[This report
does not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations] |
'Negotiated govt' not answer in Zimbabwe: US ambassador
Yahoo News
by
Fran Blandy Thu Jun 19, 10:54 AM ET
PRETORIA (AFP) - US ambassador to
Harare James McGee said Thursday that a
"negotiated government" in place of
elections was not the answer to
Zimbabwe's crisis ahead of next week's
presidential run-off.
"I don't think the will of the people of
Zimbabwe will be met through a
negotiated government," McGee said during a
lecture at the University of
Pretoria.
"This election is absolutely
necessary for the will of the people to be
heard."
There have been
growing calls to cancel the June 27 presidential run-off in
favour of
negotiations on forming a national unity government.
South African leader
Thabo Mbeki has been reportedly seeking to convince
Zimbabwe's president and
opposition leader to agree to such a plan.
With violence mounting in
Zimbabwe ahead of the run-off, McGee warned that
the deteriorating situation
made a free and fair run-off election near
impossible.
"As I flew
down from Zimbabwe this morning I left a country on the
precipice," said
McGee. The former potential regional breadbasket with once
limitless
economic potential was "sinking into a seemingly bottomless
abyss," he
added.
"Sadly as I stand here today the prospects for a free and fair
election that
might bring change to Zimbabwe is extremely limited," he told
his audience.
Violence is mounting in Zimbabwe ahead of the presidential
run-off set for
June 27, and McGee warned the deteriorating situation made a
free and fair
run-off election near impossible.
"The only possible
antidote is an immediate and large scale commitment to
independent large
scale observation by SADC (The Southern African
Development Community), the
AU (African Union) and others."
A senior SADC official announced Thursday
that the observers they were
deploying for the run-off would remain in
Zimbabwe beyond the election, to
ensure that the post-election situation
remained calm.
"As we speak now, we have more than 200 observers on the
ground...to ensure
that Zimbabwean people go through this electoral process
very peacefully,"
the SADC's politics, defence and security, Tanki Mothae
told public
broadcaster SABC radio.
McGee told his audience in
Pretoria: "Make no mistake Zimbabwe's ongoing
crisis is a regional crisis.
When the people and and governments of this
region stand against ... further
violence in Zimbabwe, they can and do make
a difference."
He warned
that the most likely possibility, that the run-off would be a
"stolen
election", would only lead to millions more Zimbabweans flooding the
neighbouring countries in the region.
McGee said he himself had
witnessed the "new" campaign of violence in which
war veterans had come "out
of the shadows", with no semblance of an attempt
to hide their
lawlessness.
Recently, while driving back to his office in Harare, McGee
said he had
witnessed nearly 500 women and young children running down the
street chased
by up to 200 youths wearing Mugabe t-shirts and brandishing
sticks and axes.
And he made it clear he disagreed with the South African
government view on
the Zimbabwe crisis.
"The South African view that
Zimbabwe poses no international security threat
is one that we do not
share," said McGee.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Biti charged with
treason
Monsters and Critics
Jun 19, 2008, 17:43 GMT
Johannesburg/Harare - Tendai
Biti, an outspoken leader of Zimbabwe's
opposition, was officially charged
with treason Thursday in a Harare court -
as elsewhere the opposition
reported the discovery of the bodies of four
kidnapped political
activists.
Arrested last Thursday at Harare International Airport on
arrival from South
Africa, Biti was also charged with disseminating false
information,
slandering the country's President Robert Mugabe and
undermining the morale
within the armed forces.
If found guilty, he
faces the death penalty. The court was to rule Friday
whether there was a
case to answer following Thursday's hearing.
The visibly exhausted Biti,
dressed in a red jacket, gazed upwards or held
his head in cupped hands in
the full courtroom that included main opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Biti, Secretary General of the
MDC, had been in South Africa since early
April following Zimbabwe's
disputed election in which President Robert
Mugabe lost control of
parliament.
The charge Biti faces of communicating falsehoods detrimental
to the state
refers to his allegedly announcing that Tsvangirai had won the
presidential
March election by an outright majority.
Results
announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission five weeks later
indicated
that indeed Tsvangirai had beaten Mugabe - but had failed to
garner the
majority needed by the law.
Biti denies all the charges. 'The allegations
have no factual foundation and
the document has no source so it cannot be
attributed to him,' argued
Happias Zhou, Biti's lawyer.
Meanwhile,
violence continued in Zimbabwe a week before runoff presidential
elections,
with the discovery of the bodies of four kidnapped political
activists, the
opposition reported.
According to a report by the British Broadcasting
Corporation, the burned
remains of the wife of the opposition mayor of
Harare was also discovered
Thursday.
More than 70 opposition
supporters have been killed since the March 29
presidential and
parliamentary elections, the opposition has reported.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party
has held the opposition itself responsible for the
violence.
US
Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee, speaking in the South African capital
Pretoria, said Thursday that Zimbabwe was on the brink of a 'bottomless
abyss.'
'It is a country on the brink of starvation. It has already
fallen off the
precipice of economic collapse and is sinking into a
seemingly bottomless
abyss,' McGee said at the Centre for International
Political Studies at the
University of Pretoria.
The US official said
that Zimbabwe's political violence as well as mass
hunger were 'the direct
result of a regime that cares more about clinging to
power and the personal
riches it brings than it does the welfare of its
citizens.'
McGee
discounted upcoming elections, saying that Zimbabwe's
'government-directed
campaign of violence and intimidation, coupled with
planned electoral fraud
make a free and faire election impossible.'
McGee called upon Zimbabwe's
neighbours to put pressure the regime of
long-reigning President Robert
Mugabe, saying the problems of Zimbabwe had
regional effects, and the
solutions should also be regional.
Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard
Membe, who has been in Zimbabwe as part
of an African observer mission,
warned Thursday that increasing violence
could make a free vote
impossible.
Membe, addressing a news conference on behalf of the three
Southern African
Development Community (SADC) nations monitoring the polls,
said he and his
colleagues from Angola and Swaziland would appeal to their
presidents to
take urgent action 'so that we can save Zimbabwe', according
to a BBC
report.
The report quoted him as saying: 'The first
impression we have is that if
the elections were to take place today, these
elections would never be free
and fair.
'The report we received still
indicates that violence is escalating
throughout Zimbabwe.
'We have
received a report that says on the 16th of June this year, as the
observers
were being deployed to those various stations, two people were
shot
dead.
'Of course, it scared most of these observers to the extent that
they had to
pose the question of why are we here then, and what are we
doing?'
The latest developments came as the UN Security Council was
holding an
informal meeting on Zimbabwe chaired by US Secretary of State
Condoleezza
Rice.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had warned
Wednesday that repeated acts of
intimidation and arrests of opposition
leaders would make Zimbabwe's runoff
presidential elections less credible
unless Harare puts a stop to them,
Ban, addressing ambassadors to the UN
at a closed-door session in New York,
criticized strongly the political
atmosphere while Zimbabwe prepares for
runoff elections on June
27.
'The current violence, intimidation and the arrest of opposition
leaders are
not conducive to credible elections,' Ban said. 'Should these
conditions
continue to prevail, the legitimacy of the election outcome would
be in
question.'
Two
shot dead in front of SADC observers
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com
June 19, 2008
HARARE
(Reuters/Own Correspondent) - Two people were shot dead in full view
of
foreign observers monitoring the campaign ahead of next week's crucial
presidential election re-run, which incumbent President Robert Mugabe is
fighting to win at all costs.
This detail forms part of an early
report from more than 200 SADC observers
already on the ground in
Zimbabwe.
The forthcoming presidential election is, therefore very
unlikely to be free
and fair, a group of southern African ministers said on
Thursday, in the
strongest regional condemnation yet of pre-poll
violence.
"There is every sign that these elections will neither be free
nor fair,"
Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe told a news conference.
He was
speaking in Dar es Salaam on behalf of a peace and security troika of
nations from the Southern African Development Community
(SADC).
Tanzania is also current chairman of the African
Union.
Membe said he and the foreign ministers of Swaziland and Angola
would write
to their presidents "to do something urgently so that we can
save Zimbabwe".
SADC is sending 380 monitors to Zimbabwe to cover the
election, in which
President Robert Mugabe faces a second challenge in two
months to his
28-year rule from Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement
for Democratic
Change (MDC). Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in the first
presidential election
held on March 29. The result of that election was not
announced for five
weeks.
Membe said their judgement on the conduct
of the poll was based on evidence
from 211 observers already inside the
country.
Some of the observers had reported that they saw two people shot
dead in
front of them on June 17, Membe said. He did not give
details.
Mugabe is accused by opponents, Western countries and human
rights groups of
orchestrating a campaign of killings and intimidation to
maintain his hold
on the once prosperous country. The MDC says at least 70
of its supporters
have been killed.
Tsvangirai told Reuters
Television on Thursday that drawn-out court
proceedings against MDC
Secretary-General Tendai Biti were part of the
government's intimidation
programme and this was affecting his run-off
campaign.
"We spend time
here, a lot of time which is unnecessary to attend to the
court proceedings
and therefore it affects our campaigning," Tsvangirai said
at the Harare
High Court, where Biti was due to appear on treason charges
which carry a
possible death penalty.
A senior Western diplomat speaking in the region
said the violence was
spreading and had now taken on terror
proportions.
"It's time really that we moved beyond calling this a
campaign of violence.
This is terror, plain and simple. This is a terror
campaign that the joint
operations command has launched weeks ago, it's too
well organised, it's too
well focused, it's too comprehensive, it's too
completely political in its
objectives to be anything else," the diplomat
said.
He added that militias backing Mugabe's Zanu-PF party were now
active in the
capital Harare. "The atmosphere is violent. The violence is
not abating,
indeed it is spreading to areas where it has not historically
spread before".
Mugabe lost the first round vote to Tsvangirai on March
29, but the latter
fell short of the outright majority needed to avoid a
second round,
according to official results.
South African President
Thabo Mbeki has urged Mugabe to cancel the run-off
and negotiate a deal with
the opposition, South Africa's Business Day
newspaper said on
Thursday.
Tanzania's Membe said both sides had indicated they would not
accept defeat.
"The statements being made by both sides . are disheartening.
Let us expect
a lot of trouble to erupt in Zimbabwe after June
27."
He said the troika of SADC ministers was very concerned by the
repeated
arrest of Tsvangirai during the campaign.
"As Tanzania, we
have told the government of Zimbabwe to stop the violence.
We have told our
observers not to be threatened, that they do their work
without fear. People
of Zimbabwe are hurting and it pains us," Membe said.
Mbeki met Mugabe
and Tsvangirai separately in Zimbabwe on Wednesday to try
to mediate an end
to the violent crisis.
Business Day, a respected financial daily, quoted
unnamed sources as saying
Mbeki tried to set up the first ever meeting
between the two men but Mugabe
gave no firm commitment. It said Mbeki still
tried to convince them to form
a government of national unity.
The
South African leader did not comment after the talks.
Business Day said
Tsvangirai agreed to meet Mugabe and said any run-off
would be a
farce.
The MDC said on Thursday it had made an urgent court application
to overturn
a state ban on media cover of its campaign.
Mbeki, who
has led SADC mediation efforts in Zimbabwe, has been criticised
for a quiet
diplomatic approach that has failed to end a political and
economic crisis
driving millions of people into neighbouring states.
The Tanzanian
statement on Thursday indicated increasing impatience in the
rest of Africa
and a willingness to abandon the discreet stance of the past.
