Morgan Tsvangirai at the Liberal International Congress in Belfast today. Photograph: Paul Faith/PA
Morgan Tsvangirai at the Liberal International Congress in Belfast today. Photograph: Paul Faith/PA
Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has delayed his return home after an assassination plot against him was uncovered, one of his spokesmen said today.
"We have received information from a credible source concerning a planned assassination attempt against President Tsvangirai," George Sibotshiwe told Reuters.
He said Tsvangirai had postponed his return indefinitely while party officials consulted their security experts and regional leaders.
Tsvangirai, who attended a conference in Belfast yesterday, had been due to return to Zimbabwe today after announcing that he would contest the long-delayed run-off presidential election, now set for June 27.
The Movement for Democratic Change leader has reluctantly decided that he must take part in the run-off, otherwise the president, Robert Mugabe, would win unchallenged.
Tsvangirai, who has been out of Zimbabwe for more than a month trying to garner international support, was to return this weekend to start campaigning.
He has said, however, that "violence has to cease for an election to be conducted or that election will not be legitimate".
Mugabe told a party meeting yesterday that the first-round result had been "disastrous" after he trailed behind Tsvangirai, who failed to win an outright majority.
The president said he was not prepared to lose power to an opposition he said was backed by "a hostile axis of powerful foreign governments", according to Reuters.
Since the election, Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party has unleashed a wave of attacks against Tsvangirai supporters that appear to have the twin aims of deterring opposition activists from campaigning and driving opposition supporters from their homes so they cannot vote.
Tens of thousands of people are believed to have been displaced, with thousands more beaten or arrested and more than 30 killed, according to the opposition. Amnesty International yesterday described the violence as "reaching crisis levels".
The run-off was called after the election commission declared that Tsvangirai won nearly 48% of the vote in the first round, compared to just over 43% for Mugabe.
The opposition, which believes it was cheated of thousands of votes through ballot-rigging, claims Tsvangirai won 50.3% of the ballot, giving him a slender outright majority.
The MDC had called for the second poll to be held on May 23 in accordance with electoral law, and has described the delay as "irresponsible".
The electoral commission this week extended the deadline for the run-off to 90 days from the official announcement of the first results, saying more time was needed for logistical reasons.
The delay will raise fears the government will have even more time to rig the election and carry out more attacks on Tsvangirai supporters.
The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights said 22 people had died and 900 had been tortured in the past month. The government and officials of the ruling Zanu-PF party have denied responsibility for the violence and have blamed the opposition.
Tsvangirai's party won control of parliament in legislative elections held alongside the presidential vote - the first time since independence 28 years ago that Mugabe's party lost control of parliament.
http://zimbabwemetro.com
By Roy Chinamano ⋅ May 17, 2008
A plot
to assassinate Majority leader Morgan Tsvangirai as he arrives in
Zimbabwe
was leaked to MDC security operatives.
The details of the attacks were
not immediately available, but it is
believed the government intended to use
Militias instead of the army,and
deny responsibility.
Tsvangirai
would be attacked en route from the airport shortly after he
lands and
leaves the Harare International Airport. Senior MDC officials
accompanying
him will be targeted to completely paralyse his organisation.
The plot was
leaked to the MDC early this morning.
It has since emerged that President
Mugabe refused to guaranteed Tsvangirai’s
safety in a meeting with Mbeki on
Friday. He reportedly told Mbeki he has
lost total grip on the security
forces.
This story will continue to be updated as details become
available.
Contact the writer of this story, Roy Chinamano at :
harare@zimbabwemetro.com
IOL
May 17 2008 at
04:58PM
Harare - Fears of an assassination plot against Zimbabwe's
opposition
leader delayed his long-awaited homecoming on Saturday ahead of
an election
showdown with veteran President Robert Mugabe on June
27.
After more than a month out of the country, Morgan Tsvangirai
had been
expected back on Saturday, but he switched plans at the last minute
after a
tip-off about a planned attempt on his life, his party
said.
"We received information from a credible source this morning
concerning a planned assassination attempt on president Tsvangirai," said
Tsvangirai's spokesperson George Sibotshiwe from Johannesburg.
