine," he thundered at a conference
of his Zanu-PF party last
month. "I will never, never, never surrender. I
will never sell my country.
No African state is brave enough to topple me or
order a military
intervention."
Notwithstanding the fact that his
re-election through a June 27 runoff
presidential vote which was boycotted
by his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai has
been condemned as illegitimate, Mugabe
insists that he is the duly elected
leader of Zimbabwe and that only the
people can remove him through an
election.
A senior Zanu-PF source
said the party was sharply divided and the divisions
manifested themselves
at the party's annual conference last month.
Factionalism reared its head
amid sharp differences over the power-sharing
deal with the MDC, which some
assert was a betrayal of Zanu-PF by Mugabe.
Zimbabwe's mounting economic
hardships have catalyzed public anger even
within Mugabe's own
party.
At the Zanu-PF conference Mugabe was forced to apologise after a
quantity of
food was stolen resulting in some delegates starving - a sign of
how
desperate even his supporters have become.
However, his
belligerent rhetoric and fiery speeches betray his resolve to
remain in
power.
Charamba claimed Mugabe had cancelled his holiday because he was
"working on
structures of an inclusive government which must come too soon."
He
contradicted earlier claims that Mugabe has decided to rule without the
main
MDC.
In a December 29 letter to Mugabe, Tsvangirai snubbed an
invitation to be
sworn into office before outstanding issues have been
resolved.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=9477
January 4, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
THE leader of the breakaway faction of the Movement for
Democratic Change,
Professor Arthur Mutambara, has said he believes strongly
that the result of
the March 29 presidential election was
fraudulent.
Mutambara was responding in writing to a question put to him
by The Zimbabwe
Times arising from a statement he made in an article by him
which was
published on the website Sunday.
In the article Mutambara
argues, among other things that President Robert
Mugabe cannot be removed
from office from office through a process of
negotiation. Mutambara argues
that the election of March 29, 2008, had
produced no outright winner both in
Parliament and at the presidency.
"The June 27 re-run was an illegitimate
farce, so we are stuck with the
March inconclusive outcome," says Mutambara
in the article. "As democrats we
must accept that this means that Mugabe and
his party are as much a factor
as Tsvangirai and his party are. Short of a
new set of elections or change
of leadership by their parties, it means
neither Tsvangirai nor Mugabe can
be negotiated away.
"On what basis
can we have a negotiated agreement that excludes Robert
Mugabe? If we accept
the March results as legitimate, he is a leader of a
party which won 99 MPs
vs 100 for MDC-T, 30 Senators vs 24 for MDC-T. He
came second to Tsvangirai,
43.2 percent vs. 47.8 percent. More importantly
Mugabe currently possesses
the presidency of Zimbabwe, yes illegitimately.
The question put to
Mutambara was: "Do you have any considered thoughts on
the inordinate delay
in the announcement of the outcome of the presidential
election held on
March 29... after five weeks?"
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)
announced the result of the
presidential election only on 2 May, saying that
mainstream MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai had won 47,9 percent (1 195 562
votes) and Mugabe won 43,2
percent or 1 079 730 votes), thereby
necessitating a run-off, which was
held on 27 June 2008.
A third
candidate Simba Makoni who stood as an independent garnered 207 470
votes
(8, 3 percent).
Tsvangirai withdrew from the second-round election,
citing violence against
supporters of his party, leaving the field clear for
Mugabe to win 85
percent of the vote in a one-man
election.
Mutambara's response to the question was: "I do not have hard
evidence on
anything. However several things are prudent to
consider."
He said there had been need on the part of Zanu-PF to destroy
the momentum
of the MDC victory by delaying the announcement of result.
Zanu-PF also
needed time to consider its options and to strategize, he
said.
"More importantly, there was need for time to fudge the numbers,"
he said.
"For RGM (Mugabe) to give MT (Morgan Tsvangirai) 47, 8 percent (2,
2 short
of victory) and himself 43, 2 percent after five weeks, means MT
certainly
had far more than 47, 8 percent, and RGM had far less than 43, 2
percent.
