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Zvakwana Newsletter #36 - It's time to walk your talk
July 19, 2003

If you see da' police, warn a brother

But screw your courage to the sticking-place and we'll not fail.
- William Shakespeare


How many portraits does a dictator need to flatter himself?Nobody visits anymore
Zvakwana was moving around the other day. Some of us had just been to the airport. We were going there to see whether the desperate dictator has been putting up even more portraits than before. Have you seen that the old man's face looks down at travellers from just about every wall in the building. It is well known that as dictators feel their grip on power slipping that they try to bolster their shaky positions by all means possible. In this case it's 26 portraits in one building. But on the way to the airport we were noticing that just some few years back we could hardly spend even one month without some dignitary visiting this place. And then we would see the old man's portrait pasted up on top of those poles along our main roads together with the visitor's picture. It has been quite some time now since we last saw this happen. Now they are just standing there vacant. It is yet another indication that the region and the rest of the world is isolating the madman, mugabe.


Rhodesians never die: they're alive and well and living in the politburo
On 19 July 1960, 3 National Democratic Party (NDP) leaders were arrested (Michael Mawema, Stanlake Samkange and Leopold Takawira). Over 7000 Harare residents gathered in protest against these arrests, and tried to march from Highfield to the city centre. This demonstration was violently disrupted by the police, resulting in widespread riots in Harare during the week of 19-24 July 1960. These riots spread southwards, first to Gweru, and then to Bulawayo. Police in both cities reacted with force to squash the riots, and in Bulawayo 11 activists were shot by the police on 24 July 1960. Shortly after these riots, the Rhodesian government of Edgar Whitehead enacted the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act (LOMA). In 2002, the government of Zimbabwe repealed LOMA, and replaced it with the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).

POSA is LOMA's ghost, and we need to chase it out - one time!
Activists from all around Zimbabwe are gearing up to protest against POSA. We are using this July 19-24th anniversary as a time to demonstrate against this illegitimate dictatorship's unjust laws. Watch out in your areas for action, and more importantly get involved even if it is to start discussing between yourselves about ways to say Zvakwana! Enough is Enough. Sokwanele.
Let us remind ourselves about the similar tactics that smith used and that his shamwari mugabe has snatched onto like the hungry crocodile he is.

POSA Section 5 = LOMA Section 51 - Subverting Constitutional Government
Using or threatening physical force, violence or threatening violence in a boycott, civil disobedience or resistance to any law, whether such resistance is active or passive.

POSA Section 15 = LOMA Section 50 - Publishing false and prejudicial statements
Publishing false statements with the intention of causing public disorder, violence, endangering public safety, damaging Zimbabwe's economic interests, undermining confidence in law enforcement agencies or disrupting or interfering with an essential service. This is regardless of whether the author or publisher realises that the statement is false.

POSA Section 16 = LOMA Section 46 - Undermining Authority of or Insulting Head of State
This section makes it an offence to make a public statement about the head of state that is likely to cause feelings of hostility, hatred, contempt or ridicule towards him. This is regardless of whether the speaker's intention is to cause these feelings, and regardless of whether the statements actually result in other people having these feelings.

POSA Section 19 = LOMA Section 36 - Gatherings to conduce riots, disorder, or intolerance
Includes speaking about, distributing writing, ridiculing or exposing hatred towards or about any group based on race, nationality, tribe ethnicity, colour religion or gender [but does NOT include political party].

POSA Section 33 and 34 = LOMA Section 17 and 59-Cordon and search
Gives police the permission to close off any area and search it if they suspect a POSA-related offence has occurred.

Enough! Zvakwana! Sokwanele! - It must go!


Bob and Bush have more in common than we realised
We had someone write to us to say that they were hoping that Bush was going to put some pressure on mugabe to change his bad behaviour. Isn't it strange though to have mr stolen election bush telling mr stolen election bob how to do things right. Apparently during the American elections people in poor neighbourhoods in Florida (the swinging state!) got leaflets delivered saying that they'd be prosecuted for overdue parking fines when they went to vote. This was one of brother Bush's ploys to disenfranchise voters in Florida.

And on a lighter note . . .
We don't have any oil but then again mugabe is a weapon of mass destruction in his own right, says a pro-American invasion Zvakwana subscriber.


Patrons at the premiere of Matrix Reloaded get a shock on Thursday night
Unsuspecting people moving around the Avondale Shopping Centre in Harare got their fair share of tiger as the wind blew it over there from the University of Zimbabwe campus. Students have a right to protest the small size of pay-outs and the terrible conditions that exist on campus. There are no longer any well functioning kitchens there. Students are going hungry. For over 12 000 students there are just 15 computers in the computer centre. The library is falling apart. Whenever students decide to demonstrate and try to put pressure on the administration to improve conditions they get assaulted and tear gassed. In fact we wouldn't be surprised to find that the riot police are permanently camped in UZ dormitories. Have a look at this letter that Zvakwana recently received. It is high time that we come together to support our university students who are the future leaders of Zimbabwe.

Let's bemoan the death of education in this country Zimbabwe. At universities we are no longer learning facts. Most of the lecturers have left and many departments are closing. Those that have not closed are left with few lecturers who can not fulfil the intellectual demands of the minds of the students. For example the surveying department is gone forever. Talking about hunger at Campus, if I am to tell you students only afford one proper meal a day and supplement with things like eggs, water etc. I am appealing to you people of Zimbabwe if you have a child at UZ, pliz help him/her before the worst happens.


Urgent confirmation needed!
Waving goodbyeZvakwana has been informed that at approximately 3:10 on the afternoon of Tuesday 15th July 2003 grace mugabe was seen waving goodbye to the guards at the mansion on 7th Street. Then she started walking down the road pulling one of those big suitcases with wheels on it. Zvakwana is offering copies of Mapfumo's Toi Toi to those Zvakwana subscribers telling us why she was leaving and where she was going. Email news@zvakwana.org with your suggestions.

