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Mr Maganda's chilling testimony is endorsed
by George Chipato, aged 41, an
assistant inspector who was in the force for
20 years. "I was forced out
because they said I supported the MDC," said Mr
Chipato, whose name has also
been changed. "More than 200 others of my rank
have been forced out. They
were replaced by people without qualifications.
Officers in charge of
stations have low educations. They tell the police not
to investigate crimes
against MDC supporters."
Mr Chipato said that
"police in the law and order section at Harare central
charge office are
torturing people with terrible beatings and electric
shocks. This has been
going on for some time."
During May's five-day national strike the
heavily armed police cooperated
with gangs of thugs to thwart peaceful
protest marches. Police who object to
inflicting violence on innocent
civilians are hounded from the force by
threats of violence and trumped-up
charges against them.
In the presidential elections last year, police
were forced to cast their
ballots for Mr Mugabe while watched by high-ranking
officers, according to
accounts from insiders. They say many were ordered to
vote more than once.
The police have become so thoroughly corrupted and
aligned to the Mugabe
regime that considerable rehabilitation efforts will be
needed to return the
force to its role of even-handedly upholding the rule of
law.
The police are so inextricably bound to the ruling party that they
would be
a serious impediment to free and fair elections, according to
political
analysts. But increasingly brutal work and poor conditions are
creating
dissension in the ranks, and some police may refuse to fire on
crowds should
the population mass in opposition to Mr Mugabe.
The
international policing agency Interpol maintains a close relationship
with
the Zimbabwe police. Interpol is currently building its southern
African
regional offices in Harare. The Zimbabwean police commissioner
Augustine
Chihuri has served as Interpol's regional vice-president for
several years
and was recently awarded a lifetime vice-presidency of the
agency.
But
last month Interpol forced Mr Chihuri to resign the honorary post after
it
objected to public boasting by police spokesmen that Interpol endorsed
the
work of Zimbabwean police. That was a first step but much more
international
pressure is needed to isolate the Zimbabwean force, say civic
leaders. "That
could be a turning point for the police. It is time the
international
community distances itself from the Zimbabwean force," said
Iden Wetherell,
editor of the Zimbabwe Independent. "The police have become
in creasingly
partisan and unprofessional in the execution of their duties."
Kate
Allen, Amnesty's UK director, said: "Zimbabwean authorities
should
immediately end the political misuse of the police and ensure that
police
officers abide by the highest standards of professionalism and respect
for
human rights. The government should immediately cease all
intimidation,
arbitrary arrests and torture of political opponents,
independent media and
human rights activists."
Zimbabwean church
leaders have also identified the police as a threat. In
March Christian
ministers marched through Harare, carrying large wooden
crosses, to urge the
police to stop inflicting violence on the people. They
tried to deliver a
petition to the police commissioner, but the police
responded in
characteristic fashion - by throwing the pastors in jail.
Daily News
NCA to defy police over Mugabe rally
A
CLASH is looming between the
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)
and the police, who have barred
the non-governmental organisation from
holding its political parties’
convention in Masvingo because of a rally to
be addressed in Chivi by
President Robert Mugabe tomorrow.
The
police have also barred the NCA from holding its regional
convention, which
is supposed to be held in Masvingo at the end of this
month.
NCA
spokesman Douglas Mwonzora yesterday vowed that his organisation,
which has
been pressing the government to agree to a new constitution for
Zimbabwe, would go ahead with
tomorrow’s meeting.
Mwonzora said he received a phone call from the police advising him
that it
was impossible for the organisation to go ahead with its political
parties’
convention which begins today because
Mugabe would be visiting
Masvingo province to address a rally in Chivi
tomorrow.
Chivi is about 70 kilometres west of Masvingo
town.
The NCA spokesman told the Daily News: “I was advised that
even if our
convention was not a public gathering, it was just impossible to
go ahead
with it because the President is coming.”
