This security update email follows on from our earlier post about soldiers attacking civilians. One victim of such an attack is depicted above.
- Areas where violence against the MDC has been taking place - Masvingo, Muzarabani, Mberengwa, Chililmanzi, Mutoko, Cashel, Shamva (some houses burned).
- Dombashawa - last week and this week soldiers from the 1 Mech Bat, ZNA have been beating up MDC people in that area. They are using iron bars and bayonets. One young man had his hand slit, between second and third fingers. His father was slashed on the head with a bayonet (requiring 6 sutures) and was stabbed in the left arm and right hand. The soldiers are in groups of 15 to 20, some in uniform, some in civilian clothing. One of the assailants said “you are MDC and your Prime Minister promised us better pay, where is it?”. (one victim depicted in photo above)
- Mutoko - a small group of MDC members visited the Zanu PF people in the area requesting that they return the livestock that was stolen from them last year. In most cases the ZPF people agreed, receipts were signed, with three witnesses. It was all very amicable. Now the Police are charging those MDC members with Extortion! This occurred in Ward 17. The Junta Commander Air. Comm. Bramwell Katsvairo is still in the area - he was in charge of the groups perpetrating violence and mayhem pre and post elections last year. He meets with groups of ZPF youth each night between 7pm and 10pm. During the day, these youths go around intimidating MDC members.
- Marondera - The Prime Minister a few weeks ago held a well attended meeting in Marondera (as part of a round the country trip). Following this visit it is reported that the CIO in Marondera are saying “things are getting out of hand, we will have to tighten things up, they (MDC) must remember this is the capital of Mash East”.
- Marondera - three white commercial farmers are being indicted to appear in court for “remaining on their farms”.
- Odzi - A ZPF member Mike Madiro (ex Provincial chairman) this week evicted all his farm employees saying that their political allegance was dubious. They are not homeless and join the 90% unemployed.
- Mudzi - reports from this area are that a number of MDC members houses have been burned. Police have been told they are not to attend the scene. (further investigations are being carried out by MDC members).
- Mudzi - report today of the suspected abduction of MDC member John Sixpence from his home in Kambudzi village, Chimkoko. (Chimkoko was an area very badly affected by political violence last year).
This entry was posted by Sokwanele on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
17 June
2009
A peaceful march by members of pressure group Women and Men of
Zimbabwe
Arise (WOZA) ended in chaos in Bulawayo on Wednesday afternoon,
after the
group came under attack by police officials.
The WOZA
march, organised to commemorate International Refugee Day on
Friday,
consisted of four different groups marching simultaneously from
different
points across Bulawayo. The groups were set to converge outside
the offices
of the state-owned Chronicle newspaper, which WOZA leader Jenni
Williams
said was a 'test' challenging media freedom. She explained that
they wanted
to test if there was any real change on the ground in Zimbabwe,
adding that
one of the protest groups even started its march outside
Bulawayo Central
Police station to test the reaction of the police.
But when three of the
protesting groups arrived at the newspaper's offices,
they were set upon by
police officers who viciously started beating people
and arrested many
involved in the march. The fourth group was stopped
en-route to the offices
and also faced attack by the police who also made a
number of arrests. By
Wednesday evening nine WOZA members were confirmed to
be at Bulawayo Central
Police Station facing unknown charges, while WOZA
officials were still
trying to track down a number of their members who had
not returned
home.
Three people meanwhile received medical treatment for more serious
injuries
sustained at the hands of the police, including an elderly woman
who was
pushed to the ground. Several other people sustained bruising and
other soft
tissue injuries after being beaten with police
batons.
Williams explained that WOZA traditionally marks International
Refugee Day,
saying Zimbabweans are "refugees in their own country because
they are
displaced, unsettled and insecure." In an earlier statement the
group lashed
out at the unity government for allowing a clampdown on
informal trading,
which is the only means of survival for most families in a
country where
unemployment is well beyond 90%. Williams continued that
informal traders
are repeatedly harassed by police and their produce is
often looted and
stolen.