He was unable to say whether the plot was state-backed and declined to
give
further details, but he added that Tsvangirai, a former trade union
leader,
remained "determined to go home at the nearest
opportunity".
A source in Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who
asked not be named, also said that
the opposition had received information
that the police "were unable or
unwilling to guarantee Mr Tsvangirai's
safety".
Violence has
rocked Zimbabwe since a first round of elections in March
in which
Tsvangirai defeated veteran President Robert Mugabe.
Pro-government
militias are accused of harassing and killing
opposition
supporters.
Tsvangirai did not win the first round by enough to
secure an outright
victory and he had been expected back to begin
campaigning ahead of the
run-off election scheduled for June
27.
His party said a rally in the city of Bulawayo, which
Tsvangirai was
meant to address on Sunday, would go ahead
regardless.
The police, meanwhile, said they were unaware of any
threat and played
down the danger.
"We are not aware of that (a
plot)," police spokesperson Oliver
Mandipaka said.
"As police
we are quite clear that the country is peaceful. Everyone
is going about
their lawful business as they want, with no need for any
individuals to
require special security."
As well as the alleged assassination
plot, Tsvangirai faces other
dangers in his homeland, namely the threat of a
treason charge after being
accused of plotting with erstwhile colonial power
Britain to overthrow the
government.
He has been out of the
country since shortly after the March ballot
drumming up support
internationally for his leadership bid.
Mugabe, Africa's oldest
leader, acknowledged on Friday that his loss
in the first round of voting in
March had been "disastrous" but he began
campaigning on Saturday for his
re-election with advertisements in state
media.
"I thank you
for voting in peace. Vote for RG Mugabe," said an
advertisement in The
Herald newspaper.
In a small box was his campaign theme:
"100-percent total empowerment,
independence".
Mugabe, 84, who
has ruled the former British colony since independence
in 1980, lost the
first round by 43,2 percent to 47,9 percent against
Tsvangirai and now is
fighting for his survival after nearly three decades
in power.
The election process has been marred by delays, violence and
allegations of
electoral fraud. Economic woes deepen by the day, with
official inflation at
165 000 percent and unemployment of 80 percent.
Tsvangirai, who had
said last weekend he would return within a couple
of days, has made a series
of demands to ensure a free and fair run-off
election, including the
presence of foreign peacekeepers and election
monitors.
These
have been brushed off by the government and Foreign Affairs
Minister
Simbarashe Mumbengegwi told The Herald on Saturday that "there
would be no
further invitations" for election monitors despite Western
pressure.
No Western monitors were allowed to oversee the first
ballot and teams
from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and
the African Union
were widely criticised for giving it a largely clean bill
of health.
Sibotshiwe said the opposition would appeal to SADC to
help guarantee
Tsvangirai's safety when he returns home, adding that
"consultations at a
high level" would begin.
Speaking on
Friday, Tsvangirai had promised to return to Zimbabwe to
stand in solidarity
with his supporters who, according to a raft of reports,
have faced
intimidation and violence from pro-government militias.
The
Movement for Democratic Change says at least 32 of its supporters
have
perished in the violence.
From The Weekender (SA), 17 May
The weapons destined for Zimbabwe have arrived in Harare —
allegedly with
some help from SA, write Dumisani Muleya, Hopewell Radebe and
Chantelle
Benjamin
The Zimbabwean government has confirmed that
3-million rounds of assault
rifle ammunition, 3000 mortar rounds and 1500
rocket-propelled grenades -
ordered from the Chinese government - have
arrived in Harare. The South
African government flatly denies media reports
that it assisted in the
delivery of the 77 tons of arms by providing fuel
for the Chinese vessel, An
Yue Jiang, that was transporting the arsenal.
There is fear that Robert
Mugabe is planning to use force to storm back to
power in the presidential
runoff election that will be held on June 27. He
has already deployed the
army, police and intelligence units across Zimbabwe
to campaign for him
through intimidation and coercive tactics. The Movement
for Democratic
Change says at least 40 people, mainly its supporters, have
been killed in
violence since the March 29 elections. The Zimbabwean
government disputes
this figure, but has promised to curb the
violence.
