euobserver
Calls for EU to boycott
Zimbabwe
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Zimbabwean opposition leaders
are to ask the EU to
impose a South African style trade boycott on businesses
linked to the
regime of Robert Mugabe.
In an interview with the
EUobserver, Sekai Holland, the secretary for
International Affairs of the
Zimbabwean opposition said a list of
individuals and companies would be
presented to the EU in the next few
weeks.
The proposal, if taken on
board by the EU, would represent a significant
ramping-up of current
sanctions.
The union currently imposes punitive sanctions, including
travel
restrictions, on Mr Mugabe and 71 of his closest allies, including his
wife.
The new measures would affect financial supporters of the ruling
Zanu PF,
both in Zimbabwe and in Europe.
There are a number of
businessmen making money for the government abroad
according to Ms Holland -
of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
"There is even one man in London
who is selling the Daily News" she said -
referring to a paper which is
banned in Zimbabwe for its anti-government
views.
Last year the New
Zealand government announced that it would impose
sanctions similar to those
now being put forward, listing 142 officials and
business associates of the
ruling Zanu PF.
Developments
In addition to cutting essential
financial backing for his regime, Ms
Holland says a similar move by the EU
would help turn the screws on Mr
Mugabe, whose grip on power appears to be
weakening. But the MDC is also
fighting to get Zimbabwe on the world's
agenda.
With growing involvement from regional power brokers, South
Africa and
Nigeria, and some European policy makers asking for 'African
solutions to
African problems', "the fear", says Ms Holland, "is that the EU
will start
to backslide". There may be evidence to back this
claim.
Despite the travel ban, a technicality coupled with political
manoeuvring
allowed the French government to invite Mr Mugabe to travel to
Paris earlier
this year, infuriating the MDC and some European capitals, most
notably
London.
Similarly the Zimbabwean Trade Minister, Samuel
Mumbengegwi, who is also on
the EU's list of undesirables, is to attend an
ACP-EU ministerial meeting in
Brussels this week, according to a spokesperson
for Harare.
Clampdown
The more Mr Mugabe's façade of power seems to be
weakening, the more he
tries to reinforce the 23 year-old edifice. Recent
weeks have seen his
government clamp down hard on dissidents and
journalists.
But even with his loosening grip Mr Mugabe's actions are
still setting the
agenda. As Africans consider who could replace him as
leader, Africa's
colonial legacy has once again become the centre of
debate.
The MDC, although championing resistance against Mr Mugabe, has
been accused
of betraying pan-African ideals by seeking outside
intervention.
Ms Holland, a former war veteran denies this. "This is not
an African
problem, it is a human problem".
"[Mr] Mugabe has denied
Zimbabweans the right to vote and express opinion
which the nationalists
fought and died for...he is a super-Rhodesian".
News24
US journo out of hiding
13/05/2003
20:07 - (SA)
Harare - A US journalist who has long been based
in Zimbabwe, Andrew
Meldrum, handed himself in to immigration for an
interview on Tuesday.
He was asked to hand over his passport and
residency permit while he went
back to write a letter stating that he was a
journalist, Meldrum who works
for Britain's Guardian, told reporters outside
immigration offices in
central Harare.
"They want me to write a letter
stating that I am a journalist... and they
have taken my passport and
resident permit and asked me to come back
tomorrow," he said.
"But I
have been working here for 23 years with proper documentation and I
don't
know what this fuss is all about," he said emerging from a
40-minute
interview with immigration officials.
Immigration officials
went looking for Meldrum on Thursday night, but he was
not at home and
fearing renewed attempts to deport him, his lawyer wrote to
them asking why
they wanted him.
Although he enjoys permanent residency status, the
authorities tried to
deport Meldrum last year after a magistrate's court
acquitted him of writing
falsehoods.
He successfully challenged the
order, which is now pending determination by
the Supreme Court.
On
Tuesday, Meldrum said immigration accused him of giving Zimbabwe a
bad
press.
"Immigration said I had continued to write bad things about
Zimbabwe, which
I denied," he said.
Meldrum said he was "determined"
to carry on with his work.
"I am sticking up for my rights, my legal
rights... not just my rights but
the rights of all journalists in Zimbabwe,"
he said.
He is one of a handful of non-Zimbabwean journalists still
operating in the
country. At least five foreign correspondents have been
forced to leave
Zimbabwe since 2001.
Zimbabwe's Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA)
promulgated by President Robert Mugabe
in March 2002, shortly after he was
re-elected in a contentious vote, forbids
foreign journalists from operating
in the country on a long term
basis.
Evidence
concealed
5/13/03 7:46:53 AM (GMT +2)
Court
Reporter
A TEAM investigating allegations of treason against three senior
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leaders deliberately withheld
evidence that contradicted statements made by the state’s star witness,
Ari Ben-Menashe, a prosecution witness conceded yesterday.
The
revelation was made when the treason trial of MDC leaders Morgan
Tsvangirai,
Welshman Ncube and Renson Gasela resumed at the High Court
yesterday after
breaking off briefly at the end of March.
The opposition party leaders
are charged with conspiring to assassinate
President Mugabe in the run up to
last year’s presidential election,
charges that they have
denied.
Police Assistant Commissioner Moses Magandi, who was part of the
four-member investigating team, told the court that the investigators
had “made a decision” to withhold a transcript that Ben-Menashe claimed
contained evidence of the plot to assissinate Mugabe.
