Natal Witness
Mbeki steps up
criticism of Zimbabwe
"The land reform programme in Zimbabwe has
left several white Zimbabweans
without land. It is unacceptable because all
Zimbabweans, regardless of
their colour, should have an equal claim to
land."
With these words President Thabo Mbeki, during a Midrand meeting
of church
leaders from across Africa, intensified the South African
government's
recent criticism of the government of President Robert
Mugabe.
However, Mbeki did not express himself over the continuing
violent action
against the Zimbabwean opposition and took up the cudgels for
Mugabe's party
the Zanu-PF.
According to Mbeki, South Africa is
carrying on with discussions with the
Zimbabwean authority but "many issues"
in Zimbabwe must change.
"Legislation that doesn't suit democracy, human
rights and media freedom is
unacceptable and should be changed. Land reform
was essential but the way in
which it was handled was wrong. Some white
Zimbabweans are now without land,
while all Zimbabweans should have the right
of access to land."
Mbeki said South Africa approved negotiations between
Zanu-PF and the MDC
and blamed the failure of the process on the MDC. He said
Zimbabwe is
polarised, even in the context of the church. He agreed with a
remark from
the audience that it seems if two separate Christs are worshipped
in the
country.
Publish Date: 25 March 2003
Source: OWN
CORRESPONDENT
Sunday Times
(SA)
Mugabe's 'black Hitler' speech
slammed
The United States has accused Zimbabwe's government
of unleashing a new wave
of violence against the opposition, which it said
was incited when President
Robert Mugabe compared himself to Adolf
Hitler.
"The United States strongly condemns the unprecedented violence
carried out
by the Zimbabwe government against domestic opponents," said
State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher in a statement.
"Over the
past three days, the Government of Zimbabwe has embarked on a
massive
retribution campaign against opposition officials, supporters, and
other
critics of the regime."
The statement, which will further taint
Washington-Harare realtions, said
"the upsurge in official violence is
directly attributable to President
Mugabe's speech last Friday in which he
said he could be a 'black Hitler
tenfold' in crushing his
opponents".
Mugabe noted in the speech that he had been compared to the
former Nazi
leader in the British press, and said he was ready to embrace
such a role.
"This Hitler has only one objective: justice for his people,
sovereignty for
his people, recognitition of the independence of his people
and their rights
over their resources," he said.
"If that is Hitler,
then let me be a Hitler tenfold."
The State Department said that the
violence and intimidation followed last
week's work stoppage by the main
opposition party the Movement for
Democratic Change.
"The United
States demands that the Zimbabwe government immediately cease
its campaign of
violent repression," Boucher said.
A police spokesman in Harare said that
400 opposition members had been
arrested since the strike and most were
charged with malicious injury to
property.
Buses were stoned and
burnt, roads barricaded, supermarkets torched and a
ruling party office
fire-bombed during and after the two-day strike.
Boucher said the
violence saw many opposition members beaten and in some
cases tortured,
adding that one person had died and women were sexually
assaulted by police
or military officers.
The United States said earlier this month that it
would sponsor a campaign
to censure Zimbabwe's behavior at the UN Human
Rights Commission.
President George W. Bush has frozen the assets of
Mugabe and 76 other
government officials, charging they have undermined
democracy.
AFP
Daily
News
Three days of hell at the
hands of the police - part 2
3/25/2003 5:14:48 AM (GMT +2)
Continued from yesterday
"I will beat you and
nothing will happen, you can go to court, all the
judges know Jocelyn
Chiwenga, wife of the commander, the judges will do
nothing. I can even kill
you, I have a gun," she shouted as she rammed her
fist into my
body.
"I have everything, I am filthy
rich, filthy rich, you hear me? I have
farms, many businesses and more that
10 kombis that operate in Glen View. No
one can touch me, I am the General's
wife!" she said, punching me again.
"You do not know me, I am the General's
wife, if you call your people, I
will call helicopters!" she roared
again.
The man in khakis kicked me while
she held me down. I got up. He
shoved. A sharp pain shot through my body as
my head bumped against a stone
as I fell to the ground. They kicked me while
I was down.
They ordered Muchadehama and I to
sit down on the ground. The
unrelenting interrogation started. She questioned
and questioned. Her
questions were punctuated by slaps, punches and kicks
from her accomplice.
The more than 60
police officers and soldiers stood watching as we
were beaten and
interrogated. The officer-in-charge who had been in his
office when the drama
started, was now a spectator. She fired her questions
at me. "Why do you
speak to me in English, little girl? Are you Ndebele?"
"Yes," I replied. "You
stupid Ndebele girl, what are you doing here? What
happened in Matabeleland
in the 80's is going to happen to you today, now!"
she shrilled while her
accomplice thumped me on the head.
I felt
a deep chill creep down my spine. She went on to ask where I
had studied law.
Not wanting to get myself into any more trouble regarding
my associations
with the British, I said, "University of Zimbabwe," at which
she shouted:
"Mugabe and I fought so you could have an education and call
yourself a
lawyer, now you promote anarchy and tell the British that there
is no rule of
law. What rule of law? I am a lawyer myself. I can tell you
about the rule of
law, you know nothing."
At that moment, I
felt a pang of pain in my heart.I recalled a day,
just over a year ago when I
had informed my father of my decision to return
to Zimbabwe after completing
my post-graduate law degree at the University
of Oxford. He tried to dissuade
me, saying that this was not the time to
return to Zimbabwe. "You have a
brutal government that does not countenance
free thought. Our African
politicians are ruthless, why don't you work in
Europe and send articles to
newspapers back home if you want to contribute
to Zimbabwe?" he had
said.
The irony of this as I sat at
Jocelyn's feet rang clear. Jocelyn had
just told me that I owed her a great
debt of gratitude, whilst my own father
who many years ago in Zambia, during
the struggle, taught the subject of law
to a number of politicians who lord
over us in Zimbabwe today, had long
adopted the cynical view that it would be
some time before the value of
lawfulness would penetrate the minds of those
very politicians who claimed
to be responsible for my
enlightenment.
The questions and claps
continued for 15 more minutes. Occasionally,
Muchadehama would be slapped or
kicked by the man in khakis. Suddenly she
ordered: "You two are leaving this
station now, go!"
"We're not leaving until we
find out why the journalist is being
detained," I said. "Out!" she screamed
as the man in khakis dragged me
towards the gate. As we got to the gate she
had a sudden change of mind.
"Lock this
dirt away, seal the gates, no one leaves this station, no
one comes in." She
looked at me, sneered and turned to the policeman. "I
said open up the cell
and lock her in," she shouted. She was the master here
as she gave orders.
This civilian has taken charge of this uniformed force,
I said to myself.
Muchadehama intervened.
"How can you lock
her up? She has done nothing wrong? She is a lawyer,
here to look after the
interests of a detainee." "Shut up, you think I'm
stupid!" she roared. "You
are staying here my girl, I will show you who has
power, you will sleep here
and we will beat you so your British masters can
pay you
more."
The police officer complied and
locked me up. Three hours later I was
still in the cage at Glen View Police
Station, locked up with at least 30
young men who had been arrested that day.
For three hours I had watched
silently as a soldier who was inside the cage
with us, would, every five
minutes or so, aim for someone's head with a
baton.
The men maintained a defiantly
dignified demeanour, enduring their
pain silently. I was fortunate, the
soldier never touched me. A 13-year-old
boy sat next to me. I asked him why
he was in custody. He said he had been
picked up outside his house with
others in the morning when the riot police
swooped in on the neighbourhood.
An old man aged about 60, who wore only a
pair of boxer shorts had huge welts
on his back and stomach.
He had been
dragged out of his home in his shorts when he attempted to
protect his
daughter from the police. Just after 3pm, Jocelyn returned. In
her hand was
my British Council Library card. "Stupid girl, this is no
library card. I
have investigated. The British don't run libraries, you
think I am stupid.
They work with traitors like you," she said, poking me
through the
fence.
"Open up I am taking her to
(Harare) Central(police station)" she
directed the policeman. I was hauled on
to a truck with 15 men. The truck
was manned by five police officers in riot
gear. "Beat her up, I'm following
you to the station," she ordered as she
walked towards the Range Rover. As
soon as the truck moved out of Glen View
Police Station, the police officers
instructed me to lie flat on my belly,
with my hands at my side.
What I felt next
was indescribable pain. The five police officers
rained blow after blow on me
with their batons. They used maximum force.
They aimed straight for my
buttocks and thighs. The blows were occasionally
substituted with a hard kick
from a heavy duty boot. My body curled in pain
and I lifted my hands to cover
my head. I prayed. I screamed, louder and
louder. Not out of pain, but
because I thought they might stop if I
screamed. That did not happen. They
only stopped to taunt me.
"You are a
lawyer, why did you come to Glen View Police Station? Don't
you know that
police stations are for the police?" And down came the batons
again. "You are
Ndebele, well today you shall speak Shona!" and down came
the batons.
"Musalala you shall speak Shona." "Are you married?" "No," I
answered. "Why
are you not married?" and down came the
batons.
Pure hatred. For about 10 minutes,
I was locked in a dreadful, earthly
hell when, quite miraculously, we
encountered an accident. Three police
officers were directed to jump off the
truck and attend to the accident
victims. Jocelyn got out of her car to
survey the scene of the accident and
give directions to the police. When we
arrived at Harare Central Police
Station, the riot police took us upstairs to
the Law and Order Maintenance
Section.
The corridors were crowded with injured detainees. As I walked in, the
eyes
of the police officers who recognised me turned away in shame. One
officer
approached me and asked: "Gugu, why are you here?" The explanation
for that
arrived as we spoke. Jocelyn came strutting down the corridor
asking: "Where
is that girl?" I was easy to find, being the only woman
there. Pointing at
me, she ordered the police officers in the
vicinity.
"Lock her in, she is not coming
out of here." She turned to me and
said, "You see how powerful I am, I am the
General's wife, they take orders
from me, you are nothing, nothing. "This is
only the beginning, I will come
for you, mark my words, you don't mess with
the commander's wife."
She left. I was
detained at Harare Central Police Station with more
than 150 people who had
been picked up in Glen View that day. Fellow
detainees said that Jocelyn, her
accomplice and the soldiers had been in
Glen View all morning. Her private
trucks had ferried the riot police. Some
said they were dragged from their
homes. Almost all had been assaulted. They
claimed that they did not know why
they were there.