Mugabe
blames his foes for the violence and has threatened to arrest
opposition
leaders over the troubles
Three farmers meet a terrible fate
Zimbabwe Today
Another appalling
event shatters the lives of the innocent
This is the story of three
farmers, living peacefully in the Kezi rural
district, some 70km south west
of Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo. All
three were supporters of Morgan
Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic
Change. All three are now
dead.
Their names were Edward Thsuma, 26, Mchasisi Moyo, 30, and Gift
Sibanda, 37.
Mr. Moyo and Mr. Sibanda were abducted from their homes, forced
into a white
Toyota Hilux, and taken into the hills. Their bodies were later
found in
shallow graves.
Mr. Thsuma was herding his cows with
relative, who needs to remain anonymous
for obvious reasons. This man
survived, with a broken arm and widespread
bruising, and is able to describe
what happened.
"They found us herding cattle, and said they had spent the
past week looking
for us. They accused us of selling out the country by
voting MDC but living
on Zanu-PF land. They attacked us with clubs. I was
knocked unconscious.
When I woke, they told me that Edward was
dead."
No-one has been arrested for the murders. Everyone in Kezi knows
who
committed them. It was a gang of so-called War Veterans, inspired and
financed by Robert Mugabe to wage war on their own people.
As the
people of Kezi mourn, the violence continues to spread. The details
of the
death of Abigail Chiroto, 27, the wife of Emmanuel Chiroto, the new
Mayor of
Harare, have shocked the world. She was abducted from her home,
blindfolded,
then so badly beaten that it was difficult to identify her
body.
Her
murder is an example of a new and dreadful tactic being practiced by
Mugabe's militia - the murder of the wives. In the past week the wives of at
least three MDC officials have been killed.
While the news of Abigail
Chiroto was becoming known, South Africa's
President Thabo Mbeki flew in for
surprise talks with Mugabe in Bulawayo,
and Tsvangirai in Harare. Then he
flew home. Perhaps he knows a hopeless
situation when he sees
one.
There is said to be mounting international pressure on the
government to
cancel next week's run-off Presidential election, because the
possibility of
there being anything even remotely fair or free about it is
fast
disappearing. It is suggested that there might still be some sort of
compromise worked out, to provide us with a government of national
unity.
But no-one in Kezi rural district will ever forget, or forgive,
the murders
of Edward Thsuma, Mchasisi Moyo and Gift Sibanda.
Posted
on Thursday, 19 June 2008
Amnesty: 12 Bodies Found In Zimbabwe; Most Victims
Tortured
nasdaq
JOHANNESBURG (AFP)--Twelve bodies were found in
various parts of Zimbabwe
Thursday, and most victims appeared to have been
"tortured to death by their
abductors," Amnesty International
said.
The allegation by the human rights group was made eight days before
a
run-off election pitting longtime President Robert Mugabe against
opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
"Amnesty International today
revealed that 12 bodies have been found in
various areas of Zimbabwe," it
said in a statement. "Most of the victims
appear to have been tortured to
death by their abductors."
-Dow Jones Newswires, 201-938-5500
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-19-081354ET
Mugabe thugs killed and mutilated MDC youth
activists
Times Online
June 19, 2008
Jan Raath in Chitungwiza
The murderous violence being driven by
President Robert Mugabe's militias
reached new levels today with the killing
and mutilation of four young men,
the largest number of fatalities in a
single incident in the last 10 weeks
of Zimbabwe's election
campaign.
Three of the men were Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
youth activists,
defending the home of a local official from attack by Zanu
(PF) youths in
the sprawling dormitory township of Chitungwiza about 30 km
south of Harare.
The third was a passerby, abducted because he did not
know the Zanu (PF)
youths' secret slogans and salutes used to identify
supporters. All of the
victims had their skulls smashed, said relatives who
had seen the corpses in
separate mortuaries. Some had their lips and
genitals cut off.
The escalation of violence came as Gordon Brown called
on Mr Mugabe to admit
international rights observers and the UN rights envoy
for the country's
run-off presidential election on June 27.
"We will
work with all countries to make sure that these elections, which
are now
being conducted in a spiral of violence, can be free and fair," Mr
Brown
said after talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.
"I appeal to the
Zimbabwean government to admit international rights
observers as well as the
UN human rights envoy, so that we can be satisfied
that any elections that
take place, if they are to be legitimate, can be
free and
fair."
Earlier, Tendai Biti, the the MDC deputy opposition leader, was
charged with
subversion and election rigging - offences that could carry the
death
penalty on conviction.
The bodies of Archford Chipiyo, 28, the
son of Philemon Chipiyo, district
chairman of the MDC in Chitungwiza, Yona
Genti and the unidentified young
man were found in tall grass at the side of
the main southward highway out
of Harare at around midday. The body of the
fourth, Nyoni Light, was dumped
near a shopping centre on the outskirts of
Chitungwiza.
The township, with a population of more than a million, has
been the scene
of numerous petrol bombings, abductions and assaults in the
last week as
marauding Zanu (PF) mobs dragged mostly young people out of
their homes and
forced them to join them, marching through the
night.
The arrival of observer missions from the Pan-African Parliament
and the
Southern African Development Community has done nothing to restrain
the
violence. In previous elections since 2000, Zanu (PF) has switched off
the
mobs and their attacks as soon as observers appeared, giving the
impression
of a tranquil election environment.
Philemon Chipiyo, 59,
a respected alderman for the Chitungwiza town council
for the last 25 years,
said that a mob of about 200 Zanu (PF) youths
attacked his home at midnight
on Tuesday, but were repulsed by his guards.
"They came back again later,
with five pickup trucks and a [Mercedes] Benz
(signalling the presence of a
senior Zanu (PF) official). They smashed down
the wall, and they were firing
shots." He produced a live round found lying
inside the house, as well as a
stabbing spear left behind.
Rice pushes for stronger action on Zimbabwe's
political crisis
Monsters and Critics
Jun 19, 2008, 17:05 GMT
New York - US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday called for
'broader and
stronger' action to stop the political, social and economic
deterioration in
Zimbabwe as it prepares for run-off elections.
The meeting at UN
headquarters, attended by diplomats, many of them
Africans, and UN
officials, was aimed at helping the UN formulate measures
to deal with the
crisis in the build up to the June 27 vote.
'Clearly we have reached the
point where broader, stronger international
efforts are needed,' Rice told
the meeting.
She said a call has been forwarded to 14 former African
presidents, Nobel
Peace Prize laureates and former UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan to impress
on Zimbabwe to hold free and fair elections.
She
called on the southern African development cooperation group, headed by
South African President Thabo Mbeki, to urge President Robert Mugabe to stop
the violence in his country immediately and allow the resumption of
humanitarian assistance to the needy.
Mugabe should allow the runoff
elections to proceed freely and fairly and
abide by the results peacefully,
Rice said.
Rice criticized Mugabe for squandering his country's
resources, once an
economic jewel of southern Africa. She charged that
Mugabe has led 'Zimbabwe
not only into a failed state that threatens the
lives of Zimbabweans, but
also the security and wellbeing of all southern
Africa.'
'We need to act now, if Zimbabwe could make the transition to
democracy, so
much would be possible for its people,' she said, adding that
the
international community will have a role to play.
Court orders probe into Biti's alleged assault
SABC
June 19, 2008,
18:15
A Harare magistrate has ordered that the office of Zimbabwe's
attorney
general thoroughly investigate allegations that Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) Secretary-General, Tendai Biti, suffered abuse at
the hands of
police. Biti's lawyers have likened his arrest at the Harare
International
Airport last Friday to abduction.
They alleged that he
was whisked from the airport to a location in
Goromonzi, where he was
interrogated continuously for 19 hours. The Harare
Magistrate's Court has
instructed the attorney general's office to fully
investigate the claims and
compile a report within 14 days.
Meanwhile, the authenticity of the
document at the centre of treason charges
against Biti has been called into
question in the Harare Magistrate's Court.
Biti's lawyers are opposing the
state's application to remand him in police
custody.
His lawyer,
Hattias Hou, has argued that the state has not presented any
facts to
support its allegation that Biti indeed wrote the document. He was
finally
charged one week after his arrest in Harare. Biti stands accused of
subverting the government, and is facing a possible death
penalty.
Biti remains in detention
The accusations against Biti
include seeking to render the country
ungovernable and possibly of resorting
to an armed insurrection. He remains
in detention.
Current African
Union chair, Tanzania, today also put a firm question mark
over the
possibility of a free and fair run-off. The violence and
intimidation
continues. This morning the MDC claimed four youths and the
wife of a
lawmaker had been killed by Zanu-PF militia, taking the death toll
to 70.
The ruling party denies responsibility.
Zimbabwe refusing to issue Tsvangirai passport-MDC
Reuters
Thu 19 Jun
2008, 16:16 GMT
HARARE, June 19 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government is
refusing to issue a new
passport to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai,
citing security reasons,
his spokesman said on Thursday.
Tsvangirai,
who heads the Movement for Democratic Change, left Zimbabwe
after elections
in March to galvanise support for his bid to unseat
President Robert
Mugabe's government. He went back last month to campaign
for the June 27
run-off poll.
"He is having problems renewing his passport after he
exhausted all the
pages," Tsvangirai spokesman George Sibotshiwe told
Reuters. "The
application process went well for two days until everything
just fell apart,
with the officials saying the police had stopped them
processing it for
security reasons."
He will take legal action to
force authorities to issue him a new passport,
Sibotshiwe
said.
Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in the March 29 presidential election
but failed
to win an absolute majority.
The MDC leader has been
arrested five times in the past month. He and his
MDC say the detentions are
part of a campaign by government to intimidate
the opposition ahead of the
poll.
The MCD says 70 of its supporters have been killed by militia and
supporters
of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF. The government blames the bloodshed
on the
opposition. (Reporting by Nelson Banya; Writing by Paul Simao;
Editing by
Elizabeth Piper)
State
staged violence out of control in Zimbabwe
http://www.hararetribune.com
By James Shumba
Harare Tribune Correspondonet
Thursday, June 19, 2008 13:50
news@hararetribune.com
Zimbabwe, Harare -- ZANU-PF youth, militia, war vets, CIO agents,
Zimbabwe
National Army (ZNA) officers, Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP)
members
abducted, beaten and killed four Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) party
activists. The deaths come amid reports that three homes near
Harare have
also been firebombed by ZANU-PF militants, urged on by Mugabe,
ahead of the
June 27 presidential run-off election.
The activists were
abducted Wednesday in the working class township of
Chitungwiza, 25
kilometres south of the Harare.
The ZANU-PF militants, who came
in trucks supplied by the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe (RBZ), wearing uniforms
and AK-47 assault rifles supplied by the
Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA),
swooped in on the MDC activists in the dead of
the night.
Nelson Chamisa, MDC spokesperson says they were assaulted with iron
bars,
clubs and guns before being force onto trucks and taken away by
militias
chanting slogans of Mugabe’s party.
Their mutilated bodies were
found early Thursday. One of the man had
his head crushed in.
Chamisa says that in a separate incident, three Chitungwiza opposition
councilmen and their families had to flee their homes after they were set
alight by gasoline bombs. No one was injured in the firebomb
attacks.
Attempts by the Harare Tribune to reach Zimbabwean police
for
confirmation of the firebombing were not immediately
successful.
Chamisa said ZANU-PF militants paid by the RBZ and army
troops
patrolled the township for several days, visiting houses at night and
threatening occupants.
The MDC says more than 60 of its
activists have been killed in recent
weeks, even that is an underestimate of
the actual number. Upwards of 500
people have gone missing and are presumed
dead, after being kidnapped by the
ZANU-PF youth, militia, ZNA officer, war
vets, ZPR members, CIO agents
across the country.