"In a country where all goods and services
are now charged in foreign
currency, the inability to earn forex places the
vulnerable even more at
risk and forces more and more Zimbabweans to flee
their country of birth to
try and provide for their families," Williams
said.
Through Wednesday's protest, WOZA said it was reminding the
inclusive
government and the world that the people of Zimbabwean remain the
victims of
an ongoing crisis, saying: "it is time to put the needs of the
people
first."
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
17 June
2009
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his delegation have been warmly
welcomed in Oslo, Norway where the Norwegian premier has promised to
increase aid to Zimbabwe.
The Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg,
told Tsvangirai on Wednesday
that funds from his government will mainly go
to areas to do with education,
health services and promoting democracy. The
Norwegians pledged $8 million -
to total about $40 million the country has
spent in Zimbabwe so far this
year.
As has become the norm with each
government that Tsvangirai has visited, the
funds will not be channelled
through the inclusive government's financial
system, but through the UN, the
World Bank and non governmental
organisations.
Tsvangirai was accompanied
to the talks on Wednesday by ZANU PF Foreign
Affairs Minister Simbarashe
Mumbengegwi. Norway does not have any targeted
sanctions against individuals
in Zimbabwe.
Norway's deputy minister of Foreign Affairs Raymond Johansen,
who was in
Harare last month, had invited Mumbengegwi to visit Oslo with
Tsvangirai.
In Norway Tsvangirai had started the day with a breakfast meeting
with Erick
Solheim, the Minister of International Development. Later he held
talks with
Stoltenberg, who told journalists during a media conference that
Tsvangirai
has shown leadership and 'great courage as a leader and as head
of
government'.
The Norwegian premier said they admired his efforts to
unify the MDC and the
new government, adding 'we need his leadership in
challenging times ahead.'
Stolternbeg also said Norway supports the
government of national unity and
is prepared to start bilateral cooperation
with the Government.
Meanwhile the European Union has so far refused to give
visas to Foreign
Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi and Justice
Minister Patrick
Chinamasa. Both ministers are on the targeted sanctions
list of the EU.
Chinamasa, Mumbengegwi and Finance Minister Tendai Biti are
meant to join
Tsvangirai in Brussels, Belgium for a meeting. Biti is
reported to have
traveled to Brussels on Monday night.
Tourism
Minister Walter Mzembi, who accompanied Tsvangirai to the United
States, was
barred from meeting US President Barack Obama last Friday, much
to the
chagrin of his party. It's not clear yet if Mzembi will be allowed
into
Brussels, as he is also on the EU targeted sanctions list.
Tsvangirai is
expected in Brussels Wednesday evening and during his stay in
Belgium he
will address the 27 heads of the European Union.
Meanwhile ZANU PF Minister
of Mines Obert Mpofu, has been refused a visa by
the British government to
attend a mining conference in London which starts
next week Monday.
http://www.africasia.com
OSLO,
June 17 (AFP)
Norwegian Prime Minister
Jens Stoltenberg announced Wednesday an increase in
aid to Zimbabwe bringing
this year's total to 200 million kroner (22.5
millions euros, 31.2 million
dollars).
Stoltenberg made the announcement during a visit by Morgan
Tsvangirai,
Zimbabwe's longtime opposition leader turned prime minister in a
unity
government with arch-rival President Robert Mugabe, who has been in
power
for three decades.
"The aid will go partly to non-governmental
organisations and partly to the
United Nations" and the World Bank,
Stoltenberg said at a press conference
with Tsvangirai in Oslo.
"The
main priority is basic health, primary education and transition aid,"
he
said.
The Norwegian premier stressed that the international community
would only
substantially increase aid if Zimbabwe showed progress in
democratic
reforms.