"I am not too clear how the rigging was done, but five weeks
provided enough
time to creatively do it. Only a small percentage of votes
needed to be
manipulated, anyway. They could also have taken a few votes
from Simba to
(give to) Mugabe. We all have not clearly thought about this,
as the
attention was now just on RGM and MT.
"I strongly believe that
the March 29th result was quite fraudulent, but
because June 27th was such a
total and tragic farce, we have all
psychologically sanitized the March
elections, as we viciously condemn the
June ones."
Mutambara says
that was a major mistake.
"We must condemn both, in particular both
presidential election results. By
accepting the March 29 elections results
as legitimate we are now stuck with
Mugabe/Zanu-PF as a legitimate and
democratic factor you cannot do without,
as I argued in my New Year
piece.
"The fact that everyone refers to the March election results as
the
legitimate expression of the people's will is actually victory for
Mugabe's
fraud. We have been had."
Throughout his 4 600 article
Mutambara creates the impression that both the
result of the March 29
presidential election and Mugabe's presidency, won
through the ensuing
election run-off, are legitimate
http://www.theglobeandmail.com
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO AND JULIO
MONTANER
From Monday's Globe and Mail
January 4, 2009 at 9:30 PM
EST
Maiba is in her late 40s. More than 20 children live under her care -
her
own children and those of her deceased siblings. In June, she was
captured,
gang-raped and severely beaten by youth militia, members of
Zimbabwe's
ruling ZANU-PF party, as punishment for saying she had no food to
give them.
Afterward, they literally dragged her home and ransacked her
house. She said
what hurt her most was knowing that her attackers were young
enough to be
her sons. She said they threatened to kill her if she talked to
the police,
but she talked anyway. She felt she was already dead.
In
the weeks before the sexual torture of Maiba (not her real name), there
was
still no clear winner from Zimbabwe's March 29 election, and President
Robert Mugabe's future was in jeopardy. We have since seen a presidential
runoff that ostensibly ended in a tie, months of power-sharing talks
obstructed by Mr. Mugabe's lust for absolute authority, the terrible
spectacle of a country disintegrating, assorted toothless bleating from
world leaders. Meanwhile, the people of Zimbabwe, particularly the women,
have been bloodied and broken under a nationwide campaign of sexual
violence, meticulously orchestrated during the election period to maintain
Mr. Mugabe's control. They endure intimidation, rape, torture, murder, the
spectre of HIV - and the fear of more to come.
At the request of a
Zimbabwean women's and children's rights group, the
international advocacy
organization AIDS-Free World has been collecting
testimonies. But as we
scramble to document the crimes and preserve evidence
for future legal
proceedings, we are deluged with warning signs that the
violence is about to
boil over again.
Zimbabwe is a very loudly ticking time bomb. Health care
and education are
distant memories. Patients on HIV drugs can no longer get
them. Cholera
rages. Human-rights activists disappear for weeks on end while
the
government claims ignorance of their whereabouts. Prominent activist
Jestina
Mukoko was recently abducted, discovered alive in government custody
21 days
later, "disappeared" again when police defied a High Court order to
release
her to hospital, then held again, charged with plotting against the
government.
In November, we learned from rights groups that the women
raped between May
and June, systematically and on orders of the government,
number in the many
hundreds and perhaps thousands. Interviews with survivors
show clear
patterns in the timing of the attacks, in the verbal threats
against
supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, in the
organized ways that groups of men methodically confiscated MDC materials, in
the method of rampaging through homes, abducting the women and brutalizing
them at "torture bases" for hours or days.
Testimony has been handed
to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights. An urgent letter
was faxed to members of the Security Council, which
met but took no action.
It's time for the UN to do its job - because, we can
assure you, the siege
against women is about to resume.
Rape is a simple, covert, inexpensive
way to terrorize and silence not just
women, but through them their men and
communities. The infrastructure is in
place: a clear command structure for
deploying ZANU-PF militia and extensive
lists of female MDC supporters. All
the "youth militia" loyalists need is an
order to act.
It need not
happen. Although the people of Zimbabwe have been rendered
powerless, the
leaders of the world have unanimously agreed that UN member
states have a
responsibility to protect when a government is unable or
unwilling to
protect its own citizens from precisely these sort of threats.
