Gado cartoon in Daily Nation, Kenya today

Zimbabwe's Opposition Seeks Foreign Intervention

Washington Post

By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, May 16, 2008; Page A11

JOHANNESBURG, May 15 -- Zimbabwe's opposition party on Thursday called for
an urgent new round of regional diplomacy to resolve that nation's
six-week-old electoral stalemate, saying that only foreign intervention can
prevent a recent surge of political violence from developing into full-scale
civil strife.

Tendai Biti, secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change, said
the Southern African Development Community (SADC) must "play the midwifery
role" in easing President Robert Mugabe from power in the aftermath of the
March 29 election. Mugabe placed second to opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai in that vote but has vowed to win a runoff.

If diplomacy fails, "the next thing is a war," Biti told reporters after a
news conference here. "It's not an option to us, but one day some [person]
is going to say, 'This is the only solution.' SADC must act now before
rivers of dead people start to flow, as they did in Rwanda."

Mugabe's party has said a second round of voting is necessary because
neither candidate won a clear majority in official results. Biti repeated
claims on Thursday that those results, which were released after an
unexplained delay of more than a month, were manipulated by Mugabe's party
to prevent an outright victory by Tsvangirai.

Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission has not announced the date of the second
round of voting but began legal maneuvers this week to extend the potential
runoff period from 21 days to 90. The move, which Biti said was
unconstitutional, would allow an election any time before the beginning of
August -- more than four months after the original vote.

With a second election looming, Mugabe's supporters have been marauding
through Zimbabwe's countryside, beating, torturing and killing opposition
activists, especially in rural areas that abandoned Mugabe in the first
vote. Human rights workers say 25 people have been killed and more than
1,000 seriously injured. Tens of thousands have fled their homes.

The dead include a growing number of key opposition party activists, Biti
said. He added that both he and Tsvangirai plan to return to Zimbabwe in the
next several days despite fears that they might face arrest or beatings upon
their return.

Biti also said that recent attacks on foreigners, especially Zimbabweans, in
South African townships show that Zimbabwe's problems are no longer confined
to that country.

The State is restricting MDC from campaining

The Zimbabwean

Friday, 16 May 2008 07:39
MDC Rally in Bulawayo

MDC notified the Police on Monday that they were holding a rally at
White
City Stadium on Sunday at 10.00 hrs. Due to speak at the rally were
the
President, Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai and the Secretary General Mr. Tendai
Biti.
On Wednesday they called the local Organising Secretary into the
Headquarters building to say that they had refused permission for the
rally.
Under the amended regulations passed through Parliament in 2007 under
the
SADC process, the Police may only deny permission after they have gone
to
Court and had a Judge or Magistrate say that the denial was justified.
The
organisation wanting to hold a function is permitted to appear and
appose
the Police application. This procedure was ignored.
We immediately instructed lawyers to take the matter to the Court and
for
this the MDC had to have the refusal of the police in writing. This
was
requested but was only provided on Thursday at 15.00 hrs. The urgent
application was taken to the Courts at 16.00 hrs and no Judge was
found who
was prepared to handle the case.
At 09.00 hrs on Friday (today) the lawyers have gone back to the Court
with
the application.
We understand the ZEC is to announce the run off date today and that
Zanu PF
is actually launching their campaign today. How the police can justify
this
ban of political activity is impossible to understand. Bulawayo is
free of
political violence and no problems have ever been encountered with MDC
rallies in the past at this venue. There is only one explanation -
that is
that the State is attempting to further restrict the ability of the
MDC to
campaign ahead of the run off for the presidential elections.

Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 16th May 2008

CHRA Members face death threats and abductions

16 May 2008

The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) has this week seen escalating levels of human rights abuses on its members and general residents in Harare. These abuses are being perpetrated by Zanu Pf activists and state security agents. The Associations condemns in the strongest terms the current retribution being unleashed on its members for organizing CHRA meetings. CHRA members are being visited at their homes threatened with death and some abducted. The table below shows recent attacks on CHRA members recorded this week.

“CHRA for enhanced civic participation in local governance”

Chief Executive Officer

Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)