Mugabe and rival Tsvangirai on February 11 formed
a power-sharing government
tasked with steering Zimbabwe back to stability
after disputed elections
last year further plunged the country into
crisis.
Tsvangirai has been on an international tour seeking to raise
funds to help
Zimbabwe emerge from years of hyper-inflation and a breakdown
in basic
services that has forced millions of Zimbabweans to flee the
country.
He met with US President Barack Obama in Washington who pledged
73 million
dollars in aid, stressing however that it was to go directly to
Zimbabweans
and not the government given continued concerns about the Mugabe
regime.
Germany meanwhile has promised 20 million euros through the World
Bank.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Africa News
Jun
17, 2009, 16:46 GMT
Harare - The European Union (EU) has
temporarily agreed to lift a travel ban
on two Zimbabwean cabinet ministers
from President Robert Mugabe's party,
following Mugabe's threat to call off
re- engagement talks with Brussels,
officials said Wednesday.
'This
was a temporary visa waiver. It was a decision made after a
consultation of
all EU partners (in Zimbabwe) and Brussels,' said Stephane
Toulet, the
deputy French ambassador to Zimbabwe.
'The decision is meant to promote
human rights and good governance in
Zimbabwe and to re-engage Zimbabwe with
the EU,' said Toulet, whose country
is processing the visas in the absence
of a Belgian diplomatic mission in
Harare.
In 2002, the EU slapped
Mugabe and dozens of his cronies with targeted
sanctions, including travel
bans, to protest over human rights abuses in
Zimbabwe.
Patrick
Chinamasa and Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, Zimbabwe's ministers of
justice and
foreign affairs respectively, are on the sanctions list.
The EU had
initially declined to give the men visas to join former
opposition leader,
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at talks this week in
Brussels with EU
officials. Ministers from Tsvangirai's MDC and a breakaway
faction of the
MDC led by Arthur Mutambara are also slated to take part.
On Tuesday,
Mugabe had warned he would call off the mission unless the visa
ban on his
ministers was waived. A minister from Mutambara's MDC had also
vowed to
boycott the trip unless his Zanu-PF opposite numbers were included.
The
MDC's number two, Tendai Biti, however ignored the threat and left for
Belgium Tuesday.
The remaining ministers are expected in Brussels
Thursday.
Tsvangirai is on a three-week long trip to United States and EU
to try
repair relations damaged during the past decade of Mugabe's
autocratic rule
and secure aid towards rebuilding Zimbabwe's battered
economy.
http://en.afrik.com/article15814.html
They are afraid she could ask "damaging questions"
Amnesty
International's secretary general Irene Khan who is in Zimbabwe has
not yet
met with President Robert Mugabe as their meeting awaiting
approval.
Wednesday 17 June 2009, by Alice Chimora
It emerged
today that there is growing worry in the presidency for Khan to
have a face
to face meeting with Mugabe. Sources say Zanu PF hardliners are
blocking the
meeting fearing that "Khan would ask damaging questions to
them".
Khan, arrived in Harare last weekend and on Monday met
influential Defence
Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and also held talks with
Presidential Affairs
Minister met Didymus Mutasa and Education Minister
David Coltart.
Her visit to Zimbabwe is the first by a top official of
the world rights
body in many years. She is on Thursday scheduled to address
a press
conference in Harare.
Amnesty, among the most outspoken
critics of Mugabe's controversial human
rights record, had said in a
statement last week that in addition to meeting
government officials and
human rights defenders, Khan hoped to meet the
Zimbabwean leader during her
trip to Harare.
Zimbabwe has a long history of gross human rights abuses
since 1980.
Hundreds of opposition political activists were killed last year
during a
violent general election.
The new Harare administration has
established a national healing ministerial
team that will address the
violence that characterised the troubled country
especially in the run-up to
last year's run off poll.
