Telegraph
Mugabe's hungry and unpaid stormtroopers threaten revolt
By
Jane Flanagan in Matebeland
(Filed: 16/06/2002)
The first signs of
rebellion among President Robert Mugabe's supporters have
emerged with
threats of an uprising by members of the youth militia
he
created.
Jabulani Sibanda, the chairman of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF
party in Bulawayo, was
forced to lock himself in a lavatory at his office
last week when he was
threatened by a knife-wielding gang from the Green
Bombers, the official
name for the force.
One militia commander, who
asked to be known only as David, said he had
orchestrated the attack "to show
our bosses how angry and hungry we are, and
that they are no longer
safe".
They are furious at being left with no pay and little food after
waging the
brutal campaign that helped keep Mr Mugabe in power in Zimbabwe's
March
presidential election.
David said he was discussing with senior
colleagues from other battalions a
violent uprising that would topple Mr
Mugabe. "There is no end to this while
he is in power," he said. "Even if we
tried to leave the militia, our
colleagues would be ordered to find us and
kill us."
In a frank interview with The Telegraph, David and two of his
men admitted
their violent role in the election build-up. They spoke of
trying to kill an
opposition MP, on the orders of government ministers, after
the false
promise that they would receive cash and land seized from white
farmers.
"We've turned ourselves into killers and thugs - and for what?"
asked David,
35. "We have no money, no jobs and no future. All we have is
hungry stomachs
and bad dreams about what we've done."
He described
the missions of murder, abduction and arson on which he sent
young men and
women earlier this year to help keep Mr Mugabe in power. "We
did everything
they wanted," he said. "We won the election for them, but
they have treated
us no better than donkeys. They have used us and thrown us
away."
The
40,000-strong youth militia was formed as part of the re-introduction
of
compulsory national service in 2000 and reports directly to the
government.
At camps across the country, thousands of young men and women
have received
political indoctrination and training in weapons, torture and
violence.
During the election campaign, they were ruthless. Unhampered by
threat of
arrest, and often drunk or high on drugs, they unleashed terror
and
intimidation on voters and political rivals.
Now they are
resentful of their bosses' neglect. Sam, 19, was part of the
gang that
attacked the Bulawayo party chief. He said: "Every month we are
told the same
- that the money will come, but it never comes."
A comrade, Joshua, 21,
added: "We are nothing to them." David and the other
two talked freely about
their brutal campaigns. David had assigned Sam - "a
more naturally merciless
man" - to the "killing gang", while Joshua had been
confined to "abduction
and arson".
Joshua revealed that he had helped to raze St Peter's
village, near
Bulawayo, after its inhabitants failed to turn up to a Zanu-PF
election
rally.
Sam admitted trying to murder David Mpala, an MP for
the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change, in March after being offered a
cash reward.
"I stabbed the man and ran away, certain he was dead," Sam
confessed,
unwilling to make eye contact. "But some people from a village
found him and
took him to hospital. I never got paid after it was reported in
the
newspaper that he had lived."
David said the three of them had
witnessed the attack on Martin Olds - one
of the first white farmers killed -
in April 2000. He died after holding off
70 raiders during a two-hour siege
at his farm in Matabeleland.
"I was driving the Jeep to bring the militia
in," said David. They had gone
there to help the self-styled "war veterans",
who were on a mission to seize
land.
"We had orders from the highest
level that someone important wanted Mr
Olds's land," said David. "He was also
a supporter of the MDC, we were
told." After the farmer was killed, the
militia helped to loot the farm.
A year later, Mr Olds's mother Gloria,
68, was also shot dead by war
veterans.
David said: "I think that
woman had become an irritation to our bosses. She
was outspoken and a
supporter of the MDC. That's why they wanted her out of
the way."
Sam
said: "We didn't always agree when we were told that the white men were
our
enemies and that they had stolen from us in the past and now we had to
steal
from them. A lot of them did good things for the black people. They
gave them
work and built schools and clinics."
David said he had been promised £30
a month to command a 500-strong group,
but had never received the full amount
and had not been paid since February.
He said Sam and Joshua had received £5
on joining the militia, but nothing
since.
Before the election in
March, life had been easier. The militia, housed in
camps around the country,
had been given three meals a day, beer and various
narcotics.
"We had
to have full bellies and to be drunk or high on drugs to carry out
our jobs,"
said Sam. "We had everything we needed so we didn't notice the
money so
much."
Now, the atmosphere at the camps has worsened. Food is scarce and
the
dormitories are full of resentful, hungry young people, plagued by
drug
withdrawal symptoms and restless nights spent reflecting on their
crimes.
"I want to be paid so that I can go and see an inyanga
[traditional healer]
and be cleansed," said Joshua. "I feel the spirits of
the people I have
harmed visiting me all the time. I want to go back to being
a nice man - the
man I was before."
Council elections will be held in
August, however, and militia members are
again under pressure to intimidate
voters and break up opposition rallies.
Zanu-PF chiefs have visited the camps
for the first time for months, seeking
to whip up support and to crush any
opposition.
"I don't want to do those things any more," said Sam. "My
parents are so
unhappy."
David added: "We're in a jail of our own -
never free to leave and always
being punished for what we do. We'll never
have our lives back until Mugabe
is gone."
Zim Standard
How socialism truly works
(overthetop By
Brian Latham)
THE leader of a troubled central African nation has
said his
progressive policies will ensure that his people will never again
face
hunger or be made slaves of colonial imperialist war
mongers.
Speaking in a foreign country famous for changing
governments and
losing wars, the most equal of all comrades vowed that new
policies in the
troubled central African country would ensure full bellies
for all the
people of his village.
Still, the visit from the
most equal of all comrades was not entirely
welcome. While several
continental compatriots shook his hand in the
mistaken belief that he was the
man who'd slipped a pair of Guccis under
their pillows the previous night,
representatives of the wealthier nations
said they were not happy to be seen
in his company.
Having spent almost 80 years battling to eradicate
communism, leaders
from both sides of the Atlantic said it was a bit much to
have to start all
over again.
But the most equal of all comrades
remained unrepentant, vowing to
continue with the collectivisation of all
farms. This would allow the masses
to toil in honest Marxist labour to ensure
overflowing plates for all people
in his village. "Hardship is intrinsic to
the proletariat's struggle against
the democratic bourgeoisie," he said. "We
will never surrender until we have
attained our highest goal, the goal
aspired to by all true peasants, workers
and the secret police: the
dictatorship of the proletariat."
Asked who or what the proletariat
was, the most equal of all comrades
said, "That's the easy bit. It's
me."
Still, a hungry resident in a remote northern district of the
troubled
central African nation was emphatic in his whispered criticism of
the most
equal of all comrades. "If that fool thinks his plan is going to
work, he's
got another thing coming," said the man who refused to be named
and refused
to speak above a whisper for fear of being murdered in his bed by
the
vanguards of socialist reformation. "For three months I've been working
on a
road gang under one of the most equal of all comrade's so-called 'food
for
work programmes' without receiving so much as a maize pip in return and
as
far as I'm concerned I'm not lifting another finger to help
him."
Meanwhile, a man standing nearby in dark glasses and a cheap
nylon
suite took notes before wandering over and explaining that the food for
work
programme was entirely legitimate. "You do the work and the food goes to
the
most qual of all comrade's village. That's how socialism truly works,"
he
explained. "And if I hear any more of this subversive nonsense I
shall
personally visit your village and remove your toenails one by one in
an
effort to explain the advantages of progressive reform."
With
that, the unnamed whisperer jumped onto a passing bus and headed
for the
troubled central African country's capital city where he had heard
people
opposed to the most equal of all comrades outnumbered Zany party
supporters
and the secret police by 10,000 to one. "Sod this for a lark," he
said, "From
now on I'll make my living on the streets like everyone else.
They
say the streets of the capital are paved with unemployed beggars,
thieves and
their glue sniffing offspring, but at least they've got all
their
toenails."
Still, when the unnamed whisperer arrived in the capital
he was
pleasantly surprised to find that the streets of the capital, while
indeed
paved with beggars, thieves and glue sniffers, were also paved with
new
farmers who found life on the streets a better prospect than growing
maize
in winter for the most equal of all comrades' eccentric
agriculture
minister.
"At least this way we get the occasional
sandwich from passing
motorists," he said. "It's a lot more than we were
going to get out there."
Zim Standard
Economic meltdown: Gvt locked in a confused
mode
LESS than a month ago, you could buy an American dollar
for about
Z$350. That same dollar now costs about Z$730-and it's rising
fast.
Meanwhile the South African Rand, hardly the world's most
sought after
currency, costs a staggering Z$75. We know of no country in the
world which
has gone downhill so quickly and in so short a
time.
All this is happening on what the government calls the
parallel
market.
The Standard won't use the same silly euphemism
and will instead call
it what it is: the black market. It is a market the
government, right up to
finance minister Simba Makoni, treats with cynical
hypocrisy, attempting to
stamp it out on the one hand and denying its
existence on the other.
Everyone knows who is to blame for the
meltdown of Zimbabwe's
economy-and most people know that this is just the
beginning. It will get
worse and inflation, now at an official 122%, will
before much longer run
away completely. People already facing hunger because
of President Robert
Mugabe's brutal seizure of commercial farms will soon be
unable to afford to
buy what little food trickles into this
country.
For ordinary Zimbabweans, daily hardships are intense: no
jobs, no
money for transport, prohibitive costs and scarcity of life-saving
drugs,
unaffordable education costs, poor diets, rising prices, the killer
disease
Aids-the litany of hardships is endless. What will it take next for
this
government to wake up from its deep slumber and face the reality? This
is an
unspeakable tragedy which will be remembered for a very long time to
come.