On Friday Mozambican online newspaper Canal de Moçambique
reported that the
"ship of shame" had been refuelled by the SAS Drakensberg
off the coast of
SA before sailing north to offload its deadly cargo. It
reported that the
ship was offloaded at Ponta Negra in the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
However, Zimbabwean government officials say it was
offloaded in Angola.
Canal de Moçambique reports that President Thabo Mbeki
gave "a direct
instruction" to Deputy Defence Minister Mluleki George to
send the SAS
Drakensberg to refuel the An Yue Jiang. It claims the SAS
Drakensberg used
its electronic equipment to jam radar and satellite
communications while the
ship was being fuelled as the An Yue Jiang was
being tracked by Lloyds of
London. Last month the Durban High Court granted
an interim order preventing
the unloading of the ship in SA. It did not
prohibit the government from
providing assistance to the
vessel.
Presidential spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga dismissed the
reports of the ship’s
refuelling, saying "it seems that the season of
propaganda is upon us".
George says he had no instructions from Mbeki to
dispatch the SAS
Drakensberg and that the allegations " have no substance
whatsoever".
However, the Canal de Moçambique article also says the arms
were flown to
Harare in an Ilyushin Il-76 belonging to Avient Aviation, a
freight charter
airline based in Zimbabwe but registered in the UK. This was
confirmed by
government officials in Harare. Two senior Zimbabwean ministers
and army
officers went to Angola three weeks ago to negotiate the offloading
of the
weapons , which were then flown to Harare. Zimbabwe’s Deputy
Information
Minister Bright Matonga confirms the weapons have been
delivered.
The Angolan government’s assistance comes after an appeal
by the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) chairman, Zambian
President Levy
Mwanawasa, to member states to bar the delivery of the
ammunition to
Zimbabwe, saying the arms could deepen the country’s election
crisis. The US
and British governments had also exerted concerted pressure
on the SADC and
China to stop the ship from docking in the region. Trade
union members in SA
and Mozambique had vowed not to offload the shipment.
South African
Transport and Allied Workers’ Union general secretary Randall
Howard says
unions and civil society organisations that succeeded in getting
the ship
out of South African and Mozambican waters would be disappointed if
the
reports that the weapons were offloaded in Angola and sent to Zimbabwe
were
true.
"If it is true, that would show a serious lack of
respect for international
solidarity (by Angola) and an injustice to the
people of Zimbabwe," Howard
says. "Both the Chinese government and Cosco
(the ship’s owners) have
regrettably demonstrated that profiteering remains
the overriding
consideration, over human solidarity and saving lives ."
Nicole Fritz,
director of the South African Litigation Unit, who went to
court to impound
the cargo, says she would be surprised if the arms were
offloaded in Luanda,
as human rights activists were at all times monitoring
the ship’s
activities. She believes if the weapons were offloaded, this
probably
happened at Lobito, Angola, where there was less scrutiny by rights
organisations and unions. "We know the ship stopped off at Luanda to refuel
and to load food for the crew," she says. "Human rights experts were
monitoring the ship’s activity to ensure that the weapons were not
offloaded." The ship has been spotted off the coast of Port Elizabeth.
Over the past two years my main concern has been that Zanu
PF would abandon
any pretext that they were a democratic party, simply
declare that they were
going to govern indefinitely by dictate and continue
as a civilian/military
junta. Such a junta has effectively governed us since
the security chiefs
declared in 2002 that they would not accept into power
anyone who did not
participate in the 1972/80 struggles for
Independence.
That they have not done so is due to a number of factors
pride and
reluctance to acknowledge that they, among most other African
states, were
not pursuing democracy as a basic system of determining who
governs.
Arrogance, in that they believed that somehow they had a divine
right to
govern and could use whatever means necessary to achieve the
retention of
power. Belief, that no matter what they did, their links with
other SADC
States would protect them diplomatically.
