Zim police bungled arms cache case - minister

IOL

          March 25 2006 at 03:04PM

      Harare - Police in Zimbabwe "bungled" investigations into a stash of
arms discovered in the east of the country early this month, a high-ranking
minister was quoted as saying Saturday.

      National Security Minister Didymus Mutasa said the fact that terrorism
charges had been dropped against all but one suspect in the case did not
mean "there was no offence".

      Early in March, police in the city of Mutare arrested nine people,
including four members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) and four policemen, after arms were found at the home of a white
security expert, Michael Hitschmann.

      The police said the men wanted to overthrow President Robert Mugabe's
government but it later transpired that Hitschmann was a registered arms
dealer. The opposition said the charges were trumped-up and meant to disrupt
an MDC congress due later in the month.

       Only Hitschmann remains in custody. He was denied bail by a High
Court judge on Thursday.

      Mutasa claimed there was a "mishandling" of the matter by the police.

      "The arms that are being discovered are intended to remove from power
those that are in power," he insisted in an interview. He said the
investigating police had tried to help some of the suspects because they
were policemen themselves.

      "We are taking observations of situations like the arms discovery in
Mutare, we do not think that was an isolated incident," he said.

      "There is a possibility that there are similar incidents going in
other areas of this country." - Sapa-dpa

Compulsory and Essential Damages Survey Form

From: "Justice for Agriculture" <justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw>
Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 5:17 AM
Subject: Compulsory and Essential Damages Survey Form

The questionnaire attached to this letter is a very important
document.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

This is a questionnaire on the experiences of farmers and their workers,
and is the first stage of a three-stage research process being undertaken
by JAG. The data from this questionnaire will be supplemented by some
interviews with people who are available in Zimbabwe. This stage of the
research process aims at being able to give a complete overview of what
has happened for farmers and farm workers over the past 5 years. It is
the simple story of what happened, and is similar to the kinds of
research studies done recently on Operation Murambatsvina.

The second stage will involve the compilation of a dossier for submission
to various human rights bodies in the world. After receiving back your
completed questionnaire, JAG's lawyers will reconfigure your
submissions into the form of an affidavit.  This affidavit will be
returned to you, for you to attach your signature in the presence of a
lawyer, who will then attach his/her stamp and signature.

These affidavits will be used by JAG as supporting evidence when we
present our demands for compensation for damages to various international
human rights bodies.

The final stage is the ongoing completion and compilation of the Loss
Claims Document, which will aim at the longer term and the possibility of
a compensation/restitution process for the loss of land and damages.

Nothing in this questionnaire is meant to contradict or supplant the Loss
Claims Document, and it is only meant for advocacy and lobbying purposes
only.

All the findings from this first stage will be compiled into a detailed
report on the experiences of farmers and their workers. The report will
be as widely circulated as possible so that all relevant bodies and
parties are aware of the extent of the damages and losses incurred by
farmers and their workers over the past 5 years. All names and farm
identities will be protected and held in the strictest confidence.

Please read the instructions for completing this questionnaire. We do not
believe that it is a very difficult questionnaire, and we have tried to
keep it as simple as we can without losing important material. It does
not ask for the detail of your experiences - not because we believe that
these are not important, but because it would make the questionnaire into
a Loss Claims Document, which is designed to follow this initative.

With your support this is a challenge we will win.  This is the first
stage in the battle in the war for justice and restitution

Instructions for completing this Questionnaire.

Firstly, remember this is a survey and not a loss document, so you merely
give answers to the best of your memory. You do not need to refer to any
documents or records that you have.

Secondly, just rely on the best memory that you have about events and
losses and amounts of money.

Thirdly, when it comes to estimating damages in money, just work with the
best "ball-park" US$ figures of the value at the time that things were
stolen or lost or whatever. Use your memory as best that you can and do
not try to go to records. This is what will be done in the Loss Claims
Document, and any views that you express in this questionnaire will not
conflict or invalidate statements that you make in the Loss Claims
Document.

Personal information:

If you wish all this information to be confidential or anonymous, please
leave blank the sections relating to your name and the name of your
farm.  This information will be kept confidential anyway.

Section 1:

This section deals with the human rights violations experienced by you,
and your family. It is meant to get statistical information about the
events, and is not meant to be a human rights report in the sense of the
details of what happened to you. This will enable us to compare the
experiences of the farmers with similar experiences of other victim
groups in Zimbabwe over the same time period.