Under the
controversial Public Order and Security Act (POSA),
organisers of political
gatherings must seek permission from the police for
their
meetings.
However, non-political civil society groups say the
legislation, which
was introduced last year and has been used against
opposition political
parties, has also affected their
operations.
Mwonzora said: “They (police) also said they were not
happy with the
speakers at the convention, who include Lovemore Madhuku, Ray
Muzenda,
Ernest Mudzengi, Nelson Chamisa, myself, and other political party
leaders.”
Madhuku is the NCA chairman, while Chamisa is a
legislator for the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the country’s main
opposition party.
Both have been arrested under POSA in the
past.
Mwonzora said the NCA was not deterred by threats that the
police
would come down hard on the organisation if it went ahead with
today’s
meeting.
Riot police have in the past forcibly broken up
meetings that were
held without permission. Last month, several
students were injured when the police broke up a schools’ debate
contest
in
Bulawayo.
The NCA spokesman said: “We are not
shaken and we are not moved at
all. The convention is going ahead. It’s up to
the police, Mugabe and his
government to come and confront us, but we are
going ahead as planned.”
He said delegates to the convention had
already started converging at
the Great Zimbabwe Hotel, where the meeting
will be held.
He added: “We are expecting about 300 delegates from
as far as
Victoria Falls, Bulawayo, Harare, Mutare and other towns to come
for the
convention and we will not succumb to this old-fashioned intimidation
by the
police. What is so important about Mugabe’s rally?”
About
six political parties that are members of the NCA are
expected
to
attend the two-day convention. They are the MDC, the
United Parties,
ZANU Ndonga, the National Association for Good Governance and
Zapu.
The NCA spokesman said the parties would discuss governance
issues and
proposed talks between the MDC and the ruling ZANU PF. Pressure
has mounted
this year for Zimbabwe’s two main political parties to resume
dialogue to
end a political stalemate that has contributed to the crisis
gripping the
country.
Talks between the two parties were stalled
last year when the MDC
filed a High Court application challenging Mugabe’s
re-election in March
2002.
The NCA parties’ convention is also
expected to discuss Mugabe’s
legitimacy and a proposed new
constitution.
It was not possible to secure comment on the matter
from police
spokesmen Oliver Mandipaka and Andrew Phiri, who were unreachable
on their
mobile phones.
Senior police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena
yesterday said he could not
comment on the issue because he was on
leave.
By Angela Makamure
Staff Reporter
Daily News
ZUPCO sues ANZ
A STATE-OWNED firm and two
individuals have named Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publisher of
The Daily News, as co-respondent
in lawsuits in which they are claiming $142
million for damages allegedly
incurred during work stayaways held earlier
this year.
The suits have been brought by the government-controlled
Zimbabwe
United Passenger Company (ZUPCO), a Harare businessman and a ruling
ZANU PF
supporter based in Kwekwe.
They were separately filed in
the High Court last month by Harare
lawyers Muzangaza, Mandaza and
Tomana.
In an unprecedented move, ANZ is named together with the
country’s
labour watchdog, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and
Zimbabwe’s
main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
The MDC and ZCTU respectively called for work stayaways in
March and
April this year. Other respondents in the matter are MDC president
Morgan
Tsvangirai and ZCTU head Wellington Chibhebhe.
ZUPCO
is claiming $119 million for a bus burnt during mass action by
unidentified
youths in Epworth, while Clarissa Muchengeti, a ZANU PF
supporter in Kwekwe,
is demanding $5.5 million for a car that she says was
petrol-bombed during a
stayaway.
David Bello, a Harare businessman, wants $17 million for
the loss of
his minibus.
Bello says his bus was petrol-bombed
while carrying pre-school
children during a mass stayaway that was called by
the ZCTU to press the
government to reverse a more than 300 percent fuel
price increase.
The three litigants accused ANZ of encouraging and
supporting the
stayaways through The Daily News.