There were other
factors of course. They had been rigging elections and
using violence as a
means of intimidating voters from day 1. Their skills in
the former area were
widely respected in Africa and many other regimes took
note of ³how it was
done². The complicity of the Mbeki led government in
this process was crucial
and they clearly understood how to manipulate South
Africa. Finally they
viewed local democratic forces with distain and
regarded all opposition
parties as inferior.
Make no mistake about it, Zanu is a formidable
adversary. They are now
nearly 60 years old and are well established
throughout the country. They
have almost unlimited resources by local
standards, an infrastructure that
has been built up over many years and of
course, control of State resources.
They use such resources without
constraint and the taxpayer pays for much of
what goes on.
But aside
from this they have learned a great deal over the past 60 years
how to deal
with other political movements in Africa, with African States
and the
AU/SADC. They are skilled at manipulating global opinion and
controlling
local information flows. Some of this activity is quite crude,
but much of it
is sophisticated and in recent years I have admired how
swiftly they respond
to a challenge or a problem. Like all fascist movements
they are also very
disciplined.
For example, next week they plan to launch a propaganda
onslaught on the
issue of violence. In the period 1982 to 1987 they were able
to conduct the
violent suppression of Zapu in Matabeleland very much behind
closed doors.
Civil Society was not as well organised or resourced in those
days and the
international community more compliant.
Now when they try
to do the same thing in 2008 they have found, after 4
weeks of nation wide
violence against MDC and others that they are in all
sorts of trouble.
American and other foreign diplomats are visiting Zanu
bases and torture
centers without fear and in a deliberate effort to expose
the programme.
Civil society is documenting every incident and advertising
the perpetrators
and the consequences. Modern information technology and the
satellite
communications system does the rest. I am told the outcry is so
great that
the UN (that useless lumbering elephant) might actually get off
its
proverbial posterior and do something.
So next week we expect the regime
to start a campaign to blame the MDC for
the violence and to show what
terrible deeds we are carrying out! We can
expect all Zanu actors
Ministers, senior civil servants, diplomats and
party aficionados to speak
from the same hymnal. Thank goodness we are in
fact behaving ourselves. I
spoke to a young farmer last week who had been
held hostage in his home by a
gang of thugs who eventually opened fire with
live ammunition. Although he
was armed and perfectly capable of doing some
damage, common sense prevailed
and he kept his cool. Incredible when you
think that over the past decade of
violence on farms with all the theft and
provocation that has taken place,
that hardly a shot has been fired in
retaliation or retribution. That is
strength not a weakness.
So now at last, and to my personal relief, we
have a date with destiny the
27th June 2008, three months after the March
election. The rules will be the
same although the regime is changing all the
personnel in the ZEC to try and
make it more compliant to orders of a
political nature from the Zanu PF and
its functionaries. But we have an
election a chance to use the only tool
for change that we are prepared to
use.
For Zanu PF this presents many problems they must come out of the
Jesse
where they are at present, into the open and face their mortal enemy.
And
make no mistake about it this is a fight to the finish. Both sides
have
repudiated compromise; we want to see just who has the support of
the
people. They must finish this game in front of the whole watching world
and
every move will be watched and analyzed. I hope they also realize it
would
be a serious mistake to underestimate the MDC or the
people.
Watching Mugabe launch his campaign last night on local
television was
interesting. It told one salutary story age matters. At 84
he is no spring
chicken and those beady eyes no longer have the same impact
they once did.
Gone was the suave English and Oxford row mannerisms.
Sometimes he is a bit
unsteady on his feet and must be helped.
By
rejecting compromise and opting instead for a hard line and violence,
Mr.
Mugabe and his closest allies have in fact sealed their fate. When they
are
defeated on the 27th of June, they will have no option but to
relinquish
power to the hated MDC and when that happens they are naked in a
legal
blizzard. Could not happen to a nicer bunch of people.
Now all
you Zimbabweans once more into the fray! You may be weary, you may
be
bruised and battered, the business may be on its last legs but we have
to
garner the energy and the courage to go back into the field for one
last
time. This is our decisive moment. With a gallery of billions we have
to
face Zanu and defeat it defeat it so decisively that no one can argue
that
MDC has won and then we can get on with the business of rebuilding
this
great little country.