145 Robert Mugabe Way

Exploration House, Third Floor

Harare

ceo@chra.co.zw

www.chra.co.zw

 Landline: 00263- 4- 705114

Medical Foundation Statement in Support of the Torture Damages Bill

The Zimbabwean

Thursday, 15 May 2008 13:45

“Justice is telling the world. Everyone should know. I want to look at
them [perpetrators]
 in the eye and say what you did was wrong, find your conscience.
The shame is not mine, it is yours” [Medical Foundation client]
The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (the Medical
Foundation) is the world’s largest torture treatment centre, and the only
human rights organisation in the UK dedicated solely to the treatment and
rehabilitation of survivors of torture and organised violence.
The Medical Foundation offers medical consultation, examination and
forensic documentation of injuries, psychological treatment and support, and
practical assistance to torture survivors. Its clinical services include
psychiatry, clinical psychology, counselling, individual and group
psychotherapy, physiotherapy and specialist child and family therapies.
Since its inception in 1985, some 45,000 people have been referred to the
Medical Foundation for help.
In addition to its clinical work, the Medical Foundation seeks to
raise awareness of torture. Its substantial archive of reports documents the
systematic use of torture and the consequences for those who survive.
Accountability for torture is a key component in torture prevention,
and it is therefore essential that survivors of torture, or the families of
those who were tortured and have now died, are able to obtain justice in
respect of the abuses they or their loved ones have suffered.
The effects of torture
Torture impacts on the individual and beyond, to their family,
community and society.
At an individual level, psychological consequences of torture include
a loss of bodily or psychosocial control, typically leading to a profound
sense of helplessness and powerlessness, a loss of trust, isolation
(including complete withdrawal from or diminished communications, which in
turn impacts on the ability to form or maintain personal relationships –
including within marriage, with children and within the community more
widely), grief at the loss not only of others but also of the self, a sense
of guilt, shame or humiliation, anxiety, depression (which can include
suicidal leanings), intrusive phenomena such as hearing voices, flashbacks
and nightmares, difficulties in recollection, emotional numbness and
avoidance of any place or situation which might trigger memories of their
torture.
At a physical level, consequences of torture can include injuries,
illness, disability, chronic pain and the contraction of life-threatening
diseases as a result of torture, such as HIV/AIDS.
Torture and its clinical consequences can lead to an inability to
function in everyday life, including the inability of a survivor to work and
meet their own or their family’s economic needs, to participate in family
life or social networks, to fulfil daily roles and activities such as
cooking for themselves, or to undertake roles as parents in looking after
children. This loss of function can therefore affect livelihood, self-esteem
and the individual’s relationships. The consequent isolation this engenders
can by exacerbated by rejection in some cases by family, friends and
community as a result of disclosure of abuse, particularly in the case of
sexual torture.
Finally, torture attacks one’s core identity and integrity and
produces a profound loss of meaning in life. As one of our clients put it:
“Who am I? What am I? Not a man, not a husband, not an animal, but not
human – I am zero. I am already dead, life has no meaning, what is the point
of living”.
In addition to the personal impact of torture, family members may
experience harassment, intimidation and deep distress as a result of the
torture, including unresolved grief in cases where the victim’s body is
never found. Families can also experience strain in caring for the victim or
their dependants.
The potential impact of torture on adults and minors can be long-term,
and for some, in addition to past suffering and damage, the losses of future
potential are permanent due, for example, to disability, illness or severe
psychological distress or inability to form relationships or inability to
conceive as a result of torture. In the case of a child, healthy emotional
development can be severely affected by torture, sometimes leading to
enduring psychological difficulties in adulthood.
The various consequences of torture require recourse to a broad array
of healthcare services, including psychiatry, clinical psychology,
psychotherapy, counselling, individual, family and group work, physiotherapy
and other physical therapies.
The benefits of justice
Many clients of the Medical Foundation fled their countries after
experiencing torture precisely because of their attempts to expose the
injustices perpetrated by oppressive regimes and to hold them to account.
For them, any avenues to seek reparation could provide recourse to justice
they were denied. By contrast, denial of reparation can be experienced as a
double injustice.
Psychologically, justice and reparation can play a significant role in
the recovery process of torture survivors. The potential benefits of justice
can be threefold:
(i)    The prospect of redress – For many torture survivors it is
essential to know that they have a choice - the possibility to seek justice
and reparation. The availability of accessible mechanisms itself can be
experienced as acknowledgment and commitment by the State to uphold the
right to reparation.
(ii)    The process of seeking redress per se can be therapeutic. The
process can afford the victim control in initiating the complaint, taking
responsibility in directing the strategy of the procedure and seeing the
perpetrator as a defendant having to answer for their actions.
(iii)    Obtaining justice – holding perpetrators accountable can
enable not only access to other reparation measures, but also challenges
impunity. Compensation can provide victims of torture public acknowledgment
of their survival, facilitating the re-establishment of their dignity,
self-esteem, trust in others and belief in the world as just. For some,
money can also alleviate poverty and help those suffering hardship,
disability and impaired functioning as a result of the violation.
A public and official recognition of harm done and the condemnation of
perpetrators contribute to a sense that events are unmasked, the truth is
told and a legacy of the past is acknowledged and remembered. This is
particularly important to survivors who experience torture as secretive,
their pain and suffering as invisible or hidden – something no one can bear
to listen to, no one wants to believe and something the world turns a blind
eye to.
The value of justice is summed up by one of our clients:
“It would mean that they did not win, they did not destroy me, they
will be the ones who have to answer – so the world will know what they did –
we are human beings, not ants that can be crushed like we are nothing…”
Reparation and the law
International law indicates that States must provide justice,
reparation and rehabilitation in respect of acts of torture for which it is
responsible. Despite this, access to justice can be problematic or illusory.
The Medical Foundation’s clients are very often unable to seek redress in
their own countries for a number of reasons. In many cases, those
responsible for investigating allegations of torture are also the abusers,
with the prospect not only that the complaint will not be properly
investigated, but also that the individual will experience further abuse as
a result of making the complaint.
In many cases the country’s judiciary does not enjoy independence from
the Executive or is subject to interference or abuse from law enforcement or
security personnel. In addition, the country’s legal system may lack the
appropriate remedies and mechanisms to ensure the proper functioning of an
action, or is otherwise unable to guarantee the safety of those bringing the
action. Physicians operating in detention facilities and charged with
recording injuries may not be able to act freely and independently, with the
result that physical evidence of torture will not be forthcoming. In many
other cases still, torture survivors have fled their country in order to
protect their own lives, and so are simply not in a position to make a
complaint to the appropriate authorities even where such a complaint would
be properly investigated.
In the words of one of our clients:
“You don’t know what it is like in my country – justice? [laughs].
This means nothing when there is a corrupt government, no law, police are
criminals, there is nowhere safe – who do you go to? You have to just run.”
Access to justice through regional and international judicial bodies
can also be difficult for many survivors of torture.
The remit of the International Criminal Court in respect of torture is
limited to conflict-type scenarios, encompassing war crimes, where a grave
breach of the Geneva Conventions must be shown to have taken place, or a
crime against humanity, involving a “widespread or systematic attack
directed against any civilian population”. As a result, many Medical
Foundation clients who have suffered torture in detention at the hands of a
repressive regime will never have recourse to this or similar criminal
tribunals. Even where a torture survivor’s claim falls within the Court’s
remit, prosecutorial investigations tend to be aimed at leaders rather than
individual, low-level perpetrators, with the effect that many torturers will
remain unaccountable for their actions. Finally, criminal processes are
aimed at the success of the prosecution, and although some models facilitate
a degree of victim participation, the process itself is not victim-centred.
As a result, many torture survivors will be left feeling sidelined or “used”
by a process that did not fulfil their hopes or sense of justice.
In addition, although regional human rights Courts are able to hear
actions for torture, such bodies are of limited capacity, issue awards of
damages which may be nominal only, and permit actions only against signatory
States, not specific perpetrators.
Finally, the right of an individual to make a complaint to
international human rights treaty bodies such as the UN Committee Against
Torture, the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women, the Committee on the Rights of the Child and
the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is dependent on
whether the State itself has agreed that the respective treaty bodies can
consider complaints relating to the treatment of an individual. While the
treaty bodies are an important element of the international human rights
system, even where the State has accepted the right of individual petition,
such bodies are unable to impose a tangible or enforceable penalty over and
above public sanction.
Concluding comments
Civil action for damages is one aspect of reparative remedies which
States can provide to survivors of torture or their families. It is not for
everyone. For a vast majority of our clients their health, severe trauma and
vulnerability following torture prevent them from considering or seeking-out
avenues of complaint. Many are struggling to survive – just to regain a
sense of self and dignity. A small minority, at certain stages in their
recovery, may be emotionally robust enough to consider seeking redress, but
most fear further emotional setbacks by having to relive their memories and
going through legal procedures. For those clients who may consider seeking
redress, many fear further reprisals and remain intensely preoccupied with
the lack of safety for themselves and family members, many of whom remain in
the country of origin and have endured harassment, torture and ill-treatment
because the client has fled.
For those survivors of torture who want to and are able to pursue an
action, however, the enactment of the Torture Damages Bill would be of
enormous value in recognising and upholding the inherent dignity and
humanity of the individual, whilst at the same time sending out a strong
message that torture is wrong and that torturers cannot act with impunity.
It is therefore vital in the fight for accountability that the
international framework be supplemented by domestic legislation such as the
Torture Damages Bill, and that survivors of torture be able to bring an
action for redress in the UK where justice in their country of origin is not
accessible or achievable.
For these reasons, the Medical Foundation supports the adoption of the
Torture Damages Bill.
May 2008

Lord Woolf calls for prosecution of foreign torturers in UK courts

The Zimbabwean

Thursday, 15 May 2008 13:34
Torture (Damages) Bill

The Former Lord Chief Justice, the Leader of the Independent Peers and
the former Chief Inspector of Prisons to speak in second reading of Torture
(Damages) Bill on Friday 16 May 2008, 10am.

An influential group of Independent Peers are joining a debate on a
private members bill to enable UK Citizens and residents who are tortured
abroad to seek redress through the UK Courts.  Presently, states that
authorise or allow torture within their borders can hide behind the State
Immunity Act of 1978.  The Torture (Damages) Bill will be debated in the
House of Lords on Friday 16 May 2008 and would give a new exception to the
State Immunity Act for cases of torture.