Political violence that followed then
opposition MDC party's shock victory
in presidential and parliamentary
elections last year is said to have killed
at least 200 opposition
supporters and displaced 200 000 others.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai,
who outpolled the 85 year old Mugabe in last
March bloody election but
failed to secure the margin to take power,
withdrew from a June 27 run-off
poll saying widespread violence against his
supporters made a free and fair
vote impossible.
But Mugabe with the backing of army generals went ahead
with the
presidential run-off poll despite Tsvangirai's withdrawal. Later he
was
forced to negotiate a power sharing settlement with the opposition after
his
victory received worldwide condemnation, leading to the formation of a
unity
government in February.
Amnesty International has challenged
Zimbabwe's inclusive government to
impose the rule of law in the country and
that the administration acts
against state agents and government officials
who continue to violate human
rights.
But it said it was concerned
about the apparent lack of political will by
the power-sharing government to
create an environment in which human rights
and media workers could freely
do their work.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
17
June 2009
By CAJ News
HARARE - ZIMBABWE'S civil servants have given
the government an ultimatum to
review their allowances by the end June lest
they go on a massive job
action, it has emerged. The public workers'
umbrella representative body,
the Public Service Association (psa) has
already sent circular to its
members advising them of the intended job
action.
The association noted that it had given the government up to the
end of this
month to increase their allowances from $100 and announce
substantial salary
rates, failure of which would result in a serious
national industrial
action.
The circular was issued by PSA president
Cecilia Alexander Kowa after a
meeting with the Minister of Public Service
Eliphas Mukonoweshuro earlier
this month.
The association said the
government should act as soon as it gets funding
adding that it the end of
this month would be the deadline for patience in
the civil
service.
"The PSA leadership has met with the members in Harare who have
resolved to
give Government time up until the July pay sheet to improve on
salaries and
conditions of service, therefore the intended job action has
been put on
hold until early July 2009.
"We have agreed that as soon
as Government gets some funds it will improve
on the US$100 allowance. If
there is no improvement then, the members
promise to take action," said Kowa
in the circular.
Mukonoweshuro this week confirmed that he had met with
PSA leaders and urged
them to be patient while the government tries to
source resources.
"I appreciate that there is need to review the
allowances and the ministry
would not waste time to act on the issue if
resources come at our disposal.
At the moment the situation is challenging
because the government has not
been able to get funds.
"The civil
service is among the priorities of the government's financial
needs and I
urge our workers to be patient. We are working tirelessly to
ensure that
their demands are met," said Mukonoweshuro.
The shaky coalition
government has been canvassing for financial aid from
across the globe to
take the ailing economy back on its feet but the efforts
have not been very
fruitful.
Civil servants were promised an urgent review of their
allowances at the
birth of the unity government but nothing has materialized
four months down
the line.
http://af.reuters.com/
Wed Jun 17, 2009 3:00pm
GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's consumer prices fell for the fifth
month in a
row in May, declining 1.0 percent month-on-month compared to a
1.1 percent
fall in April, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) said on
Wednesday.
The CSO has not released an annual figure since January when
the southern
African nation allowed use of multiple currencies.
This
has brought relief to consumers and helped snuff out what had become
the
world's highest inflation rate, which hit 231 million percent last year
in
June.
Prices have stabilised and basic goods are available in shops, but
most
Zimbabweans continue to endure hardships because salaries are very low.
The
government is broke and only pays workers a monthly allowance of
$100.
Consumer rights groups say an average family of five people needs
$469 to
survive through the month.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai,
who formed a unity government with
President Robert Mugabe in February, has
been touring Europe and America to
drum up financial support for the new
Harare administration.
Western donors, who accuse Mugabe of years of
misrule and largely shun the
85-year-old leader, have said direct aid to the
government would only flow
when there are tangible signs of political and
economic reforms.
Some aid has started to trickle into agencies,
bypassing the government.