We were all denied
medical treatment and struggled quietly with our
pain. We could not believe
that this was really happening in Zimbabwe in the
Year of Our Lord, 2003. For
three days I was abused. Subjected to the most
inhumane of conditions
-toilets that could only be flushed from the outside
of the cell by police
officers who seemed to delight in not flushing out
these cesspools. For three
days I lived in an overcrowded, dirty cell. The
first night I stood until
morning, the concrete beds and floor were
full.
When I asked for medical treatment
or in the least, a soft chair to
rest my swollen bottom, the police officers
taunted me, told me that I had
no rights, rights were "lawyer talk", not for
prisoners. For three days, I
watched as police officers assaulted my fellow
prisoners.
The assaults were totally
unprovoked. They were meant to keep us in
line. Every three or so minutes a
heavy gumboot would land on the jaw of a
helpless prisoner. At one point, a
police officer aimed straight at the
bloated eye of a young man and punched
him. I cannot describe the horror of
his cry of pain. I was lucky, I only got
pushed and shoved.
We waited for
well-wishers to bring us food and water. We shared with
the others as nothing
was served at the police station. On Thursday evening,
I was finally
released. A policeman who had allowed me to use his mobile
phone to call for
help earlier that day, said to me as I left: "Sister, I
have nothing against
you. We knew you were being held here for nothing. We
even knew there was a
court order to release you, but with these political
cases even the most
senior guy in the police station makes no decision, we
are instructed right
from the top."
I left almost 200
"political prisoners", behind. They were battered, b
ruised and oppressed
souls, but their eyes flickered with an awesome glow
which to me signalled
defiance. Their backs were broken but their spirits
were
not.
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet: www.justiceforagriculture.com
Please send any material for publication in the Open Letter
Forum to
justice@telco.co.zw with "For Open
Letter Forum" in the subject line.
Letter 1: From a Disgruntled
ex-Farmer's wife.
The bloodshed and beatings continue. Anyone who saw the
front page picture
of Mrs Gardiner of Ruwa (Daily News Sat 22/3/03) and
believes that
commercial farming in Zimbabwe should continue, have their
heads firmly
entrenched in a massive sand dune!
What will it take for
the CFU and the remaining farmers to let this regime
get on with their hell
bent destruction? The sooner we let them get on with
their "Land Reform"
programme, the sooner the probability that the whole
illegal JAG OPEN LETTER
FORUM and corrupt system will collapse. What kind
of life can it be for those
few remaining farmers? Hostile extortionists
for neighbors and very little
community life left. We all love our country
but many of us ex farming
families did not have the financial wherewithal
or the immoral inclination to
do business with this illegal regime.
One thing of which I can be
certain, is that one day eventually, sanity and
democracy will prevail once
again in Zimbabwe and those who have been
dealing with ZANU PF will have a
lot to answer for. There is no future in
Zimbabwe for the majority of us as
long as people continue to bow and
scrape in order to save their own
worthless skins at the expense of those
who have had their lives dismantled
by the madness of ZANU PF.
I personally have had enough of the CFU, the
pointless and boring letters
from J.L Robinson and those farmers who sit
smugly on their farms lining
the pockets of the "resettled farmers". To this
government you are as
expendable as all those who have gone before you. Get
it into your heads
that we can only fight the good battle once we have a
democratic system
back in place and that means the absolute end of ZANU
PF.
Letter 2 - "Norman Minter"
Dear Editor,
We read and
heard about the incident on Roy Bennett's farm. We would like
to wish all the
people who were so brutally assaulted a speedy recovery. We
stand by you with
your views and hope we can all live together in peace
very soon.
The
Minters.
Letter 3: Quentin and Angela Haddon
Does anyone know the
whereabouts of Dave and Bridget Van Wyk and their 2
year old Matthew.
The last place we heard they were was on a rose or
tobacco farm close to
Harare. Thank you for any help
A & Q Haddon, New Zealand. You
can email us on q4a@actrix.co.nz
Letter 4:
Peter Rosenfels
Mr Susman
I have just read, with interest, your
article in the above mentioned trade
magazine, and am surprised at some of
your comments. Especially from a
person in Israel.
You state "Morally
I believe the land belongs to the blacks and they are
taking it back. While I
understand the plight of the white farmers, it was
not their land to begin
with and they have enjoyed 100 very good and
extremely profitable
years...."
Am I to understand, therefore that come 2048, the Israeli
settlers, after
their 100 "good and profitable" years, will pack up and
leave? Where in
your plan do I fit? A Zimbabwean citizen of European origin,
but of four
generations standing in this country? My German-Jewish
Great-Grandfather
came to Africa in th 1880's, and to what is now Zimbabwe in
1894. He was a
trader, and left his new wife, and infant daughter in Bulawayo
whilst
traveling all over the region selling his goods. My Great-Grandmother
set
up Bulawayo's first laundry, and later the first livery service, and
16
years later, in 1910, bought a farm. 16 years of hard work, not
exploiting
your "cheap labour". And she BOUGHT the farm. There were no favors
from the
British Authorities, my Great-Grandfather, and later my
Grandfather,
narrowly avoided incarceration during the two World Wars, for
having a
German sounding name. Now I stand to lose my home, my business, and
even my
citizenship because of the current collapse of law and
order.
I have no ties to any other country, no claim of citizenship,
right of
abode or the like. And you have a moral opinion that I am in the
wrong
here!!
When will you express your opinion on the whites of
Australia, or of
America and Canada perhaps? What is your moral opinion on
property-
ownership by non-whites in Europe?
Get real. As a Zimbabwean
who has a white skin, I have as much right to own
land here as another
Zimbabwean citizen. After all, if you want to start
splitting hairs, the
black tribes here have little more claim to the land
than I do. They pushed
out the original people, the San (or Bushmen) not
long before my ancestors
got here. In short we all belong, and must stop
using race to justify
persecution.
Choose carefully where you apply your morals. They could get
you burnt. PS
You quote that 30% of white farmers have lost their land. That
figure now
stands at 98%. That should give your moral righteousness a
boost.
Letter 5: Bruce Smith
The Chairman, NADF.
Dear
Sir,
I have reason to express concern to you as Chairman of our
Association. I
have paid levies to the Association for many years and
naturally expect
some form of service for my contributions over the years. I
have been
advised that this Association, under your guidance as Chairman has
openly
indicated its support of the situation that Commercial Agriculture
now
finds itself in, and has refused to stand up for farmers'
personal,
business and property rights.
I have considerable pain, and
anger to think that the money I contribute
could be used to undermine my very
existence in agriculture, and the
existence of my colleagues, whatever
commodity they may produce - and there
by support the starvation that faces
the people of this country. I hereby
tender my resignation from your
Association and will remain divorced from
it and your incredulous policy (as
set out in Dairy Mail). Only once you
have some intent to protect the
business, property and personal rights of
your members and our colleagues in
other commodities, might I be tempted to
return to your Association and
Union. The contribution that was going into
the Association will now be sent
to charity to help feed the people that
you have let down.
Yours
faithfully,
Bruce
Smith.
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BBC
Zimbabwe crisis 'getting
worse'
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has
said the crisis of
governance in the country is deepening.
He called for
principled dialogue between his Movement for Democratic Change
and the
government to prevent anarchy and chaos.
Mr Tsvangirai told a news
conference during a lunch break in his treason
trial that the opposition
would continue with protests which last week saw
an effective nationwide
strike called by the opposition.
Mr Tsvangirai said no amount of
brutality and arrests of opposition
supporters would discourage people, and
the more repression there was the
more it would rebound.
'Playing with
fire'
Following last week's strike, hundreds of MDC activists have been
arrested
and many say they were tortured.
This "unprecedented
violence" against political opponents has been condemned
by the United
States.
Following the strike, President Robert Mugabe warned the MDC not
to
instigate violence, saying: "Those who play with fire will not only be
burnt
but consumed."
Mr Tsvangirai is facing treason charges
for allegedly plotting to
assassinate President Robert Mugabe before last
year's presidential
elections.
A doctor working in a hospital in the
capital, Harare, said more than 250
people have been treated there after
being beaten by the security forces;
many had broken fingers or toes, some
had broken legs.
Two women described how men in military uniforms
stripped them, beat them,
and used guns to sexually abuse them.
The
MDC says that children of opposition activists have been
assaulted.
'Crying foul'
Zimbabwean police spokesmen Bothwell
Mugariri said about 400 opposition
members have been arrested since last
week's strike.
He said many had been charged with malicious injury to
property.
The police have denied the torture
allegations.
"The police would want to interview and charge everyone who
was involved in
any kind of violence and we are not going to get distracted
by people who
organise violence and then cry foul when the law is applied to
them," a
spokesman said.
During the strike, stones were thrown at
passing cars and a bus was set on
fire.
The police also say that the
offices of the ruling Zanu-PF party were set on
fire in Chinhoyi, north of
Harare, while explosives were found in the
central town of
Kadoma.
By-elections
Zimbabwean human rights activist Tony Reeler
says the attacks are focused on
the MDC's local leadership.
Following
the strike, the MDC gave Mr Mugabe until 31 March to agree to 15
demands
including ending torture and depoliticising the police force or face
further
"popular mass action".
Tension is rising in Harare ahead of two
by-elections this weekend in seats
the MDC won easily in June 2000
elections.
Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, now has massive
unemployment, long
fuel and bread queues and inflation of more than
200%.
Up to half the population, some seven million people, need food
aid
according to donors.
Reuters
Mugabe
steps up opposition crackdown
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE
(Reuters) - Rights groups say Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has
stepped up
a crackdown on the opposition, but analysts have said the
intimidation and
arrests are unlikely to prevent new protests.
The opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) say police have detained
about 500 MDC members after
a two-day strike last week shut factories and
sparked violence in one of the
biggest protests since Mugabe came to power
23 years ago.
A Zimbabwean
human rights group said on Tuesday it was getting daily reports
of assaults
and torture of MDC members in what it said was an intensified
campaign of
intimidation by militant supporters of Mugabe's ruling
ZANU-PF
party.
"We have been getting reports of about 60 cases of
violence a day in the
last couple of days, and in our view that is really
massive," said Brian
Kagoro, co-ordinator of Crisis in Zimbabwe.
"The
picture we are getting is that ZANU-PF is on a new and very big drive
against
the MDC," he added.