Former Director of human rights organisation REDRESS, Baroness D’Souza,
will tell the House of Lords:

...governments have to be prepared to prosecute torturers whether
these be agents of the state or the state police.  To do otherwise is to
condone torture, however tacitly.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Baroness D’Souza, Convenor of the
Independent Crossbench Peers said:

Colleagues inside and outside the Lords have been frankly traumatised
just hearing the accounts from UK citizens and residents who have been
tortured abroad only to get something amounting to an official cold shoulder
here in Britain when seeking help to get redress from foreign regimes.  This
is shocking since we are talking about the victims of unspeakable, degrading
acts that you will never be able to forget and yet are ashamed to speak
about.  It is utterly unacceptable for any politician to use the veil of
national sovereignty when confronted with verifiable accounts of rape,
electric shocks being used on genitals and forced labour, for example.

Some victims say that they may never fully be healed – in mind or
body.  But society needs to understand that official acknowledgement of the
wrong that has been inflicted on them is a powerful part of the healing
process, together with the monetary compensation that would strengthen their
chances of long-term survival and obtaining the best medical and support
care.

Former Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales Lord Woolf (Independent
Peer) said ahead of the Second Reading:

Torture is a crime under international law.  A state that is guilty of
torture should be liable to pay compensation for the injury caused to the
victim.  Today, before the Courts of this country, the UK can be required to
compensate a foreigner who overseas is tortured by British troops.  It would
be wrong that a foreign state that was responsible for torture should have a
technical defence before our Courts.  The Bill would abolish that
technicality".

Several British citizens and numerous asylum seekers, alleged victims
of torture, have been unable to take civil proceedings against foreign
states having exhausted other diplomatic remedies.

Former Chief Inspector of Prisons for England & Wales Lord Ramsbotham
(Independent Peer) will also contribute to the debate.

For further information:

· See attachments from REDRESS, Medical Foundation for the Care
of Victims of Torture and from Prisoners Abroad for more information

·  Phone Julian Dee on 0207 219 1414 to speak to Baroness D’Souza

<<REDRESS FINAL SUBMISSION 15 May 08.doc>> <<Prisoners Abroad Position
Paper 15 May 2008.doc>> <<MF Position paper 15 May 2008.doc>>

Text of the Torture (Damages) Bill (sponsored by Labour Peer Lord
Archer of Sandwell QC):

http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2007-08/torturedamages.html

Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture:
http://www.torturecare.org.uk

Prisoners Abroad:
http://www.prisonersabroad.org.uk/

Redress:
http://www.redress.org

Speaker’s list:

Debate: Torture (Damages) Bill [HL] Second Reading [Sponsor: Labour
Peer Lord Archer of Sandwell QC].

Speakers, in alphabetical order:
• L Archer of Sandwell
• L Borrie
• B D’Souza
• L Elystan-Morgan
5. • B Falkner of Margravine
• L Hunt of Kings Heath (Minister)
• L Judd
• L Ramsbotham
• L Thomas of Gresford
10. • L Woolf

Let hope not blind us to Mugabe’s ruthlessness

Business Day

16 May 2008

Jens Laurson and George Pieler

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOPE springs eternal. For Zimbabweans, it is the only way to remain sane and
civil in a country so thoroughly ruined by the ineptitude, corruption, and
racial hatred stirred up by Robert Mugabe and his cronies. Now hope is the
only way to survive Zimbabwe’s theatre-of-the-absurd election drama, which
is now into its second month.

International do-gooders found a convenient kernel of hope in the March 29
vote, which according to local tallies was handily won by Morgan Tsvangirai’s
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). This was reinforced by the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) sidling up to the MDC and offering
mediation between Tsvangirai and Mugabe, who took his sweet time figuring
out the best way to massage the numbers.

But Mugabe demanded his recount long before releasing the “official” tally,
and now he is campaigning to overturn the MDC victory with a “runoff”. The
fact is Mugabe holds power, and that may be all he needs.

As it turns out, it’s hard to mediate between good and evil. Zimbabwe’s high
court left Mugabe in control of the votes (expected), but freed MDC
activists from detention (minimally laudable). Despite scornful rhetoric
from the west and Zimbabwean civil society, Mugabe will survive yet again,
absent bold action.

Last month, we were treated to the saga of the Chinese Flying Dutchman,
bearing arms for Mugabe but barred entry by South African dock workers, and
even the Angolan government. It turns out the arms got through Angola
anyway, while the media focused on supposed African unanimity in keeping
Zimbabwe arms-free.

A fine idea — an arms embargo against Zimbabwe. A nice symbolic move, with
little practical effect. Yet symbolism that conceals that foolish hopes,
uninformed by common sense, can be worse than no hope at all.

Too many commentators let their happy hopes obscure reality, suggesting that
Mugabe was on the — democratic! — way out. Alas, the “soft power” of moral
suasion, diplomatic pressure, and pointed outspokenness is essential but
inadequate for countries struggling to throw off tyranny. Even soft power
demands a moral backbone, and sometimes a boldly waved stick. Good wishes
for Zimbabwe are everywhere, but even the words are timid.

SADC, and SA in particular, should have the strongest interest in helping
free Zimbabweans, but African leaders are reluctant to topple a corrupt
regime lest they themselves be toppled. Calls for “smart sanctions” from
Zimbabwe’s neighbours, targeting the Mugabe elitists, while sparing the
population (a meaningless distinction with inflation racing toward 200000%)
echo what the west has done, with no effect. When UK Prime Minister Gordon
Brown says Zimbabwe is in constitutional crisis, Mugabe is amused. For him,
the only crisis would be genuine rule of law .

The west still misjudges how hapless
and delusional Mugabe truly is (what
self-respecting, tyrant could fail to properly rig the first election
round?) and just how unpopular his reign is with Zimbabweans. Perhaps Mugabe
was surprised of the latter, too, being surrounded only by sycophants and
commandeered “supporters”.

The international community must not now underestimate Mugabe’s
ruthlessness. Having lost, he is well on his way to
re-winning through old-fashioned brute force. Sloppy at election-rigging, he
remains at the top of his game in suppressing freedom, unhampered by a
conscience. A few electoral committee workers beaten and arrested and the
rest of the lot get the message: recounts and runoffs, until the result is
“right”. Everyone who is against him — whether Zimbabwean or foreign — is an
agent of the colonialist forces that he
sees everywhere.

That Zimbabwe’s people haven’t
resorted to violence is to their great credit. Zimbabweans bear their
suppression and ravaging poverty with astounding grace, instead of lapsing
into violent anarchy as postcolonial Africa too often does. This is
an asset greater than diamond mines or
oil-fields could ever be.

Zimbabweans must keep their eyes on the prize — freedom, an unimpeded civil
society, a basic modicum of prosperity. The international community must
tighten the screws everywhere — and not just on armaments. Hard sanctions
against Mugabe’s regime, aid suspension, air-tight embargoes and trade
restraints must accompany the rhetoric until Mugabe, long devoid of any
moral legitimacy and now devoid of the last (fake, anyway) vestiges of
democratic legitimacy, is gone.