Germany pledged 25 million euros for Zimbabwe on
Monday and U.S. President
Barack Obama promised last $73 million to help
fight AIDS and good
governance.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Violet Gonda
17 June
2009
A senior MDC official remains in Harare Remand Prison after he was
arrested
on Tuesday in connection with a case involving a group of MDC
'abductees'. A
Harare magistrate reserved a ruling in the case involving the
MDC's
Director-General Toendepi Shonhe, on Tuesday on perjury
charges.
A statement by the party said magistrate Jackie Munyonga
reserved the ruling
to Thursday, after the State opposed bail alleging that
Shonhe was facing
serious charges.
Shonhe is accused of lying under
oath when he swore to an affidavit that
three members of the MDC had been
re-abducted two weeks ago by State
security agents. He is being charged
under the Criminal Law and Codification
Reform Act.
The three
activists, Lloyd Tarumbwa, Fani Tembo and Terry Musona, had been
taken by
the State security agents from their homes in Banket for interviews
at the
Attorney General's Office.
The MDC say the charges against the official
are 'trumped up' and that
Shonhe had not lied as the youths had been
re-abducted two weeks ago,
although they were later released. Luke
Tamborinyoka told SW Radio Africa on
Tuesday that the three, who were first
kidnapped from their homes last year,
had been taken again by state agents
in unmarked vehicles. He said they are
being forced to act as state
witnesses in the case of another group of MDC
activists who were accused of
plotting to overthrow the Mugabe regime.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance
Guma
17 June 2009
Efforts by police in South Africa to have a human
rights activist charged
for putting up 'Mugabe Go Home' posters at the venue
of Jacob Zuma's
inauguration, fell through this week. Kallie Kriel, who
leads the civil
rights initiative Afri-Forum, told Newsreel he put the
posters on lampposts
at the government Union Buildings last month, to
protest the presence of
Robert Mugabe in the country. He argued that
Mugabe's regime continued to
commit human rights abuses, despite the
formation of a coalition government.
Police in Pretoria sought to have
Kriel charged for putting up the posters
but a week ago he submitted to the
State Prosecutor that the charges were
politically motivated and violated
his constitutional right to freedom of
expression. He further argued that
Afri-Forum had followed all the legal
avenues available to stop Mugabe from
visiting South Africa. State
prosecutors eventually ruled in his favour and
withdrew all the charges
unconditionally.
Meanwhile Kriel contrasted
Mugabe being allowed to visit South Africa with a
denial of a visa for
Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, by the same
government. 'The fact
that the red carpet was rolled out for Mugabe in South
Africa, immediately
after 18 activists had been arrested in Zimbabwe, sends
a negative message
to the world regarding the South African government's
stance regarding human
rights,' Kriel stated.
Newsreel obtained a copy of Kriel's presentation
to state prosecutors and in
it he details how he wrote several letters to
Zuma's office and the
Department of Foreign Affairs, regarding Mugabe's
invitation. He said
although the President's Office acknowledged receiving
them they did not
respond to the contents. Kriel also listed Mugabe's
abuses, from Operation
Murambatsvina to the crackdown on opposition
activists and the arrest of
journalists. He said the ignoring of a SADC
tribunal ruling on the land
issue showed that the coalition would do nothing
to restore the rule of law
in Zimbabwe.
http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/4290
Manufacturing continues to struggle to
re-equip and re-capitalise in order
to compete against foreign
imports.
Ironically SADC certification allows neighbouring countries duty
free access
to the Zimbabwean market which is further punishing local
industry. There
are reports of unscrupulous businesses, mainly importers of
finished goods,
which are forging Certificates of Origin and supplying
product out of Asia.
Interest rates continue to be a major concern as
forex shortages push up the
cost to the level that far exceeds the regional
average. Various submissions
are being made to the Transitional Government
to address the serious
consequences of these anomalies. Business bodies are
protesting and
government has offered a sympathetic ear but no decisive
action has yet been
taken.