To say that what President Mugabe and his cronies have done
to
Zimbabwe is sick is to underestimate the situation. In
destroying
agriculture they have destroyed the economy. Zimbabwe's
agriculture is now a
shadow of its former self. Investment is dead in the
water because of the
chaos that has reigned for more than two years
now.
Despite all this, the state's lumbering propaganda machine
continues
to pretend that all will be well, that far from destroying
agriculture,
President Mugabe has saved Zimbabwe from colonial domination and
that the
so-called new farmers will soon be providing more food than
commercial
farmers were ever able to.
Of course, that's a
blatant lie. The new farmers, wherever they are,
will be seriously
disadvantaged before they even begin. Their farms, even
under the A2 scheme,
are small, they have little access to capital and they
lack machinery. On top
of that, they're being asked to share resources.
In short, both the
A1 and A2 model are an ill-conceived, disorderly
and the damage to farming
infrastructure, skills and innovation is starring
us in the
face.
It is almost a banality to talk about the necessity of an
equitable
and just redistribution of land in Zimbabwe. All parties
including
commercial farmers are agreed about this. But it need not have been
done in
such a chaotic and destructive manner.
Still, the death
of agriculture so carefully engineered by the ruling
party was just the death
knell of an economy already destined to collapse
through Zanu PF's greed.
Involvement in the DRC war bringing wealth to an
already comfortably cosseted
elite, brought only additional hardship to
ordinary Zimbabweans, while
President Mugabe's pandering to the lunatic
fringe in the war veterans'
association sparked the first economic veld fire
and signalled the
president's complete contempt of economic responsibility.
But this
time it's far worse. This time recovery will require nothing
short of a
miracle-or the collapse of the sinister regime, if no urgent
self-correcting
process takes place. In that, there is enormous irony,
because only by
removing the system can the country be saved. It is like a
virus that feeds
off the people in order to grow fat and shiny, but the more
it destroys, the
more brutal it must become in order to sustain itself.
Still, Zanu
PF's tenacity and guile should never be underestimated.
The manner in which
it destroyed commercial agriculture showed that the
party is unafraid of
murdering and unleashing violence in order to get its
way. But countering the
bloodshed on the country's once thriving farms was a
master strategy that saw
many of the farmers agreeing to extortions of
various kinds.
By
inserting 'agents of influence' into farmers' ranks, the ruling
party ensured
that the Commercial Farmers' Union behaved in a manner that
would lead to its
downfall. It takes two to create corruption.
That all this economic
mismanagement preceded a drought only
highlights Zanu PF's arrogance and
contempt for the people. Food security
experts warn that Zimbabwe faces a
crisis of 'Ethiopian proportions' and for
that there is no excuse. After all,
this country should be able to feed
itself, even in a drought, and when it
can't feed itself it should be able
to pay for food imports.
Right now it is unable to do either and if there was even a hint of
honour
among Zimbabwe's rulers, both agriculture minister Joseph Made and
finance
minister Simba Makoni would resign. In fact, the game should have
been up for
these two men a year or so ago.
Joseph Made, along with other
visitors in Zanu PF such as Jonathan
Moyo and Patrick Chinamasa, have
contributed immensely to the swelling of
public discontent creating a huge
reservoir of bitterness and resentment in
the process.
Zimbabweans won't hold their collective breath because they know
that
resigning a ministerial post means abandoning the gravy train. Instead
the
problems will be blamed, implausibly, on the distant British, European
and
American government, on commercial farmers and on the opposition-and
all
this will continue until the people themselves force the gravy train to
a
standstill.
If one conclusion stands out of the meltdown of
Zimbabwe's economy, it
is that events have taken control. Government is no
longer in the driving
seat. It is locked in a confused mode, unsure which way
to turn, how to
respond to the crisis and what solution to try
next.
God Help Zimbabwe.
Zim Standard
Hero status for Sithole?
(By John
Makura)
CHIPINGE-Zanu PF, which has since independence in 1980
failed to
penetrate Chipinge South, is now contemplating declaring the late
Zanu
Ndonga leader, Rev Ndabaningi Sithole, a national hero in an effort
to
placate angry Ndonga traditionalists.
Last week, at the
burial of David Zamchiya, a former Zanu Ndonga
activist and prominent Harare
lawyer who died in a car crash, reliable
sources within Zanu PF told The
Standard that the Zanu PF provincial
leadership would soon approach President
Mugabe with a request to have
Sithole declared a national
hero.
"As long as Sithole is not declared a national hero, we
will not win
the support of people in Chipinge," said a senior Zanu PF
official.
The ruling party's entourage to Chipinge comprised,
amongst others,
justice legal and parliamentary affairs minister, Patrick
Chinamasa,
Manicaland governor, Oppah Muchinguri and other senior party
officials such
as Tinaye Chigudu, Christopher Mushowe and Shadreck
Chipanga.
But Chipinge villagers dismissed the rumours with regard
to Sithole as
cheap politicking which would not serve to pacify
them.
They said they found it surprising that Zanu PF had declared
Zamchiya
a liberation hero while failing to recognise the achievements of the
late
Sithole. Zamchiya, they said, had been a mere legal advisor to Sithole
who,
among other achievements, had been the founding leader of Zanu, later
Zanu
PF.
"How can they declare Zamchiya a hero when musharukwa
Sithole is lying
here with no recognition whatsoever from the state?. This is
sheer
hypocrisy," said a villager at Checheche growth point.
"If
they (Zanu PF) are trying to win support from Chipinge by
declaring Zamchiya
a hero, they simply won't succeed," declared another
village elder who is a
staunch Zanu Ndonga supporter.
United Church of Christ leader in
Zimbabwe, Rev Murombedzi Kuchera,
told mourners at the funeral that it was
now proving almost impossible for
people in Chipinge to be declared national
heroes, regardless of their
contribution to the liberation of the
country.
"People in Chipinge are not getting national hero status
although they
deserve it. They will have to work extra hard to be
recognised," he said in
an apparent reference to the late
Sithole.
Kuchera said Zamchiya, a former senator and permanent
secretary in the
ministry of justice, legal and parliamentary affairs,
deserved to be buried
at the National Heroes Acre in Harare.
Muchinguri tried to calm people's emotions by saying that although
Zamchiya
had not been declared a national hero locally, he would be declared
a
"national hero in heaven" because of his contribution to the development
of
the country.
He said as chairman of Barclays Bank, Zamchiya had
facilitated the
contribution of over 30 000 tonnes of maize meal to Cyclone
Eline victims in
Manicaland.
Why half the planet is hungry
The world's leading expert on the causes of
famine, Nobel prize-winning
economist Amartya Sen, answers crucial questions
on why people starve when
democracy falters
Observer
Worldview
Sunday June 16, 2002
The Observer
Why, in the
twenty-first century, are 800 million people living in the
shadow of
hunger?
Widespread hunger in the world is primarily related to poverty. It is
not
principally connected with food production at all. Indeed, over the
course
of the last quarter of a century, the prices of the principal staple
foods
(such as rice, wheat etc) have fallen by much more than half in
'real'
terms. If there is more demand for food, in the present state of
world
technology and availability of resources, the production
will
correspondingly increase.
The demand for food is restrained
mainly by lack of income. And the same
factor explains the large number of
people who are hungry across the world.
Given their income levels, they are
not able to buy enough food, and as a
consequence these people (including
their family members) live with hunger.
But it is not adequate to look
only at incomes. There is need to look also
at the political circumstances
that allow famine and hunger. If the survival
of a government is threatened
by the prevalence of hunger, the government
has an incentive to deal with the
situation. Incomes can be expanded both by
policies that raise overall income
and also by redistributive policies which
provide employment, and thus tackle
one of the principal reasons for hunger
(to wit, unemployment in a country
without an adequate social security
system).
In democratic countries,
even very poor ones, the survival of the ruling
government would be
threatened by famine, since elections are not easy to
win after famines; nor
is it easy to withstand criticism of opposition
parties and newspapers. That
is why famine does not occur in democratic
countries. Unfortunately, there
are a great many countries in the world
which do not yet have democratic
systems.
Indeed, as a country like Zimbabwe ceases to be a functioning
democracy, its
earlier ability to avoid famines in very adverse food
situations (for which
Zimbabwe had an excellent record in the 1970s and
1980s) becomes weakened. A
more authoritarian Zimbabwe is now facing
considerable danger of famine.
Alas, hunger in the non-acute form of
endemic under-nourishment often turns
out to be not particularly politically
explosive. Even democratic
governments can survive with a good deal of
regular under-nourishment. For
example, while famines have been eliminated in
democratic India (they
disappeared immediately in 1947, with Independence and
multi-party
elections), there is a remarkable continuation of endemic
under-nourishment
in a non-acute form.
Deprivation of this kind can
reduce life expectancy, increase the rate of
morbidity, and even lead to
under-development of mental capacities of
children. If the political parties
do not succeed in making endemic hunger
into a politically active issue,
hunger in this non-acute form can go on
even in democratic
countries.
What should rich countries do, and is trade liberalisation the
answer?
The rich countries can do a great deal to reduce hunger in the
world. First,
the displacement of democracies in poor countries, particularly
in Africa,
often occurred during the Cold War with the connivance of the
great powers.
Whenever a military strongman displaced a democratic
government, the new
military dictatorship tended to get support from the
Soviet Union (if the
new military rulers were pro-Soviet) or from the United
States and its
allies (if the new rulers were anti-Soviet and pro-West). So
there is
culpability on the part of the dominant powers in the world, given
past
history, and there is some responsibility now for rich countries to
help
facilitate the expansion of democratic governance in the
world.
Second, hunger is related to low income and often to unemployment.