 



Zvakwana will be coming to you in more ways soon
To keep up with the ever increasing demand for news from Zvakwana we are taking Zavkwana newsletters to the streets. In the coming months you will be seeing much more from us. We will be working especially hard to keep you inspired and informed because all around us we are suffering from high costs of newspapers and state-propaganda. If you are willing to help us distribute Zvakwana printed materials in your area please email us news@zvakwana.org



Father forgive us . . .
In a stunning appeal for forgiveness, Zimbabwe's Christian churches have apologised for not doing enough to help stop political violence, hunger and the collapse of the economy. The Zimbabwe Council of Churches, which represents all Christian denominations in the country, said it had watched passively as poverty worsened, leaving more and more children begging on the streets. It had also stood by amid the collapse of state health and education services and widening political divisions, it said.

"We have, with our own eyes, watched as violence, rape, intimidation, harassment and various forms of torture have ravaged the nation.
"Yet some perpetrators have been set free," the council said in a statement.
"We have been witness to and buried our people who have starved to death because of food shortages.
"While we have continued to pray, we have not been moved to action.
"We as a council apologise to the people of Zimbabwe for not having done enough at a time when the nation looked to us for guidance."

The church leaders, who released the statement after their annual meeting, said they planned to pressure the government to allow them to import food aid. They would also lobby for economic reforms and the resumption of talks between the ruling party and the opposition. They intended to set up a task force to investigate the National Youth Service, widely accused of being used as a ruling party militia that engaged in the violent intimidation of Mugabe's opponents. The church leaders said they had "looked on" as the government's land reform programme was conducted without proper infrastructure, leading to decreased production on underused land.


Email your outrage
REDRESS is an international human rights and legal organisation which helps torture survivors obtain justice and reparation. The group has contacted the United Nations about a Zimbabwean officer serving with peace keeping troops in Kosovo. Detective Inspector Henry Dowa has been named by several Zimbabwean torture victims as having directed and carried out beatings with fists, boots and pickaxe handles, and giving electric shocks at Harare central police station throughout 2002 and in early 2003. The charges have been backed up by medical examinations which confirm injuries consistent with torture. Zimbabwean police thought to have done a good job by the government are often seconded to UN peacekeeping missions, where conditions are comparatively good and they are paid in dollars. Redress has urged the United Nations to detain Dowa until he can stand trial under international law.

Please email your views or stories of abuse and torture in Zimbabwe to redresstrust@gn.apc.org


Zim inflation on course for 1000%
Zimbabwe's powerful labour movement has called on President Robert Mugabe and his entire cabinet to resign as inflation soared from 300% to 364.5%. Inflation is on course to reach the 1 000% peak predicted by many economists by the year-end. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) secretary-general Wellington Chibebe said his organisation was appalled by Mugabe's failure to implement measures to ease the economic crisis, which had now led even to a shortage of Zimbabwe dollar notes. "If it were any other democracy ... the entire government would have resigned for presiding over the mess that this economy is in," Chibebe's statement said.

Do you think that the ZCTU should continue to call for stayaways to protest unrealistic wages in our inflationary environment? Write to news@zvakwana.org


Moyo uses soccer to market zanu pf
Zvakwana has received several complaints about the junior propaganda minister's musical jangles that are heard every two seconds on our unfree and unfair airwaves. His latest attempt to get the nation to click our fingers to "Go Warriors, Score Warriors" has backfired like when he tried to take the Zvakwana slogan for his own purposes. Now we are hearing a new version, it goes something like
"Mugabe you used to be a great warrior. You fought to free this country. But now please: GO WARRIOR GO!"


Stay and fight
Our country is currently losing many valuable and energetic people who have grown tired and scared of the spiralling plunge of Zimbabwe. Many times we will be hearing that they will "come back when it's fixed". Of course it is difficult to put bread in our bellies these days. Also with mugabe's incompetence and use of strategic violence and disruption we are witnessing once peaceful cities being turned into a den for thieves. What will happen if everyone who has a voice and who is willing to use it and willing to engage in this struggle for democracy, leaves? We will just be giving Zimbabwe to mugabe on a paper plate. We cannot afford for all our valuable people to be living as exiles making forex in other countries.
Talking point: email us what do you - news@zvakwana.org


Feedback
How come your mail does not come on a regular basis have you lost hope on Zimbabwe. I have not received a single newsletter for the whole month of July. What seems to be the problem?
From a Zvakwana subscriber

- Sorry for that Ngonidzashe. We have been a bit irregular in July seeing as we were monitoring the movements of that helicopter flying in and out of State House. But we will be back more often in the next months as we continue to encourage pro-democracy actions.

Weighing up the costs
Vamwe Ambuya vakapinda ma TM ndokubva vanhonga Romance soap ne one pair yeunderwear. Vasvika patill vakabva vati: "Mukuwasha nditaurirewo kuti zvose izvi zvinoita marii nokuti ndingazoshoterwa." The till operator did a quick calculation and turned to her and said, "Ambuya, kana muchida zveRomance, bvisai underwear yenyu!"
----
A woman walks into the shops and wants to by romance soap and a pair of underwear. She gets to the till and asks the man at the till how much everything is going to cost, since she's worried she wont have enough cash. The guy at the till quickly adds up the cost of the items and tells her, lady, if you want this Romance, remove your underwear.


Are we together?
We all want peace. But let's remember, it won't come without a fight.


Zvakwana, Sokwanele, Enough!!

Your Action, Your Country, Your Decision, Things are on the move

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Enough is enough, Zvakwana, Sokwanele.

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Daily News

      100 000 may die

        BULAWAYO – More than 100 000 people in Tsholotsho and Bulilimamangwe
South constituencies in Matabeleland South province could starve to death
after food aid organisations cut relief aid to the two areas at the
beginning of last month, it was learnt yesterday.


      The Members of Parliament (MPs) for the two constituencies told the
Daily News in separate interviews that the number of hungry people had risen
sharply in their areas since the Organisation of Rural Associations for
Progress (ORAP) and World Vision started scaling down food relief operations
in the two drought-prone areas in May.


      Bulilimamangwe South MP Edward Mkhosi warned there could soon be
"famine-induced deaths" if food relief was not urgently restored for more
than 50 000 people in his constituency who had nothing to eat.