Independent human rights activists have implicated police, soldiers
and
Mugabe party militants in the violence, thought to be aimed at ensuring
victory over opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai, who bested him in
first-round voting in March.
Doctors at the main Parirenyatwa
hospital in Harare said Thursday they
admitted victims injured in assaults
in several townships on the outskirts
of Harare in recent days as political
violence that has plagued rural areas
spreads to the city.
Residents of Harare’s well-to-do suburbs reported gangs of militants
forcing
household domestic workers and family members to attend meetings
known as a
“pungwe.” That is colloquial term for night-long political
indoctrination
used by militants since the independence war that swept
Mugabe to power in
1980.
Mugabe has threatened to return the country to war if he does
not win
the run-off June 27.
“They came and dragged my workers to
the vlei (overgrown grassland)
nearby,” said Oliver Mberi said. “You’d think
we are already at war.”
He said neighbors reported employees
living in the dormitory townships
fleeing violence in townships seen as
opposition strongholds.
On Monday night, Abigail Chiroto, the wife
of MDC mayor elect of
Harare, was seized from her house in the suburb of
Hatcliffe with her
four-year-old son Ashley, family friends said
Thursday.
The friends, who did not want to be identified for fear
of
repercussions, said the two were taken to a nearby farming area where
Chiroto’s body was found Tuesday.
The boy, who was left at a
nearby police station, told family members
that he saw his mother being
blindfolded and taken off into the bush. When
Chiroto’s body was found, she
was still wearing a blindfold. Her body was
identified Wednesday by her
husband Emmanuel who was out of town at the
time.
Mugabe “is
behaving like a warlord,” opposition party spokesman
Nqobizitha Mlilo said.
“This violence must stop.” The opposition claims
Tsvangirai won the
country’s presidential elections, but official results
said a run-off, to be
held in just over a week, was needed because there was
no outright majority
win.
South African President Thabo Mbeki held talks with Tsvangirai
on
Wednesday and later with Mugabe amid increasing international concern
that
the June vote will not be free and fair. Mbeki, who has steadfastly
refused
to publicly rebuke Mugabe, left late Wednesday without speaking to
reporters.
On Thursday, he cancelled a press conference with
Ethiopian Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi “due to unforeseen circumstances,” the
Foreign Affairs
Department said in a statement. Mbeki’s spokesman Mukoni
Ratshitanga said he
had no comment on Wednesday’s meetings in Harare because
they were not
conducting negotiations in the media.
Mugabe
spokesman George Charamba was quoted in Thursday’s edition of
the state
newspaper, the Herald, as saying Mbeki came merely to review
election
preparations. Mbeki says confrontation with Mugabe could backfire.
However,
the South African leader is being urged to take a tougher stance or
show
that his quiet tactics can work to persuade Mugabe to stop the violence
before the election.
Tsvangirai has called on Mbeki to step down as
mediator, accusing him
of bias toward Mugabe.
Mlilo expressed
little confidence that Mbeki’s visit would make a
difference, noting “four
people died that very day” the South African
visited.
“Mugabe
doesn’t seem to care what the international community thinks,”
Mlilo
said.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanded action
Wednesday.
“It is time for leaders of Africa to say to President Mugabe
that the
people of Zimbabwe deserve a free and fair election,” she said
after a
meeting in Washington with Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga — one
of the
few African leaders who have criticized Mugabe. Most observers
praised the
conduct of the first round — although not the delay in releasing
official
results. But there are growing fears that Mugabe will steal the
second round
through violence and ballot rigging.
In addition
to the violence, Tsvangirai’s party has seen rallies
banned and campaign
stops blocked by police. The opposition’s No. 2 leader,
Tendai Biti, has
been arrested on charges of treason. The opposition says
the charges are
politically motivated.★ --Harare Tribune News.
Harare cuts back on election observers
Financial Times
By Tony Hawkins in
Harare and Tom Burgis in Johannesburg
Published: June 19 2008 20:27 |
Last updated: June 19 2008 20:27
Robert Mugabe's government on Thursday
slashed the number of accredited
Zimbabwean election observers, further
heightening fears that the result of
next week's run-off presidential poll
will be manipulated.
During the first round in March, the 8,800
independent monitors from the
Zimbabwe Election Support Network collated
information posted outside the
more than 9,000 polling stations - a process
which, according to Noel
Kututwa, its chairman, was "critical" in curbing
distortions to the final
tally.
On Thursday the network was informed
that, of the 23,000 names it submitted
to the Ministry of Justice for
accreditation to monitor the run-off on June
27, a mere 500 had been
approved.
Mr Kututwa told the Financial Times the reason given was that the
presence
of observers "disrupts the smooth flow of voting".
"The idea
is to make it impossible to do what we did [in the first round],"
he said.
"It will be very difficult but not impossible."
The news came as Bernard
Membe, Tanzania's foreign minister, warned "there
is every sign these
elections will never be free nor fair".
Addressing a meeting of the
Southern African Development Community's peace
and security troika, Mr Membe
added that he and his two ministerial
colleagues would be writing to their
presidents "so that they do something
urgently so we can save
Zimbabwe".
The minister said his assessment was based on evidence from
more than 200 of
the 400 SADC election observers already working inside
Zimbabwe.
On Tuesday the head of the 40-member Pan-African parliament
observer
mission, Marwick Khumalo, warned that "violence is at the top of the
agenda
of this electoral process". He said he had received "many
horrendous
stories. This election is a far cry from what we had [in
March]."
Leaders of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change on
Thursday
reported another four deaths among party supporters. They said this
brought
the total number of members who have died in political violence since
the
March election to more than 70.
The harassment and arrest of MDC
campaigners, the violence that is spreading
from rural to urban areas against
people suspected of having voted for the
opposition in March, and the state
media's ban on MDC campaign
advertisements have contributed to fears over
next week's run-off.
David Coltart, MDC senator for Bulawayo, confirmed
that although there would
be more regional observers this time they were less
visible than in March.
He added that the observers' role appeared to be
"reactive not
preventative".
While MDC leaders agree that the poll
cannot be free or fair, they reject
the idea that Zimbabwe should be "saved"
by cancelling the election.
The party's leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is
predicting a huge turnout. "On the
ground people are exuberant, they are
triumphant, they are defiant. They
want to finish him off come June 27," he
said in an interview with the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
It is possible to bring Zimbabwe back from the precipice:
U.S. Ambassador
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com
19th
Jun 2008 18:03 GMT
By James D. McGee
ZIMBABWE ON THE PRECIPICE
Presented by HE Mr James McGee Ambassador of the
United States of America to
Zimbabwe at the AFRICA DIALOGUE LECTURE SERIES
Centre for International
Political Studies, University of Pretoria 19 June
2008
Thank you very
much for inviting me to join you today. Thank you Dr.
Solomon. It's a
pleasure to be here to talk with you about the dire
situation in Zimbabwe. At
independence, Tanzanian leader, Julius Nyerere,
told Zimbabwe's new leader,
Robert Mugabe, that he had inherited the jewel
of Africa and urged him to
protect it. Zimbabwe was to be the model for a
new Africa.
It was the
region's breadbasket. The economy's potential was limitless. An
effort was
being made towards racial reconciliation. Twenty-eight years
later, as I flew
down from Harare this morning, I left a country on the
precipice. Zimbabwe
today, is teetering on the edge of lawlessness and
anarchy. It is a country
on the brink of starvation. It has already fallen
off the precipice of
economic collapse and is sinking into a seemingly
bottomless
abyss.
These problems are the direct result of a regime that cares more
about
clinging to power and the personal riches it brings than it does the
welfare
of its citizens. Sadly, as I stand here today, the prospects for a
free and
fair election that might bring change to Zimbabwe are limited.
The
government-directed campaign of violence and intimidation, coupled
with
planned electoral fraud make a free and fair election impossible. The
only
possible antidote is an immediate and large-scale commitment to
independent
electoral observation by SADC, the African Union and
others.
Some observers are already present and I know that more are on
the way. I
welcome this development because I will be the first to admit that
the
influence of the United States can only go so far in Zimbabwe. The impact
of
Zimbabwe's crisis will be felt the most by its neighbors, and they can
do
the most to solve it. The most immediate threat facing many Zimbabweans
is
violence and lawlessness. The campaign of violence being conducted by
the
Mugabe regime is out of control and shows a callous disregard for local
and
international laws and the most basic standards of human rights. This
once
proud liberation movement is willing to beat and kill its own citizens.
It
is willing to violate the norms of civilized societies. It is willing
to
violate SADC's protocols on elections.
And, as I have experienced
first hand, it is even willing to ignore the most
basic protections for
diplomats provided in the Vienna Convention.
Corruption, greed and the need
to maintain themselves in power have
converted freedom fighters and
liberators into lawless tyrants. I have
witnessed with my own eyes the
victims of this violence, and any attempt to
deny it or claim it is the
result of opposition activity is simply a lie. To
date over 3000 people have
been hospitalized and over 60 killed. Over 30,000
have been displaced from
their homes and villages. And those are only the
confirmed cases we know
about.
I have received reports of a primary school principal dragged out
of his
office in broad daylight, never to be seen again, for no other reason
than
that he worked at a polling station that voted MDC in the March
29
elections. The elderly grandmother of the MDC's spokesman was
assaulted
because of her grandson's activities. Children are being dragged
out every
night and forced to chant ZANU-PF slogans and more. I don't think
it is
inappropriate to call a regime willing to assault educators, the
elderly and
youth as lawless. At an even more basic level, there is no
Government of
Zimbabwe. According to Zimbabwean law, the Parliament was
dissolved before
the March 29 elections. The newly elected Parliament has
never been
convened. We now have the situation of a regime claiming to be
represented
by "Ministers" who have not been appointed by any
Parliament.
Some of them, such as so called Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa weren't
even re-elected and aren't even members of Parliament. An
equally serious
threat for many Zimbabweans is hunger and starvation. Once
unknown in
Zimbabwe they threaten many, including the elderly and children.
Zimbabwe is
not currently experiencing malnutrition on a large scale, but it
soon may.
Zimbabwe's harvest, devastated by the government's disastrous land
policies,
will once again reach record lows this year. Current estimates
maintain that
the harvest will only meet one-quarter of Zimbabwe's food
needs. In a normal
year we do not see food insecurity start until sometime in
August, but my
experts tell me that we are likely to see serious food
insecurity starting
as soon as later this month. Compounding the lack of an
adequate harvest is
the Government of Zimbabwe's disastrous, practically
criminal, decision to
suspend all operations by NGOs, including those
providing humanitarian
assistance.
In the best of circumstances, the
U.S. and other major food donors would
have a hard time helping to feed
Zimbabweans. U.S food aid alone was $171
million dollars over the past year,
with more needed this year. The
Government of Zimbabwe's decision to suspend
NGO operations will prevent
this critical assistance from reaching Zimbabwe's
most needy and potentially
leaves up to four million people in danger of
starving. Not to mention the
orphans, HIV patients, elderly and other needy
individuals having to make do
without any help. Let me be clear, the
Government of Zimbabwe's actions are
a direct assault on the people of
Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's disastrous harvest is
but one symptom of an economy that
has already gone over the precipice. The
numbers are truly staggering.
Inflation is over two million percent
according to reliable private
estimates. In the past week alone the Zimbabwe
dollar lost 56% of its value
against the U.S. dollar. To give you some
perspective on what that kind of
inflation means, I have heard stories of
people stranded downtown because the
price of a commuter bus rose from 600
million Zimbabwean dollars to 800
million dollars between the
morning and afternoon commutes.