The newspaper
carried articles on the stayaways.
However, in its exception to the
claims, ANZ said it did not plead any
basis which would make the company
liable for the illegal actions of “a gang
of youths” who allegedly
caused
damage to the plaintiffs.
The company said in
its exception: “In law, even if the fifth
defendant (ANZ) encouraged and
supported an illegal demonstration organised
and called by the first and
second defendants (MDC and Tsvangirai), such
does not give rise to any
liability for the criminal acts by the gang of
youths alleged in the
declaration.
“Wherefore, the fifth defendant prays that the
exception be allowed
with costs and that the claim by the plaintiff
accordingly be dismissed.”
ANZ legal adviser Gugulethu Moyo on
Wednesday told The Daily News: “If
these claims succeed, that would be
devastating to the journalism profession.”
Court
Reporter
Daily News
Ipi Tombi makes short shrift of rivals
Most news today in Zimbabwe is bad news. So, here is a piece of good
news,
one which has gone unreported in every single newspaper in the land,
either
through sheer ignorance, total apathy on the part of the papers and
their
editorial staff, or perhaps their preoccupation with solving the
insoluble
problems of Zimbabwe.
Last Saturday afternoon,
in the
town of Louisville, Kentucky, United States, history was made
by a Zimbabwean
athlete.
Not the two-legged variety, but a four-legged heroine. Her
name? Ipi
Tombi (translation from Zulu – where are the girls?), the
mighty
Zimbabwean-bred thoroughbred filly. Starting for the first time in
her
adopted land, this phenomenal equine star made short shrift of her
five
rivals to win the US $165 000 (Z$39.6 million)
Locust Grove
Handicap at the famed Churchill Downs track, home of the
Kentucky
Derby.
It was her eighth consecutive victory, a winning streak
which started
in April 2002 in South Africa and continued on through Dubai
and, now, in
America.
Ipi Tombi has won 12 of 14 lifetime races
in Zimbabwe, South Africa,
Dubai and America for total career earnings of US
$1.5 million (Z$1.23
billion).
She was born and raised at Golden
Acres Farm, Marondera, by Peter J
Moor and sold for a paltry Z$50 000 at the
2000 Harare national yearling
sales.
There is always a flip side
to good news, however, especially in a
country such as ours which is, simply
put, in the process of unravelling.
The other side of this coin
reveals that Golden Acres Farm in
Marondera is no longer
inhabited by civilised beings. It is one of thousands of
agricultural
properties in Zimbabwe now at the mercy of people incapable of
producing
even an ear of corn, let alone an elite racehorse of Ipi
Tombi’s
international acclaim.
C’est la vie! (That’s
life!)
Peter Lovemore
Harare
Daily News
ZANU PF has stripped people of their
dignity
Please allow me the opportunity to respond to R D
Tafirenyika, who
wrote ZANU PF’s fight for human dignity cannot be denied
(Daily News 2 July
2003). I feel this individual cannot go
unanswered.
What he speaks of is history and the last time I
checked, history
never fed anyone. In the early days, ZANU PF may have given
us that human
dignity
but now it is gone or, at the very least,
is being eroded rapidly by
the very same group of people that supposedly gave
it to us.
Yes, it is undeniable that some things like women’s
rights and
education for all have been upheld, but others such as racial
discrimination
have taken a new twist, with white-on-black being transformed
into
black-on-white bigotry.
Certain members of the ZANU
leadership have attempted to elevate
themselves
to demi-god
status whilst trampling on the rights and dignity of the
very people who
elected them in office.
Yes, there was primary health care which,
before the age of madness
descended on our beautiful country, we could
afford. Now we can’t afford to
access it properly, if at all.
My
friend, wake up. Do you think a building called a clinic which has
no
resources at its disposal, from drugs through to staffing, is really
a
clinic?
Because people’s right to look after their families
with some dignity
are being trampled on, through bad government policy, over
700 000 educated
and young Zimbabweans have emigrated to various
countries.