      Mkhosi said: "The situation is fast getting desperate because food
relief organisations continue to scale down operations. I do not know how to
help the needy people who are still approaching me even as I speak right
now.


      "The hunger is more widespread from Brunapeg to as far down as
Mphoengs along the border with Botswana.


      "We will soon be reporting famine-induced deaths if no food assistance
reaches the people before the end of the month."


      Tsholotsho legislator Mtoliki Sibanda said the number of people in
desperate need of food aid in his constituency had risen to more than 45 000
in the last few weeks.


      Most were now surviving on wild fruits, the MP said yesterday.


      "Hunger is so widespread that people have resorted to eating wild
fruits to survive. As it is, I have confirmed a report that three children,
including a 13-year-old orphan attending Mathuphula Primary School, almost
died after eating different kinds of fruit which caused them a serious
stomach disorder.


      "They were treated at Jimila Rural Health Centre.


      "But this is not the complete picture as there are several other cases
which are never reported."

      ORAP and World Vision, which were the main food relief agencies
operating in the two areas, could not be reached for comment on the matter
by the time of going to print last night.


      Social Welfare Minister July Moyo could also not be reached for
comment on the issue of worsening hunger in the two constituencies.


      But well-placed sources within the non-governmental organisation (NGO)
community told this newspaper that nearly all NGOs had been cutting down on
food aid for Zimbabwe after the delay by the government to formally appeal
for continued food support.


      The sources said it would take up to two months before international
donors could raise food in response to an appeal for help finally made by
the government this week.


      According to the sources, the government delayed in making the appeal
because it could not agree on what quantities of food to ask for from
donors.


      Zimbabwe is grappling with severe food shortages after poor rains last
year combined with the government’s chaotic land reforms to cut food
production by 60 percent.


      Only the timely intervention of the World Food Programme and other
international food donors saved more than seven million Zimbabweans – about
half the country’s population – from almost certain starvation last year.


      The country’s drought-prone southern region is the worst affected by
hunger with Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city located in that region,
reporting that 179 people, most of them children, died because of
malnutrition in the first four months of this year.


      Staff Reporter
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Daily News

      Zimbabwe fails to meet EU rules to resume meat exports

        ZIMBABWE is unable to meet stringent European Union (EU) regulations
for the processing of crocodile, fish and ostrich meat for the giant EU
market because of shortages of foreign currency and fuel that have
compromised livestock surveillance and monitoring in the country, the
Department of Livestock and Veterinary Services (DLVS) said in a report
released this week.


      "There are greater difficulties in maintaining the EU standards,
especially in the Central Veterinary Laboratory where foreign exchange
constraints have delayed the procurement of new and the repair of old
equipment," a report by the DLVS on the country’s livestock industry read in
part.


      The DLVS said a team of EU experts that toured Zimbabwe last month to
assess the country’s compliance with standards for the processing of meat
for the EU market noted various deficiencies in the production of meat that
it said needed to be rectified first before exports to EU countries could be
resumed.


      The DLVS report stated: "A number of deficiencies were noted during
the visit which require correction. These deficiencies were mainly
attributed to the fuel shortage and the inability for veterinarians to
travel to ostrich abattoirs to supervise the slaughter of ostrich for the EU
market. The EU have refused to accept any product produced without
veterinary supervision."


      According to the DLVS, the three-member EU inspection team toured
ostrich, fish and crocodile farms, production and processing systems used in
Zimbabwe with a view to harmonising the rules for export to Europe.


      A similar delegation from the EU that visited the country last year
urged the government to provide the DLVS with more vehicles in order to
ensure high levels of surveillance.


      The department said the EU team had also noted deficiencies at the
Central Veterinary Laboratory and the residue testing section, where the
DLVS said it had been unable to buy spares or new equipment to test for the
deadly Newcastle disease and residue testing of meat.


      Zimbabwe exports various meat products to the giant EU but beef
exports were suspended in 2001 following an outbreak of the foot-and-mouth
disease in the country.


      Before the ban, the country was exporting 9 100 tonnes of beef to the
EU.


      The DLVS said ostrich farmers had, however, offered to assist the
department with transport to ensure EU standards of surveillance are
maintained.


      "However, ostrich abattoirs have agreed to assist in the transport of
the official veterinarians to their abattoirs so that the export of ostrich
meat to Europe can continue," the department said in the report.


      Last year ostrich farmers exported 25 000 birds to the European market
at US$270 (Z$222 480) per bird, earning the country about $260 million.


      Zimbabwe’s ostrich meat and skin export processing industry was once
one of the largest such operations in the region, boasting 26 000 breeders
on farms that produced 56 000 eggs per year.


      But, according to farming experts, farm seizures by the government
under its chaotic land reform programme and the shortage of stockfeed has
seen the industry plummet by 50 percent.



      Staff Reporter

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Daily News

      What else does Africa need to rein in Mugabe?

        It is ridiculous and surprising that African leaders Thabo Mbeki and
Olusegun Obasanjo, presidents of South Africa and Nigeria respectively,
still want to associate themselves with President Robert Mugabe.


      Do they not have eyes to see and ears to hear of the terrible
dictatorship of Mugabe here? What else do they want?


      Mugabe’s disrespect for human rights is there for all to see. It is
him and his supporters who are free to do as they please.


      It is unfortunate that when these African leaders come to our once
beautiful country, they dine with Mugabe and rarely have time to dig deeper
into the real situation for the ordinary Zimbabwean here.

      We are living in hell.


      For as long as these African leaders continue to be ignorant the
situation in our country is going to deteriorate further. Surely with no
rule of law there is bound to be no development and no turn-back for the
battered economy?


      It is advisable that these leaders change their attitudes towards
Mugabe and tell him to be human enough for the good of Africa and for the
good of Zimbabwe.


      If the African leaders continue to praise Mugabe amidst the suffering
of millions of Zimbabweans, they should not cry foul when we call upon
superpowers such as the United States of America to come and help us. As
things stand at the moment, Mugabe will only understand the way that Saddam
Hussein fell over.