Poverty
could be very substantially reduced if the richer countries were
more
welcoming to imports from poorer countries, rather than shutting them
out by
tariff barriers and other exclusions. Fairer trade can reduce poverty
in the
poor countries (as the recent Oxfam report Rigged Rules, Double
Standards
discusses in detail).
Third, there is a need for a global
alliance not just to combat terrorism in
the world, but also for positive
goals, such as combating illiteracy and
reducing preventable illnesses that
so disrupt economic and social lives in
the poorer countries.
Trade
liberalisation on the part of the richer countries could certainly
make a
difference to employment and income prospects of poorer countries.
The
situation is a little more complex in the case of liberalisation of
the
poorer countries. Even those countries which have greatly benefited from
the
expansion of world trade (such as South Korea or China) often went
through a
phase of protecting industries before vigorous expansion of exports
and
trade. So, trade liberalisation is partly an answer, but the economic
steps
involved have to be carefully assessed: the policies cannot be driven
by
simple slogans.
What is the solution?
There is no 'magic
bullet' to deal with the entrenched problem of hunger in
the world. It
requires political leadership in encouraging democratic
governments in the
world, including support for multi-party elections, open
public discussions,
elimination of press censorship, and also economic
support for independent
news media and rapid dissemination of information
and analysis. It also
requires visionary economic policies which both
encourage trade (especially
allowing exports from poorer countries into the
markets of the rich), but
also reforms (involving patent laws, technology
transfer etc.) to
dramatically reduce deprivation in the poorer countries.
The problem of
hunger has to be seen as being embedded in larger issues of
global poverty
and deprivation.
Countries of the South increasingly seek food
self-sufficiency. Could this
solve the problem of hunger and
starvation?
Food self-sufficiency is a peculiarly obtuse way of thinking
about food
security. There is no particular problem, even without
self-sufficiency, in
achieving nutritional security through the elimination
of poverty (so that
people can buy food) and through the availability of food
in the world
market (so that countries can import food if there is not an
adequate stock
at home).
The two problems get confused, because many
countries which are desperately
poor also happen to earn most of their income
from food production. This is
the case, for example, for many countries in
Africa. But if these countries
were able to produce a good deal of income
(for example through
diversification of production, including
industrialisation), they can become
free of hunger even without producing all
the food that is needed for
domestic consumption. The focus has to be on
income and entitlement, and the
ability to command food rather than on any
fetishist concern about food
self-sufficiency.
There are situations in
which self-sufficiency is important, such as during
wars. At one stage in the
Second World War, there was a real danger of
Britain not being able to get
enough food into the country. But that is a
very peculiar situation, and we
are not in one like that now, nor are we
likely to be in the near future. The
real issue is whether a country can
provide enough food for its citizens -
either from domestic production or
imports or both - and that is a very
different issue from self-sufficiency.
We have to look at ways and means of
eliminating poverty, and to undertake
the economic, social and political
processes that can achieve that.
· Amartya Sen, who won the Nobel Prize
in Economics in 1998, is Master of
Trinity College, Cambridge. This is a
longer version of an article, expanded
by the author, that appeared last week
in Le Monde.
Zim Standard
Dollar in tailspin
(By Kumbirai
Mafunda)
THE Zimbabwe dollar continued its slide against major
currencies
ending the week at Z$730 to the US dollar.
Two weeks
ago, the Zimbabwe dollar crashed by more than $500 against
one US unit, and
$50 against the South African rand, despite the onset of
the tobacco
marketing season which was expected to ease the situation.
However, the trend continues unabated with the South African rand
soaring to
a high of 75 against the dollar.
Despite the dollar's free fall on
the thriving black market,
government remains unmoved and the local unit is
still firmly pegged at $55
against the greenback, $80 against the pound
sterling and $5 against the
rand.
The continued slide of the
dollar on the black market, the only viable
source of forex at the moment
since government coffers have run dry, is
bound to add to the woes of
Zimbabwe's long suffering masses.
Perhaps the most important sector
to be severely tested will be that
of energy. With both the national oil
procurement company, Noczim, and power
utility, Zesa, sourcing their forex on
the black market, consumers should
expect an increase in products from that
sector.
An analyst with the National Discount House (NDH) said
since Noczim
was obtaining foreign currency from the parallel market at such
exorbitant
rates, a fuel price hike was imminent.
"The price of
fuel will go up since the cost of fuel will be high,"
said the
analyst.
Godfrey Kanyenze, an economist with the Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade
Unions, said: "The ordinary man is going to feel the effects of
further
inflation because input prices are going to be high and this will
erode the
consumer's spending power."
Kanyenze said the solution
to the distortion of currency rates lay in
the restoration of ties with the
international community.
"We still insist that the most immediate
solution deals with
government restoring relations with the IMF and the World
Bank so that we
get forex. There is need to address the issue of supply.
Export earnings are
hardly sufficient and the little on the market will fetch
a premium," said
Kanyenze .
He said he was concerned about
Zimbabwe's future as it continued to
alienate itself from other trading
partners.
"I don't know whether we will survive. We need the rest
of the world.
China is coming into the World Trade Organisation and Russia is
moving
towards the west and we are going the opposite
direction."
Cross border trading which of late reported brisk
business is likely
to be undermined by the fall of the dollar, especially
against the rand.
Zim Standard
Villagers shunned in land grab
(By Walter
Marwizi)
ZAKA, Masvingo-As government winds up its accelerated land
seizure
exercise, thousands of villagers and desperate farm workers have been
left
in the cold while most of the prime farming land has gone to
the
undeserving, The Standard has learnt.
"The so-called
fast-track land reform programme swept past us like a
whirlwind," Magombedze
Magura, a kraal head in the dry Zaka communal area
said last
week.
Magura's homestead is perched on a small hilltop, close
to the
Jerera-Chiredzi highway, and like many other drought-stricken
villagers who
reside in this part of the country, he does his farming in the
hills.
Their area is only five kilometres away from a block of
commercial
farms which were compulsorily seized for resettlement by the
government.
None of Magura's people have benefited from the exercise except
one war
veteran who allocated himself a plot on a farm close to his
home.
The war veteran, who is now a base commander on the farm,
chased away
villagers who had earlier chosen that piece of land for
themselves.
"I think they (government) are not brave enough to come
to us and tell
us that they have the land for themselves. We have waited for
a long time to
get somewhere to plant our crops but to no avail," says
Magura, wiping sweat
from his face.
"We hear they have another
programme for the better off urban dwellers
while the rural people for whom
land is the primary source of income go
empty-handed," he adds, his wrinkled
face betraying deep-rooted frustration.
In many other rural
districts of the country, it's the same story for
communal people with no
political connections.
"We have nothing to show for our stay on the
farms as we have had no
water, clinics and schools for our children for over
two years. We were just
used as pawns by Zanu PF in its desperation to ward
off a stiff challenge
from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change,"
says Johaness Ndoro,
one of the villagers who was last week evicted from a
farm near Chivhu.
Last month, government instructed all peasants
who had invaded farms
after March 2001 to return to where they had come from
originally.
"When Mugabe was campaigning, he actually praised us
for expressing
our desire for land through our occupation of the farms. He
never told us we
would be evicted two months after the election but I had all
along heard
people saying muZanu tamba wakachenjera (you have to treat Zanu
with
suspicion) without thinking seriously about it, but now I understand
what it
means," Ndoro adds.
Now the 57-year-old-man has to go
back to his rural home to face the
scorn of fellow villagers who warned him
against taking part in the farm
occupations. They had tried to stop him from
leaving his rural home arguing
that Zanu PF would dump him once it won the
election.
"Because I genuinely needed land, I decided to go and
stay in the
forest, safeguarding the piece of land I intended to farm on for
the rest of
my life," he says.
He leaves behind a deep well he
had dug in his new yard, some cattle
and goat pens and 10 hectares of cleared
farm land.
Unbeknown to Ndoro, while he was clearing the land, a
top government
official who went through all the "formalities of applying for
land" through
the district administrator's office in Harare was being
allocated his plot.
"I feel as used as a condom. I did all the
donkey's work with my hands
thinking that I had secured a good piece of land,
only to be evicted by this
regime," he says.
It's not just the
peasants who have found no joy in the land reform
exercise.
Many
farm workers, whose existence is closely tied to the farms, are
reduced to
squatters every time a farm owner loses his land.
While war
veterans were given special preference in the distribution
exercise, farm
workers, who were accused of ganging up with their white
employers in support
of the MDC, were not accorded the same treatment.
Despite
government promises that they would get land, the majority are
now
destitute.
Says Gift Muti, the grassroots co-ordinator of the
General Agriculture
and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPUWZ): "There
was no special
provision for the workers as government had promised. The few
farm workers
who managed to get land did so through their own initiative. The
majority
are surviving from hand to mouth. Those who are lucky to be close to
soils
with alluvial gold have turned to gold panning for
survival."
What makes the plight of farm workers even more pathetic
is that as
migrant workers, they do not have identity documents.
"They do not have land, citizenship status and in some cases hope of a
return
to their past stable lives on the farms. It's a sad situation,"
he
says.
The new farm owners, mainly Zanu PF officials and war
veterans, do not
want to employ farm workers whom they believe voted for MDC.
Neither do they
have the capacity and wherewithal to pay and look after them
like their
previous owners.
While farm workers and peasants like
Ndoro count their loses, many
Zanu PF officials, war veterans and
businesspeople who benefited from the
programme, are now contemplating what
to do with their vast tracks of land.
Most of them either had farms
before the fast track land reform
exercise. Topping the list of people who
obtained land ahead of desperate
peasants and farm workers are vice
presidents Simon Muzenda and Joseph Msika
as well as several ministers and
governors.