Routine
transactions now require so many zeroes that some accounting systems
cannot
handle them. Unemployment is over 80%. Manufacturing levels have
plummeted.
Businesses close their doors literally every day. Even mining,
one of
Zimbabwe's few remaining foreign currency earners is suffering as
power cuts
and lack of needed supplies cut into production. Zimbabwe's once
vibrant
economy is practically non-existent at this point. Those hit
hardest, of
course, are the poor who make up the vast majority of Zimbabwe's
population.
Zimbabwe's leadership is wont to blame the country's economic
problems on
Western sanctions. First, the only real sanctions on Zimbabwe at
present are
targeted sanctions against regime leaders which prevent them
from traveling
to the U.S. and from doing business with U.S. firms. While
the Government of
Zimbabwe refers to the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic
Recovery Act (ZDERA)
as a type of sanction, this is not the case. ZDERA
prevents the U.S. from
supporting international financial institution
assistance, such as from the
IMF or World Bank, to Zimbabwe.
Even without ZDERA, international
financial institutions would not lend to
Zimbabwe because of its terribly
mismanaged economy and its failure to pay
back prior loans. Zimbabwe alone
owes the World Bank over 600 million US
dollars. Secondly, it is interesting
to note that after Rhodesia's
Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965,
general sanctions were
imposed against Rhodesia. Nevertheless, at
independence in 1980, the
Zimbabwean dollar was stronger than the U.S.
dollar. The fact is that the
collapse of Zimbabwe's economy and the
hyperinflation that has rendered
Zimbabwe's currency worthless are due to
economic mismanagement, including
payouts to war veterans in 1997, Zimbabwe's
misadventure in the Congo in
1998, and land invasions that began in 2000 and
turned the bread basket of
southern Africa into a basket case. The government
continues its economic
mismanagement through excessive spending, the 24
hour-a-day printing of
money, and maintenance of an artificial exchange rate
that benefits regime
insiders.
Zimbabwe will be able to emerge from
the current economic abyss only when
there is political reform and political
will, which in turn make economic
reform possible. I wish I could stand here
and say that the June 27 run-off
offers the chance for political change and a
brighter future. Unfortunately,
the current climate makes free and fair
elections impossible. MDC candidate
Morgan Tsvangirai is hounded at every
turn, making it impossible to
campaign. Since his return to Zimbabwe, he has
been detained by the police
four times. His campaign vehicles have been
confiscated. The Mugabe regime
is providing no political space for him to
campaign. Tendai Biti, the
secretary-general of the MDC was arrested upon his
return to Zimbabwe from
South Africa. His crimes? Announcing March 29
election results, based on
official tally sheets posted outside polling
stations, before the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission announced results. He also
allegedly disseminated a
document setting out MDC plans for governing
Zimbabwe after the election-a
document that Biti never disseminated and which
was fabricated by ZANU-PF to
create fear of the MDC on the part of its
supporters. Biti now stands
charged with treason.
The state controlled
media also contributes to the poisonous atmosphere.
They routinely broadcast
and publish propaganda for the regime, refuse to
accept paid advertising from
the opposition and slander anyone associated
with the MDC. Particularly
disturbing, in the past few weeks the state media
has begun to broadcast
inflammatory material designed to promote violence
against the opposition.
Senior editors who opposed these policies have been
fired and control of the
media given to security officials. Then there is
the massive and widespread
intimidation of the electorate. At first the
campaign focused on areas that
had traditionally voted for ZANU-PF, but
voted for the MDC on March 29. The
goal of the campaign was to intimidate
people into voting for ZANU-PF, or
simply into not voting at all.
Those who voted for the MDC, or merely
live in areas that voted for the MDC
are being targeted. Mugabe has made
multiple public statements that a vote
for the MDC is a vote for war,
represents a betrayal of the country, and
won't
be respected. The
campaign has now spread to include attacks on MDC
officials and their
families. Multiple MDC members-of-Parliament elect have
been arrested or
attacked since March 29. The Mugabe regime hopes to
eliminate the ability of
the MDC to campaign or govern, now and in the
future. All of this makes
independent regional and international observers
crucial. I am pleased to see
that SADC and the Pan-African Parliament have
already started to deploy
observers to Zimbabwe. This effort needs to
continue and expand to include
African Union observers as well. These
regional efforts, and regional
initiatives to push the parties towards a
peaceful solution are critical.
Zimbabwe's neighbors have the most to lose
if the crisis continues and have,
far and away, the most influence. As vocal
as I have been, and will continue
to be, my influence and that of the United
States can only go so
far.
The Mugabe regime has shown itself quite willing to ignore
international
condemnation of its heinous acts. It will find it much more
difficult to
ignore regional leaders and pressure. We have already seen what
regional
action can do, with regards to the arms shipment turned away at
ports
throughout southern Africa. Most notable, this effort did not start out
as a
governmental action, but as a protest by dock workers in Durban. When
the
people and governments of this region stand together, opposing
further
violence in Zimbabwe, they can, and do, make a difference. The
centrality of
regional actors is appropriate, given that the southern African
region has
the most at stake. Make no mistake, Zimbabwe's ongoing crisis is a
regional
crisis. Its effects are being felt outside of Zimbabwe's borders and
will
continue to grow more severe. Here in South Africa you are only too
aware of
the huge numbers of Zimbabweans fleeing their country.
No one
really knows how many Zimbabweans have left, but estimates range up
to
several million or one-quarter of Zimbabwe's population. We have all seen
the
tragic consequences of the large numbers of Zimbabweans in South
Africa.
Former Mozambican First Lady Graca Machel recently warned of the
impact of
population migration in Mozambique. One only has to look at the
Great Lakes
region to see the devastating consequences of the mass migration
of people
fleeing political violence. More than a decade later the region is
still
unstable. None of Zimbabwe's neighbors will be immune. However
many
Zimbabweans have already fled, even more could depart if the
starvation,
economic collapse and anarchy continue. The impact of Zimbabwe's
troubles on
the region goes beyond the millions who have fled. Zimbabwe was
long known
as the breadbasket of southern Africa. Given the global food
crisis, the
continuing disappearance of the Zimbabwean harvest is only
magnified. People
throughout southern Africa would benefit from increased
Zimbabwean
agriculture. In its absence food prices are higher and people
suffer.
The broader economic collapse of Zimbabwe is also felt throughout
the
region. Economic growth in the region is retarded by Zimbabwe's
implosion.
That is why I think it is important for me to be here today. All
of you in
this room have a stake in what happens in Zimbabwe. What is
happening right
now is catastrophic. A disastrous harvest, coupled with an
outrageous
suspension of NGOs by the Government of Zimbabwe, threatens
millions. The
economy has completely imploded and anarchy lurks in the Mugabe
regime's
criminal campaign of violence against its own citizens. The upcoming
run-off
cannot provide a solution unless rapid and significant changes in
the
prevailing conditions occur. Zimbabwe is a country on the
precipice.
However, it is not too late.
I still think it is possible
to bring Zimbabwe back from the precipice. A
concerted international effort,
led by key regional players, can change the
future. If regional leaders
decide to take forceful action that puts the
interests of the people of
Zimbabwe ahead of any entrenched political
hierarchies we can avoid the
catastrophe I fear. A massive independent
observation effort can slow the
regime's campaign of violence, while
creating more free and fair conditions
for the elections. A major donor
effort can stave off the impending hunger.
And a new government which sets
responsible fiscal policies and is willing to
work with the International
Financial Institutions can start to bring
Zimbabwe out of the economic
abyss. It won't be quick, and it won't be easy,
but we must start now, or it
will be too late. Thank you very much.
Africa turns up heat on Zimbabwe
BBC
Observers have been witnessing violence at first
hand |
African states monitoring Zimbabwe's election campaign have
added their voice to growing international pressure over the presidential
run-off vote.
The head of a troika of observer states told the BBC violence could make a
free vote impossible but his concerns were dismissed by the ruling Zanu-PF
party.
The opposition has suffered five violent deaths in recent days, among them
the wife of Harare's mayor-elect.
One of its top leaders has also been charged with treason and subversion.
Tendai Biti, who as secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) has often deputised for presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai, was
arrested last week after returning from South Africa.
If convicted, Mr Biti could face the death penalty. The MDC will see his
trial as a further move by the state to destroy its election campaign, the BBC's
Peter Biles reports.
Mr Tsvangirai, who attended Thursday's court hearing, described the charges
against Mr Biti as "frivolous".
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told an informal meeting of the UN
Security Council that the actions of Zimbabwe's government have ensured the vote
will be neither free nor fair.
"By its actions, the Mugabe regime has given up any pretence that the 27 June
elections will be allowed to proceed in a free and fair manner," she said.
Opposition 'derailed'
Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe addressed a news conference on
behalf of the three nations - Tanzania, Angola and Swaziland - from the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) monitoring the polls.
"The first impression we have is that if the elections were to take place
today, these elections would never be free and fair... because... the report we
received still indicates that violence is escalating throughout Zimbabwe," he
told the BBC.
"We have received a report that says on the 16th of June this year, as the
observers were being deployed to those various stations, two people were shot
dead.
"Of course, it scared most of these observers to the extent that they had to
pose the question of why are we here then, and what are we doing?"
"There is a derailment of Mr Tsvangirai wherever he wants to go to campaign,
he's detained at police stations," Mr Membe added.
Speaking for the Zimbabwean ruling party, Jerome Macdonald Gumbo accused the
Tanzanian foreign minister of bias.
"Skirmishes between the MDC and Zanu-PF are normal but not to the extent that
the elections cannot be free and fair," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa
programme.
"He [Mr Membe] is biased."
Such severe criticism of President Mugabe by a senior African politician
could mark a significant shift in opinion on the continent, BBC world affairs
correspondent Mark Doyle reports.
Mr Membe's comments are significant because for many years President Mugabe
has sought to deflect criticism of his policies by saying attacks on him are
masterminded by the West.
But the impact of Mr Membe's intervention is not yet clear, our correspondent
adds: it may infuriate Mr Mugabe or it may be calculated to encourage him to
compromise.
Observer numbers slashed
Zimbabwe's own independent electoral watchdog, the election support network,
says it has at last been formally invited to monitor the poll but only with 500
observers.
That is a tiny fraction of the 12,000 the network had hoped to deploy to keep
track of the 9,000 polling stations that will be opened on election day.
The MDC says at least 70 of its supporters have now been killed and 25,000
forced from their homes in a state-sponsored campaign of violence.
The bodies of four party members were found near the capital Harare on
Thursday. They had been abducted and tortured to death, the party said.
Emmanuel Chiroto, recently elected mayor of Harare for the MDC, has been
giving details of the death of his wife Abigail.
She is believed to have been abducted on Monday along with her son, 4, while
her husband was away. Her son was left alive at a police station.
Speaking to BBC Radio Four, Emmanuel Chiroto said his wife's body had been
hard to identify.
"She was badly swollen, it was like they used a club or some blunt object to
smash her head and blood had been coming out of her mouth, nostrils and ears,"
the mayor-elect of Harare said.
"There was either a stab wound or a bullet wound that hit the abdomen."
Mr Chiroto held the Zanu-PF party responsible for his wife's death. |
Kenya comes out strong on Mugabe
Kenya Today
By CHURCHILL
OTIENO
Last updated: 5 hours ago
Kenya has asked Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe to respect the wishes of
his people by ensuring next week's
presidential run-off is free and fair.