Section 2:

This section deals with the human rights violations experienced by your
employees. It is meant to get statistical information about the events,
and is not meant to be a human rights report in the sense of the details
of what happened to them. This will enable us to compare the experiences
of farm workers with similar experiences of other victim groups in
Zimbabwe over the same time period.

Section 3:

This section deals with the various ways in which you attempted to get
the support of the courts and the law enforcement agencies in dealing
with various illegalities. Again, it is an attempt to get a statistical
overview of what happened and not a human rights report. This will leave
out many very important personal details about your experience, but these
details will be compiled later in the Loss Claims Document.

Section 4:

This section deals with the losses and damages that you incurred. As
indicated above, you should rely on your memory and not see this as
requiring either the detail or the exactness required in the Loss Claims
Document. Here we are trying to get an economic estimate of the damages
as a whole, but only an estimate, as the full details of the losses and
the damages will emerge in due course from the Loss Claims Document.

Remember, as we said in the covering letter, we are primarily trying to
tell the story of the experiences of farmers and farm workers over the
past 5 years. The information will fill in the gaps in the international
community and public's knowledge of what happened, and tell the most
complete story of what happened.
QUESTIONNAIRE ON THE EXPERIENCES OF COMMERCIAL FARMERS AND FARM WORKERS.

Date:

Name:

Age:

Nationality:

ID Number:

Address:

Telephone Numbers:

Cellphone Numbers:

YES

NO

Were you forced to renounce your previous Zimbabwe citizenship?

Name of farm:

Province:

District

YES

NO

Are you still living on the farm?

What number of full-time employees did you have?

What number of part-time employees did you have?

What number of employees family members lived on the farm?

YES

NO

Do you know who currently occupies your farm?

Was this person directly involved in any actions involved in taking over
your farm or in evicting you?

1. Personal:

1.1 Have you or any of your family experienced any of the
following?

YES

No of people affected

Murder

Assault

Torture

Rape

Unlawful arrest [arrest without a charge]

Unlawful detention [detention longer than 48 hours]

Abduction or kidnapping

Disappearance

Death threats

Forced attendance at political meetings

Political intimidation

Held hostage

Forced to join ZanuPF or make contributions to ZanuPF

Had pet animals killed or maimed

Deliberate killing or maiming of wildlife

Displacement

2.1 Perpetrators:

Where any of the following involved in the above?

YES

No of people involved

Police

Uniformed Branch

Riot Squad

Support Unit

CID

PISI

Army

CIO

War Veteran

Youth Militia

ZanuPF member

Farm employee

Member of Parliament

Provincial Governor

Provincial Administrator

District Administrator

Member of President's Office

Other [specify]

2. Workers:

2.1 Have any of your employees of their families
experienced any of the following?

YES

No of people affected

Murder

Assault

Torture

Rape

Unlawful arrest [arrest without a charge]

Unlawful detention [detention longer than 48 hours]

Abduction or kidnapping

Disappearance

Death threats

Forced attendance at political meetings

Political intimidation

Held hostage

Forced to join ZanuPF or make contributions to ZanuPF

Young persons forced to join ZanuPF Youth

Denied food relief if not member of ZanuPF

Specific intimidation of workers in authority on the farm

Displacement

2.2.  Perpetrators:

YES

No of people involved

Police

Uniformed Branch

Riot Squad

Support Unit

CID

PISI

Army

CIO

War Veteran

Youth Militia

ZanuPF member

Farm employee

Member of Parliament

Provincial Governor

Provincial Administrator

District Administrator

Member of President's Office

Other[specify]

3. Legal actions:

YES

NO

Did you object to the designation of your farm?

Did you contest your designation in the Administrative court?

Date that legal challenge made

YES

NO

Did you acquiesce or concede under duress to the acquisition of part or
the whole of your farm?

Were you forcibly evicted from your farm?

YES

NO

Did you ever obtain a court order to continue using your farm free from
interference?

Date of court order(s)

Number of court order(s)

How much in US$ have you spent on legal fees and lawyers?

YES

NO

Did you ever try to get the police to enforce a court order?

Number of times

YES

NO

Was it successful?

YES

NO

Did you ever try to get the police to stop violence or intimidation
against yourself or your workers?

Number of times

YES

NO

Were the police ever helpful?

Number of times

YES

NO

Did you ever see the police intimidated themselves?

Were sympathetic or professional policemen transferred away or removed
from duties?

4. Damages suffered:

4.1 Farm owner:

Loss of property

Value in US$

Estimate in US$ the value of all moveable property stolen, or damaged
beyond repair by illegal actions. Include forced sales due to extortion.