Member
states have legions of experts on peace and justice at their
disposal. They
could decide to send peacekeepers to Zimbabwe. They could
further ostracize
Mr. Mugabe. They could appoint a new negotiator to work
out a viable
power-sharing arrangement. They could let women into those
negotiations,
since women are bearing the most extreme brunt of the crisis.
It's not
for us to decide. But it is for us - for all of us - to remind our
elected
leaders of their responsibility to protect. For the raped women of
Zimbabwe,
for the people of Zimbabwe and for us, so we can stand without
shame.
Angélique Kidjo of Benin is a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and
co-founder of the Batonga Foundation. Dr. Julio Montaner is president of the
International AIDS Society and director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in
HIV/AIDS. Both serve on the advisory board of AIDS-Free World.
http://www.zimdiaspora.com
Sunday
Jan 4th
Zimbabwean politicians must
understand now that the people are not looking
for another theorist whom for
his own benefit wants to drive away the
attention from Mugabe to something
that is advantageous to their
aspirations. Plain truth is we are tired of
Mugabe whether he goes running
or walking, if he does not want to go we will
start pretending he is gone
very soon.
To think the Zimbabwean people
will lose their focus and put it on the west
is wrong theory of the Mugabes
is one last thing the people will do. If
Britain and America supported
Mugabe during those days, fine, we don't know
what was on their minds but
the most important thing now is that we know
what we want and it is that
Mugabe must go, period. Mutambara should refrain
from telling us what to do
but he must just wait for our surprises.
Blowing an unnecessary trumpet
is not the true essence of good leadership.
He is a leader of that part of
the opposition by default and that is plain
truth. That he was with Mugabe
at state house a few times more than
Tsvangirayi is just another bit that
shows that he is in by defalt.
If Tsvangirayi wanted that position the
way Mutambara does, he is in a more
summarised position than anyone that he
could have jumped on in no time. A
leader has to be a dealer in hope, hope
to the people who vote to choose
leaders and convincing to the critics that
wrong may be right.Mr Mutambara
has to be convincing, not be so prone to
doubts, to be openly seen as to
want to take advantage of a
situation.
Mutambara's outbursts on the West are nothing but just
frenzied outbursts of
emotion and that is not patriotism, the patriotism we
need is the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime. Going from failure
to failure without
losing enthusiasm is equivalent to success and we have
leaders that have
done this.
Tsvangirayi has stood firm with the
people and listened to them in all he
wants to do, Tendai Biti has been
incasareted,Nelson Chamisa has been
brutalised, Paul Madzore has been
imprisoned and tortured , the list is
endless, it would be betrayal not to
mention these and some gallant fighters
of tyranny. Leadership might not be
where they are right now but the
direction they are moving is towards
leadership.
When we look at the problems we are facing in Zimbabwe, we
all know what the
west did long time ago and we do not forget but the
mudslinging will not
free us from oppression by our own people. It is more
painful to be
oppressed by your own blood than an outsider. That is why a
child cries more
when beaten by his/her own parent than by a stranger. Our
problem is not
what the west did some time ago but what our leaders were
supposed to do
that they did not do right. Believe me the wrongs of Zanu pf
were fuelled by
greed not the west.
Let us leave the west for now
and concentrate on the departure of Zanu
pf.As for Mutambara comparing
himself toTendai Biti that he too has charges
laid by the Mugabe Government,
his (Mutambara's)are just cosmetic charges to
make it look like there is
equal treatment of the opposition.
We all know how flawed the SADC is and
that is why Mutambara wants us to
listen to them, the SADC does not know the
difference between leadership and
management, doing things right and doing
right things.Mr Mutambara is so
caught up in the destination that he has
forgotten to appreciate the
journey, he will have everything that he wants
in life without giving the
people what they want.
If the electorate
were something to go by in Zimbabwe,Mutambara could just
have been that one
who blows coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do
with, if the sparks go
in to his eyes he should not complain, because he is
just equal to
Makoni,why is he in the voyage with the players? Zimbabweans
want freedom
and peace for the full expression of their personality, nothing
more.