      Remember that as always the United Nations has not acted as it should
while our beloved country sinks deeper into chaos, rendering UN a toothless
bulldog.


      True Zimbabwean

      Bulawayo
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Daily News

      Hardships increase lure of ‘death trap’ trains

        ALTHOUGH it is mid-week, on Wednesday, when usually fewer people
travel between Harare and the eastern border city of Mutare, the
Harare-bound passenger train is so overcrowded with people that there is
hardly any space to move.


      Clutching a bottle of brandy as if for inspiration on the long and
hard 263-kilometre journey to Harare, Givemore Matawi, one of the travellers
on the crowded train, says: "I travel to Harare frequently to sell my wares
and I will continue using the train for my journeys.


      "The buses are now too expensive so I would rather use the train. At
least it’s affordable otherwise all my profits will be absorbed by bus
fare."


      Without the creaky and unreliable train his second-hand clothing
business would collapse.


      The frequent Press reports of fatal accidents involving the
state-owned National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) trains or the routine delays
of trains because of signal systems failure do not appear to deter Matawi,
who sources second-hand clothing from neighbouring Mozambique for resale in
Harare.


      But Matawi is not alone.


      As the cost of road travel continues to skyrocket because of the high
cost of fuel and vehicle spare parts, the majority of Zimbabweans have been
forced to turn to the NRZ’s passenger train service, which remains the
country’s cheapest mode of transport.


      In the last three weeks, for example, long distance and city-to-city
transport operators hiked fares by about 33 percent while urban commuter
transporters increased fares by an average of 150 percent citing the
exorbitant price of diesel and petrol on the black market, their main source
of fuel.


      An NRZ spokesman said this week: "Following the recent fare increases
by rural bus operators, the demand for inter-city passenger trains has
increased and the volume of passengers has doubled.


      "It is common knowledge that inter-city passenger trains are the most
economic mode of transporting large numbers of people in the country."


      But the grinding economic crisis gripping the nation has taken a heavy
toll on the national rail carrier.


      At one time one of the best rail networks, poor maintenance and in
some cases underfunding has reduced the NRZ rail system to a virtual death
trap.


      A malfunctioning signals system, because there is no foreign currency
to buy spare parts, has resulted in frequent delays of trains and at least
two major train accidents.


      About 1 400 people aboard an NRZ urban commuter train from Harare’s
lower income high-density suburbs into the city centre escaped death by a
whisker when the train left the tracks because the automatic control system
that allows trains to change tracks was not working.


      Thirty-three people were injured in the accident, the third one
involving NRZ trains since the beginning of this year.


      In one of Zimbabwe’s worst train disasters, over 50 people died and 64
others were seriously injured when two trains collided near Dete in
Matabeleland North province because the signals system was not working.


      Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions secretary-general Wellington
Chibhebhe said while the cheaper train fares were benefiting hard-pressed
workers, the government and the NRZ had paid little attention to the safety
of passengers on the trains.


      "While it is a noble idea to provide workers with cheap transport,
this should not be done at the expense of safety.


      "It is very disturbing to note that these commuter trains were
introduced by the government for political expediency without any
consideration of the effect and risk they would have on both the NRZ and the
commuters who use them.


      "Train accidents are now very common yet the government seems to see
nothing wrong with the railway system."

      Urban commuter trains, also known as "Freedom Trains", were first
introduced by the government ahead of last year’s presidential election in a
move political analysts said was an attempt to buy the support of a largely
disgruntled urban electorate. But for Sarudzai Maturi, from Harare’s
Mufakose high-density suburb, the savings she makes by opting for the
cheaper train shuttle than a relatively more expensive ride on a commuter
omnibus is worth all the potential danger now associated with Zimbabwe’s
trains. For a train ride from her home into the city centre, Maturi pays $70
compared to the $400 she must fork out on the omnibuses. Maturi said: "I
earn $30 000 a month and half of that would be spent on transport if I
boarded commuter buses. "I know the dangers posed by travelling by train
nowadays but I really have no choice. At least the train does not kill
people every day like what poverty and hunger is doing." By Farai Mutsaka
Chief Reporter

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Daily News

      Zimbabwe Belgian envoy’s toughest posting

        OUTGOING Belgian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Benedicte Franckinet
yesterday described Zimbabwe as her most challenging assignment in her
25-year career as a diplomat because of the government’s wanton disregard of
the rule of law.


      Franckinet yesterday told the the Daily News in an interview:
"Zimbabwe has been the most challenging of my assignments because of the
events unfolding in the country. It has been the most challenging posting in
my life. I have been to places where there was no question on the
established rule prevailing.


      "It has been easy to understand the established rule in other
countries but in Zimbabwe there is a lot of unpredictability.


      "The political establishment in Zimbabwe was shaken and was being
questioned by the very same people who established it. It is not what the
establishment had expected that those who established it could be
questioning it now."


      Before her posting to Zimbabwe, Franckinet had previously served in
France, Brazil and the United Nations.


      Franckinet, who leaves the country on Tuesday for Belgium to wait for
her next posting, said since 2000 Zimbabwe had changed from a country that
respected human rights to a rogue state.


      "It is disappointing that Zimbabwe changed from a country that
respected the rule of law to a country that for reasons that probably were
more important to the establishment chose to ignore the rule of law," she
said.


      She said that during her stay in Zimbabwe the government had
persistently refused to listen to advice offered by the European Union (EU),
particularly during her country’s tenure as the EU president.


      "It was a disappointing time because we came to think that we were
making rational points that we thought would result in a lot of progress
being made but the other side didn’t think so," Franckinet said.


      It was during Belgium’s tenure as EU president that the 15-member
nation decided to impose travel and financial sanctions on President Robert
Mugabe and his ruling elite.



      Staff Reporter

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Daily News

      MDC fears for safety of Rusape candidates

        MUTARE – The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party
yesterday said it feared for the safety of its candidates in Rusape for next
month’s council elections after suspected ZANU PF youths allegedly
threatened some of the opposition candidates with death.