Loss of property from burnings

Value in US$

Estimate in US$ the value of all immovable and moveable property burned
completely or damaged beyond repair by illegal actions.

Loss of livestock

Value in US$

Estimate in US$ the value of all livestock stolen or killed illegally.

Crops

Value in US$

Estimate in US$ the value of all crops stolen or destroyed.

                Loss of earnings

Value in US$

Estimate in US$ the amount of total income lost in the time that you have
been unable to conduct normal farming operations.

NOTE: This should be purely profits after tax and should be based on the
last full and unaffected farming year. It should also include anticipated
increases in profits were you able to have continued farming.

Costs of medical treatment

Value in US$

Estimate in US$ the amount of medical expenses incurred by your family or
your workers from injuries due to violence.

4.2 Farm workers:

YES

Number

Were any of your employees forced to renounce their citizenship?

Redundancy pay

Value in US$

How much in US$ did you pay out to your former employees when you had to
leave your farm?

Wages lost

Value in US$

Estimate the total amount of wages in US$ that your full-time and
part-time employees have lost since you had to discontinue farming.

Note: This should be based on the last full farming year.

YES

NO

Did your employees lose their homes due to illegal destruction or
burning?

Did your employees lose property due to theft or extortion?

Social amenities Lost

YES

NO

             Did you provide any of the following for your workers?

Solid structure housing [brick]

Toilet facilities

Piped water

Electricity and/or lights

Vegetable gardens

Farm store

Creche

Orphanage or orphan care

Adult education

Sponsored sport

Social benefits Lost

YES

NO

How many pupils?

Did you provide a school on your farm?

Did you subsidise children attending another school if you had no school
on your farm?

Has the school been downsized?

Has the school been closed?

Social Benefits Lost

YES

How much in US$ did the school cost per year?

Did you have a school on your farm?

Social Benefits Lost

YES

How much in US$ did the clinic & medical cost per year?

Did you have a clinic & medical care on your farm?

How much in US$ did this cost per year?

Did you provide AIDS awareness training/teaching on your farm?

Deaths

Number died

Do you know how many of your former employees have died since losing
their jobs on the farm?

Do you know how many direct family members of your former employees have
died since losing their jobs on the farm?

Zimbabwe Asks UN for $277 Million Humanitarian Aid

VOA

By Patience Rusere
      Washington
      24 March 2006

Officials in the United Nations office for emergency relief coordination say
they have raised US$3 million and gotten pledges for another $6 million in
response to an appeal from Harare and 46 nongovernmental organizations for
some $277 million.

The February appeal to the UN represented something of a U-turn for the
government which had previously declined to issue such appeals and
characterized such aid as supplementary to state resources, which it
insisted were adequate to needs.

Most of the funding will be spent on food aid, said Fambai Girande, a
spokesman for the National Association of Nongovernmental Organizations,
which coordinated the requests of local and international NGOs and worked
with the Ministry of Public Service, Labor and Social Welfare in formulating
the request to the U.N.

Ngirande told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
whatever the state of Harare's relations with the U.N., aid is urgently
needed.

Cost of living continues to soar and maize deficit forecast for the 2006/07 consumption year

24 Mar 2006 16:42:00 GMT Source: FEWS NET

Cost of living continues to soar and maize deficit forecast for the 2006/07 consumption year

FULL-SIZE IMAGE

Sustainable dams help fight hunger in Zimbabwe

25 Mar 2006 03:31:00 GMT

Source: CARE - USA

Kenneth Walker

Website: http://care.org

Uranda Village holds one of the most popular food security projects in
Zimbabwe. Many people chronically go hungry in this country - especially in
semi-arid regions with unreliable rains. In the early 1990s, CARE began
helping communities build a series of gravity driven dams to provide
irrigation for community gardens.

In the village of Uranda, nearly 200 households came together 22 years ago
to start a community garden that was irrigated by a diesel pump dam financed
by the Japanese government.

The fuel crisis in Zimbabwe made diesel either too expensive or not
available at all. Village leaders then contacted CARE to see if they might
benefit from the gravity driven dams the humanitarian organization had made
famous.

CARE provided the technical support to survey the area and locate the new
garden downhill from the dam, and is also providing the plastic piping to
transport the water. CARE helps train residents in proper maintenance of the
dam to prevent silting and other problems.

The community will use the garden to grow vegetables, wheat and corn. Three
quarters of the crops are sold to local markets, schools and clinics. The
rest is consumed in the village.

The dam is located in south eastern Zimbabwe in a province that usually
experiences drought and unreliable rainfall. The dam enables the community
to harvest crops twice a year, double what is normal in the area.