Meanwhile, there should be planeloads of election monitors flying in to
Harare night and day until an honest vote is counted, reported, and honoured
by the regime. That’s just what Tsvangirai is demanding. Now, where’s Jimmy
Carter when you need him? Carter helped Mugabe into power — he might feel a
moral obligation to help get him out.

Laurson is editor-in-chief of the International Affairs Forum. Pieler is
senior fellow with the Institute for Policy Innovation.

Election date "within 48 hours" Zimbabwe election chief says

Monsters and Critics

May 16, 2008, 7:23 GMT

Harare - Zimbabwe's election chief says he will announce by Saturday the
date for the controversial run-off presidential election pitting President
Robert Mugabe against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, state media
reported Friday.

'The electorate is eagerly waiting to hear the date of the run- off,' Judge
George Chiweshe, chairman of the state-controlled Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission, said in an interview with the daily Herald newspaper.

'The commission will issue an instrument (official notification) in the next
48 hours indicating when the run-off will be held,' he added.

Mugabe, 84, leader since independence in 1980 and accused of gross human
rights violations, and former national trade union leader Tsvangirai are due
to square off again after neither achieved over 50 per cent of the vote
needed for outright victory in the March 29 elections.

After a five-week delay in the announcement of the presidential result,
Tsvangirai was given 47.9 per cent of the ballot, to 43.2 per cent for
Mugabe.

Human rights organisations, churches and diplomats report that ruling party
militias are carrying out a nationwide campaign of vengeance attacks on
supporters of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change for voting for the
opposition in March, and to terrorise them into voting for Mugabe in the
run-off.

Rights groups say 40 people have been killed and 1,000 have had to be
treated in hospital for severe injuries incurred during beatings that there
were probably twice as many victims not yet known about, who were too
frightened to present themselves to health centres.

On Wednesday the government announced that it had extended from 21 to 90
days the period within which the run-off can be held following the initial
announcement of the election result.

'First they withheld the election result, then they had an illegal recount
(of the parliamentary election results in which the MDC won an overall
majority),' MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

'Now they are talking about a 90-day extension. This is going to be 90 days
of beating of the people, killing and destroying property,' he charged.

Statement by the Zimbabwe Liberation Veterans Forum on Violence

The Zimbabwean

Friday, 16 May 2008 07:09
Violence:The spokesperson of the Zimbabwe National Army has denied the
ZNA’s involvement in the ongoing retributive campaign of violence against
defenceless civilians prevalent in the communal areas. The former first lady
Grace Mugabe spoke against violence in some remote area followed by Jocelyn
Chiwenga, wife of the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces General
Constantine Chiwenga. We however wish to draw to the attention  of the two
ladies that the victims of violence are at their  doorsteps under their very
noses here in Harare not only in the remote areas that they visited. Should
they be serious about showing empathy to victims of violence we kindly draw
their attention to the wards at the Avenues Clinic, Parirenyatwa Hospital,
the church groups, and the MDC headquarters, Harvest House all in Harare
where they would come face to face with multitudes of victims with broken
limbs, broken ribs, lacerations and soft tissue injuries all over their
bodies.
With so many victims of violence spread across the country’s
hospitals, we ask how many perpetrators have been brought to book for their
misdeeds? Zimbabwe has a police force mandated to uphold and maintain law
and order without fear or favour regardless of the offenders’ political
standing or affiliation. How can we have so many victims of violence
characterised by serious bodily harm with no arrests to match the magnitude
of the crime? This yawning gap can at best only be accounted for by the
serious dereliction of duty and monumental incompetence on the part of the
police and at worst their wilful and unpardonable complicity in crime.
The Army at least say they are not involved in the reign of terror
while both the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) chose to remain mum despite choruses of accusations
pointing at them. There is however overwhelming evidence of the involvement
of the Army itself in the violence, let alone their partners in crime the
police and the CIO, pointing at senior commissioned officers directing
operations of violence against defenceless civilians.  The brandishing and
firing of firearms, which lawfully fall under the custody of the three arms
of state security, is in itself a telling indictment on their culpability.
They surely cannot escape responsibility when they fail to explain away the
proliferation of firearms in the zones of violence. The short answer is that
this is an operation conceived and ordered and executed by the Joint
Operations Command itself. Clearly they should stop insulting the nation’s
intelligence through perfunctory reflex denials. Their failure or is it
refusal to bring the reign of terror to an end despite prolific evidence of
their capacity to do so, given only their will, is eloquent testimony to not
only their complicity but more importantly to their authorship of the
retributive campaign of terror for which they cannot escape responsibility.
Happyson Nenji (Webster Gwauya)     Wilfred Mhanda ( Dzinashe
Machingura)
Zimbabwe Liberation Veterans Forum

Zimbabwe’s Rulers Unleash Police on Anglicans

By CELIA W. DUGGER

Published: May 16, 2008

JOHANNESBURG — The parishioners were lined up for Holy Communion on Sunday when the riot police stormed the stately St. Francis Anglican Church in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. Helmeted, black-booted officers banged on the pews with their batons as terrified members of the congregation stampeded for the doors, witnesses said.

Joao Silva for The New York Times

Nolbert Kunonga, a renegade bishop who is a staunch ally of President Robert Mugabe.

A policeman swung his stick in vicious arcs, striking matrons, a girl and a grandmother who had bent over to pick up a Bible dropped in the melee. A lone housewife began singing from a hymn in Shona, “We will keep worshiping no matter the trials!” Hundreds of women, many dressed in the Anglican Mothers’ Union uniform of black skirt, white shirt and blue headdress, lifted their voices to join hers.

Beneath their defiance, though, lay raw fear as the country’s ruling party stepped up its campaign of intimidation ahead of a presidential runoff. In a conflict that has penetrated ever deeper into Zimbabwe’s social fabric, the party has focused on a growing roster of groups that elude its direct control — a list that includes the Anglican diocese of Harare, as well as charitable and civic organizations, trade unions, teachers, independent election monitors and the political opposition.

Anglican leaders and parishioners said in interviews that the church was not concerned with politics and that it counted people from both the ruling party and the opposition in its congregations. Yet the ruling party appears to have decided that only Anglicans who follow Nolbert Kunonga — a renegade bishop in Harare who is a staunch ally of President Robert Mugabe — are allowed to hold services.

Over the past three Sundays, the police have interrogated Anglican priests and lay leaders, arrested and beaten parishioners and locked thousands of worshipers out of dozens of churches.

“As a theologian who has read a lot about the persecution of the early Christians, I’m really feeling connected to that history,” said Bishop Sebastian Bakare, 66, who came out of retirement to replace Mr. Kunonga. “We are being persecuted.”

Church leaders say the struggle in the Anglican diocese of Harare is not only over its extensive, valuable properties, but also over who controls the church itself in a society riven by political divisions, especially since the disputed elections of March 29.

Mr. Kunonga, who broke with the church hierarchy late last year and recently called Mr. Mugabe “a prophet of God,” is known in Zimbabwe as an avid supporter of the ruling party and a proponent of its seizures of white-owned commercial farms, often accomplished violently. In fact, he appears to have benefited richly from the policy himself.