      MDC spokesman for Manicaland province Pishayi Muchauraya told the
Daily News yesterday: "Our

      candidates are living in fear after they received death threats. We
are also very concerned about their safety because of the magnitude of
terror in Rusape."


      Elections to choose new councillors for Rusape are scheduled to be
held on 30 and 31 August.


      Muchauraya said two of his party’s candidates in the council election,
Kidwell Gomana and David Mukunda, standing for wards six and two
respectively, were on Thursday this week assaulted by Zanu PF supporters and
threatened with death if they contested the election on behalf of the MDC.


      The MDC official said: "We are fielding candidates in all the 10 wards
but our candidates have endured door-to-door visits by Zanu PF youths. This
cannot be a fair election where our candidates have not been allowed to
campaign."


      Muchauraya said the MDC had at one time contemplated pulling out of
the ballot in protest against violence against their candidates and
supporters.


      The MDC spokesman accused ZANU PF politburo member Didymus Mutasa of
encouraging violence and death threats against opposition members and
candidates in Rusape.


      He said: "Mutasa has declared Rusape a no-go area for MDC supporters.
He has blessed all this violence and we hold him responsible."


      Mutasa, who is also the Member of Parliament for Makoni North
constituency, dismissed the allegations against him, saying he was not even
involved in his own party’s campaign for the ballot.

      Mutasa said: "It’s very funny because I am not active at all in these
council elections. I do not even know who is contesting for Zanu PF so how
would I then know MDC candidates?"


      The ZANU PF legislator and official claimed the MDC was raising
allegations of violence in order to cover up for the drubbing it will
receive from ZANU PF in the polls next month.


      He said: "They are afraid of losing. They are cowards. They will lose
because nobody will vote for the MDC in Rusape."


      Own Correspondent

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Daily News

      State-sanctioned violence on the rise: report

        THE Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum (ZHRF) this week called on the
government to end human rights violations by state security agents and some
of its senior officials.


      In a report on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe last month, the
ZHRF said state-sponsored retribution against citizens, most of them members
of the opposition, had intensified in the country.


      The ZHRF, which is a coalition of Zimbabwe’s human and civic rights
groups, said three people died because of political violence during the
period under review.


      The human rights watchdog also repeated claims that Youth Development,
Gender and Employment Creation Minister Elliot Manyika was involved in
assaulting residents in Harare and Marondera during the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) party’s mass protest last month.


      The ZHRF report, released this week, read in part: "Particularly
disturbing are allegations that high-level government officials were
actively involved in organised violence and torture.


      "More than five victims made allegations that the Minister of Youth
Development, Gender and Employment Creation, Elliot Manyika, was actively
involved in the torture of residents in high-density suburbs in Harare,
specifically Glen View as well as in Marondera.


      "In Glen View, DZ, DN, VT, GM, FG, and TS were sleeping at the home of
Weddy Dewah, MDC Councillor for Ward 31, when CID officers, armed and
uniformed policemen and soldiers, under the leadership of Elliot Manyika,
allegedly forced entry and assaulted everyone with baton sticks, accusing
them of planning the MDC mass action protest march."


      Manyika yesterday could not be reached for comment on the allegations
that he helped assault people in Glen View and Marondera.


      But the ruling ZANU PF politburo member has in the past dismissed as
untrue allegations that he had assaulted people in the two areas.


      The human rights watchdog said while abuses had persisted in Zimbabwe
since 2000, a pattern was emerging where violation of Zimbabweans’ rights
peaked during election time or when there were civic or MDC-organised
demonstrations or marches.


      According to the ZHRF, the worst human rights violations, most of them
allegedly perpetrated by state security agents, were witnessed during mass
protests called by the MDC at the beginning of last month.


      Three people, Plaxedes Alfonso, Amon Nyadongo and Tichaona Kaguru, all
from Harare died because of political violence during the 2-6 June protests.


      The MDC said the protests were meant to force President Robert Mugabe
to step down or to agree to negotiations with the opposition party on a
solution to Zimbabwe’s crisis.


      The government deployed heavily armed police and soldiers supported by
water tanks, helicopters and ruling ZANU PF party youth militias to crush
attempts by MDC supporters to march to Mugabe’s State House residence.


      The ZHRF said: "That is of concern to the ZHRF as it appears to be an
attempt by the State to subvert any public attempts at exercising rights to
freedom of expression.


      "This particularly characterises the bulk of the violations recorded
in the month of June. While attempts were made to demonstrate peacefully,
allegations of violence perpetrated by both the MDC and ZANU PF surfaced.


      "Peaceful demonstrations were disrupted and participants arrested on
the basis that the demonstrations had been declared illegal by the High
Court."


      After crushing the MDC protests, state security agents raided homes in
some parts of Harare, assaulting and torturing people suspected of having
taken part in the opposition demonstrations, according to the ZHRF.


      "Victims tortured by army and police officers have been hesitant to
make reports at police stations, to the very same authorities that are
responsible for their trauma," the human rights group said.

      The ZHRF also recommended that the country’s legislation be amended to
"designate and define torture as a specific crime of utmost gravity. The
state should also bring to book all of its agents accused of torture."


      Staff Reporter
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Daily News

      Justice will prevail

        REPORTS that an international anti-torture group is seeking the
prosecution of a Zimbabwean police officer allegedly involved in the torture
of opposition party supporters should serve as a timely warning to other
state security agents against whom similar accusations have been levelled.


      As we reported yesterday, anti-torture group Redress has appealed to
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to facilitate the arrest and
prosecution of a Zimbabwe Republic Police officer who is presently part of a
UN mission in Kosovo.


      The officer was allegedly involved in acts of torture while he was
still in Harare.


      As a Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights official noted in our report
yesterday: "This should serve as an adequate reminder to law enforcement
agents who are being implicated in torture that the day of reckoning will
come and it can be anywhere in the world."


      Indeed, the international group’s determination to see that justice is
done for Zimbabwean victims of torture should strike as much fear into the
hearts of the perpetrators of political violence as it must surely give hope
to torture victims that their tormentors will not go unpunished.


      As history has shown, the truth will always come out and even those
crimes committed in the darkest and most forgotten cell will one day come
back to haunt their perpetrators.