Political analyst Masipula Sithole said ZANU-PF's
latest campaign was aimed
at preventing the MDC from calling another "mass
action" against the
government.
"That is the definitely the aim, but I
don't think it is going to work,"
Sithole told Reuters.
"The level of
anger against the government is so high that it is not
possible to crush it
through intimidation," he added.
The MDC last week warned Mugabe to
concede to fresh elections or face more
protests. Mugabe won re-election in
controversial polls last year condemned
as fraudulent by the MDC and some
Western governments which have slapped
sanctions on Mugabe and his inner
circle.
The country is facing its worst economic crisis in more than two
decades,
with record high unemployment, inflation and shortages of fuel,
foreign
exchange and food.
"PATHETIC PUPPETS"
Mugabe dismissed
the MDC ultimatum, saying he would not listen to "pathetic
puppets" of the
West. He also ordered security forces to crack down on those
using violence
against the government, accusing the MDC of employing mob
aggression under
the guise of defending human rights.
A senior Western diplomat based in
Harare said on Tuesday the government's
drive against its opponents would
likely bring it under more international
pressure.
"I think what we
are seeing are acts of frustration...but I think the costs
are going to be
higher on the government side -- the opposition can only get
more determined
to confront them and the pressure from the international
community can only
rise," said the diplomat who declined to be named.
"The government is
certainly mistaken if its view is that nobody is watching
Zimbabwe because of
Iraq," he added, referring to the U.S.-led war against
Iraq.
On
Monday, the United States condemned the government's actions, saying it
was
directly attributable to Mugabe's speech last Friday in which he said
he
could be a 'black Hitler tenfold' in crushing his opponents.
The
State Department called on Harare to "cease its campaign of
violent
repression" and to bring to justice the perpetrators of "these
serious and
widespread human rights abuses".
Mugabe, 79, in power
since the former Rhodesia gained independence from
Britain in 1980, last week
accused the United States, Britain, Germany and
the Netherlands of sponsoring
the MDC protests.
Explosive Situation Developing, Warns Amnesty
UN
Integrated Regional Information Networks
March 25, 2003
Posted to the
web March 25, 2003
Johannesburg
Rights group Amnesty International
believes that an "explosive situation" is
developing in Zimbabwe, where
President Robert Mugabe has warned that the
opposition would be "consumed by
fire" following last week's worker
stay-aways.
News reports on Monday
quoted police saying that they had arrested around
400 opposition members
since the start of a two-day opposition-led strike,
which ended on Wednesday
19 March. Police said most of those arrested were
charged with malicious
damage to property and were still in custody. The
charges related to
incidents such as the torching of a bus during the
stay-away.
However,
Amnesty International said the mass arrests signalled a "new and
dangerous
phase of repression" in Zimbabwe.
"Amnesty International is deeply
concerned by the increasing scale of
arbitrary detentions and for the safety
of several hundred people including
officials and supporters of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) taken into custody in
Zimbabwe since 18 March 2003.
"Although some of those arrested have been
released, many remain in
detention, whilst the whereabouts of others remain
unknown. At least one
person, Steven Tonera, a farm worker in Manicaland
province has been killed,
allegedly as a result of being beaten by state
agents," the rights group
said.
Mugabe had warned the MDC on Friday
that "those who play with fire will not
only be burnt but consumed by fire",
the official Herald newspaper reported.
He was speaking at the funeral of
late minister Swithun Mombeshora at the
National Heroes Acre in
Harare.
"Our law enforcement agents must react promptly and with vigour
as they
provide appropriate responses to dangerous mischief-makers," Mugabe
added.
Amnesty said the latest "wave of violence" was a reaction to the
MDC
organised stay-aways on 18 and 19 March and was an attempt by the
government
and its supporters to intimidate supporters of the MDC and other
government
critics prior to two by-elections due on 29 and 30
March.
The rights group listed several incidents of alleged torture and
violence by
state officials.
In one such incident on 18 March, "a
group of soldiers and state agents beat
and tortured three workers on the
farm of Roy Bennet, MDC MP for
Chimanimani. The three men were forced to lie
on their stomachs on the
ground and were beaten with batons, sjamboks (whips)
and pieces of wire".
"Their fingers and toes were also broken. As a
result of the beatings and
torture, one of the workers, Steve Tonera, died.
The three men were accused
of being MDC supporters and of burning a bus. On
20 March, a convoy of three
trucks carrying up to 60 soldiers of the Zimbabwe
National Army came back to
the farm and severely assaulted up to 70 people,"
Amnesty alleged.
The rights group added that the "alarming escalation" in
political violence
was a clear indication that the Zimbabwe authorities were
"determined to
suppress dissent by whatever means necessary, regardless of
the terrible
consequences".
"We look upon the next 10 days with fear:
the expectation is of further
violent reaction to organised protests by the
MDC and civil society," the
organisation warned.
Meanwhile, Mugabe
blamed the West for supporting the opposition strike,
naming countries such
as Britain, America, Holland and Germany.
"The money used to organise the
pretended stay-away, pay our youths to
self-destruct and turn them into
purveyors of violence, came from the
so-called democracies of the West," the
Herald quoted him as saying.
Mugabe also dismissed an ultimatum issued by
the MDC last week, which called
for the release of political prisoners and
restoration of civil liberties.
First Urban Feeding Programme Opens
UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks
March 25, 2003
Posted to the web March
25, 2003
Johannesburg
Zimbabwe's first urban feeding programme has
opened in the country's second
city, Bulawayo.
Up to 800 malnourished
children aged under five have been assisted over the
past two weeks, Help-Age
Germany told IRIN on Monday. The development agency
is running the initiative
in conjunction with the Bulawayo health department
and the World Food
Programme (WFP).
The children were identified for assistance by
health staff during their
routine monthly clinic visits. They all displayed
weight loss, were not
gaining weight, or were underweight, said Yvonne
Neudeck, Help-Age Germany
head-of-office in Bulawayo.
The pilot
project, which is running at three clinics in the city so far,
provides the
mothers with a WFP-supplied ration of 10 kg of corn soya blend
and one litre
of cooking oil to enable them to supplement their child's
diet.
"Not
all the mothers brought their children for their monthly check up
previously,
but now that they know the child might be given food, they are
coming," said
Neudeck.
Humanitarian officials have warned for some time feeding
programmes were
needed in Zimbabwe's urban centres, which have been bypassed
by the current
relief effort.
The country's failing economy has
worsened unemployment and deepened
poverty. Abuse of the government's price
control system has also caused
shortages and driven basic commodities onto
the black market where they are
sold at vastly inflated prices.
"It's
been a great project and the needs have been much bigger than
expected,"
Neubeck said. "It's very bad [in Bulawayo], worse than in the
rural areas ...
The mothers tell us that they have no food and the basic
foods that are
available are too expensive.
"The children look three years old but they
are five. They are completely
underweight and many have HIV/AIDS or
tuberculosis or both," she added.
Neudeck said Help-Age Germany hoped to
extend the programme, which is funded
by the British Department for
International Development, to all 17 clinics
in Bulawayo. Plans were also
being finalised to open a similar programme in
the capital Harare, followed
by other urban centres like Gweru and Kwekwe.
"We didn't advertise the
programme because we were afraid of a rush, but
word of mouth has been
fantastic - neighbours and friends are telling each
other and the news is
spreading very fast. We've also had good cooperation
from the Bulawayo
council," Neudeck said.
According to the latest WFP assessment, more than
half of Zimbabwe's 11.6
million people are in need of food
aid.
Comment from ZWNEWS, 25 March
The
burden of proof
By Michael Hartnack
As a test of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change's ability to
organise nationwide in
the face of extreme difficulties, last week's two-day
stayaway was an
astonishing success. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai summed up
the public mood
by declaring: "The regime is now nervous - their bags are
packed as they
realise who has the power. We have to prepare for the final
push and they
will run." The response by Robert Mugabe's agents to the most
convincing
opposition protest in four years has been a vicious campaign of
retribution
against those suspected of masterminding the action. Amnesty
International
called the crackdown "a new and dangerous phase of
repression". "What we are
witnessing is much more than a government whose
tactic is raising the level
of violence in the run up to elections," said
Amnesty. "This is an explosive
situation where there seem to be no limits as
to how far the government will
go to suppress opposition and hold onto
power." Probably the most horrific
pictures ever carried by a Zimbabwean
newspaper appeared on the front page of
Saturday's independent Daily News -
the lacerated back, buttocks and thighs
of 60 year old Isobel Gardiner, wife
of the manager of a farm owned by MDC MP
Roy Bennett at Ruwa, on Harare's
eastern outskirts. She, her husband, and 40
farmworkers of all ages and both
sexes were forced by soldiers to lie on the
ground and be mercilessly
flogged. The reason? Bennett - whom the soldiers
could not find - was
accused of organising the stayaway. One man, Steven
Tonera, was beaten to
death.
The MDC has given an ultimatum that
mass action will resume unless Mugabe
concedes a timetable for fresh
elections, ends terror and stops using famine
relief as a political weapon
while 8 million Zimbabweans face starvation.
But calls Saturday by Mugabe's
mouthpiece, the Herald, for "communities now
to flush out undesirable
elements.in conjunction with law enforcement
agents" suggest confidence that
Mugabe will break the MDC's spirit before
any second round. Until the word is
given, the MDC cannot be sure of the
response. Despite his triumphant words,
Tsvangirai must know that Mugabe
will not be moved by shows of popular will
as long as he has food in the
State House pantry, loyal lieutenants,
desperadoes with guns to do his
bidding, and a ruling party in neighbouring
South Africa that has staked its
fortunes on the survival of Zanu PF.
Mugabe's Achilles' heel, say diplomatic
sources, is his immediate
subordinates. Some are known to be paranoically
fearful what will happen to
them when the 79-year-old president loses his
grip on power, and are trying
to arrange a deal through the compliant South
Africans that will give them
immunity in return for hastening his dignified
exit. After the state media
tried to pretend the stayaway was "a flop",
Mugabe himself tacitly
acknowledged its success by making his usual attempt
to blame the West. "Our
country today is afflicted by stage- managed
ructions," he said at the
funeral of a cabinet minister on Friday. "The
money used to organise the
pretended stayaway, pay our youths to self
destruct and turn them into career
purveyors of violence, came from the
so-called democracies of the
West."