Senior civil servants and army personnel and Police
Commissioner
Augustine Chihuri are also proud owners of land, as are many
other people
well-connected to government.
"We hope one day, by
the grace of the Lord, we will have a fair and
transparent land reform
exercise which will cater for us all," said a
distraught farm worker.
Stand up and celebrate asylum
European heads of government meet in
Seville next week to raise the walls of
Fortress Europe ever higher. In this
major essay to mark Refugee Week, the
head of the Refugee Council says that
there can be an alternative to our
shameful treatment of those who seek
refuge here
Asylum myths and reality: Observer special
Nick
Hardwick
Sunday June 16, 2002
Asylum and immigration will be at the
top of the agenda as Tony Blair meets
his fellow European heads of government
in Seville on Thursday. The British
government is at the forefront of those
wishing to raise the walls of
Fortress Europe higher and higher.
With
bitter irony, the summit takes place during Refugee Week here in the
UK.
Thousands of people, up and down the UK, will be taking part in hundreds
of
events to celebrate the strength and resilience of refugees themselves
and
pay tribute to those who ensure that refugees can find sanctuary and
a
welcome here if they are forced to flee their homes.
The day before
the summit is UN Refugee Day itself. It marks the fact that
since the Geneva
Convention on Refugees was signed in 1951, literally
millions of people
worldwide have been saved from persecution because they
have been able to
obtain asylum in another country. It is the most effective
of all the human
rights conventions.
These things are worth celebrating.
Too often
we talk about refugees as victims and in terms of what they need.
But
refugees are survivors, not victims; contributors, not takers. Refugees
have,
by definition, survived persecution in their own countries. Their
survival is
in itself a victory against the torturers, the dictators and the
fanatics.
They have also survived epic journeys - men, women and children -
walking
across deserts, crossing continents hidden in the backs of lorries
and
hanging on to trains, braving the seas crammed into death-trap
rust-buckets.
All of this at the mercy of the criminal gangs who organise
the human
smuggling trade.
And, once in the UK, refugees do survive everything the
system and the media
can throw at them.
This is not a new phenomenon.
Just as EU leaders meet in Seville this week,
governments met at an
international conference in Evian in 1938 to plan how
the flow of refugees
could be stemmed. Frank Roberts, a senior official in
the Foreign Office
stated in May 1944, the point at which Hungarian Jews
were being openly
transported to Auschwitz and the gas chambers were working
at full capacity:
'The Allies rather resent the suggestion that Jews in
particular have been
more heroic or long-suffering than other nationals of
occupied
countries'.
In truth, every group of refugees who have arrived in Britain
over the
centuries have had to overcome hostility and prejudice and every
group of
refugees have gone on to make an enormous economic and cultural
contribution
to the country that gave them sanctuary. There is no doubt that
today's
refugees will do the same.
Refugee Week provides just a
glimpse of the cultural richness, energy and
friendliness that underpins
today's refugee communities. It does not just
celebrate refugees - it
celebrates all those who make the concept of
sanctuary a reality. At a time
when the extreme right is on the march across
Europe, it provides us all an
opportunity to affirm a different set of
values. Across the UK, local
communities, faith groups and many others
provide the practical help and
friendship refugees need to help them find
their feet. Teachers welcome
refugee children into their schools, treating
the diversity these children
bring as an opportunity not a problem. And, of
course, there are hundreds of
thousands of individuals who want to make
their voice heard against the daily
flood of bogus abuse directed against
refugees and who do not share the
thin-lipped meanness of spirit that says
Britain is full, that we cannot
accept our international responsibilities
and that one of the richest
countries in the word cannot organise a
credible, fair and humane asylum
system.
Refugees and other migrants are accused of "swamping" European
culture.
Perhaps Europe should show a little humility before it uses that
term.The EU
meeting is in Seville, one of the most beautiful cities in
Europe. That
beauty is as much a product of hundreds of years of Islamic
culture as it is
of anything that followed. When the rest of Europe was only
slowly emerging
from barbarism, Seville and the other cities of Moorish
Andalucia were
centres of learning and civilisation.
When Mahatma
Ghandi was asked what he felt about European civilisation, he
said he thought
it would be a "good idea". Within living memory, during the
savage civil war,
refugees were fleeing from where Tony Blair will be in
Spain to other
European countries. At the mid-point of the last century,
Europe created an
industrialised genocide while war was waged on civilians
with unparalleled
ferocity. More recently, thousands were massacred at
Sbrenica in the name of
"Christian civilisation" while the international
community stood
by.
In view of that darker European tradition, there is no reason
for
complacency about the rise of the xenophobic right across Europe.
However,
the idea that occupying their territory can avert the rise of the
far right
is a terrible error. There is a real sense of panic in the response
that
government's are making. But if governments uncritically legitimise
the
genuine concerns that are there, talk tough but inevitably fail to
deliver,
then that more than anything will open the door for the far right.
Look
where this panic has already brought us.
Refugees are not just
nameless statistics or a flood. They are individual
human beings with mothers
and fathers, brothers and sisters, husbands, wives
and lovers. Everyday, some
of these individuals are washed ashore at the
walls of Fortress Europe, are
crushed beneath trains or are found suffocated
in the backs of lorries. It
happens so frequently now it is hardly ever
reported. Yet as experience has
always shown, simply raising the walls
higher and higher has little effect on
the number of people coming in - but
it does increase the charges and so the
profits of the traffickers while
making the journey more dangerous
still.
In Denmark, once one of the most tolerant countries in Europe,
asylum
seekers are forbidden to get married. In the UK massive
accommodation
centres are to be built, at vast expense in remote rural areas.
Already the
whole project is well behind schedule and the economic and
political costs
are spiraling. Contrary to everything else the government is
trying to do,
refugee children will be segregated from their peers and
educated in the
camps. Social exclusion has become official government
policy.
The issue of Sangatte has degenerated into a matter of national
pride and
will. Frankly, the spectacle of the worlds third and fourth
largest
economies squabbling over the fate of a few thousand of the most
powerless
people on earth should be a matter of national shame not pride.
None of this
is to say that people are not right to be concerned about the
shambles into
which the asylum system has degenerated or that radical, new
approaches are
not needed. This needs fresh thinking from refugee supporters
just as much
as it does from governments.
I start from a position that
in an international system based on nation
states, those states do have a
right to control their borders and that
people will want to breach these
controls for a whole variety of reasons.
Within this we have an absolute set
of obligations to refugees who have been
persecuted that do not apply to
other groups of migrants.
In the short term, it is essential we resolve
the Sangatte issue. The camp
itself is a symptom not the cause of the asylum
shambles. It is simply
ludicrous to imagine that the closure of the camp will
itself discourage
people who have already traveled half way round the globe
from trying to get
to the UK. However, there is growing evidence that the
camp has been taken
over by the trafficking gangs. It cannot be right that it
is these gangs and
the ability to climb a fence and jump a train that
determines whether you
obtain asylum in the UK. Furthermore, Sangatte has now
become such a symbol
of the asylum shambles that the conditions do need to be
created where it
can close.
In the short term, the solution probably
lies in a one-off joint processing
mechanism between France and the UK with
agreement that the responsibility
for those found to be in need of protection
should be shared on a humane and
reasonable basis. In the longer term, no
solution is possible without a
harmonised European asylum policy in which
refugees can be assured that they
will be dealt with fairly, efficiently and
humanely, wherever they are in
Europe. This was agreed at the EU Summit in
Finland in 1999. Since then,
progress has been painfully slow and where
agreement has been reached, it is
so compromised as to be almost
meaningless.
The harmonisation process should take place on the basis of
highest existing
standards, not the lowest common denominator and be decided
by majority
voting without a veto. That's the only way progress will be
made.
You cannot have a credible asylum system without a credible
immigration
policy as a whole. The idea that we can have a closed-door policy
has always
been a fantasy. Even now, far more people enter the country with
work
permits than do as asylum seekers. But there is still too
little
acknowledgement that Britain needs both skilled and unskilled
economic
migrants - particularly as the ratio of the working to
non-working
population declines.
At present, of course people enter
the country illegally or use the asylum
system because they want to work here
- and if they did not, as anyone who
lives or works in our major cities
knows, the service and construction
industries would grind to a halt.
Furthermore, the remittances people send
home far outstrips any aid budget -
making a nonsense of the policy that
developing countries can be forced to
co-operate with restrictive European
migration policies by threatening a
reduction in their aid.
Even with a more sensible immigration policy,
pressure on the asylum system
will remain.
A big part of the problem
is that as global migration increases, so
governments increase measures to
control those movements leading to the
situation where there is now almost no
way a refugee can legally get to the
UK. You need a visa to get to the UK
from every country that produces
refugees. You can not get a visa for being a
refugee and if an airline or
any other carrier takes you without the right
paperwork, they will be
heavily fined. So people turn to the traffickers who
grow fat on the
proceeds.
We need a much more pro-active approach to
protecting refugees. It should be
possible for some to apply for asylum at UK
embassies abroad. This would not
work for everyone, but it would work for
some. We also need a much more
generous approach right across Europe to the
UN's resettlement programme
where countries agree to take a significant quota
of refugees from some of
the world's most intractable refugee situations.
This needs to be combined
with a global approach to tackle the root causes of
forced migration -
tackling the inequalities of wealth between North and
South, taking early
conflict prevention measures and assisting those
developing countries that
already shoulder by far and away the greatest
responsibility for supporting
the world's refugees.
But this must not
be at the expense of individual asylum seekers who will
continue to arrive
spontaneously. In the 1930's, Jewish refugees who arrived
in the UK as part
of organised programmes or who had guarantees of work here
were allowed to
stay. Those who made their own way here and entered
illegally were sent back
to the continent where many later perished. It was
out of this experience
that the individual right of asylum, with each case
considered on its merits,
was enshrined in the Geneva Convention.