In a clear departure from
Kenya's long held policy of non-interference in
other nation's affairs, a
Government statement signed by the Foreign Affairs
Minister Moses Wetangu'la
said recent developments in Zimbabwe were
"unacceptable to all people in
Africa".
"As a nation, we therefore call upon President Mugabe to
respect the wishes
of the people of Zimbabwe. Having accepted a re-run,
President Mugabe should
ensure it is within the tenets of acceptable
standards of elections and
democratic practice. Anything less is an affront
to the evolving democratic
culture in Africa," said Mr
Wetangu'la.
Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga has taken a
similar stance over the last
two weeks. Speaking at the recent World Economic
Forum-Africa held in South
Africa and during his current visit to the US, Mr
Odinga has criticised Mr
Mugabe's handling of the presidential run-off and
described the situation in
Zimbabwe as an "an eyesore for the African
continent".
Mr Odinga repeated the criticism on Wednesday when he
met US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice in Washington DC where he asked
the international
community to intervene in Zimbabwe in the same way it did
in Bosnia.
The official Government statement said: "We note with
concern information
from Zimbabwe on the roadblocks being created to the
re-run campaigns of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
Party. These kind of
activities are unhelpful and undermine the very
enterprise of election the
parties have agreed to.
"We
therefore call upon all parties, in particular President Mugabe, to
adhere to
the Harare Principles that have guided democratic development
within the
larger Commonwealth," Mr Wetangu'la said.
The Foreign Affairs
minister said Kenya's position was informed by its long
standing policy on
political processes with other states, particularly in
Africa: "This position
is guided by our foreign policy goal on internal
affairs of states and as
enshrined in the African Union Charter, espoused at
the 10th Ordinary Session
of the Assembly of the Union, held in Addis Ababa
from 31 January to 2
February 2008 which aptly recognised challenges of
elections in
Africa."
He said Kenya also subscribes to the AU position
mandating the regional
bloc - Southern Africa Development Community - to lead
the African process
in Zimbabwe.
The horrors of being a white farmer in Robert Mugabe's
Zimbabwe
The Telegraph
Last Updated: 5:02PM BST 19/06/2008
Ben Freeth is a former
British soldier who came to Zimbabwe to train the
army. He decided to stay on
and married a farmer's daughter. This is an
extract from a letter sent from
his Mount Carmel farm this week
Dear all,
It has been quite a
weekend.
We were made very aware of impending problems on our Mount
Carmel farm
before it even started. Various letters came in as well as verbal
warnings
from concerned people all over the district. People were told that
Mt.
Carmel cattle and potatoes would be dished out to them. The
election
campaign is being fought on "one hundred per cent empowerment" ie.
taking
everything that belongs to people who are not black and giving it to
Party
faithfulls. The Party has got nothing else to offer the
people...
People were told if they did not come they would be
beaten.
President Mugabe arrived in our little town of Chegutu that
afternoon and
people were only informed that morning. Everyone had to
suddenly go to his
rally whether they wanted to or not. He apparently told
the people that if
the opposition got in it would be war. The unexpected
Presidential rally
must have thrown the organisation for the Mount Carmel
"programme" [as it
was referred to in a letter from one of the
organisors].
That evening we only ended up with about 500 of the expected
1500 people
that were to come. They were bussed in from all over on tractor
trailors,
lorries, car and busses. We even had one bus from Shamva hundreds
of kms
away.
The drums and chanting started soon after dark. Nearly
fifty fires were lit
all around. The leaders were waving guns around and had
everyone doing their
bidding. The chanting and sloganeering was military
style - all in unison
for hour after hour after hour all the way through the
night. We could not
sleep.
When dawn broke and the birds started to
call the chanting broke into a
noise that sounded like a terrible swarm of
bees on the rampage.
We knew that the beating had then started and we
prayed. It turned out that
anyone who they believed had been polling agents
at polling stations was
covered in cold water. We had frost that morning and
it was cold.
They were then told to beat each other with sticks while the
crowd egged
them on. The noise went on for a few hours. Some of them had
already run
away. Those people will not vote; still less be polling agents in
the next
election because you have to vote in your own ward I understand and
they are
designating which polling station too so that they can check who you
voted
for.
They had been searched for any cell phones so that they not
relay any
atrocities on to anyone. They were told that they would be killed
if
information leaked out. Everyone is tight lipped about what went on.
Today
they go through the day mechanically with terror written all over
them.
A neighbor, Marius Erasmus, drove past on the main road and was
stopped at a
road block that they had set up on our road. He managed to get
through that
but at the next one they put burning logs on his bonnet and
tried to get
into the car. A couple of hundred people came out from the
packshed where
the indoctrination was taking place. He managed to reverse and
turn around
and get through the other road block taking some rocks on his
windscreen and
other places on the car.
Meantime Bruce [Lauras
brother] had been at the Chegutu police station
trying to get police out. We
had been there on five occasions the previous
week trying to tell Chief
Inspector Gunyani and Inspector Manyota and
Assistant Inspector Bupera of
what was to take place. We had given two
letters for the attention of the
officer in charge, Chief Inspector Gunyani.
Bruce waited for six hours at
the police station but could not get a
reaction to stop the beating and
dismantle the road blocks. He saw Chief
Inspector Gunyani, Inspector Manyota
and Assistant Inspector Bupera amongst
others. It is clear that they are
under orders not to react.
Our electricity went down and both cell phone
networks also ceased to
operate. We were left with no communications and our
way out onto the main
road was sealed off by a road block. We prayed and read
psalm 118.
Bruce eventually decided to come out himself. Miraculously,
just before he
arrived, the road blocks were dismantled and everyone
disappeared. Shortly
after the guards came to tell us of thieves in the maize
- about 30 people
were just helping themselves. We caught some of them and
chased them off and
recovered their booty.
Meanwhile the atrocities go
on at the all night pungwes and the people
tremble with fear. I read that the
observors are officially not allowed out
after dark because their safety can
not be guaranteed. They need to defy
that and get out and see with their own
eyes these things if they care at
all.
We ask you to pray and send
brave people and peace keepers to stop the
atrocities before they get even
worse. Maybe I write this in vain; but I
write this crying.
No sign of an end to the horror
Jun 19th 2008 | HARARE AND
JOHANNESBURG
From The Economist print edition
Zimbabwe's travesty of a
presidential election
AS ZIMBABWEANS prepare to vote in a second
round to elect a president on
June 27th, the chances of an early end to the
country's misery look remote.
Since the first round on March 29th, which even
President Robert Mugabe and
his officials had to admit was won by the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), the regime has been
inflicting a shocking wave of violence
against its own citizens. Though
Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC candidate,
sounds buoyant, it is hard to see how
he will be allowed to win.
Pro-government militias, backed by the army,
are doing all they can to make
sure Mr Mugabe keeps his job. According to the
MDC, at least 65 of their
people have been killed, and thousands tortured and
forced to flee their
homes. Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group, has
documented a
systematic campaign of violence.
Malcolm (not his
real name), a teacher near Chivhu, a small town south of
Harare, the capital,
considers himself lucky. He was a polling officer in
the first round. A few
weeks ago, a group of youth militia from the ruling
ZANU-PF accused him of
telling people to vote for the opposition. He managed
to fend them off, but
lives in fear and no longer leaves his house without
an axe. When
pro-government militias visited a nearby school, they burnt
houses to the
ground. Teachers struggled to rescue their children from the
flames and were
severely beaten.
Cities have not been spared either. In the poorer
suburbs of Harare, which
are strongly pro-MDC, militias patrol the streets,
harassing anyone who
fails to display ruling-party T-shirts or
scarves.
It has become increasingly hard for opposition leaders to
campaign. Mr
Tsvangirai has been repeatedly detained. The MDC's
secretary-general, Tendai
Biti, is in prison. The police have accused him of
treason, a capital
offence, though he has yet to be charged. Human-rights
lawyers and
magistrates have also been targeted.
Areas where the
ruling party's grip has slipped have become hard to get to:
roadblocks
control people's movements and even diplomats have been stopped
and
threatened. The government ordered international aid agencies, to stop
most
of their work.
Though African observers have strengthened their presence,
the few hundred
on the ground will struggle to cover 9,231 polling stations.
Western and UN
observers have not been allowed in. The Zimbabwe Election
Support Network,
an independent local outfit that deployed some 8,000
observers in the first
round, is still waiting to get accredited to monitor
the run-off. Its
members have been hunted down and beaten.
The
repression has steeled some people's resolve. But others are
discouraged,
having lost faith in the power of elections to bring about
change. "What's
the point when we all know the result?" asks Kudzai, a young
man who has just
run away from Mhondoro, 120km (75 miles) from Harare, where
the wife of an
MDC leader had her hands and feet chopped off before she was
burnt
alive.
A growing number of prominent Africans are speaking out. Marwick
Khumalo,
who heads the Pan-African Parliament's observer mission, says it was
clear
that the poll could not be fair if the violence went on. The leaders
of
neighbouring Botswana and Zambia are despairing of Mr Mugabe's
antics.
Tanzania's foreign minister said there was "every sign that the
elections
will never be free or fair". Kenya's prime minister, Raila Odinga,
has
castigated Mr Mugabe.
The UN has sent an envoy while South
Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has
continued his efforts to achieve a
negotiated settlement. But in South
Africa, too, politicians in the ruling
African National Congress, including
its new leader, Jacob Zuma, are
increasingly reluctant to tolerate Mr
Mugabe.
As African opinion turns
against him, a frantic round of diplomacy is under
way in an effort to head
off what some fear may turn into a bloodbath. Some
ZANU-PF sources say-but
others deny-that a place in a national unity
government was offered to the
MDC. But the MDC says that the result of the
parliamentary contest, which it
won by a slim margin, gives it the right to
form a government. Moreover, it
says, an MDC-led government would include
some from the ruling party as well
as non-party technocrats.
If the election does go ahead and Mr Mugabe
wins, even organisations like
the Southern African Development Community, the
14-country regional club
that has been loth to criticise Mr Mugabe publicly,
may become reluctant to
accept his legitimacy. He may also come under
stronger pressure from
elsewhere in Africa to accept that Mr Tsvangirai and
the MDC should play a
big role, if a unity government were formed. That sort
of compromise, rather
than Mr Tsvangirai in outright command, is what most
African governments are
betting on. If Mr Mugabe resists indefinitely, some
African countries may
even start to contemplate economic sanctions-cutting
off supplies of
electricity, for instance-that could jolt him into giving
way.
UK urges Zimbabwe to allow observers
Reuters
Thu Jun 19, 2008 7:03pm
BST
PARIS (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on
Zimbabwe on Thursday
to admit international rights observers and the U.N.
rights envoy for the
country's run-off presidential election on June
27.
"We will work with all countries to make sure that these elections,
which
are now being conducted in a spiral of violence, can be free and
fair,"
Brown told a joint news conference after talks with French President
Nicolas
Sarkozy.
"I appeal to the Zimbabwean government to admit
international rights
observers as well as the U.N. human rights envoy, so
that we can be
satisfied that any elections that take place, if they are to
be legitimate,
can be free and fair."
President Robert Mugabe lost the
first round vote to opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai on March 29, but the
latter fell short of the outright
majority needed to avoid a second round,
according to official results.
Mugabe is accused by opponents, Western
countries and human rights groups of
orchestrating a campaign of killings and
intimidation to keep his hold on
the once prosperous country, its economy now
in ruins. Mugabe blames
violence on his foes.