The decision
was made during the compilation of the suspects’ docket and
resulted in the
investigators withholding a transcript prepared by Tara
Thomas, an assistant
at Dickens and Madson, a Canadian-based political
consultancy headed by
Ben-Menashe.
Ben-Menashe alleges that the MDC leaders attermpted to
engage his firm
to assassinate Mugabe.
A meeting held in London
between the opposition party officials and
representatives of Dickens and
Madson was secretly recorded and a
transcript prepared by
Thomas.
Defence lawyers said the police replaced Thomas’ transcript with
“a
vastly poorer” transcript compiled by a government
transcriber.
Under cross-examination by advocate George Bizos, who is
leading the
defence team, Magandi said the original transcript was “so
unintelligible” that they decided to exclude it from their
docket.
“When we looked at the document, we found we could not make head
or tail
of it,” Magandi told the court.
“The document was so
unintelligible, we found it would be of no use to
our investigation,” he
added.
The transcript was part of evidence, including an audio-cassette
and a
mini computer diskette, that Ben-Menashe handed over to a senior
Zimbabwe defence forces official, Air Vice-Marshal Robert
Mhlanga.
Bizos said there was no evidence in the transcript of the
alleged plot
by the MDC officials to assassinate Mugabe and overthrow his
government.
The South African-based defence lawyer said the police had
withheld the
transcript because it proved Ben-Menashe was “an infamous liar”
and that
he had seriously misrepresented the contents of the audio-tape and
transcript.
Magandi conceded during cross-examination that a Press
statement issued
on behalf of the Zimbabwean government by Dickens &
Madson “did not
correspond” with the contents of the audio-tape.
The
Press statement said: “At the meeting (in London) Mr Tsvangirai
again
requested aid in assassinating President Mugabe and arranging a
coup d’
etat.”
Magandi told High Court judge, Justice Paddington Garwe: “What I
can say
is that I could not hear that on the tape.”
Bizos queried
why, if he knew the truth, Magandi allowed Ben-Menashe to
mislead the world
by his claims on television that the tape and
transcript contained evidence
of the alleged assassination plot.
Magandi said he had no power to
prevent Ben-Menashe from making public
statements.
The trial
continues today.
SABC
Zimbabwe police hold opposition protesters:
Party
May 13, 2003,
14:45
Zimbabwe's opposition said police detained nine women today who
refused to
remove T-shirts supporting their leader Morgan Tsvangirai, on
trial for
treason over an alleged plot to assassinate President
Robert
Mugabe.
The nine were among 200 women from the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC)
who marched to the High Court, the party said. Riot police
ordered them to
stop wearing shirts bearing the words: "We are behind you
all the
way".
"The women refused to remove their T-shirts, but were forced to
retreat. They
marched back to their offices and on arrival, some of them
were bundled into
the two police trucks," the MDC said in a
statement.
A police spokesperson could not confirm their detention. Police
have stepped
up security around the Harare court for the trial, which
resumed yesterday
and takes place as Zimbabwe grapples with its worst
political crisis in
decades.
Tsvangirai, MDC leader, and two party colleagues could face the
death penalty
if convicted of the charges, which they allege have been
concocted to
discredit the opposition movement. The MDC accuses Mugabe of
vote rigging in
last year's presidential election and has threatened to lead
street protests
against
him.
In a newspaper advert published today, the MDC women's league
praised the
three defendants as brave political fighters. "We here today,
the women of
the MDC, stand behind our leaders in the struggle against
humanitarian
crimes," the advert said. "You have shown that your bravery and
commitment to
this country and its people knows no bounds. Now it is
our
turn."
Zimbabwe has seen its once vibrant economy all but collapse with
fuel
shortages, inflation well over 200% and about half the population of
14
million facing acute food shortages. - Reuters
Guardian
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zimbabwe
told to 'leave Meldrum alone'
Ciar Byrne
Tuesday May 13,
2003
International press watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres
has called on the
government of Zimbabwe to stop its continuous harassment of
the Guardian's
veteran correspondent in the country, Andrew
Meldrum.
Government officials in Zimbabwe say Meldrum was "wanted for
questioning",
after immigration officials turned up at his home in the
capital Zimbabwe
last Wednesday evening. He was not there.
"Last year
he was thrown into jail like a criminal for two days and then
cleared by the
high court, but security officials are still harassing him,"
said the RSF
secretary-general, Robert Menard.
"He is one of the last foreign
journalists left in the country and is being
very closely watched. The
authorities must leave him alone and let him do
his job freely and
safely."
President Robert Mugabe is one of 42 leaders and organisations
who appeared
on a list of "predators" of press freedom drawn up by RSF to
mark World
Press Freedom Day earlier this month.
Zimbabwe's chief
immigration officer, Elasto Mugwadi, met yesterday with
Meldrum's lawyer for
the first time.
However, two Guardian officials who flew to Zimbabwe last
Friday to attend
Monday's meeting were ordered to leave within 24
hours.
Shaun Williams, director of corporate affairs, and Siobhain
Butterworth,
head of legal affairs, were told that their 30-day visas were
revoked
because they had not sought prior permission from the home minister
before
entering the country to discuss a sensitive issue.
Letters have
been sent to the immigration department signalling Meldrum's
willingness to
be interviewed in working hours at its Harare offices once he
is told what
the questioning is about.
His lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said such
night-time approaches "invariably led
to arrest, detention and
deportation".