Disparities with the regional community
abound and Workers Compensation is
said to be 3 to 4 times than that of
neighbour, South Africa.
This entry was posted by Sokwanele on
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
June
17, 2009
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
Morgan Tsvangirai will
deliver a passionate appeal this week to Zimbabwe
refugees and asylum
seekers living in Britain to return home to help to
rebuild their shattered
country.
In a two-hour address at Southwark Cathedral before evensong on
Saturday
afternoon, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe will argue that his
country has
made important progress towards democracy and
stability.
He will tell the thousands of Zimbabweans who have fled during
Robert Mugabe's
rule that their country needs their skills, youth and vigour
to help it move
further along the path to recovery.
Mr Tsvangirai,
who is on a three-week world tour to boost his country's
standing in the
West, will also meet Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling in an
effort to
secure financial support for Zimbabwe and political support for
his party,
the Movement for Democratic Change.
Mr Tsvangirai's host on Saturday,
Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark, told
The Times: "He is going around the
world to try and persuade governments
that now they have some power sharing
at last, the better way out of this
mess for governments is to support the
country. They can do this by giving
money. He is coming to the cathedral
primarily to meet the Zimbabwean people
in exile. He is going to say to
them, 'You have real skills and abilities,
please choose your moment and
come home to Zimbabwe to help rebuild your
country."
Dean Slee said
many of the asylum seekers were living in difficult
circumstances in
Britain. He admitted that like many, he feared a "blood
bath" when Mugabe
loses power. He hoped the southern African spirit would
prevail to enable
"truth and reconciliation" as happened in South Africa.
Mr Tsvangirai has
chosen Southwark Cathedral to deliver his message because
the diocese is
linked to four of the five Anglican dioceses in Zimbabwe,
with the cathedral
itself linked to a diocese of its own. Anglicans in
Zimbabwe have suffered
terrible privations in an episcopal power struggle
that has seen worshippers
locked out of churches and intimidated and
persecuted by the
regime.
A former Anglican bishop of Harare, the disgraced Nolbert
Kunonga, an ally
of Robert Mugabe, attempted to split the church and set up
his own province
with himself as archbishop, taking funds and property from
the legitimate
church.
Church doors have now been opened, however,
and the new bishop, Sebastian
Bakare, who keeps the chains that were used to
lock the door of Harare
Cathedral in a bag in his office, led Anglicans in
Easter celebrations in
the building this year for the first time in two
years.
An appeal set up by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Dr
Rowan
Williams and Dr John Sentamu, has raised £300,000 to help the churches
provide food and health care for the victims of the nation's crisis.
17 June
2009
The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) in partnership with the National Residents Associations Consultative Forum ( NRACF) are conducting a series of ward based public meetings in the towns and districts across Zimbabwe; meant to mobilize the residents to demand the adoption of the local governance reforms identified and drafted by the Residents Associations under the National Residents Associations Consultative Forum.
Councilors from the respective wards are playing an active role in these public meetings. They (councilors) are working together with the Residents Associations ward leadership to mobilize residents to attend and participate. The Councilors are also helping with the bookings of Community Halls where these public meetings will be held.
The topical issues that will be discussed at these public meetings include;
Residents Associations will also use these public meetings to educate residents on the following;
· Conducting water/electricity meter readings; and service bill interpretation so as to make sure that they are not prejudiced by service providers.
· Senior citizens benefits with respect to service delivery charges
· How to use water & electricity sparingly
· Pollution
· Updating of Residents Associations programmes.
· Recourse for damages incurred as a result of the cholera crisis.
CHRA remains committed to advocacy for good, transparent and accountable local governance and the delivery of quality and affordable municipal (and other) services on a non partisan basis. The National Residents Associations Consultative Forum continues to provide a platform for the coordinated voice of residents on critical issues.