      And as Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s experience has shown, when
the day of reckoning finally comes, there will literally be nowhere to hide.


      It would therefore be foolhardy for the people who have sanctioned and
performed horrific and barbaric acts of torture and violence in Zimbabwe in
the past three years to believe that they can commit these crimes with
impunity.


      When the day comes for them to pay for their brutal violation of the
trust the nation has placed in them, it will not be enough to plead that
they were merely following orders.


      Neither will it be enough for those in charge of the rogue agents
committing these crimes to plead ignorance of their actions.


      There are too many cases of torture in which state agents are alleged
to be involved, so many that any reasonable person must realise that
something is terribly wrong in the country’s security agencies.


      In its June political violence report, released this week, the
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum notes that there were 113 reports of torture
in June and 379 between January and last month.


      Many of these allegedly involved state security agents and led to the
death of at least one person in June.


      Medical evidence of injuries sustained in police custody has been
provided by several alleged torture victims.


      Some of this evidence was even tabled in court earlier this year by
opposition party legislator Job Sikhala, prompting the court to order an
investigation, the results of which – if there was any investigation – have
not been made public.


      It is tragic that the government has not treated these allegations
with the seriousness that they deserve and history will, without doubt,
judge the ruling ZANU PF harshly for its failure to take vigorous action
against those accused of acts of torture.


      We fully support the recommendations made by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights to Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, calling for the
government to include in local legislation international policies against
torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.


      It is imperative that the government investigates allegations of
torture made against identified state security agents and allows the law to
takes its course if these people are found guilty.


      The state’s failure to strongly condemn and vigorously act against
those accused of torture will only lead Zimbabweans to conclude that neither
is the government ignorant of what its agents are doing nor is it wholly
opposed to their actions.


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Daily News

      The longer Mugabe stays the safer it is for Mbeki

        Many commentators have displayed for a long time their skills of
prediction and near prophecy.


      However, the country has continued to suffer, with the unfeeling still
at the reins and even mapping out ways to perpetuate their continued hold on
power, directly or indirectly.


      As I said in the year 2000 that the people of Zimbabwe must treat
President Robert Mugabe to his own medicine, now is the time.


      I personally have no confidence in a peaceful resolution of our
country’s crisis.


      On the other hand, it is only fair not to blame South African
President Thabo Mbeki for not doing much to help resolve the crisis in our
beloved Zimbabwe or even siding with the people’s enemy running our country
down. Mbeki does not like Mugabe at all, however. The longer Mugabe or his
ZANU PF appointees stay in power, the safer Mbeki’s leadership.


      Not only is Mbeki benefiting from the collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy,
skilled labour, international investment etc, the coming to power of a
labour-backed government in Zimbabwe activates the Congress of South African
Trade Unions to push out the self-serving African National Congress leaders
in South Africa. Mbeki is fighting for his own political survival.


      As a result, Zimbabweans should use whatever means necessary to bring
down the injured lion ZANU PF government, forget Mugabe’s purported promise
to vacate State House in December 2003 or June 2004.

      Now is the time for decisive action.


      Jennings Rukani

      UK
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Daily News

      Nation’s vast mineral wealth remains untapped

        A LARGE portion of Zimbabwe’s mineral wealth is untapped because of
lack of policies to encourage resource exploitation and inadequate funding
for miners, mining experts said this week.


      David Matyanga, a mining analyst with the Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines,
said diamond deposits and unexploited tantalite around the country offered
opportunities for beneficiation.


      He said the closure of several gold and other mining ventures also
meant there were unexhausted minerals.


      "A lot of mines closed shop in the year 2000 leaving a lot of
under-utilised mines countrywide. The country is rich in mineral resources
that can earn the country a fortune if fully utilised," said Matyanga.


      "Recently, diamond was discovered near Buchwa in Zvishavane and there
is the Murowa diamond project, which is coming in 18 months," he added.


      However, the mining analyst was unable to indicate the extent of
Zimbabwe’s mineral wealth because "private claim owners prefer to keep such
information on exploitable resource to themselves".


      The country is, however, rich in chromite, diamonds, gold and other
base metals.


      Methane gas has also been discovered in south-west Zimbabwe, while the
country has the second largest platinum resource in the 500-kilometre Great
Dyke.


      Gold and nickel are two of the critical contributors to mining revenue
in Zimbabwe, contributing 57 percent and 11 percent respectively.


      Exploitation of the two has, however, been adversely affected by the
country’s worsening economic crisis.


      A geologist at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) said most of the
country’s minerals were close to the surface, making them easy to exploit.


      "Our geological studies (of the country’s mineral wealth) reveal that
there is more mineral content in the country’s belts and the advantage we
have is that the mineral is quite close to the surface, as compared to
regional countries," he told the Business Daily.


      Zimbabwe Platinum Mines Limited is developing an open-cast mine in
Selous to exploit minerals that are close to the surface.


      Other resources that are said to be easy to exploit by open methods
include coal, also found in south-western Zimbabwe, and tantalite, which can
be mined in many parts of the country.


      The mining experts said Zimbabwean miners were fortunate in that they
did not have to struggle to reach ore bodies buried deep in the ground.


      The occurrence of minerals close to the surface also makes it less
expensive for local mining companies to exploit resources, the experts said.


      The analysts said the country’s mineral resources were not being fully
exploited because of lack of government incentives to attract mining
investment and the lack of policies to encourage private sector investment.


      UZ analyst Brian Muchemwa said:

      "The government is not designing any relevant policies that are suited
to encourage investors to venture into mining activities. Most of the
policies are more or less political gimmicks, making it difficult for
investors to sacrifice their funds into huge mining projects because of fear
of an immediate reversal of policies by Harare."


      The analysts said government policies that had eroded the rule of law
and property rights had also weighed against investment in the mining
sector.