So what ever happens, we will
still need a system for determining individual
asylum claims. The truth is
that the current system is now completely
discredited. Almost nobody has
confidence in the decision making process.
Refugees wait months or years for
a decision which when it comes often seems
ludicrously perverse and
unfair.
The public see a system that is manifestly failing to distinguish
between
those that need protection and those that do not - and fails to
ensure
refugees are helped to rebuild their lives here or return those who do
not
have a good claim to remain.
There is little chance of this being
rectified as long as the day to day
management of the system is in the hands
of politicians who are inevitably
focussed on the next day's headlines. The
time has come to depoliticise the
issue. The Refugee Council supports the
establishment of an independent
Refugee Board, as they have in Canada, to
take charge of the asylum system.
The Board should have publicly appointed
commissioners, accountable to
Parliament, responsible for delivering quick,
good quality, legally
defensible asylum decisions.
There needs to be a
fundamental change in the decision making culture away
from an adversarial
system in which both sides try to destroy the other case
regardless of the
facts to an inquisitorial system whose purpose is to
establish the
truth.
A first step would be to have an independent country assessment
procedure so
that we could avoid the sort of bizarre situation that occurred
earlier in
the year when the Foreign Office was demanding sanctions on
Zimbabwe because
of the human rights abuses while the Home Office was
claiming there was no
reason for people to want to leave.
It is
important that all the facts of a case are brought out an early stage
and
asylum seekers should have proper representation to do this. However,
if
necessary there should be even stronger regulation of legal advisers
to
achieve this. There is still too much unethical, obstructive and down
right
incompetent advice being given that damages the credibility of the
whole
system.
We also need to manage the reception of asylum seekers
much better. It is
perfectly reasonable to expect people to co-operate with
the system while
they wait for a decision. It is also reasonable to say that
if asylum
seekers needs accommodation while they wait that it should be
provided in
areas where there is a housing surplus rather than a shortage -
provided
this is done is an efficient and reasonable way.
It is ironic
that just as the current dispersal system is slowly beginning
to improve, the
government is planning to introduce large reception centres
in rural areas to
replace it.
The truth is that the government's proposals for large
centres are wrong in
principle and unworkable in practice. All the experience
of these sort of
centres in other parts of Europe is that asylum seekers end
up staying in
them for years and become heavily institutionalised. They will
take years to
develop, cost hundreds of millions of pounds and distract
attention from
improving the current dispersal system which what ever
happens, will remain
in place for years to come.
The Refugee Council
advocates networks of much smaller centres, in urban
areas that already have
a diverse population. These could deliver a much
better managed process,
provide support to local services used by asylum
seekers and be quicker and
cheaper to develop.
Contrary to the myths about asylum, about 50% of all
those who reach the end
of the decision making process are allowed to stay -
about 25 - 35% of first
decisions result in refugee status or exceptional
leave to remain on
humanitarian grounds; most of those who are refused go on
to appeal and
about 20% of appeals are successful; furthermore, the Home
Office back down
on a lot of rejected cases before they even get to
appeal.
Yet despite the governments rhetoric about citizenship, English
language and
social exclusion only a tiny effort is directed to the
integration effort.
There are six civil servants working on integration
compared with tens of
thousands working on control. The asylum system costs
hundreds of millions
of pounds each year. But these costs are not the costs
of asylum seekers -
they are the costs of trying to keep them out. Let people
work legally and
pay there way when they first arrive - as all the polls
suggest the public
would support, and help refugees rebuild and use their
skills to contribute
to a society that recognises their worth - and any
assistance people need
when they first arrive will be repaid many times
over.
Above all what we need on this issue is real leadership. In the
past, the
international community has been prepared to adopt comprehensive
and global
solutions to refugee crises - in Europe after the Second World War
and
towards the Vietnamese Boat people.
Such an approach is viable
now. It needs to be combined with a determined
effort to lead public opinion,
to tackle racism and xenophobia head on and
challenge the myths and prejudice
that surround refugees.
Always, in even Europe's darkest moments, there
has been another tradition
of individuals and organisations who have been
prepared to raise an
alternative voice and with the courage to speak out
against prevailing
opinion. Refugee Week is a fantastic - and enjoyable -
opportunity to assert
those different values and to remind the politicians
that there are many
people who are proud we give sanctuary to refugees and
are confident and
generous enough to welcome them.It is a chance to show that
there are many
people in the UK today who are part of that alternative
tradition and who
will be able to hold their heads up when in years to come
this period of
panic and intolerance is looked back on in shame.
Nick
Hardwick is Chief Executive of The Refugee Council. Full details of all
the
Refugee Week events can be found online at www.refugeeweek.org.uk
Zim Standard
Masvingo accidents blamed on Zanu PF
(By
Parker Graham)
MASVINGO-Traditional leaders say the road accidents
which claimed 48
lives in two days in Masvingo last week are the
manifestation of the anger
of the spirits over the organisation of a Zanu PF
unity gala at the Great
Zimbabwe monument late last year, a gala which had
resulted in the shrine
being desecrated and defiled.
In separate
interviews with The Standard, the traditional leaders,
shaken by the worst
road carnage to hit Masvingo in recent years, said the
province was paying
the price for the Zanu PF misdemeanours.
On the eve of Unity
Day, thousands of people thronged the Great
Zimbabwe monument to participate
in a Zanu PF organised gala hosted by the
likes of Joshua Sacco, a white
Chimanimani-based musician.
During the gala, Sacco parodied a
Zimbabwean son-in-law welcoming
visitors to the sacred shrine held in high
esteem in the whole of Southern
Africa. Sacco and other musicians also took
it in turns to swipe at whites
and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
at the function which was
broadcast live on television.
There
was no prior consultation with the traditional leadership,
including Chief
Mugabe under whose area the monument falls. Instead, Zanu PF
went ahead with
it in its eagerness to obtain political mileage ahead of the
March 2002
presidential election.
The following day, when the traditionalists
visited the shrine they
were shocked to see used condoms, empty beer bottles
and human waste strewn
all over the revered place. They took this as evidence
of the many
abominable acts which had been committed at the shrine during the
gala, acts
which could arouse the anger of the spirits, they
said.
Nobody in Masvingo had anticipated that these kind of things
could
happen at Great Zimbabwe, they said.
A concerned Chief
Murinye, who has in the past criticised Zanu PF for
overriding the views of
the traditional leaders even on traditional matters,
said: "We knew this
debacle would come one day. How could the government
allow a gala to be held
at the Great Zimbabwe monument? You can't organise a
function at a sacred
place and have drunken youths and promiscuous elders
coming to engage in
sexual activities and to defecate the shrine.
Has anything like
that happened in our history?" he said adding, "They
even allowed musicians
to come and play their guitars. These instruments
have not been played at the
shrine since the monuments were constructed. I
don't want to frighten people,
but mark my words, a lot of disasters will
occur in the province unless Zanu
PF swallows its pride and rectifies its
stupid mistake."
A
well-respected spirit medium, Dickson Levy Marufu, said Zanu PF's
holding of
celebrations at Great Zimbabwe had angered the ancestral spirits.
Marufu predicted that aeroplanes would crash and hundreds of people
would die
if no action was taken to cleanse the shrine.
"While I feel sorry
for Masvingo in these, the darkest moments of its
history, I am confident
that the situation will worsen if the political
leadership refuses to sort
out its mess. Ministers are taking this lightly,
but once they start
perishing themselves I tell you, they will react fast,"
said
Marufu.
Chief Mugabe has in the past voiced concern over how he
was
disregarded over the organisation of the gala.
Interviewed
by the ZBC last month, Chief Mugabe did not mince his
words when slamming the
government for making arbitrary decisions on
traditional
matters.
"I am aware that some people have gained mileage out of
it, but this
is unacceptable. You can not come and hold celebrations at this
sacred place
without consulting with the traditional leadership," he
said.
However, Masvingo governor, Josaya Hungwe, dismissed the
chief's
criticism saying the government did not need anyone's permission to
hold
national celebrations.
Zim Standard
Njube militia flee residents
(By Grey
Moyo)
BULAWAYO-About 50 Zanu PF youth militias who have been
terrorising
residents of Njube and Entumbane suburbs in Bulawayo have fled
the area amid
fears of an imminent clash with residents.
The
youths are reported to have left in haste last week following
strong rumours
that local youths were planning a second attack in two months
on the Zanu PF
base at E Square.
Njube residents rose against an estimated 200
Zanu PF thugs following
post election attacks in March, forcing the
withdrawal of a majority of the
militia. Only 50 hardcore militia who played
a leading role in the
disruption of MDC pre-election rallies at White City
Stadium remained.
Residents who spoke to The Standard said the
departure of the terror
gang had restored a sense of security after three
months of terror by
marauding Zanu PF youths.
"We are very
relieved that this force of terror has left. We can now
send our children to
the shops without fear," said a resident.
Last month, there were
reports that the youths were waylaying children
and the elderly on their way
from shopping centres and grabbing foodstuffs
and cash.
The
youths claimed that they had resorted to daylight robbery because
Zanu PF had
abandoned them.
'They were a nuisance around here. They said the
party had not only
failed to pay them the promised lump sum of $18 000, but
abandoned them as
well," said a resident.
Police at Njube
however denied ever receiving any reports of attacks
on residents by Zanu PF
youths.
Meanwhile, another Zanu PF militia base in Pumula South has
been
relocated to an unknown destination.