The MDC's feat last week speaks for itself: With Tsvangirai
himself having
to appear daily in the dock at the High Court in the sixth
week of a bizarre
trial on allegations of plotting Mugabe's assassination,
the MDC's activists
shut down 90 percent of the remaining economy. And they
did it without
triggering chaotic rioting which could have turned into a
bloodbath with
security forces slaughtering protestors. The party reported
that hundreds of
their members were arrested and police spokesman Wayne
Bvudzijena boasted
"we are closing in on the ringleaders". On the eve of the
stayaway,
detectives seized tens of thousands of handbills publicising it,
but still
the word was passed round. The authorities deployed helicopters,
armoured
cars, and police patrols on horseback, as well as paramilitary riot
squads,
menacing behind their shields and face masks. Sources say the MDC had
even
calculated the quantity of tear gas available to their adversaries and
the
maximum capacity of prisons, police cells and possible makeshift
holding
pens. The MDC will need all this organisational capacity and
discipline if
Mugabe is suddenly given the push by his henchmen. It will have
to prevent a
starving country descending into an orgy of looting and revenge.
An MDC
spokesman claimed "third force" elements were behind isolated stonings
and
the petrol bombing of a bus in Harare's southern suburbs. There is no
hard
evidence, but with an ominous mood among some opposition supporters, it
is
surprising there weren't more such incidents. The regime also
accused MDC
supporters of planting explosives at two supermarkets, two
roadside vending
stalls and under a bridge in the Zimbabwean midlands, and of
setting fire to
a building in Chinhoyi housing regional offices of Zanu PF
and the General
Agricultural and Plantation Workers union. The local MDC
chairman was
immediately arrested as a suspect. After past bombings of
the offices and
printing-press of the independently-owned Daily News and a
private radio
station, however, the onus to prove innocence should rest on
Mugabe.
JAG OPEN LETTER
FORUM
Email: justice@telco.co.zw;
justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet: www.justiceforagriculture.com
Please send any material for publication in the Open Letter
Forum to
justice@telco.co.zw with "For Open
Letter Forum" in the subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1: O'Neill Meats
As a result of the beatings, one of the people from
Roy's farm, Steven
Tsonera, has died.
The following contributions have
been made to the fund. We will distribute
food and cash on a weekly
basis. Thank you all very much for your support.
For those who have
not heard, Roy Bennet's farm in Ruwa was visited on
20/3 by an army
contingent who severely beat the Gardeners and a large
number of his workers
- men, women and children. The beatings were in
retaliation for Roy being
viewed as one of the major orchestrators of the
recent stayaway.
We
have started a fund to support and encourage Roy's workers to stay on
the
farm even though they are frightened and traumatised. If you are in any
way
able to contribute in KIND OR IN CASH, please phone us on 011 - 403327
or
drop off anything you can contribute to O'Neill Meats offices in the
Colcom
Complex at 1 Coventry Road. We are unfortunately not in a position
to
collect. Your donation will be acknowledged.
Bulawayo residents please
contact Monika and Clive Midlane on 09- 881154 or
Cell 091 -
351416.
Please forward this e-mail to anyone you think could help. Our
e-mail is
honeill@africaonline.co.zw
List
of Contributors:
O'Neill Meats - 2 Sides of Beef
Kockotts - 25000
Percy
and Linda Sharp - 15000
Eddie Cross - 25000 Pledged
G Potgieter (Jnr) -
15000
C & E Wixley - 25000
P & S Mason - 20000
Petrabuilt -
25000
Brian & Kerry Wehlburg (Australia) - 10000
DC Lilford Trust -
30000
Pledged
----------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Justice
for Agriculture mailing list
To subscribe/unsubscribe: Please write to
jag-list-admin@mango.zw
JAG Security Release March 25,
2003
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Due
to the current tension prevailing after the mass action last week, it
is
strongly advised that women do not travel on their own at night as there
have
been a couple of serious incidents involving army personnel.
Farmers
should remain very vigilant and be aware of their vulnerability
during
these difficult
times.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
JAG TEAM
Email: justice@telco.co.zw;
justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet: www.justiceforagriculture.com
JAG Hotlines:
(011) 612 595 If you are in trouble or need
advice,
(011) 205
374
(011) 863 354 please don't hesitate
to contact us -
(091) 317
264
(011) 207 860 we're here to help!
(011) 431
068
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Justice
for Agriculture mailing list
To subscribe/unsubscribe: Please write to
jag-list-admin@mango.zw
Independent (UK)
Zimbabwe: The
cricket revolutionaries
Last month at the Cricket
World Cup, two Zimbabwean players took to the
field wearing black armbands to
signal the death of their country's
democracy. What happened next? Basildon
Peta reports on the fate of the men
who dared to challenge Mugabe
26 March
2003
On a sunny morning in early February, two cricketers, smartly
dressed in the
Zimbabwe team colours of red, green and black, strolled on to
the lush green
pitch of Harare's main cricket ground. Along with the rest of
the Zimbabwe
team, they were there to play against Namibia in their country's
opening
match of the cricket World Cup. They may have hoped for an
enthusiastic
welcome from the rather thin crowd in the stands, but the fans
stayed
unusually quiet. The reason? Henry Olonga and his team-mate Andy
Flower had
made an unscheduled addition to their kit: they were wearing black
armbands.
And in a joint pre-match statement, the two players - one black,
one white -
explained their actions thus: "We are mourning the death of
democracy in our
beloved Zimbabwe... We pray that our small action may help
to restore sanity
and dignity to our nation."
A small action, indeed;
certainly, if judged by the standards of even the
most elementary democracy.
Yet it has cost the two men dearly. Their
comparatively opulent lifestyles in
the beleaguered southern-African nation
are no more. The two cricketers have
joined the estimated three million of
their countrymen who have fled Robert
Mugabe's reign of terror to live as
economic and political refugees in
foreign countries. Both have retired from
the international game; Olonga is
in hiding in South Africa, and Flower and
his family are preparing to start a
new life in England. (Flower will be
joining the Essex team this summer.)
Both know what awaits them if they go
back home - charges of treason, an
offence punishable by death.
Zimbabwe House, President Mugabe's official
residence in Harare, is just
opposite the capital city's cricket ground.
Stroll around these two
buildings and you could be forgiven for thinking you
were in a country at
war with a superpower. They are surrounded by heavily
fortified security
cordons and armed soldiers carrying automatic rifles and
machine guns.
Hi-tech security cameras, allegedly installed with the help of
Israeli
intelligence, are dotted around the towering concrete wall around
Mugabe's
hideaway. But they are not just there to enable his security men to
track
movements in the immediate vicinity. Just as important, they allow them
to
monitor everything that goes on at the cricket ground, on the western
side
of the President's residence.
The reason for their interest is
obvious. The ground is the long-standing
home of the Harare Sports Club, a
popular venue for whites that has often
been accused of providing a focus for
plots to overthrow Mugabe's
government. Protesters against Mugabe's
increasingly authoritarian regime
generally avoid straying into this
high-security area, as his trigger-happy
soldiers have, over the years, shot
and killed dozens of motorists for
violating curfews around the stadium and
Zimbabwe House. So it must have
taken extraordinary courage for Olonga and
Flower to make their historic
protest right under the noses of Mugabe's
security men.
If truth be told, they might have hoped for a better
reception. They got a
muted response from the sparse crowd of spectators,
mostly schoolchildren,
partly because of the Zimbabwean government's threat
to quell any protests
ruthlessly, and partly because it was not a big match
anyway - Namibia are
novices in world cricket. Away from the ground,
Zimbabweans generally
applauded the two cricketers, although the state media
launched a scathing
attack on Olonga as a "lackey of the whites". In the
international press,
their actions were noted and widely praised; even the
odd interview with
Olonga was printed. But that's as far as it
went.
Meanwhile, Mugabe, the ageing Zimbabwean leader, who has ruled with
impunity
since independence from Britain in 1980, was continuing with his war
on his
own people - both black and white. Oppose his rule and you immediately
walk
into his line of fire. So it was no surprise that, after the Namibia
match,
Zimbabwe's selectors tried to drop Flower - the team's only
world-class
player - from their game against Australia. Only the threat of a
players'
revolt kept him his place. Olonga, on the other hand, was relegated
to 12th
man for all Zimbabwe's later games, including what was to be his last
match,
against Sri Lanka in the Super Sixes. By then, he knew he was in
trouble.
On the day of the Sri Lanka match, reports were rife that
President Mugabe's
much-feared secret police, the Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO),
would be in the stands as spectators. Olonga feared that
their real mission
was to escort him back home to face charges of treason. "I
suppose I shall
never know why the CIO men were there or what they planned,
but I was taking
no chances, with so many people being arrested on trumped-up
treason charges
back home," he said afterwards. Before the match - which was
played in East
London, South Africa - had finished, he had packed his bags,
handed over a
resignation statement to the media and gone into hiding. At the
young age of
26, Olonga's promising international cricket career - as an
energetic fast
bowler and the first black cricketer to represent Zimbabwe in
a Test match -
was over.
It is now clear that Olonga was right in his
decision not to go back home.
When I interviewed intelligence officials in
Zimbabwe last weekend, they
confirmed Olonga's fears that his safety would
not have been guaranteed had
he returned to Harare. By staging his protest at
a sporting event so close
to Mugabe's residence, Olonga was liable, according
to the officials, under
Zimbabwe's vaguely formulated security laws, which
criminalise anything the
President does not like. "His behaviour was
criminal," said one intelligence
official. "What does one gain from selling
out and lying about his country?
He tried to besmirch the President's name...
and so he is liable under
Posa."
Posa is the acronym for Zimbabwe's
new draconian Public Order and Security
Act, which allows 20-year jail
sentences and even the death penalty to be
imposed on anyone accused of
tarnishing Mugabe's name or engaging in
treasonable acts. How Olonga's and
Flower's protest violated that law could
never be clear to anyone outside
Mugabe's partisan police force and muzzled
judiciary. Yet the officials I
spoke to said they focused more on Olonga
because he was "a black man who had
publicly betrayed his fellow black
people" and had publicly "conspired" in
white-led machinations to overthrow
President Mugabe. They said, too, that
there was nothing to stop them
arresting Olonga during his final match in
South Africa and asking him to
explain his actions. They held back only
because they "did not want to be
misunderstood".