      Under a controversial land reform programme, the government has seized
most white-owned land and even threatened to extend the policy to mining and
other sectors with significant white and foreign investment. Exchange rate
policies have also discouraged investors, the analysts said. The government
has insisted on maintaining a controlled and over-valued exchange rate that
is out of step with macroeconomic fundamentals. This has adversely affected
exporters’ earnings. "Recently, the government introduced the export support
scheme and promised to frequently adjust the exchange rate, but the reality
is that the rate is not going to be adjusted any more," Muchemwa said.
Economist Marko Kwaramba said mining projects required huge sums anchored in
long-term tenures and guaranteed security. He said high import tariffs on
the chemicals needed for mining were prohibitive of investment. Zimbabwe’s
mining industry contributes about 4 percent of gross domestic product and
over 20 percent of export earnings. It also accounts for about 3.5 percent
of national employment. Business Reporter
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Mail and Guardian

Zimbabwe grapples with record inflation

      Ryan Truscott | Harare

      19 July 2003 07:45

Zimbabwe is grappling with record inflation of 364,5%, rising at nearly one
percent a day, a nightmare for ordinary Zimbabweans.

The latest figures from the state-run Central Statistical Office (CSO) show
that inflation jumped from 300.1 percent in May and is likely to rise
further.

The figures are significantly higher than those of other countries in the
southern African region, badly hit by disease and drought.

In Zambia, inflation is estimated to be 25%, while in Botswana --the
regional economic success story -- the figure is 11,1%.

News of Zimbabwe's latest inflation figures has been greeted with dismay.

"The chief victims are the populace -- in fact anybody except the political
plutocrats or those with access to forex," charged an editorial in Friday's
Zimbabwe Independent, a private business weekly.

"Those with a little savings or on fixed incomes have been ruined."

Shoppers here find prices increased on a weekly basis.

Houses in Harare's plush northern suburbs that cost around three million
Zimbabwe dollars in 2001 now sell for anything up to 300-million Zimbabwe
dollars ($364 000).

Last week bakeries increased the price of bread by up to 1 000% in reaction
to a similar hike in the price of flour by millers.

Analysts say Zimbabwe's economic woes date back to the late 1990s but
deepened following the start of a controversial land reform programme to
take over white-owned commercial farms for redistribution among new black
farmers.

The programme has resulted in a downturn in foreign investment and chronic
foreign currency shortages. The impact can be felt at all levels of society.

Last month bodies were reportedly piling up at Harare's crematorium due to a
shortage of hard cash to buy gas to run the furnaces.

The Zimbabwe government blames its economic problems on hostile foreign
forces and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which it
says has been calling for "economic sanctions" against the country.

The United States, Britain and the EU have all imposed targeted sanctions
against President Robert Mugabe and members of his government for alleged
human rights and democratic abuses.

Independent economic analyst John Robertson said the government was both the
beneficiary and the victim of its own policies.

He said its policy of borrowing local money at interest rates kept below the
rate of inflation for the past two or three years had seen it repaying money
back to lenders, such as pension funds, at a fraction of its original value.

"Nearly all our pensioners have been pauperised by this process," said
Robertson. "There are hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their
savings."

He added that the government was in a "short-term survival mode" when it
resorted to printing money for unproductive uses such as wages for soldiers
and civil servants.

The government is in the process of pumping 24-billion Zimbabwe dollars ($29
million) worth of new banknotes into the economy to stave off severe cash
shortages.

The result of such policies, Robertson predicted, would be "increasing
inflation and increasing misery". - Sapa-AFP
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News24



Zim morgue workers nabbed
19/07/2003 14:49  - (SA)


Harare - The desperation caused by Zimbabwe's fuel shortages was illustrated
on Saturday when a Harare mortician and his assistant lent an infant corpse
to a black market fuel dealer so he could claim cheap diesel reserved for
the bereaved burying their dead.

Police spokesperson Inspector Cecilia Churu confirmed that Knocks Zvakwidza
and his assistant, named only as Chikwanha, both of whom worked in the
mortuary of a state hospital at Chitungwiza township just south of Harare,
had been arrested on Thursday for "violating a dead body" and for corruptly
issuing burial orders.

An unnamed illegal fuel dealer was also in custody, she said.

The scarcity of fuel is so serious now it can be obtained at ordinary
service stations almost only with special permits, including burial orders
carried by undertakers or grieving relatives.

Having a coffin with a body inside ensures prompt attention at the pumps
without having to wait in a queue, the state-controlled daily Herald said in
a report on Saturday on the incident.

The newspaper said Chikwanha issued a burial order for a month-old child to
the fuel dealer on Thursday, and also gave him the use of the corpse in a
tiny coffin. The dealer drove to the nearest service station where the
production of the burial order and the dead baby got him instant attention.

He drove back to the Chitungwiza mortuary to return the coffin and its
contents, but was stopped at the hospital gates by security guards whose
suspicions were aroused when they saw that the same coffin which was taken
away earlier for supposed burial was now re-entering the hospital.

"Investigations that we have carried out so far indicate that senior
hospital officials were called and the man was quizzed, and he revealed that
he was working in cahoots with the mortician and his assistant," the Herald
quoted Inspector Churu.

The newspaper said Zvakwidza had been suspended from the same job two years
ago for allegedly extorting money from poor people who came to collect the
bodies of relatives who'd died in hospital but who could not afford to pay
the dead person's hospital fees. Kvakwidza would only release the body after
the grieving relatives had paid him a bribe, the Herald said.

Economic collapse in the last three years of President Robert Mugabe's rule
has dried up fuel imports, to the point where the country's vehicle fleet is
kept going by the illegal black market, which carries a high risk of buying
fuel contaminated with water.

Executives of multinational oil companies, which own most of the country's
service stations, say they have not had deliveries for well over a month
from the state-run fuel procurement company.

So valuable is the black market - most of it said to be run by cronies of
Mugabe - that most bus operators park their vehicles outside service
stations which get special allocations of fuel meant to keep commuter
transport services running.