The anger in Mutambara on the west is obviously with a reason
but not a good
one. The anger in Mutambara should be that which focuses on
the emancipation
from this leadership carnage that has left Zimbabweans
hopeless, restoration
of democracy, transparency and the right to exercise
freedom under peaceful
means. We have been in this humanitarian crisis
since the year 2000 and we
have had two presidential elections, what will be
different now? If anything
could be possible with Mugabe to hold elections
by himself on 27June 2008 ,
what has changed that much? What could be
difficult with the whole country
going for an election?
It has only
been a few months, if it is for the people to lead a life then
at all costs
Zimbabweans can be ready for elections. It is true that America
and Britain
were not in favour of the GPA because they were clever enough to
have seen
where it was leading and this is where we are with it, can we say
they were
wrong?
NO! South Africa is our neighbour and who said Zimbabwe cannot be
without
them? The belief that the negotiations on Zimbabwe will not produce
any
viable results without South Africa is very irresponsible and
undermining.Negotiotors are normally supposed to be neutral not of any other
part's choice. Thabo Mbeki was Mugabe's favourite in the past negotiations
because of his inability to sit on the fence, we might as well change to a
different country because Motlanlhe and Mbeki are the same breed and it is
normal that they love the same people.
It is not the USA and UK
alone who feel that the GPA is just as useless
but the whole democratic
thinking population of Zimbabwe feels the same, it
so much puts Mugabe
where he wants to be,incharge.He followed too much
public opinion from
within Zanu pf,if I were him, I could have been wiser
and left by democratic
means of 29 March 2008. We are not mostly worried
about what we get by
achieving our goals but it is important to think of
what we become by
achieving these goals that should be our patriotic
mindset. By Lovemore
mazivisa
http://www.washingtontimes.com
Begin with a coalition of 'a league of
democracies'
Nat Hentoff
Monday, January 5, 2009
While the world
stands still, hearing of the terrors and deaths inflicted on
Zimbabweans by
their inhuman president, Robert Mugabe, a December 7 lead
editorial in this
newspaper got to the insatiable evil of his rule as the
United Nations
customarily just mutters away its useless concerns. "People
are starving and
compete in the countryside with baboons, jackals and goats
for roots and
wild fruits; health care has imploded and cholera is on the
march as water
and sewer systems collapse; and refugees by the millions have
left the
country." Some of those refugees bring cholera with them to
neighboring
states.
South Africa keeps shaming itself by continuing only to "mediate"
this
virulent crisis as if it's possible to mediate relations with a plague.
And
the 15-nation Southern African Development Community also continues its
minuet with the deadly Mr. Mugabe. Only Botswana and Kenya face the naked
truth and call for his removal. Said Mugabe (Associated Press, Dec. 19):
"Zimbabwe is mine." On Dec. 18, I heard Mr. Mugabe himself on the BBC
actually saying that the ravages of cholera among his people are "a disease
planted by former colonial masters to foment war." Those Western masters, he
implies, must have also caused hospitals to shut down, water taps to go dry
and food supplies to vanish. But what of the continuing kidnappings of
Zimbabweans opposing Mugabe as well as the kidnappings of humanitarian
workers? The kidnappers must be agents of former colonial masters disguised
as Mugabe's police and soldiers.
There are many anxious commentaries
on how to pressure the United Nations to
break the political deadlock
unmovingly maintained by Mugabe as he refuses
to give the opposition any
means to rein in the official thugs who savagely
beat and have murdered many
of the Zimbabweans who do not revere their
"Liberator." And even if there
were a U.N. Security Council resolution to at
least threaten action - armed
action - against this oppressor, Security
Council members China and Russia
would automatically veto even an intimation
of real force against the ruler
of this utterly broken sovereign state.
The headline of the Dec. 7
Washington Times editorial, rare among voices on
this international
treadmill of protest, was: "Forced action for Zimbabwe?"