Zim Standard
Chronicle, Sunday News stop Botswana
sales
(By Grey Moyo)
BULAWAYO-The beleaguered
Zimpapers has stopped exporting its two
Bulawayo papers, The Chronicle and
The Sunday News, to Botswana after
realising that no-one there is interested
in their products.
Sources in the circulation department told The
Standard last week that
the two papers, going for P2.50, were no longer
circulating in Zimbabwe's
neighbouring country.
"They
realised that this was a wild goose chase-it was a case of just
wasting money
by sending papers where they were not wanted. The Tswanas are
not interested
in propaganda packaged as news," said a source.
When contacted for
comment, Zimpapers chief executive officer Bramwell
Kamudyariwa, through his
secretary, said he could not respond to questions
from The Standard as he was
in a meeting.
Zimpapers started sending its publications to other
countries,
including Britain, last year in a move that was widely regarded as
a
desperate attempt to disseminate the embattled Zanu PF
government's
propaganda to the outside world.
"Even Francistown
advertisers who used to place full page adverts in
The Chronicle before it
went on sale in Botswana had withdrawn their
support, citing the ever
dropping circulation of the two papers in this
country," said the
source.
At its peak, The Chronicle used to print 40 000 copies, but
its print
run has gone down to about 9 000 copies.
Zim Standard
Matabeleland dismisses compensation
projects
(By Grey Moyo)
BULAWAYO-Former Zipra
combatants in Bulawayo and villagers in some
parts of Tsholotsho district
have dismissed home affairs minister, John
Nkomo's proclamation that
government will start development projects as
compensation for relatives of
victims of the Gukurahundi massacres by the
government's Fifth
Brigade.
Max Mnkandla , the spokesman for the group, said they
found Nkomo's
announcement strange and hollow as it did not address most
problems which
were caused by Gukurahundi.
Mnkandla added
that the priority should be to bring to justice those
who were responsible
for the campaign which saw an estimated 20 000
civilians perish at the hands
of the North Korean-trained brigade, which has
since been
disbanded.
Mnkandla said pushing for compensation without justice
demonstrated
Zanu PF's reluctance to put the matter to rest by bringing the
perpetrators
to book. He said Nkomo's announcement missed the point and
completely
ignored the major problems facing thousands of Gukurahundi victims
across
Matabeleland.
"Large numbers of orphans were left without
care, wives without
husbands while others disappeared without trace. It is
still impossible for
most of these people to obtain identity cards. The fact
that Nkomo, as the
responsible registration minister, has not done anything
to address this
problem after so many years indicates deliberate action on
the part of Zanu
PF and the government," said Mnkandla.
Gukurahundi victims have often failed to secure identity cards as
the
registry department which falls under Nkomo's ministry requires them
to
bring parents or witnesses to confirm that they are making correct
entries.
However, some people lost all relatives in the genocide which often
saw the
Fifth Brigade round up, shoot, bayonet, burn or bury entire families
and
villages.
Villagers in Gulalikabili, west of Tsholotsho,
where two people were
allegedly buried alive on 2 February 1983 have also
dismissed the
government's intended compensation manoeuvre as a painful
insult.
"It doesn't make sense for anyone to give us projects in
place of the
loved ones we lost. What we want is justice. Simple justice is
what we want
," said Elmon Nleya, a village elder who said he witnessed a
number of
murders and knows of mass graves in his and adjoining
villages.
"Implementing projects is an obligation for the
government. Are we to
believe that our areas were not going to have projects
if our loved ones had
not been killed? The government should give us money to
rebury the dead who
still lie in mass graves and mine shafts all over the
region," said a San
elder whose family was herded into a hut and burnt to
death. Most villagers
say government should stop making irresponsible
political statements as if
it suddenly cared about the victims of its own
terror.
Former Zipra combatants have also renewed calls for the
return of
farms and associated properties which were confiscated by Zanu PF
at the
height of Gukurahundi. President Robert Mugabe declared soon after the
death
of former Vice President Joshua Nkomo that the crimes committed
during
Gukurahundi should be forgotten as it was "a moment of madness" which
should
not be repeated.
But Zipra combatants insist that the
statement is not justice and have
called for the trial of the "madmen" who
are still holding high profile jobs
in the government and army. Prominent
figures associated with the
Gukurahundi atrocities include Mugabe himself and
Air Force of Zimbabwe
commander, Perence Shiri, who headed the infamous Fifth
Brigade. Shiri was
known as 'Black Jesus' among his victims in
Matabeleland.
Mugabe is recorded by the Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace
(CCJP) report on Gukurahundi as defending the action of the
troops in the
villages of Matabeleland. "...we eradicate them. We don't
differentiate when
we fight because we can't tell who is a dissident and who
is not," the CCJP
report quotes him as saying in April 1983.
Mugabe is also accused of making statements which incited his
supporters to
embark on the 1985 post-election persecution of Zapu
supporters which left
one dead and several homeless.
The president is reported to have
told his supporters to "go and
uproot the weeds from your
garden".
Emmerson Mnangagwa, then minister of state security is
also quoted by
the CCJP as telling a 1983 Victoria Falls rally that
government would "burn
down all villages infested with dissidents", adding
that "the campaign
against dissidents could only succeed if the
infrastructure that nurtures
them is destroyed".
The report also
quotes Sidney Sekeramayi as accusing the foreign press
of spreading malicious
lies when it reported on the killings.
Meanwhile Nkomo announced
that provincial governors and traditional
leaders would identify project
needs and priorities while government would
provide funding.
New call to put more pressure on Mugabe
HARARE
The international community must tighten sanctions against the Zimbabwean
government to force President Robert Mugabe to accept an election re-run, a
political think-tank has said.
In a report released on Friday, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group
(ICG) said Zimbabwe's political, social and economic crisis was worsening while
international policymakers and media looked elsewhere.
But it added: "Zimbabwe is not a lost cause." "Conflict prevention based on
democracy, rule of law, and a functioning economy can succeed, but only if the
key international actors, led by the Africans themselves, throw their full
weight behind a genuine negotiating process before the grievances are taken into
the streets," the group said in its report, which was published on the
Internet.
The think-tank, which is funded by governments, charities and business,
charged that Mugabe's supporters were using violence and intimidation against
the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and civil society to
force them to accept Mugabe's victory in March presidential elections.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called Mugabe's March victory "daylight
robbery" and has gone to court to challenge the result.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has placed British Ambassador Brian Donnelly, under
surveillance, over accusations that he is co-ordinating efforts to overthrow
Mugabe, government officials said yesterday.
The officials, including the chief police spokesman, confirmed an article
printed in the government-controlled Herald newspaper reporting that Donnelly
had been placed on 24-hour surveillance by security agents.
Zimbabwe imposes $12,000 fee for media license
AFP
Harare, June 16
Foreign media organisations must pay a fee of 12,000 US
dollars to operate in Zimbabwe under new press regulations, the state newspaper
The Sunday Mail reported.
The rules also call for a 1,050 dollar fee for any Zimbabwean journalist
working for a foreign media organization, and a foreign journalist seeking
temporary accreditation must pay 600 dollars.
Local media organizations must pay 520,000 Zimbabwe dollars ($9,454 at the
official rate) to operate, while individual Zimbabwean journalists working for
news organizations each must pay 6,000 Zimbabwe dollars ($109) and freelancers
will be charged 3,000 dollars.
The fees were set under a tough new media law promulgated in March under
which the governement may prohibit a press organization from operating in
Zimbabwe, or refuse accreditation to individual journalists.
The press law, enacted just days after President Robert Mugabe's
controversial re-election in March, imposes stiff limits on independent and
foreign press organizations in Zimbabwe.
Since it took effect, 11 journalists have been arrested -- some more than
once -- and nine face prosecution on one or more charges.
How Zimbabwean farmers unwillingly subsidise their
government
Reuters
Fragrant weed, stinking business
DESPITE
the violent invasion of their fields by machete-wielding supporters
of Robert
Mugabe, Zimbabwe's tobacco farmers raised a bigger-than-expected
crop this
year. Plump bundles of the weed sell at auction in Harare for the
healthy
price of $1.65 a kilo. The farmers, who are the country's largest
exporters,
should be content. They are not, because the government is
grabbing most of
their takings through a rigged exchange rate.
The local currency, the
Zimbabwe dollar, has been pegged at 55 to the
American dollar for nearly two
years, despite inflation of over 100%. If the
black market is anything to go
by, the Zimbabwe dollar is overvalued by a
factor of ten. Yet tobacco farmers
have to surrender all hard-currency
receipts to the government, which pays
them at the official rate in nice,
freshly printed Zim dollars. To avoid hard
feelings, the government gives
them a subsidy that boosts their takings by
four-fifths, but this does not
nearly cover their costs.
Zimbabwe's
currency rules serve two purposes. One is nationalistic: some
ministers argue
that devaluation would be a surrender to western
imperialism. The second is
practical. Mr Mugabe's cronies use their
connections to obtain hard currency
at the official rate and then sell it on
the black market for a tenfold
mark-up. The finance minister, an amiable
technocrat named Simba Makoni,
admits that the peg has had "serious
repercussions on export
competitiveness", and has called for a managed
float. But the rest of the
cabinet has, for some reason, ignored him.
Ordinary Zimbabweans do their
best to dodge the rules. Households and
companies have been shifting money
out of the country, by understating
export receipts or simply flying to
London with cash sewn into their coats.
At last year's tobacco auctions,
foreign buyers found that nothing prevented
them from paying in local
currency, so they changed their American dollars
on the black market and
snapped up some phenomenal bargains.