Meldrum said at the weekend: "The government thinks that by
trying to
intimidate or deport me, or prevent me from working, they will also
prevent
other journalists who are doing great work."
He was one of the
first journalists prosecuted under new media laws
introduced by President
Mugabe's regime last year, but was acquitted by a
Harare magistrate of
allegations that he published false information about
the
country.
Daily News
Court finally grants bail to murder
suspects
5/13/03 7:59:12 AM (GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
HIGH Court judge, Justice Moses Chinhengo last Wednesday granted
$20 000
bail each to 10 MDC activists who are facing two counts of murder
after
they allegedly threw a petrol bomb in a Chitungwiza house where a
policeman and his relative were sleeping.
The 10 are Albert White,
24, Wellington Manyaya, 32, Morgan Mathuthu,
22, Regis Mutungi, Jealous
Pedzayi, Lillian Dambaza, 28, Francis
Machiridza, younger brother to the
late MDC activist Tonderai, who died
last month as a result of alleged
assault by the police while in
custody, Jonah Machingura, 24, Terrence
Saunyama, 22, and Boniface
Manyonganise, 34.
Chinhengo ordered the 10
to pay $20 000 bail each through the clerk of
court at Chitungwiza
Magistrates Court and also ordered them to report
to St Marys Police
Station once every Friday until the matter was
finalised or the conditions
were varied by the court.
He also ordered them not to interfere with
state witnesses or police
investigations.
The state oppossed bail
arguing that the offence the group was facing
was prevalent and that mit was
likely that they would commit similar
offences if granted
bail.
Defence lawyer Lucky Muchadehama argued that Chitungwiza magistrate
Wynona Kaneta seriously misdirected herself in denying them bail when
they appeared before her on 28 April.
In his notice of appeal against
refusal of bail pending trial,
Muchadehama said: The magistrates reasoning
is premised on the basis
that the appellants were already convicted. She was
no longer
considering bail but already sentencing them to imprisonment
without the
option of a fine before they were even convicted let alone
defend
themselves.
When they appeared for initial remand, the 10
activists were facing two
counts of attempted murder.
Kaneta denied
them bail arguing that they were facing very serious
offences and the
victims were still in hospital.
Allegations against them are that on
Independence Day, the 10 activists
allegedly went to House Number 1667 in St
Marys, where John Makhuli,
30, a member of the neighbourhood watch
committee, and his relative
Wilson Magande, 34, slept.
They allegedly
broke the front door of the house and threw a petrol bomb
through a window,
and destroyed property worth $400 000. Makhuli and
Magande suffered serious
burns and were subsequently admitted at
Chitungwiza General
Hospital.
Both died last week from injuries and burns sustained during
the attack.
Business
Day
Dose of déjà vu in Zimbabwe
impasse
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EVENTS
in Zimbabwe are beginning to seem familiar to those with a sense of
our
country's recent history.
Comparing Zimbabwe's present with our past as
we began to negotiate
democracy offends some because it implies moral
similarity between legalised
racism and the Zanu (PF) government led by
Robert Mugabe.
However, if we put the moral debate aside apartheid was
worse, but that is
no comfort to a worker beaten up for backing the
opposition we do find
strategic parallels.
If these are understood,
commentators, our government, and Zimbabwe's
opposition may be better able to
understand the process and help it.
The key common element is stalemate.
In both cases, an undemocratic
government faces popular resistance but is in
no danger of overthrow. (Those
who claim Zanu (PF) was "democratically
elected" must explain where else
they would tolerate an election in which
government monopolised control of
the process, preventing any opposition
check on it).
It faces rising costs of maintaining its rule but controls
public
administration and is a strong presence in society. In both, the
ruling
party was split between reformers and "hardliners". In both,
serious
negotiation was impossible until both sides grasp- ed they could not
destroy
the other.
This should convince commentators a settlement will
require far more than a
couple of meetings. Already, we are seeing the same
sort of reportage we saw
in our transition euphoria about a quick settlement
replaced by despair when
it does not materialise.
A settlement born of
stalemate cannot, though, be achieved without a process
in which the two
sides recognise that they will have to talk to, and then
that they will need
to live with, each other. We are only at its beginning
and, instead of
proclaiming imminent Utopia followed by inevitable
disappointment, analysts
will need to recognise that a settlement will be
built only out of slow
progress.
How do we tell whether there is progress? That is best answered
by looking
at the lessons the Zimbabwean stalemate holds for our government
and others
trying to broker a settlement and for its opposition.
The
governments need to understand there can be no settlement without
the
opposition: moves to secure a transfer from Mugabe to another Zanu
(PF)
leader without Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) consent will commit
the
same error as the apartheid government bid to bypass the African
National
Congress (ANC), to talk with "moderates".
Nor can there be a
settlement if the power holder places humiliating
preconditions on talking.
Just as negotiation here was impossible as long as
the apartheid government
refused to talk until the ANC renounced violence,
so Mugabe's insistence that
the MDC leader recognise him as the elected
president is an insistence that
the other side capitulate. Once talking
begins, the MDC might make
concessions such as dropping its legal challenge
to the election if it does
not have to endorse the result. But we may know
Zimbabwe's government wants
to talk only when preconditions to talking are
lifted or drastically
softened. Until then, the most that may be possible is
a pretence to
negotiate in the hope of winning the moral high ground, as
seen in stages of
our talks.