And the editorial
ends: "Alas, at some times in some places diplomacy just
doesn't work
because one side's ... values are so averse to civilized
society that words,
hopes, logic and reason are pointless ... there seems to
us, at least no
debate going on in Zimbabwe under Mr. Mugabe. Has anyone in
that part of the
world thought of the 'f' word, force?" Some have thought of
that word in
this part of the world. George W. Bush had been thinking of
force against
the genocidal tyrant, Gen. Omar al-Bashir, in Sudan, and was
dissuaded by
advisers. I expect the destructions of families, including so
many children,
in Zimbabwe also affects him deeply, but he will soon be
leaving.
The
new vice president-elect, Joe Biden, has recommended force so that we
can
actually say "never again" in Darfur. And Republican Sen. John McCain,
acutely aware of United Nations' impotence, not only in Sudan and Zimbabwe,
has been strongly advocating a "league of democracies" - nations whose
fundamental values would impel them to intervene when sovereign states are
exercising that sovereignty to dismember their people.
Enter
President-elect Barack Obama. Whatever other goals he achieves in his
presidency, despite the unprecedentedly enormous domestic and international
obstacles confronting him, he could eventually leave office having helped
make possible a stunningly historic coalition of nations that would be ready
to use force to stop genocide and such other atrocities now wholly
uncontrolled in Sudan and in Zimbabwe. At least, Mr. Bush now states there
can be no government power- sharing with Mugabe still in
office.
Members of that coalition, which could save untold numbers of
lives, could
include, among others, England, France, Canada, Germany, India,
Australia
and Japan. Since delay means more deaths, Mr. Obama and his
foreign-relations team could soon begin initial contacts with prospective
members of "the league of democracies" to start planning for crucially
necessary interventions.
Meanwhile, to spark interest in this
desperately humanitarian intervention,
there is a report by Lydia Polgreen
from yet another massacre in the Belgian
Congo (New York Times, Dec. 11):
"As the killings took place, a contingent
of about 100 United Nations
peacekeepers was less than a mile away,
struggling to understand what was
happening outside the gates of its base.
The peacekeepers... short of
equipment and men [were] already overwhelmed,
[U.N.] officials said, and
they had no intelligence capabilities or even an
interpreter who could speak
the necessary languages." If Mr. Obama were to
become an inspirer and
facilitator of the league of liberators, what a
global legacy of
exceptionally audacious hope he would leave in the name of
the United
States!
Listen, Mr. President-elect, to Samuel Adams: "Our contest is not
only
whether we ourselves should be free, but whether there shall be left to
mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty." And now,
real-time asylums beyond borders.
Nat Hentoff's column for The
Washington Times appears on Mondays.
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com
5th
Jan 2009 01:56 GMT
By Chenjerai
Chitsaru
IN one high-density suburb in Harare, someone at Zesa, the
government-owned
power utility conglomerate, is said to have offered
residents a deal:
If they each paid US$700, their busted transformer, out
of commission for
nearly a year, would be replaced or repaired. There was no
clear information
on the identity of the originator of the offer.
In
another high-density suburb, residents were each asked to donate US$10 if
they wanted Zesa engineers to drive to their area to examine what had put
the power up the spout.
The donations would be for fuel.
There
were no takers of either offer. The prevailing suspicion among
residents
almost leans towards a collective paranoia of sorts. The
government, hence
Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF, intended to punish them for not
voting
"correctly" in the March presidential and parliamentary elections. In
most
of the urban constituencies, the MDC won, almost hands down.
The record
so far is indisputable that after those elections, agents acting
on behalf
of Zanu PF rampaged through the suburbs, killing and maiming
people who had
alleged "humiliated" Mugabe and his party.
On the contrary, recently Zanu
PF bigwigs have been donating fertilizer to
rural voters, apparently in
preparing for a rerun of one or both elections.
In the high density
suburbs, transport fares are being hiked daily, with the
police attempting
only cosmetic efforts to curb the racket.
Most urban dwellers are
convinced Zanu PF is determined to make the point,
brutally, that if they
make the same mistake of not voting for Mugabe and
his party in any other
election, life could be even more intolerable.