While such strong allegiances have clearly played a role in the attacks on parishioners, Anglicans beyond Zimbabwe have also taken steps likely to have enraged Mr. Mugabe and the ruling party, known as ZANU-PF.

The worldwide Anglican Communion issued a statement in January expressing “deep concern” about Mr. Kunonga’s close ties to Mr. Mugabe. Then on April 21, amid the postelection intimidation of opposition supporters, the communion called on all Christians to pray for Zimbabwe’s rescue “from violence, the concealing and juggling of election results, deceit, oppression and corruption.”

And three weeks ago, an Anglican bishop in South Africa persuaded a judge there to halt the delivery of Chinese-made ammunition to Zimbabwe’s military — bullets the bishop warned could be used to repress Zimbabweans.

This is not the first time that a church has felt the ruling party’s fury. Last year, state-controlled television showed photos of one of Mr. Mugabe’s most ferocious critics, Archbishop Pius Ncube, a Roman Catholic, in bed with a married woman, effectively neutralizing him as the leader of the clerical opposition to Mr. Mugabe’s rule. This month, the state-run newspaper, The Herald, reported that the woman had died “lonely and miserable after being abandoned by Ncube.”

Now Bishop Bakare’s followers, who include most of the city’s Anglicans, say that Mr. Kunonga has falsely told the government that they are politically aligned with the opposition — an accusation the ruling party seems to be taking seriously.

Despite a High Court order requiring that Anglican churches be shared among the worshipers, church officials say that only people who attend services led by priests allied with Mr. Kunonga have been allowed to pray in peace.

This week, the Supreme Court dismissed Mr. Kunonga’s appeal of the sharing order, but church leaders say they are far from sure that the law will be enforced.

A widowed mother of five who sings with the choir at St. Francis Church in Waterfalls — and who was too frightened to be quoted by name — asked despairingly this week where she could seek solace now that her church was no longer sacrosanct.

“I go to church to talk to the Lord and feel better,” the woman said. “Now, I don’t know where to go.”

Neither Mr. Kunonga nor his spokesman, the Rev. Morris Brown Gwedegwe, has returned repeated calls seeking comment.

When Chief Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka, a police spokesman, was asked about police assaults on Anglican parishioners, he said he was unaware of such episodes and asked for the names of those complaining. “Give me names, because without those I will not comment,” he said. “Thank you and bye.” Then he hung up.

At the heart of the conflict with Mr. Kunonga is more than property and power, but also some of the church’s core values. Mr. Kunonga told Anglican officials last year that he was withdrawing from the mother church because of its sympathy toward homosexuals, they said. By October, the Anglican Province of Central Africa said Mr. Kunonga had “severed” his relationship with the church.

Bishop Bakare said Mr. Kunonga had preached hatred of gays and lesbians, contrary to the Harare diocese’s stand. “We believe in a church that is inclusive, a church that accepts all people,” Bishop Bakare said.

But even a spokesman for an alliance of conservative bishops who oppose “the ordination of practicing homosexuals as priests,” distanced them from Mr. Kunonga. Arne H. Fjeldstad, head of communications for the alliance, the Global Anglican Future Conference, said in an e-mail message that Mr. Kunonga was not part of the conference, but “rather that he’s one of Mugabe’s henchmen.”

Mr. Kunonga appears to have gained much from that loyalty. In 2003, the government gave Mr. Kunonga a 1,630-acre farm outside Harare and a seven-bedroom house that sits on it, according to Marcus Hale, who said the farm, bought by his family in 1990 for $2 million, was confiscated without payment.

Mr. Kunonga’s influence has been felt in church after church in recent weeks as well. Anglican parishioners said they found themselves shut out or driven out by police officers who claimed to be acting on orders from their superiors to allow only Mr. Kunonga’s priests to preside.

At St. Paul’s Church in the Highfield suburb of Harare, the congregation refused to budge and kept singing “Gloria in Excelsis Deo” when a dozen policemen entered the church on May 4. But the commander radioed for backup, and soon more than 50 riot police officers arrived, the church’s wardens said.

Hundreds of parishioners were then drummed out of the church to the deafening beat of baton sticks banging on pews. People began taking out their cellphones to photograph the policemen who had forced them out.

The officers then charged into the scattering crowd, batons swinging. “Even myself, they hit my hand,” said a stunned seamstress. “They said, ‘Go back to your homes. You are not supposed to be here.’ ”

A journalist in Harare, Zimbabwe, contributed reporting.

Arrest This Man

By BROOK H. BESHAH and MARIAN L. TUPY
FROM TODAY'S WALL STREET JOURNAL EUROPE
May 16, 2008

Hiwet Teklu's son Samson was 22 years old in 1978 when he was arrested by
agents of the Ethiopian government. He was tortured for 15 days and then
shot. His mother found his lifeless body on her front doorstep the next
morning. At least she was spared the indignity of the "wasted bullet" tax,
which relatives of the victims of the Ethiopian "Red Terror" usually had to
pay to the government in order to have the bodies released for burial.

Samson was a member of an opposition student movement -- a crime in Ethiopia
under the rule of a Marxist military dictator named Mengistu Haile Mariam.
Samson was only one of many thousands of his countrymen who lost their lives
during the Red Terror, which lasted from 1974 to 1991. Yet most people have
forgotten that Mengistu is still living in exile in Zimbabwe. As the
situation in Zimbabwe deteriorates, we should remember that Robert Mugabe is
not the only dictator whose future hangs in the balance. If Mugabe falls,
Mengistu should also face justice.

* * *
Mengistu Haile Mariam was born in 1937. He joined the army at an early age
and by 1974, when the military overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie, was a
major. He thus became a member of the military junta known as the Derg.
Mengistu soon distinguished himself by both his radicalism and ruthlessness.
Having executed Gen. Teferi Benti, the Derg's chairman, Mengistu succeeded
him in 1977.

The next 14 years in Ethiopia were marked by the typical Marxist trifecta:
murder, economic collapse and famine. First, Mengistu turned on his
opponents from the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party and All-Ethiopia
Socialist Movement. In the violence that followed, tens of thousands of
people lost their lives. Some of them were mere children. According to a
report issued by the Swedish Save the Children Fund in May 1977, for
example, "1,000 children have been killed, and their bodies are left in the
streets and are being eaten by wild hyenas...You can see the heaped-up
bodies of murdered children, most of them aged 11 to 13, lying in the
gutter, as you drive out of Addis Ababa."

Second, Mengistu embraced the disastrous economics of central planning. All
private businesses, such as banks and factories, were nationalized and put
under the control of Soviet-style bureaucracies. The Derg shut down
Ethiopia's schools and universities for two years, forcing the students to
move to the countryside to implement land nationalization. Land
nationalization exacerbated the effects of the drought, severely reducing
the output of Ethiopian farmers. By 1984, Ethiopia was suffering a
full-blown famine.

Mengistu initially denied that the famine existed. Instead, he devoted much
of the state's resources to celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Derg's
rise to power. Soon, however, Mengistu realized that he could use the
world's sympathy to his advantage. As images of Ethiopian babies with
kwashiorkor bellies beamed into Western living rooms, foreign aid and food
poured into the country. Private charities raised money, too, as did the
first Live Aid concert organized by Bob Geldof.