I do not know of a single person in our country who does
not have at
least one or two relatives overseas sending money home to look
after the
family.
Do you really have rights when the government
tells you that if three
or more of you are waiting for a commuter omnibus to
go home after work, you
are holding an illegal gathering or political rally?
You are stripped of
your dignity when the riot squad turns up and beats the
living daylights out
of you.
Like you, my friend, ZANU PF has
always used the past to justify the
present. Don’t be fooled, your dignity
will stand for nothing if ZANU PF
feels it is in their best interests to
chastise you, simply because you don’
t agree with their point of
view.
Aniki
Harare
Daily News
Is Mbeki buying time for Mugabe’s embattled
regime?
THE international community this week piled fresh
pressure on
President Robert Mugabe to step down, but analysts yesterday
warned that
regional powerhouse South Africa had emerged as the obstacle to
efforts to
make Mugabe relinquish power and pave way for a negotiated
solution to the
country’s deepening crisis.
By refusing this
week to use his immense economic influence to
pressurise Mugabe to hand over
power to a transitional government which
would be tasked with organising a
fresh and democratic election in the
country, South African President Thabo
was virtually attempting to buy more
time for Mugabe’s embattled
administration, the analysts said.
Harare human rights lawyer and
political commentator Brian Kagoro said
Pretoria, which in the past has led
an African initiative to end Zimbabwe’s
crisis, had virtually assumed a new
role as Mugabe’s advocate.
Kagoro, who is also the national
co-ordinator of Crisis in Zimbabwe, a
group seeking a negotiated solution to
the political crisis gripping the
Southern African nation, said:
“The
actions of South Africa have become a stumbling block to
the
resolution of Zimbabwe’s crisis.”
Echoing the view of most
political analysts and observers, Kagoro
added: “Its (South Africa’s) role as
an honest broker is now being
questioned. Instead, it is shielding Mugabe at
any given turn. It has become
part of the problem.”
Kagoro spoke
as sharp differences this week emerged between the United
States and South
Africa over demands by Washington that Pretoria play a
leading role in
ensuring the formation
of a transitional government in Zimbabwe
ahead of fresh and
transparent elections.
Senior American
government officials and US President George Bush, who
meets Mbeki in
Pretoria on 9 July, have publicly called for a regime change
in Harare and
said they wanted Mbeki to play a leading role in ensuring the
transition to
democracy in his northern neighbour.
South Africa, whose economic
support has kept Mugabe’s government
afloat in the face of punitive sanctions
by the US and the European Union,
says it will not abandon its quiet
diplomacy under which Pretoria has
refused to condemn or publicly take a
tougher stance against Harare.
Mbeki, who argues Zimbabweans must
be left to solve their own
problems, publicly criticised Bush and his
officials for demanding that he
push for a transitional government in
Zimbabwe, saying the Americans would
themselves never countenance anyone from
outside setting policy in their
country.
South Africa’s Deputy
Foreign Affairs Minister, Aziz Pahad, weighed in
with a demand that
Washington should come out with specific figures of money
and aid it promised
Zimbabwe if Mugabe stepped down in favour of a new
transitional government
and fresh elections.
Analysts said Mbeki’s pleas that Mugabe, whose
ruling ZANU PF party is
accused of unleashing violence on opponents, be left
to resolve his problems
with Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party,
were a sign that the South African leader was
unwilling to act against
Mugabe.
They said demands by Pahad that
Washington come out clean on aid
promised to Harare without any corresponding
demand on Mugabe to act in
order to win international support only helped
underscore the South Africans
’ preparedness to protect the Zimbabwean leader
with whom they fought
side-by-side in the anti-colonial
struggle.
The analysts pointed out that Mbeki and his ruling
African
National Congress (ANC) party were always quick to publicly
castigate
the international
community on any
hardline
approach against Harare, but had never done the same to
Mugabe,
despite Harare’s failure to deliver on promises made to the
international
community and South Africa itself that it would improve on
human rights and
democracy.