It is now known that among
the urban dwellers there is impatience at the
snail's pace of the
negotiations towards a government which includes both
formations of the
opposition. Mugabe is hoping that the pressure will mount
on Morgan
Tsvangirai to speed up the talks and agree to a formula which
brings last
September's agreement to a fruitful conclusion.
As of last Sunday,
Tsvangirai was still in Botswana. Even after the news
that he now has a
passport, the MDC leader seems to be holding out for a
cast-iron guarantee
that Mugabe is negotiating in good faith - which has
obviously not been the
case in the past.
Tsvangirai knows the kind of political skullduggery
Zanu is capable of. He
will most likely have studied closely the
blood-spattered history of Joshua
Nkomo's struggle to conclude the so-called
Unity Accord with Mugabe and Zanu
PF.
In his brief autobiography,
published in 1984 in London, where he was in
exile after fleeing his own
country, after he alleged there was an attempt
to kill him by Mugabe's
people, he writes on the last page:
"During my brief exile in 1983, I
appealed .to Prime Minister Mugabe,
calling as a start for a national
conference of all he country's interest
groups, under his chairmanship to
begin the process of reconciliation.
"He did not answer then. Perhaps in
the interval between the writing of this
book and its publication will
change his mind and reply constructively. For
my part, I shall continue
working to that end..Long live Zimbabwe."
In 1985, Nkomo's PF Zapu took
part in parliamentary elections, in which they
won everything on offer in
the two provinces of Matabeleland.
It would take another two years of
negotiations before the Unity Accord
would be signed. Some in his party
thought the basis of the unity was
disastrously flawed against PF
Zapu.
But Nkomo knew that was all he would extract from Mugabe, a man who
had
publicly warned he would remove him from the political scene. "After
all,
who is Nkomo?" he had asked with undisguised contempt.
Around
the same time, Nkomo had described Mugabe as being "sly".
Tsvangirai is
understandably wary of Mugabe's strategy. He won the
presidential election
in March, but not with enough votes to eliminate the
need for a run-off -
according to figures collated by Mugabe's officials.
There then followed
the comedy of a presidential election in which Mugabe
was the only
candidate. The comedy turned to farce when Mugabe was actually
sworn in as
president.
The arrogance of the man is almost beyond comprehension, if it
wasn't for
the fact that he realizes the stakes are so high they could be
described as
a matter of life and death - for him.
Nkomo, certainly
more intimately familiar with Mugabe's capacity for
megalomania, realized if
he did not sign the Unity Accord, he would lose
everything, including either
his life or his place in the history of the
struggle for
independence.
But above all else, there was his desire not to be
responsible for more
bloodshed. Yet, in the end, this made no difference
whatsoever to the future
political and economic development of Zimbabwe -
Mugabe remained top of the
heap, refusing to concede an inch of ground to
the opposition, until 2000,
when an avalanche of opposition swept 57 of his
MPs out of Parliament, a
humiliation for which he has apparently not
forgiven the MDC or Tsvangirai.
If Mugabe is now ready to actually share
power with the opposition, why is
the impression being created, worldwide,
that this will happen only on his
own terms?
Playing the two leaders
of the opposition against each other is vintage
Mugabe-Zanu PF. The Sunday
Mail reported that Mugabe met Professor Arthur
Mutambara last week. They
apparently agreed to wait until hey could get
Tsvangirai into the talks
before continuing. This must suggest Mutambara
decided he would not play
into Mugabe's hands, by - for instance - agreeing
to proceed with the talks
in Tsvangirai's absence.
Mugabe would be delighted to drive as big a
wedge as he could between the
two MDC leaders. He would be over the moon if
Mutambara, perhaps as
impatient with Tsvangirai as some of his supporters
are, decided to end the
stalemate by agreeing to take part in the government
- without the
Tsvangirai formation.
Fortunately, Mutambara appears to
have stuck to his guns. It would appear
that even the marriage between Jacob
Zumba's daughter and the MDC-Mutambara
secretary-general, Professor Welshman
Ncube's son, did not affect his
principled stance, for which Tsvangirai
would be grateful.
What is almost tragic is the unwillingness of the
African Union and the Sadc
leaders to make Mugabe an offer he cannot refuse.