Unbeknownst to many people, the Derg channeled some of the aid to feed the
military machine in its war against two rebel movements: the Ethiopian
Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front and Eritrean People's Liberation
Front. By 1991, however, the rebels were able to drive Mengistu into exile.

The trial of Mengistu and other Derg members that took place in Ethiopia
ended in 2006. After 12 years, Mengistu was found guilty of genocide. In
early 2007, he was sentenced, in absentia, to life in prison. The trial
provided an opportunity for some of the victims of the Derg to tell their
story. Ms. Teklu was one of them. "These people are luckier than our sons
and daughters," she noted about the convicted members of the Derg. "They are
getting a fair trial."

Should much-needed political change come to Zimbabwe, Mengistu will be, once
again, stateless. Already the Ethiopian diaspora is filled with rumors of
his possible future flight to North Korea. The victims of the Derg deserve
that Mengistu Haile Mariam never makes it there.

Mr. Beshah is an adjunct professor at the Elliott School of International
Affairs at George Washington University and a former deputy ambassador of
Ethiopia to the United States. Mr. Tupy is a policy analyst at the Cato
Institute's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity.

NCA: Zimbabweans under attack both inside and outside Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwean

Friday, 16 May 2008 06:47

The National Constitutional Assembly, a Zimbabwean based organisation,
is outraged by the recent attacks on non-nationals in Alexandra,
Attridgiville, Diepkloof and other parts of South Africa. The attacks on
innocent and defenseless people in Alexandra, has left three people dead, 40
seriously injured and hundreds rendered homeless.
The NCA believes that these attacks are being carried out and spurred
on by criminal elements and is not reflective of the broader solidarity
between the people of Zimbabwe and SA and no amount of manipulation of
people's desperate state of existence will severe these bonds. These attacks
stand stark against the recent acts of bravery and solidarity displayed by
South African workers in support of the people of Zimbabwe, in their
struggle for a life of dignity and justice. It is in this context that the
NCA calls on the South African authorities to look into the possibility of
the involvement of Zimbabwean security agents and the perpetrators need to
be brought to book speedily.
After the attacks early this year in Pretoria, it was expected that
the Security services would have put measures in place, in areas where
"foreigners" reside, to prevent a recurrence of death and destruction. Such
measures could have prevented the unnecessary loss of life and property in
Alexandra. The NCA calls on the Ministry for Safety and security to put in
place measures that will prevent a recurrence of Attridgiville and
Alexandra.
The ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe means that more and more Zimbabweans
will flee to countries like South Africa and the rest of the region. The
majority of these people are poor, hungry and marginalised; many are victims
of violence and harassment. Stemming this tide of people fleeing into other
countries is wholly dependant on whether the ruling regime in Zimbabwe is
stopped from continuing to plunge the country and its people into crisis,
fear and mayhem. Thus our call on SA as the mediator to stop its support for
the regime and to act in defence of the people of Zimbabwe, both inside and
outside Zimbabwe.
The NCA urges the Department of Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs and
Safety and Security to convene an urgent meeting before the situation gets
out of hand. We also urge the South African government to urgently show
political will in protecting the rights of non nationals. As a first step
the NCA calls on the South African government to halt all deportations of
Zimbabweans from South Africa.
Meanwhile the NCA and other human rights groups are working tirelessly
in making sure those affected get temporary assistance such as
accommodation, medical help and food.
Information Desk
National Constitutional Assembly

Zimbabweans in SA: Between a rock and a hard place

Politicsweb, SA

James Myburgh
16 May 2008

And, how Africanisation at one level results into xenophobia at another

One may have thought that things couldn't get worse for ordinary
Zimbabweans, but now they have. On Sunday night anti-immigrant violence
broke out in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg, before spreading to Diepsloot
as well. Although others have been affected Zimbabweans seem to be the
primary targets. A fellow journalist observed: "Mugabe is blikseming their
families back home, and mobs are trying to murder them here in Joburg."

To their credit the ANC, SACP, COSATU, and the South African government have
not sought to profit from xenophobic sentiment. And, all have condemned the
violence. This does not mean, however, that these organisations are not
responsible (to varying degrees) for what we are witnessing.

There is a political ethic which, as Max Weber put it, is concerned only
with ensuring that "the flame of pure intentions is not quelched: for
example, the flame protesting against the injustice of the social order."
But, as Weber also noted, politicians are responsible for the bad
consequences of their actions even if (in their own minds) they were
motivated only by good intentions.

The ANC and SACP decided in 2000 that Zanu-PF should be kept in power,
regardless of what the electorate of Zimbabwe might think. They also thought
that it would be a good thing if the commercial farming class in Zimbabwe
were dispossessed of their land. In an article published in mid-2000 the
SACP's Blade Nzimande wrote that, "The land question must not be allowed to
disappear. Mugabe must stick to his statement that it was not an election
gimmick. Land redistribution must be implemented immediately in an orderly
and legal manner."

The consequence of that policy of "land redistribution" has been the halving
of the size of the Zimbabwean economy, the collapse of the export sector,
hyper-inflation, and an exodus of people out of that country. The economist,
John Robertson, recently commented: "Those 4,500 farms were Zimbabwe's
biggest industry. They accounted for 17% of GDP in their own right but more
than 50% when you take into account the other industries they were
supporting. They employed large numbers of people, they accounted for half
the export earnings. The farmers were also the biggest users of other
industries such as insurance and engineering."

The massive influx of Zimbabweans into South Africa - fleeing economic
meltdown and political repression - was, in turn, met with complacency by
the government. In answer to a question in parliament in May last year
President Thabo Mbeki stated that "as to this ...influx of illegal people
[from Zimbabwe], I personally think it's something that we have to live
with. ... You can't put a Great Wall of China between South Africa and
Zimbabwe to stop people walking across."

As of today, the South African government has yet to condemn the Zanu-PF
regime for the violence it is currently perpetrating against the MDC
supporting people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans in South Africa are, meanwhile,
stuck between a rock and a hard place. They face an increasingly hostile
local population. But returning home is not an option because the Mugabe
regime remains in power - due to the unceasing efforts of our democratically
elected government to keep it there.

Semper nihilum novus ex-Africa
Anti-immigrant violence is nothing new in the new South Africa. Somali
shopkeepers have been subjected to similar violence in the Western and
Eastern Cape. In late March two Zimbabweans were killed in Atteridgeville,
Pretoria, when they were burnt alive after a mob put fire to their shacks.
Cabinet has described the most recent attacks as "a dangerous tendency that
is foreign to South African history and consciousness." While such
xenophobia is undoubtedly dangerous, it is not unconnected to the African
nationalism espoused by our ruling party. The ideology of the liberation
movement - and the programme of ‘transformation' - is centred upon on the
notion that any outstanding attainment of a minority was extracted rather
than earned. The Africanist element of our state sponsored bourgeoisie has,
in turn, pushed for all institutions to be racially ‘transformed'. Now, the
link between this programme and lower-level xenophobia against immigrant
black Africans was delineated by Frantz Fanon - the Martinique revolutionary
and intellectual - in The Wretched of the Earth (1961).