Spare a thought today for Morgan who comes
back into the country and
launches the campaign in Bulawayo on Sunday. We
eventually got a Judge to
rule that we could go ahead and we expect a large
crowd. In front of Morgan
is six weeks of tough campaigning after the
exhausting campaign for the
March 29th election. He has not had a break and
the pressure on him is
massive. Also pray for the family there is huge
pressure on Susan as well.
When we win on the 27th it will be a matter of
days and then we will be
flung into the arena with many wild animals to fight
in a new contest
education, health, starvation and stability, inflation and
reconstruction,
potholes and shortages of every kind. At least in dealing
with those
challenges we will not be alone. On the 27th June it¹s only us
no one else
so get involved. Call me if you want to help 091 2227144, its
quite secure!
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 17th May 2008
Courier-journal, Louisville, Kentucky
May 17,
2008
After stalling for weeks before announcing first-round results,
Zimbabwe's
election commission has now set a June 27 runoff between
President Robert
Mugabe and former trade union leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Mr. Tsvangirai defeated Mr. Mugabe 47.9 percent to 42.3
percent in the
official tally of the original vote, thus necessitating the
runoff.
Few believe the actual results were really that close, and a credible
rerun
is probably too much to expect when Mr. Mugabe, 84, has been
determined for
years to hold on to power by hook, crook and
bloodshed.
Mr. Tsvangirai, quite wisely, mostly has stayed outside of
Zimbabwe since
the March elections. And now, his party reportedly is being
denied a permit
to rally in preparation for the runoff.
Permit or no,
it's highly likely that many who previously voted for Mr.
Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change will not risk doing so again,
since
supporters have beaten, killed and forced to flee the country.
Moreover, the
ranks of the intimated have swelled. They now include, The New
York Times
has reported, individuals and groups (charitable, religious,
civic and
professional) who have been interrogated, arrested and locked out
of their
churches.
Every day the situation in Zimbabwe seems to worsen, and before
it is really
too late (if that's not already the case), every world leader,
but
especially African leaders -- and of them especially South Africa's
Thabo
Mbeki -- must increase the pressure on Mr. Mugabe to stop the
madness.
The self-interest of the African leaders seems patently clear.
If Zimbabwe
disintegrates, refugees will amass on their borders and threaten
stability
of every neighboring nation.
Reuters
Sat 17
May 2008, 15:16 GMT
DAKAR (Reuters) - The African Union should oversee
the second round of a
presidential election in Zimbabwe on June 27 to
prevent its result being
called in to question, Senegalese President
Abdoulaye Wade said on Saturday.
Wade has attempted to mediate in
Zimbabwe's political crisis and met
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai at a
conference in Belfast this week. He
said on his return to Dakar he was
confident of a peaceful outcome to the
crisis.
"It is the African
Union which must ensure the fairness of the elections so
that no one
contests the results," said Wade, who has criticised South
African President
Thabo Mbeki's efforts to end the crisis in Zimbabwe.
"Zimbabwe today is
divided into two more or less equal parts and the reality
is that neither
side can govern without the other," Wade told state
television on his return
from Belfast.
Tsvangirai beat Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe in a March
first round,
monitored by observers from the SADC southern African grouping,
but not by
enough votes to avoid a runoff.
Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) has accused the government
of intimidating and
attacking its supporters in an effort to rig the second
round
vote.
Tsvangirai said this week he would contest the vote even if only
observers
from the SADC group of southern African nations were present, as
at the
March election.
State media quoted Foreign Affair Minister
Samuel Mumbengegwi as saying
Zimbabwe would not invite any foreign observers
to the presidential run-off
and that only those who had monitored the March
29 poll could return.
The government has denied accusation of
intimidation tactics and accuses the
MDC of instigating the violence, in
which the opposition says 40 of its
supporters have been
killed.
Mugabe, a former guerrilla leader and independence hero for many
Africans,
says the opposition is backed by hostile foreign
governments.