This is not a man to be
tackled with kid gloves. The last thing to include
in any handling of Mugabe
is to defer to his so-called senior statesmanship,
for he really has lost
that status.
True, he should not be handled
like a political flibberty-gibbet, or a wil'o
the wisp. He is the consummate
politician, but not of this 21st century, but
of the last. He is still
trapped in the time warp of the doctrine of might
is right.
In truth,
he needs to be handled with the brutality that the real African
dictators
have been handled - with no quarter given, none taken.
Unfortunately, the
two men who could have handled Mugabe decisively - Samora
Machel of
Mozambique and Julius Nyerere - are no longer with us. It is up to
the men
holding the leadership of those two countries to live up to the
reputations
of their predecessors.
They knew how to solve a problem like Mugabe.
http://www.whittierdailynews.com
Posted: 01/04/2009 07:08:27 AM PST
The
Bush administration wisely reversed course last week in its support of a
power-sharing arrangement in Zimbabwe, which has rapidly deteriorated into a
place of violence, hunger, disease, chaos and misery under the autocratic
rule of President Robert Mugabe.
The hope had been that Mugabe's tendency
to abuse his authority and
brutalize the populace could be assuaged somewhat
if he shared power with
his chief political rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, who,
by many accounts, won the
presidential election in March.
Jendayi
Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs,
succinctly
summed up the reason for the change. Mugabe has "lost it," she
said, adding
that he is "out of touch with reality." He surely is.
A legendary leader
who has ruled Zimbabwe since it won independence from
Britain in 1980,
Mugabe at 84 years old has devolved into a sinister force
who is slowly
destroying the country. Zimbabwe, which once prided itself on
being Africa's
breadbasket, can no longer feed itself. Today, its economy is
in ruins.
Dissenters, human-rights activists, political opponents and
ordinary
citizens are routinely beaten and jailed without cause or charge.
Now a
cholera epidemic is racing across the country and beyond. The disease,
which
is spread by fecal-tainted water, is emblematic of, and a direct
consequence
of, Mugabe's failures.
To all this, South Africa and neighboring
countries do little more than
cling to the futile hope that the man Mugabe
once was will resurface.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is sinking fast. The
international community can no
longer expect a different outcome without its
direct intervention. Britain
joined the United States last week in
withdrawing its support for the
power-sharing deal, but South Africa and the
neighboring 15-nation regional
bloc did not. That is unfortunate. Those
countries are in the best position
to pressure Mugabe to change course.
However, their misguided loyalty to a
desperate and despotic ruler must not
deter the United States and the
international community from continuing to
send food, medicine, financial
aid and other emergency supplies to relief
groups in Zimbabwe.
The international community also must step up efforts
to get South Africa
and neighboring countries to stop coddling Mugabe.
Withdrawing the offer for
a power-sharing deal should set the stage for a
different approach designed
to remove Mugabe from a position he has not
fairly earned, and get Zimbabwe
back on track to economic growth and
political stability.
The Miami Herald
http://www.concordmonitor.com/
Nonprofit led by two nurses sends medical, basic
supplies to Africa
By SHIRA SCHOENBERG
Monitor
staff
January
05, 2009 - 12:00 am
The pictures show a woman doing her laundry
in the bathtub. A young
girl then bathes in the same tub. A homeless orphan
boy sits in the dirt,
keeping his belongings in a wheelbarrow. Another young
boy transports the
casket of his relative in an ox-driven wagon. A girl,
maybe 11 or 12, takes
care of her younger siblings in the absence of their
parents.
This is the Zimbabwe that Canterbury resident Sue
Heppenstall has seen
on her three trips to the country. This is the Zimbabwe
she hopes to help.
Heppenstall, an intensive care unit nurse at
Catholic Medical Center,
and her friend Ann LeRoux, also a nurse, are the
founders of A Light For
Zimbabwe, a nonprofit organization that sends
medical supplies and basic
necessities to Zimbabwean villagers.
LeRoux, of Tuftonboro, recently returned from a trip there, and
Heppenstall
hopes to go again in February.