A more likely reason
for their restraint is that the Zimbabwean authorities
had given a multitude
of assurances to the International Cricket Council
(ICC) regarding the
security of players. With five more of the Super Six
matches to be played,
the ICC might well have decided to cancel games if
there had been any public
show of strong-arm tactics against players. So, it
seems a strategic decision
was made to wait until after the World Cup. But
the Zimbabwean authorities
mistimed it badly, and Olonga escaped.
Dr John Olonga, Henry's
67-year-old father and a consultant with a respected
practice in Bulawayo,
south-west Zimbabwe, says he got wind of a plot to
arrest his son on his
return from South Africa. He implored him never to
return. "I could not
sacrifice my son by letting him come back to Zimbabwe,"
he says, insisting
that the authorities wanted his son to pay a "heavy
price" for his courage in
telling the truth about the "state of chaos" in
Zimbabwe. "What my son has
said about human-rights abuses in Zimbabwe is
known to everyone here, but
most people are afraid to speak because of this
authoritarian government," Dr
Olonga says. "As a father, I had to act. I
told him to stay away, because we
could not ignore the warnings I was
getting from sympathetic people in high
places, people who knew he was in
danger."
Dr Olonga says he has lived
and worked in various African countries but is
outraged by what Zimbabwe is
experiencing. "I am horrified by the situation
here. I could never have
imagined things would get this bad," he says.
Although the departure of his
son has, naturally, disrupted his family of
five, he says he can feel only
glad that he is out of danger. "I was haunted
by thoughts of his safety while
he was still here, but I now feel relived."
While Henry has hinted that he
hopes to seek asylum in England, his father
insists that his son has not made
a final decision on his destination: he
will end up "wherever he feels safe",
possibly even with his mother, who is
based in Australia.
Sadly, as
long as he remains in South Africa, Olonga is, in all probability,
not
entirely safe. "South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC)
party
and Zimbabwe's Zanu PF party are bedfellows," he has said, adding that
he
foresees the possibility of the two parties colluding to harm him. As
a
result, he is remaining deep in hiding - even his father does not know
where
he is staying - while attempting to negotiate his way out of South
Africa.
He is unlikely to receive much help from the authorities. An ANC
spokesman,
Smut Ngonyama, did not mince his words when I spoke to him,
describing
Olonga as "ill-informed and delusional". "While he may be an
accomplished
cricketer, Olonga clearly knows nothing about the constitutional
and
political environment in South Africa, nor about the nature of
international
inter-party relations," Ngonyama says. "His suggestion that his
life could
be in danger in South Africa is insulting."
But Dr Olonga
and his friends in Zimbabwe, who are baffled by the South
African
government's continued open support for Mugabe while he eliminates
opponents
at home, believe that Henry's fears are not entirely unfounded.
"The key is
for him to get to where he feels completely safe," his father
says.
So
what now for Henry Olonga? Though abandoned by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union
and
dropped by his cricket team, he claims to have no regrets. "The stand I
took
in the World Cup has undoubtedly had repercussions that have affected
both my
career and my personal life," he said in the statement that
announced his
retirement. "If I were to continue to play for Zimbabwe in the
midst of the
prevailing crisis, I would do so only by neglecting the voice
of my
conscience. I would be condoning the human-rights violations that have
been
perpetrated - and continue to be perpetrated - against my countrymen."
Dr
Olonga attests to his son's integrity. "They may threaten him and scare
him
off, but there is one thing they won't take away from him: his
conscience and
pride," he says. An old school friend of Henry's, who
declines to be named,
for fear of reprisals, agrees, describing him as a man
of conviction. "He can
sacrifice anything for his convictions... When he
thinks he is right about
something, you can't turn him from that path. He
didn't protest that Mugabe's
regime is evil because everybody else said so.
He did it because that's what
his heart and conscience told him. If there
are principled people in this
world, then Henry is definitely one of them."
Lovemore Madhuku, a law
professor at the University of Zimbabwe and the
chairman of Zimbabwe's civic
group, the National Constitutional Assembly,
says he has become a great
admirer of Olonga since the armband protest. "At
his tender age, he has done
what most people are afraid to do in this
country," says Madhuku. "He has
done what his country needs. If other
high-profile sportsmen in this country
would use their stature to highlight
the abuses in this country, perhaps we
could attract more world attention.
We might not have sunk to this
disgraceful state of squalor. But many
amongst us are
cowards."
Madhuku hopes that Olonga's plight will help to keep the abuses
in Zimbabwe
in the spotlight when the world is focused on Iraq. He says he
cannot
understand why world leaders are not convinced that the
Zimbabweans
repressed by Mugabe's regime do not deserve the same attention as
the Iraqis
repressed by Saddam Hussein. "Instead of helping fleeing
Zimbabweans, some
countries - including Britain - turn a blind eye. That can
only make them
more fearful of engaging Mugabe at home, because they have
nowhere to run,"
he says.
It's hard not to agree that the UK - where
Olonga's stepmother lives -
should play its part by granting him asylum. What
he would do once here is
tricky. The county cricket clubs have already filled
their quotas of two
overseas players each - or have made the financial
decision not to do so.
And even if he were granted British citizenship, his
prior membership of the
Zimbabwe international team would mean he couldn't
turn out as a domestic
player for 12 months. He could, perhaps, end up
singing for his supper
instead. For, as well as being a talented cricketer,
Olonga has had a second
career, in music - he has had a No 1 single in
Zimbabwe. And it has been
claimed that Barrington Pheloung, the composer of
the Inspector Morse theme
tune and a keen cricket fan, even offered Olonga a
recording contract a
couple of years ago.
Olonga does not rule out
returning to play cricket for his country one day.
"If there was a change of
regime that made my return without fear of
prosecution feasible, I would come
out of retirement tomorrow to play again
for the Zimbabwe I love," he has
said. Yet until he finds somewhere safe to
live, that is out of the question.
"I have to consider the worst-case
scenario," he says. "I cannot take chances
with my security. That is why I
am in hiding, keeping a low profile. Which
means locking the door and
staying off the
streets."
Daily
News
Chinotimba a
convict
3/26/2003 10:21:12 AM
(GMT +2)
By Brian Mangwende Chief
Reporter
WITH only three days to go before
the parliamentary by-election in
Highfield, it has emerged that Joseph
Chinotimba, the ruling Zanu PF's
candidate, could be a fugitive from
justice.
Last year, the aspiring Member of
Parliament was slapped with an
effective two-month jail term after regional
magistrate, Godfrey Macheyo,
convicted him of unlawful possession of a
firearm.
Immediately after Chinotimba was
sentenced, his lawyer, Lawrence
Muvirimi, appealed against the decision, but
Macheyo threw out the
application.
According to an appeal against Chinotimba's conviction and sentence,
lawyers
Musunga and Associates said their client had been released from
custody in
circumstances that remain unknown to them.
A lawyer who refused to be named said in the event that Chinotimba
wins the
Highfield seat, he will have to give it up if the conviction
is
upheld.
Bharat Patel, the Deputy
Attorney-General, said yesterday the State
was cross-appealing, but that a
date to hear arguments from both parties was
still to be set
down.
Initially, Chinotimba was charged
with attempted murder and illegal
possession of a firearm after he allegedly
fired shots and injured Anna
Maria Maenzanise, an opposition MDC activist in
Glen Norah, in October 2000.
However,
Chinotimba was acquitted of attempted murder, but convicted
of possessing a
firearm without a licence.
Court papers
filed in the High Court on 22 August 2002 by Musunga and
Associates on behalf
of Chinotimba read: "Appellant (Chinotimba) applied for
bail pending appeal,
but the application was dismissed.
"Be
that as it may, appellant was later released in circumstances
unknown to his
counsel," Musunga and Associates wrote in their heads of
argument against the
conviction and sentence.
This raises
questions of whether Chinotimba's release from custody
was
procedural.
Soon after conviction and
sentence, Muvirimi, then of Musunga and
Associates, told the
government-controlled Herald newspaper that after the
court had adjourned,
Macheyo then reversed his earlier decision on the bail
application and
released Chinotimba - a decision described by lawyers
as
illegal.
After Macheyo handed down
the sentence, pandemonium broke out at the
Harare Magistrates' Courts when
about 300 Zanu PF youths protested against
the
sentence.
In the ensuing melee, the youths
manhandled a Herald reporter and
seized his
notebook.
A separate group mobbed the
magistrate's car and vowed to wait for him
in the car park. Riot police were
called in to quell the disturbances.
Meanwhile, in their appeal against conviction and sentence, Musunga
and
Associates will argue that Chinotimba had no knowledge that Zanu PF,
his
principals, had no certificate for the firearm in question, and that
he
lawfully came into possession of the
weapon.
They say Chinotimba, a war
veteran, did not know that it was his duty
to acquire a licence for the
firearm, but that it was Zanu PF's duty to do
so. The lawyers further argue
that he was unaware of any restrictions
imposed by the police's issuance of
the firearm.
Daily
News
108 suspects get
bail
3/26/2003 10:05:10 AM (GMT
+2)
Court
Reporter
HARARE magistrate Judith Tsamba
on Monday remanded to 14 April on $10
000 bail each 108 Glen View residents
facing charges of public violence.
Prosecutor Mehluli Tshuma said some time last week the accused
assembled near
Budiriro 1 High School, where they approached the headmaster
to order him to
close the school.
It was alleged they beat
him up and accused him of failing to heed the
stayaway
call.
After assaulting him, the group went
outside the school gate, stopped
a bus which was passing by and began beating
up passengers and the driver,
the State
alleged.
Tshuma said one passenger was
injured during the attack.
Later, the accused,
in the company of many others who are still at
large, were seen by police
officers throwing stones and missiles at cars and
people passing by, causing
damage and injury respectively.
At
Budiriro 1 shopping centre, the same group was spotted by
Constables
Charumbira and Makaka throwing missiles at passing cars and
harassing
passers-by.
Tshuma said the group was
arrested in Glen View 3 where Support Unit
Juliet Troop caught up with them
as they blocked roads with stones and scrap
metal.
Daily
News
Defence grills detective in
Nkala murder trial
3/26/2003
10:08:25 AM (GMT +2)
By Sam
Munyavi
The police searched for the body
of Bulawayo war veteran leader Cain
Nkala in the area it was later found
before they even knew that he was dead,
the High Court heard in Harare
yesterday.