Combined
Exploration House, Third Floor
Landline: 00263- 4-
705114
Contacts:
http://www.nation.co.ke/
By KITSEPILE NYATHI, NATION
CorrespondentPosted Wednesday, June 17 2009 at
16:30
HARARE,
Wednesday
The refusal by Western leaders to meet ministers from
President Robert
Mugabe's party accompanying Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai on a tour of
North America and Europe has deepened rifts in
Zimbabwe's coalition
government, it has emerged.
Mr Tsvangirai is on
a three-week tour of the United States and several
European countries to try
to repair relations damaged during Mr Mugabe's
iron fisted rule and to
secure urgent aid to repair Zimbabwe's battered
economy.
State media
first raised questions about the composition of the Prime
Ministers
delegation, which they said was dominated by ministers from his
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) when Mr Tsvangirai embarked on the trip
a fortnight
ago.
But murmurs of disapproval from Zanu PF intensified after Tourism
Minister
Engineer Walter Mzembi --- the only Zanu PF minister in the
delegation ----
was barred from meeting United States President Barack
Obama last Friday.
The state media, which is loyal to Mr Mugabe reacted
angrily and accused the
US government of bias.
Mr Tsvangirais next
important engagement is with senior European Union
officials in Brussels
later this week and he will only attend with one
minister each from his
party and from a break away MDC faction.
Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa was due to attend the meeting but has
been refused entry by the EU
because he is one of the more than 200 Zanu PF
members including Mr Mugabe
under targeted sanctions from the EU and the US
since 2000.
There
were reports that Mr Mugabe told his cabinet on Tuesday that the
meeting
should be abandoned if Mr Chinamasa was denied entry.
Industry Minister,
Professor Welshman Ncube from the MDC break away faction
was quoted as
saying he would not attend the meeting unless Mr Chinamasa was
granted a
visa.
We are supposed to go tomorrow but it depends on whether the other
members
can get the visas, he told the German Press Agency.
But
ministers from Mr Tsvangirai's party are already in Belgium for the
meeting.
Mr Mugabe's loyalists say Mr Tsvangirai is holding a brief
from the veteran
leader to call for the lifting of sanctions, which Zanu PF
says were crafted
with MDCs assistance.
http://www.guardian.co.uk
Mugabe's
stranglehold on press freedom is showing signs of weakening, with a
new
independent paper about to launch
David
Smith
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 17 June 2009 13.01
BST
The mounted head of a buffalo stared down at me
beside the smoky,
oak-panelled bar of the New Ambassador hotel. About a
hundred journalists
were crammed in, sitting or standing, for a debate of
noise and passion with
interludes of loud hilarity. A government minister
sat at the bar and joined
in, while another listened as he leaned on a pool
table.
It wasn't a scene I had expected in Zimbabwe, where it's often
assumed that
President Robert Mugabe has a stranglehold on the media with
thought police
in every room. After all, numerous journalists have been
intimidated or
jailed, and the only daily newspaper, the Herald, is little
more than a
compilation of Zanu-PF press releases.
On a Tuesday
night in a 1950s hotel in Harare, however, the Zimbabwe Press
Club was
speaking its mind. It had invited Eric Matinenga, a minister in the
unity
government, to debate the country's new constitution with Dr Lovemore
Madhuku, a human rights lawyer and chairman of the national constitutional
assembly.
Madhuku went first, wearing a blazer and striped shirt,
clapping his hands
and speaking with fire and brimstone. He declared: "The
process is being
done in a very arrogant way. I don't think our politicians
are more
qualified to write our constitution than our citizens. When we say
we want a
people-driven process, we mean a body that does not answer daily
to the
government of the day."
He finished to riotous applause
and cheers. Then it was the turn of
Matinenga, a member of prime minister
Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change. He struck a conciliatory
note: "We do not agree with Dr
Madhuku but we respect and defend his right
to say it."
Then he tried to reassure the assembled throng: "When you
come to
constitution making, it's not about the parties, it's about the
people of
Zimbabwe."