The governments must also acknowledge that the opposition
needs
trust-building measures if a settlement is to become possible. Just as
our
negotiations had to be preceded by freeing of political prisoners and
the
unbanning of organisations, so in Zimbabwe an opposition which has
suffered
a sustained assault will need concrete steps towards free political
activity
before it can trust the government enough to compromise with
it.
The governments trying to broker a settlement will, if they want
influence,
also have to show they are serious about demanding that the
Zimbabwe
government shift their actions have ensured they are seen by the
opposition
as establishment allies.
Just as western governments who
were seen to condone apartheid had to show
they could secure concessions from
the government, so will our government
and its partners need to do that in
Zimbabwe.
So progress requires significant concessions by Zimbabwe's
government which
will send a clear signal that the MDC is an indispensable
part of the
process.
If ours and the other governments cannot do this,
the "quiet diplomacy" said
to have brought us this far will not achieve a
free, stable Zimbabwe.
The stalemate also poses challenges for Zimbabwe's
opposition: Zanu (PF) and
key elements of the establishment the military and
public service will have
to be part of a new order just as, here, the ANC's
"sunset clauses" ensured
that elements of the old order played a role in the
new.
Zimbabwe's economic crisis may be severe and the costs of the
crackdown may
grow. But its establishment is not defeated. Nor is it
inevitable that
Mugabe will be replaced by a leader willing to recognise the
opposition:
jockeying for power in Zanu (PF) makes possible his replacement
by someone
even more confrontational. And a new democratic order cannot begin
life
without elements of the existing public administration.
All this
means that only a settlement in which Zanu (PF) presumably led by
its
reformists, and much of the current hierarchy will continue to play
a
significant role, is possible. Even that will call for opposition
strategy
which bolsters ruling party moderates at the expense of
"hardliners".
Like the ANC in our negotiations, Zimbabwe's opposition
will need to balance
two imperatives retaining their only weapon, their
popular support base, and
ensuring that it is part of the process, while
making the concessions which
enable those in the establishment who do accept
a settlement to become party
to one.
A strategy based on the belief
that international pressure and domestic
resistance have brought the state to
its knees may delay democracy and cause
immense damage.
Only when
these government and opposition shifts become visible will we know
that a
settlement is possible. Only when our government, Zimbabwe's
establishment
and the opposition recognise the need to make them will we
know that our
neighbour's pain may be nearing an end.
Friedman is senior research
fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies.
Business
Day
Nature of Mugabe's exit will be a test of SA
resolve
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Having
failed to exert influence by quiet diplomacy, Mbeki needs to steer a
bold
path as Zimbabwe falters
An economy in a tailspin, critical shortages of
basic commodities, clear
signs of rising public frustration and repression,
combined with a
threatened series of mass actions must point to, at the very
least, a
"tilting point" for a regime in power.
The issue for Zimbabwe
now is not whether President Robert Mugabe is on the
verge of a tilting
point, but when and how his regime will exit. The placid
nature of
Zimbabweans has amazed observers of popular upheavals, but recent
mass action
shows that this could be coming to an end.
A fast-contracting economy is
eroding the ability of the ruling Zanu (PF)
regime to pay off those who count
in its power base. Events on the streets
could easily overtake the diplomatic
efforts in coming weeks.
It is always difficult to determine the exact
time or circumstance leading
to the fall of a tyrant, but growing
international and domestic pressures
ultimately translate into the forces of
law and order abandoning the regime
in scenarios of collapse.
Pretoria
insists that Zimbabweans should determine their country's future.
The facts
are that they tried to, but the election was stolen, by most
reliable
accounts. It is SA that could catalyse orderly change and a
transition to
democratic rule in Zimbabwe in coming weeks.
How Zimbabwe's tilting point
will be managed is crucial to the stability of
the region and indeed what
sort of fallout SA will face from the pending
collapse. Avoiding a power
vacuum and disarray has to be a priority for SA.
So far, quiet diplomacy led
by SA and pursued by the region has delivered
greater chances of violent
collapse and chaos than an orderly transition.
Quiet diplomacy has
compromised SA's position as a mediator and potential
peacekeeper in
Zimbabwe. If it ultimately does have to intervene militarily,
that position
means SA troops could be seen by Zimbabweans as backers of
Zanu (PF) rather
than a neutral force of law and order.
The overriding suspicion in the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) is that SA and the renewed
diplomatic push that began last week with a
visit to Harare by President
Thabo Mbeki, Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjo and Malawian President
Bakili Muluzi is more about saving Zanu
(PF)'s skin than ensuring a
transition to elections. The MDC has said it
will give SA a second chance to
mediate. In taking up this second chance, SA
had best act with speed in
bringing about a settlement that can ensure an
orderly transition to free and
fair elections. But days after returning from
Harare, Mbeki sought to quash
speculation that there was pressure on Mugabe.
However, the urgency to
avoid chaos calls for pressure, as there is simply
no time left to defer to
Mugabe's ego and diplomatic niceties. This should
include wide-ranging
threats: a travel ban on the Zanu (PF) elite; cutting
off of nonessential
imports; Eskom should be forced to cut off power; other
parastatals should be
halted from doing business and private SA businesses
should be asked to wait
before starting up new projects. Heightened rhetoric
to distance ourselves
from Mugabe's tyrannical and destructive role should
also be part of this
diplomacy.