Nkala was allegedly abducted
from his Magwegwe home on 5 November
2001. His body was exhumed near Solusi
University on 13 November 2001.
Kethani Sibanda, Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, the
MP for Lobengula-Magwegwe (MDC),
Sonny Masera, the MDC director of security,
Army Zulu, Remember Moyo, and
Sazini Mpofu are facing charges of kidnapping
and murdering him.
Advocate Eric Morris, a
defence lawyer, told Justice Sandra Mungwira,
according to the police diary
compiled by Detective Assistant Inspector
Rafias Masuna of the Bulawayo CID,
they searched for Nkala along the Solusi
Road on 6 November
2001.
Under cross examination by Morris,
Masuna said other searches were
conducted in the suburb of Killarney and
along the Khami, St Peter's and
Victoria Falls
Roads.
Morris said he was "astonished" the
police confined themselves to the
Solusi Road during the
search.
He said: "Instead of a dragnet
search, a search that covers all the
likely areas . . . we have a search
confined to a tiny little area where the
body was allegedly found. Doesn't it
seem funny to you?"
Masuna insisted the
police had searched the other areas but he could
not find where the Victoria
Falls Road was mentioned in the police diary. He
said the police drove along
the Solusi Road looking for a place where anyone
could dispose of a
body.
Morris said: "Your answer has more
holes than Swiss cheese. Hole
number one, you didn't know Nkala was
dead."
Masuna agreed with
Morris.
Morris said even if the police knew
Nkala was dead, they had no way of
knowing that his body would be visible
from the road.
Masuna could not say whether
the police used dogs in the searches
"because I was not in charge of the
investigation".
Morris said the search for
Nkala was not a random search as there was
an entry in the police log that
said Nkala was being held at a house in
Killarney at the time the road
searches were being conducted.
Earlier in
the proceedings, Masuna refused to comment on instructions
written on the
police diary by Deputy Commissioner Griffiths
Mpofu.
Among these were instructions for
investigators to pay attention to
the Matopos area, to go back two years from
November 2001 to all the murders
where firearms were used, and to the Martin
Olds murder docket. Olds, a
Nyamandlovu farmer, was murdered in 2000 by war
veterans. The trial
continues.
Daily
News
Brutal assaults outrage
nation
3/26/2003 10:08:55 AM (GMT
+2)
From Ntungamili Nkomo in
Bulawayo
The MDC and civic society have
expressed outrage at the mass arrests
and brutal beatings of people by State
security forces during and after last
week's mass
stayaway.
Secret service agents, armed
soldiers and police are currently on the
rampage, beating up people across
the country whom they accuse of
participating in the
stayaway.
Paul Themba Nyathi, the opposition
MDC spokesperson, condemned the
arrests, describing the ruling Zanu PF as an
"uncivilised and intolerant
regime".
"It is very unfortunate that people can be brutalised and victimised
for
expressing discontent at a regime whose legitimacy is in
question.
"Zanu PF is a threat to
civilisation. It's a regime that has run short
of ideas. By bludgeoning
people, they think they can beat themselves into
legitimacy," said
Nyathi.
He said 500 people had so far been
arrested in connection with the
mass action and one person had been
bludgeoned to death.
Archbishop Pius
Ncube, a Catholic priest and human rights activist,
said the arrests
displayed gross human rights abuses by the
government.
He described President Mugabe's
government as a "savage and
uncivilised
regime".
He said last week's mass action
confirmed an overwhelming public
anti-government feeling, but that it was
unfortunate that the police had to
quash it with "such unbridled
brutality".
Professor Masipula Sithole, a
lecturer in the department of politics
and administrative studies at the
University of Zimbabwe, said the move was
a clear manifestation of how the
human rights record has diminished
in
Zimbabwe.
"Beating up people for
showing their disgruntlement at the government
in a peaceful manner is a
tragic situation.
"It reflects negatively on
Zanu PF's human rights record. They are
actually exposing their brutality to
the world," he said.
National
Constitutional Assembly chairman Lovemore Madhuku, himself a
victim of
several arrests over his organisation's demonstrations for a
people-driven
constitution, urged the masses to heed any call by public
bodies to demand
good governance in the country.
"It's a
brutal state that has nothing better to do besides unleashing
a reign of
terror on innocent people. People should be brave and take the
bull by its
horns," he said.
Daily
News
Binga finally gets food
aid
3/26/2003 10:04:40 AM (GMT
+2)
From Chris Gande in
Bulawayo
The food situation in drought-hit
Binga, where hundreds of villagers
are starving, has improved following the
resumption of the distribution of
relief aid by donor organisations, banned
from the area by the government.
Joel
Gabhuza, the Member of Parliament for Binga, said the resumption
of relief
aid had helped avert starvation.
"The
resumption of food aid and the little that was harvested has
reduced hunger
in Matabeleland."
Gabhuza said apart from
a few cases of theft by people appointed to
help in the distribution of the
food, the situation had vastly improved.
The government last year barred the UK-based Save the Children Fund
and
Catholic Development Committee (Cadec) from distributing relief food
in
Binga, alleging that the two organisations had influenced Zanu PF's
defeat
in the rural district council
elections.
Binga recorded the highest
number of wards won by the MDC in the rural
district elections last
year.
The two non-governmental
organisations declined to comment on the
resumption of the relief
supplies.
Two weeks ago Binga Hospital
officials reported that there had been an
increase in cases of constipation
as villagers relied on wild fruits for
sustenance, due to the acute shortage
of food.
Daily
News
Mudede releases voters'
rolls
3/26/2003 10:05:37 AM (GMT
+2)
Staff
Reporter
TOBAIWA Mudede, the
Registrar-General, on Friday released the voters'
rolls for Kuwadzana and
Highfield constituencies as ordered by the
High
Court.
Earlier, Mudede had refused
to hand over for inspection the voters'
rolls to Nelson Chamisa, the MDC
candidate in the parliamentary by-election
for
Kuwadzana.
In February, Chamisa wrote to
Mudede requesting for an updated voters'
roll for inspection ahead of the
Kuwadzana by-election scheduled for
this
weekend.
The by-election in Kuwadzana
will run concurrently with that
in
Highfield.
Mudede had filed an opposing
affidavit but High Court judge, Justice
Anele Matika, threw out his
application.
Matika's ruling also applied
to the Highfield constituency.
Remus Makuwaza,
the MDC director of elections, on Monday confirmed the
MDC candidates had
received the voters' rolls.
"We are now
carrying out an internal audit of the voters' rolls,"
said
Makuwaza.
Calls for updated voters'
rolls were made after the MDC alleged that
there were about 26 000 ghost
voters in Kuwadzana and Highfield.
Daily
News
Treason trial hits
fiscus
3/26/2003 10:07:54 AM (GMT
+2)
By Fanuel Jongwe Court
Reporter
THE on-going treason trial of MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai and two
senior party officials, has "greatly
affected" this year's budget through
expenses incurred for the upkeep of
international witnesses, the High Court
heard
yesterday.
"Resources have been
stretched," Joseph Musakwa, the Director of
Public Prosecution in the
Attorney-General's Office, said yesterday.
He was opposing an application by the defence to compel the State to
bring
equipment used by a Canadian private investigator to video-tape a
meeting
between Tsvangirai and officials from Dickens and Madson, a
political
consultancy firm based in Montreal,
Canada.
At the meeting, Tsvangirai
allegedly requested Dickens and Madson, to
assist the MDC assassinate
President Mugabe and depose the Zanu
PF
government.
"I am aware that
witnesses' expenses for the current financial year
have been greatly affected
by this case," Musakwa said.
"It would not
be fair to order that the expenses be met by the State.
We are not the ones
who have requested the equipment."
Defence
lawyer Chris Andersen shot down Musakwa's explanation accusing
the State of
being extravagant.
He charged that the
State was treating witnesses in the on-going trial
to first-class indulgence
"unprecedented in the country's legal
history".
"The State paid first class airfares
for one of the witnesses and two
business class fares," Andersen
said.
He said the witnesses were booked
into first-class hotel suites.
"The same State
now says it does not have enough money to bring
equipment to ensure the fair
trial of the accused persons who are facing
serious
charges."
Andersen said the defence
required the equipment to test the evidence
of Bernard Schober, the private
investigator and security consultant who
installed the video
equipment.
He said the State should bear
the costs of bringing the equipment -
two cameras, a microphone, video
cassette recorder and monitor to Harare.
He said this should be done even if it meant withdrawing some of the
money
one of the witnesses said he was entitled
to.
Judge president Paddington Garwe is
expected to deliver his ruling
today on the defence's
application.
Schober said on Monday he was
charging the government US$1 000 ($55
000 at the official exchange rate, but
$1,5 million on the parallel market)
a day for the duration of his stay while
he testifies in the trial.
The amount
excludes travel, food and accommodation
expenses.
Schober said yesterday that the
video-tape of the meeting at Dickens
and Madson was clear and audible and
that it was the best he could produce
in the
circumstances.
Dickens and Madson is
headed by Ari Ben-Menashe, the State's key
witness. He said he had not
pre-judged the case and said his coming to
Zimbabwe was a
revelation.
"I have no idea who is right
or wrong in this situation. I don't live
here," Schober
said.
"No one among my friends and family
wanted me to come here because of
things that are said about this country.
They thought this country was in
total turmoil but I am surprised the people
I meet are kind and friendly."
Daily
News
Leader Page
Shortages
being exploited by Zanu PF
leadership
3/26/2003 10:19:43 AM
(GMT +2)
Zanu PF and its
leadership will fight tooth and nail to ensure that
the current economic
malaise continues, as they stand to benefit from the
perennial shortages of
food, fuel and foreign currency.
But this
is short-sighted of them.
By fuelling anarchy,
starvation, general social instability and
mayhem, they are stoking the fires
that will eventually consume them.
The
success of the MDC-sponsored mass action showed that the people
are generally
fed up with Zanu PF and its machinations.
The party leaders thought they could fool all the people all the time,
but
the truth, is that you cannot fool all the people all the
time.
President Mugabe and his close
circle never seem to run out of new
tricks in their concerted efforts to
remain in power. They use diversionary
political tactics to temporarily fool
the people into believing they have
found real solutions to the problems they
have brought upon a country which
once flowed with milk and
honey.
Most people have long realised the
Mugabe regime is the source of the
misery in which the people are wallowing
today.