There were some feisty questions from the
floor, some in English, some in
Shona, and more laughter. One participant
said bluntly: "We want a
government of our own choice. If you dilly-dally
with the process, you
dilly-dally with the people."
I felt at
home in the journalistic tribe and encouraged by the apparent
fearlessness
with which they expressed their opinions. But I could see
something more
ominous on the wall. There were six framed photographs of
journalists who
were no longer alive and a poster that asked: "What happened
to Edward
Chikomba?"
Chikomba was a cameraman found beaten to death on a
roadside near Harare two
years ago. It was unclear whether his "crime" was
to have sympathies for the
MDC or to have smuggled news footage out of the
country.
On another day I sat in the ordered chaos of the office of
Vincent Kahiya,
the editor of the Zimbabwe Independent. The paper lives up
to its name and a
recent editorial talked openly of "Mugabe's disastrous
policy failures". It
also, incidentally, referred to "the duplicity of MDC
leaders".
But taking a stand comes at a price. Kahiya and his news
editor were
recently arrested and spent a night freezing in police cells
with no bedding
or food, bad lighting, dirty floors and a broken sewage
system. "You ask
yourself, 'Why am I here?" Kahiya said. "'What have I done
to be here?'"
He continued: "The whole episode is a clear admission
by the unity
government of what it thinks about media freedom in this
country. The media
is still regarded as a nuisance unless it sings Mugabe's
praises. As a
journalist here you operate with an axe over your head and you
never know
when it's going to fall and which story they're going to pick on,
because
there are so many media laws they can choose from."
Yet
the status quo is about to be tested. Just along the corridor, past
reporters at their computers, Barnabas Thondhlana, one of Zimbabwe's leading
newspapermen, is planning to launch a new daily independent. He has declared
that NewsDay will pull no punches on either side.
"We will praise
the government of the day when it has done something good,"
he told me. "We
will acknowledge any good Robert Mugabe has done. We will
throw brickbats at
him when he's fucked up. We will do the same for Morgan
Tsvangirai."
Thondhlana was at the country's last independent
daily, the Daily News, in
2003 when armed police stormed the office, ordered
journalists out and
padlocked the door. He looks with envy on the freedom of
the press in other
countries. He added: "If the British politicians'
expenses scandal had
happened in Zimbabwe, the paper would have been closed
down, the reporter's
head would have been on the line and someone would be
in jail right now."
Yet, just as firefighters sign up to fight fires
and soldiers sign up to go
to war, so journalists thrive on a "busy patch".
Vincent Kahiya has had no
shortage of stories in recent years to fill the
Zimbabwe Independent. He
mused: "It's a unique opportunity for a journalist
to be in this
environment. I once spent a month in Denmark on secondment and
there isn't
any news. People write about trees, or the trains being
late."
Noise pollution from helicopter flights over Victoria Falls
could badly affect important elephant herds in Zimbabwe, environmentalists have
warned. They say senior government ministers are backing plans for a four-fold
increase in tourist flights. It is part of attempts to take advantage of an expected tourist boom when
neighbouring South Africa hosts next year's football World Cup. Work has already begun on new helipads but without official permission. Zimbabwean Environment Minister Francis Nehema says no environmental impact
assessment has been made - and without it the scheme cannot go ahead. "It doesn't matter who you are. We want it done. It is a prerequisite," he
said. Zimbabwean journalist Brian Hungwe says at present just five helicopters fly
over the falls at any one time. That figure is set to grow to around 20, as tourists scramble to secure
stunning aerial views of one of the world's most spectacular sights, he says.
But environmentalists fear excessive noise pollution will have an adverse
effect on the behaviour patterns of the elephants. And Deliwe Utete from non-governmental organisation Environment Africa says
if the elephants flee it could have worrying repercussions for the resort's
entire ecosystem, affecting thousands of wild animals and birds.