On its own, critical rhetoric about poor governance and human
rights
violations is important to show ordinary Zimbabweans that Pretoria
actually
believes Mugabe's game is up.
Muluzi's statement last week
that the delegation of three presidents did not
visit Harare for "a cup of
tea" but did some tough talking to Mugabe about
bad economics and bad
governance is a break in the silence from regional
leaders. This, combined
with the very act of meeting with MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai, sent a
message that Mugabe no longer commands their sole
attention. But Mbeki's
quashing of speculation has now confused these
messages.
With
pressures to instil sufficient political will, the interparty talks
over a
Mugabe exit and a transitional arrangement, as well as an even
playing field
for the elections, may not be insurmountable. Mugabe's
insistence that the
opposition accept him as the legitimate president of the
country by dropping
their court challenge could fall away as a precondition
for talks if he
retires. Working out a power-sharing arrangement for the
transition will
involve squabbles, but could be a way to avoid prolonged
chaos. A strong
international presence to monitor the political atmosphere
and elections is a
definite requirement to ensure these are free and fair.
The choices that
Zanu (PF) has to make cannot wait long. Hanging over this
is the MDC threat
of a further call to mass action and, with that, a
possibly final showdown
for Mugabe and Zanu (PF) in which the political and
security elite could well
be subject to mob justice. If, in the next round
of mass action, the
Zimbabwean police and army refuse to arrest
demonstrators, the signal would
have been given that government's time is
up.
Support for the
stayaways has introduced fear to elements within Zanu (PF)
which are more
adept than its leader at reading political tea leaves. That
may be why the
party is grudgingly coming up with crumbs of reform, easing
draconian media
laws and the lifting of price controls. Legislation which
effectively bars
any right to demonstrate must still be scrapped. But to
think that this will
be sufficient to ease rising domestic pressures is an
illusion.
Much
is at stake for SA's diplomatic credibility in the unfolding course of
events
in Zimbabwe. Much of this has been destroyed, and the risk of a flood
of
refugees remains. A forceful push to avoid further tragedy could
be
redeeming. The test for SA, as much as Zimbabwe, could be weeks
away.
Katzenellenbogen is international affairs
editor.
IOL
Menashe is misleading people of Zim -
Bizos
May 13 2003 at
06:02AM
Harare - A defence lawyer for Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai,
on trial for treason, claimed when the trial resumed on Monday
that police
tried to cover up for a key state witness.
Defence lawyer
George Bizos alleged that police had suppressed a transcript
of an audiotape
made by Ari Ben Menashe, the chief state witness.
The tape had been
presented as a key piece of evidence.
Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC), has been
accused of plotting to assassinate
President Robert Mugabe before the
presidential elections last year. On trial
with him are MDC
secretary-general Welshman Ncube and shadow agriculture
minister Renson
Gasela.
'Ben Menashe
was lying'
The trio face the death penalty if convicted.
Five State
witnesses, including Ben Menashe, testified before the High Court
went into
recess more than a month ago. The State's case hinges on tapes
made at
meetings between Ben Menashe and Tsvangirai in London and Montreal.
The
tapes are almost inaudible.
During his cross-examination, Bizos accused
police assistant commissioner
Moses Magandi and his colleagues of suppressing
a document "that would have
proved Ben Menashe was lying".
"You
allowed him to mislead the people of Zimbabwe... and the world."
The
document referred to was a transcript of an audiotape made at the
London
meeting. Ben Menashe claimed that the tape showed Tsvangirai asked for
help
in "eliminating" Mugabe, but Bizos said the transcript clearly showed
this
was not the case.
Earlier, Magandi said the police had not used
the transcript meeting because
they could not make "head or tail of it". -
Sapa-AFP
Business
Day
Mugabe, Tsvangirai square
up
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harare
Correspondent
HARARE A week after President Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian
and Malawian
counterparts tried to kick-start reconciliation talks between
President
Robert Mugabe and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, the two protagonists now seem to be hardening
their
positions once again.
Mugabe is persisting with the treason
trial against Tsvangirai, while the
opposition boss is determined to proceed
with his petition challenging
Mugabe's reelection as
president.
Tsvangirai was yesterday back in court for the trial, which
adjourned last
month.
As if in retaliation, the MDC is stepping up its
efforts for the case
against Mugabe's disputed re-election.
The cases
are seen as stumbling blocks to the initiative to resolve
Zimbabwe's economic
and political crisis.
The treason trial resumed with defence lawyer
George Bizos cross-examining a
police investigator on why he did not submit
part of what key state witness
Ari Ben-Menashe claimed was crucial evidence
in the case. Tsvangirai, his
party secretary-general Welshman Ncube, and
Secretary for Agriculture Renson
Gasela are facing charges of plotting to
assassinate Mugabe in 2001.
Bizos yesterday cross-examined police Chief
Superintendent Moses Magandi on
why he excluded as evidence the transcript of
the London meeting between Ari
Ben-Menashe and Tsvangirai.
Bizos said
the transcript was left out because it could invalidate
BenMenashe's claim
Tsvangirai had solicited help for Mugabe's assassination.
Magandi said
the transcript was excluded because "we could not make sense of
it and we
felt it would not help the court".
Meanwhile, Ncube and MDC deputy leader
Gibson Sibanda were trying to obtain
passports to attend a meeting in Malawi
this week with the country's
president, Bakili Muluzi, to continue last
week's talks.