They said Mugabe had in the past
promised Mbeki that he would
institute political reforms and amend repressive
media and law and order
legislation, but he had to date not lived up to his
word.
University of Zimbabwe (UZ) political analyst Eldred
Masungure said
South Africans had adopted an ambiguous policy on Zimbabwe but
one that
generally was supportive of the Harare administration.
He said: “The African National Congress lies in the same liberation
mould as
ZANU PF. There is a commonality of interests between the
two
parties.
“The ANC could not be seen to be condemning a
fellow liberation
movement. They want to develop common positions and forge a
Pan-African
response to everything.’’
Another UZ political
analyst, John Makumbe, said Mbeki did not want to
see a regime change in
Zimbabwe in which a labour-backed MDC opposition
party overthrew a former
liberation movement for fear that might send the
wrong signals to his own
constituency at home.
Makumbe said: “They fear that what is
happening in Zimbabwe, where a
civilian opposition party can take over power,
can happen in South Africa.
They think that what might happen to a fellow
liberation party might happen
to them.
“In this respect, the
South Africans are a conveyor belt for Mugabe.
They are doing this not
because they genuinely support Mugabe, but they fear
that they might meet the
same fate in the future.”
Pedzisai Ruhanya
Deputy
News Editor
Daily News
Food crisis looms in Binga
A POTENTIAL
humanitarian disaster is looming in Binga and areas
around the Zambezi
valley, where villagers have harvested enough to sustain
them for only eight
weeks, according to United Kingdom-based
non-governmental organisation Save
the Children.
Save the Children country director Chris McIvor said
desperate
villagers had resorted to selling off valuable assets such as
cattle, goats
and sheep to earn money to buy food.
He told The
Daily News: “We have discovered that there has been a
slight increase in
levels of malnutrition. However, what is more worrying is
that people are
becoming more vulnerable because they are selling off all
their remaining
traditional assets. Children are coming out of school, there
is increasingly
less money for health and food.
“The people in the southern Zambezi
valley and Binga district only
managed to harvest enough food that will see
them through for between six
weeks to two months.”
He said the
villagers had begun harvesting in April.
United Nations agencies
say about 5.5 million Zimbabweans need
emergency food aid because of food
shortages caused by drought and a
controversial government land reform
programme that has slashed food
production by half.
In Bulawayo,
43 people are said to have died in April alone because
of
malnutrition.
McIvor said the sale of assets by desperate
people in the country’s
food insecure areas would further worsen the problems
faced by villagers who
are under threat of starvation.
He said
in the Nyaminyami area, food insecurity was likely to worsen
around November
and December.
“We are continuing with our feeding programme for
about 12 000
desperate cases under the social welfare programme in the area,”
he said.
He said feeding programmes for about 7 000 destitute
people in the
Mutorashanga area in Zvimba would continue until April next
year, when the
number of people in need of food assistance will be increased
to cover
chrome miners, who have large families.
Beneficiaries
will include female and child-headed households.
Mclvor said his
organisation was carrying out investigations into the
potential for recovery
of most of the affected families in the event that it
pulled out of
food-insecure areas.
He said Save the Children UK was seeking more
funds from the
international donor community for agricultural recovery in the
areas where
the organisation operates.
The agency has responded
to emergency situations in Muzarabani,
Tsholotsho, Porta Farm in Harare and
Mberengwa, but operates in three
districts, that is, Binga, Nyaminyami and
Mutorashanga.
He said the organisation would spend £6 million (
about Z$18 billion
at the official market rate) from April until the end of
March 2004
on humanitarian assistance in Zimbabwe. The money will
be used to buy
books for disadvantaged schools, to purchase agricultural
inputs and fund
training programmes.