At the beginning of the fuel
crisis, Mugabe said the erratic fuel
supplies were causing him headaches and
stomach aches.
But in typical Mugabe
fashion, he shifted the blame onto the petroleum
companies. He said they
should have started importing fuel for resale to the
public long
ago.
All along the fuel was being procured
by the government-owned,
corruption-riddled National Oil Company of
Zimbabwe.
Suddenly the same company,
plagued with mismanagement, was no longer
to blame for the crisis. It was now
the oil companies to blame, although
they had never been allocated foreign
currency, which is controlled by the
government through the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe.
The State then introduced a
two-tier exchange control mechanism. They
didn't think this was enough, and
have now allowed motorists to import as
much as 500 litres of fuel
duty-free.
This was all a facade, to
hoodwink the public into believing the
government had their welfare at
heart.
They were only exacerbating a
problem for which they have no immediate
solution, but will not admit they
are at their wits' end as to how to
resolve
it.
There is no foreign currency from the
banks for individuals to import
fuel. The move only aggravates the foreign
currency black market as the
public will use any means to procure the scarce
commodity to import fuel and
other basic essentials which are in short
supply.
Allowing individuals to import
their own fuel is an overt way of
promoting the black market. In other words,
the government is saying to the
people: do whatever it takes to get anything
you want as long as you don't
get
caught.
This is condoning and perpetuating
anarchy and lawlessness.
There was already a
serious shortage of foreign currency caused by
massive disruptions on the
farms as a result of the invasions by Zanu
PF-sponsored war veterans and
other party zealots.
The country could not
export enough tobacco to meet its fuel needs.
Two years later, the farm invasions would cause what is now commonly
referred
to as man-made starvation characterised by shortages of
essential
commodities, which are now a common
phenomenon.
And who is benefiting from all
this misery? None other than the Zanu
PF
leadership.
They never queue for maize-meal,
sugar, cooking oil, bread and butter.
It would not be surprising if some of
that party's big guns were behind the
thriving black market for anything in
short supply.
But it could all end very
soon. The people now know how to scare the
wits out of the
leadership.
Daily
News
Funeral assurance firms on
the verge of collapse
3/26/2003
10:27:13 AM (GMT +2)
By Hama Saburi
Business Editor
FUNERAL assurance, once
considered a safe haven for investors, has
lost its glamour with most
companies now on the verge of collapse owing to
huge cost increases that
cannot keep pace with premiums.
The
sector, which is dominated by Doves-Crocker Morgan, Moonlight,
First Funeral
Assurance and Nyaradzo, has been caught in a web of ballooning
costs,
uneconomic premiums and cut-throat
competition.
Costs have gone up by over
350 percent inside 12 months in sympathy
with inflation, which reached a
record 220,9 percent last month.
Expenditure heads largely consist of timber, petrol/diesel,
mortuary
maintenance, salaries and vehicle running
costs.
Premiums have, however, remained
static, courting trouble for an
industry that covers its commitments using
contributions from policyholders.
Phillip
Mataranyika, the secretary of the Zimbabwe Association of
Funeral Assurers
said a number of options were being looked at to free
companies from
prevailing difficulties.
"The sector is trying
by all means to remain viable by
containing
overheads.
"We are now going
back to our clients so that they can top up their
premiums," said
Mataranyika.
Some clients were paying as
little as $2 to $300 a month and yet they
were entitled to a casket and full
burial services.
A casket now costs at
least $120 000, while a polished coffin exceeded
$25
000.
A number of funeral assurance companies
may be technically insolvent
by virtue of obligations outstripping
assets.
The only way out would be to
increase premiums or invoke aspects of
the Insurance Act that allowed
companies to pay cash equivalent to the face
value of their
policies.
Many policyholders were likely not
to afford the new premiums.
Progressive
Insurance Brokers, which handles policies on behalf of
Doves, urged clients
to review their policies before the end of August
this
year.
Doves (the largest and
oldest funeral assurance company in Zimbabwe)
will pay the face value of the
policy, together with interest instead of
providing funeral
services.
Ricky Mapani, the managing
director of Doves, said companies could not
continue to subsidise
policyholders.
"If contributions are not
adjusted, then, the industry would collapse
because you need a deep pocket to
pay out on high expenditure," said Mapani.
Daily
News
Hippo Valley worried by sugar
smuggling
3/26/2003 10:28:02 AM
(GMT +2)
Business
Reporter
A LEADING producer of raw sugar,
Hippo Valley Estates Limited, said
illegal exports of sugar can be
discouraged by allowing free market forces
to set correct
prices.
Len Bruce, the chairman of Hippo
Valley, said informal traders were
continuing to circumvent price controls
and restrictions on exports imposed
by the government last
year.
The controls were part of desperate
measures taken to address the
shortage of sugar and other basic
commodities.
The shortage of sugar has become
more pronounced, as the market has
gone
underground.
"In spite of the industry's
efforts to ensure availability on the
formal domestic market, leakages into
both the informal market and
neighbouring countries to be a major cause for
concern.
"Setting a realistic sugar price
structure based on market forces of
demand and supply will discourage
speculative purchasing, hoarding and
illegal trade in sugar," Bruce
said.
Financial results released by Hippo
yesterday indicate that 284 109
tonnes of sugar were produced last year, up
from 248 603 tonnes in the
previous
period.
Production during the year was
affected by excessive temperatures,
evaporation and illegal strikes by
cane-cutters.
Inflation-adjusted figures
reflect a 17 percent decline in turnover
from $38,1 billion in 2001 to $31,1
billion in 2002. Operating profit
declined by 71 percent from $6,8 billion in
2001 to $2 billion last year.
Daily
News - Feature
In Africa, it's
truly the battle of the sexes
3/26/2003 9:56:41 AM (GMT +2)
THE
Arab editor of a newspaper with undiluted sympathies for Saddam
Hussein told
colleagues from the Commonwealth Press Union in Sri Lanka last
month that
George W Bush would go to war against Iraq because he loved his
mother, the
silver-haired Barbara Bush.
A British
military analyst told the same gathering the war would start
on 20
March.
Abdal Bari Atwan was alluding to
the story doing the rounds before the
United States invasion of Iraq that
Saddam once plotted the assassination of
Barbara Bush, George W's mother. The
son had apparently sworn to avenge that
attempt by blowing Saddam to
smithereens.
A son's love for his mother
can be fathomless. The Oedipus complex is
described, in psychiatry, as a
"manifestation of infantile sexuality towards
parents, with attraction to a
parent of the opposite sex, especially mother,
and jealousy of other
parent".
Don't ask me if this is the case
with the Bushes, but what Abdal Bari
Atwan seemed to be saying was that there
was something weird about George W'
s reason for wanting to overthrow
Saddam.
To love your mother to the extent
of risking the murder of thousands
of people thousands of kilometres away
sounds reckless in the extreme.
But then
Saddam is not an innocent man - really not a very nice man.
His mother might
think so, but then she is his mother.
In
any case, if a love for his mother were the only reason for
Bush's
determination to blow the walrus moustache off Saddam's upper lip,
then not
many people, including the British, would be able to explain Tony
Blair's
willingness to help him out - unless Blair loves his mother to the
same
extent and wishes to warn anyone plotting to assassinate her in her
sleep
that he, too, would do to them what Bush is trying to do to
Saddam.
But then where matters of the
heart are concerned, nothing can be
measured in terms of how much is too
much.
All this does not detract from the
truism that men are no better than
women, or that women are as good as men,
even if men don't menstruate.
At the bottom of
it all, we are all the same.
But I worry
constantly about the African woman's status on the
continent. In November, I
urged them to stage a demonstration to protest
against King Mswati of
Swaziland after he had taken on his umpteenth
wife.
A reader suggested polygamy didn't
necessarily heighten the chances of
HIV infection. He defended the practice,
saying it was part of Swazi and
African
culture.
I say: Fine, but a man of promiscuous
mating habits is dangerous in
any situation - monogamous or
polygamous.
On 8 March in Zimbabwe, women
demonstrating on International Women's
Day received a savage reception from
the police. In Bulawayo and in Harare,
they locked them up and roughed them
up - one of them into menstruating.
On top of
that, there is the matter of the shortage of sanitary
pads.
Yet women remain as fascinating as
ever, their sense of humour still
intact in spite of the male chauvinism
shoved at them every day, especially
in Zimbabwe. The other day,
I
received this in the
e-mail:
Who understands
men?
The nice men are all
ugly.
The handsome men are not nice. The
handsome and nice men are gay.
The handsome,
nice and heterosexual men are married. The men who are
not so handsome, but
are nice men, have no money. The men who are not so
handsome, but are nice me
with money, think we are only after their money.
The handsome men without
money are after our money. The handsome men, who
are not so nice and somewhat
heterosexual, don't think we are beautiful
enough. The men who think we are
beautiful, that are heterosexual, somewhat
nice and have money, are cowards.
The men who are somewhat handsome,
somewhat nice and have some money and,
thank God, are heterosexual, are shy
and never make the first
move.
The men who never make the first
move, automatically lose interest in
us when we take the
initiative.
Men are like a fine wine. They
all start out like grapes, and it's our
job to stomp on them and keep them in
the dark until they mature into
something you'd like to have dinner
with.
Some of these problems afflict men
in equal measure.
But what I am very keen to
investigate is just how men like Godfrey
Nzira, the Chitungwiza sect leader
sentenced by a Harare magistrate to an
effective 32 years in jail for rape,
manage to hoodwink the women into
believing they are men of
God.
Rasputin, the Russian monk, did a
similar job with Czar Nicolas's wife
and I daresay they are men who have
fallen prey to women possessed of the
same sort of
guile.
The equality between men and women in
everything, except their
biological make-up, would seem to be fairly
incontestable.
In many countries,
especially the developed world, women have fought
long and hard to free
themselves from the stigma of being the weaker sex in
every
department.
In Africa, the battle of the sexes
is likely to be long and hard.
Women like Jocelyn Chiwenga are not likely to
help matters at all. Their
concept of feminism seems to be steeped in the
Zanu PF concepts of
everything - there has to be violence and force for
anything to succeed.
The hero-worship of
the president of the party among the women members
is no different from that
of Kamuzu Banda's Mbumba.