President Muluzi Should Not Fool the World
The
Chronicle Newspaper (Lilongwe)
OPINION
May 13, 2003
Posted to the
web May 13, 2003
Salule Masangwi, Director of Publicity,
NDA
Lilongwe
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) learned with shock
the blatant lies
by President Bakili Muluzi to the World, through the British
Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC), that his relationship with the opposition in
Malawi is
cordial and that he wants Zimbabweans to emulate his example.
Nothing can be
further from the truth.
To begin with, President Muluzi
through the United Democratic Front (UDF)
Young Democrats has always
harassed, by using violence, members of the
opposition whenever they disagree
with him on matters of governance and the
rule of law. Memories are fresh
with the following few, amongst many,
violent activities by the Young
Democrats on members of the opposition in
the recent past: · The beatings of
the NDA members and the burning of a
Mercedes Benz belonging to an NDA
supporter at Parliament buildings; · the
beatings and harassment of Hon. G.
Mwamondwe, Hon. Kandodo Banda, Hon. J.
Manduwa, and Hon. J. Sonke within the
compounds of Parliament buildings by
the same Young Democrats, solely because
they openly opposed the Third Term
Bill; · the attempted assassination of
Hon. B.J. Mpinganjira, President of
the NDA, and his entourage at the Bunda
turn-off roadblock when they were
returning from a rally at Chinsapo in
Lilongwe; · the more recent
victimization of Aleke Banda through fabricated
lies against him by
President Muluzi himself and his expulsion from the
trusteeship of Press
Trust, just because he has resigned from the
UDF.
We say President Muluzi is the one that is directly involved in
these
violent activities because the nation has just witnessed President
Muluzi's
appointment to cabinet posts of some individuals that were directly
involved
in these violent activities and/or were responsible for the Young
Democrats
that unleashed such terror on the opposition members.
Does
it make any sense for a group of young thugs to enter Parliament
buildings to
unleash terror and beat up MPs in full view of the Malawi
Police Service who
watched the scenes helplessly without a word of
condemnation or directive to
apprehend the culprits from the Head of State
himself as he has hurriedly
done with the case of violence at an MCP
Convention?
The silence by
the Head of State on the beatings at Parliament buildings
when the media was
awash with reports that the perpetrators of such violence
were UDF Young
Democrats is testimony that President Muluzi knew something
about the
violence.
The nation has also just observed the way President Muluzi has
gone out of
his way to break the law to dissolve the Board of Trustees of
Press Trust
and to go ahead and appoint his own Trustees just because he
wants to
victimize Aleke Banda who resigned from government and the UDF to
become an
opposition member.
What President Muluzi calls 'working with
the opposition' probably refers to
his buying of individual members of the
opposition for his own selfish
motives. An example is when President Muluzi
admitted, at one of his
numerous campaign rallies, that he assisted Hon. John
Tembo, the then Vice
President of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), by buying
MCP party cloth for
distribution to his party supporters.
By working
together with the opposition, he may also have been referring to
what he
terms the 'government of national unity' where he has appointed some
Alliance
for Democracy (AFORD) members, who have all along supported his
Third Term
bid, to cabinet positions.
In the case of buying opposition members,
President Muluzi cannot claim to
be working with the opposition, rather he is
killing the opposition and
democracy in the country. One cannot say he is
co-operating with something
he tirelessly tries to kill.
On the other
hand, his so-called 'government of national unity' is a joke to
say the
least. If President Muluzi wants to unite this country by working
with the
opposition as he claims, why did he exclude MCP? Why did he exclude
all those
in AFORD that were against his Third Term Bill? Does forming a
government of
national unity mean working with those that were already
co-operating all
along? Why are governments of national unity formed?
These are some of
the questions that have been bothering Malawians on the
claims by President
Muluzi.
The NDA thinks it was and is still a big joke for President
Muluzi to go to
Zimbabwe to mediate in the wrangle between President Robert
Mugabe and the
opposition in that country. If anything, President Muluzi
needs mediators
from elsewhere to assist him to work with the opposition in
this country.
The people of this country have died due to hunger, curable
diseases, and
poverty in general and yet millions of Kwachas have been spent
on useless
programmes such as the Third Term issue and the sponsoring of
terror groups
to fight the opposition.
THIS IS WHERE PRESIDENT MULUZI
NEEDS MEDIATION
SABC
Guardian journalist's passport
seized
May 13, 2003,
20:15
Zimbabwean immigration officials seized the American passport of
Andrew
Meldrum, a correspondent of the Guardian newspaper of London today,
amid
fears that President Robert Mugabe's government plans to deport
him.
Meldrum and his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, agreed today to go to
the
immigration department a week after five officers turned up at his home
at
night demanding to see him and refusing to state their reason. At the end
of
what he said was a "belligerent" 30 minute interview with a
senior
immigration officer, Meldrum said he was ordered to hand over his
passport
and his Zimbabwe residence
permit.
He was allowed to leave the building but was told to return to
the office
tomorrow. Mtetwa said earlier she feared Meldrum would be
detained and
illegally deported. The 51-year-old American citizen, who has
lived in
Zimbabwe since 1980, is constantly vilified in the state media
which accuses
him of being a British spy, an opposition organiser and a
saboteur. Today he
went voluntarily with Mtetwa to the department where, he
said, a senior
officer named only as Siziba claimed he had been "writing bad
things about
Zimbabwe" and insisted he had been violating the conditions of
his residence
permit.