UN launches US$308 m food appeal for disease-hit Africa
GENEVA – The United Nations
food agency appealed for US$308-million
(Z$253.7 billion) on Wednesday to
prevent millions of people starving in
Southern Africa where farmers are
often struck down by Aids before they are
able to plant their
crops.
The Aids epidemic threatens to wipe out the bulk of southern
Africa’s
economically active population, with life expectancy expected to
fall below
30 years by 2010
if current trends in the disease
continue.
James Morris, executive director of the World Food
Programme (WFP),
said 6.5 million people could starve next year in Southern
Africa due to
Aids stifling
agriculture. “If we don’t act now,
it will be too late to save
millions of people – we won’t get a second chance
at this,” he said. Morris
also said it was important Aids victims were well
fed so that
anti-retroviral drugs, which slow the pace of the disease, could
work
effectively.
“Food is the most important drug in the fight
against Aids,” Morris
said, adding that general
health issues
needed attention too to avoid “catastrophic
consequences” for the
region.
The appeal aims to fund 540 000 tonnes of food for six
countries –
Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho and
Swaziland.
The US$308-million Morris wants is less than the US$507
million
(Z$417.7 billion) the WFP asked for last year to feed almost 13
million
people.
“There has not been massive starvation. What
could have been one of
the great human catastrophes of all times has been
averted,” Morris told a
news conference.
He said Zambia and
Malawi had produced significantly better harvests
this year and could even
export corn and maize to their less fortunate
neighbours.
But he
remained “very concerned” about Zimbabwe which, facing a severe
economic and
agricultural crisis which critics blame on government
mismanagement, is due
to get two-thirds of the food.
Mozambique, hit by natural
disasters, will get one million tonnes.
Morris said the WFP would
accept food donations, but preferred cash to
buy surplus grain from African
neighbours, boosting their economies. –
Independent Online
‘Children dropping out of school, people selling off assets’
Staff
Reporter
Daily News
Judgment reserved in Tsvangirai’s presidential poll
petition
HIGH Court judge Ben Hlatshwayo yesterday reserved
judgment on an
urgent application by Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai for the High Court to set a date for his party’s
challenge of
President Robert Mugabe’s 2002 re-election.
The MDC
filed a petition 15 months ago challenging Mugabe’s victory,
citing what it
termed “massive electoral irregularities and pre-election
violence”. No date
has been set for the hearing.
South African senior counsel Jeremy
Gauntlet, representing Tsvangirai,
said his client had requested a
preliminary five-day sitting for a hearing
to deal with legal and
constitutional issues relating to the MDC’s election
challenge, but Jacob
Manzunzu, the Registrar of the High Court, had not set
a date despite a
directive by Judge President Paddington Garwe. The second
phase of the
hearing would deal with issues relating to allegations of
violence in the
run-up to and during the 9-11 March 2002 election, the MDC’s
lawyers
said.
Gauntlet said delaying the hearing was tantamount to denying
his
client his right to justice.
“An election is something which
should be heard urgently,” Gauntlet
said.
“Elections are
fundamental for the operations of society. Your ruling
today is so important.
It’s a chance for the courts to establish their
independence.”
In his response to Tsvangirai’s application, Manzunzu said there had
been
“too many applications made by the applicant relating to the
election
petition”.
“Some interlocutory matters have not been
finalised,” he said. “As
soon as as all the interlocutory matters are dealt
with and disposed of can
I then set the matter down.”
Manzunzu
said Justice Garwe, who is presiding over the treason trial
of Tsvangirai and
two other top MDC officials, would hear the election
petition. He also said
it was not possible to set down dates for the
presidential election hearing
“because there are issues relating to the
general election in the year 2000
which have not been resolved”.
Gauntlet said Manzunzu had given a
judicial function to himself when
his duty was to set down hearing dates
without venturing into the merits or
demerits of a case whose hearing is
pending.