Margaret Dongo, who
refused to be a Zanu PF wallflower in Parliament -
part of the dzepfunde
sycophants another former Zanu PF woman MP, Mavis
Chidzonga, spoke of - was
repaid for her assertiveness by expulsion from the
party of
Yeschef.
The struggle for women's rights
in Zimbabwe cannot be entrusted to
Zanu PF, a distinctly patriarchal party,
like the society in which it was
bred. Only extraordinary measures will have
an impact on the citadel of male
chauvinism that underpins the domination of
society by men.
So far, there has been no
real champion of women's rights in Zimbabwe.
For that matter, nowhere in
Africa has any woman emerged who has so
challenged the male domination of
politics that she had presidents trembling
in their long
johns.
Which is why the women of Africa
must gird their loins for a long,
hard
struggle.
In Zimbabwe, they could start by not
submitting meekly to beatings by
the police. They could follow this up by
stripping naked when demonstrating
against some wrong done to
them.
That could really stun the leader
who has some of them assembled like
she-goats for him at the airport. There,
he regales them with his latest
exploits and they lap it
up.
Their children, meanwhile, must weep tears
of shame and humiliation at
that
spectacle.
bsaidi@dailynews.co.zw
VOA
Zimbabwe Opposition Vows More
Mass Action If Democracy Not Restored
Peta
Thornycroft
Harare
25 Mar 2003, 17:28 UTC
The head of
Zimbabwe's opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change,
said his
party plans to resume mass action at the end of the month if its
demands for
democracy are not met. The warning by Morgan Tsvangirai follows
a government
crackdown after a two-day strike last week paralyzed Zimbabwe's
two largest
cities.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said the level of repression
in Zimbabwe
is unacceptable.
Hundreds of people were arrested after
last week's strike and many other
people were severely beaten. Most of the
attacks took place in the
working-class suburbs around Harare. In interviews
with the media and human
rights workers, many of those who were beaten said
government soldiers were
responsible for the attacks.
The Movement for
Democratic Change has given the government until March 31
to meet its demands
for greater political freedom. It is calling for, among
other things, a
return to the rule of law and lifting of repressive security
legislation. If
there is no response from the government by the end of the
month, Mr.
Tsvangirai says the opposition will call for more mass action.
But the
MDC leader also held out an olive branch. He said his party is
willing to
enter into talks with the government to discuss how to solve
Zimbabwe's
political and economic crisis.
Last year, in an effort to ease tensions
in Zimbabwe, officials in Nigeria
and South Africa arranged talks between the
ruling ZANU-PF and the Movement
for Democratic Change. But just before the
talks were to take place, ZANU-PF
said it was not going to
participate.
Government rhetoric against the opposition has recently
intensified.
Following last week's strike, President Mugabe called the MDC a
terrorist
organization and vowed that it would be
crushed.
Telegraph
'Hitler' Mugabe launches revenge
terror attacks
By Peta Thornycroft in
Harare
(Filed: 26/03/2003)
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has compared himself to Adolf
Hitler.
At the state funeral of one of his cabinet ministers, Mr Mugabe
said: "I am still the Hitler of the time. This Hitler has only one objective,
justice for his own people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the
independence of his people, and their right to their resources.
|
|
Sexually assaulted: Patricia Mukonda in hospital
yesterday |
"If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold. Ten times,
that is what we stand for."
Hours later members of the Zimbabwe National Army, including Mr
Mugabe's elite force, the Presidential Guard, began a pre-dawn rampage in
revenge for the opposition
general strike last week.
The attacks left more than 250 people injured, scores of them
seriously, but victims remained defiant yesterday. Patricia Mukonda, 27, a
secretary at the head office of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change,
needed hospital treatment.
Up to 60 members of the Guard and other soldiers arrived in two
armoured personnel carriers in Mabvuku, a working class suburb east of Harare,
and attacked under cover of darkness.
Bursting into her house, they accused her of burning three buses
during the two-day strike.
"They beat me all over," she said, adding that she was sexually
assaulted with a baton while her six-year-old son was forced to watch.
"They said I was [MDC leader Morgan] Tsvangirai's prostitute,"
she said.
"They roped me to the window sill, took a glass and broke it, and
pushed my left arm on to it and I fainted. They heard a woman crying and rushed
out and my brother came in and took me to a field, and I slept."
Miss Mukonda, who is chairman of her local residents' association
and has been arrested five times, said the soldiers promised to return to
Mabvuku and kill 20 people by the end of the month.
"They have to come at night when we are sleeping, when we are
weak," she said. "What hurts my mind is that I am in hospital, and I should be
revenging. I will be the first soldier of the MDC."
The United States condemned the regime's actions and said the
attacks were directly linked to Mr Mugabe's "Hitler" remarks.
President George W Bush has frozen the assets of Mr Mugabe and 76
other government officials, accusing them of undermining
democracy.
Independent (UK)
Zimbabwe MP describes eight-hour police
torture
By Basildon Peta Southern Africa Correspondent
26 March
2003
Job Sikhala was called the "roaring lion" because of his
powerful oratory.
He helped establish the Movement for Democratic Change as
the most serious
challenge to President Robert Mugabe since Zimbabwe gained
its independence
from Britain in 1980.
At political rallies, he roared
the MDC's slogans and the crowd would roar
back. He was the warm-up act for
the party's leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. His
name on the posters would
guarantee a full house at MDC rallies.
But Mr Sikhala, 30, an MP and
senior member of the party's executive
committee, is now a shadow of his
former self. After being tortured by Mr
Mugabe's police, he says his life
will never be the same again.
Speaking about his ordeal for the first
time yesterday in the Johannesburg
clinic where he is now getting specialist
treatment, Mr Sikhala warned that
while the world focuses on Iraq, President
Mugabe is intensifying his reign
of terror. An unprecedented crackdown has
been launched against the
opposition, with more than 500 people jailed since
Sunday.
Mr Sikhala described how police raided his home in the Harare
suburb of St
Mary's two months ago and assaulted everyone present, including
his wife who
had just given birth. They took him to Harare Central Police
Station and
accused him of plotting to overthrow President Mugabe. The
allegations were
later dropped in court.
After being kept overnight in
a police cell, he was taken to an unknown
location where he was subjected to
eight uninterrupted hours of torture. He
says he was thrown into a dirty room
with blood splattered all over the
walls. He too would lose much of his blood
there, he was told.
Two men took turns to beat the soles of his feet with
wooden planks. "They
then applied electric shocks to my genitals and tongue,"
Mr Sikhala said
yesterday. "The more I cried, the more they inflicted the
pain, saying I had
not cried enough. They would at times apply the electric
shocks to my
genitals, tongue, toes and fingers at the same time."
His
torturers urinated on him as he lay on the floor. "At that moment I
urinated
myself also," he said. They then forced him to drink all the urine
to dry the
floor, he said. He was also forced to drink what he thinks was
a
poison.
He heard his torturers talking about drowning him in a
reservoir. They drove
him back to Harare Central Police Station, where he was
charged with
plotting against the state. As soon as he was released,
supporters took him
away for hospital treatment.
Now he suffers from
persistent headaches, nightmares and hallucinations and
severe
forgetfulness.
Taurayi Magaya, 33, a district chairman of the MDC, was
arrested on the same
night as Mr Sikhala and was subjected to the same
torture for a similar
eight-hour period.
"I now feel like a mad man,"
he said. "At night I run from my home under the
influence of
nightmares."
He says he suffers from severe stomach pains, after drinking
"strange"
liquids under torture, as well as "permanent headaches".
The
third torture victim at the clinic would not be interviewed because he
does
not want to remember his trauma. But all three consider themselves
lucky -
because of their political status they could get treatment. But
ordinary
party members in remote rural areas had no such help, they
warned.
The
Star
Tensions rise after
Zimbabwean torture
March 25,
2003
By Brian
Latham
Harare - After a weekend of
midnight police raids on suspected members
of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement
for Democratic Change, tensions have risen
in the
city.
Adding to opposition anger were
reports of widespread torture in
police cells of hundreds of activists seized
from their homes by police and
shadowy state agents
yesterday.
Meanwhile full-colour pictures
showing the grotesquely tortured
buttocks of 60-year-old Isabelle Gardiner
drew angry gasps from a
horrified
public.
Gardiner, whose
husband manages a farm leased by MDC MP Roy Bennett
just east of Harare, was
subjected to hours of torture by people wearing
army
uniforms.
Zimbabwe National Army
spokesperson Colonel Ben Ncube denied soldiers
had been involved in the
assault on the Gardiner family and several
farmworkers last
week.
The attack, which witnesses said was
carried out after three armoured
military vehicles swooped on the farm, saw
the murder of farm guard Steven
Tonera.
"We've sent our teams to investigate the issue, but at the moment we
found
out that there was no such incident at the farm," Ncube told
the
state-controlled Herald newspaper.
Still, one murder and several documented beatings of people rushed to
Harare
hospitals testify differently, say MDC
activists.
The action, together with what it
describes as hundreds of arrests in
reprisal for last week's mass action, has
been condemned by human rights
organisation Amnesty
International.
Amnesty said it was very
concerned for the safety of Zimbabweans over
the
next
10
days.
The reprisals against the opposition
come in the wake of last week's
MDC-organised mass action and ahead of two
important by-elections.
Meanwhile
Zimbabwean police admitted that 160 people had been arrested
following the
mass action, although MDC activists say the figure is
higher.
The arrests and torture come as
President Robert Mugabe warned the
opposition it would be "consumed by
fire".
Speaking at the funeral of former
education minister Swithun
Mombeshora, Mugabe said: "Let the MDC and its
leaders be warned that those
who play with fire will not only be burnt, but
consumed by that fire. Read
us
correctly."
According to the underground
movement Zvakwana ("It's enough" in the
Shona language), more than 250 people
have been admitted to Harare's Avenues
Clinic since the
stayaway.
Many of the victims told how they
were warned during their attacks not
to report the incidents to hospitals or
human rights organisations, said a
Zvakwana
statement.
Meanwhile the MDC and Women of
Zimbabwe Arise both reported the case
of a woman who had been sexually
assaulted by a rifle-toting soldier.
Accounts of horrific ordeals at the hands of soldiers, police and
Zanu-PF
gangs continue to emerge on a daily basis.
Meanwhile MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi said his party knew
that
Zanu-PF was responsible for the violence against MDC
members.
He said Mugabe should take full
responsibility for the "senseless
barbarism". - Independent Foreign
Service