"I have been working here for 23 years as a journalist and my
residence
permit says I am a journalist. That is what I am doing," he said.
"I don't
know what the fuss is all about. They want me to write a letter
stating that
I am a journalist. They said they were looking into how I was
granted my
residence
permit."
Officials refused to allow Heather Lippett, a US embassy
vice-consul, into
the office to be present during the
interview.
In April 2001, immigration officials tried to kick in the door
of BBC
correspondent Joseph Winter's Harare apartment and later deported
him,
despite the fact that he had a valid temporary residence permit.
Authorities
claimed that his permit had been "illegally" issued, an
allegation Winter and
his lawyer
denied.
Determined
"I feel grimly determined," Meldrum said. "I am sticking up for
my legal
rights in Zimbabwe. They are not just my rights, they are the
rights of other
journalists. "Yes, I have plenty of fears, about night
visits, for the safety
of my wife, but that is the worry of many people in
Zimbabwe
today."
Meldrum is the last foreign national to be working in Zimbabwe
as a
correspondent for overseas media. The remainder are Zimbabwean
citizens, but
most have been refused official "licences" from the state
information
department. Jonathan Moyo, the Information Minister, has
maintained a
comprehensive ban on visiting foreign correspondents since he
took charge of
Mugabe's propaganda machine in late 2000. Also since then,
three foreign
correspondents resident there have been forced to
leave.
The New York-based International Committee to Protect
Journalists says
Mugabe's regime is among the 10 worst offenders against
press freedom in the
world. Under Mugabe, journalists have been tortured,
arrested, assaulted and
harassed, and the independent Daily News has been
bombed twice. On the second
occasion its entire printing press was destroyed
within hours of Moyo
declaring the newspaper "a threat to national
security". -
Sapa
Comment from ZWNEWS, 13
May
Elections, not arm-twisting
By Michael
Hartnack
When the US State Department's Walter Kansteiner visits the
region this week
he needs to press President Thabo Mbeki on what the South
African leader
means by democracy. Does it mean a representative government
accountable to
voters? Or is having millions of enrolled voters put crosses
on ballot
papers just the modern equivalent of a mediaeval coronation?
Zimbabwe's
Robert Mugabe, of course, is firmly in the mediaeval coronation
camp. He
began justifying plans for a one-party state right after winning
power in
1980. "We can say 'let's have multi-party' and people will resort to
their
ethnic groups for support . . opposition parties resort to illegal
or
subversive activities," he told a business gathering in Lake
Leman,
Switzerland. ". We are thinking that our family must be one." That was
just
the start. But what about Mbeki, who has expended so much of his
country's
money and his own political credibility on keeping Mugabe, or at
least Zanu
PF, in power? Mbeki said last week that Zimbabwe's problems "did
not
originate from the desperate actions of a reckless political leadership
or
corruption." Where was Mbeki in 1997 when the Zimbabwe dollar began
its
nosedive toward the present crisis when the country has run out of
bank
notes, and also of money to print more? Where was Mbeki when Mugabe
defied
public opinion to send troops to the Congo, or to make vast payouts
for
bogus "war disabilities"? Can Mbeki honestly not know how the
productive
sector has been systematically destroyed by Mugabe in an attempt
to cow
civil society?
There were confident predictions before
Mbeki, Nigeria's President Olusegun
Obasanjo and Malawi's Bakili Muluzi came
to Harare last week that the trio
would pressure Mugabe into agreeing an exit
plan. This would be followed by
the appointment of an interim government, and
free and fair elections, in
contrast to the rigged parliamentary and
presidential polls of 2000 and
2002. Instead, the presidents applied pressure
to Morgan Tsvangirai's
opposition Movement for Democratic Change to recognise
the rigged polls as
an irreversible process which had somehow given Mugabe
legitimacy, however
many ballot boxes were stuffed or election agents
murdered. Obasanjo, in
flowing robes and fresh from his own questionable
election victory, took a
line straight from Shakespeare's Richard II: "Not
all the water in the rough
rude sea can wash the balm from an anointed king."
Once a ruler had gone
through the process of an election, and been sworn in
there should be no
further challenge to his authority, he said. MDC sources
say Obasanjo,
Muluzi and Mbeki tried to manoeuvre Tsvangirai into conceding
that the
officials who conducted the 2002 bogus poll in Zimbabwe were
appointed
constitutionally, acted in terms of the constitution, and Mugabe
was then
sworn in constitutionally. The MDC would have none of
it.
Mugabe, looking exceptionally grumpy, said afterwards: "Does the
MDC now
recognise me? That's the issue." Mugabe realises that the MDC refusal
to be
converted to the African leaders' coronation theology strikes at the
root of
his rights of patronage, his power to delegate to subordinates the
task of
unleashing, with impunity, state-sponsored violence. The one
concession the
MDC did offer - and it was a massive one considering the
strength of feeling
among its supporters - is that Mugabe might be granted
amnesty from criminal
prosecution (but not civil law suits) if he agreed to
go peacefully.
Tsvangirai said the MDC was "ready to consider an amnesty" in
the context of
a package deal, if it was "the price of Mugabe going". Since
the departure
of the visitors, the Supreme Court has, amid great fanfare,
ruled
unconstitutional a clause of the odious Access to Information and
Protection
of Privacy Act that made it an offence punishable by up to two
years'
imprisonment (and a ban from practice as a journalist) to publish any
kind
of incorrect statement. In reality, the court could make no other ruling
as
state lawyers had conceded the clause was unconstitutional and announced
a
substitute clause was being framed. There are scant grounds for thinking
the
ruling indicates a relaxation of Mugabe's assault on the press and on
civil
society. The Act remains with its provisions for "licensing"
journalists,
subjecting them to a government-appointed commission, and
applying a
government-drafted code of conduct.