Fanon noted how the "native bourgeoisie which comes to power" in
post-colonial Africa "uses its class aggressiveness to corner the positions
formerly kept for foreigners. On the morrow of independence, in fact, it
violently attacks colonial personalities: barristers, traders, landed
proprietors, doctors and higher civil servants. It will fight to the bitter
end against these people ‘who insult our dignity as a nation.' It waves
aloft the notion of the nationalisation and Africanisation of the ruling
classes. The fact is that such action will become more and more tinged by
racism, until the bourgeoisie bluntly puts the problem to the government by
saying ‘We must have these posts'. They will not stop their snarling until
they have taken over every one."

This conveys a particular message, and sets an example to, those lower down
the class hierarchy. Except here, the competitor's in the economic realm are
not Europeans (or white Africans) but black immigrants. Fanon continues:

"The working class of the towns, the masses of unemployed, the small
artisans and craftsmen for their part line up behind this nationalist
attitude; but in all justice let it be said, they only follow in the steps
of the bourgeoisie. If the national bourgeoisie goes into competition with
the Europeans, the artisans and craftsman start a fight against non-national
Africans."

Here too nationalism moves on towards chauvinism and "finally to racism." It
is the petty traders, from elsewhere, who usually become the "object of
hostile manifestations." Black immigrants are "called on to leave; their
shops are burned, their street stalls are wrecked." As Fanon points out, the
national bourgeoisie and the masses are pressing essentially the same
demands:

"Since the sole motto of the bourgeoisie is ‘replace the foreigner', and
because it hastens in every walk of life to secure justice for itself and to
take over the posts that the foreigner has vacated, the ‘small people' of
the nation - taxi-drivers, cake-sellers and shoe blacks - will be equally
quick to quick to insist that [immigrants] go home to their own country."

Death by starvation or butchery

Mail and Guardian

Percy Zvumoya | Johannesburg, South Africa

16 May 2008 06:00

      "Give me a one-way ticket back to Zimbabwe" is the chorus of the
hundreds of displaced people huddled at the Alexandra police station, in
fear of their lives.

      The police station teems with scores of aid workers, journalists
and displaced foreigners from Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique. The victims
of the xenophobic attacks are dishevelled and dirty, having slept in the
open at the police station since Sunday. Some have managed to rescue a bag
or a bicycle, but most escaped with only the clothes on their bodies. Now
they long to be among familiar people who speak familiar tongues.

      For Knowledge Mutisi, a 21-year-old Zimbabwean, their ordeal
started with a knock on the door late on Sunday. He said a group of men
barged into his shack and demanded money and cellphones from him and his
friends before beating them up. As they fled "a gun was fired and one of us
was shot in the leg". They dare not go back, he says, sitting on a grey
blanket handed out by the Red Cross. Mutisi left Zimbabwe last year after
the death of his parents, jumping the border to follow his uncle to
Alexandra. Recurring droughts and the farm invasions had put an end to
employment on the tea farms around Birchenough Bridge. He is not sure what
he will do now - a life of poverty in rural Zimbabwe is unbearable, but
staying in South Africa seems like certain death. There is a sense that if
the choice is starvation or being butchered, they would rather die at home,
where their ancestors are buried. "Tell them we want transport. We want to
go back home."

      Kholani Dube, who wears a Zion Christian Church cap, speaks in a
weary voice. He has lost everything, but shows a surprising understanding of
his attackers. "We don't blame them, but they should realise that we are not
fighting them. We are just trying to get by."

      Brothers Daniel and Gift Sithole, from Chipinge in eastern
Zimbabwe, sit ashen-faced, scooping out baked beans from a can onto a piece
of bread. Gift removes his heavy woollen hat to reveal a head full of
stitches. "They beat me with a metal rod," he says. His brother Daniel says
they don't feel safe even at the police station, as mobs have come into the
station and ordered them to leave. "What's there to stop them from throwing
a petrol bomb or something into this enclosure?" he asks. Daniel insists
home -- however hard -- is where he wants to be.

       But Sox Chikowero, chairperson of the Zimbabwe Diaspora Forum,
warns against rushing back to Zimbabwe. "That's not a solution. You can't go
back to Zimbabwe now," he told the terrified group. "You will be targets of
the militias that the government is using to cow the opposition. A person
who has come from South Africa will obviously be targeted."

'They must leave or die ...'

Mail and Guardian

Nosimilo Ndlovu | Johannesburg, South Africa

16 May 2008 06:00

      It started with community meetings about crime and taxis and
ended in an orgy of xenophobic violence that tore one of Johannesburg's
oldest townships apart.

      In the days before mobs swept through Alexandra a meeting blamed
foreigners for a recent spike in crime in the township and complained that
the police were not taking action.

      Tuesday May 6

      During a meeting residents threatened to take matters into their
own hands and remove foreigners from the area, according to Alexandra
Community Police Forum (ACPF) chairperson Thomas Sithole. Sithole said
police assured residents they would deal with the issue.

      Saturday May 10

      Then the renegade Alexandra Residents Association (ARA) held a
meeting with taxi drivers to discuss concerns that foreigners were taking
over the taxi industry.

      Taxi drivers were unhappy about the growing number of foreigners
working in the industry. They said foreigners were taking away their jobs
and were willing to work for lower wages.

      Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Diaspora Forum, Sox Chikowero, who
attended the meeting, says people accused Zimbaweans of driving crime in the
area and "taking away our jobs and our women". Chikowero said it was agreed
that non-nationals would be driven from the township.

      Sunday May 11

      By nightfall mobs were rampaging through Alex.

      Phumzile Sibanda, a young Zimbabwean woman, said she was asleep
on Sunday night when a group of men stormed into her shack and demanded that
she and her boyfriend pack their bags and leave. "They beat us up and told
us to make sure that when they return we are no longer here or they would
kill us."

       Afraid and confused, Sibanda and her boyfriend ran to seek
refuge with their South African neighbours. But the mob returned and found
them again. "They knew where we were. When I saw them come in I was afraid
for my life. They grabbed me and said they were going to rape me, and I
could do nothing." Sibanda's neighbour pleaded with the gang not to rape
her, saying that they were mistaken: she was the neighbour's daughter and
not a foreigner. "That's when they let me go. I was lucky," said Sibanda.

      In the violence that evening two people were killed -- one
reportedly a local who refused to join the mob. Dozens were injured, women
were raped and houses destroyed. Over the coming days, the toll would rise.

      Monday May 12

      By afternoon the tension was palpable. Accompanied by police and
sympathetic neighbours Zimbabweans and other foreigners went to see what
could be rescued from the piles of wood and broken glass that used to be
their homes. Women bravely gather the remains of their cutlery, bedding and
clothes. In the background angry young men with bloodshot eyes and reeking
of alcohol walked around swinging knobkieries, spears, golf clubs and other
makeshift weapons. They cursed the now homeless foreigners. "You better be
out of here by seven tonight or we will kill you," said a young man holding
two golf clubs and a bottle of beer. There was no reaction from the victims
or the police escorting them.

      By this time, the crisis had taken on a distinctly ethnic
flavour. The area at the centre of the violence is known as Zulu territory,
dominated by the Inkatha Freedom Party. As in the Eighties when township
residents were pitted against hostel dwellers, the area around London Road
and 5th Avenue had become a no-go area for outsiders.