Vongayi Mukodzi is the chairperson of the community garden. Ida Mbizo chairs
the marketing committee.

In addition to the garden, the villages have a savings and loan program
(VS&L), which they started to avoid the hyper inflation Zimbabwe is
experiencing. The organization makes bulk purchases of commodities, like
sugar, peanut butter, beer, etc, whose prices are rapidly increasing. This
enables members to stay at least even with inflation by selling the
commodities at the new higher price.

"We are poor but we work very hard," says Mukodzi, citing the use of
anthills for fertilizer instead of commercial varieties as an example of the
group's innovations.

One impact of the gardens has been to produce a new generation of women
leaders, as most of those who formed the community organizations are women.
Mukodzi's leadership is praised by all in the village, even by men who were
not used to taking orders from women.

Ezekiel Dunira maintains the dam and is the chairperson of the building
committee. "It was unusual for women to be in charge in this village and to
give instructions to men. We men started by helping our wives in the garden.
So we came to accept that we could be led by women.

Helping the men find acceptance is CARE's leadership training that includes
gender and cultural issues.

CARE has helped build 150 dams and community gardens in two Zimbabwe
provinces, Masvingo and Midlands. It is becoming increasingly difficult to
discuss the gardens and dams in isolation.

Tafirenyika Kakono, CARE's Assistant Country Director, says "our mission in
Zimbabwe is to adopt an integrated strategy. Poverty can't be reduced by one
program. We need all the programs to run alongside each other. While we are
designing the garden, we integrate clean water programs. We build small
warehouses for seed banks so the gardens can renew themselves every year.
Also, when we organize the gardens, we always set aside plots to benefit
schools, orphans and people who are chronically ill.

"The impact is greater if you have a more holistic connection with other
programs. So we help the villages use the community gardens as food security
and income generation."

"Finally," Kakono said, "we help the members of the community garden set up
VS&L committees," - CARE's highly effective micro credit finance projects.

"The VS&L gives the community the resources to build bigger businesses and
expand their markets."

Kakono says, "We have learned that in order to really alleviate poverty, it
is essential to take a coordinated approach in one entity." The process of
integration is only a couple of years old, and Kakono says while benefits
are immediately apparent, the full effects will be felt in the years ahead.

Rodents feast on Registrar General's office

zimbabwejournalists.com

      By Ian Nhuka in Bulawayo

      The Registrar General's Office is almost broke amid revelations that
      the department has run out of critical stationery while rodents have
eaten important documents in Bulawayo because of lack of proper filing
equipment.

      In a development that highlights the general bankruptcy of President
      Robert Mugabe's embattled government, the lack of a special type of
stationery means that the department is unable even to register newly born
babies. This came to light during a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on
Defence and Home Affairs visit to the Registrar General's Office in
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city on Friday.

      An official in the department, Shadreck Zvimba told the committee that
the office in Bulawayo has lost important documents because rodents were
feasting on them, as there are no proper filing cabinets. The legislators'
visit also revealed that the Registrar General's department is crippled
because of a critical shortages of manpower. Zvimba said the department has
for the past three-months gone without forms called BD1A, which are, used in
the processing of birth certificates for newly born babies.

      "We have not been able to get the forms for the past three months but
fortunately birth certificates are being issued because we made
      arrangements with hospitals," Zvimba told the parliamentary committee.
      He added that shortage of manpower is compromising the office's
      capacity to process national identity and travel documents within a
reasonable time. Zvimba said for example, 12 officers instead of 30 manned
the Bulawayo provincial registry office.

      As a result passport applicants have been forced to wait for more than
six months to get the documents.  More and more Zimbabweans are applying for
passports to enable them to flee economic decay in the country amid reports
that more than 4 million people may have left the country over the past six
years. Willard Sayenda, the provincial registrar for Matabeleland North
province highlighted that application forms for ordinary passports received
last October have not been processed because of the shortage of manpower and
      money to buy stationery.

Zimbabwe sets aside 45 million dollars for fertilizer imports

People's Daily

      The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has organized lines of credit worth
45 million U.S. dollars for the importation of more than 80,000 tons of
fertilizer to ease shortages on the local market, a government official said
on Friday.

      The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Simon
Pazvakavambwa, said the ministry had stepped up imports of the critical
input to boost the agricultural sector's performance, which has been on the
decline since 2000.

      "We are in the process of importing 80,000 tons of urea and ammonium
nitrate fertilizer which were in short supply," Pazvakavambwa said.

      He said the central bank was also putting together funds to pay for
maize imports delivered in January this year.