Tsvangirai,
meanwhile, warns of the urgency in breaking the political
deadlock which lies
behind the economic crisis, the threat of famine and,
worse, the Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome virus which, if it hits
Zimbabwe's malnourished and
HIV-infected population, could claim literally
millions of lives. Zimbabwe's
bungling and inadequate mechanisms of
government failed despite months of
advance warnings in 2001 to secure
adequate supplies of maize meal and
wheat. In defiance of public opinion,
these mechanisms have been
perverted to profit a self-seeking elite, rather
than meet the needs of a
desperate nation. Mbeki must not wait for another
year of famine or the
advent of the SARS virus before facing the fact that
Zimbabwe does not need
an anointed monarch in the form of Mugabe or anyone
else. It needs a
government capable of proving to the people that it can
govern. For this,
transparency and accountability are essential, and that
means parliaments and
elections - real ones.
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 12
May
Police corruption allegations in Zim treason
trial
Harare - South African lawyer George Bizos, defending
Zimbabwe opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai in a treason trial, has claimed
police tried to
cover up for a key state witness. Bizos alleged that police
had suppressed a
transcript of an audiotape made by Ari Ben-Menashe, the
chief state witness.
The tape of a meeting between Tsvangirai and Ben-Menashe
had been presented
as a key piece of evidence in the trial. Tsvangirai, the
leader of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has been charged with
plotting to
assassinate President Robert Mugabe ahead of last year's
presidential
elections, which Mugabe won. MDC secretary general Welshman
Ncube and shadow
agriculture minister, Renson Gasela have also been charged.
The three
opposition officials face the death penalty if convicted of
treason. Their
trial resumed on Monday after being adjourned more than a
month ago. Five
state witnesses have already testified in the trial,
including Ben-Menashe.
The state's evidence hinges on transcripts of tapes
made at meetings between
Ben-Menashe and Tsvangirai in London and Montreal.
The tapes have proved to
be almost inaudible.
In his
cross-examination of police assistant commissioner Moses Magandi,
Bizos
accused the investigator and his colleagues of suppressing a document
"that
would have proved that Ben-Menashe was lying". "You allowed him to
mislead
the people of Zimbabwe... and the world at large," he said. The
document he
was referring to was a transcript of an audiotape made at the
London meeting.
Ben-Menashe claimed that the tape showed Tsvangirai asking
for help to
eliminate Mugabe, but Bizos said the transcript of the tape
clearly showed
this was not the case. Earlier, Magandi said the police had
not used the
transcript of the London meeting because they could not make
"head or tail of
it". He said that the investigating team felt that
Ben-Menashe would clarify
the issues contained on the tape at the trial. The
treason trial resumed
against a background of widening political and
economic tensions in the
southern African country. Tensions between the MDC
and Mugabe's ruling Zanu
PF party have increased in the last two months. The
MDC has refused to
recognise Mugabe's election victory last year, and in
March called for a
widely-followed two-day strike to protest alleged
misgovernance. Tsvangirai
and the MDC have warned there will be further
strikes. The MDC has taken out
full-page advertisements in the private press
stating: "The will of the
people shall prevail."
Daily
News
Police officer denies any wrongdoing
5/13/03
7:57:59 AM (GMT +2)
Staff Reporter
A POLICE officer denied in
court yesterday ever assaulting or witnessing
any of the three men accused
of murdering Bulawayo war veteran leader,
Cain Nkala, being beaten during
investigations into the matter as
claimed by defence
lawyers.
Detective constable Aimon Ndlovu told advocate Eric Morris
during cross
examination, During the course of this investigation I only
came into
contact with Kethani Sibanda, Sazini Mpofu and Remember
Moyo.
I never assaulted the three accused. I never witnessed any
assaults
being perpetrated on the three accused.
Ndlovu also claimed
he had not seen any injuries on any of the three
Movement for Democratic
Change activists who claim to have been severely
assaulted while in police
custody in order to induce them to admit to
the murder.
Nkala was
kidnapped from his Magwegwe West home in Bulawayo on 5
November
2001.
His decomposing body was exhumed from a shallow grave on a farm
near
Solusi University a week later, on 13 November.
The MDC members
appearing before Justice Sandra Mungwira on charges of
murdering Nkala are
the partys treasurer and its Member of Parliament
for Lobengula-Magwegwe,
Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, activists Sonny Masera
and Army Zulu.
Putting
Ndlovu under the grill, Morris pointed at the telling
similarities between
Ndlovus testimony and that of another police
officer, Refias Masuna, who
gave evidence in the case earlier on.
But Ndlovu said the similarities
were because he worked with Masuna but
he claimed that he had prepared his
statement from memory assisted by
rough notes from his diary.
Asked
to produce the notes, Ndlovu said he had failed to find the
notebook when he
wanted to refresh his memory before coming to court.
Thats the
unfortunate part. I cannot produce it, Ndlovu told Morris,
denying
suggestions he had deliberately destroyed or hidden the
notes.
JAG OPEN LETTER
FORUM
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