However, police say, the bus operators immediately drain their tanks once
they get fuel and sell it on the black market for about Z$2 000, four times
the official controlled price. - Sapa-DPA


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Comment from ZWNEWS, 19 July


Pied piper


By Michael Hartnack


Lord Renwick, a British ambassador to South Africa in apartheid days, noted
in his memoir that the British Foreign Office had a rule against trusting
white liberals as sources. He made an exception for Helen Suzman. Last week’
s contradiction in statements from the South African and U.S. presidents, on
the one hand, and Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on the other,
may have been due to diplomats placing too much reliance on feedback from
Zimbabwe's jet-setting business community. Like the old-time white liberals
with their now, apparently, laughable faith in basic human decency, Zimbabwe
’s commercial mandarins believe that "economic common sense" must, surely,
prevail.


Like the white liberals, they do not appreciate the primacy among many
African leaders of the quasi-religious belief that economic and social
problems will solve themselves if, first, a political unit is created
containing only "loyal, patriots". The line of Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party
is that anyone, black or white, who fails to see reality as they do has no
right to be here. That is what "Fast Track Land Redistribution" is all
about, at root. In today's crisis, Zimbabwe's politically ambivalent
businessmen go to and fro (hoping to keep their enterprises afloat whichever
faction triumphs), much as white liberals used to trudge between the black
nationalists in Lusaka and the whites south of the Zambezi. Given
hospitality at diplomatic dinners and cocktails, our businessmen bathe
second-hand remarks and petty shifts in an optimistic glow. They
instinctively "talk up the market’’ - it is in their financial interest and
their personal nature to do so. Together with various rather unrealistic
churchmen, members of Zimbabwe’s business elite (both in Zimbabwe and South
Africa) have been urging a coalition upon Tsvangirai’s Movement for
Democratic Change. They want its leaders to accept posts (maybe under Simba
Makoni or Emmerson Mnangagwa), to grant immunity from prosecution to Mugabe
and his defence chiefs, and security for their lavish pension rights and
business empires, in which the commercial elite are often shareholders. The
MDC say this will merely perpetuate past misgovernance and corruption.


The sequence of events on Wednesday July 9, while Bush was in South Africa,
was that at 11.25 a.m. reporters received a fax from Tsvangirai saying
claims by South African President Thabo Mbeki on SABCTV the previous evening
of dialogue between the MDC and Zanu PF were "without foundation.’’ He said
there had been "no political engagement" since the aborted talks in April
2002 (when Mugabe demanded the MDC accept his re-election was valid), and
claims of dialogue were false, partisan, designed to buy time for Mugabe and
"ward off potential genuine brokers." Zanu PF secretary for administration
Didymus Mutasa likewise denied talks were taking place. He would be the one
to know, he said. At noon on Wednesday, the two presidents gave a press
conference at which Mbeki said: "We have urged the (Zimbabwean) government
and the opposition to get together. They are indeed discussing all issues.
That process is going on." Bush voiced confidence in Mbeki as "the point
man" where Zimbabwe was concerned. Many news outlets reported, incorrectly,
that Tsvangirai issued his denial in response to Mbeki's press conference
remarks. Zimbabwe's state media gleefully declared that Tsvangirai had
"called Mbeki a liar" and suffered a snub. In a later statement, intended to
mollify, Tsvangirai said there were no formal negotiations with Zanu PF, but
that "emissaries from various groups that include churches, civic groups and
indeed the South African government" were trying, so far unsuccessfully, to
get talks resumed. From here, it seems clear Mbeki was misled by
over-optimistic reports, fed to his advisers by those given to minimising
problems. We can guess their source. It would also be interesting to know
what US diplomats told Bush, and from where they get their information.


However, if diplomats in Southern Africa are not to heed businessmen, to
whom should they talk? Academics? Exiles? Professional lobbyists? Something
Doris Lessing wrote in "The Grass is Singing" is apt: any group of people
should be judged by its failures, it worst elements, as well as its
successes, its better products. Diplomats and policy makers should take in
the widest range of views. Among these must be semi-articulate voices they
don't like to hear, the irrational men of violence, the hate-crazed
extremists. As Nicholas Mosley, son of the leader of the British Fascist
Movement in the 1930's, Sir Oswald Mosley, wrote after his father’s death:
"I clearly see (now), while the right hand dealt with grandiose ideas and
glory, the left hand let the rats out of the sewer." South Africa's
Nationalist government had to be judged by its death squads and police
torture cells as well as by the urbane, persuasive voices of one-time
Foreign Minister Pik Botha and his like; the ANC by the perpetrators of
necklacings and human rights abuses of the most chilling kind in Quattro, a
guerrilla camp in Angola, as well as by its genial Lusaka spokesman, the
late Tom Sebina. South Africa needs to admit the rats have emerged
triumphant from Zanu PF's sewers. Bush has asked Mbeki to play Pied Piper.
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News24

Bush blacklists Zimbabwe, Cuba
19/07/2003 11:10  - (SA)


Dallas, Texas - President George W Bush on Friday hit out six regimes on a
US blacklist he said were guilty of oppression and human rights abuses in
Myanmar and Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Zimbabwe and Belarus.

In a proclamation issued to mark "captive nations week" first observed in
1959 as a statement against communism, Bush hit out at a familiar gallery of
US foes.

"Millions of people still live under regimes that violate their citizens'
rights daily," Bush said in a statement issued as he made a day-trip to
Dallas from his Texas ranch.

"In countries such as Burma and Iran, citizens lack the right to choose
their government, speak out against oppression, and practice their religion
freely," Bush said.

"The despot who rules Cuba imprisons political opponents and crushes
peaceful opposition," he said, in barbed remarks aimed at Fidel Castro.

There were also harsh words for North Korea, with which Washington has been
locked in a nuclear showdown since October.

"Hundreds of thousands languish in prison camps, and citizens suffer from
malnutrition as the regime pursues weapons of mass destruction," Bush said.

"Violence, corruption, and mismanagement reign in Zimbabwe, and an
authoritarian government in Belarus smothers political dissent."

But Bush lauded his ouster of the "brutal regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq,"
during a US-led war earlier this year.

"The Iraqi people are no longer captives in their own country," Bush said.

"Their freedom is evidence of the fall of one of the most oppressive
dictators in history," he said, claiming that Iraqis were now meeting
"openly and freely" to discuss the future of their country.
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