Mugabe’s lawyer, Terrence Hussein, said the judge
president’s
directive that Manzunzu liaise with a judge to set a date for the
hearing
did not have the force of law. “The Registrar is saying this matter
is not
complete,” Hussein said. “Therefore, the court hearing cannot be set
down.”
Loice Matanda-Moyo, the director of the civil division in
the
Attorney-General’s Office, said outstanding issues needed to be
finalised
before the matter could be set down.
Court
Reporter
The Star
AU faces a stern test
July 4, 2003
By the Editor
Today marks the beginning of the second summit of
the African Union,
which was launched in Durban last July. It is to be held
in Mozambique and
will attract various leaders from the
continent.
During the inaugural conference, African leaders
committed themselves
and their countries to a better Africa. The question is
whether we are
moving towards that dream of a peaceful and prosperous
continent.
Of course, a year is too short a period for such an
assessment.
However, as the leaders converge on Maputo, we hope that the wars
in
countries such as Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Liberia,
Burundi and Uganda will top the agenda.
But more
importantly, the AU should look at mechanisms to prevent the
outbreak of
armed conflicts by devising strategies for economic growth and
development.
In this regard, the AU should take a keen interest in
developments in
countries like Zimbabwe and Swaziland.
The erosion of democracy in
Zimbabwe and the continued abuse of power
by the Swazi monarch breed
political instability that can explode into armed
conflict. And once a war
breaks out, it becomes very difficult to stop.
We have to
acknowledge that certain aspects of the AU such as Nepad
seem to be gaining
momentum. But there is little movement with regard to
isolating rogue states
that undermine democratic principles.
For Africa to get out of its
morass of under-development, good
governance has to be the rule rather than
the exception. Corruption and
other malpractices have to be
eradicated.
This requires bold leadership which would be prepared
to earn some
enemies. Failure to do this can render the AU a club of beggars
just like
its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity.
There is clearly a desire on the part of some leaders to move Africa
onto the
path of development. Countries like Botswana, South Africa and
even
Mozambique have shown the lead. The success of the summit should be
judged
on how committed states are to peace and development, and therefore
a
willingness to move away from war, ignorance and disease.
IOL
Don't be cowed by Bush's visit, says Mugabe
July 04 2003 at 01:51AM
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Thursday
told his supporters not to be
cowed by a visit by US President George Bush
next week to neighbouring South
Africa and Botswana, state television
reported.
The Zimbabwe government has stepped up criticism of the US
government ahead
of Bush's visit, accusing it of working with the main
opposition party in
Zimbabwe to organise a "regime change" in the southern
African country.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has called for Mugabe
to leave office,
and has said that Zimbabwe will feature prominently in
Bush's talks with
South African President Thabo Mbeki on July
8-9.
"When Bush visits (the region) it shouldn't send tremors to your
spines. I
understand there are shivers in some of our circles," Mugabe told a
central
committee meeting of his Zimbabwe African National Union -Patriotic
Front
(Zanu-PF) party.
'Would he (Bush) dare to do to us what he
did in Iraq?'
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) showed Mugabe
telling the
meeting that Zimbabwe had neither oil nor weapons of mass
destruction to
warrant US intervention in the country.
"Would he
(Bush) dare to do to us what he did in Iraq?" Mugabe said in a
humourous
tone. "Of course not. He knows that the situations are different,"
the
79-year-old leader told senior party officials.
"And anyway we don't have
the oil that Iraq does, nor have we the weapons of
mass destruction. But we
host here close on to 100 000 whites," he said,
referring to the white
minority.
The Zimbabwe government often accuses Western governments of
putting the
interests of their white "kith and kin" in the country ahead of
the black
majority.
The US government does not recognise Mugabe's
victory in presidential
elections last year, in which he beat opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai by
more than 400 000 votes.
At the Zanu-PF
meeting, Mugabe accused both Bush and British Prime Minister
Tony Blair of
being "conspirators against this country". - Sapa-AFP