(Reporting by James
Mackenzie; writing by David Brunnstrom; editing by Mark
John)
Robert Mugabe: A Despot's Cruel Resolve
TIME
Wednesday, Jun. 18, 2008
By ALEX PERRY
Robert Mugabe's regime likes to talk about breaking the
back of Zimbabwe's
opposition. John Moyo's story suggests that some of his
followers take that
charge literally. Moyo (not his real name) is an activist
for the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Bhegedhe, a
village of mud huts and
mopani trees in eastern Zimbabwe's Buhera district.
Moyo, 45, was walking
home from a friend's house one Saturday evening in May,
he says, when "I was
struck in the back by a heavy object and fell down. I
woke up two days later
at Birchenough Bridge hospital." Moyo's wife Tendai,
37, had found him
bleeding and unconscious in the road and taken him to
hospital on an oxcart.
Both his legs and his back were broken, and his spinal
cord was partly
severed; he is now paralyzed below the waist. Local observers
have little
doubt that pro-government militias are to blame. "Moyo is a
well-known MDC
activist, a strong organizer, very popular," says a neighbor,
Simon. "They
knew that crippling him would also cripple
MDC."
Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was detained
Wednesday at a
military roadblock, a day...
Such stories have become
common in the run-up to the second round of
Zimbabwe's election on June 27.
The vote is deemed necessary because even
though MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
came out ahead in the presidential poll
on March 29, according to official
results, he didn't get an outright
majority. Earlier hopes that the vote
might end Mugabe's 28-year rule
quickly evaporated. Instead, the first-round
results turned out to be a cue
for Zimbabwe's security services and
pro-Mugabe militias to rampage across
the country.
The MDC leadership
is a target. Tsvangirai is arrested on a weekly,
sometimes daily basis, and
on June 12 MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti was
detained at Harare airport
and charged with treason. But it is lower-ranking
activists and ordinary
Zimbabweans who have borne the brunt. The MDC claims
25,000 people have fled
the violence, thousands of its supporters have been
beaten, hundreds
hospitalized, and 66 killed, while 200 more are missing.
(Reporting
restrictions mean the figures cannot be verified.) A doctor who
examined the
bodies of two dead MDC activists tells TIME their tongues had
been mutilated.
In Bhegedhe, villagers talk of being rounded up by the
militias for all-night
indoctrinations. "They tell us that if we vote for
Tsvangirai, we will have
voted for war," says one.
In a report this month, the New York-based
organization Human Rights Watch
details how the Joint Operations Command,
combining the heads of all
Zimbabwe's armed forces, unleashed the violence
under the name Operation
Makavhoterapapi, or "Where did you put your vote?"
Tiseke Kasambala, the
organization's Zimbabwe researcher, told TIME that
Mugabe is still a
powerful force, even though he is now letting the generals
call the shots.
The MDC goes further, saying the top generals of the Joint
Operations
Command are now in charge of Zimbabwe, having staged a silent coup
shortly
after the March elections. In a telephone interview from inside
Zimbabwe,
Tsvangirai, 56, a former trade union leader, compared the militias
to the
janjaweed in Darfur and described the government as a junta. Indeed,
under
Mugabe's regime, the country is fast becoming Africa's Burma: an
isolated
military cabal bent on crushing democracy, paranoid about imagined
foreign
conspiracies and prepared to sacrifice its people to preserve its
power.
Few have escaped the dragnet. On June 5, militias surrounded a car
carrying
U.S. diplomats and threatened to kill them. The regime has also
arrested and
beaten journalists, local and foreign. On June 18, the
government eased an
earlier ban on foreign aid groups, whom it accused of
supporting the MDC,
allowing food and HIV/AIDS groups to re-enter the
country. But the same day
it expelled an official from the U.N. High
Commission for Refugees.
The regime is not shy about its embrace of
violence. The MDC, say Zimbabwe's
rulers, is an instrument of a Western plot
to restore the white rule it
overthrew at independence in 1980. On June 13,
Mugabe was quoted by the
Herald as saying that Zimbabwe's voters had made a
"mistake" by giving
Tsvangirai a majority, one that "can cause a lot of
suffering for the people
if we go back to war." The militias had asked him if
they could do just
that, he added. "They said this country was won by the
barrel of the gun and
should we let it go at the stroke of a pen? Should one
just write an X and
then the country goes just like that?" This
indivisibility of the interests
of party and country has become a common
regime refrain. On May 29, army
Chief of Staff Martin Chedondo was quoted in
the Herald telling his men
their job was to defend ZANU-PF. "If you have
other thoughts, then you
should remove that uniform," he reportedly
said.
The generals' motives seem to be not so much avoiding justice
as
accumulating wealth. At first glance, it's hard to see how anyone
could
profit from a country where unemployment is at 80% and inflation
is
165,000%. But the regime works the chaos to its advantage. The seizure
of
white-owned farms since 2000, endorsed by Mugabe as a
long-overdue
redistribution of land to Zimbabwe's black majority, has
benefited the
ZANU-PF élite. A senior army officer warns that the generals
will use any
means necessary to hold onto their riches. Should the June 27
vote go
against them, he says, they will disregard it: "There will be a coup
if
Tsvangirai wins. Mugabe is going nowhere."
Such attitudes have
alienated old Mugabe supporters in Africa. On June 11,
Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni criticized the Zimbabwe elections and said
Mugabe "must go"
if he lost the vote. Two days later 40 African leaders,
including 14 former
presidents, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and
former Archbishop
Desmond Tutu published an open letter condemning the
violence, while
Botswana, one of several of Zimbabwe's neighbors now caring
for the heavy
influx of refugees who have fled the violence and poverty,
lodged an official
protest with the regime over its conduct. On a visit to
Zimbabwe, Marwick
Khumalo, the head of an African parliamentarians' observer
mission, said he
had received "horrendous stories" of cruelty related to the
elections.
"Violence is at the top of the agenda of this electoral process,"
said
Khumalo in Harare, adding he would not be able to endorse the process
if it
continued.
That mood may be catching on in the ranks of the security
services. "Most of
[the commanders'] sentiments are not shared by the rank
and file," says one
junior army officer. "Our salaries are low, and most of
us live in the same
areas as the suffering masses. They want us to beat and
kill our relatives?
That's not possible."
Some ordinary Zimbabweans
are no less defiant. In Warren Park, a western
suburb of Harare, Mugabe's
election posters have been defaced with messages
such as MUGABE IMBAVHA
(Mugabe is a thief) and HAULUME BOB (You won't get
anything, Bob). Moyo
remains determined. "I'm going to ask my wife and son
to carry me to the
polling station on June 27," he tells TIME. "I believe
Zimbabwe will be free
one day. I will exercise my right and continue to
support the party of my
choice." Zimbabwe's rulers may be dispensing with
the pretense of democracy,
but its people haven't given up on it yet.
With reporting by
correspondents inside Zimbabwe and Megan Lindow/Cape Town
Zimbabwe poll: Key complaints
BBC
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change says the ruling Zanu-PF
is pulling out all the stops to ensure victory in the 27 June presidential
run-off.
It accuses Zanu-PF of unleashing a campaign of violence against its
supporters and planning to rig the poll.
The first round in March was relatively peaceful and the MDC was able to
campaign across the country for the first time since it was formed in 1999.
It gained more votes than Zanu-PF, which the opposition says, is now
reverting to type.
These charges are denied by Zanu-PF, which in turn blames the violence on the
MDC.
Here are the main complaints of the two parties:
VIOLENCE
The MDC, backed up by human rights groups, say their supporters have been
attacked around the country, especially in rural areas which the opposition won
in the first round of elections in March.
At least 70 have been killed and 25,000 forced to flee their homes, the MDC
says.
They say Zanu-PF militias have systematically targeted key opposition
activists to be beaten, abducted and have their homes set on fire.
Several reports, including documents obtained by the BBC, suggest that the
military is behind the campaign.
The strategy would be to force MDC supporters out of their homes so they
cannot vote and to scare potential opposition voters into backing Zanu-PF
instead.
The army has denied these charges and Zanu-PF officials have accused the MDC
of being behind the violence, while saying the scale has been exaggerated.
Some human rights groups have reported that MDC supporters have fought back
when attacked by Zanu-PF militias.
CAMPAIGN
MDC rallies have been banned, with the police citing security concerns.
Its leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been arrested on several occasions when he
tried to go on "meet-the-people" tours.
Morgan Tsvangirai campaigns by bus, as his rallies have been
baned |
Instead of holding large public rallies, he has been touring the country in a
bus, getting out in villages and shopping centres.
President Robert Mugabe has meanwhile been campaigning around the country.
MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti has also been arrested and charged with
treason.
The opposition says this is a deliberate attempt to block its campaign.
MEDIA
The state-controlled broadcaster ZBC has announced that it will refuse to
take campaign adverts from the MDC.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa defended this by saying that the
international media was biased in favour of the MDC and did not portray
Zanu-PF's point of view.
Obviously for the election campaign, it is local media which counts.
But the advert ban may not be too significant.
ZBC has always hugely favoured Zanu-PF in its coverage and its news bulletins
usually only mention the MDC in a negative light.
And ZBC has a monopoly - there are no privately-run TV or radio stations.
There are a few weekly newspapers but these are only easily available in
urban areas and are very expensive.
OBSERVERS
Western observers have been banned, as President Mugabe accuses them of bias
in favour of the MDC, which he says was set up by the former colonial power, the
UK, to remove him from power.
The government is also greatly reducing the number of local election
observers it is accrediting, again accusing them of bias.
The main independent monitoring group, ZESN, had hoped to deploy 12,000
observers but has only been allowed to send 500, to keep track of the 9,000
polling stations.
Its observers have been attacked and some killed.
ZESN released its own results from the first round and was accused of working
with the MDC.
Some 500 observers from African organisations will also be monitoring the
poll.
FOOD AID
The MDC also accuses the government of using food aid as a political weapon -
threatening to withhold food from areas that vote for the opposition.
Almost half the population may need food aid next
year |
The UN predicts that some five million people - almost half of the population
- will need food aid by early next year, so this is a huge threat.
The government also temporarily banned aid workers from distributing food
aid.
This was seen as a ploy to tighten its control of food aid, while removing
any potential witnesses to the violence.
Zanu-PF accused the aid agencies of backing the MDC and distributing food aid
as part of its campaign.
This was strongly denied by the aid agencies.
RIGGING
The MDC also fears rigging and ballot box-stuffing on election day.
In the first round, it believes that it was cheated of outright victory by a
mysterious block of 120,000 votes for President Mugabe.
The opposition says thousands of ghost voters remain on the voters' roll, who
might nevertheless cast their ballots for Zanu-PF.
And there are reports that Zanu-PF militants are being recruited as polling
agents, to replace the teachers and civil servants who usually conduct the
count.
Many teachers in rural areas have been attacked and accused of using their
positions to help the MDC in the first round.
Some have also been arrested and accused of electoral fraud.
However, the election law requires that results from each polling station
must be posted outside, immediately after the count, which is witnesses by
agents from both parties.
This was said to have reduced the scale of fraud in the first round.
|
Morgan Tsvangirai's daughter Rumbidzai speaks
out
The Australian
Victoria Laurie | June 20, 2008
TWO days ago, Rumbidzai
Tsvangirai spoke to her father, Morgan Tsvangirai,
on a phone line that they
both knew was being intercepted by Zimbabwe's
secret police.
The
22-year-old economics graduate, who left Zimbabwe in 2004 to study at
Perth's
Murdoch University, knew not to ask her father about
political
matters.
"I asked him how he was and he said, 'We're still
with this old man',
meaning Mugabe and the fighting. That's as much as he can
say."