"I feel compelled to go back, and I
don't know why," Heppenstall said.
"The situation is overwhelming, but if
you can make a difference for one
person, for a small community. . .
."
Heppenstall, a former social worker who has been a nurse for 22
years,
said she was fascinated with Africa since she was in school at
Dickinson
College in Pennsylvania. She received her nursing degree from
Jamestown
Community College, a member of the State University of New York
system, in
1987 and wanted to do an overseas mission.
After
some research, she discovered Global Ministries, a program of
the United
Church of Christ, of which she is a member. In 2006, she and
LeRoux went to
Zimbabwe for the first time, for a six-week visit to Mt.
Selinda Hospital.
The hospital, in the southeastern part of the country, is
connected to an
orphanage, which houses 50 kids. The American nurses
stayed in a
doctor's nearby home.
When she first landed in Africa,
Heppenstall
said, she was "blissfully ignorant" of what she would
find there. "I
was so excited I could scream at the top of my lungs, 'I'm in
Africa!' " she
said.
What she found was a medical system "a
generation behind" that of the
United States, she said. There was a shortage
of supplies, bandages and
equipment. The X-ray machine was broken, there was
no ventilator for the
surgery room, and there was one lab technician - who
has since left.
The American nurses needed to learn how to treat
diseases such as
malaria and tuberculosis. There was also a large number of
HIV/AIDS
patients. In the morning, they helped out in the hospital, and in
the
afternoon they visited the orphanage, giving the orphans the emotional
attention they often lacked.
When they returned to New
Hampshire, Heppenstall and LeRoux started
the nonprofit organization. "We
felt we had to do more," Heppenstall said.
The group consists of
the two of them and is run out of Heppenstall's
living room. They pay for
their own trips to Zimbabwe and speak at schools,
Rotary clubs and churches
in order to raise money to send to the country.
Heppenstall
returned for two eight-week trips in 2007, but she was
unable to return in
2008 due to violence and instability in the region.
LeRoux did go there at
the end of the year.
One of the biggest problems today is the lack
of personnel. About 80
percent of Zimbabwe was unemployed in 2007, a figure
that has since grown to
90 percent, Heppenstall said. For a time, the
doctors had been paid by the
church, but then the church stopped paying
them. Some teachers also had not
been paid for a year. Schools closed, and
doctors and nurses left the
hospital.
For part of 2008, the
government denied nongovernmental organizations
access to the country as
President Robert Mugabe cracked down on his
opposition in advance of the
country's elections. In that time, Heppenstall
said, the situation only
worsened. A cholera epidemic broke out, and
malnutrition among residents
increased. Nurses and teachers had to return to
their villages to take care
of their families. Inflation ballooned and
Zimbabwean currency became
worthless.
Mt. Selinda Hospital, which used to have 50 nurses,
ended up with just
five senior nurses running the place. The hospital
remained open only for
maternity care, pediatrics and some adult
emergencies.
So far, A Light for Zimbabwe has sent three large
shipments of
medication, worth about $4,000, through an organization called
MAP, or
Medical Assistance Program.
They also sent two 40-foot
containers filled with donated medical
supplies, school supplies, books,
tools, food, clothing, soccer balls and
bicycles. The goods go to several
Zimbabwean villages that have formed
partnerships with New Hampshire
churches. Occasionally, the organization
will send cash with people
traveling to Africa.
On their trips, Heppenstall and LeRoux have
tried to set up
sustainable agriculture projects, giving the orphanage goats
and cows that
can be milked and bred for meat. They taught the women to sew,
then bought
their quilts and baskets to sell in the United States. In this
upcoming
trip, Heppenstall hopes to fill in for missing nurses and help
teach the
children who no longer have schools.
She also wants
to set up a committee of local Zimbabweans to identify
and help those
children, often AIDS orphans, who head their own households.
Just
by visiting, Heppenstall said, she hopes to show Zimbabweans that
someone
cares. "There's no communication, intermittent electricity and
hardly any
running water," she said. "They feel isolated and forgotten. To
know that
someone comes back sustains their hope and faith."
For more
information, or to help, visit alightforzimbabwe.org.