      A loudspeaker announced a meeting in the KwaMadala area near
Nobuhle hostel, in the heart of IFP territory. Led by a police van, party
officials arrived in a light commercial vehicle, promising to listen to the
grievances of the people. They had been stung by accusations that the IFP
had orchestrated the violence.

      A crowd gathered, carrying golf clubs, sticks and other weapons,
and followed the IFP leaders singing: "Lelizwe elethu, aba hambe" (this
country is ours -- they [foreigners] should leave). About 200 people gather
in an open space between the hostel and informal settlement. IFP MP
Bongikosi Dlamini told the crowd his party is not behind the orgy of
violence. "As the IFP, we are here to make it clear that we condemn these
attacks and are here to ask you not to go around attacking people in the
IFP's name."

      But Dlamini was quick to add that the IFP understood the
frustrations of the people "as indeed the government has failed you, but you
should not continue these attacks as opportunistic criminals will take
advantage and you, as South Africans, would end up fighting against each
other".

      Sam Thembe, a shopkeeper, told the MP: "It hurts that they are
leaving, as business people we gain from them, but they are criminals.
Sometimes I close the shop late and I see them breaking into peoples houses,
they should leave." A middle-aged resident agreed: "Our brothers from
Mozambique and Zimbabwe should go back home or else we pick up spears and
guns …" He was interrupted by residents lifting their weapons and shouting
in unison: "Ama kalanga awahambe noma afe." (The foreigners must leave or
die.)

      Dlamini calmed the crowd, saying: "As the IFP we understand your
frustrations, however, our Constitution says South Africa is a South Africa
for all, which means everyone including the foreigners are welcome." He
adds: "The IFP argued that the Constitution should, in fact, say South
Africa is a South Africa for all that were born in it, however, the ANC, as
usual, did not listen to us."

      As time goes on, the discussion gets hotter and hotter. The MP
can offer nothing more than "discussions".

      Many say Alex is the last place they expected this kind of
violence to erupt. It is known as multi-cultural and multi-national, a
melting pot where South Africans and foreigners from different race and
ethnic groups have lived together for years. One life-long resident,
25-year-old Thandi Madlala, says she has always had Mozambican neighbours,
"and it's never been an issue".

      But fingers are being pointed at the ARA, who were involved in
the meeting that brought xenophobic hatred to the boil. The ARA is accused
of orchestrating the violence and encouraging the idea that foreigners
should be driven out.

      Sithole of the community police forum said it was at the ARA
meeting on Saturday that a decision was taken to "drive foreigners away". He
said the forum had had problems with the association before and said it had
masqueraded as part of the ACPF in order to gain support from the community.

      Chikowero from the Zimbabwean Diaspora Forum said the original
intention of the meeting had been taxi-related. But, other issues had
cropped up and a criminal element had hijacked the initiative for their own
ends, looting, pillaging and rampaging through the township.

      Thursday May 15

      By the afternoon residents were carting away doors and scrap
metal from a ransacked warehouse where Zimbabweans and Mozambicans used to
live. The body of a Mozambican had just been discovered, but it was starting
to feel like no one is safe in the township. There were reports of gangs
targeting Vendas, Shangaans and Xhosas, and there were fears of reprisals.

      Thandazile Msimang (23), originally from KwaZulu-Natal, was
refusing to listen to police who told her to pack up her belongings and
leave for her own safety. "I am not going anywhere. I belong here. I am from
Nkandla."

Let’s kill this curse before it kills more people

The Sowetan

16 May 2008
Bill Saidi

Any discussion of xenophobia is not for the squeamish. Four-letter words are
almost standard. Things might fly into the air and land with unpleasant
consequences for those below.

For me, it’s very personal. I lived for 17 years in Zambia and was subjected
to horrors I had not imagined were part of the human condition. I was
discriminated against on the basis of my ethnic origins. I was subjected to
insults by people I had never met before and could not have offended in my
life. As soon as they heard my surname, they seemed to cringe, as if from a
plague.

I travelled to Zambia for a job in 1963, not as a bricklayer or a mechanic,
but as a journalist. In many ways, apart from the good fortune of starting
my first family there, I had what some might call the “longest ride into
hell”.

But the problem started in Zimbabwe. There are certainly no indigenous
Zimbabweans with the Saidi surname. There are a number of Zambians called
Saidi, but they were not journalists when I lived there. We could have
formed a sort of fraternity to protect ourselves.

The subject intrigued me, for the umpteenth time, when I read of the terror
in Alexandra this week.

I left Zambia in 1980, when rumours spread that someone working for
president Kenneth Kaunda’s government was hunting for me – with a gun. I had
just been scolded publicly by Kaunda for an editorial in The Times of
Zambia, which had focused on the law as it affected classes in society.

In short, I had questioned the discrimination against the poor, where the
law was concerned. To cut a long story short, that was the clincher for me:
xenophobia could kill you or could get you killed. It was time to move.

In Zimbabwe, I had a most curious encounter with this menace: a South
African, the widow of a hero of the struggle, when told who I was, asked me:
“Where do you come from?” It was on the tip of my tongue to say “The Old
Bricks”, the township in which I was raised.

At the time, in the late 1930s, 60percent of the population was from what
was then called Nyasaland.

I can’t remember my exact response to the lady’s question, but it reminded
me that I wasn’t out of the woods yet – to put it mildly – as far as that
curse was concerned. I am older now and, presumably, wiser. But I got a bit
of a shock a few years ago on a visit to Malawi. Years before, I had been
deported from there during the reign of Kamuzu Banda, over a story in The
Times of Zambia, which I hadn’t written.

But this was after the Kamuzu era and in a discussion with someone in
Blantyre, I was told that even if I did get a job there, there would still
be another problem: someone would be found to harp on my place of birth.

Apparently, if you are Malawian by descent but were not born in Malawi, you
could still be in real trouble.

Someone has to kill this xenophobia before it kills more people.

Why there must be power for the people

http://www.vanguardngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8304&Itemid=0

Vanguard, Nigeria

Extract from

 *Being  speech delivered by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, immediate past
President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and Action Congress (AC)
gubernatorial Candidate for Edo State recently.
Friday, 16 May 2008

I want you to realize that Africa and Africans are in trouble and that we
have leaders who have taken over and who have decided to reduce their
countries to private mushroom businesses, the same old Oni and Sons Limited.
In Zimbabwe , elections have been held, ballot papers have been counted and
because Robert must remain in office, the votes have to be counted again and
again and again until he wins.

Unfortunately, Nigeria cannot help Zimbabwe because they will laugh at us.
In Kenya , the people had to resort to cutlass and thousands of people have
been wasted because somebody in Kenya believes that it his birth right to
always be president. I think that the most important challenge facing our
continent is the incapacity of our people to recognize that when you find
yourselves in public office, it is not the same thing as your family
business.

You must seize the opportunity and create the enabling environment  for
citizens to determine what public policies should be, who should lead and
for how long? So, I ask you to celebrate that you are teaching politicians
that Nigerians are democrats, that we are not allergic to the ballot papers,
that were are capable of voting freely and ensuring that the vote counts.