The Movement for Democratic Change leader talks to his
daughter
long-distance every few days, even after he was detained last week,
for the
fifth time in about 10 days, by thugs working for President Robert
Mugabe.
With violence escalating as the June 27 presidential election
runoff
approaches, Ms Tsvangirai said she tried to keep conversations with
her
father upbeat, telling him about her first job as a salary
packaging
consultant with a Perth firm. "And I try to encourage him. I'm a
Christian
so I read him quotes from the Bible."
This weekend, the
reticent daughter (one of six Tsvangirai children) will
appear for the first
time at a public rally in Perth to support a free and
fair Zimbabwean
election.
"I came to a point where I said to myself that the time was
right to speak
out about my dad, the MDC and (the plight of) everyone in
Zimbabwe." She
said more aid was needed for Zimbabweans suffering extreme
food shortages
and homelessness.
She will also call on the Australian
Government to put further pressure on
African leaders to speak out against
the Mugabe regime. "They should be told
not just to watch what's happening,
but do something about it."
The Tsvangirai family is scattered on three
continents - son Garikai, 27,
lives in Canada while another daughter, Vimbai,
25, lives in Sydney and
works for the Sydney City Council. Mr Tsvangirai's
wife, Susan, has spent
the past two months in South Africa with twins
Millicent and Vincent, 14,
and 30-year-old son Edwin, after threats escalated
against her husband.
"I do believe there will come a time when we can all
go back to Zimbabwe and
my father will be president." And she said if he won
next week's poll, "I'll
be on the next flight home".
She said that
even her Christian faith allowed her no compassion for Mugabe.
"I know his
government is doing whatever it can to stop my father."
A spokesperson
for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed
yesterday that it
was investigating reports that at least three adult
children of pro-Mugabe
leaders in Zimbabwe's despotic regime were studying
or working in
Australia.
He said the Government would continue to review the visas of
Zimbabwean
children whose parents appear on an international sanctions list.
In August,
eight children of Mugabe government figures - all students
studying in
Australia - were deported.
Ms Tsvangirai said she believed
people would understand why her mother and
siblings were all living outside
Zimbabwe.
"Any father who was in my father's position would do the same
to ensure
their children were safe. Any parent would do that. I'd say my
father is
very brave, a loving dad and a humble man," she said.
Africans, please help
Jun 19th 2008
From The Economist print
edition
Zimbabwe needs its neighbours to help rescue its people from
hell
SINCE Robert Mugabe lost the first round of a presidential
election at the
end of March to Morgan Tsvangirai, he has stopped at nothing
to steal the
second round on June 27th (see article). Several million
famished
Zimbabweans depend on foreign aid to keep them alive, yet he has
banned most
foreign agencies from operating around the country, partly to
prevent them
witnessing the horrors he is inflicting on those he suspects of
disloyalty,
and partly to use food to coerce people into voting for him. His
police have
repeatedly detained Mr Tsvangirai as he tries to campaign, and
have kept Mr
Tsvangirai's number two locked up, saying they will charge him
with treason,
a capital offence. At least 65 people from Mr Tsvangirai's
party are said to
have been murdered since the poll in March.
Last
time, Mr Tsvangirai was officially acknowledged as the winner against
all the
odds because votes were counted on the spot and results put up at
each of the
9,000-plus polling stations, making it trickier to fiddle the
tally at the
election headquarters in the capital, though Mr Mugabe's team
probably
massaged the figures enough to require a run-off. This time it will
be harder
for the opposition-for fear of being beaten up or even killed-to
field enough
of their own agents at the polling stations and more difficult
for local
independent monitors to watch the process. So the chances of
rigging on an
even grosser scale have sharply increased. In short, Mr Mugabe
seems set to
pull off a phoney victory this time round.
So is there any point in
Mr Tsvangirai battling on, letting Mr Mugabe wrap
his brutal election charade
in a cloak of legality? Plainly Mr Tsvangirai
would be justified in calling
for a boycott. But as long as he sees a
flicker of a chance that he may
prevail again at the polls, he seems
determined to carry on. Moreover, much
still depends on the efforts of
Zimbabwe's neighbours, especially the
Southern African Development Community
(SADC), a club of 14 countries
(including Zimbabwe), to press for the barest
modicum of fairness in the
poll. Last time, SADC's efforts to monitor it
were shamefully feeble. This
time it is sending more people, but no one has
much faith in it. South
Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, whom SADC has
empowered to lead the
mediation, has been a disgrace. He has blocked efforts
to badger Mr Mugabe
into ensuring a fair second poll, let alone admitting
defeat and handing over
power.
Africa must not be mugged again
The one glimmer of hope is that
several of SADC's leaders, including those
of Zambia, Tanzania and Botswana,
are losing patience with Mr Mugabe.
Unhappiness elsewhere in Africa is
growing. So is a sense that, even if he
wangles a win, Zimbabwe can be sorted
out only by a government of national
unity.
In a normal democratic
country, Mr Tsvangirai would already be president, Mr
Mugabe and his villains
would have bowed out and the rich world would be
dispensing its largesse. In
the present dire circumstances, a messier
transition may be inevitable, even
if Mr Mugabe steals this election, as
seems likely, or even if Mr Tsvangirai
were allowed to win.
In the coming months, some kind of unity government
may emerge. If so,
SADC's leaders and other influential Africans should make
it clear that the
recent Kenyan model is not acceptable: in that case, an
incumbent president
lost at the polls but has stayed in office by fiddling
the count and then
letting the real winner hold a raft of inferior
ministries. It may be too
much to hope that SADC will impose sanctions on Mr
Mugabe and his gang if
they refuse to budge. But at the very least, even in
an eventual negotiated
settlement, they should make it clear that it is time
for Mr Mugabe to go.
He has become a disaster for his own country and an
embarrassment to Africa.
Zim vote 'will never be free or
fair'
Mail and Guardian
Cris Chinaka | Harare, Zimbabwe
19 June
2008 06:27
Zimbabwe's run-off presidential election on June
27 is very
unlikely to be free and fair, a group of Southern African
ministers said on
Thursday, in the strongest regional condemnation yet of
pre-poll violence.
President Robert Mugabe is accused by
opponents, Western
countries and human rights groups of orchestrating a
campaign of killings
and intimidation to keep his hold on the once prosperous
country, its
economy now in ruins.
Opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic
Change said four youths were
found dead on Thursday after being abducted the
day before, bringing to at
least 70 the number of party supporters it says
have been
killed.
"There is every sign that these elections will never
be free or
fair," Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe told a news
conference. He
spoke in Tanzania on behalf of a troika of nations from the
Southern African
Development Community (SADC) responsible for peace and
security matters.
Tanzania is the current chair of the
African Union.
Membe said he and the foreign ministers of
Swaziland and Angola
would write to their presidents "so that they do
something urgently so that
we can save Zimbabwe."
SADC is
sending 380 monitors to Zimbabwe for the vote, in which
Mugabe faces the
biggest challenge to his 28-year rule. Tsvangirai won the
first round but
without the outright majority needed to avoid a run-off,
according to
official results.
The United States has joined calls on
African leaders to take a
tougher stand on Zimbabwe. Its neighbours also fear
the possible impact of
total meltdown there. Economic collapse has driven
millions of Zimbabweans
into their countries.
Shot
dead
Membe said the African ministers' expectations for the poll
were
based on evidence from 211 observers already inside the country. Some of
the
observers saw two people shot dead in front of them on June 17, Membe
said,
without giving details.
The MDC said the bodies of
four youths found at Chitungwiza on
Thursday indicated they had been "heavily
tortured". It accused Mugabe's
Zanu-PF and state security of abducting them
on Wednesday. Mugabe has blamed
the violence on the
opposition.
A senior Western diplomat in the region, speaking
on condition
of anonymity, said the bloodshed was
spreading.
"It's time really that we moved beyond calling
this a campaign
of violence. This is terror, plain and simple. This is a
terror campaign
that the Joint Operations Command has launched weeks ago,"
the diplomat
said.
He added that militias backing Mugabe's
Zanu-PF party were now
active in the capital Harare. "The atmosphere is
violent. The violence is
not abating, indeed it is spreading to areas where
it has not historically
spread before".
Tsvangirai,
repeatedly detained during the campaign, told
Reuters Television on Thursday
that drawn-out court proceedings against MDC
secretary general Tendai Biti
were also designed to hamper his effort to win
votes.
"We
spend time here, a lot of time which is unnecessary to
attend to the court
proceedings and therefore it affects our campaigning,"
he said at the Harare
High Court, where Biti was to appear on treason
charges that could carry a
death penalty.
Mbeki mediation
South African
President Thabo Mbeki, who met both leaders
separately on Wednesday, has
urged Mugabe to cancel the run-off and
negotiate a national unity government
with Tsvangirai, Business Day said on
Thursday.
The South
African leader, under criticism for his quiet
diplomacy on Zimbabwe, did not
comment after the talks.
Membe said both sides had indicated
they would not accept defeat
and he expected more trouble after the
vote.
"As Tanzania, we have told the government of Zimbabwe
to stop
the violence. We have told our observers not to be threatened, that
they do
their work without fear. People of Zimbabwe are hurting and it pains
us,"
Membe said.
Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetang'ula
condemned what he
described as "roadblocks" being placed in front of the MDC
campaign and
urged Mugabe's government to hold a fair
election.
"Anything less is an affront to the evolving
democratic culture
in Africa and unacceptable to all people in Africa,"
Wetang'ula said in a
statement.
The MDC praised regional
countries who were criticising Mugabe
and urged other African leaders to
follow suit. - Reuters
After Mugabe, who? - with comments
Zimbabwe's powerful generals need Robert Mugabe to win the
runoff elections.
After that, they can think about choosing his
successor
Blessing-Miles Tendi
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday June
19, 2008
Over the last 6 years Zanu-PF has been sharply divided over the
question of
who, from within its ranks, should succeed Robert Mugabe. Even
the country's
military has made its views known on the succession question.
On January 9
2002, the then Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander Vitalis
Zvinavashe
declared to the country:
We wish to make it very
clear to all Zimbabwean citizens that the security
organisations will only
stand in support of those political leaders that
will pursue Zimbabwean
values, traditions and beliefs for which thousands of
lives were lost in the
pursuit of Zimbabwe's hard won independence,
sovereignty, territorial
integrity and national interests. To this end, let
it be known that the
highest office in the land is a straitjacket whose
occupant is expected to
observe the objectives of the liberation struggle.
We will therefore not
accept, let alone support or salute, anyone with a
different agenda that
threatens the very existence of our sovereignty.
Zvinavashe's statement came
two months before the 2002 presidential election
and was directed mainly at
the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who had
no liberation war
credentials. Tsvangirai did not fit Zvinavashe's
"straitjacket". The military
mobilised in support of Mugabe and had a hand
in running the farm seizures
that began in 2000. Suggestions of an impending
military coup if Tsvangirai
ascended to power had surfaced before
Zvinavashe's statement. Didymus Mutasa,
a powerful senior Zanu-PF member,
was the chief culprit, declaring in 2001
that "there were coups, there are
coups, there will always be coups" in
Zimbabwe. Mugabe's victory in the 2002
presidential election was aided by the
military's involvement in his
campaign.