"I would end by asking the West to be very moderate on
Zimbabwe ... to not
adopt strident positions for one or the other side,"
Wade said.
www.cathybuckle.com
Saturday 17th May 2008
Dear Family and
Friends,
Early one afternoon this week a small town residential suburb grew
suddenly
quiet as the sound of 'the youths' filled the neighbourhood. The
voices of
perhaps thirty young men could be heard as they ran along local
streets
singing, chanting and repeating the threatening political slogans so
familiar to us all. The neighbourhood was silenced, a few barking dogs the
only challenge to the running mob. Later we heard one house was burnt down,
one man had a broken arm, another was slashed on his head with a panga.
Behind walls, fences and hedges the silence affords a tenuous measure of
safety for urban Zimbabweans but for people in the rural areas nowhere is
safe.
When the big trucks arrive in the villages there is nowhere to
hide. A few
burly men alight and they call loudly for the male youths to
come. Door to
door they go, gathering the youngsters who are out of school
or waiting for
exam results, unemployed young men, teenage boys - all are
told to climb
onto the vehicles. Those who refuse are immediately marked:
accused of
supporting the opposition. Their names are recorded on the now
dreaded
'lists' - lists which determine who gets food, seed and fertilizer
and who
should be re-educated or punished for voting 'the wrong way' or
supporting
the 'wrong party.'
Once on the trucks the youths are
transported to other villages, far away
from home - to places where they are
strangers. Hundreds of reports are now
being documented of the events taking
place in remote areas when these truck
loads of youths arrive: reports of
beating, burning, humiliation and
threats.
Once the deeds are done
the youths are sent back to their villages - they
are paid, sometimes with
money and sometimes with bags of food, blankets,
new shoes.
Having
been on the trucks once, the youths are trapped and know they'll be
forced
to go again. The youths are damned if they go and damned if they
don't and
for many the only choice is to run, to hide and to pray that they
can stay
safe until the 27th of June when Zimbabwe yet again goes to a
Presidential
election.
And will it work, all this violence, brutality and trauma? Will
it force
people to change the way they voted 2 months ago? One father,
desperately
trying to keep his teenage son away from the trucks said the way
to catch a
chicken was to throw grain for it so it comes to you, not to
throw stones at
it.
Despite all the horrors here in Zimbabwe, we are
deeply saddened by the
tragedies in China and in Burma this past fortnight
and send our
condolences.
Until next week, thanks for reading, love
cathy.
Siyabonga
Mkhwanazi
May 17 2008 at 08:54AM
A "born-free"
generation with little clue of South Africa's history
and with criminal
intent on their minds had instigated the shockingly
violent attacks on
foreigners in Alexandra, an MP born and bred in the
township told parliament
on Friday.
Speaking in the National Assembly during a debate on the
xenophobic
attacks, House chairperson Obed Bapela (ANC) said the recent
ghastly attacks
on foreigners had been perpetrated by young people whose
motives were rooted
in criminality.
Bapela said his
investigation pointed to the "born-frees" going on
wanton attacks, invading
foreigners' homes and stealing their possessions.
"If one looks
into the age of the attackers, most were between one and
six years old in
1994. They are clueless in terms of who we are, where we
come from and where
we are going as a country," said Bapela.
The violence in the area was not about service delivery but about the
fight
for scarce resources, mainly housing.
Bapela said the beneficiaries
of housing projects would sell their
houses to the highest bidder and then
go back to their parents' homes.
This created tension between South
Africans who desperately needed
houses and foreigners who bought
houses.
The DA said South Africans were "exceedingly xenophobic"
and this
tendency was steeped in the country's racist past.
Denouncing the attacks, the IFP called for law enforcement agencies to
act
decisively.
The Independent Democrats shared the views of other
political parties
that the violence was about the fight for limited
resources.
ID leader Patricia de Lille said the issuing of work
permits by the
government to refugees created more competition for scarce
jobs.
"We need stricter control of our porous borders," she
said.
This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape
Argus on May
17, 2008