This year, all payments must be made
in hard currency, direct to the
government. Tough border controls and
frequent roadblocks stop farmers
smuggling their bulky product out of the
country. Indeed, a lot of innocent
commerce has been criminalised. A senior
opposition politician was arrested
last month for trying to take a truckload
of maize to his farm, to feed his
hungry workers. Basic foods are subject to
price controls and a state
monopsony-the police said he should have sold his
maize to the government,
for distribution to the poor (ie, ruling-party
supporters).
Before March's presidential election, the Zimbabwe dollar
was buoyed by the
repatriation of some of the funds that politicians had
squirrelled away in
foreign bank accounts-they feared that these might be
frozen by sanctions
against the regime. Since Mr Mugabe managed to steal the
election without
attracting more than mild sanctions, the elite feels more
secure. The
country's productive citizens, meanwhile, faced with the prospect
that their
rulers will never surrender power, are in despair. Hence the
Zimbabwe
dollar's freefall over the past couple of weeks, from 300 to the
American
dollar on the black market to 500. The black market is no longer
fuelled by
firms that need to import spare parts. One businessman says that
"it is
simply people getting whatever they can out of here".
Mr Makoni
says he fears the economy will contract by 10% this year. To put
this into
perspective, GDP in Congo, where Mr Mugabe's army, along with
various others,
is fighting a calamitous war, shrank only half as fast last
year.
Guardian
Zimbabwe Cracks Down On Opposition
Sunday June 16, 2002
5:30 PM
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabwean police invoked sweeping
new security laws
Sunday, firing tear gas to disperse several hundred
opposition supporters
gathering to commeorate the 1976 Soweto uprising in
South Africa.
In another sign the government's campaign against dissent
was heating up, a
state run newspaper reported big new fees would be imposed
on journalists
reporting from Zimbabwe.
After firing tear gas, police
charged the crowd with clubs at the gathering
Sunday held at a public garden
in Harare to commemorate the role youth have
played in the fight for
democracy in southern Africa.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change
lawmaker, Tendai Biti, vowed to
keep up the struggle for democracy in this
troubled southern African
country.
Last week state run media reported
that President Robert Mugabe put security
forces on high alert to crush any
mass demonstrations that might call for a
re-run of presidential elections
held in March, in which Mugabe was declared
the winner despite the
condemnation of observer groups who said the vote was
marred by rigging and
intimidation.
Foreign governments and human rights groups have voiced
concern over a
sustained crackdown on dissent which has targeted lawyers,
journalists and
human rights groups.
Severe new security and media
laws were passed shortly before Mugabe's
re-election in what human rights
groups say is a bid to silence opposition
to his rule.
The government
run Sunday Mail reported that as part of the new media law,
journalists have
to pay large fees to be allowed to keep working. Zimbabwean
newspapers will
have to pay $12,700 for their licenses. Local journalists
working for foreign
media organizations will have to pay $1,050, foreign
news agencies will have
to pay $1,200. Those working for foreign media
organizations will have to pay
in foreign currency.
As the Zimbabwean dollar continues to tumble in
value, the move appeared to
be a quick way for the government to make
money.
Zimbabwe's independent media editors and correspondents for
foreign news
organizations have vowed to fight the media law regulations in
the courts.
Twelve independent journalists have been arrested for
violating the media
law.
ABC Australia
Zimbabwean Govt demands massive fees under new media
laws
The Zimbabwean Government is demanding unprecedented fees to register
and
accredit media organisations and journalists under a tough new media
law,
which critics say is designed to curtail press freedom.
The
regulations, published in the official Sunday Mail newspaper, require
foreign
media to spend large sums on operating licences and accrediting
their
journalists.
The rules demand a domestic mass media organisation pay
Z$20,000 to apply
and Z$500,000 to register its operations, while a foreign
media
representative office needs $US2,000 for its application and $US10,000
for
registration.
In addition, Zimbabwean correspondents for foreign
media are required to pay
a $US50 application fee and $US1,000 for
accreditation.
The Zimbabwe dollar has been officially pegged at 55 to
the US unit since
November 2000, but is trading at more than 600 to the
dollar in the local
parallel market.
Until now, the Government has
only charged nominal fees to accredit
journalists for special
events.
The notices were published in a government gazette on Saturday,
but it was
not widely available this week.
The Sunday Mail reports
media companies that are already registered under
the companies act and
journalists with existing press cards would be allowed
to operate until their
applications have been processed.
In other regulations, the newly
appointed Government Media and
Information Commission has the power to refuse
to register a media firm or
accredit a journalist but is obliged to give
reasons.
In addition, the new media law requires companies to disclose
their
financial status and operating projections, and pay an annual levy of
0.5
per cent of their audited annual gross turnover into a media
fund.
Foreigners are barred from working in Zimbabwe as correspondents
for their
companies, but those allowed in "for specified periods" will do so
for
$US600.
Journalists working for foreign companies in Zimbabwe have
gone to the
country's highest court to challenge the new media law, under
which
President Robert Mugabe's Government has charged 11 journalists in the
last
three months.
The Foreign Correspondents Association of Zimbabwe
is also contesting the
constitutionality of some sections of the Access to
Information and
Protection of Privacy Act.
CNN
Teargas fired at Zimbabwe rally
June 16, 2002 Posted: 10:49 AM EDT
(1449 GMT)
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Riot police used
teargas and fired shots in the air on
Sunday to halt a Zimbabwe opposition
rally held to mark South Africa's youth
day, arresting more than 30 activists
and a freelance television journalist.
A freelance journalist at the
scene said police armed with batons, guns and
teargas attacked the rally of
the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) 20 minutes after it
had begun.
MDC youth chairman Nelson Chamisa told Reuters police fired
shots in the air
and arrested more than 30 party activists, including MDC
parliamentarian
Munyaradzi Gwisai.
Freelance television cameraman
Newton Spicer was among those arrested, his
wife, British-born journalist
Edwina Spicer said.
The rally was commemorating anti-apartheid protests
in South Africa in 1976
when police killed hundreds of
students.
Police Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said the police
had stopped
the rally because some MDC activists had gone around the city
beating people
up and trying to provoke trouble.
"We had told the
organisers they could not hold their rally at the Harare
Gardens because that
venue and the city atmosphere is not conducive for
political gatherings," he
told Reuters.
"We based our decision on the Public Order and Security
Order (POSA) but we
had agreed that they could hold their rally at their
offices. We intervened
when their people went around trying to provoke a
situation," he added.
Bvudzijena said police had arrested 15
people.
Edwina Spicer said her husband had been asked to report to the
police after
filming at the MDC rally.
"When he presented himself to
the police, he was arrested and locked up but
has not been told under what
charge they are holding him," Spicer said. The
Spicers' son is an MDC youth
leader.
Chamisa denied the MDC was out to cause trouble and accused the
police of
being heavy-handed. "The bottom line is that they are out to attack
us
whenever we try to carry out normal political activities," he
said.
The MDC says Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party has been trying to
destroy its
structures and has disrupted many of its public meetings since
President
Robert Mugabe won a controversial presidential election in
March.
The election was condemned as seriously flawed by Western powers
and MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai is demanding a re-run.
Mugabe,
Zimbabwe's ruler since independence from Britain in 1980, says he
won fairly
and accuses the West of trying to impose Tsvangirai as leader of
the southern
African state.
Dear All,
Herewith the speech by Wildlife Chair Wally Herbst presented
last week. It
is of interest as is the first edition of the Wildlife Notice
Board 11 June
2002 by the "Voice for the Voiceless" Lobby Group which is on
Word
attachment.
The updated figure of Wildlife/ Tourism losses in the
agricultural sector as
a direct result of land invasions runs to over Z$ 6.3
billion. Taking into
account the low rate of return from Matabeleland, these
figures are
conservative.
SPEECH BY WALLY HERBST - CHAIRMAN WILD LIFE
PRODUCERS ASSN
AGM 13TH JUNE 2002
It is with a certain degree of
sadness that we hold this 16th Annual General
meeting.
In 1985, a group of
people met under a tree in the Lowveld and discussed the
merits of a producer
association for wildlife and from there the Association
was born. They had
this vision of a producer association that was all
encompassing of the
environment and where there was money to be made from
safaris, lodges and
wildlife translocations. There was even talk about large
buses and aircraft
that would ferry hundreds of tourists around commercial
farms in air
conditioned comfort all being controlled by radio. High ideals
and
expectations indeed! People went ahead and built luxury safari camps,
dotted
around the country and now they are mostly in mothballs.
Professional
Hunter's Licenses were sought, tour operator's licenses obtained
and
everyone with a 4x4 vehicle, a fox terrier and a rifle was hunting.
Wildlife
and tourism on commercial farms was on the move. National Parks had
created
an enabling environment for the production of wildlife, allowing
captures
and translocation and even exports. To get permits was a pleasure
compared
to today.
o Between 1991 and 2001 - 39661 wild animals were
caught and sold. Total
value Z$ 280 million dollars.
o Since the mid 70's
to date over 150,000 have been captured and
translocated so providing founder
populations and the foundation for the
Association 's existence.
o In 1995
alone a survey of 351 Members resulted in 250,600 animals
being
recorded.
o Wildlife as a land use had been established.
o The
Association then produced a farm stay brochure listing 36 tourist game
ranch
and game farm destinations.
o Committees were established to cover disease
free Buffalo, Lichtenstein's
Hartebeest, Bow hunting, Venison, Rhino,
Domesticated Elephant and export.
o This sector provided the bulk of
Zimbabwe's Plains's game hunting.
o Conservation practices had to follow and
did.
o Imports and Exports flowed.
In 1999 the Association's outlook
could not have been brighter or for that
matter of fact Zimbabwe's commercial
wildlife sector.