Zvinavashe retired as ZDF
commander in 2003 and was succeeded by General
Constantine Chiwenga. In
October 2004, ahead of the 2005 parliamentary
election, General Chiwenga
reiterated Zvinavashe's 2002 statement, stating:
I will not
hesitate to go on record again on behalf of the Zimbabwe
defence forces, to
disclose that we would not welcome any change of
government that carries the
label "made in London" and whose sole aim is to
defeat the gains of the
liberation struggle. The military generals not only
openly sided with Zanu-PF
but their involvement in politics and the national
economy became
increasingly intrusive. By 2006 Chiwenga could go as far as
to instruct the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono to "make sure
agriculture is
revived and make food available so we [the military] will not
be forced to
turn our guns on hungry Zimbabweans".
In 2006, I interviewed high-ranking
members of the military in Zimbabwe,
including Chiwenga. I can
authoritatively state that sections of the
Zimbabwean military with
liberation war experience, which are dominated by
generals such as
Zvinavashe, Chiwenga and Perence Shiri, have never been
professional. They
have always had a stake in national politics. They see
themselves as
"guardians" of the legacy of Zimbabwe's liberation struggle
and of the
country's sovereignty. They believe the country's independence
and
sovereignty are only safe in Zanu-PF's hands. Zanu-PF was not
threatened
until the MDC came along in 2000, and this is why these military
generals
did not overtly delve into politics earlier.
When Zanu-PF was
finally threatened, they stepped in to guarantee its
survival. Following
Mugabe's loss to Tsvangirai in the March 2008
presidential election, the
military generals stepped in once again. They
disallowed Mugabe from
conceding defeat, aided the month-long delay in
releasing the final count
while results were doctored to engineer a runoff
between Mugabe and
Tsvangirai, and launched the ongoing violent campaign to
break Tsvangirai's
support in the countryside. Serving military generals
from the liberation war
era will have a strong say in Zimbabwe's future
political
formations.
In reality, the burning passion for and commitment to
sovereignty exuded by
Zvinavashe, Chiwenga and Shiri is a means of
maintaining a good life for
themselves and the Zanu-PF political elite. They
play up sovereignty in
order to protect their hold on power and the material
benefits that come
with it. Thus, the necessity of ensuring that the next
president of Zimbabwe
is a Zanu-PF man - Mugabe.
But maintaining
Mugabe as the incumbent is a short-term measure. The
generals, Mugabe and
Zanu-PF were rocked by the March election defeat. It
has finally dawned on
them that they cannot postpone the matter of
succession for ever. Currently,
Emmerson D Mnangagwa is the strongest
contender to succeed Mugabe and seems
to enjoy the generals' approval. The
calculation of the generals, Mnangagwa
and his supporters in Zanu-PF, is to
see Mugabe through the June runoff, with
a view to a successor to Mugabe
being anointed not too long into Mugabe's
term - after which a convenient
government of national unity will be formed
with sections of the opposition
in order to garner the international
community's approval of the new Zanu-PF
unity government.
Zanu-PF lost
control of the house of assembly to Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic
Change by 99 to 97 seats in March but, according to the
constitution of
Zimbabwe, the person elected as president has the power to
appoint 33
senators in the upper chamber. The house of assembly and senate
function as
an electoral college in the event that the president dies in
office, resigns
or is mentally incapacitated. The political party that
enjoys the majority in
this electoral college decides the next president,
should the office fall
vacant. A win for Mugabe in the June runoff will
guarantee his Zanu-PF party
an extra 33 seats in the electoral college and
thus the decisive majority to
decide the next president if Mugabe steps
down. This allows Zanu-PF to settle
its intra-party succession question via
a national constitutional process. As
the balance of power stands, Mnangagwa
seems to be the man to succeed Mugabe
through this process when the
"appropriate" time
comes.
-----------
Comments
... moderne
Jun 19 08,
01:48pm (about 7 hours ago)
If the Zanu PF want more of the same after
Mugabe, they could go to South
Africa and choose one of the former AWB
activists. Or what about the
Taliban, they have lots of guys who love mass
slaughter? Maybe a Chinese
secret policeman from Tibet? Or even a spare part
from the Generals office
in Burma? Or maybe a Janjiweed mass rapist and
murdering Arab horseman?
There is always Qadata, if the UK release him from
house arrest. Listen pal,
there are so many psycopathic murdering nazis to
choose from, surely it
can't too difficult?
... SharifL
Jun 19 08, 02:11pm (about 7 hours ago)
Good article, but moderne has
gone from one extreme to another. That is
not fair. Comparing Mugabe ad co to
Taliban and other nuts is a big lie. He
is an old man who must learn to
accept defeat. That should be our message.
... robbo100
Jun
19 08, 02:18pm (about 7 hours ago)
Kind of sad isn't it. Was this what
the liberation struggle was all about,
keeping a small bunch of corrupt and
despotic murdering bastards in clover
whilst their country goes to hell, just
because their skins happen to be
black?
... Gigolo
Jun 19
08, 02:31pm (about 7 hours ago)
Robbo100
"Kind of sad isn't
it. Was this what the liberation struggle was all
about, keeping a small
bunch of corrupt and despotic murdering bastards in
clover..."
It's
always the same story the world over, isn't it?
... Arcane
Jun 19 08, 03:03pm (about 6 hours ago)
The current economic, social and
political situation in Zimbabwe suggests
that after Mugabe is gone the next
leader is likely to be a UN-World
Bank-IMF supported administrator with the
task of disarming the militias,
bringing the war criminals to justice in the
Hague and overseeing the
international military occupation force sent into
the country to bring some
semblance of order out of the civil war
chaos.
... Richard101
Jun 19 08, 03:20pm (about 6 hours
ago)
It's a very interesting article. I totally appreciate the military
being
so candid. They have effectively identified themselves as principles in
this
massacre of civilians.
I hope they appreciate that whichever
way this goes there cannot be very
much time left. As they along with the
rest of the police and other butchers
must surely face trial and life
imprisonment. Unless of course we can
arrange a country that carries the
death penalty.
Effectively they now call the murder and kidnapping of
an entire country
"a liberation struggle". Liberation means freedom ie
everything that the
people of Zimbabwe aren't.
They are so unpopular
that they have to murder their citizens who hate
them so much that even with
all their rigging and intimidation they still
lost.
Those are the
people inside.
Outside are 4 million exiles who hate them so much they
travel accross
parks of wild animals to get to other countries.
Mugabe and his Zanu-PF are hated by the entire planet and the people
of
Zimbabwe.
They are thugs - they use words like "liberation
struggle" where "cancer
on the face of the planet" is more
appropriate.
Let us all pray that there is an afterlife guys. Because
here on Earth or
there, as soon as the guns to their people's heads are
removed, they're
going straight to hell.
Enjoy the ride!!!
... AddisLig
Jun 19 08, 03:56pm (about 5 hours ago)
As an African
living in the west Mugabe really puts us all in shame. He is
a dictator who
terrorises his people with all the state machinary he has at
his disposal. In
other words he is little Hitler. However the obsession
about Mugabe in the
media also upsets me. Idon't belive in conspiracy theory
but I cannot stop
feeling that if there were not white people living in
Zimbabwe and affected
by the violence, you would not hear as much about it.
Take for an
example - Ethiopia: It is ruled by the same minded dictator
(Melese) who
masacarred 200+ people and imprisoned thousands because he lost
the 2005
election. Just like Mugabe, he imprisoned opposition leaders and
charged them
with treason, sentenced them to death and then out of the blue
pardoned them
- after languising them in jail for over 3 years. So Guardian
and other
newpapers, what is the difference between what Mugabe did and
Melese
did?
... SharifL
Jun 19 08, 04:02pm (about 5 hours
ago)
Richard101: you say: as soon as the guns to their people's heads
are
removed, they're going straight to hell.
Why do you have to
bring hell into it. It is just like Muslims calling for
jihad and 70 virgins.
There is hell right here for those suffering under
poverty, slavery and
corrupt governments.
... WillDuff
Jun 19 08, 04:14pm (about 5
hours ago)
I cannot stop feeling that if there were not white
people living in
Zimbabwe and affected by the violence, you would not hear as
much about it.
Except that what we hear and see now, and have done for the
past year or
more, is the violence against black Zimbabeans. The whites have
surely all
gone by now, haven't they? The land seizures were some years
ago.
... Minesaguinness
Jun 19 08, 04:20pm (about 5 hours
ago)
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to
do
nothing".
Please add your good voices to the following
letter:
http://www.zimbabwe-27june.com/
Although Mugabe and his murderous cronies pay no attention to
civilised
opinion,
the more voices that cry "Zvakwana!" may
influence the South African
leadership,
in particular, to take a
firmer stance on Zimbabwe. South Africa, as the
regional power,
has
the greatest potential to influence the instigators of the
current
crisis
(Yes, President Mbeki, it is a crisis).
... Brazilian
Jun 19 08, 05:07pm (about 4 hours ago)
MUGABE NOT
SADISTIC ENOUGH BY UN STANDARDS
So, despotic rule gets a little help
from constitutional provision. It's
the economy. The argument in favour of
external intervention in Zimbabwe
should be based on promoting democracy.
Economic interdependency means your
neighbour's wealth could make you rich.
Likewise, your neighbour's financial
troubles could translate into financial
loss for your household. Democracy
is good for the economy. (As well as for
social fairness and human rights.)
... FLYSWATTER
Jun 19
08, 05:58pm (about 3 hours ago)
AddisLig and WillDuff,
The
reason why there is such a non-stop barrage of pro-Euro news about
Zimbabwe
is that the West is outraged to the point of apoplexy that Mugabe
unlike most
post-"independence" African leaders has show that he is a man of
testicular
fortitude in that he seized back the lands stolen from the
indigenous people
of Zimbabwe despite all the bribery attempts with honorary
doctorates and
even a knoghthood.
Enraged and flustered the West then decided to
strangle Zimbabwe
economically by imposing a set of sanctions topped off by a
punishing credit
squeeze--all leading to the galloping inflation that Zimbwe
is now
experiencing.
The goal is to create such economic havoc that
the ordinary people of
urban Zimbabwe would just either start rioting
establishing conditions for a
coup--or third best scenario, vote out Mugabe
by fronting a generic
neocolonial agent like Tsvangirai. If Tsvangirai wins
the settlers would
just start flooding back in with all kinds of bogus law
suits about the
farms they claimed to own. Morgan would just grin and allow
them. After all,
he owes them a lot--for all the support he's being
getting.
The West--especially the Anglosphere of Britain and the
settler states of
Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.--is also
concerned that if
Mugabe succeeds in holding on to the restored land there
may be some bold
souls willing to do the same in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya
and other
places where the settlers stole lands.
The truth is that
the liberation struggle is not over yet. It's like a
bout of malaria; when
you think you have beaten it just comes back with a
vengeance. The Euros have
not given up yet on their quest to get those lands
back and punish
Mugabe.
Those Zimbabweans who want to vote for the MDC are just
following the Euro
script as was planned: if neither rioting nor a coup is
possible then starve
them out enough so that they would want a change of
government--so that they
could go back to their bacon and marmalade and a
currency revalued after the
credit spigot had been turned back on. And some
Euro hard currency pumped
into the economy.
... Brazilian
Jun 19 08, 06:29pm (about 3 hours ago)
Also in the news:
MAN
OF TESTICULAR FORTITUDE GETS NOUGHTHOOD
...
WheatFromChaff
Jun 19 08, 06:36pm (about 2 hours ago)
FLYSWATTER
Why not try peddling your nonsense to Abigail
Chitoro?
Or Archford Chipiyo? Or Ngoni Light? Or Yona Genti?
As
ZANU-PF, we feel that President Mugabe should be the leader of such a formation
(GNU), given his history as founder-leader. Making him a surbordinate of Morgan
Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC, would be disrespectful
It was like they used a club or some blunt object to smash her
head 