      Due to poor performance of the sector, last year alone the government
channeled at least 600 million dollars toward the importation of grain.

      Vice President, Joice Mujuru, recently said Zimbabwe would not be
importing grain from January next year as the country is expected to harvest
enough for its requirements after a good rain season.

      Agricultural production in Zimbabwe has been affected in the past five
years by movements due to the land reform exercise, recurrent droughts and
shortage of inputs resulting in late plantings.

      The situation compelled government to import grain to avert starvation
among the majority of Zimbabweans.

      At its peak, the agricultural sector accounted for about 16.5 percent
of gross domestic product, 33 percent of foreign exchange earnings and 26
percent of employment.

      Source: Xinhua

Horrified by hysteria over Arthur's robotics

----- Original Message -----
From: "Trudy Stevenson"
Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 9:47 PM
Subject: Horrified by hysteria over Arthur's robotics

The Zimbabwe Independent -  The Leading Business Weekly

 Saturday, 25 March 2006 01:29 PM

 Horrified by hysteria over Arthur's robotics

AS a former teacher whose students aspired to the same heights as NASA
scientists — whatever their field — as a mother whose son is scarcely
younger than Arthur Mutambara, and as a Zimbabwean who has been searching
for someone to lead us out of the darkness into the promised land we have
all longed for since the liberation war years, I must say that I am both
astonished and horrified by the reaction to Mutambara’s academic background
and arrival on the Zimbabwe political scene.

I believe that we need to open up our hearts and minds to those we have
nurtured — and who better than a son of our own soil, a home-grown Rhodes
and Fulbright scholar?

Rhodes scholarships are not ten-a-penny, nor are they for the narrow
academic. They are awarded to people considered capable of becoming future
leaders in the global sense.

Among Rhodes scholars we find Edward de Bono (parallel thinking), astronomer
Hubble, former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali as well as some
Zimbabweans.

Likewise, Fulbright scholarships (Fulbright was himself a Rhodes scholar),
while being appointed a Martin Luther King professor is an honour many
Zimbabweans would surely be proud of.

This should give us a hint that Mutambara is no ordinary man. But the
hysteria over his area of specialisation — robotics and rocket science — is
frankly shameful.

It betrays an ignorance I do not believe Zimbabwe is guilty of, and I would
therefore plead with my fellow Zimbabweans to think again before dismissing
the usefulness of robotics in Zimbabwe — not to mention the capacity of a
brain so trained to apply itself to other areas.

My own brother studied robotics — it is simply the science of creating
machines which use artificial intelligence to carry out tasks normally done
by human beings. Computerised car factories are a prime example of robotics
in action. I am not sure that the "one-armed bandits" in casinos are another
less salubrious example!

Would we be happier if he had degrees in violence, which another Zimbabwean
boasts about? Or perhaps we would prefer someone who simply boasts of being
the MDC, and of holding the key to the party?

Cultures differ over titles received and used. In Italy people will call you
Dottore or Ingegnere if you are merely a professional. American PhDs do not
use the title doctor, while in Zimbabwe former ambassadors insist on
retaining the title ambassador!

In the global village, perhaps anything goes, so I fail to see why there is
such anger over "professor".

His own combative style and seething anger have also been attacked, but this
is entirely justified in the face of the regime’s dirty tricks and its
criminal failure to care for its people.

As for NASA, the Rotary exchange student rooming next to my daughter at UCT
was a NASA administrator. That did not make him an American spy, but it did
reflect his social and academic standing as an outstanding young person,
because NASA can take its pick from the cream all over the world.

I believe that Zimbabwe should be proud to have a son of our soil working
for NASA, for however short a period and in whatever capacity. That is
exactly the level we believe our own citizens are capable of — and the level
we encourage our children to attain internationally.

So what is wrong with Mutambara having succeeded in that endeavour? We
should all be celebrating, not looking for skeletons in his cupboard!

I believe Mutambara has many positive secrets he has not yet shared with us.
A Namibian athlete told me recently that she knows him as a supporter and
funder for the Special Olympics, but he has not even mentioned this, so far.

Gaudeamus igitur! Let us therefore praise famous Zimbabweans and rejoice
that one of our own illustrious sons has been brave and patriotic enough to
come back home to take up our liberation struggle for the new Zimbabwe of
freedom, justice, equality, solidarity and democracy. It was long overdue.

Trudy Stevenson
MDC MP and Secretary for Policy and Research,
Harare.

(*some typo editions to my letter made by ZimInd have been edited out -They
were incorrect.)