However, the euphoria was short lived. We lost the
services of Dr. Nduku and
George Pangetti and got the infamous SI 26 of 1998
and immediately permits
became a nightmare. Export of wildlife was suspended
and the decline in the
fortunes of the producer and consequently the WPA
started. We sort of limped
along for about four years until the farm
invasions started and we watched
the rapid decline of the fortunes of
commercial wildlife operators and the
flora and fauna they
championed.
It is estimated conservatively that we have lost about 50% of
our wildlife,
65% of our
tourism in the country and up to 90% safari
hunting on commercial farms, and
a huge reduction in capture and
translocations of wildlife. As for exports,
there has been no export for some
seven years, although accusations of
illegal exports from Settlers and
National Parks abound. This is all as a
direct result of the so-called fast
track resettlement. This is despite the
hard efforts of people like Mr.
Gatora to try to persuade people to stop
poaching and destroying the
environment. Well, Sir, I want to tell you now
that in spite of your appeals
and pleas, there is no let up on the slaughter
of our wildlife. Thousands of
snares are still being recovered, complete
with dead animals still in them.
Vehicles continually drive on to commercial
farms, with letters from the D A,
Rural District Councils, Provincial
Wardens and the occupants shoot at will,
first for independence
celebrations, then to feed the militia and then just
to commercialise and
capitalise on the lack of the rule of law in the
country. We report
vehicles poaching to the police complete with Govt
registration numbers and
they say, "it is political, there is nothing we can
do about it". It is a
war zone out there and the losers are the wildlife and
ultimately we as
Zimbabweans. If the rule of law is not restored and
poaching stopped NOW we
will have to pour money into the Natural History
Museum to show our children
what wonderful wildlife we used to have. I also
hear that the poaching in
the National Parks is getting out of control with
pressure back on the
elephant. We hear in the media of up to thirty Rhinos
lost since land
invasions started. But no one is saying how many - why? How
are we as
custodians supposed to support our CITES stance when we daily watch
the
poaching tally mount. How many pieces of paper with poaching stats must
be
produced before our Ministry acts. Stats are but history.
Just to
highlight the slaughter of our animals we have so diligently
managed, let me
quote from but two areas and ask the question "What if".
Matabeleland South
(Game Ranching)
a) Barberton Ranch - 127 dead animals and 1980 snares
collected over 12
months.
"What if" 30 similar properties suffered similar
losses?
b) 33 Ranches surveyed, reported 1900 animals and 13400 snares
retrieved
over 17 months.
"What if" 10 similar ranch blocks suffered
similar losses?
Certainly continued poaching reports indicate ongoing and
mounting
casualties.
Mashonaland West (Game Farming)
a) Maunga
Game Farm - Gone
b) Helwyn Game Farm - Gone
c) Momba Game Farm -
Going
d) Yawanda Game Farm - Going
"What if" 150 similar game farms are so
affected?
What are Zimbabwe's game losses - 10,000 - 100,000 - a million
animals?
"What if".
Why has Government and in particular our Ministry
and National Parks not
stopped or condemned such practices in writing that
all law enforcement
agencies could have the ability to react
positively?
The current Parks initiative to validate losses is
commendable but too late
to save the hundreds of thousands of dead animals or
is it a ploy to regain
some credibility or perhaps our statistics sent to
Parks are not trusted?
Whatever, our Flora and Fauna continues to suffer
whilst the authorities
fiddle.
To day, we have to debate an extremely
emotional resolution, the possible
closure of this association. Let me try to
analyse why this might have to
be.
The resolution in front of us to
day is very real and potentially the death
throws of the industry, as we know
it.
Ladies and Gentlemen, when you debate this resolution, do not just
say the
association must continue but tell your Executive how you, the
members,
propose to fund the association. It is very easy to tell us not to
close,
but if there are no funds we will have to close. A number of
suggestions
have already been made, such as amalgamation, downsizing and
subscription
increase. These all need debate.
It remains for me to
thank the staff and particularly John White, for work
done under extremely
difficult circumstances. How you have managed to
continue working for the
members under these conditions is an inspiration to
all. To my Executives,
who work for no reward from WPA, thanks as well. In
particular those like
Gordon Taylor who have been in from the start. In
fact a team, and it does
take a team, of dedicated individuals who chartered
the way forward for
Zimbabwe.
I wish you a fruitful debate.
WALLY HERBST -
CHAIRMAN
Resolution tabled: "The adverse conditions constraining
wildlife
production - conservation and sustainable utilization within the
Large Scale
Commercial Farming Sector due to land resettlement have over the
last two
years affected the Association's financial base, to the point that
it is no
longer able to adequately fund itself.
Accordingly it is proposed
that the association be closed and dissolved in
accordance with the
Constitution of the wildlife Producers association".
RESULT
After debate
on this resolution it was decided to raise membership fees and
invoke a levy
designed to tide the Association through these troubled times
as there was a
dire need for a lobby group such as the WPA to carry farmers
through the hard
times. The motion was therefore rejected by a majority of
members and the
executive tasked with finding a survival strategy
for
producers.
Leadership of the Association was retained as it stood
with Wally Herbst
remaining as chairman and Wynand Hart as vice
chairman.
For more information, please contact
Jenni Williams on
Mobile (+263) 91 300456 or 11213 885 Or on email
jennipr@mweb.co.zw
or Fax (+2639) 63978
or (+2634) 703829 or email : prnews@mweb.co.zw
A member of the
International Association of Business Communicators. Visit
the IABC website
www.iabc.co.za
From The Sunday Times (UK), 16
June
Mugabe orders 24-hour watch on
British "spy" envoy
Officials in Zimbabwe claimed yesterday that the British high
commissioner, Brian Donnelly, had been placed under 24-hour police surveillance
following allegations that he is co-ordinating efforts to overthrow Robert
Mugabe. The Foreign Office has rejected the accusations against Donnelly. "The
British high commissioner is not and has never been involved in this kind of
activity," it said in a statement. The high commission in Harare said the
57-year-old diplomat was on leave at an unspecified location and there were "no
concerns about his wellbeing". Zimbabwean police confirmed a report in
yesterday’s edition of The Herald, the government-controlled newspaper, which
said Donnelly was being watched by security agents because of "activities to
undermine the legitimate government of President Mugabe". It followed a story in
the paper last week - dismissed by the Foreign Office as rubbish – that claimed
Donnelly had established a "sophisticated communications network" to co-ordinate
an opposition rebellion.
The reports are seen as a sign that Mugabe, 78, could be
planning a new purge as the opposition Movement for Democratic Change prepares
to stage mass demonstrations in the next few weeks. Assistant commissioner Wayne
Bvudzijena, the chief police spokesman, said surveillance of Donnelly would
"allow the security organs to establish his activities". Anything incompatible
with his diplomatic status would be reported to Zimbabwe’s foreign affairs
department. A Zimbabwe government official said Donnelly’s diplomatic immunity
meant he would not be arrested. "But it doesn’t mean that his activities will be
tolerated," he said. The Herald claimed Donnelly, who arrived in Zimbabwe a year
ago from Belgrade, was widely thought to be a high-profile intelligence officer.
"It is believed that Mr Donnelly was sent to Zimbabwe to execute a Milosevic
type of operation to oust President Mugabe from power," it said. Donnelly was
Britain’s ambassador to the former Yugoslavia when President Slobodan Milosevic
was driven from power two years ago.
The newspaper claimed Donnelly had been named in a plot by two
officials of the Law Society of Zimbabwe who face subversion charges. Sternford
Moyo and Wilbert Mapombere were said to have written letters to the high
commission expressing gratitude for support given by Britain to help "restore
the rule of law". Lawyers, journalists, farmers and business people who
"frequented or were frequented by Donnelly and his British intelligence
operatives" are also under surveillance, The Herald said. Donnelly has also
served in Greece and at Nato in Brussels since he joined the diplomatic service
in 1973. He has rejected frequent claims in the state-controlled media that he
is a political saboteur. Zimbabwe’s relations with Britain have been
increasingly strained since February 2000 when gangs of so-called war veterans
began violent invasions of white-owned farms as part of Mugabe’s land reform
programme. A report by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think
tank, has given a warning that Zimbabwe is sliding towards civil war and accuses
Britain and other European Union countries of doing little to stop it.
From The Observer (UK), 16
June
British diplomat accused of plot
against Mugabe
Harare - Relations between London and Harare reached a new low
yesterday when Zimbabwe placed the British High Commissioner, Brian Donnelly,
under surveillance over accusations that he is co-ordinating efforts to
overthrow President Robert Mugabe. The allegations were flatly rejected by
Britain. Officials, including the chief police spokesman, confirmed an article
which appeared in yesterday's edition of the government-controlled Herald
newspaper. A Foreign Office spokeswoman in London said: 'The High Commissioner
is not and has never been involved in these kind of activities. The allegations
in the Zimbabwean press are baseless.' The Herald cited allegations that
Donnelly was plotting to overthrow the government through mass demonstrations
and that he would be commanding the operations from hi-tech mobile
communications centres to be deployed throughout the country'. It was also
alleged that Donnelly, who was the British ambassador to Yugoslavia until a year
ago, was masterminding plans to oust Mugabe in a 'Milosevic-type of operation'.
Zimbabwe government officials said Donnelly would not be arrested because he has
diplomatic immunity. 'But because he cannot be arrested, it doesn't mean that
his activities will be tolerated,' said one official, who declined to be named.
Recent warnings from Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition party Movement
for Democratic Change, that there would be mass protests against Mugabe's
continued rule may have rattled the government. 'These so-called plots and
conspiracies are the creation of an increasingly paranoid regime,' said Iden
Wetherell, editor of the Zimbabwe Independent . 'The only plot in Harare is the
overwhelming desire of the majority of people to be rid of an unpopular
dictator.'